thou hast somewhat of the carriages of this people in life Now after death some of them talk of Elyzian fields such as the Poets dream'd of to which their Souls must passe over a Stix or Acheron and there take new bodies Others of them think that ere long the World will have an end after which they shall live here again on a new earth Some other wilde conceivings of this people follow afterward Some Bramins have told me that they acknowledge one God whom they describe with a thousand eyes with a thousand hands and as many feet that thereby they may expresse his power as being all eye to see and all foot to follow and all hand to smite offenders The consideration whereof makes that people very exact in the performances of all moral duties following close the light of Nature in their dealings with men most carefully observing that Royal Law in doing nothing to others but what they would be well contented to suffer from others Those Bramins talk of two books which noâ— long after the Creation when the World began to be peopled they say were delivered by Almighty God to Bramon before spoken of one of which books they say containing very high and secret and Mysterious things was sealed up might not be opened the other to be read but onely by the Bramins or Priests And this book thus to be read came after as they further say into the hands of Br 〈…〉 of whom likewise something before and by him it was communicated unto Ram and Permissar two other fam'd Prophets amongst them which those Heathens do likewise exceedingly magnifie as they do some others whose names I have not Now that book which they call the Shester or the book of their written word hath been transcribed in all ages ever since by the Bramins out of which they deliver precepts unto the people They say that there are seven Orbi above which is the seat of God and that God knows not small and petty things or if he do regards them not There have been Philosophers of the like minde who madly thought that Almighty God had no regard of humane affairs For which very thing Tully though an Heathen doth most highly condemne them The Peripateticks housed the Providence of God above the Moon and thought that it had no descent beneath the Circle thereof to intend inferiour things and businesses The Atheists in the Psalm who say that there is no God inferre from hence how can God see what do the Epicures in Job say lesse or Eliphaz speaking in their names Job 22. how can God know can he judge through the dark clouds the clouds hide him that he cannot see and Chap. 24. 14 15. he brings in the murderer and adulterer acting their parts with much boldnesse confidence and presumption upon this false ground that no eyes see them for if they did believe the contrary then certainly they would not dare to do what they do which shews that there is a very Atheisme in the hearts of most men which makes them not afraid to do that in the presence of an all-seeing God which for fear or shame they durst not do in the sight of a little Childe Averroes a Spanish Phisician that he might seem to be mad with reason by reason goes about to exempt and with-draw smaller things from the sight and providence of God as if it were most injurious to bring down the Majesty of God so low thinking that the knowledge and understanding of God would become vile if it were abased by taking notice of mean and inferiour objects A very strange opinion as if a looking-glasse were deformed because it represents deformities Or the Beams of the Sun defiled because they fall upon dunghils and other filthy places or the Providence of God vilified who though he hath his dwelling so high yet he abaseth himself to behold the things in heaven and in earth Psal 113. 6. As he spake the word in the beginning so all things were made Gen. 1. thus ever since he sustaineth and beareth up all things by the power of that word Heb. 1. His Creation was the Mother to bring things forth his Providence the Nurse to bring them up His Creation a short Providence his Providence a perpetual Creation The first setting up the frame of the house the second looking to the standing and reparations thereof And therefore I will bring in Tully again to gain-say and condemne those forenamed mad opinions who in his first book de naturâ deorum tells us that the Providence of God reacheth usque ad Apium For 〈…〉 que perfectionem to the husbanding of Bees and Pis 〈…〉 irâ—s And in his eight book on the same subject where speaking against the Epioures and Atheists of that age he saith curiosus plenus negotii Deus that God is a curious God exquisite in all things and full of businesse So far he an Heathen could see and so much say But a Christian that knows more can speak further that God is not a carelesse an improvident God or a God to halves and in part above and not beneath the Moon as the Syrians dreamed upon the mountains and not in the valleys but he is a God in lesser as well as in greater matters Who beholds at one view all places and all persons and all things And as our times are in Gods hands so he takes notice of every thing done by us in every minute and moment of our time He knowing all things not as they appear but are simplici notitia as the Schools speak with a sure certain exact knowledge Thus he takes notice of every sin that is committed and of every circumstance in sinning He saw the â—ins of the whole World in the book of his eternity long before the foundations of the World were laid He sees them in every mans breast before his hands commit them I knew thee saith God before thou camest forth of the Womb Jer. 1. 5. And God tells Israel that he knew what they meant to do long before they came out of the land of Egypt the consideration whereof may curb and confound all those that say God shall not see This Providence of God did reach to the handfull of Meal and the cruise of Oil in the poor Widows house 2 King 4. And so it reacheth to the Calving of Hindes to the feeding of young Lions and Ravens to the falling of Sparrows on the ground to the numbring of our hairs as to every thing beside But to return again to that people the Hindoos I spake of and these circumscribe God to place and further conceit that he may be seen but as in a mâ—st afar off but not near They further believe that there are Devils but so fettered and bound in chains as that they cannot hurt them I observed before the tendernesse and scrâ—ple which is in very many of that people in taking the lives of any inferiour and meeâ—ly sensible I of
that wouldst not be at His How couldst thou look that God should regard thy voyce in trouble that wouldst not regard his in Peace Saul had now forfetted Gods favour and God takes the forfeture and thereâ—ore it was not to be wondred at that he walked so irregularly when he had put himself out of Gods Protection Thus before Numb 22. when all help failed Moab the Magician was sought unto If there be any one Project worse than another a wicked heart will finde that out though it be a sign of a most desperate cause when Sathan is made either a mans Counsellor or Refuge What men may do by the help of Astrologie and do it safely and without sin deserves Commendation not blame nor Censure But certainly to conclude of future events is above Art or Man because those things Almighty God hath lockt up among his secrets far above all reach or search Nay the most intelligent Spirits know nothing of future Events or could those evill Spirits truly foretell things to come no way pre-existent they could not without great danger and sin be consulted withall for the evill of their Nature debarrs all the benefit that can come by their information for they never do a man an apparent good one way but they do him a Real mischief another The Devill as we may conceive knows things past and as he animates and encourages a man to theft by his suggestions telling him that he is poor and must live and therefore may steal that if he cannot support himself by warrantable he must live and therefore may take other courses Now that Devill which courts a man to Theft can certainly tell what he steales and therefore can discover goods stol'n wherein the Devill makes a double advantage unto himself first in making the Thief his own and secondly the other who leaves God and repaires to him in his instruments for a discovery of goods thus stoln Now for a Mahometan who lives in the dark to consult Southsayers and Wizards it is no great marvell because his ignorance of God puts him upon those mad shifts and conceits to have recourse unto Sathan But for such as profess themselves Christians who live under that cleer light which strictly forbids all such courses for these in their losses to repaire unto cunning men and women as they call them who cannot possibly help them but by some secret compact with the Devill is certainly a very grievous sin an undertaking most horribly impious So then they whosoever they be who to find out their stoll'n goods hazard the loss of their Souls however they speed shall gain nothing by that enquiry Yet this hath been a sin very ancient in the world and undertaken for more ends than I have named When Filius ante diem patrios inquirit in annos The naughty Children of as bad Parents have sought out to have the Nativity of their Fathers Calculated that they might be told if such a thing could be discovered how long they had to live thinking every minute a month till they see them kneeling in Brass or stone or more cheaply buried that so they might be setting that abroach with profuse Luxury which their parents had been long barrelling up with great Avarice It falling out many times by the righteous judgment of Almighty God that when wickedness getts wickedness shall consume that estate so gotten according to that in the Prophet Micha 1. 7. She gathered it of the hire of an Harlot and to an Harlot it shall return But I proceed to speak SECTION XIII Of their Physicians Diseases Cures When they begin their year How they measure their time c. HEre are those which pretend unto much skill in Physick though for ought I could ever there observe the people make but little use of them they fearing more Medicum quam Morbum and therefore do believe the Physician to be the more dangerous disease The common diseases of that Countrey are bloody fluxes with others that come not to blood hot Feavers Calentures which ceise on and fire the head and brain more than other parts These many times put our men at Sea into very high distempers especially while they are under the Torrid Zone which makes the poor creatures visited with them sometimes to conceit the spacious Sea and Waves therein to be great Fields full of Heycocks and if they were not sometimes happily prevented would leap over-board to tumble in them For ordinary Agues such as are so common among us and for those two torments rather than diseases when they are selt in extremity the Gout and the Stone they have the happiness to be ignorant of them But sometimes they are visited with an inflamation or an extreme burning such as is spoken of Deut. 28. 22. or rather with a most grievous Pestilence which on a sudden sweeps away many thousands when it comes into great Populous Cities This Pestilence makes the bodyes of men there which are visited with it like an house which on a sudden is covered all over wiâ—h fire at once The City Amadavar at our being there with the King was visited with this Pestilence in the Month of May and our family was not exempted from that most incomfortable visitation for within the space of nine dayes seven persons that were English of our family were taken away by it and none of those which dyed lay sick above twenty houres and the major part well and sick and dead in twelve houres As our Surgeon who was there all the Physician we had and he led the way falling sick at Mid-day and the following Mid-night dead And there were three more that followed him one immediatly after the other who made as much hast to the grave as he had done and the rest went after them within that space of time I named before And as before I observed all those that died in our family of this pestilence had their bodyes set all on fire by it so soon as they were first visited and when they were dying and dead broad spots of a black and blew colour appeared on their brests and their flesh was made so extreme hot by their most high distemper that we who survived could scarce endure to keep our hands upon it It was a most sad time a siery trial indeed But such is the goodnes of Almighty God that he makes the miseries of men here Aut tolerabiles aut breves either sufferable or short so that if the thing imposed be extreme heavy to be born it continues not long as this most grievous visitation most violent for the time like a mighty storm and then blown away For here the mercy of God suddenly stept in betwixt the living and the dead so that not only in our family but also in that great City the Plague was stayed All our family my Lord Ambassadour only excepted were visited with this sickness and we all who through Gods help and goodnes outlived it had many great blisters
hurtfull Creatures too And those which are most tender hearted in this case are called Banians who are by far more numerous than any other of those Indian Sects and these hold Pythagoras his Metempsycosis as a prime Article of their Faith and from hence it is that they cannot abide to kill any living Creatures and from this ground that Philosopher disswades from eating of flesh by many arguments laid down in the fifteenth book of Ovids Metamorphosis Heu quantum scelus est in viscere viscera condi Congestoque avidum pinguescere corpâ—re corpus Altâ—riusque animantem animantis viverâ— Letho Ah sinfull who in Bowels Bowels hide And flesh by greedy eating flesh do breed That Creatures life by Creatures death may feed And after this that Philosopher placeth the Souls immortality in its Transmigration from one Creature to another saying Morte carâ—nt animae semperque priore relictâ— Sede â—ovis domibus vivunt habitantque receptae Ipse ego nam memeni Trojani tempore belli Panthoides Euphorbus eram Souls are immortal and when ere they leave Their former houses new ones them receive I' th Trojan War I well remember I Was Panthos Son Euphorbus And a little after he thus speaks Omnia mutantur nihil interit errat illinc Huc venit hinc illuc â—uâ—slibeâ— occupat artus Spiritus eque feris humana in corpora transit Inque fer as noster nec tempore deperit â—llo Utque novis facilis signatur cera figuris Nec manet ut fuerat nec formas servat easdem Sed tamen ipsa eadem â—st animam sic semper â—andem Esse sed in varias doceo migrare figuras Ergo ne pietas sit victa cupidine ventris Pâ—rcite vaticinor cognatas câ—de naâ—andâ Exturbare animas ne sanguine sanguis alatur Things are not lost but chang'd the Spirit strayes Hence thither hither thence nor lodged stayes In any limbs to humane bodies flies From beasts from these to these nor ever dies And as new prints in easie wax we make Which varying still several impressions take Yet is it self the same so the same Soul I teach doth into several fashions roul Then let not piety by lust subdued Suffer your hands in Parricide imbrued Dislodge the souls or nourish bloud with bloud Thus much from Ovid of that Pythagorian fancy which that untaught people come up very near unto thinking that all the Souls both of men and women after they leave their bodies make their repose in other Creatures and those Souls as they imagine are best lodged that go into Kine which in their opinion are the best of all sensible Creatures therefore as before they give yearly large sums of mony unto the Mogol to redeem them from slaughter And this people further conceit that the Souls of the wicked go inâ—o vile Creatures as the Souls of Gluttons and Drunkards into Swinâ— So the Souls of the voluptuous and incontinent into Monkies Apes Thus the Souls of the furious revengefull cruel people into Lions Wolves Tygres as into other beasts of prey So the Souls of the envious into Serpents and so into other Creatures according to peoples qualities and dispositions while they lived successively from one to another of the same kinde ad infinitum for ever and ever by consequence they believing the immortality of the world And upon that same mad and groundlesse phansie probably they further believe that the Souls of froward peevish and teachy women go into Waspes and that there is never a silly Fly but if they may be credited carries about it some Souls happily they think of light women and will not be perswaded out of their wilde conceivings so incorrigib â—are their sottish errours The day of rest which those Hindoos observe as a Sabboth is Thursday as the Mahometans Friday Many Festivals they have which they keep solemnely and Pilgrimages the most famous briefly spoken of before in those short descriptions of Nagraiot and Syba observed in my first section Now there are a race of other Heathens I named before living amongst those Hindoos which in many things differ very much from them they are called Persees who as they say originally came out of Persia about that time Mahomet and his followers gave Laws to the Persians and imposed a new Religion on them which these Persees not enduring left their Countrey and came and setled themselves in East-India in the Province of Guzarat where the most part of them still continue though there are some of them likewise in other parts of India but where ever they live they confine themselves strictly to their own Tribe or Sect. For their Habits they are clad like the other people of that Empire but they shave not their hair close as the other do but suffer their beaâ—â—s to grow long Their profession is for the generality all kinds of husbandry imploying themselves very much in sowing and setting of Herbs in planting and dressing of Vines Palmeeto or Toddy Trees as in planting and husbanding all other Trees bearing fruit and indeed they are a very industrious people and so are very many of t 〈…〉 Hindoos as before observed and they do all very well in doing so and in this a due and deserved commendation belongs unto them For There is no condition whatsoever can priviledge a foulded arm Our first Parents before their fall were put into the Garden of Eden to dress it Certainly if idlenesse had been better than labour they had never been commanded to do work but they must labour in their estate of innocency because they were happy and much more we in our sinfull lost estate that we may be so It was a Law given before the Law that man should eat bread by the sweat of his brows and it is a Gospel-precept too that he who will not work should not eat The sluggard desireth and hath nothing saith Solomon because he doth nothing but desire and therefore his desires do him no good because his hands refuse to labour That body therefore well deserves to pine and starve without pity when two able hands cannot feed one mouth Bâ—t further for those Persees they use their liberty in meats drinks to take of them what they please but because they would not give offence either to the Mahometans or Banians or to other Hindoos amongst whom they live they abstain from eating Beef or Swines flesh It is their usual manner to eat alone as for every one of them to drink in his own Cup and this is a means as they think to keep themselves more pure for if they should eat with others they are afraid that they might participate of some uncleannesse by them Alas poor Creatures that do not at all understand themselves and their most miserable condition for to them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure Yet I observed before the Mahometans and Gentiles there are very strict in this particular so that they will not eat with
to the soul as it is represented to it the time shall came that he which kills you shall think he doth God good service and upon his false ground a man may be never troubled at the acting of the worst things they shall think they do God good service but they do but think so and shall first or last bemade to pay dear for so thinking so doing But however this will be found a truth that conscience is ever marked and observed by her own eye though no other eye perceive her followed she is and chased by her own foot though nothing else pursue her she flyes when no man followes and and hath a thousand witnesses within her own brest when she is free from all the world beside she is a worm that ever gnaweth a fire that ever burneth and though a guilty man could escape the hands of the â—verliving God yet should he find it misery enough and more than he could possibly beare to he under the rack or lash of a never dying conscience the consciences of the wicked being so filled with the guilt of sin that there is no â—oom left for the peace and consolation of God to dwell in them â—ain felt this weight like a Talent of head upon his soul which he thought could never be removed and therefore he 〈…〉 ers a blasph 〈…〉 y against the grace of God never to be pardoned for if he could have been as forward to ask pardon for his sin as he was to seek protection for his body he might have found it But Nemo polluto queat animâ— mederi No cure so difficult as the cleansing and healing of a polluted soul no balme in Gilead no Phisitian there can of himself help it and as all the wealth of the world cannot buy off the guilt so all the waters in the Sea cannot wash off the filth of one Sin Arctoum licèt Moeotis in me gelida transfundat mare Et tota Tethys per meas currat manus Haerebit altum facinus said the guilty man The Northern Sea Though coole Meotis pour on me And th' Ocean through my hands do run Guilt dy'd in grain will yet stick on Oh this fear when it takes its rise from guilt is a most terrible thing It is written of Tiberius the Emperour a very politick and subtile but a most prodigiously wicked man who to compasse his ends the better was summus simulandi dissimulandi artifex A very Master-peece of dissimulation that for a time he seemed to stand in awe of no power either in Heaven or earth but after this monster had retired himself from Rome to Capriâ— for the more free enjoyment of his most noysome lusts in process of time he had such terrors fell upon him and his natural conscience did so perplex him as that he came to be afraid of every thing as of his friends his guard nay he became like Pashur whom the prophet Jeremy calls Magor-missabib a terror to himself like the man in the Tragaedy who would fain have run out of himself saying Me fugio c. I fly from my self-guiltiness would fain keep out of sight and such shall one day be the horror of the damned as that they would hide themselves if it were possible even in hell A wounded spirit who can beare it is written of Cajus Marius and of Mutius Scaevola men famous in the Roman story that the first of them patiently endured the cutting off his flesh the other the burning off his right hand A wounded estate a wounded name a wounded head a wounded body may be indured but a wounded spirit a wounding conscience is unsupportable cannot be born cannot be endured being like unto a gouty joynt â—o sore and tender as that it cannot endure it self the truth of all this being known by sad experience of all those who either have been or for the present are pressed down under the weight thereof I will now draw towards the conclusion of this discourse but shall first make this request unto him that reads it that I may not be mistaken in any partiâ—ulars laid down in my many digressions for my witnesses are in Heaven and in my own bosome too that I desire to be angry and offended at nothing so much as at that which angers and displeaseth Almighty God hating that which is evill in all and as far as I can know my own heart am desirous to do it in my self first and most But the sad consideration of the strange and still increasing wickednesses of this Nation wherein we breath bid me take leave to enlarge my self far in this case and to rebuke sharply or cuttingly to go to the very quick I say the wickednesses of this Nation to whom that of the Prophet Jeremiah may be fitly applyed that we are waxen fat we shine overpassing the deeds of the wicked putting far from us the evill day while we laugh out the good lying under the most heavy weight both of spirituall and other judgments but feele them not having been like Solomons foole that could laugh when he was lashed in many things justifying Turks Pagans Heathen in being corrupted more than they all Our sins being like that tree which Nebuâ—hadnezzar saw in his vision whose top reached up to Heaven and hath spread it self in its branches over all the parts of the earth here below But I shall not lead my Reader into a dark and melancholly cloud and leave him there for notwithstanding all these sad and horrible truths I have named I must say this that if God have a people a Church in any place under Heaven which none but an Atheist or a Divell will make doubt of they may be found in this Nation and in that we may take comfort for they are the righteous that deliver the Island the remnant that keepe it from desolation and were it not for those few whom the very great multitudes amongst whom they are mingled scorn and hate this Nation could not continue which should make the wicked of this land if not out of piety yet if they understood themselves out of policy to love and respect those for whose sake they fare so much the better God hath had a Church long planted in this Nation and I dare say that since the Gospell hath been published to the world it was never preached with more Power than it hath been here in these later times As for our Fore-fathers they instead of the food of life issuing from the two breasts of the Church the Law and the Gospels were made to feed on moudly fennowed Traditions The book of God was sealed up from them in an unknown tongue which they could neither understand nor read but for us at this present day our Temples are open we may come our Bibles are engshed we may read our Pulpits frequented we may heare from these considerations ariseth a great cause both of wonder greife unto every one who loves the glory of
bosomes will spit in their faces of the wild beasts by their detractions slanders censures prejudices contradictions and what not who make their tongues worse than the tongues of doggs for they are medicinable they cure they heal but the tongues of these are sharpe they wound they kill But in regard that it is the nature of these beast thus to do a wise and a good man who deserves well yet heares ill hath no more cause to be troubled at it than the bright and full Moon going on her course hath at the barking of many doggs And as some speak evill of us because we do not run with them to the same excess of riot to distemper and overthrow our bodies so others will not abide us because we cannot come up to them in a like luxuriency and rankness of opinions to disturb our brains and to destroy our souls Now further how have the Ministers of the Gospel in these last times wherein the world grows worse and worse been discouraged in the neglect that many find for the paines taken in their great work their own proper means and maintenance withheld from them by the fraud and deceit of some and forceably taken away by the power and violence of others and grudgingly paid them by many more as if that greatest of all works the work of the ministry deserved no wages And lastly which is more and worse what grevious heart-breakings do the faithfull Ministers of the Gospell meet withall in their paines a very great abundance of that spirituall seed of the word they sow so continually miscarrying upon the thorny hard rockey barren hearts of their hearers It was an excellent commendation that Quintilian gave of Vespasian the Emperour that he was Patientissimus veri most patient to heare and to entertain truths how happie should we be if our hearers in general deserved the like praise But truth is not for every ones nay for few mens turn Ergo inimâ—â—i a strange conclusion therefore and for this reason this very reason are we esteemed many mens enemies because we tell them the truth as Saint Paul was long since accounted Gal. 4. 16. Some that live in great and grosse sinns cannot endure to have those their sinns ripp'd up or laid open dealing with us herein as a mad-man doth with a Chyrurgiaâ— flying in his face when he goes about to open a Vein that might recover him out of his Madness Or like a deformed person who breaks the Looking-glass that shews him his deformity When our Blessed Saviour fed the people they resolved presently to make him a King John 6. but after when he rebuked their vile manners they cryed Crucifie him Crucifie him let him be crucified John 19. I have formerly heard from many of the Scotish Nation and I do believe the Report is very true that if a man did preach against their Bishops while they were haling them down they would hear him with a great deal of seeming attention it did so please their humour but if the same man told the people afterward of their Swearing Drunkenness Whoring or the like they would cry Wha wha what doth the man ail what would the man have There are very few or none but will be very well content that we should meddle with other mens matters with other mens faults while we let theirs alone as Herod seemed to heare John the Baptist gladly till he mentioned Herodias Thus the Priest of Bethel though he could not abide that Amos in his prophesie should grate upon the house of Israel yet if he would fly into the land of Judah and prophesie there he was not against that And though that the Jewes could not endure that Jeremy should meddle with the burden of Judah and Jerusalem yet if he would prophesie against Edom and Moab and Ammon he might for all them Mens dainty eares cannot endure to have their own sins touch'd because truth like light is of a discerning nature and makes things manifest Hence evill men love darkness more than light because their works are evill As dark-shops are best for bad wares Light is good but to bad eyes offensive Honey is sweet but to wounds smarting So truth is wholesome but to guilty men distastfull like the bloody waters in Egypt sweet and potable to the Hebrews as Josephus reports but so unsavoury to the Egyptians as that they would not down As they write of some creatures that they have gallu in their eare fell in aure so the hearing of some truths distasts many like waters of wormwood which may make a new proverb bitter as truth for this many times puts some men into the Gal of bitterness angers nettles them as ulcerous men use to shrink at the lightest touch yea sometimes to cry out at the very suspition of touching So that we are often driven unto this Dilemma if we desire to please we must not speak truth for if we tell truth we cannot please Tell a Politician this truth that Summaratio est quae pro Religione facit that that 's the best the strongest reason which makes most for Religion and that the best policie which makes most for Piety this truth crosseth his purposes projects designes and therefore he cannot abide it Acquaint a covetous man with that truth spoken by St. Paul that the love of money is the root of all evil because every sin either directly or consequently springs from Covetousness you offer him losse you are a â—respasser to his trade an Enemy And let that truth spoken by St. Peter be pressed upon a filthy voluptuous person that fleshly lusts war against the soul he regards you not but though he perish in his lust he will enjoy the pleasures that are present Thus other sinners either question or quarrell at the truths that are told them Censure and Hatred being the ancient lot of truth Censure of the message and Hatred to the bearer When Lot came unto his Sons in Law then liveing in Sodome and acquainted them with Gods purpose immediately to burn that and other adjacents Cities though he warned them as a prophet and admonished them as a father that if they loved their lives they must presently quit that place they would not harken unto him but as Livie observes of others though in another case nec morbum ferre â—ossunt nec remedium that they were troubled both at their sickness and cure so these sons in lawof Lot might happily be a little startled at the report that Sodome should be destroyed but more troubled at the thought of leaving Sodome which was as the Garden of the Lord before it was destroyed and that special love they did beare to that place might share up their infidelity to question the truth of that threat and to reason the case hap 〈…〉 ily thus Who ever yet knew it to rain fire and whence should that Brimstone come and if it must rain fire and Brimstone why rather upon Sodome and Gomorrah than upon other places
following discourse Mala mens malus animus an evil minde in it self is an evil minde to all others 'T was said of Diogenes that he was tuba convitiorum the Trumpet of reproaches and that when he accused Plato of pride he beat it down with greater pride The Gramarians were laughed at for taking so much pains to find out the faults of Ulysses and would not take notice of any of their own They are the worst of the Creatures that breed in and delight to be ever stirring up and down in corruption But I would have all who have an eye standing too far out of their heads and are therefore apt to see more in others than themselves and consequently may observe more than is meant from some passages of this book to bound all their conceivings aâ— to what they may finde here within the compasse of it by that rule which holds good in charity and law and is true in Divinity likewise in dubiis benigniora that when any thing delivered may bear two interpretations to take the fairest And now that this following relation may not appear to be a losse either of time or paper he that shall please to read it in our passage to East-India may observe very large foot-steps of the Almighty in his works of Creation Providence And when I have brought him thither on shore he may finde that there is not one question as before of any consequence concerning those parts I have undertaken to write of but it findes satisfaction in one part or other of this discourse For the Court there there is so much riches and splendour sometimes to be seen in it that it may draw up the meditations of those which behold it as the thoughts of Fulgentius sometimes were when he beheld the glorie of the Court of Rome raised up seriously to consider of the glorie of Heaven And for the soil it is exceeding pleasant rich and good as in some other parts of the world where the inhabitants are meer strangers to God and if Almighty God hath given such sweet places of abode here on the earth to very many whom he owns not how transcendently glorious is that place which he hath prepared for them that love him Yet for the Inhabitants there a man may clearly see the law of Nature to be so ingraved upon the hearts of very many both Pagans and Mahometans as that it may make multitudes who professe themselves Christians if they would but turn their eyes inward extreamly to wonder how it comes to be so much wor 〈…〉 out of theirs And then he may further behold such Temperance Justice unwearied devotion but in a wrong way with many other excellent Moralitics so to shine its them that by this very light he may see thousands of those whom before I nam'd that have means to know and therefore should do better in many things to come exceeding short of them who themselves are ready to conclude come short of Heaven But I shall not further anticipate my discourse in being like a vain-glorious entertainer who fills the ears of his guests with his dishes before they see or taste them Which if thou shall please to do read on and thou art very welcome however Farewell Edward Terry To his worthy friend Mr. Edward Terry on his Voyage to East-India I. WOrth will break prison though detain'd awhile To try its truth yet lends the World a smile At last the glorious all ey'd Sun though late Defies its cloud asserts its Native state And in a Sovereign Grandeur doth arise To scorn those mists that aim'd it to disguise So doth thine Indian Voyage after years In silence buried please our eyes and ears Not with Vtepian tancies nor with vain Delusions brought unto us from the main Invention backt with boldnesse so set out As if we must believe not dare to doubt No thou to those appeal'st whose knowledge can Upbray'd thee if thou over-act the man Thou seem'st to be thou by his light hast gone Who knows exactly what is wrote or done II. The World 's a Theatre in which each wight His part doth act The body to the Sprite But shadow Faces differ nothing more Than do the Souls which flesh hath cover'd ore On wedg'd is to the gain of homestayes when Another counts his home a Lazers Denn A third man proves so active that he knows No bounds but his vast phaâ—fie overflows With Alexander he to India flies Not it to Conquer but to please his eyes No Sea no danger no amazing foe Gives his brave Emulation overthrow Leviathan's a gudgeon he can vye With Behemoth no monster makes him fly Hurri'd he is from East to West and thence North South to compasse earths circumference Here picks he up a rarity anon Posts to some new discovered Horizon III. Yet fond they are who mak 't their greatest aim To rifle earth onely to purchase fame But you through hazards Torrid Zones arrive To bring some Honey to your Countreys hive No Spices Orient Peals no Tysseus are Thy traffick these with thee accounted ware For pedling dolts thy venture no return Admits but what enrich the mental Urne And makes thy Readers at thy pains appear Acquainted with that South-East Hemisphear Wherein rare secrets of Dame Nature lye Couch'd but discovered knowledge multiply Welfare thy Noble minde which gives us cause To view in it the force of Natures Laws Read in those Indians Proceed and let us know What other fruits within thâ—ne India grow And tell us what thou know'st A man 's not born To see and to observe For 's self alone But to succession we grow still in debt Worth lives when dead day lasts though sun be set Edward Waterhouse Esq To my ancient friend Mr. Edward Terry On his Indian Voyage GEographers present before mens eyes How every Land seated and bounded lies But the Historian and wise Traveller Desery what mindes and manners so journ there The common Merchant brings thee home such waâ—â— As makes thy Garment wanton or thy fare But this hath Traffick in a â—eâ—ter kinde To please and profit both thy virtuous minde He shews what reason finds in her dim night By groping after God with natures light Into what uncouth paths those Nations stray Whom God permits to walk in their own way And how the Sun a Lamp to seek God by Dazles some eyes into idolatry Read it and thou wâ—lt make this gain at least To love thy one true God and Countrey best Henry Ashwood To my ingenious friend and dear Kinsman the Author of these Relations THough most Geographers have the good hap To travel in a safe expencelesse Map And while the world to us they represent No further yet then Pilgrim Purchas went Past Dovers dreadfull cliffe afraid to go And took the Lands end for the worlds end too Spand Countreys at the fingers ends at case Crack'd with their nail all France turn'd blots to Seas Of whom this strong line we may ridling say They
are made after this fashion for prospect as well as pleasure After this manner as it appeares in the sacred storie the Jewes were wont to build for David from the Roof of his house 2 Sam. 11. 2. espies an object c. such a one as if God had not been very mercifull was sufficient to have undone him for ever as they write of the Basilisk that it kills by sight By the way let me here further adde that Davids eyes thus wandred to fetch home a temptation immediatly after he had risen from the bed of idlleness and ease for while he was imployed in business he was innocent and safe The industrious have not such leisure to sin as the idle have who have neither leisure nor power to avoid it Exercise as it is wholesome for the body even so for the soul The remission whereof breeds diseases in both David from the roof of his house sees Bathsheba when probably she saw not him lust is quick-sighted David had no sooner seen that object but his eyes presently betray and recoyl upon his Heart smiting it with sinfull desires which made him to covet her and presently to send for her that he might enjoy her That which David here did and afterward grievously repents for so doing shall one day be the wofull song of many a wretched soul as the Lascivious mans song the Covetous mans song the song of Theeves Idolaters Gluttons Drunkards as of others I saw I coveted I took for all these receive their death by their eye There Bathsheba was washing herself from her uncleaness and presently after in an Adulterous bed became more unclean than ever she was before never was Bathsheba more foul than when she was newly washed the worst of nature being cleanliness to the best of Sin But I proceed Those houses of two stories have many of them very large upper roomes which have many double doores in the sides of them like those in our Balconies to open and let in fresh air which is likewise conveyed in unto them by many lesser lights made in the walls of those roomes which are always free and open The use of glass windows or any other shuttings being not known there nor in any other very hot Countreyes Neither have they any Chimneyes in their buildings because they never make any use of fire but to dress their food which fire they make against some firm wall or without their Tents against some bank of Earth as remoâ—e as may be from the places where they use to keep that they may receive no annoyance from the heat thereof It is their manner in many places to plant about and amongst their buildings trees which grow high and broad the shadow whereof keeps their houses by far more cool this I observed in a special manner when we were ready to enter Amadavar for it appeared to us as if we had been entring a Wood rather than a City That Amadavar is a very large and populous City entred by many fair Gates girt about with an high and thick Wall of Brick which mounts above the topps of their houses without which wall there are no suburbs Most of the houses within the City are of Brick and very many of them ridged covered with tiles But for their houses in their Aldeas or Villages which stand very thick in that Country they are generally very poor and base All those Countrey dwellings are set up close together for I never observed any house there to stand single and alone Some of their houses in those villages are made with earthen walls mingled with straw set up immediatly after their Raines and having a long season after to dry them throughly stand firm and so continue they are built low and many of them flat but for the generality of those Countrey Villages the Cottages in them are miserably poor little and base so that as they are built with a very little charge set up with sticks rather than Timber if they chance to fire as many times they do for a very little they may be reedified Those who inhabit the Countrey Villages are called Coolees these till the ground and breed up Cattel and other things for provision as Henns c. These they who plant the Sugar the Cotten-wooll and Indico c. for their Trades and manifactures they are kept in Cities and Towns about which are their choicest fruits planted In their Cities and Towns without their dwellings but fix't to them are pend-houses where they shew and sell their provisions as bread and flower-Cakes made up with Sugar and fruits and other things and there they shew their manifactures and other Commodities some of which they carry twice every day to sell in the Bazar or Market I saw two houses of the Mogols one at Mandoa the other at Amadaver which appeared large and stately built of excellent stone well squared and put together each of them taking up a large compass of ground but we could never see how they were contrived within because there are none admitted strangers or others to have a sight of those houses while the Kings wives and women are there which must not be seen by any but by himself and his servants the Eunuchs The Mogols Palace Royal is at Agra his Metropolis of which more afterward but for the present I shall take a little notice of a very curious Groâ— I saw belonging to his house at Mandoa which stood a small distance from it for the building of which there was a way made into a firm Rock which shewed it self on the side of an Hill Canopied over with part of that Rock It was a place that had much beauty in it by reason of the Curious work-manship bestowed on it and much pleasure by reason of its cooleness That City Mandoa I speak of is situated upon a very high mountain the to whereof is flat and plain and specious From all parts that lye about it but one the ascent is very high and steep and the way to us seemed exceeding long for we were two whole dayes Climbing up the Hill with our Cariages vvhich vve got up vvith very much difficulty not far from the bottom of vvhich Hill vve lodged at a great tovvn called Achabar-pore vvhere vve ferried over a broad River as vve did in other places for I observed no bridges made there over any of their Rivers vvhere their high-vvayes lye That Hill on vvhich Mandoa stands is stuckround as it vvere vvith fair trees that keep their distance so one from and belovv the other that there is much delight in beholding them either from the bottom or top of that Hill In those vast and far extended woods there are Lions Tygres and other beasts of Prey and many wild Elephants We lay one night in that wood with our Carriages and those Lions came about us discovering themselves by their Roaring but we keeping a very good fire all night they came not neer enough to hurt either
with sweet Almonds made as small as they could and with some of the most fleshy parts of Henns stewed with it and after the flesh so beaten into peeces that it could not be discern'd all made sweet with Rose-water and Suger-Candy and sented with Amber-Grecâ—e this was another of our dishes and a most luscious one which the Portugals call Mangee Real Food for a King Many other dishes we had made up in Cakes of several formes of the finest of the wheat-flower mingled with Almonds and Sugar Candy whereof some were sented and some not To these Potatoes excellently well dressed and to them divers Salads and the curious fruits of that Countrey some preserved in Sugar and others raw and to these many Roots Candied Almonds blanched Reysons of the Sun Prunellas and I know not what of all enough to make up that number of dishes before named and with these quelque chose was that entertainment made up And it was better a great deal than if it had consisted of full heaped up dishes such as are sometimes amongst us provided for great and profuse entertainments Our bread was of very good excellent wheat made up very white and light in round Cakes and for our drink some of it was brew'd for ought I know ever since Noah his flood that good innocent water being all the drink there commonly used as before and in those hot Clymates it being better digested there than in other parts it is very sweet and allayes thirst better than any other liquor can and therefore better pleaseth and agreeth better with every man that comes and lives there than any other drink At this entertainment we sat long and much longer than we could with ease cross leg'd but all considered our feast in that place was better than Apicius that famous Epicure of Rome with all his witty Gluttony for so Paterculus calls it ingeniosa Gula could have made with all provisions had from the Earth and Air and Sea My Lord Ambassadour observed not that uneasy way of sitting at his meat but in his own house had Tables and Chayres c. served he was altogether in Plate and had an English and an Indian Cook to dress his dyer which was very plentifull and cheap likewise so that by reason of the great variety of provisions there his weekly account for his house-keeping came but to little The meaner sort of people there eat Rice boyled with their green-Ginger and a little Pepper after which they put Butter into it which is their principal dish and but seldom eaten by them but their ordinary food is made not of the flowr of wheat but of a course well tasted grain made up in round broad and thick Cakes which they bake upon their thin iron plates before spoken of which they carry with them when as they travell from place to place when they have bak'd those cakes they put a little butter on them and doubtless the poor people find this a very hearty food for they who live most upon it are as strong as they could be if they had their diet out of the Kings Kitchin I shall here say no more of this but proceed to speak SECTION XI Of the Civilities of this people Of their Complements and of their Habits AND here the people in general as before was observed are as civil to strangers as to their own Countrey-men for they use when they meet one another or when they meet strangers to bow their heads or to lay their right hands on their brests and to bow their bodyes as they pass saluting them further with many well-wishes They use not to uncover their heads at all as we do in our salutes from which custom of ours the Turks borrow this imprecation for their enemies wishing their souls no more rest after death than a Christians hat hath which â—s alwayes stirred but the meaner sort instead of uncovering their heads to their superiours use these abject ceremonies by putting their right hand to the earth and then laying it on their head or by falling down on their knees and then bowing their heads to the earth both signifying that those unto whom they shew these reverences and respects may tread or trample on them if they pleased When we visite the people there of better quality they entertain us with much humanity first rising up to us they bow their bodyes and then intreat us to sit with them on their Carpets where they are free in their discourse which we usually exchange with them by an Interpreter If we have any business with them they return very civill and fair answers and for our further entertainment give us Beetle or Paune to chew before spoken of In their neer and more close and hearty Salutes they do not joyn hands as we but do that which is hatefull to the Spaniard and not at all in use with us for they take one another by the Chin or Beard and cry Bobba which is Father or Bij which is Brother and this appeares to be a very ancient Complement for thus Joab long ago saluted Amasa 2 Sam. 20. 9 but this they do in love not as Joab did there in treacherie In their Complements they express many good wishes to one another as Salam Allacum God give you health the reply Allacum Salam the same health God give you And Greb-a Nemoas I wish you the prayers of the poor And Tere gree gree kee Bulla doore which made English speaks thus I wish one good to come unto you after another every Gra which is a space of time a little more than a quarter of an hour and they have many more Complements like these handsom and significant As inferiour people who have their dependance on others use to say unto them I eat your Breat and Salt as much to say I am your servant I live by you and you may do with me or to me what you please Now as this people of East India are Civil in their speeches so are they Civilly clad for there are none who weare their own skin alone for their covering as very many in the Western India do For the Habites of this people from the highest to the lowest they are all made of the same fashion which they never alter nor change their Coats sitting close to their bodyes unto their wasts then hanging down loose a little below their knees the lower part of them sitting somewhat full those close Coats are fastned unto both their shoulders with slips made of the some cloth which for the generality are all made of courser or finer white Callico and in like manner are they fastned to their wast on both sides thereof which Coats coming double over their brests are fastned by like slips of cloth that are put thick from their left arme-holes to their middle The sleeves of those coats are made long and somewhat close to their Armes that they may ruffle especially from their elbowes to their wrists Under this
extenuated by the multitude of offenders which live under the guilt thereof that nothing can more aggravate it With men commoness pleads for favour with God it pleads for judgment the Leprosie of the whole body being by far more loathsome then that which appears but in a part thereof and so much of this I will now proceed to take notice of other particulars which follow in this relation As SECTION XII Of their Language their Books their Learning c. THE Language of this Empire I mean the Vulgar bears the name of it and is called Indostan it hath much affinitie with the Persian and Arabian tongues but the Indostan is a smoother language and more easy to be pronounced than the other a language which is very significant and speaks much in few words They write it as we to the right hand It is expressed by letters which are very much different from those Alphabets by which the Persian and Arabian tongues are formed The Persian there is spoken as their more quaint and Court-tongue The Arabian is their learned language both written backward to the left hand like the Hebrew from whence they borrow many words which come so neer it as that he who is a good Critick in the Hebrew may very well guess at the meaning of much in both those languages The Persian is a language as if it consisted all of Guttur all letters as some in the Hebrew Alphabet are called filling the mouth in the Pronunciation of them for as the words in that language are full of sense so in their speaking they are full of sound For the Latin and Greek by which there hath been so much knowledge conveyed into the world they are as ignorant of them both as if they had never been and this may be one great reason why there is so little learning amongst them But for the people themselves they are men of very strong reason and will speak ex re natâ upon any offered occasion very exceeding well and doubtless they are a people of such strong Capacities that were there literature amongst them they might be the Authors of many excellent works but as the case stands with them all that is there attainable towards learning is but to read and write And here by the way let me insert this that I never saw any Idiot or natural Fool nor any deformed person amongst them in any of those parts For Logick and Rhetorick which are so instrumental the first to enlarge and the second to polish discourses they have none but what is Natural They say that they write some witty Poems and compose many handsome Annals and Stories of their own and other adjacent Countreys They delight much in Musick and have some stringed but many more winde Instruments They have the use of Timbrils likewise but for want of pleasing Airs their Musick in my ears never seemed to be any thing but discord Their Books are not many and those are Manuscripts That rare and happie invention of Printing which hath been the advancement of so much learning within Christendom is not known without it They have heard of Aristotle whom they call Aplis and have some of his books as they say in the Arabian tongue in which language they further say they have many books written by Avicenna that ancient Physician who was born in Samarchandia one of the most fam'd places within the Tartarian Empire the Countrey as they believe where Tamberlain the Mogols great Ancestor drew his first breath Some parts or fragments they have of the old Testament of which more when I shall come to speak of their Religion Many amongst them profess themselves to have great skill in judicial Astrologie that great Cheat which hath been very anciently and often put upon as the Sacred Storie witnesseth the people inhabiting the East and South parts of the world I call it a Cheat because there is and must needs be so much uncertainty in it all things here below being ordered and overruled by the secret and unerring providence of Almighty God which frustrateth the tokens of the Lyars and maketh Diviners mad that turneth wise men backward and maketh their knowledge foolish Esay 44. 25. First these Diviners are mad when things fall not out according to their bold predictions And secondly they have been and not without cause esteemed as mad-men in foretelling things which they could not know and much less bring to pass And therefore I have heard a great Master in and a publick Professor of Astronomie who could see as far into Constellations and observe as much from them as any other often say that he would go by the very selfesame rules that others did to predict things to come and would write that which was quite contrary to what they observed yet what he wrote should as often fall to be as true as what they 〈…〉 old Yet notwithstanding the truth of these premises the great Mogol puts so much confidence in his Astrologers that he will not undertake a journey nor yet resolve to do any thing besides of the least consequence unless his wizards tell him it is a good and a prosperous hour to begin and set upon such an undertaking and at the very instant he hath his directions from them he sets upon the thing he undertakes and not before It is strange to consider what ignorance or despair in this â—case may not put men upon may not put men into ignorance in that King thus besotted with an high opinion of his Astrologers So despair in Saul another King long before him who after he had lost the favour of God grew desperate and resolved that if God would not answer him Sathan should And therefore he said in his distress unto his servants 1 Sam. 28. 7. Seek me out one that hath a familiar spirit The condition of Saul was at this time exceeding sad as appears by his complaint v. 15. The Philistins make war against me and God is departed from me and answers me no more either by Prophets or Dreams and what shall I do I confess that the loss of God is the greatest of all losses For as his favour to a believing Soul in the want of every thing besides is enough because his loving kindnes is better than life it self Psal 63. 3. So the gaining of every thing the world can afford with the loss of Gods Countenance makes profit loss a Chaire of State uneasy an hereditary and much more a usurped Scepter so unweildy as that it cannot be managed with comfort Here Saul a King is so perplexed in his thoughts when as Almighty God had taken his loving kindnes from him that he asks the question what shall I do Not what thou did'st wretched Saul against the streame of thine own Conscience to seek unto those whom thou had'st but of late condemned and punished to take a course which thou knowest to be divellish Miserable Saul how couldst thou hope to find God at thy Command
fild with a thick yellow watry substance that arose upon many parts of our bodyes which when they brake did even burn and corrode our skins as it ran down upon them For my part I had a Calenture before at Mandoa which brought me even into the very Jawes of Death from whence it pleased God then to rescue and deliver me which amongst thousands and millions of mercies more received from him hath and shall for ever give me cause to speak good of his Name There are very few English which come thither but have some violent sicknes which if they escape and live temperately they usually enjoy very much health afterward But death made many breaches into my Lord Ambassadors family for of four and twenty wayters besides his Secretary and my self there was not above the fourth man returned home And he himself by violent Fluxes was twice brought even to the very brink of the Grave The Natives of East India in all their violent hot diseases make very little use of Physicians unless in be to breâ—th a veine sometimes after which they use much fasting as their most hopefull remedy That foul disease a most into consequence of filthy incontinency is too common in those hot climates where the people that have it are much more affected with the trouble it brings than with the sin or shame thereof As many amongst us who care not for issue but lust and after pay dear for their filthines which many times rotts or else makes bare the bones of them that are thus filthy For as vertue and goodnes rewards it self so to it self wickednes is a punishment poena peccati peccasse saith Seneca this is cleer in the sad consequences of many other sins cui â—hu cui vae who hath wo who hath sorrow Solomon askes the question and resolves it too Prov. 23. 29. they that tarry long at the wine c. for it will bite like a Serpent and sting like an Adâ—er How many sad diseases are contracted to mens bodyes by this kind of intemperancy who can recount the hurts that by this means come to the whole body especially to the Head Stomack Liver and the more noble párts who can recite the Rheumes Gouts Dropsies Appoplexies Inflamations and other distempers hence arising Drunkennes being like that Serpent Amphisbaena which hath a sting in the mouth and a sting in the tail for it kills two wayes first the Body and after that the Soul How were the thoughts of Amnon rackt about the compassing of that incestuous unnatural and brutish lust with his Sister Tamar for first he is sick for her and after he had reaped the bitter fruit of his beastly desires his lust ending in loathing he was sick of her and hated her exceedingly and said unto her arise be gone 2 Sam. 13. 15. Brutus and Cassius were traytors which Julius Caesar fear'd Macilenti pallidi men pal'd with Anger whose thoughts to do mischief drank up all their own sap and moisture Envy â—aith Solomon is the rottennes of the bones Prov. 14. 30. hence the heart of the malicious and envious man is never without torment for it boyles continually as it were in Brine And therefore this sin is said to have much justice in it self Justius invidia nihil est because it eateth the heart and marrow of her master as he desireth to have the heart of another to be eaten up And thus may it be said of Anger when it boyles up to rage as many times it doth in se sâ—mper armatur furor that it is always in Armes against it self The people in East India live up to our greatest ages but without all question they have more old people than we a thing not to be wondred at if we consider the great Temperance of that people in general in their eating and drinking But to proceed The Hindooes or Heathens there begin their year the first day of March The Mahometans begin theirs the tenth at the very instant as the Astrologers there ghess that the Sun enters into Aries their year as ours is divided into twelve Months or rather into thirteen Moons for according to them they make many payments They distinguish their time in a much different manner from us dividing the day into four and the night into as many parts which they call Pores which again they subdivide each of them into eight parts which they call Grees measured according to the ancient custome by water dropping out of one vessell into another by which there alwayes stands a man appointed for that service to turn that vessell up again when it is all dropped out and then to strike with an hammer upon the brim of a concave peece of Metal like the inner part of a large platter hanging by the brim on a wire the number of those Pores and Grees as they pass It hath a deep sound and may be heard very far but these are not common amongst them Neither have they any Clocks or Sun-Dials to shew them further how their time passeth We lived there some part of our time a little within or under the Tropick of Cancer and then the Sun was our Zenith or Verticle at noon day directly over our heads at his return to his Northern bounds of which I have spoken something before The Sun-rising there was about six houres in the Morning before its appearing here so that it is twelve of the clock with them when it is but six with us We had the Sun there above the Horizon in December when the dayes are shortest neer eleven houres and in June when they are at their fullest length somewhat more than thirteen houres which long absence of the Sun there from the face of the earth was very advantagious to cool both the Earth and Air. I proceed to speak SECTION XIV Of the most excellent moralities which are to be observed amongst the People of those Nations NExt to those things which are Spiritually good there is nothing which may more challenge a due and deserved commendation than those things which are Morally and Materially so and many of these may be drawn out â—o life from the examples of great numbers amongst that people For the Temperance of very many by far the greatest part of the Mahometans and Gentiles it is such as that they will rather choose to dye like the Mother and her seven Sons mentioned in the second of Machabees and seventh Chapter then eat or drink any thing their Law forbidds them Or like those Rechabites mentioned Jer. 35. Where Jonadab their father commanded them to drink no wine and they did forbear it for the Commandement sake Such meat and drink as their Law allowes them they take only to satisfie Nature as before not appetite strictly observing Solomons Rule Proy 23. 2. in keeping a knife to their throats that they may not transgress in taking too much of the Creature hating Gluttony and esteeming drunkennes as indeed it is another Madnes and
may be in safety Others make wells and Tanks for the publick benefit Or maintain servants which continually attend upon road-wayes that are much travelled and there offer unto Passengers water for themselves and beasts which water they bring thither in great skins hanging upon the back of their Buttelos which as it is freely given so it must be freely taken by all those who desire to refresh themselves by it There are some which build rich Monuments to preserve the memories of those whom they have esteemed eminent for their austerity and holiness these they call Paeres or Saints amongst whom some of those before mentioned help to fill their Number who sequester themselves from the world as they think and spend their life alone upon the tops of Hills or in other obscure corners Now lastly for a close of this section I shall intreat my Reader to call to mind and to take a second and a very serious view of the reverence and a we which seemes so far as eyes can judge to be in that people Reverence and awe I say of the Majestie before whom they appear when they are in their devotions Whose most submissive carriage in that duty doth very much condemn infinite numbers of those who professe Christ while they are in Religious services rushing upon and continuing in those holy duties without any seeming reverence or regard at all of the dreadfull Majestie before whom they appeare as if God were not or as if he were not worth the regarding As if Death and Hell and judgment an everlasting separation from the prelence of God for evermore were tearms meerely invented to affright people withall and as if there were no such places and no such things I confesse it is true that external Ceremonies by bowing the body in the performances of Religious duties and the like may be found in the falshood of Religion and when a man rests in these alone easy performances it is to complement with Almighty God not to worship him yet as he looks for more than these in our humble addresses to him So he expects these likewise for without all doubt the most submissive gesture of the body in this case may both expresse and further the piety of the soul And therefore though the God of spirits doth most regard the soul of our devotions and looks most at the heart while holy duties are performing yet it is true likewise that it is not only unmannerly but most irreligious to be misgestured in them the carless and uncomly carriage of the body in this case making the soul to be prophane signifying it so to be To him will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit that trembleth at my words Es 66. 2. I shall therefore never be of their mind in this case who think the heart may be devout when the outward man shews no regard Sancta Sancté holy duties must be done in an holy manner great reverence must be used in them and therefore when the hands and knees and mouth and eyes and tongue forget to do their offices as they should they discover an ungodly as well as a negligent heart that should command them to do otherwise for as God will be worshipped in spirit so in the outward man likewise otherwise St. Paul might have spared that precept which commands thus 1 Cor. 6. 20. Glorifie God in your bodies and in your spirit which are Gods as if he had said both are bought with a price the body redeemed as well as the soul and therefore God looks for and expects reverence from both In all our addresses to God he expects at once familiarity and feare familiarity in the expression of our prayers for we speak not to an implacable an inexorable judge but to a tender Father and there fear and reverence to accompany those expressions hence it is said that God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of his Saints and to be had in reverence of all that are about him Ps 89. 7 and serve the Lord in fear and rejoyce with trembling Ps 2. 11. and again let all the earth fear the Lord let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him Ps 33. 8. in awe of him at all times and in all places but especially there where he is in a more special manner present as he hath promised to be in his ordinances The Lord is in his holy Temple Heb. 2. 20. when Jacob was in his journey to Padan-Aran he had a vision in the way which signified and shewed unto him nothing but love mercie and comfort and peace yea he cried out how dreadfull is this place c. Gen. 28. 17. Almighty God is altogether as awfull to his own in his mercies as he is in his judgements Great is thy merci◠O Lord that thou mayest be feared not slighted not neglected but feared For to them who have a through acquaintance with God there is no lesse Majesty shines in the favours of God than in his judgements and justice the wicked heart never fears God but thundring or shaking the eartl never but then when he appears most terrible but the good can dread him in his Sun-shine when he appears most gracious and so they do and so they must Primus in orbe Deos fecit Timor it is a saying that hath much truth in it though spoken by a Heathen because the foundation of Religion is fear without which there can be no Religion as Lactantius wisely argues saying quod non metuitur contemnitur quod contemnitur non colitur that which is not feared is contemned and that which is contemned cannot be worshipped from whence it comes to passe that Religion and earthly power must needs be very much supported by fear First Religion expressed in all our duties to God if I be your father where is my honour if your master where is my fear Mat. 1. 6. Secondly obedience manifested in our subjection to men unto the powers here below whom God hath appointed to bring to keep men in order is very much regulated by fear for were it not for this prop that holds up governments it would presently be dissolved were it not for this curb to restrain men for that cord to lead some and to compel binde others all societies of men would presently run into disorder Kingdoms and Common-wealths would immediately come to confusion I shall conclude this digression with a most remarkable example when Ehud came to Eglon though an idolater and a Tyrant and told him that he had a message to him from God Judg. 3. 20. he arose presently out of his seat or Chair of state and though the unwildiness of his fat body was such that he could not arise with readines and ease yet no sooner doth he hear news of a message from God but he riseth as fast as he was able from his Throne that he might not shew himself unmannerly in the business of
Act. 9. 37. They lay up none of the bodies of their dead in their Misquits or Churches as before but in some open place in a grave which they dig very deep and wide a Jewish custom likewise to carry the bodies of their dead to bury them out of their Cities and Towns Luke 7. 12. Their mourning over their dead is most immoderate for besides that day of general lamentation at the end of their Ram-Jan or Lent before mentioned they houl and cry many whole dayes for their friends departed immediately after they have left the world and after that time is passed over many foolish women so long as they survive very often in the year observe set dayes to renue their mourning for their deceased friends and as a people without hope bedew the graves of their husbands as of other their near relations with abundance of seemingly affectionate tears as if they were like those mourning women mentioned Jer. 9. 17. who seemed to have tears at command and therefore were hired to mourn and weep in their solemne lamentations And when they thus lament over their dead they will often put this question to their deaf and dead Carkasses why they would die They having such loving wives such loving friends and many other comforts as if it had been in their power to have rescued themselves from that most impartial wounding hand of death Which carriage of theirs deserves nothing but censure and pity though if it be not Theatrical we may much wonder at it and say of it as it was said of the mourning in the floor of Atad Gen. 50. 11. that it is a grievous mourning or as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon Zech. 12. 11. if we take those lamentations onely in a literal sence But to speak unto this as a Christian certainly the Apostle who forbids immoderate mourning for friends departed 1 shef 4. 13. imployes and allows of that mourning which is moderate To behold a great Funeral where there are abundance of mourning garments and no weeping eyes is not a good sight for a man to die as Jehojakim a very bad Son of an excellent good Father of whom it was sadly prophesied that he should die without lamentation non plangent eum Eheu frater they shall not lament for him saying Ah my brother his Ashes should not be moistned with one tear and to be buried as Jehojakim was with the burial of an Asse Jer. 2. 18 19. is very sad And doubtlesse it had been better for a man never to have been born than to live undesired and to die unlamented For a man to run a long race through the world and to leave no token of good behinde him but to be like an Arrow shot by a strong arm up into the aire wherein it flies a great circuit yet immediately after it is fal'n it cannot be discern'd that it was ever there I may say of such a one that he was born out of due time or rather that it had been good for him if he had not been born at all But now further concerning their places of Burial many Mahometans of the greatest qualitie in their life time provide fair Sepulchres for themselves and nearests friends compassing with a firm wall a good circuit of ground near some Tank before spoken of about which they delight to Burie their dead or else they close in a place for this use near springs of water that may make pleasant fountains near which they erect little Misquits or Churches near them Tombs built round or four square or in six or eight squares with round vaults or Canopies of stone over head all which are excellently well wrought and erected upon Pâ—llars or else made close to be entered by doors every way under which the bodies of their dead lie interred the rest of that ground thus circled in they plant with fruit Trees and further set therein all their choisest flowers as if they would make Elysian fields such as the Poets dream'd of wherein their Souls might take repose Thus to bury as it should seem was an ancient custom for it is written of Manasseh King of Judah that he was buried in the garden of his own house so of his Son Amon that he was buried in that garden likewise 2 King 21. 18. and 26. verses thus I seph of Arimathea had his Sepulchre in his garden and it was well placed there that when he was in the place of his greatest delight his meditations might be seasoned with the thoughts of his death There are many goodly Monuments which are richly adorned built as before was observed to the memory of such as they have esteemed Paeres or Saints of whom they have a large Kalender in which are Lamps continually burning attended by votaries unto whom they allow Pensions for the maintaining of those lights and many transported there with wilde devotion dayly resort to those monuments there to contemplate the happinesse those Paeres as they imagine now enjoy And certainly of all the places that Empire affords there are none that minister more delight than some of their burying places do neither do they bestow so much cost nor shew so much skill in Architecture in any other structures as in these Now amongst many very fair Piles there dedicated to the remembrance of their dead the most famous one is at Secandra a Village three miles from Agra it was begun by Achabar-sha the late Mogols Father who there lies buried and finished by his Son who since was laid up beside him The materials of that most stately Sepulchre are Marble of divers colours the stones so closely cemented together that it appears to be but one continued stone built high like a Pyramis with many curiosities about it and a fair Misquit by it the Garden wherein it stands very large planted as before and compassed about with a Wall of Marble this most sumptuous Pile of all the structures that vast Monarchy affords is most admired by strangers Tom. Corâ—at had a most exact view thereof and so have many other English men had all which have spoken very great things of it And if we here step aside to look into other Countreys and stories we may observe much to this purpose though none that I have ever heard of like that I last named where many whose foregoing lives have little deserved those following remembrances yet after death have had their bodies lodged in rich Monuments when others of great worthâ— and most deserved memory have been very obscurely buried Varro writes of Licinius or Licinus but a Barber to Augustus Caefar who getting wealth was after his death honoured with a fair Monument of Marble when grave and wise Cato had but a small meer stone to cover him and renowned Pompey had in this kinde no remembrance at all of all whom Varro briefly writes thus Marmoreo Licinus tumulo jacet at Cato parvo Pompeius nullo Licinus entomb'd under rich Marble stone Cato a
can make and there to have no sleep at all so for that rest which is eternal it matters not how meanly and basely the body is laid up while the Soul rests in peace But if the body be embalmed with all sweet Odors and Spices if chested in or covered with Marble or with any thing that is richer and the Soul all this while in torments condemned to everlasting burnings what comfort can it take no more nay not so much as a man who hath a curious Crimson Silk-stocking drawn over a broken or a Gouty and tormenting Leg. For the Saints departed hence non tumulos curant when their Souls are bound up in a bundle of life and they enjoy the company of all the blessed spirits made perfect they care not what becomes of their earthly parts As before they went into their Chambers to undresse themselves so now they go down into their graves to put off their nasty and dirty raggs that when they arise thence they may be invested with Roabs that are rich and glorious well knowing that Christ at the last day will change their vile bodies and make them like unto his glorious body While a mans Soul is safe it is not at all to be heeded what becomes of his body That may be slain but cannot be hurt as bold and good Ignatius told his persecutor occidere potes laedere non potes thou canst kill me but thou canst not hurt me The good man may be stripped of all his temporall riches but that long enduring substance laid up for him in the Heavens is above all his enemies reach They may be degraded here from all their worldly honours but not of this honour to be the servants of God They may be deprived of their lives but not of their salvation The executioner that cut off Saint Paul's head could not take away his Crown And therefore whither they breath forth their lives out of the mouth of the body or the mouth of a wound it is all one vivit post funer a virtus the virtuous man out-lives his life and after findes that there are no such lasting monuments as to be entomb'd in the hearts of the good who will be ever shewing forth the praises of those which have deserv'd them And as for earthly Monuments made to continue in the remembrances of the dead Quandoquidem data sunt ipsis quoque fata Sepulchris These shall have their periods as well as men and when time shall crumble and consume them all into dust and forgetfulnesse the righteous shall be had in a lasting and everlasting remembrance And now Reader I have done with this and shall proceed to speak more particularly SECT XIX Of the Hindooes or Heathens which inhabite that Empire c. ANd for these the first that I shall take notice of is that they agree with others in the world about the first Roots of mankinde Adam and Eve and the first of them they call Babba Adam or Adamah Father Adam and the second Mamma Havah Mother Eve And from Adam they call a man Adams For Adam they further say that when his wife was tempted to eat the forbidden fruit she took it and chaud it and then swallowed it down but when her husband was swallowing it the hand of God stop't it in his Throat and from hence they say that every man hath there an hollow bunch which women have not The names they give to distinguish one man from another are many and amongst them these following are very common As Juddo or Midas or Cooregee or Hergee and the like Casturia and Prescotta are Womens names amongst them but whither these as those names they call their men or women by are names of signification or onely of sound I know not Those Hindooes are a very laborious and an industrious people these are they which till and plant the ground and breed the Cattle these are they which make and sell those curious Manufactures or the Cloath and stuffe which this Empire affords This people marry into and consequently still keep in their own Tribes Sects Occupations and Professions For instance all Bramins which are their Priests the Sons of all which are Priests likewise are married to Bramins daughters so a Merchants son marries a Merchants daughter and so men of several trades marry to the same trade Thus a Coolee who is a tiller of the ground marries his son to a Colees daughter and so in all other professions they keep themselves to their own Tribes and Trades not mixing with any other by which means they never advance themselves higher than they were at first They take but one wife and of her they are not so fearfull and jealous as the Mahometans are of their several wives and women for they suffer their wives to go abroad whether they please They are married very young about six or seven years old their Parents making Matches for them who lay hold of every opportunity to bestow their Children because confin'd to their own Tribes they have not such variety of choise as otherwise they might have and when they attain to the age of thirteen or fourteen or fifteen years at the most they bed together Their marriages are solemnized as those of the Mahometans with much company and noise but with this difference that both the young couple ride openly on Hors-back and for the most part they are so little that some go on their Horse sides to hold them up from falling They are bedeckt or strewed all over their Cloathing with the choise flowers of that Countrey fastned in order all about their Garments For their habits they differ very little from the Mahometans but are very like them civilly clad but many of their women were Rings on their Toes and therefore go bare foot They weâ—r likewise broad Rings of Brasse or better Metal upon their Wrists and small of their Legs to take of and on They have generally I mean the women the flaps or tips of their ears boared when they are young which holes daily extended and made wider by things put and kept in them for that purpose at last become so large as that they will hold Rings hollowed on the out-side like Pullies for their flesh to rest in that are as broad in their circumference some of them I â—dare say as little Sawcers But though those fashions of theirs seem very strange at first sight yet they keep so constantly to them as to all their other habites without any alteration that their general and continual wearing of them makes them to seem lesse strange unto others which behold them And for their Diet very many of them as the Banians in general which are a very strict Sect will eat of nothing that hath had or may have life And these live upon Herbs Roots and Bread and Milk and Butter and Cheese and Sweet-meats of which they have many made very good by reason of their great abundance of Sugar Others amongst them
will eat fish but of no living thing else The Rashboots will eat Swines flesh which is most hatefull to the Mahometans some will eat one kinde of flesh some of another of all very sparingly but all the Hindâ—os in general abstain from Beef out of an high and over-excellent esteem they have of Kine and therefore give the Mogol yearly besides his other eâ—actions great sums of money as a ransom for â—hose Creatures whence it comes to passe that amongst other good provisions we meet there but with little Beef As the Mahometans Burie â—o the Hindoos in general not believing the resurrection of the flesh burn the bodies of their dead near some Rivers if they may with convenience wherein they sow their ashes And there are another Sect or sort of Heathens living amongst them called Persees which do neither of these of whom and how they bestow the bodies of their dead you shall hear afterward The Widows of these Hindoos first mentioned such as have lived to keep company with their Husbands for as before there is usually a good space of time 'twixt their wedding and bedding The Widows I say who have their Husbands separated from them by death when they are very young marry not again but whither or no this be generally observed by them all I know not but this I am sure of that immediately after their Husbands are dead they cut their Hair and spend all their life following as Creatures neglected both by themselves and others whence to be free from shame some of them are ambitious to die with Honour as they esteem it when their fiery love carries them to the flames as they think of Martyrdom most willingly following the dead bodies of their Husbands unto the fire and there imbracing are burnt with them A better agreement in death than that of Eteocles and Polynices the two Theban brothers of whom it is said that they were such deadly enemies while they were alive that after when both their bodies were burnt together in the same fiery Pile the flame parted and would not mix in one of which Statius thus Nec furiis post fata modus flammaeque rebelles Seditione Rogi Whose rage not death could end rebellious ire Inflam'd to civil War their funeral fire Nec mors mihi finiit iras Mine anger with my body shall not die But with thy Ghost my Ghost shall battel trie But those which before I named agree so well in life that they will not be divided by death where their flames unite together And although the Woman who thus burns with her Husband doth this voluntarily not by any compulsion for the love of every Widow there is not thus fired and though the poor Creature who thus dies may return and live if she please even then when she comes to the Pile which immediately after turns her into ashes yet she who is once thus resolved never starts back from hir first firm and setled resolution but goes on singing to her death having taken some intoxicating thing to turn or disturb her brains and then come to the place where she will needs die she settles her self presently in the middest of that combustable substance provided to dispatch her which fuel is placed in a round shallow trench about two foot deep made for that purpose near some River or other water as before and though she have no bonds but her own strong affections to tie her unto those flames yet she never offers to stir out of them But Her breathlesse Husband then she takes In foulded arms this done she makes Her humble sute to ' th flames to give Her quick dispatch she cannot live Her honour dead Her friends there come Look on as if 't were Martyrdom And with content are hit her led As once to view her marriage bed And thus she being joyfully accompanied unto the place of her dying by her Parents and other friends and when all is fitted for this hellish Sacrifice and the fire begins to burn all which are there present shout and make a continued noise so long as they observe her to stir that the screeches of that poor tortured Creature may not be heard Not much unlike the custom of the Ammonites who when they made their Children passe through the fire to Molech caused certain Tabrets or Drums to sound that their cries might not be heard whence the place was called Tophet 2 King 23. 10. which signifies a Drum or Tabret Now after their bodies are quite consumed and lie mixed together in ashes and those ashes begin to grow cold some of them are gathered up by their nearest friends and kept by them as choise Relicks the rest are immediately sowen by the standers by upon the adjacent River or water Alas poor wretches what a hard Master do they serve who puts them upon such unreasonable services in the flower of their youth and strength thus to become their own executioners to burn their own bones when they are full of marrow and to waste their own breasts when they are full of milk Now Almighty God requires no such thing at his peoples hands therefore it is by far the more strange to consider that the Devil should have such an abundance of servants in the World and God so few But for those poor silly Souls who sing themselves into the extremity of misery thus madly go out of the World through one fire into another through flames that will not last long into everlasting burnings and do it not out of necessity but choise led hereunto by their tempter and murderer and consequently become so injurious and mercilesse to themselves certainly they deserve much pity from others who know not how to pity themselves For nemo miserius misero non miserants scipsum There are none so cruel as those which are cruel and pitilesse to themselves But though I say there are some which thus throw away their own lives yet if we consider those Hindoos in general we may further take notice SECT XX. Of the tendernesse of that people in preserving the lives of all other inferiour Creatures c. FOr they will not if they can help it by any means take but on the contrary do what they can to preserve the lives of all inferiour Creatures whence as before I told you they give large money to preserve the lives of their Kine a reason for this you shall have afterward and I have often observed that when our English boyes there have out of wantonnesse been killing of Flies there swarming in abundance they would be very much troubled at it and if they could not perswade them to suffer those poor Creatures to live they would give them mony or something else to forbear that as they conceived cruelty As for themselves I mean a very great number of them they will not deprive the most uselesse and most offensive Creatures of life not Snakes and other venomous things that may kill them saying that it is their
4. 17 18. And therefore said the same Apostle Rom. 8. 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared unto the glorie which shall be revealed I reckon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a Metaphor either taken from accountants that put many particulars into one entire summe or else from Logicians who draw certain or infallable conclusions from foregoing premises Thus I reckon or I conclude when I compare profit and losse together as what I shall certainly gain and what I may happily loose by the profession of the Gospel when I have put all crosses and incumbrances in the one Scale and the recompence of the reward in the other it amounts all to this that the eternal wâ—ight of the Crown doth exceedingly outweigh the momentary weight of the Crosse Thus it is with all men who in their greatest pressures can see further than earth as that first Martyr professing the Gospel Stephen did who died not upon a bed of Down but under a shower of stones yet could out of that terrible and thick storm look into Heaven and so do others who can behold whatsoever they feel with the eye of Faith and this is like that Tree which Moses cast into the bitter waters of Marah and it made them sweet Exod. 15. But as for others I have named and shall further name to behold their sufferings and torments onely with the eye of sense it must needs make their tortures however they bear them out out of measure to torment I have been told by some who were eye-witnesses whom I dare credite and therefore I dare relate it of strange kindes of death executed by the command of the King of Japan upon his subjects where some are Crucified or nailed to a Crosse Others rather roasted than burnt to death Thus there is a stake set up and a Circle of fire at a pretty distance made round about it the condemned person being naked is so fastned to that stake as that he may move round about it and so doth as long as he is able to stir till his flesh begins to blister then he falls down and there lyes roaring till the fire made about him puts him to silenâ—e by taking away both his voice and life Now they say that one great reason why they put men there unto such exquisite torments is because they hold it a thing of the greatest dishonour there for any man to dye by the hand of an Executioner therefore they are usually commanded when they are sentenced to dye to rip up or cut open their own bellies and those who will not so do are tormented in dying Hence most of that people when as they have received that hard command to prevent death by dying call for their friends about them eat and seem to be merry with them then in the close of the meal and in their presence commit this sad slaughter upon themselves as first those poor wretches make themselves naked to the middle he or they who are to dye then the most wretched self-murderer who is to act that bloudy part strikes a sharp Knife into the bottom of his belly then rips himself up and after gives himself one other cut cross his belly and when he hath done both these if after he can but wipe his bloudy knife upon a white paper or Napkin that is laid by him he is believed to part with his life with a very great deal of honour and immediately as he is made to believe goes to Fakaman whom they say is the God of War So much power the Devil hath in those dark places of the World to make the people there do what he please Oh 't is a misery of all miseries here to be a drudge a bond-man a slave to the Devil as those and so infinite multitudes more professing Christ are by obeying Satan in his most unreasonable commands and yet will not be made sensible of that their basest bondage But to return again to the place froÌ„ whence I have made some excursion when I was in India there was one sentenced by the Mogol himself for killing his own father to dye thus first he commanded that this Paricide should be bound alive by his heels fastned to a small iron Chain which was tied to the hinde leg of a great Elephant and then that this Elephant should drag him after him one whole remove of that King from one place to another which was about ten miles distant that so all his flesh might be worne off his bones and so it was when we saw him in the way following that King in his progresse for he appeared then to us a skeliton rather than a body There was another condemned to dye by the Mogol himself while we were at Amadavar for killing his own Mother and at this the King was much troubled to think of death suitable for so horrid a crime but upon a little pause he adjudged him to be stung to death by Snakes which was accordingly done I told you before that there are some Mountebanks there which keep great Snakes to shew tricks with them one of those fellows was presently called for to bring his Snakes to do that execution who came to the place where that wretched Creature was appoinâ—ed to dye and found him there all naked except a little covering before and trembling Then suddenly the Mountebank having first angred and provoked the venomous Creatures put one of them to his Thigh which presently twin'd it self about that part till it came near his Groin and there bit him till bloud followed the other was fastned to the outside of his other Thigh twining about it for those Snakes thus kept are long and slender and there bit him likewise notwithstanding the wretch kept upon his feet nere a quarter of an hour before which time the Snakes were taken from him But he complained exceedingly of a fire that with much torment had possessed all his Limbs and his whole body began to swell exceedingly like Nasidius bit by a Lybian Serpent called a Prester of whom Mr. May in his Translation of Lucan the ninth Book thus writes His face and cheeks a sudden fire did rost His flesh and skin were stretch'd his shape was lost His swelling body is distended far Past humane growth and undistinguish'd are His limbs all parts the poyson doth confound And he lies hid in his own body drown'd Now much after this manner did the stinging of those Snakes work upon that wretch about half an hour after they were taken from him the Soul of that unnatural Monster left his growing Carkasse and so went to its place And certainly both those I last named so sentenced and so executed most justly deserved to be handled with all severity for taking away the lives of those from whom they had receiv'd their own Some of our family did behold the execution done upon the later who related all the passages of it and for
commands or not to do it at their perill But secondly if in our whole course we manifest Zeal for God Zeal joyned with knowledge and carried on with discretion If we propose the honour of God as our principal aim and end and make Love Charity Long-suffering Gentlenesse Goodnesse meeknesse modesty temperance to shine in our lives that it may be said of us in Particular non tantum praedicat sed vivit that we live as well as preach for then do we preach the truths of God as we should when we endeavour to live up unto those duties our selves which in our exhortations we commend to others Briefly if we live though not without failings yet without scandal in not giving any just cause of offence unto others whatsoever they may say or think of us and thus we must labour to live we deserve to suffer without pitty if we do not so that we may be inculpabiles though not inculpati not meriting the least blame though we must look to be blamed by some who will not passe a right judgment of us how good soever our deservings are the way to heaven being as well through evil as good report and hence it comes to pass that many times while we are most faithful we are most foully used by scornes and contumelies put upon us which we must gather up and keep together as so many jewels hereafter to adorn our Crowns In the mean time be very well content to be the drunkards songs rather then their Companions To suffer any wrongs from others rather then do the least unto any To carry chearfully the reproaches of wicked men to heaven rather then their applauses to hell In a word if we be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 blamolesse though not sinlesse for so we cannot be while our bodies are cloathed with flesh but if we walk by rule evenly carefully Circumspectly we are most injuriously dealt withal if we be denyed any of those respects and encouragements which are due unto us And further if there be no way to attain Salvation but only in and through the merits of Jesus Christ all those who presume to name the Name of the Lord Jesus should behold much beauty in the face of them which proclame these glad tydings especially if they consider what fair Characters are put upon them by Almighty God both in the old and new Testament In the Old Testament called the strength of a Kingdom and the excellency of their strength The Chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof 2 King 13. 14. see Ezek. 24. 21. so it is said of the godly Levites the Ministers of that time that they strengthned the Kingdom of Judah and made Rehoboam strong 2 Chron. 11. 17. and so they do all places besides wheresoever they are In the new Testament they are called Ministers of Christ and stewards of the Mysteries of God 1 Cor. 4. 1. Ambassadors for Christ 2 Cor. 5. 20. c. and God hath promised to be with his faithful Ministers and Messengers alway unto the end of the world Mat. 28. 20 to be with them in respect of themselvs by his presence and assistance and to be with them either in mercy or judgement in respect of others which do or do not entertain their Messages and he that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me saith Christ Luk. 10. 16. All which promises well considered and duly regarded might remove far from us many causes of just complaining which now we have and may make us take up the complaints of one of the Ancients and say ad quae tempora reservati sumus and to repeat it over and over again Oh to what times are we reserved In what daies do we live For that people in East India two principal causes of their more accurat walking compared with others may be these First because they keep close unto those principles most of them founded in the book of Nature which are given them in charge to walk by And secondly because the currant of justice run very quick in these parts as I have observed before But for us of this Nation I need not enquire into the causes and reasons of the most fearful miscarriages and of the many many evils committed amongst us they lye so open unto every knowing and observing mans understanding and therefore they want no great discovery Only I shall take liberty to repeat some of them which are first more general and then those which are more special and particular And first the general and Principal cause of all the evil in this and consequently of every nation under heaven hath its Original from that masse of Corruption that poysoned fountain which hath infected the whole world or from that leaven which hath sowred the whole lumps of mankind Ne mali fiant times Nascuntur Every one is born bad as well as becomes soâ— Sin sticking more close to mans nature then his skin doth to his flesh And that Original guilt like a fretting leprosie hath eaten into the manners of all corrupting the whole man in all the parts of his body and in all the faculties of his Soul The Persons of our first Parents defiled their Nature But ever since the Nature of every one defiles his person Whence the hearts of all are evil from their youth estranged from the womb and go astray assoon as they are born Now secondly for those causes which are more special and particular of the increase and groweth of wickednesse in this Nation they proceed much from the want of restraint upon people who are so naturally apt to wander out of the way that dare take any unfit and unlawful liberty they please to take An eye and a sword make a fit embleme to expresse Magistracy an eye to observe and watch and a sword to chastise some and to support and defend others But when this eye is dim or sleepy then justice must needs faintly draw her breath When Canker and râ—st growes upon the sword of Authority for want of use and thence cries out against him who should otherwaies manage it for bearing the sword in vain as Canker and rust doth from the covetous mans silver and Gold Ia. 5. 3. and is a witnesse against him it is a principal cause why the qualities and dispositions of so many people amongst us who cannot go without a Reine are so invaded and vitiated nay quite overthrown It is a good and a true saying Qui non vetat peccare cum possit jubet those which are in Power contract the guilt of all those sins upon themselves which they might restrain in others but do not The great sin of Eli otherwise a good man for which he paid dear because when his sens made themselves vile he restrained them not 1 Sam. 3. 13. All which the poor indulgent Father there saith unto his lâ—wde sons was why do ye such things for I hear of your evil doings by all the people nay my sons
God the happiness of his countrey and the good of himself and Relations to consider that here where there is so much light and truth light to guide and truth to settle men in the way of life and Salvation there should be so much wavering wandering and wickedness For aske among the Heathens who hath done such things the Virgin Israel hath done very filâ—hily or an horrible thing as if the Prophet had said in other language Strumpets Harlots Prostitutes who sell their Souls with their Bodies had done but their kind but for Israel whom I have esteemed as a Virgin for England which I have owned above all the Nations of the earth to do such and such things who would have thought it Nay further as before considering all the means that we of this Nation have had above all the Nations in the world beside to teach us to know God and the great variety of mercies we have enjoyed to provoke us to love God that have had the wind and Sun of all other people the Sun shines not upon a Nation if we be considered collectively and together worse than we are It was sometimes prophesied of Jerusalem that Jerusalem should become so bad that it should justifie Sedome Ezek. 16. we of this Nation considered as before are a people that justifie Jerusalem oh what proficients have we been in the School of Satan when as those sins which the Apostle would not have so much as named among Christians have been so common amongst us so that we may boldly say how that Sodome and Gomorrah and those other Cities which Almighty God overthrew in anger and repented not those Cities which suffer the just and eternall vengeance of Almighty God lie not in Ashes for greater sins than have been committed amongst us But I can take no pleasure to be long raking in filthiness and corruption I will therefore make hast to give over this unpleasing unsavoury and nauseating discourse The rather because I know that neither counselling nor declaming against the sins of the present times doth much good This I believe that if I were filled with a spirit of false-hood and could prophesie of wine and strong drink my book would want no buyers to read and like it but I shall leave that discourse unto those that have not heard of Death in the Pot for my part I shall desire to be inrolled in the number of those who can wish with the Prophet Jeremy that their heads were waters and their eyes fountains of teares c. and that they had in the wilderness a lodging place that they might set down and weep day and night for the sins of the Nation and places where they live that they might sit down and weep and weepe over and over again those sins figh and cry for the Abominations they must needs take notice of by which retirement they might be freed from seeing and hearing and from vexing their Souls from day to day at the unlawfull deeds and filthy conversation of others and have better leisure to think themselves out of this wicked world Oh what cause have we of this Nation to beleeve that judgment is near when the Lord hath tryed us every way and all hath done us no good As fâ—rst God hath been exceeding good unto us in many favours so that it might have been said of England as one speaks of Israel that the Lord made that people a president of his love and favour that all the Nations of the world might learn by them from their example what God could do and what he would do for a people whom he loved but we have not been bettered by these benefits and doubtless if many amongst us had not been so blinded with light and sick of being well the body of this Church and state had never received such wounds as seeme incurable Oh if we had not sinn'd away our mercies God would never have taken away any of his loving kindnesses from us but our offences have been marvellously increased by our obligations there being no sins of so deep a die as thosewhich are committed against mercy The Lord hath tryed us otherwise his judgments have been in the land and the keenest of all temporall judgments the sword and the sharpest of all swords that which peirceth deepest because drawn amongst our own selves which hath made us our own spoylers our own prey yet we the inhabitants hereof have not learn'd Righteousness we have been encouraged by peace and we have slighted that and we have felt the sword of war and that hath done us no good Saevior armis Libertas nocuis Liberty as it hath been abused having given us deeper more dangerous wounds than ever the sword could So that neither the Majestie of God nor the Mercy of God the Goodness of God nor the greatness of God the favour of God nor the frown of Almighty God hath wrought upon us to reform us Now all these particulars put together they may give us great cause to feare what we shall be made to feel the weight of many sad conclusions which for the present we will not regard as that sin committed and unrepented of ever leaves a venome and a sting behind it and therefore that to sin is not the way to prosper that the longer a reckoning runs one the greater still the Summe and that the further compass a blow fetcheth about the heavier still it lights I shall speak it again under how many sad discouragements have many able sober minded and orthodox Ministers of the Gospel laboured in these later times who as if they had not enemies enough abroad find them at home in their own house their own coat proprijs pennis configimur wounded we are by our own quills by some who are excellent at close bites and though they speak us fair can open their mouths as wide against us as any others and then when we deserve nothing but well As the Athenians by their Ostracisme would punish desert and Crown ignorance But vessels that are most hollow and empty make the greatest sound and noyse And as love thinketh no evill So envy can speak no good we need not wonder at this when we consider that men of the highest deservings have many times had the worst usage And then if we find such dealing from amongst our selves we need not marvel at any thing we suffer from others from any from all that do not think well of us that do not love us and for that reason which Martiall expresseth in this Epigram Non amote Sabidi nec possum dicere quare Hoc tantum possum dicere non amote I do not love I love not Sabidie My reason of dislike I know not why When the Cynick was asked what beast did bite soarest and worst he answered of tame beasts a flatterer and of wild beasts a Slanderer many a good man sometimes feeles the â—eeth of both these of the tame beasts who when they creep into their