complaint If Riches consisted onely in Gold Diamonds Pearls or such like things of like raritie those which have not of them might count themselves miserable But every man carries his treasure in his conscience He which lives without just scandall lives happily and and who can complain of a happy life But if to have the hap of these felicities of this life Riches are of use to human life but not of necessity for without them a man may live content a man judge presently that he ought of nececessity to have a great number of riches This is to enslave himself to his own opinion abounding in his proper sense and condemning reason for being of the contrary part I know well that a man is naturally swayed to love himself more then all things of the world and that this love proceeds from the passion of our interest seeking with much care and pain all that may contribute to our contentments and whereas Riches seem to be Nurses of them this consequence is incident to be drawn that without them is no contented living But at first dash When Reason reigns the passions obey it is necessary to distinguish this love into Naturall and Brutall and believe that with the illumination of reason we may purifie the relishes of the first even to the point of rendring them innocent without departing from our interests and consequently the enjoyment of our pleasures giving them for object the establishment of our setled content in misprision of all those things of the world which may destroy it As for this brutish Love which estranging us from God separates us also from our selves the passion of it becomes so strong by our weaknesse that without a speciall grace we grow old in this malady of Spirit of contenting our Senses rather then obeying our Reason making a new God of the Treasures of the Earth But in conclusion these Gods abandon our bodies to the Worms and our souls to the Devils And for all their riches the greatest Great ones can onely purchase a glorious Sepulture Is not this a great advantage and a goodly consolation Maintain we boldly He whose will submits to Gods will lives ever content that a man may find quietnes of life in all sorts of conditions with the onely richnesse of a tractable Soul resign'd to take the time as it comes as God sends it without ever arguing with his providence There is no affliction whereto our Soul cannot give us asswage The Spirit of a Man will bear his infirmity There is no ill whereto it self is not capable to furnish us a remedy A man how miserable somever may find his contentment amidst his miseries if he lives for his soul more then for his bodies behalf God makes us to be born where he will and of what Parents he pleases if the poorness of our birth accompany us even to death he hath so ordained it what can else do but let him so do Can he be accounted miserable that obey's with good grace his soveraigns decrees O 'T is a greater danger to be very rich then viry poor for riches often makes men lose their way but poverty keeps 'em in the straight path how is it far more easie to undergo the burthen of much poverty then of great riches For a man extreamly poor is troubled with no thoughts more important then onely how to find means to passe his life in the austerities whereto he is already habituated without repining after other fortune as being estranged equally both from his knowledge and reach in which respects he may well be stil'd happy But a man very rich dreams of nothing but to eternize the continuance of his days although his fancy be in vain instead of letting them quietly slide away insomuch that being possest with no passion more then love of life he thinks alwaies to live and never to die But Death comes ere he thinks on 't and taking from him all to his very shirt Death cannot be said to deceive any body for it is infallible and yet the world complaint of it constrains him to confesse that riches are onely profitable by misprision since by the contempt a man makes of them he may become the richest of the world O what a sensible pleasure 't is to be Rich say worldly men alwaies but I would fain know in what consists this contentment what satisfaction can there be had to possesse much treasure knowing what an infinite number of our companions are reduc'd to the last point of poverty Some in Hospitals where they he in straw over whelmed with a thousand fresh griefs Others at the corner of a street where a piece of a Dung-hill serves them at once both for bed and board Some again in Dungeons where horrour and afright hunger and despair tyrannize equally over their unfortunate spirits And others in some Desert to which ill fate has confined them to make their ills remedilesse as being far removed from all sorts of succours How with the knowledge of these truths There is no emptinesse in nature for miseries fill al a man shall be able to relish greedily the vain sweets of worldly riches it must needs be for want of reason or pity and consequently to be altogether brutish or insensible I shall have suppose a hundred thousand crownes in rents and all this revenue shall serve but to nourish my body and its pleasures without considering that a hundred thousand poor soules sigh under the heavy burden of their miseries every Day and yet men shall esteem me happy in being rich in this fate O how dangerous are the treasures which produce these felicities Is it possible It is a brave generositie to be sensible of othermens miseries that the Great-ones of the world doe not thinke at all in the middle of their Feasts of the extream poverty of an infinite number of persons and that in themselves they do not reason secretly in this sort What in this instant that we satiate the appetite of our senses with all that nature hath produced most delicious for their entertain a million and many more poor soules are reduced to this extremitie as not to have one onely crumb of bread And in this serious thought what relish can they find in their best-cook'd cates and in their sweetest condiment does not this important consideration mingle a little bitternesse But if their spirits estrange themselves from these meditations and fasten to objects more agreeable O how hard of digestion is the second service of their collation He which cannot love his neighbour hath no love for himselfe To speak ingenuously every time when I consider in that condition exempt from want wherein God hath given me birth and wherein his goodnesse which is no other than himselfe keeps me still alive I say when I consider the misery to which the greatest part of the world is reduced I cannot be weary of blessing this adorable Providence which grants
of thy opinion Plotinus and henceforth will maintain every where with thee that Man is an abridgement of the wonders of the world The eight wonders of the world Since that all the Univers together was created but for his service and pleasure Say we yet moreover that those wonders of the world so renowned are but the works of his hands so that also the actions of his spirit in divine Contemplation can take their Rise above the Sun and beyond the heavens and this too now in the chains of its servitude Great Kings be it supposed that you are living pourtraits of Inconstancy Man flies away by little and little from one part of himself that he may entirely enter at once into himself The perfection of your Nature lies in this defect of you powers for this Vicissitude which God hath rendred inseparable to your condition is a pure grace oâ— his bounty since you wax old onely that you may be exempted from the tyranny of Ages since I say you die every moment onely to make acquisition of that immortality to which his love has destin'd you This defest of inconstancy is the perfection of man since he is changable to day to be no more so to morrow O happy Inconstancy if in changing without cease we approach the point of our soveraign felicity whose foundations are immoveable O dear Vicissitude â—rowling without intervall in the duâ—â— of our originall we approach bâ— little and little to those Age of glory which beyond all time assigne at our End the beginning of a better Carreere A man is onely happy in the perpetitall inconstancy of his condition O Glorioâ—â— Death since terminated at thâ—â— cruell instant which separates 〈◊〉 from Immortality It is true I confesse it again Great Kings that you are subject to all the sad accidents of your subjects The greatest misery that can arrive to a man is to offend God But what happinesse is it if these misfortunes are as so many severall waies which conduct you into the Port. Be it granted that you are nothing but Corruption in your birth Misery in your Life and a fresh infection in your Death All these truths are as so many attributes of honour to you since you disrobe your selves in the grave of all your noisomnesse for to Deck your selves with the ornaments of Grace of felicity and glory which belongs in proper to your souls as being created for the possession of all these Good Things Who can be able to dimension the greatnesse of Man Heaven Earth Nature the very Divels are admirers of the greatness of man since he who hath neither bounds nor limits would himself be the circumference of it Would you have some knowedge of mans power hear the commandement which Josuah made to the Sun to stop in the middest of his carreere Would you have witnesses of his strength Samson presents you all the Philistins buried together under the ruines of the Temple whose foundations he made to totter Require you some assurances of his courage Job offers you as many as he has sores upon his body In fine desire you some proofes of his happinesse Heaven hath fewer of Stars than of felicities to give him Man may be what somever he will be What name then shall we attribute him now that may be capable to comprehend all his glory There is no other than this of man John 19.5 and Pilate did very worthily no doubt to turn it into mockage before the Jewes Ecce homo Behold the Man he shews them a God under the visage of a Man Let the world also expose the miseries of Man in publicke His Image of Earth is yet animated with a divine spirit The name Man is now much more noble than that of Angels With what new rinds soever a man be covered he beares still in biforehead the marks of his Creator which can never change Nature Weâ—â— may they tear his bark the Inmaâ—â— of it is of proofe against the strokeâ— of Fortune as well as the gripes oâ— Death The Man of Earth may turn into Earth but the Man of heaveâ— takes his flight alwaies into heaven That Man I say fickle and inconstant kneaded and shap't from dirt with the water of his own tears may resolve into the same matter Buâ— this stable and constant Man created by an omnipotent hand remaines uncessantly the same as incapable of alteration Rouze then your selves from sleep great Princes He that would alwaies muse of Eternitie would with out doubt acquire its glory not for to remember Death but rather to tepresent unto your selves that you are immortall since Death hath no kind of Dominion over your Soules which make the greatest as being the Noblest part of you Awake then great Monarchs not for to muse of this necessity which drawes you every hour to the tomb but rather to consider that you may exempt your selves from it if your Actions be but as sacred as your Majesties Great PRINCES Awake Man is a hidden treasure whose worth God onely knowes and permit me once more to remembrance You that you are Men I meane the Master-pieces of the workes of God since this divine work-Master hath in conclusion metamorphosed himselfe into his own work My seathered pen can fly no higher Man onely is the ornament of the world Those which have propounded that Man was a new world have found out proportionable relations and great correspondencies of the one to the other for the Earth is found in the matter where of he is formed the Water in his teares the Aire in his sighs the Fire in his Love the Sun in his reason and the Heavens in his imaginations But the Earth subsists and he vaniseth O Sweet vanishment since he is lost in himself that he may be found in his Creator but the Earth remaines firm and his dust flies away O happy flight since eternity is its aime The Water though it fleets away yet returnes the same way and retorts upon it's owne paces Man may be said to be happy in being subject to all mishaps But man contrarily being setled upon the declining stoop of his ruine rouls insensibly without intervall to the grave his prison O dear ruine O sweet captivity since the soul recovers her freedome Death is a grace rather than a paine and this Sepulture serves but as a Furnace to purifie his body The Aire although it corrupt is not for all that destroied the corruption of man destroies its materiall O glorious destruction since it steads him as a fresh disposition to render him immortall The Fire though it fairely devoure all things is yet preserved still it selfe to reduce all the world into Ashes But Man perceives himself to be devoured by Time without ability ever to resist it Oh beneficiall Imporence since he finds his Triumph in his overthrow the Sun causeth alwaies admiration in its ordinary lustre The felicitie of man
in this world consists in the necessity of death but Mans reason is impaired in the course of Times Oh welcome impairement since Time ruines it but onely in an Anger knowing that it goes about to establish its Empire beyond both time and Ages In fine the Heavens may seem to wax old in their wandring course How happy is man in decaying evermore since he thus at last renders himselfe exempt from all the miseries which pursue him they yet appear the same still every day as they were a thousand yeares agon man from moment to moment differs from himselfe and every instant disrobes him somewhat of his Being Oh delightfull Inconstancy since all his changes make but so many lines which abut at the Center of his stability How mysterious is the Fable of Narcissus the Poets would perswade us that He became self-enamoured A long life is a heavy burthen to the soul since it muct ronder an account of all its moments viewing Himself in a Fountain But I am astonish't how one should become amorous of a dunghill though covered with Snow or Flowers A face cannot be formed without Eyes Nose and Mouth and yet every of these parts make but a body of Misery and Corruption as being all full of it This Fable intimates us the representment of a fairer truth since it invites a man to gaze himself in the Fountain of his tears thus to become amorous of himself If a man could contemplate the beauties of his soul in innocence he would alwais be surprized with its love If a man would often view himself in the tears of his repentance he would soon become a true self-lover not for the lineaments of dust and ashes whereof his countenance is shap's but rather of those beauties and graces wherewith his soul is ornamented and all these together make but a rivelet which leads him to the admiration of that source from whence they took their originall Oh how David was a wise Narcissus then when he made of his Tears a Mirrour so to become enamour'd of himself for he was so self-loving in his repentance that in this He spent both daies and nights with unparalled delights All the vain objects of the world are so many fountains of Narcissus wherin prying may shipwrack themselves But if Narcissus ship-wrack't himself in the fountain of his self-fondnesse This great King was upon point to Abysse himself in the Sea of his tears for their liquid Crystalline shewd him to himself so beautifull that he burned with desire thus to drown himself Ladies view your selves in this Mirrour since you are ordinatily slaves to your own self love You will be fair at what price soever see here is the means The Crystall Mirrour of your tears flatter not contemplate therein the beauty of this grace which God hath given you to bewail your vanities This is the onely ornament which can render you admirable Tears are the faithfullest Mirrours of penitents All those deceitfull Chrystals which you wear hang'd at your Girdles shew you but fained beauties whereof Art is the workmistrisse and cause rather then your visages Would ye be Idolaters of the Earth which vou tread on your bodies are but of Dirt but if you will have them endeared where shall I find tearms to expresse their Noysomnesse If Ladies would ake as much care of their souls as of their bodys they would not hazard the losse both of one and to'ther Leave to Death his Conquest and to the Worms their heritage and search your selves in that originall of Immortality from whence your souls proceed that your actions may correspond to the Noblenesse of that cause This is the most profitable counsell which I can give You It is time to end this Chapter Great Kings I serve you this Morning instead of a page to awake You and remembrance You that you are Men I mean Subjects to Death and consequently destinated to serve as a Prey to the Worms The meditation of our nothingness is a soveraign remedy against vanity a Shittle-cock to the sinds and matter for to form an object of horror and astonishment to you altogether Muze a little that your life passeth away as a Dream think a little that your thoughts are vain consider at the same time Men are so near of blood together hat all bear the same name that all that is yours passes and flies away You are great but this necessity of Dying equals you to the least of your subjects Your powers are dreadfull but a very hand-worm mocks at them your riches are without number but the most wretched of men carry as much into the grave as you In fine may all the pleasures of Life make a party in Yours yet they are but so many Roses whose prickles onely remain to you at the instant of Death The horror which environs You chaseth away your greatnesse Man hath nothing so proper to him as the misery to which he is born the weaknesse which possesseth you renders unprofitable your absolute powers and onely then in that shirt which rests upon your back are comprised all the treasures of your Coffers Are not these verities of importance enough to break your sleep I awake you then for to remembrance you this last time If the earth be our mother heaven is our father that you are Men but destined to possesse the place of those evill Angels whose Pride concaved the Abysses of Hell that you are Men but much more considerable for the government of your reason then your Kingdom That you are Men but capable to acquire all the felicities of Heaven if those of the Earth are by you disdained That you are Men but called to the inheritance of an eternall Glory if you have no pretence to any of this world Lastly Though the body and soul together make up the man there is yet as much difference between the one and the others as between the scabberd and the sword that you are Men but the living images of an infinite and omnipotent one Clear streames of immortality remount then to your eternall source fair rayes of a Sun without Eclipse rejoyn your selves then to the body of his celestiall light Perfect patterns of the divinity unite your selves then to it as to the independant cause of your Being Well may the Earth quake under your feet your wils are Keys to the gates of its abysses should the Water or'e-whelm again all Although the puissances of the soul work not but by the senses the effects in this point are more noble then the cause your hopes cannot be shipwrack'â— That the Aire fils all things may be but your expectations admit of some vacuum Though the Fire devour all things the object of your hopes is above its flames let the heavens pour down in a throng their malignant influences here below your souls are under covert from their affaults Let the Sun exhaling vapours make thereof thunders for your
think to stablish to themselves a shelter of honour to the proof of all sorts of atteints and on the contrary they warp the web of their own ruin Just so is it with the Rich ones of the world who by an ingenious industry To what effect is it to seek repose in this world it is never to be found but in God employ all their assaies to lay solide foundations here below of an immortall life and yet all their actions cannot but terminate in an end contrary to their designes since they search Eternity in the circles of Ages alwaies in revolution and repose in the perpetuall instability of all worldly things Insomuch that they trouble themselves to suffer much and all their cares and paines are but as fresh sowings of * See the ambiguity of the French word Souties in the first Chapter Marigolds which dying in their gardens respring in their hearts there to die never Behold the end of their journey-work Treasures to what effect serve you me if I must enter all naked into the grave Pleasures what becomes of your sweets if my last sighs are but bitternesse Grandeurs of this life in what stéad you meif you cannot exempt me from the miseries of death LORD I am rich enough in that I serve for an object of pity to thy adorable Providence whose o're liberall boundry furnishes me for all my daies nourishment enough to passe them what can I wish more on what side somever I take my way to go the course of Death Heaven is an object of consolation to the most miserable I can never loose from view the heavens which are the Gates of thy Palace Insomuch as if any thing fail me I have but to strike there with my regards thou art alwaies upon a ready watch to succour the miserable Supply me then O LORD if it please thee with thy ordinary charities and since that hope dies after me I will rather cease to be then to hope in thee These are the strongest resolutions of my soul We read of the children of Israel We beg of God every day new favours and every day we render our selves unthankfully for those we have received that having received of God an infinity of riches at their coming out of the red Sea by the wrack of their enemies they made of their treasures Idols and joyning in this sort Idolatrie to Ingratitude they erected altars to their brutalitie since under relief of a brute beast they represented their God But leave we there the children of Israel and speak of the Father◠of BABYLON I mean those wicked rich ones of the world to whom God hath done so great favours in heaping them with so many goods Are not they every day convicted of Idolatry in their unacknowledgement since the coffers of their treasures are the Idols of their temples Are we worthily Christians when idolatry is more familiar to us then to infidels since we make idols of al the objests of our passions More beasts then brutes in their voluntary depravednesse they offer incense to their brutish passions and no otherwise able but to erect them secret altars in their souls they there sacrifice everie hour a thousand sighs to a◠unsatiable abition Insomuch that the God of heaven is the God of their dissimulation and the Calf of Gold the God of their beleef and opinion Say we then boldly that the objects of our passions are Golden Calves to us since our hearts become their Idolaters One here will sigh for love of honours as well as for his Mistresse with designe to hazard a thousand lives and as many souls for the conquest of their vain felicities and see here his idolatry making his God of these Chimera's of honour which vanish away like a Dream at the rouzing up of our reason Another there What solly is it to seek repese in the world which subsists onely in revolution will lose quite and clean all the peace wherein he is of a quiet life for to set up a rest purely imaginary in the amassement of treasures And if heaven hearing his votes with design to punish him gives some favourable successe to his cares and watchings he becomes an Idolater now indeed an Idoloter of those goods which as yet he adored but in hope and renders himself miserable sor having desired too ardently felicities which onely bear the voice to be so The goods of the earil are right evils and at Death each one shall so experiment them but their usage and possession may prove as dangerous upon the earth as Rocks within the Sea One will have his heart wounded and his Soul attained with a new trick of ambition and as all his desires and thoughts are terminated to the objects of his designs he is never in health while the feaver of his passion is continuall I leave you to consider of what ratiocination he can be capable during the malady of his spirit All sorts of ways seem equally fair unto him for to guide him unto the port whither he aspires having no other aim but this to acquire at what rate some-ever that good whereof he is in Quest and of this Good it is whereof he makes his Idoll after a shamefull immolation of the best days of his Life to the anxieties of its possession Another-will establish his repose in the turmoyle of the word turning his spirit to all winds to be under covert from the tempests of fortune Blinde as he is he follows this Goddesse with the hoodwinckt eyes Wavering as he is he aspires but after the savours of this inconstant Deity of which he is secretly an idolater but if perchance she elevate him very high there is no more hazard of his fall the laws of this necessitie are inviolable and one cannot avoid the rigour of them if not avoiding their servitude Insomuch that after he hath sneak't himself a long time amongst the grandeurs of the earth he finds himself enlabirinthed in the miseries wherein he is born without possessing anie thing in propritie but the usance of a puffe of wind which enters once again at last into his entrals to force thence the last sigh And thus he becomes the Victime of the Idoll of his passions without purifying nevertheless from the sacrifice of his life the soyl of those offerings which he hath made upon the altars of Vanity Behold the sad issue of this Dedalean labyrinth If the fruition of all the world together were to be sold it were not wort so much b trouble a to open s the mouth onely to ◠say I will not buy it wherein so manie of the world take pleasure to intricate themselves in O how Rich is he LORD who hath thy love and fear for his treasure O how happy is he who hath for object of felicity the contempt of these things of the world O how Contented is he who thinks alwaies of eternall delights To have manie riches for a hundred
the stroakes of fortune or the thunders of heaven What a folly is this to esteem ones selfe happy for having diverse cabbins upon earth to put himselfe under convert from the raine and wind during the short journey of life The raine ceases the wind is past and life dies and then the tempest of a thousand eternall anguishes comes to entertain him without possibility of discovery even from hope one onely port of safety To be onely rich then in aedifices is to be rich in castles of paper and cards such as little children lodge their pety cares in To what purpose steads it us to be richly lodged We must build upon the unshakeable foundations of eternitie if a man would be sheltered from all sorts of stormes if every houre of the day may be that of our departure Men trouble themselves to build houses of pleasure but the pleasures fade away and we also and these houses remain for witnesses of our folly and for sensible objects of sorrow and griefe in that cruell necessity to which we are reduced to abandon them It is to be considered that we are born to be travellers and Pilgrims as such are we constraind to march alwaies straight to the gisâ— of Death Though we saythe Sun sets every night yet it rests not and so Man though he lay himselfe to sleep rests not from hisvoyage to Earth without ever resting or being able to find repose even in repose it selfe To what then are all these magnificent Pallaces when our onely retreat beats on to the grave To what end are all this great number of structures when we are all in the way and point to end our voyage O how well is he housed that lodgeth his hope in God and laies the foundations of his habitation upon Eternity A good conscience is the richest house that one can have Another designes his treasures in numerous Shippings traficking with all winds in spight of stormes and tempests but be it granted a perpetuall calm as heart could wish and imagine we as himselfe does that he shall fish with Fortunes nets all the Pearles of the Ocean what can he doe at the end with all his ventures if he truck them away he can gain but stuffe of the same price if he sell them he does but change white purified earth for yellow which the Sun purifies as well within the mines what will he doe now with this new merchandize or this his gold behold him alwaies in trouble to discharge himself of so many burdens If gold were potable he might perhaps nourish himselfe therewith for a while but as Midas could not do it in the fable he will never bring it to passe in the verity he must needs keep watch then day and night to the guard of his riches and well may he keep sentinell Death comes to rob him of them since at his going out of the world she takes them away from him What appearance is there that the treasures of the Sea should be able to make a man rich since the possession of all the world together cannot doe it The treasure of good workes is eternall riches A hundred thousand ships are but a hundred thousand shuttle-cockes for the wind and a hundred thousand objects of shipwrack Suppose they arrive to the Port the life of their Master is alwaies among rocks for 't is a kind of ship which cannot arrive at other shore but at the banke of the grave And I leave you to consider what danger he may run Our life is a Ship which loosing from the Haven to the cradle at the moment of our birth never comes ashore again till it run aground upon the grave if there the storm of his avaricious passion cast him The sand-blind-sighted may foresee his ruine and the most judicious will beleeve it infallible Behold in fine a man rich to much purpose that would have drain'd by his ambition the bottomlesse depths of the Ocean and now to find himselfe in the end of his carreere in the abysses of hell having an Eternitie of evils for recompence of an age of anxieties which he hath suffered during his life Lord if I would be rich in wood let it be in that of thy Crosse from henceforth let its fruits be my revenues and my rents If I would traffick in meads Let the meditation of the hay of my life be my onely profit If I set my selfe to build houses He which puts his trust in God is the richest of the world how poor soever he be let it be rather for my soul than for my body and in such sort that my good workes may be the stones the purity of my conscience the foundation And lastly If I would travell the seas to goe to the conquest of their treasures let my teares be the waves thereof and my sighs the winds and thy grace alone the onely object of my riches Make me then rich O LORD if it please thee by the onely misprise of all the treasures of the Earth and teach this secret language to my heart It is already sufficient enjoyment of rest and quiet to set up ones rest in God onely never to speak but of thee in its desires nor of other then thy self in its hopes since of thee alone and in thee onely lies the fulnesse of its perfect felicity and soveâ—aign repose Let us not rest our selves in so fair a way I cannot comprehend the design of these curious Spirits who go seeking the Philosophers-stone in that Spitle where an infinite number of their companions are dead of regreet to have so ill imployed their time They put all they have to the quest of that which never was and burning with desire to acquire wealth they reduce all their own into cinders and their lungs also with vehement puffing without gaining other recompence at the end of their labours The love of God is the only Philosopher-stone since by it a man may acquire eternalâ— treasures but this now to know their folly but the Sun sets the candle goes out the bed of buriall is prepared there must be their Enter at the Exit of so manie unprofitable pains To what purpose serves it now to know they are fools having no more time to be wise What cruell Maladie of spirit is it to sacrifice both ones body and soul in and unluckie alymbick for to nourish a vain ambition whose irregular appetite can never be satisfied Is not this to take pleasure in kindling the fire which consumes us to burn perpetually with desire of being rich in this world An inclination toward the misprize of Earth is a presage of the getting of Heaven and yet get nothing by it And then to burn again eternally in hell without possibility to quench the ardour of those revenging flames is not this to warp ones-self the web of a fate the most miserable that ever was Produce we then of nothing the creation of this
formed and consequently you lodge upon yoâ—r buriall-places whose entrances will be open at all moments To say whoyou are I am ashamed in calling you by your proper names for to remembrance you your miseries Corruption conceaves you Horrour infants you Blood nourishes you infection accompanies you in the Coffin There is nothing so constantly present with us as our miseries since always we are miserable enough at best The treasures which you enjoy are but Chimeras of greatnesse and apparitions of glorie whereof living you make experiment and dying you perfectly know the truth on 't To what end then can stead you your present felicities since at present you scarce enjoy them at all for even at this veric instâ—â— another which is but newly upon passe robs you of part of them and even thus giving you hiâ—â— of the cosenage of his companions cheates you too as well as they and thus they do altogether to your lives as well as your contentments in ravishing these they intrain the others then what remonstrance can you exhibit of esteeming your selâ—es happy for past felicities and which you have not enjoyed but in way of depart And if this condition be agreeable unto you still there is a necessitie of setting up your rest at the end of the carreere and there it is where I attend to contribute to your vain waylings as manie resentments oâ— Pitie How much better it is to be so happy in fishing as to angle for grace in the tears of penitence Take we another track without losing our selves How ingenious was that famous Queen of Egypt to deceive with good grace her Lover Sâ—â— caused underhand dead fishes to be ensnared to the hook of Antonie as often as the toy took his to go a fishing to the end to make him some sport by those pleasant deceits May we not say that Ambition doth the same for when we cast our hooks into this vast Ocean of the vanities of the world we fish but Dead things without soul whose acquirement countervailes not a moment of the Time which we employ to attain it Had I all the goodliest fardles of the world laded on my back I mean had I acquir'd all the honours wherewith fortune can tickle an ambitious soul should I thence become greater of body my growing time is past 'T is to no purpose to be passiorate for such goods as a man may loose and the world can give no better would my Spirit thence become more excellent these objects are too weak to ennoble her Powers Should I thence become more vertuous Vertue looks for no saâ—isfaction out of it self Should I thence be more esteemed of the world This is but the glorie of a wind which doth but passe away What happinesse what contentment or what utilitie would remain me then that I might be at rest A Man must not suffer himself thus to be fool'd All honours can be but a burden to an innocent soul for so much as they are continuall objects oâ— vanitie which stir up the passion and onely serve but for nourishment to them in their violences to hurrie them into all sorts oâ— extremities And after all the necessitie of dying which makes an inseparable accident in our condition gloomes the glittering of all this vain glorie which environs us In the anguishes oâ— Death a man dreams not of the grandeurs of his life 'T is an irkssome remembrance of past happinesse being eveâ— and anon upon point to depart finds himself often afflicted mâ— with those good things which 〈◊〉 possesseth measuring alreadie the depth of the fall by the height 〈◊〉 the place whither he is exalted * Galba He which found Fortune at 〈◊〉 gate found no naile to stay he wheele But if Shee on the one 〈◊〉 takes a pleasure to ruine Empire to destroy realmes and to precipitate her favourites Death on 〈◊〉 other side pardons no body alters the temperament of all sorts of humours perverts the order of every kind of habitude and not content yet to beat down all these great Colosses of Vanity which would be taken for the worlds wonders calls to the sharing of their ruine the elements thus to bury their materials in their first abysses where she hath designed the place of their entombment What can a Mau then find constant in the world Al things passe away and by their way tell us that we must do so too where constancy doth no where reside Time Fortune Death our passions and a thousand other stumbling blocks shall never speak oher language to us but of our miseries and yet we will suffer our selves like ALEXANDER to be voyc'd â—mmortall Our prosperities our grandeurs our very delights themselves shall tell us as they passe a word in our ear that we ought not to trust them and yet for all this we will never sigh but after them Be it then at last for very regreet to have vented to the wind so many vain sighs for Chimeras of sweets whereof the remembrance cannot be but full of bitternesse Vain honours of the world No security of pleasure to enjoy such things as may every moment be lost tempt me no more your allurements are powerfull but too weak to vanquish me I deride your wreaths of Laurell there growes more on'â— in my garden then you can give me If you offer me esteem and reputation among men what should I doe with your presents Time devoures every day the like of them and yet more precious I undervalue all such Good-things as it can take away again from me Deceit full greatnesses of the Earth cease to pursue me you shall never catch me your charms have given some hits to my heart Worldly Greatnesses are but like Maskingâ— cloathes which serve him and the other but for that time but not to my soule your sweets have touch my senses but not my spirit what have you to offer me which can satisfie me Time and Fortune lend you all the Scepters and Crownes which you borrow and as you are not the owners they take them away again when they will and not when it pleaseth you So then I will have no Scepters for an hour nor no Crownes for a day If I have desire to raigne 't is beyond Time that I may thus be under shelter from the inconstancy of Ages Trouble not your selves to follow me This world is a masse of mire upon which a man may make impresse of all sorts of Characters but not hinder Time to deface the draught at any time Ambitious Spirits fair leave have you to draw the Stell of your designes upon this ready prim'd cloth Some few yeares wipe out all Some ages carry away all and the remembrance of your follies is onely immortall in your soules by the eternall regreet which remaines you of them SCIPIO made design to conquer Carthage and after he had cast the project thereof upon mould he afterwards took the body of this shadow and
saw the effect of his desires But may not one say that the Trophies of his valour have been cast in rubbidg within that masse of dirt whereof the world is composed since all the marks thereof are effaced Carthage it felfe though it never had life could not avoid its death Time hath buried it so deep under its own ruines that we seek in vain the place of its Tomb. I leave you to ruminate if its subduer were himself able to resist the assaults of this Tyrannie If ALEXANDER had sent his thoughts into heaven there to seek a new world as well as his desires on earth there to find one he had not lost his time but as he did amuze himself to engrave the history of his ambition and triumphs upon the same masse of clay There is more glory to despise the world than to conquer it for after its conquest a man knower not what to doe with it which he had conquered he writ upon water and all the characters on 't are defaced The Realms which he subdued have lost some of them their names of this Triumpher there remaines us but the Idea as of a dream since men are ready to require Security even of his Memory for the wonders which it preacheth to us of him May we not then again justly avow that of all the conditions to which a man may be advanced without the aid of vertue either by Nature or Fortune there is none more infortunate then to be to these a favorite norany more miserable than to a Great-one All those who engage themselvs to the service of fortune are ill paid and of this every day gives us experience This inconstant goddess hath a thousand favours to lend but to give none but haltars poysons pomards and precipices 'T is a fine thing to see Hannibal begging his bread even in view of Scipio after he had called in question the price of the worlds Empire-dome Is it not an object worthy of compassion to consider Nicias upon his knees before Gillippus to beg his own and the Athenians lives after he had in a manner commanded the winds at Sea and Fortune ashore in a government soveraignly absolute who will not have the same resentments of pity reading the history of Crassus then when by excesse of disaster he surviv'd both his glory and reputation constrained to assist at the funerals of his owne renowne All those who hound after fortune are well pleased to be deceived since her deceits are so wel knowne and undergoe the hard conditions of his enemies attending death to free him from servitude Will you have no regreet to see enslaved under the tyranny of the Kings of Egypt the great Agesilaus whose valour was the onely wonder of his Time What will you say to the deplorable Fate of Cumenes to whom Fortune having offered so often Empires gives him nothing in the end but chaines so to die in captivitie You see at what price Men have bought the favours of this Goddesse when manie times the severity of a happy life produceth the storm of an unfortunate Death You may judge also at the same time of what Nature are these heights of honour when often the Greatest at Sun-rise finds themselves at the end of the Day the most miserable And suppose Fortune meddle not with them to what extremity of misery think you is a man reduc't at the hour of his departure All his Grandeurs though yet present are but as past felicities he enjoys no more the goods which he possesses greess onely appertain to him in proper and of what magnificence so'ere he is environed I wonder not if rich men be afraid of death since to them it is more dreadfull then to any this object shows him but the image of a funerall pomp his bed already Emblemes the Sepulcher the Sheets his winding linnen wherein he must be inveloped So that if he yet conceit himself Great 't is onely in misery Since all that he seeâ— heares touches smells and tasts sensibly perswades him nothing else Give Resurrection in your thoughts to great Alexander and then again conceive him at last gaspe and now consider in this deplorable estate Fortune sells every day the gtory of the world to any that will but none but fools are her chapmen wherein he finds himself involv'd upon his funerall couch to what can stead him all the grandeurs of his life past they being also past with it I grant that all the Earth be his yet you see how the little load of that of his body weighs so heavy on his soul that it is upon point to fall groveling under the burden I grant that all the glorie of the world belongs to him in proper he enjoys nothing but his miseries I yeeld moreover that all Mankinde may be his subjects yet this absolute soveraignty is not exempt from the servitude of pain Be it that with the onely thunder of his voice he makes the Earth to tremble yet he himself cannot hold from shaking at the noise of his own sighs I grant in fine that all the Kings of the world render him homage yet he is still the tributary of Death O grandeurs since you flie away without cease what are you but a little wind and should I be an Idolater of a little tossed Ayre Omnis motus tendit ad quietem and which onely moves but to vanish to its repose O greatnesse since you do but passe away what name should I give you but that of a dream Alas why should I passe my life in your pursuite still dreaming after you O worldly greatnesses since you bid Adieu to all the world without being able to stay your selves one onely moment Adieu then your allurements have none for me your sweets are bitter to my taste and your pleasures afford me none I cannot run after that which flies I can have no love for things which passe away worldly Greatnesses are but childrens trifles every wise man despises them and fince the world hath nothing else 't is a long while that I have bidden adieu to it It had promised me much and though it had given me nothing yet cannot I reproach it finding my self yet too rich by reason of its hardnesse But I return to the point Men of the World would perswade us that it is impossible to find any quiet in it to say The onely means to be content is to settle the conscience in peace a firm setling of Spirit wherein a man may be content in his condition without ever wishing any other thing And for my part I judge nothing to be more easie if we leave to reason its absolute power What impossibility can there be to regulate a mans will to Gods And what contradiction in 't to live upon earth of the pure benedictions of heaven What greater riches can a man wish then this to be able to undergo the Decrees of his Fate without murmuring and
along with it the price of that vertue where of Pompey despised the conquest He in his Triumph raised wonder to the beauty of those two great precious stones But the Sepulchrall Marbles which appeared in this of ADRIAN were of another estimate because prudence values them above all price putting them to that employment to which she had destinated them Again if he expose to view in vessels of gold Mountaines Animals Trees Vines Statues of the same matter This Herse covered with black which serves for ornament to this Funerall Pomp containes yet much more treasure since the contempt of all together â—â— graven therein He makes ostentation of his statue of gold enricht with Pearles but our Monarch â—akes as much glory without â—hem shewing in his own bare Pourtraict the originall of his â—â—iseries Except the crown of vertue all other are subject to change That proud conquerour â—ad a thousand Garlands and â—olden Coronets as a novell Trophy But ours here crownes himselfe with Cypresse during his carreere of life to merit those palmes which await him in the end In fine Pompey is the Idoll of heatts and soules and his Triumphall Chariot serves as an Altar where he receives the vower and Sacrifices But this-Prince instead of causing Idolaters during the sway of his Majestie immolates himselfe up to the view of Heaven and Earth dying already in his own Funerals and suffering himselfe to be as it were buried by the continuall object which dwels with him of Death and his Tombe But if Pompey lastly boast himselfe to have conquered an infinite number of Realmes of all the world together * Adrian Thâ—â— Man having never had worse enemies than his passions hath sought no other glory but to overcome them and in their defeat a Maâ— may well be stil'd the conquerour of Conquerours for the Coroâ—â— wreaths of this Triumph fearâ— not the Suns extremity nor thâ— Ages inconstancie We must passer farther Isidore All the objests of Vanity are so many enemies against which we ought to be always in arms and Tranquillus do assure us that to carry away the glory of a Triumph it was necessarily required to vanquish five thousand enemies or gain five victories as it is reported of Caesar The consent of the Senate was also to be had And the Conquerour was to be clothed in Purple and Crowned with Laurell holding a Scepter in his hand and in this sort he was conducted to the Capitoll of Jupiter where some famous Orator made a Panegyricke of his prowesse What better Allegory can we draw from these prophane truths â—hen this of the Victory which we â—ught to have of our five Senses as of five thousand enemies whose defeat is necessary to our riumph These are the five Viâ—tories which he must gain that would acquire such Trophies Still to wage war against our passions is the way to live in peace whose glory is taken away neither by time nor Death This consent of the Senate is the Authority of our reason which alone gives value and esteem to our actions and 't is of her that we may learn the means in obeying her to command over ouâ— passions and by the conquest oâ— of this sway triumph over our selves which is the bravest Victory of the World These Scepters and Crownes are so many marks of Soveraignty which remain us in propriety after subjection of so many fierce enemies Heaven is the Capitoll whither our good works conduct us in triumph and where the voice of Angels serves for Oratours to publish the glory of our deeds whose renown remains eternall These great Roman Captains which made love to vertue though without perfect knowledge of it 'T is not all to love Virtue 'T is the practice have sought for honour and glory in the overthrow of their enemies but they could never find the shadows of solid Honour which thus they sought from whence it came to passe that they have fashioned to themselves diverse Chimera's for to repast their fancy too greedy of these cheating objects Nor that there is no glory in a Conquest but 't was their ambition led them along in Triumph amidst their own Triumphing What honour had Caesar born away if he had joyned to his Trophies the slavery of Cleopatra he had exposed to view a Captive Queen who otherwhile had subjected him to her Love-dominion He triumphs with an ill grace â—'rewhom his vice triumph But if the fortune of the war had delivered him this Princesse the fate of Love would have given even himself into her hands Insomuch that the Death of Cleopatra immortalliz'd the renown of Caesar Asdrubal according to Iustin triumphed four times in Carthage â—ut this famous Theater of honour where glory it self had appeared â—o often upon its Throne serves â—n conclusion for a Trophy to â— Conquerour insomuch that it â—uried at once the renown and â—emory even of those that had presented themselves triumphant personages To day Memphis is all-Triumphant and on the morrow this proud City is reduced to slavery To day the report of its glory makes the world shake and on the morrow Travellers seek for it upon its own site but finde it not O goodly triumph O fearfull overthrow What continuall revolution of the wheel Marcellus shews himself at point of day upon a magnificent Chariot of Triumph and at Sun-set his glory and his life finish equally their carreere I mean in the twinckling of an eye Fortune takes away from him all those Laurel-wreaths which she had given him and leaves him nothing at his death It may be some consolation in all our miseries to see all else have their changes as well as we hut the regreet of having liv'd too-long Marius triump hed diverse times but with what tempests was the Ship of his fortune entertained Behold him now elevated upon the highest Throne of Honour but if you turn but your head you shall see him all naked in his shirt half-buried under the mire of a common Sink where the light of the day troubles him not being able to endure the Sun a witnesse of his misfortunes Behold him first I say in all abundance of Greatnesse and Soveraignty whereof the splendour dazles the world but stay a little and you shall hear pronounc'd the sentence of his death being abandoned even of himself having no more hope of safety How pompeous and celebrious was the Triumph of Lucullus In which he rais'd admiration to the magnificence of an hundred Gallies all-armed in the Prow a thousand Chariots charged with Pikes Halbertsâ— and Corselets whose shocking rumbles sounded so high it frighted the admirers though they celebrated the Fetivall of the Victorie The number of Vessels of Gold and other Ornaments of the Triumph was without number The Statue of Mithridates also of Gold six foot high with the Target all covered with precious Stones serv'd anew to the Triumph And of this Glory all the world together was an adorer for the renown
of the world 'T is the Epitaph on their tomb Read it I grant more-over Death may be contemned but not avoided you may be the greatest Princes of the earth An infinite number of your companions are buried under these corrupted ruins Suppose in fine that your Soveraignty did extend it self over all the Empire of the world A thousand and a thousand too of your semblables have now nothing more their own then that corruption which devours even to the very bones Ambitious Heart see here a Mirrour which flatters not since it represents to the life the realty of thy miseries Well maist thou perhaps pretend the conquest of the Universe even those who have born away that universall Crown are now crowned but with dust and ashes Covetous wretch behold the book of thy accounts 'T is no wonder the Miser ne're thinks of Death his thoughts are onely taken up for this Life calculate all that is due to thee after payment of thy debts learn yet after all this that thy soul is already morgaged to devils thy body to worms and thus notwithstanding all thy treasures there will not abide with thee one hair upon thy head one tooth in thy chops nor one drop of blood in thy veynes nor ne're so little marrow in thy bones nay the very memory of thy being would be extinguish't if thy crimes did not render it eternall both here and in the torments of hell Proud arrogant man measure with thy bristled brows Pride is but like the nooneflourish of a flows or which at Sunset perisheth the dilatation of the earth Brave with thy menacing regards the heavens and the stars These mole-hills of rottennesse whereof thy carkasse is shap't prepare toward the tomb of thy vanity Seneca Epist Quotidie morimur quotidie enim demitur aliqua par vitae These are the shades of Death inseparable from thy body since it dies every hour If thou elevate thy self to day even to the clouds to morrow thou shalt be debased to nothing But if thou doubt of this truth behold here a thousand witnesses which have made experience of it Luxurious Wanton give thy body a prey to voluptuousnesse deny nothing to thy pleasures but yet consider the horrour and dreadfunesse of that Metamorphosis when thy flesh shall be turned to filth and even that to worms and those still to fresh ones which shall devour even thy coffin and so efface the very last marks of thy Sepulture How remarkable is the answer of Diogenes to Alexander What art thou musing on Cynicke says this Monarch to him one day having found him in a Charnell-yard I amuze my self here answers he in search of thy father Philips bones among this great number which thou see'st but my labour is in vain for one differs not from another Great Kings the discusse of this answer may serve you now as a fresh instruction to insinuate to you the knowledge of your selves You walk in triumph to the Tomb followed with all the train of your ordinary magnificences but by being arrived at this Port blown thither with the continuall gale of your sighs your pomp vanisheth away your Royall Majesty abandons you your greatnesse gives you the last Adieu and this your mortall fall equalls you now to all that were below you The dunghill of your body hath no preeminence above others unlesse it be in a worse degree of rottennesse of being of a matter more disposed to corruption But if you doubt of this truth Corruprio optimi pessima behold and contemplate the deplorable estate to which are reduced your semblables Their bald scalps have now no other Crown then the circle of horrour which environs them their disincarnated hands hold now no other Scepter but a pile of worms and all these wretchednesses together give them to see a strange change from what they were in all the glories of their Court The seriout meditation of his miserable condition 't is capable to make any man wise These palpable and sensible objects are witnesses not to be excepted against Let then your souls submit to the experiment of your senses But what a Prodigy of wonders here do I not see the great Army of Xerxes reduced and metamorphosed into a hand full of dust All that world of men in those days which with its umbragious body covered a great part of the earth shades not so much as a foot on 't with its presence Be never weary of thinking of these important truths Seneca in the Tragedy of Hercules brings in Alcmena In Hercule Oetaeo Ecce vix totam Hercules Complevit urnam quam leve est pondus mihi Câ—totus aether pondus incubuit leve with grievous lamentation bearing in an urn the ashes of that great Monster-Tamer And to this esfect makes her speak Behold how easily I carry him in my hand who bore the Heavens upon his shoulders The sense of these words ought to engage our spirits to a deep meditation upon the vanity of things which seem to us most durable All those great Monarchs who sought an immortality in their victories and triumphs have mist that and found Death at last the enjoyment of their Crownes and splendours being buried in the same Tomb with their bodies See here then a new subject of astonishment The Mathematicians give this Axiome The warld is a Game at Chesse where every of the Set haâ—s his particular Name and Place designed but the Game done all the pieces are pellmellâ—d into the Bagg and even so are all mortals into the grave All lines drawn from the Center to the Circumference are equall Kings and Princes abate your haughtinesse your subjects march fellow-like with you to the Center of the grave If life gave you preheminence Death gives them now equality There is now no place of affectation or range to be disputed the heap of your ashes and their dust make together but one hillock of mould whose infection is a horrour to me I am now of humour not to flatter you a whit We read of the Ethiopians that they buried their Kings in a kind of Lestall and I conceive thereof no other reason then according to the nature of the subject they joyned by this actiotion the shadow and the substance the effect with the cause the stream with its source for what other thing are we then a masse of mire dried and bak'd by the fire of life but scattered again and dissolv'd by the Winter of Death and in that last putrefaction to which Death reduceth us the filth of our bodies falls to the dirt of the earth as to its center for so being conceived incorruption let us not think strange to be buried in rottennesse Earth dust and ashes 'T is well men hide themselves after death in the Earth or the enclosure of Tombs their sulth and noysomnesse would else be too discovert remain still the same be it in a vessell of gold or in a coffin of wood
prevention quarrell like a curst Scold who being guilty yet will call Whore first When any dyes whose Muse was rich in Verse They claim Succession and prophane his Herse They onely are Heirs of his Brain-estate Others are base and illegitimate All but their own Abettors they defie And Lord it in their Wit Supremacy Others they say but Sculke as lye i th‘ lurch As we hold Schismaticks from the true Church So hold they all that do decline their way Nor swear by Heaven Al‘s excellent they say T were well they‘d see the fing‘ring on these frets Can neither save their Souls nor pay their Debts Or would they think of Death as they should do They would live better and more honourd too T is base to do base deeds yet for false fame To Keep a stir and bustle into Name Whilst each applauds his own contemns anothâ—rs Becons his own deserts but his he smothers They fear Fame's out of breath and therefore they Trumpet their own praises in their own way Or joyn in Trick of State Confederacy Call Quid pro Quo Claw me and I le Claw thee Marry at others Tooth and Naile they flye That do not tread their Path but would go by Farewell to these my ayme not here insists Leave we these wranglers unto equall lists To Nobler Natures I my brest expose The Good I bow to in an humble Cloze To such as knowing how vain this Life is Exalt their thoughts to one better then This. 'T is the best Method to be out of Love With things below and thence to soare above To which effect my souls integrity In L'envoy thus salutes each courteous eye Lenvoy INgenuous Reader thou do'st crown The Morall active course layd down By De. la â—erre what is pen'd If thy Actions tecommend Relating to the first EMBLEME WHen haughty thoughts impuff thee than Dictate thy self Thou art but Man A fabrick of commixed Dust That 's all the prop of humane trust How dares a Clod of mouldring Clay Be Proud decaying every day And yet there is a way beside Wherein may be a lawfull Pride When sly Tempatations stirre thee Than Again the World Thou art a Man Rouze up thy Spirits do not yeeld A brave resistance wins the Field Shall a soul of Heavenly breath Grovell so tarre its worth beneath Fouly to be pollute with slime Of any base an â— shamefull crime Thou art a Maâ— for Heaven born Reflect on Earth disdainfull scorn Be not abus'd since Life is short Squander it not away in sport Nor hazzard heavens eternall Joyes For a small spurt of worldly Toyes Do Something ere do thou bequeath To Worms thy flesh to Air thy breath Something that may when thou art dead With honour of thy name be read Something that may when thou art cold Thaw frozen Spirits when ‘ t is told Something that may the grave controule And shew thou hadst a noble Soul Do something to advance thy blisse Both in the other World and This. Relating to the second EMBLEME WEre both the Indies treasures Thine And thou Lord of every Mine Or hadst thou all the golden Ore On Tagus or Pactolus Shore And were thy Cabinet the Shrine Where thousand Pearls and Diamonds shine All must be left and thou allowd A little linnen for thy Shrowd Or if 't were so thy Testament Perhaps a goodly Monument What better is a golden Chase Or Marble then a Charnel place Charon hence no advantage makes A half penny a soul he takes Thy heirs will leave thee but a Shirt Enough to hide thy rotten Dirt. Then be not Greedy of much pelfe He that gets all may lose himself And Riches are of this Dilemne Or they leave us or we must them Death brings to Misers double Wo They lose their Cash and their souls too Change then thy scope to heavenly gains That wealth eternally remains Relatory to the third EMBLEME BE not curious to amaze With glitt'ring pomp the Vulgar gaze Strive not to chear with vain delight Those that are catcht with each brave sight How soon will any gawdy show Make their low Spirits overflow Whose Souls are ready to run-ore At any Toy nere seen before Rather thy better thought apply For to addresse thy self to dye Be ne're so glorious after all Thy latest pompe's thy Funerall Shall a dresse of Tyrian Dye Or Venice-gold Embroydery Or new-fash'on-varied Vest Tympanize thy out-strutting brest There 's none of these will hold thee tack But thy last colour shall be Black Be not deceiv'd There comes a Day Will sweep thy Glories all away Mean while the thought on 't may abate Th' Excesses of thy present ' state Death never can that Man surprize That watches for 't with wary Eyes Do So And thou shalt make thereby A Vertue of necessity And when thy Dying-day is come Go like a Man that 's walking home Heav'n Guard thee with Angelick pow‘r To be prepared for that hour When ev'ry Soul shal feel what 'T is To have liv'd Well or done Amisse Relating to the fourth EMBLEME LEt not the Splendour of high Birth Be all thy Glosse without true worth Let neither honour nor vast wealth Beauty nor Valour nor firm health Make thee bear up too high thy head All men alike are buried Stare not with Supercilious brow Poor folks are Dust and so art Thou Triumph not in thy worldy Odds They dye like men whom we count Gods And in the Grave it is all one Who enjoy‘d all or who had none Death cuts off all superfluous And makes the proudest One of us Nor shall there differ‘ence then between The dust of Lords or slaves be seen Together under ground they lye Without distinctive Heraldry Unlesse it be that some brave Tombe Do grace the Great-ones in Earths womb But better ‘ t is that Heaven's dore ls oft‘nest open to the poor When those whose backs and sides with sin Are bunch't and swoln cannot get in Beware the Bulk of thy Estate Shock thee from entrance at that Gate Give Earth to Earth but give thy Minde To Heaven where it 's seat's as sign'd If as it came from that bright Sphere Thither thou tend not fix it here Live that thy Soul may White return Leaving it‘s Partuer in the Urne Till a Blest Day shall reunite And beam them with Eternal Light Ainsi Souhaite Vostre treshumble Serviteur Thomas Cary. Tower-Hill Antepenultim â Augusti 1638. To my endeared Friend the Translatour Mr. Thomas Cary. 1. 'T Is Morall Magick and Wis Chymistry Out of Deaths Uglinesse T‘extract so trim a Dresse And to a Constellated Crystalt tie Such an imperious spell As who looks on it well By sprighty Apparitions to the the Eye Shall See he must and yet not fear to dye 2. No brittle toy but a tough monument Above steele marble Brasse Of Malleable Glasse Which also will while Wisdom is not spent Out-price th‘ adored wedge And blunt Times Sickle‘s edge Usher‘d with gracious safety in its vent For