be many Ships in company you may observe them all to sayl so many severall wayes and every one of them seem to goe directly before the wind Now that it should be so here and not known so to be in any part of the world beside I ever heard of if not in those winds which they say are sometimes sold by the Lapland Witches I can give no reason for it unlesse Satan who is most Tyrannicall where he is most obeyed that Prince of the Ayr seems to rule more here than hee doth in other parts And most certain it is that he rules very much in the Inhabitants on that Main the poor ignorant and most miserable Negroes born for sale and slavery and slaughter These strange Gusts were accompanied with much Thunder and Lightning and with extreme rain so noysome that it made their cloths who stir'd much in it presently to stink upon their backs the water likewise of those slimy unwholsome hot and unsavorie showres wheresoever it stood would presently bring forth many little offensive Creatures These Turnadoes met with us when we were about 12. Degrees of North Latitude and kept us company ere they quitted us two Degrees Southward of the Equinoctial under which we passed the 28. of April The 19th of May being Whitsunday wee passed the Tropick of Capricorn so that we were seven weeks compleat under the Torrid Zone Between the Tropicks wee saw almost every day different kinds of fishes in greater abundance than else-where as the great Leviathan whom God hath made to take his pastime in the Sea Granpisces or lesser whales Sharkes Turtles or Torteises Dolphins Bonitoes Albicores Porpisces Flying fishes with many others Some Whales we saw of an exceeding greatnesse who in calm weather often arise and shew themselves on the top of the water where they appear like unto great Rocks in their rise spouting up into the Ayr with noyse a great quantity of water which falls down again about them like a showr The Whale may well challenge the Principalitie of the Sea yet I suppose that he hath many enemies in this his large Dominion for instance a little long Fish called a Thresher often encounters with him who by his agilitie vexeth him as much in the Sea as a little Bee in Summer doth a great Beast on the shore The Shark hath not this name for nothing for he will make a morsell of any thing he can catch master and devour These Shark are most ravenous fishes foâ— I have many times observed that when they have been swimming about our Ships as oftentimes they doe and we have cast over-board an iron hook made strong for this purpose fastned to a roap strong like it bayted with a piece of beese of five pounds weight this bayt hath been presently taken by one of them and if by chance the weight of the fish thus taken in haling him up hath broken out the Hooks hold not well fastned as sometimes it did so that he fell again into the Sea he would presently bite at an other Bayt and so bite till he was taken Not much unlike many vile men who think they may safely take any thing they can finger and get and having been fastned in and escaped out of many Snares will take no warning but be still nibling and biting at what they like not once considering that there is an hook within the bayt that will take them at last and hamper them to their unavoydable destruction This Sea-shark is a Fish as bad in eating as he is in qual 〈…〉 y a very moyst watery fish yet eaten at Sea because any fâ—esh thing will there down but no good food This Fish turns himself on his back to take his prey by which he gives warning to many other little fishes who ever swim about him to avoyd his swollow Those Fishes that thus keep him company are called by the Mariners Pilate-fishes who alwayes shape their course the same way the Shark takes and by consequence nature having made them so wary he becomes their guard they not his food And there are other fishes too they call Sucking-fish that stick as close to the body of the Shark as a Tike on the shore doth to the body of a Beast and so receive their nourishment from him and he must be contented for while he is swimming up and down he cannot possibly free himself of them Many of these Sharks grow to a very large greatness they have a broad roundhead in which are three rowes of teeth very strong and sharp by which they are able to take off the leg of a man at one bite as some have found by wofull experience while they have been carelesly swimming in these hot Seas where these Sharks most use and certainly were they as nimble as they are mischievous would doe very much hurt The Turtle or Torteis is one of those creatures we call Amphibia that lives sometimes in the Sea and sometimes on the shore he is marvellously fortified by Nature dwelling as it were continually under a strong roof which moves with him and covers when he will his whole body therefore Testudo which signifies a Torteise signifies also the roof or vault of an house which covers all within it Those concave backs like bucklets but of an Oval shape that cover these creatures are many of them so exceeding strong that they will bear off the weight of a Cart-wheel These Torteises increase by eggs as I have been often told are very good to eat the substance within them whether you will call it flesh or fish first boyled and after minced with butter tastes like buttered Veal Their shell makes as is very commonly known excellent good Combes Cups or Boxes and further it is used by them in East-India to make or adorn little or great Cabinets The Dolphin is a fish called for his swiftnesse the Arrow of the Sea differing in this one particular from all other fishes I ever observed in that he hath many little teeth upon the top of his tongue Hee is very pleasing to the eye smell and taste of a changeable colour finn'd like a Roach covered with many small scales having a fresh delightsome sent above other fishes and in taste as good as any these Dolphins are wont often to follow our ships not so much I think for the love they bear unto man as some write as to feed themselves with what they find cast over board whence it comes to pass that many times they feed us for when they swim close to our ships wee often strike them with a broad instrument full of barbs called an Harping-iron fastned to a roap by which we hale them in This Dolphin may be a fit Embleme of an ill race of people who under sweet countenances carry sharp tongues Bonitoes and Albicores are in colour shape and taste much like unto Mackrels and as good fish as they but they grow to be very exceeding large The Porpisces or Hogfish are like the
former very large and great but better to look upon than to taste they usually appear at Sea in very great sholes or companies and are as if they came of the race of the Gadaren Swine that ran violently into the Sea very swift in their motion and like a company matching in rank and file They leap or mount very nimbly over thâ— waves and so down and up again making a melancholy noyse when they are above the water These are usually when they thus appear certain presagers of very foul weather The Flying fishes have skinny wings like unto Batts but larger they are stifned and strengthned with many little bones such as are in the back finns of Pearches by which they fly but a little way at a time they have small bodyes like unto Pilchers and appear when they fly in marvellous great companies and some of them often fly into our ships by which we have tasted that they are excellent good fish Of all other these flying Fishes live the most miserable lives for being in the water the Dolphins Bonitoes Albicores and Porpisces chase persecute and take them and when they would escape by their flight are oftentimes caught by ravenous Fowls somewhat like our Kites which hover over the water These flying Fishes are like men professing two trades and thrive at neither I could further enlarge but my business is not to write an History of Fishes yet in those wee have named as in thousands more which inhabite that watery Main I desire with David to admire and say O Lord how manifold are thy works manifold and wonderfull indeed as he that will take notice many observe every where but in a speciall manner because they are more rare in the great varietie of strange Creatures which the Sea that womb of moysture brings forth in which many things we behold are wonderfull and many things besides we cannot see are certainly more full of wonder In which unfadom'd water y deep Creatures innumerable keep Some small some great among the waves As if they liv'd in moving graves Through which the ships doe plow their way In which the Whales doe sport and play Psal 104. 24 25 26. But to proceed on our Voyage the 12. of June early in the morning we espied our long-wished for harbour the Bay of Souldania about twelve leagues short of the Cape of good Hope where we came happily to an Ankor that forenoon In which Bay we found a Dutch-ship bound for Bantam which had taken in her course and brought thither a small Portugal bound to Angola a Colonie belonging to the Portugals lying in the skirts of Africa about ten degrees South of the Line in which small ship amongst many rich Commodities as we heard to the value of five or six thousand pounds sterling there were ten Portugal Virgins as they call'd themselves sent to that Colonie I suppose for Husbands The young women were well-favoured and well clad in silks but such were the courtesies of these Dutch-men towards them as that they took not only away all the goods Artilerie and good provisions of their ship but they rob'd these poor captive Maidens of all their apparell which they most sadly complained of to one poor suit and I suppose of their honour too if they brought it with them then giving them water for their wine and a very scant proportion of all other provisions turn'd them with their unarm'd leakie and ill-man'd ship to the mercy of the Seas the twentieth day following This Bay of Souldania lyeth in 34 degrees and half of South Latitude in a sweet Climate full of fragrant herbs which the soyl produceth of its self pleasing to the sense where our ships companies when they have often-times there arrived with very weak and feeble bodies usually by that Sea disease the Scurvy in which disease I shall observe by the way if any that have it be not too much overgone with it assoon as hee comes to enjoy the fresh ayr on any shore with fresh water and fresh food he will presently recover but if this disease have over-much prevailed on him immediatly after he sets his foot on shore he usually dies I say our people when they have come hither with very crazie bodies have often found here much good refreshing for besides a most delectable brook of pure good water arising hard by out of a mighty hill call'd for its form the Table close by which there is another Hill which ariseth exceeding high like a Pyramis and called by Passengers the Sugar-loaf there are good store of Cattell as little Beeves called by the barbarous Inhabitants Boos and Sheep which they call Baas who bear a short coarse hairie wooll and I conceive are never shorn These Boos and Baas as they call them were formerly bought in great plenty for small quantities of Kettle-brasse and Iron Hoops taken off our Empty Cask which are all for this long voyage hoop'd with Iron These Salvages had their cattell which we bought of them at a very great Command for with a call they would presently run to them and when they had sold any one of their bullooks to us for a little inconsiderate peece of brasse if we did not presently knock him down they would by the same call make the poor creature break from us and run unto them again and then there was no getting them out of their hands but by giving them more brasse and by this trick now and then they sold the same beast unto us two or three times and if they had thus sold him more often he had been a good penny worth how ever in this wee might observe the covetousness and deceit of this brutish people Here yee must know that this people of all metals seem to love brasse I think as you may ghesse afterward for the ranknesse of its smell with which they make great rings to wear about their wrists yea so taken are they with this base metall that if a man lay down before them a peece of gold worth two pounds sterling and a peece of brasse worth two pence they will leave the Gold and take the brasse On this shore there likewise are found excellent good though small roots for Salads which the soyl brings forth without husbanding And in the head of the Bay may be taken with netts great store of fayr fat Mullets of which we took abundance This remotest part of Africa is very mountainous over-run with wild beasts as Lions Tygres Wolves and many other beasts of prey which in the silent night discover themselves by their noyse and roaring to the Teeth and Jawes of which cruell Beasts the Natives here expose their old people if death prevent it not when once they grow very old and troublesome laying them forth in some open place in the dark night When the wild beasts as David observes Psal 104. 20 21. doe creep forth and the young lyons roar after their prey One miserable poor old wretch was thus
A Voyage to EAST-INDIA Wherein Some things are taken notice of in our passage thither but many more in our abode there within that rich and most spacious Empire Of the Great Mogol Mix't with some Parallel Observations and inferences upon the storie to profit as well as delight the Reader Observed by Edward Terry then Chaplain to the Right Honorable Sr. Thomas Row Knight Lord Ambassadour to the great Mogol now Rector of the Church at Greenford in the County of Middlesex In journeying often in perils of waters in perils of Robbers in perils by the Heathen in perils in the Sea 1 Cor. 11. 26. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters yea than the mighty waves of the Sea Psal 93. 4. Digitis a morte remotus Quatuor aut Septem Ju. Sat. 12. Qui Nescit orare discat navigare ubique Naufragium London Printed by T. W. for J. Martin and J. Allestrye at the Bell in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1655. To the Reader READER THere was never age more guilty than this present of the great expence and waste of paper whose fair innocence hath been extreamly stubber'd by Errors Heresies Blasphemies and what not in these bold times which like so many the foulest of all blots blurs hath defiled very much of it so true is that of the Poet Tenet insanabile multos Scribendi Cacoëthes Ju. Certainly there hath been of late abundantly more printed than ought than should if what follows in this discourse lay under the guilt of any such just exception it should feel the fire not the press The summe substance of what here follows as a description of that Empire I long since composed shortly after my return from East-India and then presented it in writing unto the late King when he was Prince of Wales in the year 1622. with this short following Epistle Most Renowned Prince I Have nothing to plead for this high presumption but the Novelty of my subject in which I confesse some few have prevented me who bv traveling India in England or Europe have written somewhat of those remotest parts but like unto poor Tradesmen who take up Wares on trust have been deceived themselves and do deceive of others For my self I was an eye-witnesse of much here related living more than two years at the Court of that mighty Monarch the great Mogol who prides himself very much in his most famous Ancestor Tamberlane in the description of whose Empire your Highnesse may meet with large Territories a numerous Court most populous pleasant and rich Provinces but when all these shall be laid in the Balance against his miserable blindnesse your Highnesse shall have more cause to pity than envy his greatnesse I am not ambitious to make this my Relation publick and therefore if it consume more paper it shall not be my fault As it is in a fearfull boldnesse 't is offered to your Princely hands and if it may be any way pleasing and usefull I have my reward if not my most humble desires to have ministred something this way unto your Highnesse shall be my comfort Thus Reader thou hearest when this Relation was first written and into what hands it was then put And although there be now a very great space of time 'twixt the particulars then observed and their publication now which may make thee look upon that which is here brought forth as an untimely birth or as a thing born out of due time Therefore know which may give thee some satisfaction herein that for the commodities and discommodities of those remote parts for the customes and manners of that people for their Religion and policie with every thing beside wherein thou mayest desire information which lies within the vast compasse of that huge Monarchy expressed in the Map and further described in this following discourse time not making that people at all to varie from themselves thou mayest look upon it now as if it hath been taken notice of but immediately before it was here communicated and if it prove usefull now I shall be very glad that it was reserved even for this present time wherein it might do some good Yet notwithstanding this it should never have been brought by me into this more open view especially in such a scribling writing age as this where there is no end of making many books and many of those written to no end but what is evil and mischievous but that the Printer who had gotten my Original Copie presented as before desired to publish it And because so I have revised and in some particulars by pertinent though in some places very long digressions which I would intreat the Reader to improve so enlarged it that it may if it reach my aim contain matter for instruction and use as well as for relation and novelty So that they who fly from a Sermon and will not touch sound and wholesom and excellent treatises in Divinity may happily if God so please be taken before they are aware and overcome by some Divine truths that lie scattered up and down in manie places of this Narrative To which end I have endeavoured so to contrive it for every one who shall please to read it through that it may be like a well form'd picture that seems to look stedfastly upon everie heholder who so looks upon it But here Reader let us sit down and wonder that in these dayes which are called times of Reformation manie choise books are often published which contain in themselves and declare unto others very much of the minde of God yet are laid aside as if they were not worth the looking into and in their stead Romances and other Pamphlets ejusdem farinae of the like kinde which do not inform but corrupt rather the mindes of those which look so much into them teaching wickednesse while they seem to reprove it are the books O times which are generally call'd for bought up read and liked When a Traveller sometimes observed the women in Rome to please themselves in and overmuch to play with their Curs and Monkeys he asked whether or no the women of Rome did not bear Children to delight themselves withall The storie is so parallel to what I before observed that he who runs may make Application and therefore I forbear to do it As for that I have here published I know habent sua fata libelli that books have their Fates as well as their Authors and therefore this Relation now it is got into the World must take its chance whatsoever its successe or acceptance be But however I shall never be of their minde who think those books best which best sell when certain it is that they are not to be valued by their good sale but good use Which while some may make of this others who love to carp and censure and quarrel so as to make a man an offender for a word may put harsh interpretation upon some passages they may find in this
leave his foolishness But as he was put in so will he come out a fool The year following we carried three more condemned persons to be left in this place but they hearing of the ill successe of their predecessors and that it was very unlikely for them to find any safe footing here when we were ready to depart thence and to leave them on the shore they all came and presented themselves on their knees with many tears in their eyes unto our chief Commander Captain Joseph most humbly beseeching him that he would give order that they might be hanged before he departed in that place which they much rather chose than to be there left wee thought it was a very sad sight to behold three men in such a condition that made them esteem hanging to be mercy Our Commander told them that he had no Commission to execute them but to leave them there and so he must doe and so believed he had done But our fift ship the Swan staying in this place after us a day or two took these poor men into her and then took her course for Bantam whither she was bound And the Rose our last ship whose sight and company we lost in that most violent storm before mentioned at the beginning of our voyage was safely preserved and happily afterward found her way to Bantam likewise Wee made our abode in this Harbour till the 28th following on which day we being well watered and refreshed departed And the 29th we doubled the Cape of good Hope whose Latitude is 35 Degree South Off this Cape there setteth continually a most violent Current Westward whence it comes to pass that when a strong contrary wind meets it as often-times it doth their impetuons opposition makes the Sea so to rage as that some ships have been swallowed but many more very much endangered amongst those huge mountains of water and very few ships pass that way without a storm We kept on in a circular course to gain a South-west wind for yee must know that the wind in those parts and so in East-India blows and but with a very little variation half the year South-west and the other half North-East we sayled here Southerly till we had raised the South-Pole almost forty degrees above the Horizon This Pole is a Constellation of four starrs the Mariners call the Crosiers these starrs appear neer one another like a Cross and almost equidistant And while we had the view of this Pole the Sun as it must needs be was North at Noon unto us The 22. of July we discovered the great Mâ—dagascar Commonly called St. Laurence we being then betwixt it and the African Shore which Iland lies almost every part of it undeâ— or within the Southern Tropick we touched not at it but this I dare say from the Credit of others who have been upon it that as it is an exceeding great Iland if not the greatest in the known world So is it stored with abundance of very excellent good Provisions though inhabited by a barbarous and heathenish people but stout and warlike and very numerous Over against this Iland on the main Continent of Africa are Zefâ—la and Mozambique whereon the Portugals have got some footing the places as may be strongly supposed whither Solomon sent his Navy of Ships built at Eziongeber which stood on the banks of the Râ—d-Sea in Arabia the Happy the Countrey of that famous Queen of the South who hearing of the wisdome and renown took her journey thence to visit the Court of King Solomon who had understanding like a flood From that place forenamed Solomon sent his Ships for gold and Silver and â—vory c. 1 Ki. 10 22. they Coasting all along the shore of Africa for in the dayes of Solomon the Art of Navigation was not known and Sea-men then steering without Cart or Compass were necessitated to keep the neighbouring Land alwayes in their sights as without question those ships did and to those forementioned places stored as is related above other Parts of Africa with those richest Commodities I might have taken notice before but yet it will not be unseasonable of many suddain strong and violent Gusts of wind frequently to be observed in those-South-west Seas which surprize a Ship so suddainly that if she have many sayles abroad and the Mariners be not very watchfull and Nimble to strike them their strength is such that they will endanger her overturning And to these there are many strange watery Clouds they Call Spouts which appear like a Funnel or water tankard very large and big at the one end but small on the other which hangs lowest and of a very great length They Contain a great Quantity of water wrapt together by a whirl-wind that falls within a very narrow Compass the abundance whereof by ' its great weight if it fall directly as sometimes it doth upon the body of a small ship it will much endanger it and would do much more harm but that these Spouts when they are seen may be easily avoided From the Iland Madagascar we proceeded on in our Course and the 5 of August following approached neer the little Ilands of Mohilia Gazidia St. John de Castro with some others whose Names I have not called in general the Ilands of Comora lying about 12. Degrees South of the Equator The day following being the 6 of August early in the morning our men looking out for Land espied a sail which stood directly in our Course but far before us at first sight she appeared as if there had been some great hill interposed betwixt us for first we had sight only of her Colours in her high Maintop after this of her Masts and Sailes and then of her Hull after which manner ships at Sea do every where appear at great distance one to another which proves that that mighty Collection of waters called Seas have a Convex or Globous and round body placed by Almightie God as it were in Hills or Heaps and being above the earth and higher than it they have set Limits and Commanded they are to their Bounas contrary to their Nature which they may not passe for to saith the Psalmist Ps 104. 9 Thou hast set a bound which they may not passe over that they return not again to Cover the earth But this is known to all that have been at sea therefore we proceed Upon the first sight of that ship we were all glad of the object improving all endeavours we could to overtake her withall preparing our great ordnance that if she were a Friend we might salute her if an Enemy be in readinesse for her so eagerly pursuing this unlooked for ship with the wings of the wind after that we had given her Chase about five howers her Colours and bulk discovered her to be a very great Portugal Caraque bound for Goa lying in the Skirts of East-India and principally inhabited by Portugals the Citie of Residence for the Vice-Roy to the King of Spain
shore and there to make these most sad Conflicts matter of talk discourse or merriment as some do yet I conceive they should not be seen or heard of without grief and detestation Because the very name of a man implies Humanity which a man forgets to shew when he sees or hears of the â—uine and destruction of others with Content who are men like himself It is well observed that Almighty God in Scripture shewing mercy is oftentimes called by the name of a Man as Gen. 32. 24. 29 A Man wrestled with Jacob and blessed him So in many other places But when God threatens displeasure and vengeance against a man he â—aith I will not meet thee as a man Iâ— 47. 3. that is he will shew no pity no compassion Which implies thus much that they who at any time are wanting in this deserve not the names of Men they being without natural affections Appearing to be such as if they had been hewen from the Rocks and not falâ— from Loyns of flesh and blood as if they had sucked the Dragons in the Wilderness rather than the Daughters of Men. But to conclude what I have to say of this If it be very terrible as indeed it is to be in the midst of such Encounters as these though a man come off untouched it is much more to smart under the sad consequences thereof It being by much more hard to feel than it is easy to talk of them And now Reader if thou shalt be pleased to accompany me further I shall carry thee from this sad discourse where we may be both refreshed upon a near rich and pleasant Iland And to make way for our entertainment there take further notice that after we saw the Carrâ—que in a flame which was about midnight we stood off and on till morning to see if any thing might be found in her Ashes of which when we despaired we sought about to succour and comfort our wounded and sick men on the shore The Land there was very high against which the Sea is alwaies deep so that it was the tenth day of that month â—re we could be possessed of a good Harbour which enjoyed we found the Iland called Mohâ—lâ—a very pleasant full of Trees and exceeding fruitful abounding in Beeves Kids Poultrey of divers kinds Rice Sugar-Canes Plantens of which Fruit more shall be spoken hereafter Oranges Coquer-nuts as with many other wholsome things of all which we had sufficient to relieve our whole Company for little quantities of White Paper Glass Beads low prized Looking-Glasses and cheap Knives For instance we bought as many good Oranges as would fill an Hat for one quarter of a sheeâ— of white writing Paper and so in proportion all other Provisions Here we had the best Oranges that ever I tasted which were little round ones exceeding sweet and juicie having but a little sâ—â—ngâ—e skin within them and the rinde on them almost as thin as the paring of an Apple We eat all together Rinde and Juice and found them a Fruit that was extraordinary well pleasing to the Tast Much of their Fruits the Ilanders brought unto â—s in their little Canoos which are long narrow boats but like troughs out of firm trees but their Cattel we bought on the shore Where I observed the people to be streight well limm'd stout able men their colour very tawney most of the men but all the women I saw uncloathed having nothing about them but a Covering for their shame Such as were cloathed had long Garments like unto the Arabians whose Language they speak and of whose Religion they are Mahumetans very strict as it should seem for they would not endure us to come near their Churches They have good convenient Houses for their Living and fair Sepulchres for their Dead They seemed to live strictly under the Obedience of a King whose place of residence was some miles up in the Countrey His leave by Messengers they first craved before they would sell unto us any of their better Provisions Their King hearing of our arrival bad us welcome by a Present of Beâ—ves and Goats and Poultrey and the chief and choyce Fruits of his Countrey and was highly recompenced as he thought again by a Quire or two of white Paper a pair of low prized Looking-Glasses some strings of Glass Beads some cheap Knives and with some other English toyes We saw some Spanish Money amongst them of which they seemed to make so little reckoning that some of our men had from them many Royals of Eight in exchange for a little of those very low and very cheap Commodities which before I named The Coquer-nuâ—tree of which this Iland hath abundance of all other Trees may challenge the preheminence for meerly with these Trees without the least help of any other Timber or any other thing unless a little Iron-work a man may build and furnish and fit and victual a small Ship to Sea For the Heart of this Tree being very tough firm and fast wood growing up streight and high will make Timber and Planks and Pins and Musts and Yards a strong Gum that issues out of it with the Rinde that grows about it will serve to calk the Ship and that spongie Rinde that looks like our Hemp when it is a little bruised will make Cordage and Sails and the very large Nuts that grow upon it of which are made many excellent drinking Cups when it is newly gathered hath a milk-white substance that is tender tasting like an Almond round about of a good substance within it and within that a very pleasant Liquor that is wholsom as well as savoury which may for a need serve those which sail in this Ship for meat and drink Now well-stored with these Nuts and other good Provisions after six daies abode there the breaches our Ship had lately received in fight being repaired and our men well refreshed we put again to Sea the sixteenth day and a prosperous gale following us were carried happily a second time under the Aequinoctial without the leâ—st heat to offend us the 24 day of the same Month. Our Course was for the Iland of Zocotora near the mouth of the Red Sea from whence comes our Aloes Zocotrina but an adverse gale from the Arabian shore kept us so off that we could by no means recover it We passed by it the first of September Missing that Fort we proceeded on our Voyage and the fourth of September made a solemn Funeral in memory of our late slain Commander when after Sermon the small Shot and great Ordnance made a large Peal to his Remembrance On the sixt of September at night to our admiration and fear the Water of the Sea seemed to us as white as milk which did not appear onely so in the body of the Sea but it looked so likewise in Buckets of water which we did then draw out of the Sea Others of our Narion passing on that Course have observed the like but I am yet
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