Classic Poem

Inductio,

Now to the Nestfull woods, the Broode of Flight
Had on their black wings brought, the zealous Night,
When Fames friends, op't the windowes they shut in,
To barre Daies worldly light; and Mens rude Din;
In Tumults raisd about their fierce affairs,
That deafen heauen to their distracted prairs,
With all the vertues; Graue Religion
That slept with them all day, to ope begun
Her Eares, and Red Eyes; hearing euery way
The clocks, and knells of Cities, and the Bay
Of Countrie Dogs, that mock mens daily Carck,
And after them, all night, at shadowes barke.
Though all Fames brazen Gates, and windowes stoode
Ope day and night, yet had her tenderd broode
Close in their priuate chambers, their owne fashion,
Silence, and Night, doe best fit Contemplation.
And as Fame said of old, that peacefull night
The Gods chiefe day was, since their chiefe delight
In fixt calme stood; Themselues in quiet still,
Earths cares to pursue, to skale their high hill;

So these poor labourers for the second life
(Diuine powres imitating) all their strife
Spend for hereafter, and thereafter thriue.
This vantage yet; These haue of men aliue,
(These liuing dead to this life,) That as they
Studying this world in chiefe, on this world prey
When they haue praid; more then these fed with prayrs;
So these that studie here, to be heauens heyrs,
(Vertue and skill pursuing, in chiefe end)
More thriftie therein are; and their oiles spend
More chearfully; and finde Truth more with ease;
For these are in the way: The couetous Prease
Of Truths Professors, (in by-waies perplext)
March like those marginall Notes that spoile the Text.
These thirsting Fames report of this Lords death,
The curious Dame, that weighs and locks vp breath,
Formd in fit words (as God doth euen our thoughts
That nothing of good men, may come to noughts)
Addrest her to be ecchoe to his words
Which (though not many) yet may teach all Lords;

*****

And neither strange, nor eloquent, nor new,
Doctrine that toucheth soules, or saues, or kils,
A good man dying, vtters Oracles.
And now was Fame, aduanc't past sight vpon
A hill of brasse, that farre the sunne outshone;
Day, and night shining; neuer going downe:
Her browes encompast, with a triple crowne:
Each chac't with Iewels, vallewd past mens liues.
Her trumpet then she sounded, that reuiues
Men long since buried: to whose clanges sing
All the afflicted virtues, conquering
All their afflicters, her triumphe brauer bore
The arts (for armes) of all mens worth before;
Disparag'd worths, shew'd there, the perfect things;
And beggers worthy arts were blasd with kings:
Desert findes meanes to vtter: Fame to holde
Both arts, and words, most secret, and most olde:
Nor doe they euer their existence leaue
Nor any that their virtues loue, deceaue.
Fame hauing summond fit attention:
And all her guests into expectance blowne:
Like the morne's trumpe: when day is neere inflam'd:
She clapt her goulden wings, and thus proclaimd.

VIGILIA SECVNDA.

When by diuine presage, this god-like Lord
Felt health decline: and knew she gaue the word,
Through all his powrs; to make a guard, for death,
Frends helthfull (sleighting still what followeth)
Nobly perswaded (as themselues would be
Toucht with the like effects of maladie,)
That his conceipt of weakenesse was too strong.
He askt them, why they wisht him to prolong
His needefull resolution to die;
As if t'were fit to feare felicitie;
Or that he doubted it; And all the chere
The hearty Scriptures did inuite to, were
Serud vp in painted dishes; and to make
(Onely for fashion) sicke men, sit, and take,
And seeme to eate to; though but as their banes,
Onely to die accounted Christians.
Hungry, to heauens feast come, and cheerefully
Eate what you wish; Ile teach ye all to die:
If ye beleeue, expresse it in your liues
That best appeare in death; gainst whom who striues
Would, faithlesse, and most reasonlesse denie
All lawes of Nature, and Necessitie.
No fraile thing, simply is; No Flesh nor blood
Pertakes with Essence; All the flitting flood
Of natures mortall; Birth and death doe tosse
Vpwards and downewards, euer at a losse;
Humaine Births euer are, and neuer stay,
Still in mutation; we die euery day:
Ridiculous are we then, in one death flying,
That dead so often are; and euer dying.
Ye feare your owne shades; they are fooles that make
Deaths forme so ougelie, and remembrance take
Of their dissoluing by so foule a sight,
When death presents the faire of heauenly light.
The ghostly forme, that in this world we leaue.
When death dissolues vs; wise men should conceiue
Showes well, what life is; farre from figuring death:
Am I this truncke? It is my painted sheath:
As braue young men, thinke they are, what they weare;
So these, encourage men, with what they feare.
Make death an Angell, skaling, of a heauen
And croune him with the Asterisme of seauen;
To show he is the death of deadly sinnes:
A rich spring make his Robe, since he begins
Our endlesse Summer: let his shoulders spring
Both the sweete Cupids, for his either wing,
Since loue, and ioy in death, to heauen vs bring:
Hang on the Iuorie Brawne of his right arme,
A bunch of goulden keis; his left a swarme
Of thriftie Bees, in token we haue done
The yeare, our lifes toile, and our fruites haue shone
In hoonnie of our good workes, labord here:
Before his flaming bosome, let him weare
A shining Christall; since through him we see
The louely forms of our felicitie.
His thighes make, both the heauen-supporting Poles,
Since he sustaines heauen, storing it, with soules.
His left hand, let a plenties horne extend:
His right, a booke to contemplate our end:
This forme, conceaue death beares, since truely this
In his effects, informes vs, what he is.
Who, in life, flies not, to inheritance giuen?
And, why not then, in death, t'inherit heauen?
Wrastlers for games, know they shall neuer be,
(Till their strife end, and they haue victorie)
Cround with their garlands, nor receiue their game,
And in our heauens strife, know not we the same?
Why striue we; not being certaine to obtaine
If we doe conquer? and because we gaine
Conquest in faith, why faint we? since therein
We lose both strife, and conquest? who will winne
Must lose in this strife; in deaths easie lists
Who yelds, subdues, he's conquerd, that resists.
Each morning, setting forth to your affaires,
These things commend ye, to our God in praiers:
Direct me, God, in all this daies expence
As thy necessitie of prouidence
Thinks fit for me: what euer way you leade
And point out for me; I will gladly tread;
So being, thy sonne, and pious; sticke, and goe
Compeld as slaue, and my impietie slow.
And how most wretchedly shall those that beare
Authority, and swimme in riches here,
(Resisting death for them) be forc't in feare
To goe with him; when all they can oppose,
They insolent, and impotently lose?
None of those men, that most spent oile and blood,
With studie for ioies fullest tast in good
In this life, euer could their longings fill,
Their reasons strayning through their bodies still
Watrish and troubl'd; as through clouds and mists;
And wrestler like, rusht euer on their lists;
Too streight; and choak't with prease to comprehend
The strugling contemplation of their end.
He that with God did wrestle, all in night;
Figurd our strife with truth here, for his light;
Which seene, through death, being but a touch ith thigh
Blessing both vs and our posteritie,
Who would not wish death? touching feare to die
For my estates disposure (whose cares lie
Heauie on some mens hearts) my sure hope is
My sonne will make, my disposition, his:
Acquiting me of any cause to feare.
And (sonne) what of my constant hopes you heare
Make spurs to proue; that what I hope, you are,
I shall leaue something worthy of your care:
Nor wast, nor labor the encrease too much,
Nor let your pleasure in their vse be such,
As at their most, their too much ioy may breede:
For you must suffer, the same naturall neede
Of parting from them, that you now beholde
Makes all my ioy in them, so deadly colde.
Let nothing seeme to you so full of merit,
As may inflame you with the greater spirit,
Nor no aduerse chance, stoope their height a haire,
But in the height and depth of ech affaire,
Be still the same, and hold your owne entire,
Like heauen, in cloudes, or finest gould, in fire.
To rise and fall, for water is, and winde:
A man, all Center is, all stay, all minde,
The bodie onely, made her instrument:
And to her ends, in all acts must consent,
Without which order, all this life hath none,
But breeds the other lifes confusion.
Respect to things without vs, hinder this
Inward consent of our soules faculties.
Things outward therefore, thinke no further yours
Then they yeelde homage, to your inward powers,
In their obedience to your reasons vse,
Which for their order, deitie did infuse.
For when the happiest outside man, on earth
Weighs all his haps together, such a dearth
He shall finde in their plenty, euery way,
That if with solid iudgement he suruay
Their goodliest presence, he will one thought call
Of God, and a good conscience worth it all.
Nor doth th'imagind good, of ill so please
As that the best, and sweetest Images
Faind to himselfe thereof: he can make end
In any true ioy, but doe euer tend
To ioy, and grieue at once: what most doth please
Ends in sence bodilie, or mindes disease.
Why then should ill, be chusd by policie,
When no where, he can finde vacuitie
Of cares, or labors? no where rests content
With his meere selfe? at no time findes vnbent,
No, nor, vndrawne, euen compasse, his rackt minde,
His bloody arrowes to, in euery kinde
Tugg'd to the head, and ceaselesse shot away,
At flying obiects, that make flight their stay?
Horde gould, heape honors vp, build towers to heauen,
Get Capps, and knees, make your obseruance euen
With and aboue Gods (as most great ones doe)
Vnlesse you settle, your affections to,
And to insatiate appetite impose
A glutted end, your selfe, from feares, and woes
Manfully freeing, as to men that pine
And burne with feuers, you fill cups of wine,
The cholerique, honie giue, and fulsome meate
On sicke men force, that at the daintiest sweate.
Who yet, their hurtfull tempers turnd to good,
Milde spirits generate, and gentle blood,
With restitution of their naturall heate;
Euen cheese and water cresses they will eate
With tast enough: so make but strong your minde,
With her fit rule; and cates of humblest kinde
You tast with height of pleasure, turning all
Perticular to the pleasure generall.
Learne to loue truely, good, and honest things,
And you shall finde there, wealth, and honors springs
Enabling you a priuate path to treade,
As well as life, in prease of Empire leade.
Those deedes become, one greatly Noble best,
That doe most good, and pinch his greatnesse lest,
That sore not high, nor yet their fethers pull;
Neuer superfluous, euer yet at full,
That to eternall ends, in chiefe aspire,
And nothing fit, without themselues require.
But these are neuer taught, till they be lou'd,
And we must teach their loue to; both being mou'd
With one impulsion; and a third to these
(Which is good life) doth from one doctrine rise.
Liberall, and seruile, we may teach all arts
Whose whole; some cut, into sixhundred parts,
Which I admire, since th'art of good life lies
By none profest, and good mens fames that rise
From that arts doctrine, are as rarely seene
As Centaures, or sicilian Giants bene.
For Gods loue and good life yet, as too true
We proue, our bodies, meanes haue to imbrue
Their powers with carnall loue; will any say
That God doth not as powerfull meanes conuay
For his works loue, into it as doth man
Into the body? the soule neuer can
In no propriety, loue her contrarie:
Life loues not death, nor death eternity:
Nor she that deathlesse is, what death doth claime:
If she then (by Gods grace) at Gods loue aime:
May she not meanes claime by his liberall word
(That promiseth his mercie will afford
His loue to all that loue him) to obtaine
That which she seeks therein, and hould the chaine
Of his infusion, that let downe from heauen
Can draw vp, euen the earth? the flesh is geuen
A liuer that formes loue; And hath not she
In all her powrs, one Christ-blest Facultie
To be her liuer, to informe his loue?
In all chiefe parts, that in the great world moue
Proportion and similitude, haue place,
With this our little world. The great worlds face
Inserted Starres hath, as lucifluent eies:
The sunne, doth with the heart analogise.
And through the world, his heate and light disperse:
As doth the heart through mans small vniuerse.
The two vast lineaments, the sea and earth
Are to the world, as to a humaine birth
The ventricle, and bladder, and the Moone,
Being interposd, betwixt the Earth, and Sunne:
Is as the liuer, plac't betwixt the heart
And ventricle: if these then we conuert
To a resemblance, with our bodies powres:
Shall not our bodies Queene, this soule of ours,
For her vse finde, as seruiceable parts
In her commaund with vse of all her Arts?
All which are liuers to inflame desire:
And Eagles eyes to take in three forck't fire,
(That doth the dazeling Trinitie intend)
T'enflame her loue thereof; In sacred end
Her selfe being th'Eagle; And the Queene of Kings,
That of our Kings King, beares beneath her wings
The dreadfull Thunder, the Almightie word;
All which (called fiction) with sure Truth accord.
But if men may, teach all arts else but this
Art of good life; (that all their subiect is,
And obiect to in this life; And for which
Both Earth and Heauen, so faire are and so rich;
Yet this must needes want forme and discipline,
Reason, and stay: and only fortune shine
In her composure,) O want wise men eyes
To see in what suds, all their learning lyes?
Not such as learne not: but as teach not right
Are chiefly blamefull. Good life takes her light
From her owne flame: He that will teach an art,
Must first performe himselfe the leading part.
Who kindles fire without fire? He that striues
Without his owne good life, to forme good liues;
Motions that all the sacred Booke affords
But Conjurations makes, with holy words;
That of the Tempter sauour, more then God:
Temptations; Not perswasions brings abrode;
With Tempests, thinks to conjure quick, dead coales,
Torments, not Comforts, sick, and dying Soules.
And as the windes, all met at wofull fires
Kindl'd in Cities; stuffe with all their Ires
Their puft-vp cheekes; Tosse flames from house to house;
And neuer leaue till their drie Rage Carouse
A whole Townes life-bloud, in a generall flame;
Yet Tapers, Torches, all the lights men frame
For needefull vses, put directly out;
So, at the conflagration, that the rout
Of proude, and couetous zeales, hath so enrag'd,
In Gods deare Citie; Tempests still engag'd
In spleenefull controuersies, daily rise;
Cheekes euer puft with hollow pieties,
The wilde flames feeding, yet extinguisht quite,
Of needefull good life; both the heat and light.
Gods loue, that both inflames, giuen all offence,
And heauens chaste Kingdome suffering violence.
Which they incense, and plie with batteries,
To point at it; and shew men where it is.
When he, his sparkling forehead euer showes
Where peace is crownd, and where no vapour blowes;
Where patience, milde humilitie, and loue;
Faith, and good workes, with douelike paces moue
Vnder the shadow of his starrie wings;
Proue all they owe him; Not with words, but things,
Contention, cleane puts out zeales quiet flame:
Truths doctrine rather should be taught with shame,
Then such proude honors, as her manners change:
Contempt, and pouertie, her battailes range;
Plaine, simple life, more propagate her birth,
Then all the policie, and pompe of earth.
There is a sweet in good life, that must goe
Arme in arme with it, which men should teach to.
The end that should in euery Teacher meet,
With his beginning; is to make good, sweet:
Who with meere arte, and place, good life doth plie,
Attempts with pride to teach humilitie.
Humilitie, Truths salt; and supple Spirit
That workes, and seasons all men borne t'inherit,
The Kingdome, on whose blest shore my foot now
Is gladly fixt; Let that then season you;
It makes, and crownes true Nobles, and commends
Euen to felicitie, our births, and ends.
Now threw the busie day, through humorous blood
Her sensuall stings, and strooke the heart from good.
Things outward, with the Mother of their Grace,
(The gawdie light) things inward quite out-face,
To this Pied worlds, austere, and woluish care,
All things meere trifles seeme, but those that are.
Eugenia , that from Fame might comfort take,
Let Trance still shut her eyes, and would not wake,
But heard all speech, like this worlds counsaile cares:
As if shee heard not, and betwixt her eares.
Twixt life, and death, shee lay still; This sowre sweet
That pietie ministers, doth neuer meet
With fit secretion, and refining here:
Being like hard fruit, whose true taste ends the yeere.
The most enforciue bare Relation
Of pious offices, is held but fashion:
Proude flesh, holds out, her customarie will
And yeelds, resisting; Moues without a will
To comforts promist, and no bond but faith
For the performance, and her suretie death.
And this, euen in the weede Eugenia wore,
Of humane flesh, cleft like the shirt of gore
That figurde this lifes, Offall for the graue
And makes the Noblest that indues it, raue.

Explicit Vigilia Secunda.

VIGILÆ TERTIÆ.

Inductio .

By this, the Babell of confused sounds,
(The clamorous game-giuen world) his mouthlike wounds
Felt leaue their raging; The sweet Euen had dropt
Her silent Balms in, and their gaping stopt.
Mineruas Birds, whoop't at him as he drew
His many heads home. Sleepes wing'd Vshers flew
Off from their Flitches; and about Mens noses
Plaid buzz. The Beetle, that his whole life loses
In gathering Muck, still wallowing there, did raise
With his Irate wings, his most vnwieldie paise;
And, with his knellike humming, gaue the Dor
Of Death to Men, as all they labourd for.

The golden backt, and siluer-bellied Snaile
His moist Mines melted, creeping from his shell,
And made crook't Mazes of his glittering slime,
To shew in what paths, worldlings spend their time.
All these, The Euening only, make their morne,
And thus employ it, as men mock-dayes borne.
Abroade then crept, the world-scar'd broode of Peace,
To greet Eugenia; whose Trance still did sease
Her griefe rackt Powrs, which since her loue did make
Iust ioy to her; Religion would not make.
In midst of all her sable Chamber, lay
Eugenia corselike. The despisde of day,
(The Muses, Graces, Vertues, Poesie
But then arriu'd there) on the Pauement by
Sate round: Religion (as of that rich Ring
The precious stone) did th'ends together bring
Of their Celestiall circle: All so plac't,
As they her Armes were; And shee them embrac't.
All then, wisht Fame, to giue her Trump the rest,
(Euen to the deaths word) of the liuing blest.
Fame (like the Lyon-frighting Bird, in chere
Proude to report parts, that so sacred were,)
Her rosie Throte stretcht, and did thus extend
To his last motion, his proceeding end.

VIGILIA TERTIA.

Still looking, neuer stooping to his death,
Like some great Combattant, that though giuen breath,
Yet eyes his Foe still; No glance cast aside,
To giue aduantage of a touch vnspied:
So, those twice seuen daies, that his lifes Foe gaue
His sicknes breath (though in his sight, his graue
Gaspt for his dutie, in deaths instant deede)
He neuer lay, nor wore a sickly weede.
If Death of him gat; He of Death, got more;
And fortified himselfe still with the store
The sacred Magazine yeelded: Where he found
Weapons that grew; and made each word a wound,
Of which he gaue his ghastly Enimie one
To be his Trophey when the fight was done.
Which was a frailtie in him that would faine
Haue proued a fainting; But who growes againe
Vp to his strength, is stronger far then hee,
Whose forces neuer felt infirmitie.
He chusde his Funerall Text, that shewd him strooke
With some distraction; yet the forme he tooke
From the most learn'd Apostle; chearde him so
That deaths aduantage, prou'd his ouerthrow.
The Prophet that was rauisht quick to heauen,
And neuer fought with Death; Nor those foule seuen
His vgly Ministers, in that extreme,
Triumphs in so rich a Diademe,
As he in heauen weares. The more wrestling here
(The Garland won) the more our price is there.
But in our worldly ends, so fraile we are,
That we the Garland giue to euery care
That doth assaile vs; each particular misse,
Of that for which the body carefull is;
Our other plenties, prouing meerly wants,
And all that the celestiall prouidence plants
Still in our reach; is to our vse despisde:
And, only what we can not compasse prisde.
When this fault sence proues true, as Reason saies;
Why let we Sense still interpose delaies
To our true Reasons comforts? Ruling so
That either we must rage still in our woe,
Or beare it with so false a patience,
As showes no more our ease then our offence;
Exprest in grudging at our penance still:
Our grudging showne, in our no more curb'd will,
To our most iust Imposers; then to leaue
Moodie, and muddie, our apt powrs to grieue:
Not, that we may not beare a suffering show
In our afflictions, weighing grauely how
We may dispose them to our best amends;
But, not take so much sorrow as transcends
Our healths; or shewes, we let griefe further goe,
Then our Content, that God will haue it so;
Remayning in such plight; as if we thought
That this our phisique of affliction wrought
More painefully, then with a healthfull neede;
When our all-skil'd Phisition doth proceede
So strictly in his obiect of our ease,
(So may he mend vs to and soundly please)
That not a scruple, nor the slendrest graine
Of any Corasiue, shall rack our paine
Past his full point of our most needfull cure;
Weight, measure, number, all Gods workes assure.
Which, not because infallible Scripture saies,
We only may beleeue (though that cause weies
More then enough to strengthen any Faith:)
But God to euery sound beliefe conuaith
A Regular knowledge; to informe vs how
We may sustaine his burthens; though we bow
Vnder their sad weight; which when once we proue;
It will annexe to our beliefe such loue,
That (as the Sunne, mists) quite shall cleare our care,
And make our generall peace so circulare;
That Faith and Hope, at either end shall pull
And make it come: Round as the Moone at full.
And this, doe many know, though (as t'is said
By that most comforable Truth, our head,
After his Prophet) with the arte of th'eare;
Yet, nothing vnderstanding yee shall heare;
Yee, looking on; shall see, and not perceiue,
As often our diuerted thoughts bereaue
The vse of both those senses, though we be
In reach of sights, and sounds; and heare and see.
For as the eye discernes not black from white,
Colour, from sound; till with a noble light
The soule casts on it, it is made descrie;
So, till the soules blanck Intellectuall eye:
The worlds soule rinseth in his actiue raies,
And her Rac't table fills with formes; it staies
Blanck to all Notions that informe vs how
To make our cares with in our comforts grow:
Our fainting, in the free reach of our faith,
And, in our lifes fixt peace, all feare of death.
Which true light to this Lords soule, shining came
And fixt him Rock-like, till his Faith did flame.
His conflict past, he to the comfort went,
That makes those Thornes, Crownes; The blest Sacrament ,
Of which, The powrefull consecrated bread;
(That cheares the liuing, and reuiues the dead,
Receiud, with feare, and faith; that one yoke beare;
Feare, that awes Faith; and Faith that tempers feare,)
Assum'd by him: This witnesse he did giue
Of what he tooke: I constantly belieue;
That as I take, hold, and by grace shall eate
This sacred bread; So that flesh that did sweat
Water and bloud, in my deare Sauiours side;
I shall in this bread, all exhibified,
In my Eternall safeties full effect,
Take, hold, and eate, as his most sure Elect.
To this effect; Effectually the Wine,
(Turnd the true bloud, of the eternall Vine
His most lou'd Sauiour,) Then, as fresh in powre
As in the very instant of that howre,
In which 'twas shed for him; he did belieue
To his saluation; he did then receiue.
Thus held he combat, till his latest day,
Walking, and after; Conquerd, as he lay,
Spake to his latest howre; And when no more
He could by speach impart, th'amazing store
Of his assurd ioies, that as surely last;
His diligent diuine, desird a tast
Of his still strong assurance by some signe;
When both his hands, euen then wrought in the mine
Of his exhaustles faith; that cround his Euen,
And cast such treasure vp, as purchast heauen,
Thus his most christian combat did conclude,
He conquering most, when most he was subdude.
Yet, not to leaue him here; his funerall
Deserues in part, to be obseru'd of all.
In which, his sonne; his owne kinde zealous spirit
Did with his honors, and his lands inherit;
Whose pious nature, paying manly teares,
(Which stony ioies stoppe in most other heires)
To his departure: whose attending close
(Through dust, and heate) the bodie in repose;
Next Euen; and the whole way to his home:
Whose there, fresh deawing with kinde Balmes his tombe;
Whose liberall hand, to nere two thousand pore;
Whose laying vp, as his most prised store
His fathers life-bought counsailes; all, as nought
I will not touch here: None giues these a thought;
But how his teares led others; all the Phane
Flowing with such brine; seasoning parts humane
Offerd to pietie, which kinde, dead to, now
Yet here so plenteous; me thinks should not show
Lesse then a wonder; and may argue well
That from some sacred fount, these riuers fell:
O why wept, mans great Patterne for his friend,
But these affections, grauely to commend?
But these things now are nothing; the proud Morne
Now on her typtoes, view'd this stuffe, with skorne.
Scripture examples; parts of manlie kinde;
The most vpright flames of the godlike minde;
Like winter lightnings are; that doe portend
Wretched euents, to all men they commend;
All things inuerted are; nought brookes the light
But what may well make blush the blackest night.

Explicit Vigilia Tertia.