A Dialogue betw [...] Life and Death.
Very requisite for the Conte [...] plation of all Transitory Pilgrims, and pious min [...]ed Ch [...]isti [...].
[...] [...]on by W. W. & are to be sold by Edwar [...] [...] [...] [...]auls Church-ya [...]d.
To the Worshipfull, truely affecte
[...] and no lesse meritorious, Mr
James Bis
[...] Senior Esquire: the Author wisheth
Grace, Mercy, and
Peace.
SIR,
THe manifold courtesies received at you [...] hands, deserveth a far more gratificat [...] on than my ability, either the one way [...] the other is able to give you: yet to b [...] oblivious of all, were treb [...]e ingratitude And therefore to shunne so absurd an error, I hav [...] in my dutifull affection, (laying aside Commic [...] Thaleia) presented to your Worships view, Deat [...] Conquering, that must be Conquered. Although th [...] subject is not correspondent to festivall times, yet to [...] thought upon at all times: and so in conclusion [...] time omited. But to make my Wings bigger then [...] Neast, were rediculous. And therefore in the best [...] affection, I rest.
Your obliged,
Richard Wates.
DIALOGVE BETWEENE LIFE AND DEATA.
The Speakers for life are
Wisedome, Beauty, Wealth, Youth, and
Age.
Death beginnes, and proclaimes his authority from whom he is sent.
FRom th' Imperiall Throne of your Creator
With this my large Commission I am sent,
My name is
Death, which most so much abhor,
And would through (frailty this my sting prevent
But my Embassage no one may withstand,
Being seald in
Eden by th' Almighties hand.
This sandy glasse, which in my hand I beare,
Doth measure out the time of mortall man:
Which being run, with this my darting speare,
I bring him to the grave, both pale and wan:
Nor King nor Keysar, nor the servile slave,
That can be priviledged from the grave.
No golden bribes, though leane I am in show,
Shall cause me at fond worldlings once connive,
Nor pleading Orator (whose wisdom flow
Like to bright
Pallas (shall his date survive:
Wher's brave
Hector, Pompey Alexander;
Why gone by me that am the worlds commander.
Ther's not a day doth passe, but I doe bring
A full fild catologue of the deads name,
Vnto your dreadfull Lord and heavenly King,
Some to their consolations, some theire shame:
Where, in a book of brasse, the totall summe,
Are all recorded, till the judgment come.
The utmost Region of the earth I tread,
To find the
Christian Pagan, faire and foule:
Millions of millions living I leave dead
Some with a blessed, some a cursed soule;
I cannot give omittance for an houre
Having my charge from the eternall povre.
Death's thy Advantage.
Death speakes to Youth.
THou that art youthfull and art newly come,
To speake the prologue of a greater summe:
Yet erre thy speech be ended, death doth spy,
The period of thy sand;
and thou must dye.
Youth pleads for it selfe.
BVt I am young, and in the prime of dayes,
Then, were it not ingratitude in thee
To nip the garland of my new grown Bayes,
Before it come to full maturity?
I am but threescore yeares and ten, nay more
I may survive, ere nature gives me o're.
Had we not example late in father
Parre,
That liv'd a hundred forty, and twelve year's;
Although times glasse to few doe run so farre,
Yet men of foure-scores gate there oft appeares;
Then were it not mere cruelty in death,
For to bereave my youthfull dayes of breath.
Ah! let me live, that I the world may know,
And reape the joyes my aged Sire hath sowne;
Let death to some sicke pined person goe,
Whose heavy yoak doth make his heart to groan;
Vpon my youth feed not thy malice fell,
Till I have drunke at
Aristotles well.
Death answers youth.
ALas poore youth! hast thou not often s
[...]ene
The silly Lamkin to the market come
Before his damme; true, 'tis thy dayes are green,
And now but entring to a greater summe:
But as the daies, & hours, and months, and years
Come on upon thee, so come on thy cares.
Nor to abridge thy youthfull dayes of life
Is malice showne; but now to cut thee downe,
Is the road way to set thee free from strife,
And adde unto thy soule a lasting Crowne:
I shall acquit thee from a world of sins,
Which longer dayes (in losing) greatly wins.
And ah! wert thou but capable to know,
The intricate designes of mortall man;
Now he is in the gulfe of griefe and woe,
Dog'd at the heeles with sad despaire, and than
Perhaps rais'd high on proud ambitions wing,
Whilst he forgets his God & heavenly king.
Nor may I dally with thy tender dayes,
I must dispatch my errand being sent,
Then feare not silly youth, I bring the joyes,
And free thee from all earthly discontent.
See, see, thy glasse is run, take here this sheet,
And lay thee down at Deaths triumphant feet.
Arise, this is no place of rest.
Death speakes to Wisedome.
THou that hast wisedome, and apprehend
As much as to poore mortall man doth tend;
And rightly canst discerne earth, sea, and sky;
Yet man for all this wisedom's
borne to dye.
Wisedome pleades for it selfe.
CAnnot my large Apologies acquit
My body from thy rage and cruell stroake?
Cannot my pregnant and ingenious wit
Study a new found way to slip thy yoake?
Cannot the muses and deepe Arts divine
Prevent the cruell blow Death doth assigne?
Nor yet the knowledge of my mothers breast,
(
Oxford and
Cambridge) not one way devise
For to escape thee; or should I request
With teares of purple blood from weeping eyes?
Or with orations fram'd from Art most high,
Enough to pierce the ten fold Orbes and sky.
Death answers Wisedome.
HAd
Jove begot thee in
Minerva's armes,
And hadst more learning than e're mortal yet,
Or wert thou drencht whereas the Muses swarms,
With holy raptures; yea, and round beset
With Angels for thee: yet know that I am
Inexorable to them, or man.
Wher's
Solomon, that wise beloved King?
Prophets, and Prediviners, where are they?
Did not this impartiall hand soone bring
Their bodies to be lodg'd in beds of clay?
And so must thine: for loe, thy glasse is run,
No wisedome can preserve thee, Death being come.
What not dye, thou piece of proud earth.
Death speakes to Beauty.
THou that hast beauty, Princely harts to move,
Enough to make cold death in fiery love;
Yet know faire dame, the beauty of thine eye
Must be ecclipsed, being
borne to dye.
[...]
[...]
Wealth pleadeth for its selfe.
CAnnot my bags of gold with Death prevaile?
Though I bring milions to escape thy stroak
So to be priviledged from the gaile,
And not be subject to thy painefull yoake;
Ile give thee all my revenewes beside,
So I in
Golgatha may not be spide.
Take Crowne and Scepter on the same condition
Iewels and accoutrements take them all,
So that my name from out thy strict commission
Be wholly cancell'd that I never fall:
Thy lookes are terrible, hidious, and thin,
That makes me tremble at my former sinne.
Death answers to wealth.
WEre all the Mines that in the earth doth lie,
Digg'd and converted to usefull coine;
Iewels and treasure that your Ma chants buy
In land ajacent, or beyond the line:
Yet all were far too little to suffise,
For why? mans life cannot be bought with price.
Dives was rich,
Pirrus a Crown did weare,
Croesus had millians yet one touch of mine,
Did cause them tremble with inward feare,
When wealth, and Life at once they must resigne
Go, change the bags of gold for one poore sheet
And lay thee downe at Deaths triumphant feet.
Onely a grave remaineth for thee.
Death speakes to old age.
THou that a hundred winters hast ore-gone,
Living to see thy daughters daughters son;
(And many imperfections make thee cry;)
Yet 'tis infallible, all flesh must dye.
Age pleads for it selfe.
FVll fourescore yeares of age I am at least,
And yet the frailty of my flesh desire
Those fourscore yeares may farther be encreast;
But then considering how my senses tire,
I wish for Death, for why? I feele
Full many griefs, even from my crown to heele.
"Bald is my head where once my haire took place
"Dotage possesseth the better part of sence;
"Furrows and wrincles grow within my face,
"My dried gums stand for my teeths defence,
"The port-holes of mine eares are stopt up quite
"A cloudy dimnesse hath o'revaild my sight.
"My feete and ancles weake and feeble are
"That hardly can my upper part support:
"My legs & thighes and armes that brawny were:
"Now lanke, and thin, and leane appeareth for't,
"My inward parts doth feelingly consume,
"Through Tissiek, Cough, continuall coldnes Rhume.
"My forme growes crooked, stooping to the ground,
"Stinking my breath, my joynts they tremble all,
"A teasty Coler in me doth abound?
"Yea my whold
Microcosme begins to fall;
"And yet me thinks (through feare) that I could crave
"One yeare or two forbearance from the grave.
Death answers old Age.
WOnder of wonders, that thy frame of clay,
Thy stinking carkasse, and a trunk decay'd
Should have desire to one poore future day;
O! rather wish my stroke be not delaid;
Thy strength
[...]t is impair'd through griefe and p
[...]ine,
As borne a child, become a child again.
Thy glasse is run, and nature gives thee o're,
Earth must to earth, untill the trump shall sound,
See thy Sands period not one minute more
Thou must survive; there is thy deadly wound.
Youth, Wisdom Beauty, Strngth, Wealth, nor old Age.
That can the fury of sterne Death asswage.
[...]
[...]
Hast thou forgot who suffer'd on the Crosse,
That all beleevers should to heaven ascend?
And at
thy downefall shall loud voyces sing,
Death wher's thy Conquest; Hell where is thy sting.
When thou shalt swallowed be to th' abis.
Of black
Gehema, and the gulfe of woe;
Then shall the voyce of
comfort, joy, and
blisse
Be to the blessed: Come, and with me goe
Into my Fathers Kingdome, and rceive
What neither
Death nor
Time shall from you reave.
Deaths Acelamation.
WHo can assist me with a stood of teares!
I may gush out whole rivers frō mine eyes!
And sighes by millions, at the voyce I heares!
That I must be excluded heavenly joyes!
All mortalls living, whilst you yet have breath
Live well, to
dye, and
dye, to
live through
Death.
Deaths Memorandum to the middle aged.
WHen I looke in the glass, and note my haires.
I see some gray, and other some impaires:
But looking farther on records I finde
My date almost summ'd up, for man assign'd:
Which rightly noting, then I straight begins
To number if I could my world of sins.
But find them numberless: it's not time then
To shake off drowsiness, and catch my pen?
'Tis time for me, and all the world beside,
Oyle in our Lamps with speed that we provide,
Lest that the Bride-groom come, we not prepared,
And so through Satans Wiles become ensnared;
Yet thinke, that in uncertainties tis sure,
All flesh must dye, but when, none knowes the houre.
Mans Meditation.
TO Meditate of Death, and of our end,
Cannot but make us tremble to offend:
Because as Death leaves us, and fast binds us,
Judgement as infallible will find us.
Another.
PHysitians know (or else should know at least)
How mans health is impaired and how increast:
And oft mens life prolongs through skill and Art,
But yet no Physick can withstand Deaths Dart.
SIth that the life of wretched mortall man
Is but in length much like a span;
What curious care then should we have in this?
To spend one haires breadth of that span amisse.
A Hymne of Prayses, to the most blessed and glorious Trinity.
1.
SIng to the Lord all honour laud, and praise,
that did us raise
From earth whereon we tread
and being dead,
These corps of earth, shall in the earth be led.
2.
Vntill the trumpe shall summon us to joyes,
or sad annoyes:
Then now's the fittest time
for to refine
This drossie earth, and make it all divine.
3.
Sing to the Lord all honour, praise, and laud,
and him appland;
Seith we through
Adams fall
were wretched all;
And yet through Christ his mercies did recall.
4.
And now through faith, to good workes joyned we
shall live with thee,
Where Saints and Angells dwell,
if we repell
Stans allurement, and the snares of hell.
5.
Sing to our Saviour Christ laud, praise & honour,
under whose banner
Let us continuall fight,
as firme and right,
Till World, the Flesh, and Devill be vanquisht quite.
6.
And to the Holy Chost like praises sing,
that doth us bring,
Preserving sanctity,
Love and Amity,
Thoughts pure, and chast; abhorring vanity.
7.
To Father, Sonne, and Holy Ghost as right,
by day and night,
Let us give prayses due,
and still pursue
The path that leads to blisse; bid sinne a diew.
8.
Let us lay hold upon the present time,
Death comes in fine:
This life ended, all flesh must
Catch time, it passeth by, and use it just.
[...]
Allegoricall Poem.
BEhold the towring tree, that whilome stood
In strength & beauty bravely midst the wood;
Whose far stretcht l
[...]mbs was shelter for the beasts,
And likewise for the birds to build their nest.
Is now hewen down, because he brought foth
Such fruits as tend to goodness and to worth:
So cast into the fire, and there to be
Burn'd, and consumed for an ill-fruited tree.
[...]
Divers Exhortations to cause all men to remember their ends: taken out of the holy Scripture.
‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread, till thou returne unto the ground: for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt returne
Gen. 2.19.’
Deaths first speech to Nature.
OLd Adam was condemn'd, and all his race,
To eate their bread in the sweat of their face
And Scripture saith, that from the dust he came
And back to dust he must returne againe:
So this hard doome on Adams sons doth lye
First they must labour here, then after dye.
Natures reply.
Tis true, this doome to Adams Sons is given,
To labour here on earth, and rest in heaven.
‘We must needs dye, and are as water spilt upon the ground, which cannot be gathered up againe, neither doth God respect any person,
2 Sam. 9.14.’
Deaths second speech to Nature.
AS water that is powred on the ground,
Sinkes deeply in, and can no more be found
(For water spilt) who can againe recover,
Such is thy life, thou shalt not have another.
Natures reply.
Death to thy lye, Nature makes this reply,
That being changed, I shall live after I dye.
Nature shall rise from Mortality,
And live in heaven Eternally.
‘We are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were our Fathers: our dayes on earth are as a shadow, and there is no abiding.
1 Cron. 29.15.’
Deaths fourth speech to Nature.
O Mortall man expect to meet with dangers
And with hard usage, for ye are all strangers,
And sojourners, such as your fathers were,
While ye like walking shadowes doe appeare;
Walking while that the sun of life doth stay,
Which setting, ye like shadowes fleet a way.
Natures reply.
If man a shadow be, Christ is his sun,
Whom he doth follow to his Kingdome.
‘My dayes are swifter then a Weavers Shitlle,
Job 7.6.’
Dea
[...]hs fourth spee
[...]h to Nat
[...]re.
TO shew mens d
[...]yes are fading and most fickle,
Thy dayes are swifter then a weavers shittle.
Then be not with hope of long life decev'd,
But know thy web of life is quickly wead'd,
For if thy ho
[...]res like weavers shittle run,
Thy life like to a web, will soone be done.
Natures reply.
I care not for when this lifes web is done,
[...] roabs of Immortality put on.
‘As the Cloud is consumed, and vanisheth away: so he that goeth downe to the Grave, shall come up no more,
Job 7.9.’
Death fifth speech to Na
[...]ure.
BEhold as Clouds doe in a gloomy day,
Disperse consume, and vanish cleane away,
Such is mans life; yet Clouds againe doe ris
[...],
But Man gone to the grave, unseen there lies.
Natures reply.
Man like sowne seed lies in the ground unseene,
But both at last doe rise againe and spring.
‘And the voyce said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grasse, and all the goodlinesse thereof is as the flower of the field. The gasse withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grasse.
Esay 40.67.’
Deaths sixt speech to Nature.
WHat is mans life, when every thing may be,
An embleme to him of Mortality
He is but like the grasse or the field flower,
That flourisheth and fadeth in an houre.
Natures reply.
The wicked man indeed is like to grasse,
His life doth wither away and soone passe.
But those that vertuously spend here their howers,
Their names smell sweet on earth, like wither'd flowers.
‘My dayes are swifter then a Post, they fly away and I see no good.
Iob 9.25.’
Death seventh speech to Nature.
MAns life is but breaths bubble at the most
And all his dayes are swifter than a Post
They fly away before they are understood,
And man in all his life doth see no good.
Natures reply.
He that doth in few yeares to heaven climbe,
Ends a long journey in a little time.
‘Behold thou hast made my dayes as an hand breadth, and mine age is nothing unto thee,
Psal. 39.5.’
Deaths eight speech to Nature.
BEhold thy dayes are like unto a span,
Which stretched out, do yield the greater pain
The hand doth ake extended at full length,
So age stretcht out yields pain and want of strength.
Natures reply.
If I be ould in grace, as well as yeares,
Then ages winter youthfull spring appeares.
‘For here we have no continuing City, but we seeke one to come,
Heb. 13.14.’
D
[...]aths ninth speech to Nature.
THough here with lands, wives, houses ye doe fit ye,
Yet ye below have no continuing City:
But in your earthly pilgrimage go on,
In seeking out a City that's to come.
Natures reply.
Our new Jerusalem in heaven stands,
Which is a City that's not built with hands.
‘What is our Life? it is even as a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
James 4.14.’
Deaths tenth speech to Nature.
WHat is mans life? it is a burning Taper,
Or it is like unto a rising vapour:
Both for a little time appeare and stay,
But afterward they vanish both away.
Natures reply.
That life which seemes a vapour, proves Divine,
And like a bright starre shall in Heaven shine.
‘We are passed away as a swift ship under saile, that hasteth to the prey.
Job 9.2.’
Deaths eleventh speech to Nature.
AS a swift ship doth on the Ocean glide
And cut the foaming Ocean unespy'de,
Such is mans life that quickly flyes away,
Like to an Eagle hasting to his pray.
Natures reply.
Mans life is like a ship bound for heaven lyes,
Or like an Eagle unto heaven flyes.
‘For he remembred they were but flesh, and wind tha
[...] passeth away, and commeth not againe,
Psal. 78 39.’
Deaths twelfth speech to Nature.
LAstly, remember man is flesh and winde,
Flesh to the earth for worms meate is resign'd
The wind doth passe away, mans life's the same,
That passes like winde, and comes not againe.
Natures reply.
Although my flesh must die, I am not sory:
For after death I shall enjoy heavens glory.
Life and Death.
LIke to the Damaske Rose you see,
Or like the blossome of the tree:
Or like the dainty flowers in May,
Or like the morning of the day,
Or like the Sun or like the shade,
Or like the Gourd that Jonas had:
Even such is man whose thred is spun,
Drawn out and cut, and so is done.
The Rose withers, the blossome blasteth,
The flowers fade, the morning hasteth
The Sun sets, the shadow flyes,
The Gourd consumes, and man he dyes.
Like to the grasse that's newly sprung,
Or like the tale that's new begune,
Or like a bird that's here to day,
Or like the pearly Dew in may:
Or like a thought, or like a dreame,
Or like the gliding of a streame.
Even such is man who lives by breath,
Each moment subject unto death.
The grasse withers, the Tale is ended,
The birds flowne, the dew's ascended,
The thought's past, the dreame is gone,
T
[...] waters gilde, Mans life is done.
Like to a Bubble in a Brooke,
Or in a glasse much like a looke.
Or like a Shuttle from a Weavers hand,
Or like a Writing in the sand;
Or like an hure, or like a span,
Or the singing of a Swan.
Even such is man Whose life is gone,
Whilst nimblest tongue is telling one.
The Bubble's out, the look's forgot,
The Shttle's flung, the writings out:
The houre's not long, the span's but short,
The Swan's neare death; man's in like sort.