Yet ev'n the greatest griefs May be reliefs, Could he but take them right and in their ways. Happy is he whose heart Hath found the art To turn his double pains to double praise. 1 Christopher Harvey, born in 1597, was the son of a preacher at Bunbury, in Cheshire. His mother, in 1609, took in second marriage another preacher, Thomas Pierson, of Brampton-Brian, on the borders of Radnor and Hereford. Christopher in 1613 entered Brasenose College as a poor scholar, graduated as B.A. in 1617, M.A. in 1620. He was living by the Wye, at Whitney, in Hereford-perhaps as curate before he became rector there after the death of his predecessor, in December, 1630. For half a year, from September, 1632, to March, 1633, Christopher Harvey left Whitney to be head-master of the Grammar School at Kington; but he returned to Whitney, and four more children were born there, making a family of five, before November, 1635, when Sir Robert Whitney of Whitney presented him to the vicarage of Clifton-on-Dunsmore, in Warwickshire. Here he had four more children, of whom one, named Whitney, died in infancy, and then he himself died at the age of sixty-six, in 1663. In 1647, the Vicar of Clifton published anonymously "The Synagogue, or Shadow of the Temple. Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations in imitation of Mr. George Herbert," of which there was a fourth edition in his lifetime (1661). In the same year he published "Schola Cordis, or the Heart of itself gone away from God, brought back again to Him, and instructed by Him. In forty-seven Emblems." This (left with the old spelling unaltered) is the thirtyfifth THE ENLARGING OF THE HEART. How pleasant is that now which heretofore The straitest paths, and runne the narrowest wayes. 1 There was said to have been peace throughout the world at the time of the birth of Christ. This happened in the reign of Augustus, when the idea of universal Peace-the Roman Peace-charmed poets and politicians. Virgil expressed it through the forecast of the shade of Anchises in the sixth book of the "Eneid: "But ye, my Romans, still control The nations far and wide. Be this your genius, to impose The Rule of Peace on vanquished foes, And crush the sons of pride." (Conington's Translation.) 2 Ovid tells, in the eleventh book of his "Metamorphoses," how Ceyx, king of Trachis, sailed to consult an oracle, promising his sad wife Alcyone, daughter of Eolus, god of the winds, that he would return in two months. He was wrecked in a storm. Juno caused Isis to bring to Alcyone a dream, from the god of sleep, through which the ghost of her dead husband told his fate. She wakened to "Thither forthwith, O wonderful! she springs A mournful noise, lamenting her divorce: For his, the Winds, and smooths the stooping waves." This is the fable of the Halcyon in whose breeding time at sea there 18 a calm. 1 Than, then. Our two words were originally one word, "thanne." Silly, simple, innocent; from "sæ'lig," happy, blessed 3 Unexpressive, ineffable, inexpressible. So Milton's Lycidas in heaven "hears the unexpressive nuptial song; "and Rosalind, in "As You Like It," is "The fair, the chaste and unexpressive she." Ninefold harmony of the spheres. According to the Ptolemaic astronomy, there were nine moving spheres of the world; outermost, the "primum mobile," which gave motion to the others and carried them round with it in diurnal revolution, then the sphere of the fixed stars, then successively inwards the spheres or orbits of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon, the Earth being in the centre. The nine spheres were said to correspond to the nine Muses, the spaces between them formed musical intervals, and the sounds produced by their movements were said to blend in a perfect harmony of the universe. The interval from the earth to the moon was a tone, from the moon to Mercury a semitone, from Mercury to Venus another semitone, but thence to the sun three tones and a half or a diapente (the old term for an interval of a fifth), and from the moon to the sun two and a half or a diatessaron (interval of a fourth); then a tone from the sun to Mars; from Mars to Jove and from Jove to Saturn each a semitone, again a semitone to the starry sphere. From the earth, therefore, to the starry heavens a complete diapason (or octave) of six tones. Besides this, there was said to be musical proportion in the rate of movement of the planets, and the sounds produced thereby; the swifter motion of the moon causing a sound of higher pitch than that of the starry sphere, which being slowest of all produces the gravest sound, "the base of heaven's deep organ" but there is a proportionate return caused by the motion of the primum mobile with which the starry sphere has swiftest accord and makes the shrillest treble and the moon the base. 170 Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell.1 180 Heaven's queen and mother both, Now sits not girt with taper's holy shine; The Lybic Hammon' shrinks his horn; In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammuz3 mourn. And sullen Moloch," fled, Hath left in shadows dread His burning idol all of blackest hue; They call the grisly king, In dismal dance about the furnace blue; The brutish gods of Nile7 as fast, Isis, and Orus, and the dog Anubis haste. Nor is Osiris seen In Memphian grove or green, Trampling the unshowered grass with lowings loud; Nor can he be at rest Within his sacred chest, Nought but profoundest hell can be his shroud; In vain, with timbreled anthems dark, 210 The sable-stoléd sorcerers bear his worshipped ark. 220 3 Peor and Baalim. Baal was the supreme male god of the Canaanites. Baal Peor was the name under which he was worshipped by the Israelites while yet in the wilderness. Representing powers of nature, he was worshipped with affix of various other names, which are comprised in the plural form Baalim. He was associated with the sun; as Ashtoreth (plural Ashtaroth) or Astarte, the companion deity and queen of heaven, was associated with the moon. Lybic Hammon. The Lybian deity first worshipped at Meroe, then in Egyptian Thebes, and known in Europe as Jupiter Ammon, was especially worshipped in Siwah, an oasis of the Libyan desert, and represented with the head and horns of a ram. 5 Wounded Thammuz. Thammuz was the Eastern original of the worship that passed into Greece as that of Adonis. He was said to die every year and revive again. He died by the tusk of a boar in the Lebanon, and when the river Adonis, flowing there, ran with a red tinge in its waters at certain seasons of the year, feasts of Adonis were held by the women who made loud lament for him. So in "Paradise Lost," book i. "Thammuz came next behind, 6 Moloch, national god of the Ammonites, to whom Solomon, to satisfy some of his wives, built a temple on the Mount of Olives. In his worship children were caused to pass through fire in the part of the valley of Hinnom called Tophet ("toph," a drum), from the sounding of drums and cymbals to drown the cries of the victims. The place was afterwards defiled by Josiah, and used for burning refuse from the city and bodies of criminals, whence its name Gehinnom, the valley of Hinnom, came (from the smoke, fire, and pollution of the place) to serve as a name for hell, Gehenna, In "Paradise Lost" Milton uses Moloch to personify, among the companions of Satan, Hate. 7 The brutish gods of Nile. Osiris (Oseh-iri, much make), the chief god worshipped in Egypt, represented fertility, the creative power. His bride and sister Isis had even higher worship. Their antagonist was Tryphon; their son Orus or Horus. Osiris was father also to the dog Anubis by the wife of Tryphon. Osiris was worshipped in a bull marked with particular spots, and if that bull died, the priests mourned until another was discovered. Isis was represented with horns of a cow. Anubis was represented with a dog's head as guide of departed souls, and was particularly worshipped at a city in Middle Egypt called Cynopolis (Dog-city). When Milton was at Cambridge, Dr. Richard Sibbes (or Sibbs) was Master of Catharine Hall, and a leading preacher, whose religious opinions were of the form commonly associated with the Puritanism in the Church. Cambridge was the university that produced the greater number of the distinguished churchmen whose names were associated with this form of thought, and Sibbes must have been a preacher to whom Milton often listened with pleasure. Richard Baxter said that he owed his conversion to the reading of sermons by Sibbes, collected under the title of "The Bruised Reed and Smoking Flax." Sibbes died in 1635, aged fifty-eight. The following passage is from a funeral sermon of his, entitled "Christ is Best; or a Sweet Passage to Glory.' Its text is from the first chapter of St. Paul to the Philippians: "For I am in a strait between two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is best of all; nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is most needful for you." Its doctrines are that the servants of God are often in great straits; that God reserves the best to the last for all His; that the lives of worthy men, especially magistrates and ministers, are very needful for the Church of God; that holy and gracious men who are led by the Spirit of God can deny themselves and their own best good for the Church's benefit. 1 Typhon. All the gods, except Jupiter and Minerva, in the wars of the giants, fled into Egypt and changed themselves into animals for fear of Typhon. But Typhon also flies when Christ is born. Youngest-teemed, youngest born; the star of Bethlehem which guided the magi. "We have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him" (Matthew ii. 2). 3 Preached at the funeral of Mr. Sharland, late Recorder of Northampton. THE TRUE MEN OF THE WORLD. Gracious men are public treasures, and storehouses wherein every man hath a share, a portion; they are public springs in the wilderness of this world to refresh the souls of people; they are trees of righteousness that stretch out their boughs for others to shelter under and to gather fruit from. You have an excellent picture of this in Daniel, in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar; the magistrates there are compared to a great tree, wherein the birds build their nests and the beasts shelter themselves: so a good magistrate, especially if he be in great place, is as a great tree, for comfort and shelter. O beloved, the lives of good men are very useful. A good man (saith the philosopher) is a common good, because as soon as ever a man becomes gracious he hath a public mind, as he hath a public place; nay, whether he hath a public place or no, he hath a public mind. It is needful, therefore, that there be such men alive. If this be so, then we may lament the death of worthy men, because we lose part of our strength in the loss of such, God's custom being to convey much good by them; and when there is scarcity of good men, we should say with Micah, "Woe is me, the good is perished from the earth." They keep judgments from a place, and derive a blessing upon it. Howsoever the world judgeth them, and accounts them not worthy to live, yet God accounts the world unworthy of them; they are God's jewels, they are His treasure, and His portion, therefore we ought to lament their death and to desire their lives; and we ought to desire our own lives as long as we may be useful to the Church, and be content to want heaven for a time. Beloved, it is not for the good of God's children that they live; as soon as ever they are in the state of grace they have a title to heaven; but it is for others. When once we are in Christ we live for others, not for ourselves that a father is kept alive, it is for his children's sake; that good magistrates are kept alive, it is for their subjects' sake; that a good minister is kept alive out of the present enjoying of heaven, it is for the people's sake, that God hath committed to him to instruct; for as Paul saith here, "In regard of my own particular, it is better for me to be with Christ." 5 If God convey so much good by worthy men to us, then what wretches are they that malign them, persecute them, and speak ill of those that speak to God for them! Doth the world continue for a company of wretches, a company of profane, blasphemous, loose, disorderly livers? Oh no, for if God had not a Church in the world, a company of good people, heaven and earth would fall in pieces, there would be an end presently. It is for good people only that the world continues; they are the pillars of the tottering world, they are the stakes in the fence, they are the foundation of the building, and if they were once taken out, all would come down, there would be a confusion of all; therefore those that oppose and disquiet gracious and good men are enemies to their own good, they cut the bough which they stand on, they labour to pull down the house that covers themselves, being blinded with malice and a diabolical spirit. Take heed of such a disposition; it comes near to the sin against the Holy Ghost, to hate any man for goodness, because perhaps his good life reproacheth us; such a one would hate Christ himself if He were here. How can a man desire to be with Christ if he hates His image in another? Therefore |