Atheists Help at a dead Lift VIZ. The Benefit of the Clergy.
WHat! Hector God and Man? Yet fear to die
Under the Guilt of
Blood or
Felony?
If Justice Catch
Leviathan in's hook,
Will he implore the Benefit of's book?
Will Ravenous Harpies, who make prey of all,
(Laicks and Clerks) that in their Pounces fall,
(Rather than try the Strength of Hangmans string)
For shelter sneak under the Clergies wing?
Will sight of Axe, will thought of
Tyburn quell
The Atheist's Courage, and breed sense of Hell?
Thus guilty
Joab to th' horns of th' Altar fled;
Trembling
Tiberius thus crept under bed
At every Thunder-clap; tho' in clear Skie,
He durst all Gods that ever were defie.
Caius would make himself all Gods in one,
Assuming
Mars's Target,
Venus Zone,
Minerva's Helmet,
Jove his Thunder-mace▪
Neptune his Trident, limping
Ʋulcans Pace;
Commands his Statue in this Garb to stand,
T' affront great
Judah's God in his own Land,
And sacred Temple; but for all these brags,
At sight of Lightning his proud Courage Flags:
His Brazen face Etherial flashes pale:
Heavens painted fire, his Confidence do's quail.
That God and Death were nothing, that fool said
Than whom nee'r man was more of both afraid.
Nero, when haunted with his Mothers Ghost,
When found himself by Gods just anger tost,
Tri'd all the Charms his
Atheism could invent
To conjure up his Spirit, and prevent
The Entertainment of the thoughts of God;
Or Deaths black Page, the Sempiternal Load
Of guilt and pain: but the By-standers read
In's gastly looks, his Soul was Captive led
To the belief of the' angry Deity,
Hells Torments, and Souls Immortality.
The Puff-paste Atheist's Soul, for all his Jetting,
Gives in, like York-shire Cloth, and shrinks ith' wetting.
There's no Religion but hath Martyrs bred;
In its Defence men glory to be led
To Goal or Gibbet. Christians triumph in
Their Witnessings to theirs, without a skin:
Out-brav'd the Rack, the Fire, and thousand forms
Of grimmest visag'd Death, the fiercest Storms
Of all Assailants.
This side's rosted through,
Turn th' other side to Fire (O Tyrant) now,
Cries one. In
Phalaris's Bull another sings
Melodious Anthems, till he Torment brings
To his Tormentors. But what
Linx can see
The Devils Martyrs?
Devil a Martyr's he.
In all his Archives there's not one Mans Name,
Who sold his Life to buy his Master Fame.
Some desp'rate sinner may, by peice-meal, rot
Himself into a Sacrifice to th' Pot,
Or
Pox; or, in the heat of blood, may stake
And venture all at once for
Doxies sake;
Yet 'tis but Vent'ring; for his hope to scape
Commits upon his Reason a slie Rope,
And spurs him on to what he would not dare
Were he of his Deaths Certainly aware.
But should the Devil trust the Atheist, when,
To save his Neck, there's nothing else in Ken,
Saving his
Neck-Verse, he would then forsake him,
And, without Curse or Oath, bid
Devil take him.
He now betakes himself unto our Creed,
Which he from end to end Vouchsafes to read,
At's
Ordinaries bidding: and thanks God
For's good old Granam, whose well-manag'd rod
Beat into's head the Penitential Psalms,
Hee'l kiss the feet of Church-men in these Qualms:
No Saint to th' Atheist now! can't stand his ground,
When pale Deaths Terrors thus assault him round:
These Terrors so amaze and
Jenkenize him,
A Jew, to save his life, might Circumcise him.
Force him to look on Death, he sees beyond it
The Certainty of things he never found yet.
Were Law not ham-string'd, and forc'd to lie idle,
'T would quickly drive the Atheist to his Bible.
For shame, you braving Hectors, learn to dare,
Unforc'd, to fix your minds on things that are.
In th' Unseen World; or that immortal spark
Within you, which your Lusts rake up ith' dark:
Dare to know your whole self, and Future State,
In a calm Mood, before your Lives last date.
Dare, at a distance, look on Death's grim Face,
'Twill then look on you with such smiling grace.
As it approacheth nearer, that you'l haste
Into its Arms; and cling about its waste;
For fear it should depart, and not your Soul,
Now having sipt of Heavens Nectar-bowl.
Presented in Deaths hand, you'l long to be
Where Nectar flows to all Eternity.
FINIS.
Licensed according to Order.