DIVINE GLIMPSES OF A Maiden Muse: Being Various MEDITATIONS and EPIGRAMS On Several SUBjECTS. With A probable future CURE Of Our present Epidemical MALADY; If the means be not too long neglected.

By Chr. Clobery Esquire.

LONDON: Printed by James Cottrel. 1659.

To his undoubted (though unknown) Friend, George Wither Esq; Britain's Ancient REMEMBRANCER.

SIr, though to me unknown your person be,
Your better parts my soul doth plainly see,
In your fulfill'd predictions, and in those
Which shall fulfilled be, how soon none knows,
But he who them inspir'd: Yet I dare say,
I'm sure they shall; and hope to see the day
Of their fulfilling: when our Rulers here
Shall hearken to a slighted Engineer:
And shall have ears to hear, and eyes to see
The wayes of truth, of peace, and unity,
And walk therein. Mean while, dear Sir peruse
This Widows Mite of an old Maiden-Muse:
Wherein, what you approve, let stand: what not,
Razeout: If all be faulty, all out blot,
And blot my folly too: let silence shie
Make its remembrance in your censure die.
I much desir'd to be a Witness true
Unto these Nations (long since warn'd by you)
Of God's proceedings with them: and that he
Call'd you of old, their Watchman here to be;
And that you faithfully discover'd to them,
Time after time their ways, that would undo them,
And shew'd their way of peace: yet we march on,
On the wrong fork of your Greek Ypsilon:
The Lord sound our retreat: for he alone
Can guide right who so long astray have gone.
And here I testifie unto these Nations,
That (though they fall) you sought their preser­vations;
And that their fall is wilful; but however,
You have a sure reward laid up for ever:
And this, I hope, will some small comfort be
To your oppressed Muse, when she shall see
An English man attest that she's divine,
And sun-like, shall in Britain henceforth shine,
When future Generations unseal'd eyes
Shall see accomplish'd your past prophecies;
Which if our souls with patience can attend,
Gods glory and our good shall be the end.
Christopher Clobery.

To the Reader.

REader, this Poem (verbally the same) was composed divers years since, and dedicated to Mr. Wither (a man to me ut­terly unknown) and about three years since, at my first sight of him, offered to him; whose modest refusal to own my attributes, concurring with my bashful timidity of pub­lishing it, hath hitherto suppress'd it. And the great God (who hath since by his provi­dences whipt me to it) knows that with much reluctancy of spirit I now divulge it, as that which hath been kept secret from my near and dear Relations, whose pardon I here implore for the same. Cover the de­fects hereof with candid connivence, the Errours of the Press with the consideration of my neer 200 miles distance from the Printer. If this profit my Countrey or thee, it will redound to my joy; if it disprofit my self, to my contentation, and submittance to his Divine Will, who wrought this im­pulse on the spirit of

Thy Friend in Him, C. C.
[...]
[...]

ERRATA.

PAge 3. line 2. for Embyron, read Embryon. p. 8. l. 1. r. man. p. 14. l. 4. f. sores, r. snares. p. 16. l. 7. f. ambitious, r. ambition's. p. 21. l. 22. f. grudgeth, r. grudg'th. p. 26. l. 18. f. he, r. her. p. 32. l. 21. f. fained, r. famed. p. 34. l. 30. f. overcometh, r. o'ercometh. p. 35. l. 36. f. the, r. this. p. 41. l. 6. f. his, r. is. ibid, l. 11. f. judgement, r. judge­ments. l. 13. f. presumptious, r. presumption's. l. 29. f. profan'th, r. profan'st. l. 34. r. presumption's. l. 35. f. works, r. work. p. 47. l. 1. f. whip'd, r. wip'd p. 48. l. 3. f. neer, r. new. l. 24. f. move, r. moare. l. 29. f. dewie, r. drery. p. 51. l. 9. f. victual, r. victuals. p. 53. l. 24. r. keeps. p. 55. l. 18. r. foyes. l. 22. r. should f. shall. p. 57. l. 30. f. souls, r. fowls. ibid, f. whom, r. when. p. 61. l. 19. f. hive, r. hine. l. 24. f. flame, r. flames. f. wants, r. want. p. 66. l. 20. r. all thy customers. p. 67. l. 4. f. no, r. on. p. 70. l. 1. r. provok'st. l. 23. f. putifri'st, r. putrifi'st. l. 30. r. corrosives. p. 71. l. 10. r. autocrator. p. 73. l. 11. r. mislead. p. 79. l. 16. r. foiles. l. 18. r. panpharmacon f. paupharmacon. p. 87. l. 26. f. divine, r. dimne. p. 89. l. 9. f. first, r. fixt. p. 97. l. 11. f. sphaere. r. peere. p. 110. l. 15. f. leave, r. lave. p. 111. l. 15. f. you're, r. you've. l. 26. f. past, r. part. p. 121. l. 33. f. the, r. thee. p. 129. l. 1. f. valedictio­nis, r. valedictiones. p. 136. l. 8. f. the, r. thee. p. 154. l. 17. f. precious stones, r. precious sons. p. 155. l. 6. f. betten, r. better. p. 162. l. 12. f. self-proud sway, r. selfs proud sway.

DIVINE GLIMPSES OF A MAIDEN MUSE.

On Election.

REveal'd things may be Christian Poets song,
But hidden things to God alone belong:
LOVE was the reason why he thus did do;
But such a LOVE as none can dive into.

On the Creation.

LOrd, what a wonder's here! which none but thou
Could bring to pass (as Atheists must avow.)
Nature sayes, Out of nothing, nothing's had;
But Natures God, of nothing, all things made:
Heav'n, Earth, and Sea, with all that in them is;
Angels and Men: yet nought of all amiss;
Till those whom thou most perfect mad'st of all,
Corrupted all the rest, by their base fall.
Angels and Men, were they that robb'd of glory
The whole Creation; and made transitory
What thou mad'st permanent: their sinning drew
Vanity on the creature; and thence grew
Each Discord, and Dissention, that doth raign
Among them all, and us; and shall remain,
Until thy Kingdom come, when thou shalt right
Whatever we made crooked in thy sight:
Which hasten, Lord, that (if thy pleasure be)
In this our pilgrimage we may it see.
The wondrous work of thy well-tim'd creation,
Deserves observance, and our admiration;
Times date and birth, from this first week of years,
Or day of weeks, or hour of days appears;
And, as we know there was no Time before,
Our Faith foresees when Time shall be no more.
Here all these temporary things begun,
Fram'd by thy Word: and when their time is run,
Shall by the same Word cease again to be:
Save what eterniz'd is, by thy Decree
A parte post, which (everlasting made)
Though time began them, shall not with time fade.
Such Angels are, and such our souls; and we
Shall such in bodies after Judgement be:
Yea, now such are; onely here's interruption
Till this corruption put on incorruption.
Till this mortality invested be
With immortality; which change to thee
Is less then nothing; (though to us most strange)
Who changest what thou wilt, yet dost not change.
Our Bodies pulverated, (nay, much more:
Admit annihilated) thou'lt restore
Identically such again to be,
The very same as we the same now see;
Save what may perfectize thine own Elect,
And in the Reprobates augment defect.
But soft, my Muse; launch not into the deep,
Lest thou o'erwhelmed be; to Leeward keep:
These depths are soundable by none but him,
VVho can walk dry where heav'n & earth may swim,
VVhose Spirit mov'd upon the waters face,
When all the world an Emb [...]ion Chaos was.
Lord, these thy works of wonder far transcend
VVhat can be thought, much more what can be pen'd.
My silenc'd Quill (by thy dread awe supprest)
Shall cease to write. I'll wonder out the rest.

An Epigram on the Creation.

POor man! why, why so proud? see here thy stock;
Thy principles are chips of Nothing's block:
Thy Mother, Earth: beast, fish, fowls, worms, and all,
May thee their younger Brother justly call:
Yet he who all things out of nothing made,
The rule of them to thee committed had:
But thou by sin that Kingdom forfeited'st,
Pois'ned'st the air thou breath'st, the earth thou tread'st.
Disord'redst all the creatures. Mark this well:
And why art' proud? because an heir to hell?
That's a flight ground for Pride; that's reason small:
For cursed is that Kingdom, heirs and all:
Truly thou 'rt proud for want of Grace (I fear)
And pride entitles thee to be hells heir.

Another on the same.

OH how it blinds all mortal wits to pry
Into a time when all was Trinity!
Next Angels, Men, Heav'n, Earth, Hell, Sea, were one
Coagulted Chaos, form'd alone
Out of meer nothing, by the Tri-Une God,
VVho for his glory, on them all bestow'd
Their beings: but to Man alone did give
A means (when dead) whereby he might revive
In Gods own glory (if he sought it here)
VVho slights that love of his Crearor dear.
Lord make us once again; or better 'twere
We nothing had remain'd, as first we were:
Better for us indeed, but one to thee,
Who wilt have glory, though we damned be.

On the Creatures.

SEe the great Architectors Alphabet
In his grand Chirograph, mans second Book,
Wherein by reading, he may knowledge get
Of his Creator; spell his Name, whose look
Would blind all mortal eyes. But this great Glass
Doth by reflection represent that God
Unto Mans prying Soul, who Pen-man was
Of all these Characters. It's wondrous odd
To see Man's gross stupidity, how blind
His sin-soil'd Reason's grown; his will perverse,
That dumb Irrationals are fain to mind
Him of his God: nay, he is more averse
From answering the end of his creation,
By far, then they; who in their kindes fulfil
God's sacred will, and keep (in their low station)
His holy Laws, according to their skill:
They do so all, and always: but our hearts
Are shooting still at Rovers, when the Lord
Hath set us Butt-marks: our vile Nature thwarts
His wayes of Grace: our Wills oppose his Word,
As if we would send challenges to Heaven,
And woo Damnation: headless, heedless man
Sets all his Makers Laws at six and seven:
In scorn neglects, what do with ease he can.
Should this great Army of the creatures be
So mutinous, the world would soon resolve
Into its principles; Mans Pedegree
Produce no more descents. Oh let's revolve
This in our hearts; and view this goodly frame,
(As an eye-lecture to our souls) to bring
Us home to holy life; that we his Name
May glorifie, who is our God and King.

Amen.

On Redemption.

TEnter up Nature to the highest pin;
And rack Philosophy with quaintest gin;
Frenzifie Chymistry; and summon too't
The old red Serpent's wits calcin'd to boot;
A way to finde for lapsed man to rise,
And unborn-Babes might it as soon devise,
As that grand Senate: But they ne'er desir'd
That work, by Men and Angels so admir'd.
Nature conceiv'd it not to be conceiv'd;
Wherein the God of Nature her deceiv'd.
Philosophy with reason would have shaken
That plot; whence for Morosophy she's taken:
Chymistry's wit (to prove a practise rare)
Turn'd Ignis fatuus, and expir'd in air:
The subtile Serpent (keeping still the field
With World and Flesh) a Lamb inforc'd to yeild.
Oh Lamb invincible! to thee be glory:
Were't not for thee, the Serpent sure would worry
Thy little Lambs, dispersed here and there;
Now so far sundred, as no man knows where:
Haste, Lord, to re-unite them: and disperse
Thine and their Foes, revengeful and perverse:
For thou art Judah's Lyon, and canst tame
The wildest Beasts that dare blaspheme thy Name:
For thine, hast thou descended from above,
From thy dear Father, and the sacred Dove:
From everlasting glory, to put on
(A shrine that Angels ne'er could think upon)
Our basest nature, for our baser sakes:
Who this in contemplation truly takes,
Must needs be wonder-struck, stand, and admire
At thy divinest love, who dost desire
For all thy paines (which pass all valuation)
Nothing but hearty, meek retaliation
Of love for love; doubtless (were man not mad,
Satan still tempting, world and flesh as bad,
And self-betraying self still pressing on us,
By sin to draw more hardness still upon us)
The hardest heart could ne'r retain a thought
Of slighting love by God so dearly bought;
Who pay'd a price of blood for man's base fall,
Enough to ransom Devils, men and all;
Had he ordained so, whose mercy will
Man shall redeemed be, but they damn'd still:
O mercy trans-superlative! so high
As blinds both mens and Angels reasons eye;
And dumbs my Muse, who else would fain expend
Time on this subject, till my time shall end.

Applicatio & Oratio.

WHat, God and man? And God for man be so?
Think man what thou to God for this dost owe.
The debt is great, if thou a Banckrupt art:
Yet he is sated, give him but thy heart.
Oh take it, Lord, thou bought'st it dear: 'tis thine:
It was, but is not now, nor shall be mine:
Lord, hold it fast; for sure it's slip'ry ware;
Twill slide from thee, without thy special care.

An Epigram on our Redemption.

FAll'n man redeem'd? what cannot mercy do
That saves those who their own destruction woo?
Man's actions (retrograde from what they seem)
Tend all to what none wise their end would deem:
Mercy in heart he likes; In practice proves
That he severest justice rather loves:
And have it sure he should, had not the Son
Of his incensed God his pardon won:
Who gave his foes his blood, and flesh for food.
O love incredible to flesh and blood!
It can be credited by none, but those
Whom that true Manna turns to friends from foes;
Whose faith's eyes their redemption see as cleer,
As fleshly eyes see any object here.

On man's Justification.

LOrd! I am wonder-struck at this sweet sound:
Justification doth me quite confound.
When I consider what our nature is,
Thoughts, words, and works, and all that is amiss,
Ev'n in the best of the best man's endeavours,
The Agues of our spirits, and their feavours,
And all our soul-sick frenzies (which possess
Some with a fancy of self-righteousness)
Our waywardness to good; proneness to ill,
Rounding the paths of sin, like horse in mill;
The number numberless of all our crimes;
Re-iterated too so many times,
And re-committed, after penitence,
And vows against them, which must needs incense
A just and holy God, whose piercing eye
Sees the least Atome-sin, and can espy
Damn'd guilt in deeds which men have deem'd most glorious,
Yea, which some have imagin'd meritorious;
Tell me (think I) as well the Sea doth burn,
The spheres stand still, and rouling earth doth turn;
As that base m [...]n can just appear to thee,
Who in his life such horrid blots dost see;
Each heart's imaginations thou dost spie
Ill wholly, only, and continually.
Yet so it is, Lord: thou hast found a way
By which man (as it were) deceive thee may,
And blind thy Justice; plead thy Sons desert
For our im-merits, thou contented art.
Admired mercy! Love stupendious!
Our Creditor should pay the debt for us
Due to himself; whereof we ne'r could pay
The smallest mire, nor the least charge defray:
Else had we in eternal torments lain:
But thou both payd'st the debt, and bor'st the pain;
That thy divinest Justice might receive
Full satisfaction, lest she else might grieve
To be o'ercome by mercy: so dost thou
Punish our sins in Christ, and disavow
Our acting of them. And unjust it were,
To punish us, since he our sins did bear:
He hath for us fulfill'd thy Law, and born
Most hellish torments, and earths basest scorn:
That faith in him might make us fair to thee,
Who else should in thine eyes like Devils be;
Nay worse then they; since mercy we contemn,
And proffer'd grace which thou ne'r deign'st to them:
Doubtless hadst thou ordain'd thy Lamb to die
Them to redeem, as well's man's progeny;
(Whose blood might have redeem'd them all as well)
There had not been a Devil now in Hell.
Pardon me Lord, if I hyperbolize,
Or in opinion too much charitize
Towards thy foe and ours; It's but to shew
Ou [...] dead, depraved nature, markt by few,
Mended by none, nor mendable by any
Save thee alone; Our breaches are so many.
Lord, re-enliven this dead corpse by grace:
Rebuild its breaches; all its sins deface:
Say to it, Be thou just, and it shall be
Just in thy sight, and from defilement free.

An Epigram on the same.

BAd good! day night! the swarthest blackmoor white!
Injustice just! in Gods all-seeing sight!
Is he deceiv'd? can his eye blinded be?
Love makes him undertake to over-see,
And take upon himself man's sins: Our score
He cleared hath: Oh let us sin no more!
Lest he repent him of the mercy shown us:
And see us like our selves: and so disown us:
For it transcends all wonder, sinful dust
Should in the great Creators eyes be just.

On man's Sanctification.

GOd us creates, redeems, and justifies,
By means without us, which he did devise;
And all by works of wonder past all thought,
In love and wisedom infinite he wrought:
Whereby he us engag'd beyond all hope;
Yet still his love proceeds to find new scope,
Wonders to work within us; To renew
Our nature by his grace; to make false true;
To sanctifie unsanctified man;
A work that quite confounds my heart to scan.
Here's nature mortifi'd, yet living still:
Grace vivifi'd, and rectifying will:
Yet Will, by Nature clean a verse from Grace,
And Grace and Nature ne'er well brook't one place.
Here's Sin still dying, and yet still reviving;
Using all means to live, and yet not thriving:
The Prince of Darkness still the soul assailing,
Though never quite beat off, nor yet prevailing:
Conscience and Reason daily are in fight,
Yet Conscience hath sweet peace, and Reason right:
The Flesh oft seeks to undermine the Spirit,
VVith self-conceit, presumption, and false merit,
And many other wayes her up to blow,
As Man renew'd (to his great griefe) doth know:
Mean while the Spirit with inforc [...]d agility,
Doth countermine against them with Humility,
Which sweet mild saint o'ercomes them all: But then,
VVhen she low thoughts of self hath wrought in men,
Satan doth re-assault with furious force,
Attempting them from God quite to divorce
By fell Despair; and raiseth batteries
To storm the fort where Faith enfeebled lies:
VVho when the fight grows dangerous and hot,
Pulls in a Lamb betwixt her and the shot;
And (under his protection) overthrows
All Satans Bulwarks, and routs all her Foes;
Foes that would quickly all mankinde undo,
Were not our Lamb Judah's Tribes Lion too;
VVhose everlasting pow'r with ease can quell
The joyned force of all the Fiends in Hell.
Then let the roaring Lyon seek abroad,
Whom to devour throughour the worlds great road;
Rage, rave, and plot, and send his subtle spies,
(Th' unbottom'd pits black locusts) whose quick eyes
See all earth's Globe at once: fear not, my soul,
Although thy foes conspiracies are foul;
Their combinations strong; their plots most deep;
Israels Keeper slumbers not: no sleep
Skreens up his eyes, who all their plots will dash,
And thee deliver from their horrid lash;
Remit thy sins, obliterate thy folly,
And make thee holy as himself is holy;
Till thou be with the Lamb (who's Judah's Lion)
Rapp'd up to reign for ever on Mount Sion,
And sing with that Coelestial Quire above,
Sweet Hallelujahs to the God of Love.

An Epigram on the same.

SAnctification is the Tree of Life,
Not that false tree that fool'd our grandsires wife:
Whereby we from our innocencie fell:
This is the way to Heav'n, that was to Hell.
Whoso on this Tree's sacred fruit doth feed,
Shall be in all things like to God indeed.

Sin.

MOnster of Monsters! who hast monstrous made
Nature it self, in us, who natures had
First, pure, and holy, and to good inclin'd:
Till (by thy falshood) we to bad declin'd:
And thy meer essence is extream averse
From God, and good; but prone to ways perverse.
All that the great Jehovah made, was good
VVhen he created it; and (had they stood)
Angels and Men had so continu'd still:
But they would needs be gods, and had their will
So far, that they Creators were of thee,
VVhom they created, both their falls to be:
A Creatures Creature, and so vile a one,
That Heav'n, Earth, Hell, so bad besides have none;
Rake Topher's cinders; sift the Serpents seed;
And keep the worst; yet will that damned breed
More fair in Gods all-seeing eyes appear,
Then Sin, which summon'd them together there.
Sin made God angry; Men and Angels fall;
Made God make Hell: and Sin made Dev'l and all.
Ah! cursed caitiff; how can we delight
In the embracement of such wretched wight?
A hideous Elf, abhorr'd of all that's good;
Our dear Redeeme's Murtherer; whose Blood
By cursed sacrilegious hands was spilt,
To wash our souls from sins polluting guilt.
Our soul's the precious game for which she fishes,
Which to destroy eternally she wishes;
Yet we (bewitched w [...]) most dearly love her;
Too dearly sure, as all will find that prove her:
Whose souls shall purchase (Oh the dearest gain!)
For sins short pleasure, their eternal pain.
'Tis sure some witchcraft, some inchanting spell,
Whereby she trains us on asleep to Hell:
And stupifies our senses; blindes our eyes;
Obthures our ears; and phantasms doth devise,
To charm our fancies, and besot our reason;
And make our selves against our selves work treason.
Nor have we in our selves pow'r to resist
Her winning wiles, no [...] from her love desist:
That pow'r supernal is: O dearest Lord,
Grant us this pow'r, thy help to us afford:
Then shall we force thy greatest Foe to yeild,
And make our temptingst sin forsake the field.

An Epigram on the same.

THe Devil's a Witch: our Proverb tells us thus;
But Sin's the Witch that witch'd both Him and Us.
Him past all cure: but We may cured be,
If we by faith can J [...]sus feel and see.
Great God assist us, and it shall suffice:
For we must have from Thee both hands and eyes.

Pride: the Seed of Sin.

GReat fall of Men and Angels; Heavens hate;
Wert thou as good as thou art seeming great,
Thou would'st the fairest Vertue be of many:
But art the most deformed Vice of any.
Scorn of all good; a bastard mungrel Evil,
Begot betwixt relapsing Man and Devil;
Though both (quâ tales) thy own creatures be;
Begetters of, and yet begot by thee:
A monstrous spawn of Incest sp'ritual,
That Viper-like, hadst life from parents fall:
And yet thou vaunt'st, boasting thy birth and blood,
When no progenitor of thine was good:
Surpassest in thy self-conceit (by odds)
Those humbler souls descended from the gods,
Whose most heroick race, and princely birth,
Farther transcendeth thine, then heaven doth earth.
Bold Queen of Vices, thou ledst on the Van
Of that Black Regiment that foiled Man
Under Gods elbow, by the Prince of Hell,
Lucifer thy Lieutenant Colonel,
Under the subtile Serpents shape disguis'd,
Thereby presuming to make man despis'd
In his Creators eyes for evermore;
VVhose Mercie sent his Son to clear that score;
VVho brake the Serpents head: thy daring skill
Did legions of sacred Angels fill
VVith God-unthroning plots; whereby they fell
To all eternity, cast down to Hell;
The glory of thy conquests: yet thy gain
Appears but small; for they subdu'd again
Thee their subduer; and have forc't thee since
To act in service of their direful Prince;
Who by Self-merit, and Presumption,
(Thy fatal Daughters) hath more souls drawn on
In everlasting-fire-chains to be ti'd,
Then by all other sins and s [...]res beside.
Mother of Antichrist; thou first set'st on
The founding of Mysterious Babylon:
The Beast is but thy Creature, and the Whore
Thy eldest unmach't Daughter: I therefore
A Mate will motion to her, (though a mad one,
Yet not unfit) it is the great Abaddon;
Who shortly will to her a Kingdom give,
Wherein (though dying) she shall ever live:
For here her time is short, as I compute,
And will be found so, without all dispute:
Therefore translate her hence unto the place
Before all worlds prepared for her was;
It is her portion; Oh detain it not;
Do her no wrong, but let her have her lot:
And then the Lord of Life shall rule again,
And under him his humble Saints shall reign:
Amen, Lord Jesus, haste it on: for lo,
The whole Creation groans to have it so;
The Angels, Saints and Martyrs cry aloud,
To have thy vengeance poured on the proud:
For of all sins that bar poor man from bliss,
To Them and Thee Pride the most hateful is:
None doth in Man thy Image more deface;
Nor any makes us in thy sight so base.
VVhat Necromantick Philter us hath charm'd,
And both of sense, and reason so disarm'd,
That we should glory in our greatest shame?
Our Fig-leaf cloathes, do but our fall proclaim:
VVas that worth boasting of? Then thy gains scan,
Proud, prinking, pranking, prating parret man:
And brag on, spare not, kneaded lump of clay;
Thy seal'd damnation 'twill at last display;
Handful of dust coagulate, short span
Of putri'd earth; such art thou proudest man:
Thou vaunt'st of thy descent, and may'st do't well;
Never was greater then from heav'n to hell:
Thy pedigree I'll shew (I dare aver)
To be Angelick, from great Lucifer.
Thy parts, and gifts, of body, and of soul
Are fair, and comely; but pride makes them foul.
Thou aimst at great atchievments; buildst high hopes;
Sand-founded structures; On whose towring tops
Are batt'ries rais'd against the walls of Heav'n;
But all thy Cannon-shot (of force bereav'n)
Retort from those unpierced edifices
Upon thy self, and so thy fond devices
Are self-crush't: And what self not ruinates,
Death briefly seizeth and annihilates.
Proud fool; go, rake great Alexander's dust;
The ashes of those Hero's, whose meer lust
Their pow'r transform'd to law; whose very word
Made Empires tremble; whose devasting sword
Made seas of blood; and robb'd the lands of breath:
Divorcing souls from bodies by grim death;
And see how calm they are, how voyd of pride,
As if all Histories had them bely'd.
Draw neerer home, and open late-made tombs
Of thy progenitors, within whose wombs
Their nigh-corrupted flesh sends forth a stink
Which thou abhorr'st to smell; yea loath'st to think
How noysom 'tis; And tell, O tell me then
If there be reason for such pride in men:
Dost thou their flesh-devested bones there see?
Such Skeleton be sure thy self shall be;
If not by providence to worse ordain'd:
For worse corruption many have sustain'd:
And (truth to say) most proper 'twere for thee,
Should thy dead corpse by fowls devoured be;
Who living, in self-thoughts didst soar on high,
And so (when dead) on others wings shalt fly.
Pride is Lust's Bawd; Broker to Avarice;
Mother of Envy, and each hateful Vice;
Excesses Vintner, Brewer, Cook, and Baker;
The Souldiers and the Lawyers Cavil-Maker;
Ambitious Engineer, Wars shoo-horn: so
Were't not for Pride, souldiers might bare-foot go;
VVho now march booted, to advance the shew
Of her vain-glorious, self-conceited Crew;
Shoo-makers, Haberdashers, Jewellers,
VVith Lapidaries, Goldsmiths, Pewterers,
Cutlers, and Armourers, all sorts of Drapers,
Fencers, and Fidlers, Dancers cutting capers;
Those that make Buttons, Bandstrings, Tires, and Borders▪
Teeth, Eyes, and Periwigs, and mend disorders
In ugly Faces; with a countless number
Of other Trades, who us with changes cumber:
Chameleon Dyers, who by Art do vary
Their colours to the same that others carry,
Attend her train; all plague-sick of the Fashion,
Led on by Taylors (pest of English Nation)
VVhose Proteus-like changing quite out-braves
In mutability, the Moon and VVaves:
VVho Frenchifie our men and women so,
That who are English we can hardly know;
VVho a new Fashion do affect so well,
They'l have it, though they knew it came from Hell▪
Did they the Dev'l in Uncouth Habit spie,
They'ld sue for his Old Suit, to cut New by.
These are (which I think cannot be deny'd)
Gentlemen-Ushers to the Devil and Pride:
A Letany (to beg deliverance
From these) were very fit, Here and in France:
VVhich two fond Nations they have stultifi'd,
This last-past Age, more then the world beside;
Pride would fear banishment, if they should fall:
VVho are supporters of her, Devil and all:
I think few wise men deem this censure hard;
If Laws were mended, Taylours would be marr'd,
And women made more wise, and poor men too,
VVho now betwixt them both have much to do:
But sure ere long I hope the time to see,
VVhen English Laws shall so amended be;
That pride (the subject now of admiration)
Shall be scorn's subject throughout all the Nation:
VVhen we shall glory not in gawdy cloaths,
New-fangled fashions, or in horrid oaths,
Or spotted faces with like souls within,
Or hair like those that in a Mill have been,
Or self-conceited gestures, speech or looks,
The Devils new devised baits and hooks,
To catch poor souls: But shall with joynt accord
Glo [...]y in this, that we do know the Lord,
And that he is our God, and will us own,
He knowing us, and being of us known;
VVho will suppress the proud, exalt the meek;
And then his people shall to Sion seek,
VVith joy and peace. Oh haste the time, dear Lord:
Let thy Church say Amen, with one accord.

An Epigram on the same.

HEll-maker, why so high? I stile thee well,
For thou mad'st Devils, and they made God make Hell:
Apollyon; destruction is thy trade:
For thou marr'dst man, and man marr'd all God made.
Let reason rule the rost; quit thy old score;
Mend what thou marred hast, or vaunt no more.

Avarice: the Root of Sin.

HUnger-starv'd plenty! what a Monster's here?
A greedy stomach, pin'd in midst of cheer;
Yet wants nor hands, nor mouth, nor teeth to feed;
With these she tears, devours, grinds those that need:
Opus and Ʋsus, (all the means of profit)
Opus that gets it, makes not Ʋsus of it.
This gnawing worm its Mothers intrails rends,
To line fat bags; nay, its own spirits spends;
Indangers soul and body that to gain,
Which is but kept with fear, when got with pain,
And never us'd; joy'd in, but not injoy'd:
At fullest, still complains of being voyd:
All put to Ʋse, and yet none Us'd at all;
A fine Fools Paradise I may it call:
Wherein wise worldlings much delight to walk,
Though to their endless pain: they think, and talk,
Plot, and project, and waste out day and night,
In carking care to get, (by wrong, or right,
Or any means) what gotten, but annoyes,
And is the worst of vanities and toyes.
This greedy Dame made thievish Achan run
A course that Isr'el had almost undone,
That brought on him and his, most sad confusion.
This cursed Caitiff caus'd the great effusion
Of Ahabs Races blood; a numerous crew
Of Royal Imps, whom furious Jehu slew:
Then out of pride and greediness to reign,
Return'd to Jeroboam's sin again,
Who had through Avarice (in time of old)
Stock't Dan and Bet [...]el with curst Calves of gold.
She made the great Assyrian Monarch plunder
The sacred Temple, once the worlds rare wonder:
'Twas greediness, not neediness of wealth,
Provok'd that Prince to sacrilegious stealth.
She 'twas when Christ did preach, that deafness wrought
In learned Scribes and Pharises, who taught
The people most exactly, yet were blind
Themselves the while, through Avarice of minde,
And seeing could not see, nor hearing hear,
Those Truths which in their Scriptures written were.
This hellish Hag betray'd our dearest Lord,
Made Judas sell him (for a price abhor'd)
Who a self-strangling, and damnation got,
As Over-plus of purchase for his lot.
She to the holy Ghost to lye inclin'd
Poor Ananias and Sapphira's minde:
For which on them that fearful Judgement fell
Of sudden Death, if not of sudden Hell.
She made wise Simon Magus Sophimore,
Thinking by Coin (which none but fools adore)
To purchass that unvaluable Gift
Of God's most holy Spirit; but his drift
Was at his Gain, and so he gained hath
Lasting Reproach, if not e'erlasting Death.
She wrought the Pythonesses girles masters,
On Paul and Silas to bring such disasters
In old Philippi. And at Ephesus
Diana's Zealot, blinde Demetrius,
To raise an uproar, and an Idol prize
Beyond the Lord of Life: where were his eyes?
Not on his goddess, but (his god) his gain:
For whose sole sake he that hot Zeal did fain.
This made unhappy Felix leave Paul bound,
Although no cause of his restraint he found:
Yet in that passage, Avarice (we see)
Procur'd unwonted affability;
And (since that Scripture is undoubted true)
I'll instance it, to give the Dev'l his due.
Leprous Gehezi I could here bring forth,
And many more examples notice-worth,
In Histories sacred, and forraign too:
But that will endless be for me to do;
It might be for my pleasure, not my gains:
For sure no miser would requite my pains.
Covetousness might find me lasting work,
Should I into her secret corners lurk,
Survey her bags, and baggage tricks together:
And yet in my expressions 'bate of either.
She's prides sworn sister; but that pride's too dear
Oft-times for her, who still loves to go near;
She loaths ( prides hand-Maid) Cost, who makes her smart:
For none but she and loss do pierce her heart.
The world, and coin, of all round things she loves,
And of square dealings mostly she approves,
Save in her self: for there she'l all confound;
Make that seem square, which others know is round;
Uneven even, basest wrong seem right;
Light make of darkness, and bright day of night.
Her train are Under-Sheriffs, Bayliffs, Brokers,
Pursivants, keepers, and such men-provokers:
Their loading is of papers, parchments, waxes;
Which terrifie men more then new-rais'd taxes:
These all (like Cannibals) the coast do scour,
And Devil-like, seek whom they may devour:
These Anthropophagi are nearest friends
To avarice, by whom she works her ends:
Mercy's her wonder: mildness she deems wild;
And thinks severest justice much too mild.
If harshest cruelty her gain procure,
She will baptize it courtesie most pure;
If not meer charity: she's Satans bawd;
And can (like him) by her sublimed fraud
Assume an Angel's shape, whilst she commits
Rapes on poor innocents; and racks her wits,
Widdows and Orphans to devour; her faith
Is Pharisaick falshood, which betray'th
All those that trust her, (though relations near)
Vicinity's forgot, if gain appear.
It's she, wise Heathens term'd the root of evils,
VVhich in no Garden grows, except the Devils;
Unfit for Christian heart to entertain,
Or to be lodged in a Converts brain.
Her heart's the mint of all dcceits: the sink
Of bloodi'st crimes, that heart of man can think:
The Devil is chief coiner in this Cell;
And stamps the Cash to buy him slaves for Hell.
Her she insinuation screws into
Corrupted nature, and doth us undo
Insensibly: her none-such subtilties,
'Mongst men inveigles mostly the most wise,
And ablest parted; masters of most reason,
Before perversion: If a heart she season
VVith love of gain, that heart's bewitched quite,
And 'reft of reason, truth, peace, love, delight;
Of mercy, conscience, and of all that's good;
And grudg [...]th its sole-lov'd self both cloaths and food:
Scrapes all it may, from whomsoe'er it can,
Without respect of friend, foe, God, or man;
Yet gotten cannot, will not use it: why?
If you know not, no more doth he, nor I;
Unless the Devils inchantments so prevail,
To blind his sense, and make his reason fail:
For inclinations unto other sins
Mostly decay in age: but this strength wins,
And grows with age it self: the elder still
A miser grows, more griping grow he will:
A judgement sad; a man should labour most
For what he least doth need: spend time and cost,
In that which he must forthwith leave to others,
And knows not unto whom; & mean-while smoth [...]
His souls desires of seeking grace; indeed
That is the gain he most of all doth need.
Perhaps with Magus he befools himself,
Hoping to purchase grace with worldly pelf:
There's no such barter feasible; One grain
Of grace, exceeds the wealth of earth and main,
In truest value: God and Mammon prove
Incompatible masters; whoe'er love
One, must despise the other: God loves peace,
Mammon's contention's Prince: strife cannot cease
In hearts by him o'ersway'd: Treasons and Wars,
Bloodsheds, oppressions, violence and jars,
Are his hearts-solace: And all other evils
Are rife in him, as in the very Devils.
Lord, fortifie our souls by thy free Spirit
Against this slavish sin, whose justest merit
Is guerdon of Injustice; for she swayes,
And corrupts Justice, by her bribing wayes,
Throughout the earth: And take this at farewel:
Though here thou do'st, thou shalt not do't in Hell.

An Epigram on the same.

HArd-handed Mammon! why do'st gripe so fast?
Thy gain will surely be but small at last:
Thy muck is ordure; thou art a gold-finder:
Thy close-fist griping doth thy holding hinder;
'Twill squeeze betwixt thy fingers, and be lost,
Unless thou gape to save it: Oh, haste, post:
And (lest thy sweet, beloved ware, should fall)
Hold fast with arms, with hands, teeth, mouth, and all:
Take, take it all: And then withall take this,
Thy body's rob'd of rest, thy soul of bliss:
All cannot unto either of them buy
A moments ease to all Eternity.

Lust: A branch of sin.

GIve leave to venial Sin, the lists to enter;
She'll soon display the height of your adventure:
And prove the Whore, that gave her that slight name,
A lying gossip, though a mincing dame.
Lust hath both botch and blain of sin's worst pest,
And therefore mortal is as well's the rest.
Nay none is so infectious; she strikes dead,
By glance of eye, by sight of clothes, or bed,
Of parties not infected; yea, each sense
She poisons with her flaming pestilence:
Sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and all infect
(By secret Magick) her enamour'd sect:
A smile, a song, a sent, a cup, a kiss,
Heart-wounding, and most mortal to them is.
Yea, (which her venome more admired makes)
Of pest-free people she the plague oft takes
At distance vast, (Oh most stupendious wonder!)
Of parties many hundred miles asunder:
Their Lust hath sometimes on a picture fir'd,
Which shadow made the substance more desir'd.
And thus the Jewish Dames did doat (of old)
When they did Chaldee counterfeits behold.
Nay, her insinuating Necromancy,
Works (where's no real Object, on the fancy;
And stupifying reason, sense and all,
Makes some in love with meer Idea's fall:
Whose souls of judgement she hath made so void,
To joy in that that cannot be enjoy'd;
And Lust contemplative hath so produc'd
Incestuous Monsters, 'twixt self-thoughts abus'd.
Lust is the Devils fueller; makes fires,
And blows into a flame unchaste desires.
Contriving ever by deceits to win
Others to be partakers of her sin:
And mostly (if it end in publick shame)
They each on other strive to lay the blame:
Which shews in hearts where lust hath got possession,
A great aversness to a plain confession,
Which should blaze penitence. This fire obdures,
And crusts the conscience, where it once inures.
She's now become one of the chief commanders
Of the infernal Legions; for her panders
Are pride, excess, and sloth, yea avarice
Dotes mostly more on her then any vice,
If she come cheap: But if the price be high,
Her flames (at thought thereof) expire, and die.
Lust, is on earth grown a commandress great,
Who ere the Crown do wear, she keeps the seat:
The Throne and Scepter royal she doth sway;
And (for the most part) Monarchs makes obey.
Our first that title got of faith's defender,
Prov'd herein a notorious faiths offender.
A King perhaps most Christian may be stil'd,
Or Catholick; and yet be so defil'd
With lust's pollution, as to merit scorn
From Catholicks and Christians yet unborn;
Who will hereafter see with clearer eyes,
Then this dull age their covert Crimes espies;
For palaces, and earth's most large possessions,
Are most deprav'd by lust, excess, oppressions,
And such like vices; which have often been
Lust's bawds, whereby we Saints intrapt have seen.
For Ammon's sword had spar'd Uriah's life;
And he had not been drunk, but that his wife
Was grown (by lust's enchanting forceries)
A pearl at once in both poor David's eyes:
What he abhorr'd to think, she made him do,
Blinding his eyes of soul, and body too.
And his son Amnon by his incest foul,
Wrought his own drunken death, and wrong'd his soul;
Whose fratricidious brother (past all shame)
Out-vi'd his incest, as a sin too tame
For such a roister; who in Sol's bright eye,
Before all Israel (in contempt) did lie
With his dear Fathers Concubines; a fact
Fitter for Devil, then for man to act.
This sin inveigled had two brothers more
Of their twelve Patriarchs (in times of yore)
Reuben and Judah, both herewith defil'd;
Wittingly one, but t'other was beguild.
Nor could burnt Sodoms cinders terrifie
Heav'n-rescu'd Lot from lust's Nicanthropy:
Nor both their judgements afterwards prevent
The Benjamitish Gibeah's punishment.
The subt'ly wicked Prophet Balaam blew
This cole in Isr'els hearts; so them orethrew,
Whom his inchantments could not hurt at all:
(Being Devil-proof) and yet by lust did fall.
Old Eli's sons hereby Gods wrath provok't,
To his Ark's loss, and Isr'els being yok't
Under Philistims; and their own sad deaths,
Which robb'd one's VVife, both's Father, of their breaths.
The Preacher, wisest of meer mortals; who
Knew most of men, knew so much women too,
That lust infatuated the most wise;
Wresting his wisdom to Idolatrize.
So he to whom Jehovah twice appear'd,
To Chemosh, Molech Milcom, Altars rear'd,
To Ashtaroth, and all the host of Heav'n:
For which his son was of ten Tribes bereav'n;
Whence Jacobs seed dicotomiz'd remain,
Their kingdom never unifi'd again.
Herod's base lust, dish't up the Baptist's head:
Lust the Corinthian laid in's father's bed.
The Gentile's great Apostle she disturb'd;
And could not by his praying thrice be curb'd:
At least not conquer'd. Since, as well's before,
She hath been Satans messenger to more.
She's both to us, and heathens, (though she mince)
Leidger Embassadour for Hell's black Prince;
And Rome's sly Nuntio's, (Machiavilians pure)
Did ne'er attain their errands ends more sure.
Aegypt's great Cleopatra fair, grown foul
By lust's pollution, lost both soil, and soul.
The greater Hercules, whose very name
Wonder-strook men, was blasted by this flame;
All whose twelve matchless labours fam'd persever;
And yet his fame's eclips'd by lust for ever.
The greatest Jupiter (by lust o'ercome)
From God turn'd beast, and was a bull become:
True, 'twas a faigned god: But look, and see
He conquer'd slaves, who fain would true gods be,
The Roman Chair-men, whose unchastest flames
Made their sea burn; and cauteriz'd their names,
As well as Consciences: When Mentz-born Johan
Play'd Fathers Father, till a child-birth groan
Made her a publick mother: Whose cross birth
Brought forth the hollow chair for gods on earth,
The Popish touch-stone. Sergius the third
Honour's Marozia's strumpetship, bestir'd
(I might have said bestrid) by many more,
Then any Popess Minions had before:
Whose Bastard John, made Incest venial;
Adultery no crime; which prov'd his fall.
Yet Hildebrand, (Anglicè, brand de Hell)
Must his Matilda have, and more as well
As her, and she as him: (a hackny Jade
Refus'th no Rider.) And perhaps that made
Martin the fourth, so curious of his whore;
Though Benedict the twelfth's did cost him more.
Sixtus the Fourth's Tiresia's pearled shooes
Must be maintain'd by his maintaining Stews;
And legalizing Sodomy. And next,
Nocens preach't on upon the carnal text;
Gets bastards by the dozen; whose void chair
Sixth Alexander fills; and proves true heir
Both to his Crowns and vices; who defil'd
His own fair Daughter Lucrece: made his child
His Anvil to form Princes horns upon:
And yet his filth's outvi'd (when he is gone)
By his successor Julius; who must
Make Boys turn Maids to satisfie his lust:
Yet (as if on that name it were a curse)
He was the second, and the third was worse:
Whose predecessor Paul (a third man too)
Did e'en as much, as man turn'd Dev'l could do:
After his panderism, and prostitution
Of his own sister, and her base pollution
By his foul incest, in a jealous mood
Poysons her: And (lest he might be withstood
In using his own daughter) with like sauce
Serves he her heedless husband: Natures laws
Are null to him: Nor can his neece escape
His boundless lust: But her attempted rape
Is by her husbands stoutness so prevented,
As might have made his holiness repented,
Had he not seared been; whose wound (at least)
Might well be call'd the man's mark of the beast,
Monster of men! whose lust, or hope of gains,
Forty five thousand curtezans maintains;
Enough to pox All Italy, and quell
That Nations fire of lust with fire of Hell.
God justly might for this sole Monster's sake,
Calcine Rome Sodom-like, and Tyber make
Asphaltis, did not tender mercy stay
His vengeance, till the neer-approaching day
Of the great Whores confusion: when at last
She shall be pay'd full home for all that's past.
Rome's Throne out-strips all Thrones on Earth be­side
In whoredom; for it may be verifi'd,
Popedom & whoredom, (rightly weigh'd) doom'd be
Inconvertible terms in some degree:
Rome's the great Whore, Earth's greatest K. the Pope;
Experience this, and that the Scriptures scope
Makes manifest to each inlightned eye:
But Babels B [...]a [...]s in wilful blindness lye;
Since that false Chair to Pope first Title gave,
Rome ne'er miss'd whore; scarce Peter's Chair a knave.
But soft, my Muse; Rome's lust hath made thee [...]ome
From thy Theme lust: Look to thy lust neer home;
Look to thy heart, lest she surprise thee there;
She lies in Ambuscado every where:
At Sermons she is lurking; steals the eye,
And then the heart: when heav'nly Psalmody
Our souls should ravish, she affects our ear
VVith carnal melody of some voyce there;
Poysons our Cordials: her flames, whilst they burn,
God's Church into the Devil's Chappel turn:
Her fire spoyls all our sacrifices: while
We pray, or praise, she will our hearts beguile
VVith wandring thoughts; and taints our duties so,
That God rejects them: she's a subtle foe,
And vigilant advantages to take,
VVhen of devotion greatest shews we make.
VVhat man can sound her depth? she fools the wise;
Enfeebles young; and puts out old mens eyes:
Her baits are layd in every path we tread;
At Church, at home, abroad, at boord, at bed:
And rarely miss they speeding; Nature's mold
Is so proclive to their embracement: Cold
Is not more incident to Ice, then man
Is to Lust's Ignis Fatuus; nor can
VVe well discern her workings on our hearts:
She doth insinuate by secret arts
Into our very souls; and captivates
Us to the law of sin: admits debates,
Only in order to her conquest on us;
And leads us blindfold, till she have undone us.
The eye her window, heart her closet is;
The head her shop; and all to train from bliss
Poor self-betraying man. Her trade (of old
In the world's non-age) still she on doth hold,
To slock God's sons, and servants; whom she drew
Men's Daughters fair with lustful hearts to view,
And mungrellize their seed; the fatal ground
Of that great deluge, which all mankind drown'd,
Save eight in- Arkt Noachians; and her fires
Still tempt Gods sons on to unchast desires;
And will, (till universal judgement flames
Extinguish hers) to all the kindlers shames,
If not eternal burnings. Lord, we pray,
Let grace those flames of lust in us allay,
Man's heart's th' Asbestes: once (by lust) on fire,
Its flames by nought, but (Gods lambs) blood expire.
Lave ours therein, Lord, that they quench't may be;
And all the glory shall redound to thee.

An Epigram on the same.

FOndling! what? dote upon a kiss? a smile?
A glance? a touch? and lose thy soul the while?
Can Leacheries short titillations please,
More then eternal death can thee disease?
There's odds in time and measure, infinite,
Betwixt thy true disease and false delight.
Curb then thy loose affections; ponder well:
Cool thy Lust's flames with thought of flames of Hell;
VVith those fierce flames would'st thou not be anoi'd▪
VVith them quench t'others; and both flames avo [...] ▪

Intemperancie: another branch of sin.

ROom for the sink of filth; the paunch of sin;
Full stuff'd with garbage, that extends the skin,
And racks the entrails, makes the belly swell,
Like Satans snap-sack, plund'red out of Hell;
Or Fortunes Cornucopiae, poured in,
Betwixt a Gormandizers nose and chin,
And running thence, into his boundless womb
(Of meat and drink the most unsated tomb:)
For they whom custom to that sin hath tide,
Send all that way; whoever starve beside.
But Oh! the gemmy countenance most bright,
Exceeds in lustre far the Queen of night:
VVith Diamonds and Rubies so beset,
As if it were great Pluto's Cabinet,
Or Jewel-house; and that the Nose had been
A tyring Room for Proserpine his Queen,
VVith high-priz'd Pearls, inlayed in a Box,
Resembling symptomes of the Lecher's Pox.
Intemperancie in the creatures use,
Doth God, our selves, and other men abuse;
Beside th'abused creatures; who (though dumb)
VVill us accuse aloud, in time to come.
This nice-mouth'd Dame tempted our grandame Eve,
To the seducing Serpent ear to give;
By which fond practice we depriv'd persever
Of the sweet fruits of Paradise for ever;
Save that eternal Paradise to come,
Since purchast by our Jesus, for our home;
VVhose fruits of glory, that do never waste,
Are too pure objects for a fleshly taste.
This sweet-lipp'd Minion almost quench'd the spark
Of faith in the Diluvian Patriarch;
VVho scaping water-flood (by grace divine)
Did hazard drowning in a flood of wine.
This sawce-mouth'd Fury made the Jews despise
Angelick Manna; and the land not prize,
VVhich was a type of New Jerusalem,
Yet promised to undeserving them;
VVho Onions and Garlick rather crav'd,
VVith Egypts flesh-pots, where they were inslav'd:
And which sad Kingdoms thraldom (they knew well)
Prefigur'd typically that of Hell;
But sure, had they return'd (as they did wish)
Their faith, their food, had been nor flesh, nor fish.
She is amongst the sins of Sodom nam'd,
VVhence fire sulphurious down from heaven flam'd:
And pulverated, in a trice of time,
The choisest Cities in that pleasant clime:
Thence, chas'd by vengeance, fled she to a Cave,
And tempted heedless Lot to play the knave
VVith both his Daughters, so in lust to burn,
As if those warnings could not serve his turn.
This longing quean made cursed Esau sell!
Birthright and blessing, for red broth and hell.
Thousands of Philistins she once did seize:
And gave Judge Sampson his last Writ of Ease.
This mal-companion made the Levite play
The boon-companion, by the hour, and day,
So long at Bethle'm-Judah, that it cost
Sixty five thousand souldiers lives (all lost)
Of Jacob's seed, for this the ground we find,
That him in Gibeah to lodge inclin'd;
Whence a whole tribe of babes and women fell,
Sacrific'd to the sword; yea some to Hell.
She made the good old Eli's sons profane
Their sacred Priesthood, by their rost-meat ta'n,
The fat not offred; for which villany
God ruin'd them, and their posterity.
She made rich Nabal churlish to his friend,
And his Protector; which became his end;
And ended had all his, had not his wife
Su'd out their pardon, and compos'd the strife.
She wrought incestuous Amnon's drunken death;
Who drank so deep a draught, he lost his breath:
For his revengeful brother chose that time,
To punish that, and his fore-passed crime;
Whose foul revenge, vengeance divine repay'd,
VVhen by his Feast at Hebron he had lay'd
A plot of parricide: so feasting chear
Sent both the brothers, none but God knows where.
Twas David's second sin, that him nigh sunk;
Who (fresh himself) was in Uriah drunk,
And (thirsty after) took the poor man's blood,
VVho still to him had faithful been and good.
She lost King Ela's Crown, and life; whereby
Zimri destroy'd the royal family:
And (though no famed singer) his shrill throat
Did above Ela sing; a high-strain'd note.
When, at Samaria's siege, proud Benhadad
Thirty two Kings, auxiliaries had;
Though a most slighted force did them oppose:
The Pot his Kinglings, him and all o'erthrows.
So serv'd she Babylonish Baltazar,
Who thought himself another god of War:
And the besiegers (though stout souldiers) slighted,
Drank drunk the while in scorn, until affrighted
With Manuscript Divine, he quak'd amain,
And that same night was by the souldiers slain;
And Babylon, the glory of the world,
Had her raz'd walls into Euphrates hurl'd.
Nor can I think but drink, and drunken fellows
(As well as pride) made Haman build those gallows,
Whereon himself was hang'd: for I presume,
Such feasting, and so much strong drink did fume
Into his brains, and plots infus'd, whereby
It ruin'd him, and his posterity.
'Twas meerly feasting, drink and lust misled
The Tetrarch, to cut off the Baptist's head;
Whom he before had lov'd (at least for fashion)
One feast provok'd him to his decollation.
Oh if I could but call up Dives here!
Who day by day, did feast on royal chear:
Whose paunch with most delicious wine did swell;
Yet begg'd a drop of water for't in Hell;
And beg it may, yet ne'er obtain the grace,
To have that comfort in so sad a place:
Sure he would howl, and roar, and rave, and cry,
Against this sin, and would us terrifie
With exclamations in dispraise of that,
Which most in fact commend; but pray for what?
Truly I know not, saving to bring gains
To Vintners, Ale-wi [...]es, Drawers, Chamberlains;
To Tapsters, Brewers, Bakers, Butchers, Cooks,
And those (who when the plague reigns play the Rooks)
The Sextons, Bearers, and the Pest-attenders:
And those (who are to Physick's art pretenders)
Doctors, Apothecaries, Mountebanks,
Quack-salvers, Surgeons, and those of their ranks
That live by our diseases: Politicians
May sometimes gain thereby; and poor Musitians,
Anglicè fidlers, both which make a trade
To undo any, so themselves be made.
Clomers and Glass-men likewise reap fair gain,
When juggs and glasses are in battel slain:
Yea Scavengers, get no small profit by it:
And gold-finders, who semi-deifie it:
'Tis their Diana, much sweet work it finds them,
And oft of Bacchus and Tabacco minds them,
Without which they are not, nor can be well,
Whilst here on earth, whatere they be in Hell;
Full paunch, full pate, and then all's well: for this
Their esse and their bene esse is.
Oh how perverse is man! On whom the Lord
Reason conferred hath; yea his pure word,
That reason to illuminate, and shew
What paths he follow should, and what eschew:
Precept on precept, for his rule of life,
And yet the beasts to stray not half so rife,
Who have but naked sence to be their guide:
Behold, they in their Makers rules abide,
(According to their kind) more strict then we;
Which (if arightly scann'd) we soon may see;
They have more moderation in the use
Of creatures gustable, and less abuse
Those gifts by far then man: for where one beast
Doth stupifie its sence with drink; at least
A hundred men, and women too, do so;
Yea stupifie both sence and reason too:
If hogs, or such more greedy creatures, hap
Themselves by too much drinking to intrap,
They'l mostly be more wary next; but we,
The oft'ner drunk, more eager drunk to be;
And oft when drunkenness our thirst hath bred,
We by that thirst to drunkenness are led:
Strange piece of witch craft! reason so to fool,
To put her back again to sence to school:
We work against our selves a kind of treason,
When sensuality o [...]ercometh reason.
Is reason (fighting fancy) foil'd by it?
It shews our want of grace, more then of wit:
For our in-nate corruption wrought in us
Our wills, and judgements both preposterous,
And opposite to Gods most holy will;
Who never willeth any thing that's ill:
Nor can we will what's other, unless he
Assistant to us by his Spirit be.
Oh! who would think such waywardness should dwell
In any Creatute, that's on this side Hell?
Lord, of a truth that place for us is fit,
Did not thy boundless mercy hinder it.
Proceed, O God, so to prevent it still;
And frame us hearts according to thy will,
Most holy, pure, and clean, void of pollution
Of flesh or spirit, hating prostitution
Of us unto our wills impure, wild passions,
Charming affections, brutish inclinations
Unto excess and drunkenness, whereby
We quite deface that prime Divinity
Thy smage stampt upon our souls of old,
And take the Devils impress, of whose fold
We hereby do profess our selves, and go
From our souls faithful shepherd to his foe.
Whence come Diseases, Fevers, Dropsies, Gouts,
Consumptions and Catarrhs, yea Pox that mouts
The feathers of our courtiers coxcombs so
That they wear borrow'd heads, lest they should show
Their scalded crowns? excess, and drink, prepares
Their minds and bodies for those torrid wares,
Which they so dearly pay for, that oft times
They a bone-ague get to plague their crimes.
Excess, of sickness-breeders is the King:
Most, if not all diseases, from her spring:
Yet cures she none, hunger and thirst excepted;
Which might by temperance be intercepted,
With much more thrift to soul and bodie too,
As well's estate: excess doth all undo.
Sardanapalus of great Nimrod's race;
And Heliogabalus (that glutton base)
Feel this firm truth confirm'd: And many more
Great Emperours, and Kings lie on the score
Doom'd to eternal hunger, thirst and pain;
Yea, triple-crown'd earth-gods, who erst did reign
In Babylon mysterious, are (no doubt)
Where they with their false Keys can ne'er get out.
Epicurism hath tainted Peters Chair,
Most of all thrones on earth: Romes very air
Doth stink of surfeits; it therewith infected
All Christendom, and made that vice neglected.
But ah poor England! thou hast since out gone
Thy giddy Mistress, and art past by none:
Though Dutch and Dane go far: it's all our shame,
To be Deform'd in Deed, Reform'd in Name:
Reformed Cburches Reformation need,
In Manners more then Doctrine, if we heed
How universally this sin doth reign
'Mongst us; more rare in France, abhor'd in Spain.
The Germans bought Excess at famines rate,
Speedy ensuing: Lord, prevent that fate
From scourging ours; and win our hearts with love,
Off from the creatures, to the things above:
Spiritualize our appetites, and then
Feed us the fullest of all mortal men.
Indeed, Lord, so thou dost provide us store,
So great as never Nation had before;
But we thy Manna loath, as did of old
Thy people Israel: our stomacks cold
Are squeazy grown, and turn the bread of life
To noysome humours; faction, schism, and strife:
Yea, heresies are bred and foster'd by
Thy means ordain'd for Truth and Unity.
Fulness hath wantoniz'd our appetites;
That one in this, t' other in that delights;
A third, in none knows what: Yea, oft the Cook
Makes bad meat lik'd: the Authors unread Book,
The Preachers Doctrine, took on trust are priz'd:
Most men affect what's vented or devis'd
By those of their own faction, howe'er bad:
Some all for old, some for the new stuff mad:
That many preachers cook-like strain their wit
For ev'ry coxcombs palate sawce to fit;
Whilst some like all, some-none: yet all are right
In their own fancies: darkness so is light.
Ah, sharpen Lord our souls weak stomacks more
To truth and unity then heretofore:
Evacuate those humours gross; afford
[...]ls true digestion of thy sacred word;
That may pure nutriment abroad diffuse
Into our Churches bodie, grown profuse;
Not only stain'd with fleshly drunkenness,
And surfeiting, but with soul-giddiness,
And Spirit'al intoxication:
Glutted with food of life. Ah stupid Nation!
That none but you should strength of wit devote,
Poison to suck out of your Antidote;
To make your cordial suffocate your life;
The curing word of peace, breed killing strife:
This drunkenness of spirit far exceeds,
[...]n its malignity, that which proceeds
[...]rom drinks inebriation: that makes men
[...]egrade themselves to beasts; and this agen
[...]romotes them (with the mischief) to be Devils;
[...]oth are inflaming, fuming, flatuous evils:
[...]otti-fer's spirit giddifies the first,
[...]he last the sp'rit of Lucifer accurst.
[...]ord, sheild us from them both, but most of all
[...]rom that most mortal, which is Sp'ritual
[...]inse, Lord, our Nations from that beastial sin
[...]f bodily excess, we wallow in:
[...]hat we thy blessings temporal may use
[...]ith temperance, and never more abuse
[...]ur peerless plenty: Ah! But rinse us too
[...]om drunkenness of soul; which will undo
Both Church and State, unless thy grace prevent:
Impow'r us, Lord, of both so to repent,
And both so to renounce henceforth, that we
From thy impending Judgements freed may be.

An Epigram on the same.

WHat? Man turn'd Beast? is Reason grown a yoke?
Tiresome? that thou it sell'st for drink and smoke?
Are Health, and Knowledge, contemptible both?
That thou preferr'st to them Excesse and Sloth?
Is grace thy scorn? thy body and thy soul
Neither worth saving? Then continue foul.
And so foul beast farewel. Soft, here's another:
Both have one Father, but not both one Mother:
Satan gets one of Flesh, t'other of Spirit;
The last's his darling (though both shall inherit
His dismal Kingdom) he doth her affect,
As his choice sieve to sift the Lords Elect:
She best resembles him, though both are evil;
The first's a Beast, the last's a perfect Devil.

Presumption: one of sins tops.

MAke room for Rome's great Sov'raign; who hath wor [...]
The triple-crown e'er since 'twas made: whose hor [...]
Pushes at Stars, and shakes the Host of Heaven,
(At least those seeming so:) whose hand hath given
More fatal wounds to self deluding souls,
Then there are Stars betwixt the worlds two Poles.
Presumption's Highness, who loves room so well,
She takes up most part of the room in Hell
For her attendants, whom she rocks asleep
With songs of heav'n, till they approach that deep,
And vast Abyss, whence none was ever freed:
Such dangers from security proceed.
Presumption flatters mankinde to damnation,
With false Plerophory of their salvation:
And so they run, relying on dead faith,
Hand over head, unto eternal death.
Perfidious Traytor! thou hast Myriads slain,
Who deem'd their state secure, till in that pain
That hath nor ease, nor end, they plagued were,
And saw that thy seducements brought them there.
Thou hadst a hand in Mans and Angels falls:
Thou didst of old first found proud Babe's walls;
Which brought on Adams progeny confusion,
And (probably) was cause of the effusion
Of all the blood that hath in war been spilt
In all the ages since: (O horrid guilt!)
For change of tongues to change of hearts inclin'd;
Had they one Tongue kept, so they might one Mind.
She martial'd Aegypts people and their King,
Themselves away in the Red Sea to fling:
Who (having tri'd Gods wonders oft before)
Would (madly) needs provoke him to one more;
VVhereby sad extirpation them befel,
Whose souls the sea did waft from earth to hell.
She ston'd the great Goliah, whilst he braves;
And makes the Philistins to Isr'el slaves.
Most likely 'tis, the wisest Solomon
VVas train'd to sin by foul Presumption,
As well as by strange women: for a man
Of his great knowledge and experience, can
Hardly great sin commit, or grace withstand,
Unless Presumption have therein a hand:
Next, his son Rehoboam ten Tribes lost,
By this proud Dames provoking him to boast.
Vaunting Sennacherib, th' Assyrian King,
Play'd blasphemies upon thy untun'd string,
To humble Hezekiah's loathing ears,
Till he retreated, fill'd with shame, and fears:
When sudden vengeance from his camp had call'n
A hundred fourscore and five thousand, fall'n:
And afterwards (to his eternal pain)
In Idol-worship, by his sons was slain.
The greater Nebucadnezar presumes
To make new gods: the old gods right assumes
Unto himself: boasting great Babylon
Built by his wit and pow'r: mad thereupon,
Is forthwith doom'd among the beasts to live,
Till he do honour to Jehovah give.
The young man in the gospel, whom Christ lov'd,
Thought he had done, whatever him behov'd,
Fulfil'd Gods Laws: yet was his case most foul,
Who lov'd his riches better then his soul.
The bragging Pharisce conceiv'd no less
Of his proud self: yea, did so much express;
Yet his hypocrisie so great we see,
The Publican was judg'd more just then he.
Presumption magnifies our merits in
Our own blear'd eyes, and puffs up self within:
Begets low thoughts of others, who exceed
Us in sincerity: it (ere we heed)
Breeds blind opinion of our happy state,
Till she hath brought us home to Hell's black gate;
Then we discover (what we thought not on)
Our high-priz'd faith, but false presumption:
And oh! what horrour will it cause, to see
(Too late) in what a sad estate we be?
She charms and stupifies our senses so,
That in what case we are, we scarcely know,
Till we withal know, that inevitable
Our danger is, and irremediable.
She us inveigles (as she did of old
Laodicea's Church, nor hot, nor cold,
Of lukewarm temper) senslesly to vaunt
Of riches, goods increase, and nothings want;
Whilst she was wretched, miserable, poor,
Naked and blind; though he knock'd at the door
Well nigh prepar'd to spue her out his mouth,
Who no such temper in his Bride allow'th.
This is Goliah's ghost: sent sorth by him,
Who [...] is Hell's Prince, the Sp'ritual Philistim:
He by presumption dares God's sacred hoast;
Who of her great atchievments well may boast:
By whom bright Stars have fall'n, and falling be:
( Stars in our eyes, though not in God's decree;)
For Comets greater seem to judgmen [...] rude,
Then fixed Stars of vaster magnitude.
Presumptio [...]s potions soporiferous,
A sad soul-apoplexy cause in us;
Which, whilst we think we draw securest breath,
Lulls us asleep into eternal death:
She makes Hell's flames, which neer shall quench or dy,
The first dark light we see our errors by.
Accurst deluder! thou dost never cease,
With Syren's songs, and lullabies of peace,
With promises of blisses sweet fruition,
To train men unawares into perdition:
Thou draw'st a curtain 'twixt us and the face
Of divine justice; that we may not place
Our eyes on her, lest she should scare from sin,
Or make us question what way we are in:
Thou unvail'st Mercie's picture, falsely painted,
With shameless sinners round about besainted;
Therein profan' [...] her nature and her name:
She saves but sinners who of sin take shame.
With many more such cheats to sin thou win'st;
Crocodiles tears sometimes perhaps thou whin'st:
For commonly, on false repentance, follow
Presumptio [...]s counterfeits of faith; which hollow
The whole work [...] of poor mans conversion;
And cause from God's wayes more a version.
Dear Lord! How subtle is this foe of ours?
VVe cannot her oppose without thy pow'rs,
And fresh supplies: sincere humility
Is the chief Engineer, that can descry
Her plots, and storm her works: a faith well grounded,
The Cannon shot, whereby she is confounded.
Lord, grant us both, and then full safe are we;
And from presumptuous sin, Lord keep us free.

An Epigram on the same.

INchaunting Circe! sure thy slights are odd:
Thou Angels Devils mad'st, the Pope a god:
Them thou didst fool with hopes they gods should be▪
Him thou mad'st god, a Devil most men see.
I question which was greatest of the evils,
Thy making him a God, or else them Devils?
It matters not for present: we shall see,
VVhen both thy gods and Devils together be.

Desperation: sins other top.

HEll upon earth! thy ghastly look affrights,
Beyond the visage of infernal sprights:
It strikes more terrour in a wounded soul,
Then all Hells Devils can: Thou dost controll
Faith, hope, and charity, at once in us:
Thou wound'st, and kill'st them all; and dost win us
Self-condemnation, still to harp upon;
As if our sins could heavens God unthrone;
Transcend his mercies, or surpass his grace;
Or we could do, what he cannot deface.
Thou whisper'st horrid treason in the ears
Of our disturbed souls; distract'st with fears
Of a defect of morcy in that God,
In whom defect can never have abode;
VVho is all mercy, although infinite,
And makes sweet mercies works, his chief delight.
Thou sowr'st our sweetest joys; foul'st our most fair,
And spondent hopes: thy breath's invenom'd air
Blasts worse then lightning: thy lowd voices thunder
Out-roars those cracks that rend the clouds asunder.
This grim-fac'd fury is Hells Charioteer,
Who drives on headlong, souls that once draw neer;
She force most violent upon them lay'th,
When they have true remorse, and want but faith,
In order to salvation. She extends
Sin's too vast body, to destructive ends.
She maimes faith's hands, and puts out both her eyes:
She makes us fondly proferr'd grace despise.
She lies in ambush, in the darkest nook
Of light's blest path: and oft hath sliely took
Dejected souls at penitence lane-end,
Preparing to lay hold upon their friend,
The Lord of life by faith: when they are tir'd
With trotting sins rough ring, and deeply mir'd
In their own filth, she whips and spurs them on
Into the boundless deeps: who (left alone)
Might sue forth pardon; and the grace obtain
Of being by faith's hand reliev'd again:
And so her wiles deserted souls do win,
To turn sin-sorrow's sacred self to sin.
She ruin'd earths great Heir apparent, Cain,
When he had juster Abel basely slain:
She barr'd him this worlds joy; and (oh sad doom)
Depriv'd him of the joys of that to come.
She foyl'd the faithful Abrahams Heir's first born;
VVho lost a double birth-right for a scorn:
Yea lost his blessing too; though (grown more wise)
In vain he sought it with distilling eyes.
She wrought upon the Isra'lites first King,
VVitch-craft to use, after abandoning
That direful art: and then provok'd him further,
VVith his own hands his loathed self to murther.
She forc't the traytor Judas, who had sold
His Master, (the great Shepherd of God's fold)
To hang himself, his conscience to appease;
To haste from Earth, to seek in Hell for ease:
VVhere if he found it, none was found before:
Nor found shall be thenceforth for evermore.
After his sad revolt from sacred truth,
Mark but how eagerly this Fiend pursu'th
Apostate Julian; who despairing, cry'd,
Vicisti Galilaee; and so dy'd.
Great Bajazet, the Turkish Emperour,
Brain'd his proud self, incensed by thy pow'r.
And our third Richard, Englands quondam King
(By usurpation) wilfully did fling
Himself away at Bosworth: twice o'ercome,
By foes in field, and by despair at home.
But what need I historick Cinders rake,
Examples to produce? whereas they spake
But sparingly of mens despair for sin;
One well known modern pattern sure had been
Proof strong enough of desperation's force,
Poor Francis Spira (man ne'er heard a worse:)
VVho (by seducing wiles of Antichrist)
Was drawn t'apostatize from real Christ;
Whenceforth he ne'er felt comfort more on earth,
But had a Hell within him; curst his birth,
Roar'd, howl'd, and cry'd, and dy'd in deep despair;
Although he had good men's advice and prayer.
Despair's a Polititian: whose black Art,
Makes man upon himself act Satans part;
Accuse, condemn, torment, repel free grace,
Refuse to give his proferr'd pardon place;
Tempt to the highest sin: and then to tell
His sadded soul, No place for thee but Hell:
And so when man the Devils work hath done,
He payes him wages, who desired none.
The Poets Momus she out-strips in spight,
VVho hated others for his own delight:
She hates both God and Man, Angels, and Devil,
And her self too: yea all, both good and evil,
Save her despairing humour, which alone
She cherishes, and strives to dote upon;
And (to her everlasting torment) feeds
The gnawing worm, that in her conscience breeds:
She's sick to death, yet will no cordial take;
Casts off all physick, which her pains might slake:
Her wound is deep, and cure she doth desire,
Yet throws her plaisters all into the fire.
A spirit frenzifi'd within her raigns;
She ease desires, yet needs will keep her pains.
Merciful Lord, defend us from afflictions,
VVherein are manifest such contradictions:
Assist us with thy grace to persevere
Unto the end; and then we need not fear
O'erwhelming in this deep abyss, wherein
So many heav'n-bound vessels sunk have been.
Strengthen our faith: against despair uphold
Our feeble souls; and bring them to thy fold.

An Epigram on despair.

DEspair avaunt; eternal death attends
Thy very touch; Hell's at thy fingers ends.
The Cockatrices optick poyson's weak,
Asps tactick venome slight, to thine: thoul't break
Hearts all in shivers by a single thought:
Yea, murther souls too: though most dearly bought
By God-man's blood; thou mak'st men spill the price,
And slight their mercies, by thy rash advice.
Lord, grant a better Counsellor to me;
For sure such Counsellor deserves no Fee.

On Presumption and Despair.

OLd Poets all mistake, who all agree
In one to make the fatal Sisters three:
It's one too many, for but two they are;
But two more fatal then their three, by far.
Daring Presumption (that her cheats may pass)
Puts Mercy in a multiplying-glass,
So magnifies her past proportion'd measure:
Makes her a Patroness for lust and pleasure.
Whilst Cowardly Despair (to dim her worth)
Peeps through a Perspective, whose wrong end's forth;
VVhich less'ning glass, when mercy's through it view'd,
Semi-annihilates her magnitude.
They oft change glasses; and Despair puts sin
Into Presumptions glass: whilst she agin
Views Justice through Despairs false Perspective:
VVhich makes them both erroneous judgement give.
A cure for both I'll briefly thus devise:
Let both their glasses break, and trust their eyes:
Presumption, stoop to Poenitence; Despair.
Arise to Faith; 'twill make their ways both fair:
So shall Despair true Poenitence become:
Presumption saving Faith to bring us home.
For one is still too low, t'other too high:
Neither will let us unto God draw nigh.

Repentance.

DRop on, sweet lymbeck-eyes, till you dist [...]l
Those high-priz'd waters, that Gods bottle fill.
Drop, spare not: this the richest water is
That Earth affords; and Heav'n hath none of this,
Save in Gods handkerchief, those tears [...]ip'd off
Their glorified cheeks, whom earth did scoff;
Water of life it is, if truly made.
Oh that the avaricious world would trade
For this rich ware! one drop whereof out-vies
East, and West-Indies (bought at highest price)
In its true worth; add to it (for 'twill need)
As much faith as a grain of mustard-seed:
This composition valu'd is most high,
In the esteem of Jove's great majesty;
'Tis worth more worlds then heav'n hath stars, shoar sands,
Sea drops, or single blades of grass earth's lands.
Stream on, pure fountains; with your hysop water,
Your nitred springs, my sin-stain'd soul bespatter;
Sope-lave it in your pearly rills, that fall
From sorrow's source: but still have care to call
For Lamb's blood intermixt by faith, which brings
True vertue to your mundifying springs:
It cleanseth all the stains in nature left;
And those we added since our Parents theft.
Blow on, serenest sighing wind, and calm
My stormed conscience; and abate the qualm
That seiz'th my wounded spirit: clear the air:
Dispel the clouds with gusts of zealous pray'r,
VVhich force ope heaven, and commit a rape
Upon th'Almightie's ears: we shall escape,
How fierce soever our assault be made.
Thou art the wind drives all who heav'nward trade:
By thee they must un-anchor, and set forth;
Or else their voyage will be little worth.
Fill up our sails; for we shall finde rich ware,
That hidden lies beyond the fixed sphere:
Yet blow as faith may steer aright: know well,
VVho sayl by heav'n, pass neer the gates of Hell:
'Twixt Scylla and Charybdis we must pass;
Presumption and despair: and these (alass)
Are full of danger: one's a floating Rock;
T'others a gulf shifting (like weather-cock)
Its place with each ne [...] wind: On; if we stay,
They'l both most surely cross us in the way;
And for the most part, he that one doth fly,
Is shipwrack'd on the other instantly.
Whiff not with boyst'rous blasts into the deep;
Let thy gales us in fathom'd shallows keep:
Blow well to Leeward: though a Rock appear,
'Tis Christ the Cape of our good Hope; no fear:
For never vessel which that Rock did miss,
Arrived at the wished Port of bliss.
Nay, more; unless that Rock we hang upon,
Our vessel's split; and we are all undone:
Oh, see where it appeareth; yond' before:
Haste on; I'm sea-sick, put me there ashoar:
The floating Rock, and shifting gulf I see
Approaching neer: they both in kenning be.
Blow strong; bear in: on that Rock run aground:
Strike sail: cast Anchor, for our Port is found:
If that firm Rock do make the Anchor bend,
Hope's Anchor steel with faith at either end.
She with one finger (if we Anchors want)
Can mo [...]e us on a Rock of Adamant:
Such is the Rock, on which we must depend,
That thee (my soul) from shipwrack must defend:
An Adamantine Rock, whose vertue lay'th
Magnetick force, on all that's steel'd by faith.
Help sighs (sad heart;) my d [...]ie eyes help tears;
Such wind and water, souls on this Rock bears:
To steel Hope well with stedfast faith endeavour;
Then shall we Anchor on it safe for ever.

Epigram on Repentance.

BLow wind; drop rain; Repentance much endears
Our souls to God: such musick charms his ears:
Let faith hold fast, and then full safe are we:
These sisters are, and must not parted be,
Both of one birth: most strange intwined twins!
Where the first ends, mostly the last begins;
Which should be elder, great Divines do doubt:
But we'll not sift such needless scruples out.
God grant us both in truth of soul and mind;
And which is first, we need not pry to find.

Faith.

STrongest of creatures! whose eternal Base
Is firmer fix'd then earth's foundation was:
Whose everlasting force none can withstand:
Surviving change in Heav'n, Hell, Sea and Land.
By thee the Elders good report did take:
Thou teachest us Gods Word the world did make:
By faith meek Abel off'red sacrifice
More excellent, and pleasing in God's eyes
Then Cain's, his elder brother. Enoch's faith
Caus'd his translation, that he saw not death:
By faith did Noah (warn'd) the Ark prepare,
Wherein he and his houshold saved were.
By faith the faithful's father Ur forsook,
And to an unknown place himself betook:
By faith he and his seed did sojourn there;
In a strange land their Tabernacles were:
By faith old Sarah Issue did receive,
And quite past age had strength seed to conceive:
By faith tri'd Abram, Isaac offered,
Accounting God could raise him from the dead:
That Isaac blessed his two sons hereby:
And Jacob Joseph's sons, when he did die.
By faith departing Joseph mention made
That Isr'el out of Aegypt should evade.
By faith was new-born Moses three months hid;
And when he came to yeers, refuse he did
The Title of King Pharao's daughter 's son;
And rather chose to bear affliction
With God's poor Israel, then (for a season)
Sin's pleasure to enjoy; faith was his reason:
Hereby he Aegypt left, Passover kept,
And sprinkling blood, lest he should them have swept,
Who the first-born destroy'd: By this they post
Through Red-Sea dry-shod; while th' Aegyptian Host
The like assaying, were o'erwhelmed all.
By Faith the Walls of Jericho did fall;
And Rahab saved was. But should I tell
Of Gideon, Barak, Sampson, Samuel,
Jephta, and David; of the Prophets all,
Whom faith to do, or suffer forth did call:
Whose faith wrought righteousness; Kingdoms subdu'd,
Obtained promises; and stop'd the rude
And savage Lyons mouths; and quencht fierce fire;
Escap'd the sword; made weakness to aspire
To be most strong; wax'd valiant in fight,
And turned Aliens Armies all to flight:
How women have their dead reviv'd receiv'd;
And others tortur'd, would not be reliev'd;
With the unnumbred wonders faith hath wrought,
Unparallel'd, and passing humane thought:
Time would me fail; for no tongue can express
Faith's famous miracles (were they much less)
Whose all-subduing pow'r none can resist:
She makes th'Almighty God do what she list:
For if faith as a grain of mustard-seed,
Can Mountains move ( as in truth's word we read)
None can imagine any thing is hard
To a firm faith from sinful doubt debarr'd.
Faith is the clew, that (in earths pilgrimage)
Convey's the Lord's elected heritage
Through the world's labyrinth, and brings them home
Unto the King of glorie's presence-room.
She is the souls perspective glass, whereby
She spies what friends or foes in kenning lye:
If Pyrates cross us, or we victual want,
Faith's both our ammunition, and provant:
She is the winde that drives: the needle, card,
And Pilot that directs: she is our guard;
Nay, she's our Sun by day, our Moon by night,
Our Star that brings us to our Saviours sight;
Next whom, she's all in all, to those that sail
For Bliss-port; and without her, all must sail.

Epigram on Faith.

MY soul, thou'rt bliss-ward bound: make faith thy friend,
Eternal bliss is at her fingers end;
He that the same bestows, is in her eye,
Who'll cease to be, as soon as her deny.
Stupendious wonder! God should stoop so low,
As to be creature-rul'd! yet I will show
True reason for't: and (briefly) that is this:
It is his will, whose will true reason is.

Hope.

FIrm Anchor of our souls! that moar'st them fast
Unto the sacred Rock; when thou art cast,
On what side ere thou fall'st thou hold fast tak'st,
And in that adamant impression mak'st:
When our weak faith's Sun-beams eclipsed are,
We sail by thee alone, our only Star;
In those dark obfuscations, which sometimes
Becloud the best, at sight of their high crimes:
Which interpose a foggie mist between
Our faith's dim'd eyes, and Christ: and like a screen,
Repel the light and heat that should proceed
From his bright Rayes unto our souls in need:
Then thou our Pilot ready art at hand,
When we are toss'd in deeps, to drive to land.
Thou art the Master's Mate (though faith be chief)
And in her absent actings yeeld'st relief;
When she's asleep, or else unactive grown;
And we upon the quick-sands well-nigh thrown;
Thou bring'st assistance, with thy gentle gale,
That we a while may with a by-wind sail;
Till faith do re-enliven, and recover,
Until her soporif'rous fit be over.
When she awakes, and wash'th her spethom'd eyes
In Penitences laver, thou dost rise,
And succour her enfeebled arm and hand,
Depriv'd of their late holdfast: thou dost stand,
And her support; who (if thou wert not nigh)
Would languish in those fainting fits, and die.
VVhen Faith is mir'd in pudly sink of sin,
And tired quite, thou wad'st through thick and thin,
To draw her out: rub'st her benummed limbs,
Till by regain'd agility she climbs,
And tow'rs aloft, and tramples down her foes;
And conquers all the pow'rs that her oppose.
In sad desertions, when the wounded soul
Studie's by art to make her fair parts foul,
Hope gently wipes her spots, and rins'th her eyes,
That she may clearer view the mysteries
Of love Divine; and not despair to cry
For mercy, which she else would do, and die.
Hope in our souls a kind of being gains,
Ere saving Faith can act; and this restrains
New Faith from failing: whence she term'd may be,
Her elder grace, without absurdity:
And though Plerophory (which some attain)
Seem hope needless to make, when that they gain;
She's needful still, and fades not till fruition
Of what is hoped; then shall blessed vision
Withal determine faith, when she shall see
What she believ'd, and thence both useless be;
When doubts and fears which here them both an­noy'd
[...]hall be discuss'd and quell'd by bliss enjoy'd;
[...]in's sting envenom'd quite extracted be:
And death be swallow'd up in victory;
Then necessary uselesness attends
Them both, when they have both attain'd their ends.
[...]aith, Hope, and Charity, may well be call'd
[...] Christian's tria Omnia, and install'd,
[...]he Princesses of other gifts, and graces
[...]nd, in Christ's Church, rightly supply the places
[...]o Sulphur, Salt and Mercury, alotted
[...] nature's schools, by those whom Art besotted:
[...]he three chief corner-stones in Sion's wall;
[...]emove but these, and you will ruine all:
[...]ea, rob a man of hope, faith soon will die;
[...]nd so will everlasting Charity.
[...] hope surcease, soon by degrees expire;
[...]r hope of all the three keep in the fire:
[...]e gains them life and heat, and them inflames
[...]ith Zeal Divine: the surging waves she tames
[...]hich in the storms of passions, or affections,
[...]f Spir'tual or temporal afflictions,
[...]nd perturbations, them would overwhelm,
[...]d she not steer their course, and sit at Helm.
[...] sacred hope! steer on our course aright,
[...]rough this dark vale of tears, in darkest night,
[...]hilst faith is hood-winkt, Charity inchill'd,
[...] other graces dead, thou only skill'd
[...] give sight, heat, and life unto them all;
[...]lp (hope) at need, (dear God) or else we fall:
Who dying, we shall live, thy face to see,
And to enjoy and be enjoy'd by thee.

Epigram on Hope.

WEak faith's chief crutch; deserted soul's sole prop;
Charities warming-pan; all this is Hope:
Fear's Antidote, the Proto-pharmacon
Of grim despair; or else sure there is none;
Doubt's prime discusser; who doth her arraign
At mercie's bar, where she by faith is slain.
Hope's Jacob's ladder, which doth pierce the Sky,
Whereby enfeebled faith may mount on high,
Strength to renew, and act more lively on
In order to the souls salvation:
She is the constant'st grace that can be nam'd
To stead us here, and never makes asham'd.

Charity.

SWeet cement of the Bridegroom's sweetest Bride,
Whereby her distant parts are unifi'd:
Strong Ligament of love, that linkest fast
Her dislocated joynt's! thy very tast
Is full of Heav'n: and thy corruscant face
Transcends the Cherubims: and ev'ry grace
(However good and great) is without thee.
Like a dead corpse, whose limbs unfouled be.
Miracle-working faith is void and vain,
Unless the soul thee likewise entertain;
And God-compelling prayer's an empty blast,
Where thou art absent, and shall off be cast.
When thou unit'st, no distance earth affords,
That can divide their hearts that are the Lords.
Thou joyn'st the members militant of Christ
All in one bodie, and so joyned, ty'st
Them in firm union with the rest above
Who are triumphant: so that all by love
Joy the same joy, think the same thoughts, and pray
The self same pray'rs in heart: both we and they
In Spirit now are one; and so shall we
One bodie mystical hereafter be:
Though now this flesh polluted taint our pray'rs,
Our thoughts, and joys; whence ours come short of theirs
In actual perfection; soul-desire
Wing's our Intentionalls as high to spire
As theirs inthron'd: though we imprison'd lye,
And unreleasable until we die.
But then, eternal love shall work alone,
When Hopes fruition and faith's vision
Shall them determine in immortal glory,
And they be needless, as these transitory,
Unsatisfying, sublunary joys
We dote on here, (the quintessence of [...]oys.)
Divinest love was privie counseller
When God elected us: and she past o'er
His six days labour with delight, when he
Created us, and what for us sh [...]ld be.
All these loves wonders pass our admiration:
But oh! when we relapst, our renovation
By a redeeming Jesus, makes us see
Much more then love, if more then love can be:
Yet sure 'twas love alone procur'd that bliss;
But such a love as neer was love like this.
Love is the glew, that hold's so long together
Heav'ns goodly frame, and all that is beneath her:
For (did not she prevent it) our least sin
Would ruine us, the world, and all therein;
And tumble all the creatures down pell-mell
Into the lowest, worst of creatures, Hell.
Ah sacred Charity! what tongue can raise
A Trophy fitting thy deserved praise?
The Cherubims and Seraphims, that be
Most glorious creatures, stand amaz'd at thee;
Thy lustre dazles them: their pure eyes fail,
To view thy purer face without a vail:
And none but three in one, and one in three,
Hath pow'r with fixed eyes to look on thee:
I'm sure thou blindst my muse; for she is flown
A flight beyond what common sense will own;
And now she's at her pitch, must re-decline
To Christians Charity, from love divine.
Charity suffers long, and kind she is;
She envies not, nor vaunts her self amiss:
She is not puffed up; nor doth behave
Her self unseemly; nor her own doth crave:
She is not soon provoked: thinks no ill;
Nor in iniquity rejoyce she will,
But in the truth; she beareth all things too;
All things believes; and her hopes all things woo.
And she all things endures; she'l never fail,
When prophecies and tongues shall nought avail,
And knowledge quite shall vanish: for all these
Are but in part, and consequently cease,
When our prefection comes: but Charity
Remaines entire to all eternity.
This sacred writ records of her perfection;
A testimony that should win affection,
As will as credit. Sure (were man not blind
With pride, and envy, and too much inclin'd
To base self-love) sheep of our shepherd's fold,
Would never let their Charity grow cold
As many do in this sad age; who by
A false-fir'd Zeal, extinguish Charity.
Had we hearts to let Charity work in us,
She from our schismes and factions so would win us,
(Which now nigh prove what we have earst heard told,
Quot homines, sententiae to [...], of old:)
As to unanimate both Church and State;
Which both are grown inanimate through hate,
And interchanged jealousies, that neither
Can well endure, what's good for both or either:
And God would soon foundations settle here
Of that bless'd government, which shall appear
Ere long in all opposers spite; and last
When all Dominions else shall down be cast:
And shall in perfect peace all scepters sway
In earth's vast round, and all shall it obey;
When Jews shall called be, (as Scriptures told)
And with the Gentiles fulness make one fold;
And have one faithful shepherd o're them all,
Melchisedeck, whom we Christ Jesus call.
Lord, re-unite our hearts in love, that thou
May'st perfect that great work, and all may bow
Before thy throne, when thou in peace shalt raign
Through Heav'n and earth, & through the sea & main.

Epigram on Charity.

SHall I by rules of convertibles pry
Into a secret, and not soar too high?
If God, be love; love, God: then Charity
Is elder sister to eternity:
Or rather morher; as is plain to see,
If one Creator, t'other creature be.
These theo-critical conceits may enter
Into thy thoughts (my muse) but do not venture
To scan them far; lest thou shouldst lose thereby
The god of love, the love of god, and dy.
Weak-winged [...]ouls, wh [...] stormy winds do roar,
Flutter below, dare not a loft to soar.
Forbear poor flea to wade within the brim
Of that abyss, where Elephants must swim.

PATIENCE.

1.
VIctorious Queen! that foyl'st all Potentates
That dare assail thee:
By thee prevail we;
When Faith and Hope are non-plus'd by cross fates,
Thou can'st them both recover;
And keep us that we give not over;
Nor yeeld the day before the field be won:
Wer't not for thee, poor Christians were undone.
2.
In persecution thou the Cordial art,
That our hearts easest,
And us releasest
From passions, that would else breed endless smart:
Thou mak'st our burthen lighter;
Though thou disclaim'st to be a fighter,
No Christian Champion ever won the field,
Where thy tri'd valour forc'd not foes to yeeld.
3.
Our God-man general by thee o'ercame
Earth and Hell's crosses:
And salv'd our losses;
Whose Patience unparallel'd became.
She was the primest feather
In his triumphant plume: And either
She in our Helmets must be worn; or foes
Will win the day, and we the prize shall lose.
4.
She from the manger to the garden chear'd
Our dearest Saviour:
VVhose meek behaviour
Astonish'd men; and his Condemner fear'd.
Gethsemane, nigh tiring,
VVith blood-sweat passion, fear inspiring:
VVhen God and Man were both nigh at a loss,
She chears to Golgotha, and climbs the Cross.

Epigram on Patience.

AS Palm-tree press'd, or Plantine trod, best grows;
So Patience, by suff'rings, foes o'erthrows.

To LIFE.

1.
LIfe! thou dost flatter, and betray
My heedless soul to sin to day,
On thee presuming,
And hopes assuming
Of penitence hereafter:
And so thou lead'st me sheep-like to the slaughter.
2.
Thou in thy warfare careless art,
Though Death hath got Letters of Mart,
Soon to surprize thee,
VVhere-e'er he spies thee:
A foe that will not trifle,
But surely speed: and will thee shortly rifle.
3.
Why shouldst thou faithless to me be?
'Tis to thy self as well as me:
Cease then to flatter,
And thy baits scatter,
To hook my foolish fancie:
For thy allurements work like necromancie.
4.
'Tis a black Art, and dark thou hast,
VVho danger vail'st till time is past
Of it preventing,
And mak'st repenting
Late, unavailing to us;
And by thy Syren's songs dost quite undo us.
5.
VVe silly mortals quite mistake,
VVhen thee for our chief friend we take:
Death is more friendly,
And deals more kindly,
VVho summons us to heaven:
VVhen thou would'st keep us here, of joy bereven.
6.
Nature on thee doth too much dote,
VVhose humour 'tis to love by rote;
(VVhil'st reason's blinded,
And sense most minded,)
Our souls by thee are lulled
Secure asleep; and of salvation gulled.

To DEATH.

1.
DEath, how do sinners thee abuse,
VVho thee most grim to pourtray use?
They quite mistake thee,
VVho uglie make thee:
Thou to the good art comely;
Though worldlings deem thy presence course and homely.
2.
Thou art out Moses, who dost show
Our way from Egypt, here below:
To Can'an's glory.
Thou dost us hurry
From this worlds dayly sorrows.
To joyes eternal, where to day wants morrows.
3.
It is thy father makes thee grim:
Thou lovely art, wert not for him.
He dwells within us,
And he doth win us
To hate thee without thy desert;
Thy Father's sin, and thou his wages art.
4.
A father strange; that hates his child,
And wages too ( you'ld deem him wild,
As we count wildness:)
For death's sweet mildness
Is shown still to the holly;
Sin's their chief foe, and counts their goodness folly.
5.
Death is God's H [...], who calls away
His servants to receive their pay:
But to his debtors
And their abertors
His under-Sheriff cruel;
Who them imprisons where flame [...] ne'er want [...] fuel.
6.
Death lays our bodies here asleep,
Whilst festivals our souls shall keep,
'Till our exciting,
And re-uniting
In joys passing all beneath:
Ah fit me Lord for thee, and welcome death.

The Resurrection.

DRead Lord! what harmony my soul doth find
In all the wondrous works by thee design'd,
Or consummate; past, present, or to come?
Oh! how disorder bringeth order home!
This days confusion sure will far surpass
The Chaos that at the Creation was:
And this days order will the perfect'st be
That men or Angels ever yet did see.
The sad confusion of thy Goat herds train
Exceeds all thoughts conceiv'd by mortals brain:
And the sweet order of thy shepherds sheep
Will Angels strike with admiration deep.
What hurly-burly here shall we descry
'Mongst Nimrod's fell Tyrannick progeny?
How loath (this day) will their proud ashes be
To re-unite; when they thy Son shall see
(Whose members they have persecuted here)
In cloud-clad glory come? what rueful cheer!
What horrour and amazement will confound
Their loathsome souls, when that last trump shall sound,
And they be summon'd forthwith to appear
Before that Judge, whom they condemned here?
Pilate will wish his heart had washed been,
When he his hands did wash, but for a screen
To cover horrid murther: Wilful Jews,
That roar'd out, Crucifie him, at this news,
(Struck with astonishment) will surely wish
They had been all born dumb, or mute as fish.
But empty wishes nought avayl them here:
For (will they, nill they) all men must appear
At this last great Assize, and render in
Compleat account of what hath acted been
By them here in the flesh: and not alone
Of act's, but of their words, and thoughts each one:
According whereunto they shall their doom
Receive, for all that endless time to come;
Save those for whom the Lamb was born and dy'd:
Who shall by faith, not by deserts, be try'd:
And (bathed in his blood) shall shine more bright,
Then Phaebus doth when he gives purest light:
These shall have all the tears wip'd off their eyes;
And be enthroned with the deities,
With great Tri-une Jehovah; they shall be
The Bridegroom's Bride to all eternitie,
And raign with him in bliss for evermore
Who them redeemed hath, and pay'd their score.
Lord, these do groan for this great day, and cry
Come, come Lord Jesus: Oh come quickly! hy!
To set us free from sin, and from all those
That persecute us, thine and our fierce foes.
When shall we be avenged? when wilt thou
Ascend the throne, and make all mortals bow
Before thy foot-stool? when again restore
All pow'r unto thy self for evermore?
Lord, re-assume it, for it is thy due:
Thou hast it lent a while to men, 'tis true:
But they bad stewards prove, and miss-employ
Thy talents, and deserve not to enjoy
Thy slighted favour. Lord, call in again
That pow'r; and let the Lamb for ever raign;
Then shall the Church triumphant sing his song
With Hallelujah's, from the Angel-throng:
For he alone is worthy to ascend
The throne eternal; whose rule shall not end;
Whose Kingdom and dominion ne'er shall [...]se:
Who is the Prince of everlasting peace;
Who from beginning was ordain'd to die,
That he his chosen flock might glorifie;
To whom all glory be ascrib'd; and then
Shall Saints and Angels cry Amen, amen.

The Epigram.

JUdas, prepare thy bag; thy day is come,
When for thy pains, thou shalt be payd full home.
But Oh! thy mind is chang'd; thou would'st Essoyn
Thy self this court, rather then take this Coin:
Though take it needs thou must, and when thou hast it,
'Twill last for ever: for time cannot waste it,
Yet thou wilt finde, thy state had been more thriving,
Had'st thou refus'd those thirty pieces living.
This is a maxime (though of my own making)
Men grow not always truly rich by taking:
Misers, whom love of coin on earth o'er-sway'd,
Shall this day in their own coin be repay'd.
For Sion's Lamb when he ascends the throne,
Will prove himself a debtor unto none,
But will requite both good and ill that's done
By all man's off-spring, since the world begun.

A Soliloquie on the Resurrection.

CHeer up, my soul; exalt thy head on high;
For thy long-look'd Redemption draweth nigh:
Lo, thy sweet Saviour comes in glory bright,
This day to put an end to day and night,
Whence times alternate course away shall fly,
Issuing forth into eternity,
One everlasting day; whose splendor clear
Will need no Sun to give us light, and chear:
Our Sun shall be the Sun of Righteousness,
Which never sets; whose light no cloud makes less
In his coruscant glory: He shall shine
Into thine eyes (my soul) with light divine;
And yet not dazzle them to hurt thereby;
They'l dazled be with sweet satiety,
With joy and admiration to behold
Israels shepherd, with his flock and fold;
The great Creator; thy Redeemer dear;
The sacred Spirit; and the Angels clear;
Thy fellow -Saints and Martyrs, Citizens
Of new Jerusalem, Heav'ns denizens:
All cloth'd in robes more glorious then the Sun
Ere was at Summers noon since time begun.
Thine ears shall hear the Alleluiahs ring
Through the great palace of th' Almighty King,
And round the whole circumference of Heaven,
And Heav'n of Heav'ns such ecchoes shall be given,
Such quaint retortings, such redouble-ings,
And such retakings, by the quire that sings
The Lamb's melodious song, to whose sweet notes
The four and twenty Elders tune their throates,
And winde their harpstrings to the highest pin;
That ravishment of sense, and soul can win:
The graver clashing of their Crowns of gold,
Cast down before the Throne, will consort hold
With their sweet viols tinckling treble tones;
Whose Aromatick odours will at once
Perfume all Heav'n, and every nostril fill;
With most divine contentment; sate the will,
Stupifie sense, with sense of boundless bliss:
(Yet not offend, but please the more for this,)
O'recome all hearts, conquer all souls with joy
And yet by this oppression not annoy:
All which our blessed joys shall last for ever,
Beginning always fresh, but ending never:
VVhich perpetuity of joy augments
The value of it beyond all extents.
I prize a grain's-weight of this joy and glory
Beyond the world's-weight of what 's transitory.
Lord, what a thing is man! a sinful worm:
That thou shouldst him first form, then faln [...] form?
Elect, Create, Redeem and Justifie;
More, sanctifie? Nay, yet more, glorifie?
And that for ever! what a heap of wonders
Hast thou done for us? who on this well ponders,
Should laugh the world, the flesh and devil to scorn▪
And care for nothing, but to be new-born.
Lord, grant us still a heedful care of this,
Which sure the one thing necessary is:
Whereof if thou us truly careful see,
All other things shall added to us be.

Amen.

To the World.

1.
MErchant! I see the fair's beginning,
By thy swift hasting:
Were thy ware lasting,
'Twere worth the seeking, worth the winning:
But it's fading:
And thy trading
Doth all Customers deceive:
Thy fals-made ware, thou warrant'st good;
Dost in exchange from man receive
Rich ware; the price of richest blood.
Whilst thus thou cheatest,
The poorest soul thou gettest,
Or e'er defeatest
(Howe'er despised;
If truly prized)
Transcends in worth thy self and all thy brood.
Unpack, expose thy ware to view:
Ile buy of thee, if it be true:
(Alass) it's false; though fair in shew;
I need none on't, save only clothes, and food.
2.
Why vaunt'st thou of the blast cal'd honour?
That bubble's broken,
Whilst thou hast spoken.
True wisdom never fixt eye [...] her,
Much less a heart.
A cheat thou art:
And when man looks upon thy ware,
Thou with false opticks dost him blind:
Which makes what's seen to shine and glare,
But keep'st obscure the worst behind:
Thou shew'st thy glory,
That's but a forged story,
And transitory;
Keep'st man a stranger,
From shame and danger,
Till he miss that he sought, and both these find.
Ah cheating Merchant! why should we
Accept false ware profer'd by thee?
Grant Lord it rather stink to me;
To thy ware fraudless be my heart inclin'd.
3.
Next shewst thy Idols, wealth and treasure;
Those dei-fiest,
Wherein thou liest,
Boasting of what's beyond thy measure:
False deities
Man them soon spies:
Were they divine, they sure would fill
Mans triangle, which they ne'er could:
They leave our hearts unsated still;
More fear then joy in heapes of gold,
With care acquired,
With fear kept, and admired.
When help's desired,
In day of trouble
They danger double,
And help thy Foes: so dear both bought and sold.
Ah false Idolater! who can
Adore thy Mammon? thy great Pan?
And leave him that redeemed man?
Grant me thy treasure, Lord, which grows not old.
4.
Next thou bring'st forth thy changeling Pleasure,
Whose various shapes
Commit ev'n rapes
On souls betray'd by too much leasure:
This Proteus
Seduceth us
To trifle pretious time away,
In that which is not; when (alas!
Spent we in real things that day)
Our time too swift from us would pass.
These painted bables,
Sense-stupifying fables,
Bind strong as cables:
Work on the fancie,
Like Necromancy,
That man forgets for what he formed was.
Ah Circe! cease thy cursed charms:
Thy Syrens Songs portend our harms.
Lord, take me into thy blest arms;
Be thou to me 'gainst her a wall of brass.

An Epigram on the World.

HOnour? and Treasure? what! and Pleasure too?
Who puts off all these, hath enough to do.
Base pedlar World! thou'st shewn much Ware to day,
All false, like thee: pack up thy pipes: away.

Another on the same,

THe world turn'd pedlar? doubtless she will sell
Much paltrie ware, although at price of Hell:
Her smooth-tongu'd prentices can set a gloss,
To make that seem pure gold, which is but dross.
Nay, they have got a cheat that passeth all,
To make men think her highest price is small.
(My soul) shun thou this market; go not forth,
Where price is infinite beyond wares worth;
To buy short joy, for wo that ne'er shall end!
The Lord thee from such Merchandise defend.

To self.

1.
MY neerest friend, and yet my meerest foe;
Who mak'st me two, that else but one would be,
And in that one-ness happy, being so
One with my dread creator: self thou me
Dost from my self divide, and both from God.
Fond self! were I my self, I could not bear
Thy charming pressures, and forbear the rod,
To scourge thy folly. But I still give ear
To thy enticements, who allur'st my soul
Clean paths to traverse, and to tread the foul.
2.
Thou foul'st my paths, thy self; yea, thou lay'st snares
In ev'ry foot-step to intrap us both:
Thy baits are spells, inchant us unawares:
Bewitch depraved nature; and betroth
Her to her mortal'st foe, her ruling sin.
Look I on beauty, Gods sweet creature good,
And useful? thou forthwith convey'st lust in
To my frail heart: thou set'st on fire my blood:
Provok [...] me to defilement: thoughts unchaste
Pollute my soul, and my weak faith devaste.
3.
Think I on lawful thriving? or on wealth?
Thou poysonest that thought with Avarice.
Think I on honour? thou bringst in by stealth
Pride and Ambition, and each haughty Vice.
If on Religions sacred self I ponder;
Thou temptst to Superstition, Schism, or Errour:
My Faith with doubts, my Hope with fears keepst un­der;
Fill'st my distracted heart with horrid terrour.
Pray I with zeal? thou stir'st vain glory in me:
If coldly, to cease praying thou wilt win me.
4.
Hear I Gods holy word? or do I read
His sacred Oracles? thou interposest
Base worldly garbage: and dost me mislead
By fleshly thoughts: or my Soul indisposest
For such religious Duties by dull slumber,
By mock-death-sleep, or chilliness of spirit,
Or else with avaricious care dost cumber;
Or puff performance with conceit of merit.
And so a snake in my most fair paths lay'st,
And (like a faithless self) thy self betray'st.
5.
Would I bewail my sins? thou p [...]trifi'st
My melting heart: thou dri'st my tear-big-eyes,
Drawst in my sigh-puft sayles, and balm appli'st
To fest'red Ulcers, whilst my Conscience cryes
They should be search'd and cleans'd: and so dost kill,
By artless curing. But if I sustain
A petty worldly cross, thou shew'st thy skill
With Probe and Corrosive [...] and here again
Thou kill'st me twice, whom worlds cross should not wound,
Were not thy dastard heart so apt to swound.
6.
Call I a Parliament within my brest,
And summon thither Faith, Hope, filial Fear,
Love, and enlightned Conscience, with the rest
Of the Lords House: if they do all appear:
Wit, Learning, Reason, humane Wisdom, Care,
The Moral Vertues, and Dame Natures Gifts,
(All which, well us'd, good Common Members are)
Out th' Higher House: And then are put to shifts
Themselves, by thee, who mak'st them actless fall:
Thou Autocrator-like, dost turn out all.
7.
But Oh! if I a parley with thee call,
Each thought's as soon enacted, as conceiv'd:
Thy elbow-counsel are, World, Dev'l, and all,
That we our selves by self may be deceiv'd.
Ah self-deluding self! thou hast retain'd
A cunning counsel, whose abstruse advice
Passes thy depth: thoul't see't when they have train'd
Thee on to ruine: prethee Self be wise;
And so adieu; we needs must part: farewel:
I'm bent for Heaven, and thou art guide to Hell.
Yet ah! I'm loath; but I thy witchcrafts smell,
Thou mak'st this Stave, my Yard of Verse an Ell.

The Epigram.

SElf against self? and yet both selfs in one?
Far better self left self, or self were none:
Oh happy news! they're parted: yet it's wonder
If these loath-parting selfs stay long asunder.
If we re-meet, Lord, grant (to ill intents)
Our Parlies actless as our Parliaments.

The forraign Anchorite.

1.
REtired'st creature! who would ere believe,
A living man should thus himself intombe,
Immur'd to live, and die without reprieve,
In a poor Mason's off-springs ventless womb?
Such uncouth wayes to life, in men reveal
A frosty knowledge, though a fiery zeal.
2.
Here mans hero-ick soul so low descends,
As to forsake communion with his kinde;
All intercourse with near related friends:
VVhich might each other edifie in minde,
And teach in word and deed: pious converse
Might spread thy faith through kingdoms by com­merce.
3.
Is not thy talent hidden in this Cave?
Or at the best useful to none but thee?
Whilst thou abroad rich factorage might'st have,
VVhich for thy Master's, and thy gain might be.
Sure thy account will hardly pass at last,
When on thy sloth such losses shall be cast.
4.
And why may not the tempter more prevail
On thee in solitude? It was his plot
On our Redeemer, thinking not to fail
Of speeding, when he him alone had got.
Thou tempt'st a tempter bold; for he that dar'd
To set on God and man, of man ne'er fear'd.
5.
A stout and dreadful foe: And if thou stand
On thine own strength, much more, invincible.
VVer't but a duel that thou tak'st in hand,
Of one to one, such foe were terrible:
But when whole Legi-ons come marching on,
How wilt thou them oppose, that art alone?
6.
Blind-zeal-sick soul! in Charity i'll judge
Thee pixie-led in Popish piety,
VVho mak'st thy self the triple-crowns base drudge,
Debarr'd from all humane society;
VVho else might'st prove a Saint in future glory,
And yet enjoy these pleasures transitory;
7.
Thy life retir'd augments but their vain-glories,
VVho laugh at thee (in secret) all the while;
Thy fairie Elves, who thee misled with stories
Into the mire, then at thy folly smile,
Yea, clap their hands for joy. Were I us'd so,
I would shake hands with them, and turn their foe.
8.
Old countrey folk, who pixie-leading fear,
Bear bread about them, to prevent that harm:
Do thou the bread of life about thee bear,
God's purest Word, and that those fiends will charm:
That splendid light will chase false lights away,
As ignes fatui flie from Sol's bright day.

An Epigram on the same.

SWeetly disposed soul (for so I hope)
Though most deluded by thy self, and Pope;
Perquire Zoographers, and none recite,
A Romane Pope turn'd willing Anchorite.
Now they so much abhor such doubtful ways,
They'll not to Heaven go, without false [...]ayes.

Another on the same.

FOnd man! what an unwritten way is this?
Thou walkst to Hea-ven, and wilt Hea-ven miss:
Take God's word for thy guide, and thou shalt have
My word that that's the way that he will save:
Nay thou his word shalt have, who is the way
And word of life, that thou shalt live for Aye.

The domestick Anchorite.

1.
WElcome my soul from thy late pilgrimage
To Romish Anchorites secluded cell;
Thou'rt welcom home: and now i'll thee ingage
To view an English Anchorite as well:
Observe thy self with heed, and thou shalt see,
Thou art much more an Anchorite then he.
2.
Thou art a free-born sparke, of race divine,
Sprung from eternal parentage, inspir'd
By great Jehovah, of thy God's right line:
Stamp't with his Image: with his Spirit fir'd:
And yet (by native sin) art from thy birth
Immur'd in this dull nasty lumpe of earth.
3.
Thy body is thy jayl, and keeper both;
A stricter keeper, and a jayl more sure,
Man never had, although thou still art loth
To be releas'd; thy case is quite past cure:
For if to free thy self thou shouldst endeavour,
That act will make thee a worse slave for ever.
4.
Thy great Creator made his Covenant
Of works, that thou in doing thus shouldst live,
And raign eternally: but (if works want)
Shouldst die for evermore, without reprive.
That sacred Covenant this body broke:
And drew on thee (poor soul) this hellish yoke.
5.
A Covenant of Grace then God devis'd,
By a Redeemer, his own onely Son;
Which most transcendent easie terms compris'd:
Believe, be sav'd; Believe not, be undone:
Yet still this rotten carkass doth withstand:
When Heaven's offer'd, she draws in Faith's hand.
6.
It is a Jayl so close, that thou dost fill
Each smallest Angle of her Continent,
And all her rooms at once; no Mason's skill
So close an Anchoritage could invent:
By the admired Architectors Art,
Thou 'rt All in All, and All in ev'ry part.
7.
Thy Jayl's thy self; for thou and it are one,
Yet all your inclinations opposite:
Your proper actings vary not alone,
But still to contrarieties incite:
Will'st thou? thy Keeper nills: what thou dost nill,
Do what thou canst, thy Keeper do it will.
8.
Thy windows all are shut in this dark cave:
Thy eyes clos'd up: and when (like sealed Dove)
Thou fain wouldst flutter upward, light to have;
This flesh to thee united, will not move,
But draws thee back, and clips thy soaring wings,
Or at thy lofti'st pitch thee downward flings.
9.
The world hath none more Anchorite then thou:
Thy case seems desperate: And yet a cure
I'll thee prescribe, and briefly shew thee how
Thou may'st be safe, put but the same in ure:
If thou wilt soul and body both refresh,
When Spirit's sick, give Physick to the flesh.
10.
Give her a Vomit of Repentance true,
Steept well in tears, and taken next the heart,
Till that be broke: each day the same renew:
(A paradoxick Cure in physick's Art)
Purge oft by fasts and prayers, till thereby
An Issue thou procure in either eye.
11.
Take a good quantity of detestation,
Of hatred, and abhorrencie of sin;
Chiefly of that neer to thee in relation,
Which hath thy Darling and Beloved bin:
Thy right hand, thy right eye, cut off, pluck out,
And cast from thee: these wounds will cure, no doubt.
12.
When thou hast soundly thus evacuated
Thy sinful humours; if thou faintish grow,
And feel thy strength somewhat too much abated,
By Faith, this Cordial take that I thee show:
A dose of God-mans blood, mixt with his merits:
'Twill thee restore, and cheer thy heart and spirits.
13.
The greatest Doctor ere on earth did tread,
A better med'cine ne'er prescrib'd to man:
This life restores to men whole ages dead:
Nay, this eternal life procure thee can.
But after vomit, still beware returning:
And in and after purging, keep zeal burning.
14.
This will restore God's Image, lost by sin:
Make thee his son: thee with his Spirit fill;
Free thee from keeper, and the jayl thou'rt in:
Hereby thou mayst both covenants fulfil:
Open thy windows, and unclose thine eyes,
And higher mount, then Lark or Eagle flies.
15.
By this thou may'st flie higher then the spheres;
Out-mount all mortal thoughts; and live most free,
From worldly thraldoms, crosses, cares, and fears:
Have God's imperial throne prepar'd for thee
To King it in; when thou from hence shalt soar
To raign with him in joy for evermore.

The Epigram.

MY soul, take my advice; It's good (no doubt)
Thou and thy Jayl were both turn'd inside out.
Pray him that made you both (for Jesus sake)
He'll thee henceforth thy keepers keeper make.
'Twould main advancement to his glory be,
Could'st thou o'er-rule this wretch that now rules thee.

Another on the same.

TRanscendent wonder! that who's born most free,
A slave unto himself should freely be!
That the diviner soul, of god-like birth,
Should be a vassal to a lump of earth!
But she had never thus imprison'd bin,
Had not this body captiv'd her by sin,
Mortifie thou this body for't, and then
Thou shalt regain thy liberty agen:
Subdue its lusts; break its proud heart asunder;
Then (by Christ's help) thou'lt keep thy keeper under.

To Christians rigidly censorious.

DEar fellow-members of that mystick head
Who is our Jesus, and our Christ should be,
Who ever must be so acknowledged
By those that hope his face with joy to see!
Cease all rash judgment: look on me a worm,
The most unworthy member of you all,
Who cannot as I would, base self reform,
Yet trust in him to do't who's all in all,
Who sees and governs hearts with much more ease
Then men can actions: let his love divine
Calm your incensed spirits, and appease:
Your zealous hearts: forbear to judge of mine,
Or others mens estates by bare surmise,
To stumble at our failings: for we stand.
Or fall to our great master, who espies
The thoughts, words, deeds, of each heart, tongue, and hand,
And judgeth all uprightly: whom nor fear
Nor favour e'er can sway, nor bribe corrupt.
Happy are you that can your wills forbear,
And them subject to his: who interrupt
Lusts, passions, and affections natural
By his assisting grace; for thereby 'tis
Alone that you can stand: and though we fall
Often and much: rob us not of the bliss
Of your conniving Charity; but give
Mild censures of our states: for our desires
Like yours are infinite, wishing to live
In each particular as God requires;
But ah! corrupted nature so much sways
In our frail hearts, and all our duties taints:
We leave his pure, to walk in our vain ways;
No less might you, wer't not for his restraints.
Forbid Lord that I here should plead for sin
In customary practise unoppos'd;
It's crimes in which we fall, not wallow in,
Our hearts the while being otherwise dispos'd:
Death's body that is in us, towes us on
To do what our oppressed souls abhor;
Whence none can us deliver, but who's gone,
Yet staies with thee our pardons to implore:
On whom alone for mercy we depend,
Since 'tis thy will, who won, shall wear the prize:
His merits, not our own, our cause defend;
And they alone thy justice can suffice;
Our morning-dews, our menstruo [...]s raggs are full
Of emptiness, as well as filth that soiles
Our souls with self-conceit, which renders dull
And dead our duties, and our graces foils;
So whilst we in our selves for something look,
We overlook our souls Pau-pharmacon,
And swallow Satans subt'lest bayt and hook
(Which so besots mysterious Babylon,)
Self-merit; which can ne'er God's test endure:
Though we may hug our selves in high-flown hopes,
They'll vanish soon, and we shall stand impure
In his pure eyes, who'll storm down all self-props.
Dear brethren militant! who here wage war
Against world, flesh, and Devil, our common foes:
If any of you herewith tainted are,
(As many doubtless are, though who none knowes,)
Let me beseech your interchange of pray'rs
For us to graces sacred throne; and ours
Shall be for you: this mutual love repaires
All Christian breaches: cry with all your powers
For our more strict obedience; and we'll cry
With ours for your humility the while;
And let's all cry for Christian unity
Betwixt us all: divisions do defile
Our mothers face, they sully her fair skin,
And schism hath branded truths sweet self with lies;
Whilst we neglect the danger we are in,
And foster errors which our foes devise,
Purposely to divide, that they may raign,
And ruine undescri'dly Church and State;
To bring us back inslav'd to Rome and Spain:
Oh haste prevention, lest it prove too late!
Let's joyn hearts, hands and heads; let's cry aloud
With true repentant tears for our high crimes,
Which cry for vengeance, and are yet allow'd:
Frist mend our selves, then we shall mend the times,
For we have marr'd them: and till we reform,
They'll grow but worse in spight of wit, of force,
Or policy; And we shall have a storm,
Insensible by all our foot, and horse.
Defend, dear Lord, defend these sinfull lands,
From thy impending judgments, and retract
Thy unsheath'd sword: and let not their fierce hands
Thy just revenge on these vile Nations act,
Who are thy foes and ours, though our deserts
Plead strongly so to have it: but reclaim
Our sinful lives, and turn our stubborn hearts,
That we at last may at thy glory aim,
And scorn self-ends, the Idol of this Land;
Lest self-ends bring us to self-ends indeed,
As well as in intention; (Lord) thy hand
Alone can save us: blessed God, proceed
Wonders to work within us. In our change,
As thou hast long without us wonders wrought:
Turn us from bad to good; thy plagues estrange
Which unrepented sins have on us brought:
Restore us unity and peace divine:
Let thy sweet Gospels glory still increase:
Be thou Lord ours, and make us to be thine,
And bless these Isles with Christian joy and peace:
Then shalt thou joy in us, and we in thee,
And spread thy glory through earth's spatious rounds:
That all its Nations may come in and see
Thy saving health, and how thy grace abounds.

Amen.

Epigram.

HOw crooked in this age is mankind grown?
Some give offence, and others take where's none:
All flock like Larks to Day nets, and most flie
To a false glass, in stead of Heavens bright eye:
Opinion guideth most, and she (by faction)
Is quite beside her self, in high distraction.
Our wanton hearts each spark take, tinder-like,
That Rome's and Spain's false steel & stone do strike;
But ah beware, lest (blown into a flame)
Those sparks devour our Nation and our Name:
They had ere now, did he not them prevent,
From whose pure truths, they charm us to dissent,
By broaching sapless Schisms, fruitless Dissentions;
Teaching for truths their own accurst inventions.
Lord, re-unite us ere we ruin'd be:
Make us at odds with them, but one with thee.

Amen.

The bitter sweet.

1.
LOrd! it's a time of changes; oh be pleas'd
To change us so, that we may be appeas'd
In every change; submit our stormie wills
To thy disposals; silence passion stills;
And meek embracement of sharp dispensations
To us-wards for our great prevarications:
Retard ensuing judgements; I might say,
Prevents them, since it doth thy wrath allay.
2.
Lord! it's a time of troubles: trouble me
Most for my sins; since they most trouble thee.
Impow'r me, Lord, to trouble them as well
Who are the Achans of thy Isra-el;
Let them have trouble, 'till they troubled die,
Sunk in oblivion to eternity.
These curs'd Aegyptians still have thee withstood:
Drown them in the Red-sea of thy Sons blood.
3.
Lord! it's a time of war; arm thou my soul
Against my lusts and my corruptions foul,
Which with world, flesh, and devil, united stand
Encampt against me. Thine Almighty hand
Alone can save: make me resolv'd and stout;
That I by grace these restless foes may rout:
Teach me thy sp'ritual armour so to weild,
That they subdu'd with shame, may flie the field.
4.
Lord! it's a time of sickness: oh! I faint:
Sin is my sickness; make it my complaint:
Dear Christ, be thou my doctor, or I die:
No doctor else can cure my malady;
It's a contagious botch hereditary;
A leprosie, that doth infection carry
Through all man's generations; all man's line:
'Tis blood must cure't: and no blood can, but thine.
5.
Lord! it's a time of death: teach me to die
Aright to sin, that I may live thereby
To righteousness: then (as that death pleas'th thee,)
Death natural will pleasing prove to me:
Whilst in thee I shall die, death shall but hurry
Me from this vale of tears to endless glory.
Grant these two deaths (who once didst die for me)
I first may die to sin, next die in thee.
Chorus.
IN changes, troubles, war, sickness, and death:
My sweet's above, my bitter still beneath.

Mos Mundi. The broad way.

1.
TO drink, to drab, to dance and sing,
To swear, and swagger, roar and raunt,
Carouse, and Hats up fling,
Laugh, boast, and vaunt,
Jeer and taunt,
Jest and Jibe
Like Thraso's tribe:
To flatter, cog, and lye,
Pack Cards, and trip a Dye,
Frolick, and feast,
And play the beast:
Have mirthful parts accounted been:
Yea, noble qualities esteem'd:
But wise men when they such have seen,
Them rather mad, then mer [...]y deem'd.
2.
To fast, be chaste, demurely talk,
Hate Oathes, debauch'd behaviour flie,
And soberly to walk,
Jests to defie,
And each lye;
Truth to speak,
Wrath not to wreak,
But leave revenge to God,
Are all held humours odd:
Who such is turn'd,
Is mosily scorn'd,
The world so impudent is grown,
That sin gains glory, vertue shame;
Astraea is to Heaven flown,
And Grace on Earth hath lost her name.
Sic transit gloria mundi:
Praesentis: non futuri.

Eternity.

ETernity! Ah dearest Lord assist
My shallow Muse; for she's quite over­whelm'd
In this vast Ocean: she's of footing miss't;
Toss'd on the surging waves, like ship unhelm'd;
Depriv'd of terminus à quo, from whence
Her voyage to begin; and the ad quem,
Where it should end: since he's depriv'd of sence
Who in eternity doth seek for them:
She no beginning had, nor end shall have,
But from eternal to eternal be:
VVas, is, and shall be, when death, and the grave,
The Earth, the Sea, the Heavens (which we see)
Were all meer nothing, unborn, unbegotten:
Whilst they their time ordain'd continue shall;
And when they all are vanish'd, and forgotten,
She'll stay unmetamorphosed at all.
In her, nor time, nor age, can change effect;
Nor all the pow'rs of Earth and Hell prevayl
To make a wrinkle in her sweet aspect,
Nor frost one hair, though joyntly they assayl.
VVhen Heav'n shall moult her Stars, & (like a roul)
Involved be in flames, that shall consume
The world's whole fabrick (save mans deathless soul:)
And God shall in a moment us assume
(Chang'd) to himself: Yet she shall still remain
Immutable, by his divine decree
Who her impowr'd that sameness to retain
In self-fruition to eternity.
Old Idol-makers emblemiz'd her by
A snake turn'd round, whose mouth and tayl did meet;
VVhich endless form shew'd forth a deity,
VVhose everlasting being, could not fleet,
Nor end receive, but still revert again
To its beginning: Others pourtray'd her
In youthful shape, so ever to remain.
Both in the right, and yet both out on't were;
Though everlasting and unchangeable,
She's but a creature: so they erred both
In de-ifying her: yet no man's able
Of her deep Essence to conceive the troth:
She's of too lofty birth, too deep conception
For our low, shallow apprehensions reach:
The thought whereof should move us to reception
Of humbled hearts, and soul-submission teach
To our and her great God, whose wonders woo
Our way-ward hearts from transitorie joyes,
To will what he doth will, and that to do:
To fix on him; and so abandon toyes.
Sacred Eternity should make us slight
These shadow-pleasures, short delights below,
False creature-comforts; and to eye that light
That leads to true and lasting joyes: we know
Those soon shall fade: And our immortal souls
Run parallel unto Eternity,
In wo or weal. Who then, but heedless fools,
Will loose firm joyes, to joy in vanity?
Heark, fearless Dolt! hammer thy steeled heart
On this firm Anvil; Oft in minde revolve
Eternity, that she may make thee part
From thy embosom'd lusts; the stone dissolve
That's in thy breast; thy crusted conscience soften;
Impow'r thee Satans wiles more to resist:
To do good oftner, and not sin so often,
For fear of everlasting had I wist.
This single word in brief doth comprehend
All the surpassing joys that Heav'n affords:
And all the torments that the damned find
In Hell, them to express need no more words;
For though the joys of one be infinite
In number, weight and measure, and as well
The others torments no less infinite:
Eternity makes them both Heav'n and Hell.
Her age in times meer infancy was vast,
Transcending all Arithmeticians skill:
The number of her fore-past years to cast,
Though they should use the stars that Heaven fill,
Each grass, and grain of dust that Earth can shew,
And all the drops and sands in Sea and shore,
With the Ayre's Atomes; they would be too few
(Were each a thousand thousand millions more)
For figures that grand number to express
To which they would amount: Howe'er, when time
Shall be no more, her youth will be no less
Then at the first. O wonder most sublime!
Here muse, and stand amaz'd, presumptuous man,
Who squandrest pretious time in seeking that
VVhich when possess'd annoys! Content ne'er can
Be found in Treasures, Honours, Pleasures, flat
False titillations: They the fancy please
With momentaneous tickling: but the foul
Can no satiety receive from these,
Whilst her diviner eyes espie their foul
And gross delusions, winning us to waste
Our time of grace, (short week of working dayes)
On toyes and trifles care away to cast,
Neglecting (our creation's end) his prayse
That formed us; and so to lose our pay
In that eternal Sabbath's rest to come,
And gull us with false hopes, that fade away
When Judgement dooms us Hell for our sad home;
Whose everlasting flames should us deter
From their allurements, and our souls provoke
No longer true repentance to defer,
But take upon us our Redeemers yoke,
Embrace his endless love. And let that force
Our souls to grace, by holy violence:
Redeem our time by Faith and true remorse,
And giving neither God nor man offence;
For on the husbanding of this short span
Of our frail life, eternal life depends,
Or death eternal. Oh! when this we scan,
It should unbottom us from all false ends:
And keep us firm in truths sincerest wayes,
And in the pathes of life; that when times race
Is run, and all distinguishments by dayes,
Hours, months & years, shall here no more have place,
We may enjoy Eternity above:
Whereof that we may not at last be mist,
But ponder still in heart (what doth behove)
Eternity! Ah dearest Lord, assist.

AMEN.

The Epigram on the same.

ETernity my Muse doth quite confound:
Her true Description never Mortal found.
Rings, Snakes, and Globes, with such round things as those
Th' Ancients for her di [...]e resemblance chose;
A boundless Plain; a pointless Parallel:
A Circle that includes both Heaven and Hell,
Yet hath nor Centre; nor Circumference
Demonstrable to Reason, or to sence;
Each Mathematick poin [...] of whose vast Ring
Equals her whole Dimension. Wondrous thing!
Yet true as strange. Nay more, I'll tell you what;
Think what man cannot think, and she is that.
She rounds my Verse, no man her depth can sound,
Eternity my Muse doth quite confound.

Objections, Solutions, and Chorus.

Objection 1.
WHy should onely Man desire
To transgress his Makers Laws,
Who made him so high aspire,
That all earthly things he awes?
Solution 1.
NOthing but corrupted Nature
Made Man so perverse a creature;
Nothing but renewing Grace
Can Mans guilt and filth deface.
Objection 2.
WHy should Christ from glory come,
To be born in coursest home,
Live and die in pain and grief,
For unthankful mans relief?
Solution 2.
NOthing but divinest Love
Brought our Maker from above,
Who, for all his grief and pain
Craves but Love for Love again.
The CHORE.
OH admired Love divine!
Suit our hearts with love to thine!
Then adieu false creature-joys;
Welcom Truths, and farewel Toys.

Man's Heart.

1.
A Curious triangle methinks I see
Immur'd by Heav'ns Eternal Architect,
His seed-plot of each Grace divine to be:
A glorious Paradise without defect:
A Paradise in Paradise, (that's slight)
The Paradise of Paradise: the throne
Of the worlds great Creator, whose delight
Was fi [...] therein: his Majesty thereon.
Such was Mans heart, and such might still have bin,
Had he baulk'd Serpentine deceit of sin.
2.
But, ah most horrid fate! since Adam fell,
This Nursery a Wilderness is grown:
Eden of Eden, is the Hell of Hell,
And Graces plants by Pride's puffs over-thrown:
Earth-mice have eat the seeds: the thorns and briers,
Hemlock and Wormwood have o'er spread the ground
Once till'd to grace; Lusts and corrupt desires,
With all their base productions, there abound:
And what was once the King of Glories home,
Is wholly now a Den for Fiends become.
3.
World, flesh and devil this triangle have fill'd,
Having got full possession, plac'd therein
A cursed rabblement of Elves that build
Fortifications, and strong holds for Sin,
The blessed Founders greatest Enemy,
Who in them rests secure: thence Grace repells,
Though profer'd by the Lord spontaneously,
And all good Inclinations quite expells;
Whence from a sp'ritual Cana-an, it's grown
No less then a mysterious Babylon.
4.
It's now the old Red Dragons Nursery:
A new Plantation of each hateful crime:
The Shop of that accurst Apothecary,
Who therein doth his pois'nous drugs sublime:
Pride's Mercury, Zeal-chilling Ellebore,
Intemperancies Swine-bane; Antimony
Of Infidelity, and thousands more:
The Opium of dull security,
And Lusts Cantharides: these he refines,
By them to work his mischievous designes.
5.
The cunning Gardiner doth oft-times graft,
Bud, and inoculate (to shew his skill)
Produc'th fair-seeming flow'rs on stocks stark naught,
And specious fruits, from roots corrupt and ill:
But these, like Sodoms Apples, vanish quite,
If try'd by touch: which sorts he mostly plants
In a close corner, for his own delight,
Allotted to Hypocrisie: where wants
No dressing that the Devil can afford
To nourish plants accursed, and abhorr'd.
6.
Stand you but there at gaze, and you will deem
Your self in Heaven, with Saints incircled round,
Whilst it is Hell and Devils: for they but seem,
And are not real: as will once be found.
The Angels trumpets that at last shall blow
Our Resurrection-summons, them shall blast,
And we their painted falsities shall know;
Themselves in everlasting flames be cast:
Their rotten Roots, which all shall plainly see,
Proclaim who Impt them: and whose Imps they be.
7.
Dread God! shall this Intruder still possess
Thy sacred portion, and thy choisest field,
'Twill make him question thine Almightiness:
Avenge thee, Lord, and force the fiend to yeild.
Root out his worthless plants, and replant thine:
New turn the ground, and sow thy seeds of grace
Afresh therein: and let thy power divine
Cherish them there: Satans rank weeds deface:
Batter his raised forts, his forces rout:
Re-enter in thy Right, and turn him out.
8.
Renew thy sin-demolish'd Image here:
Hallow this little frame to thy great praise:
New mold, new make the model, hence cashier
Innate corruptions: plain the crooked ways:
Throw down the hills and hillocks: raise the vales:
Manure the barren ground: more fertile make,
The erst unfallow'd plots: re-build the walls:
Thy wonted pleasure in this fabrick take.
Lord, it did cost thee dear when thou went'st hence,
To purchase it with thy heart-blood's expence.

An Epigram on the same.

COuld not Creations Title keep Gods Right
In mans false heart, that subtile Serpents spight
Compell'd him to redeem what was his own
Unforfeited? It now his right is grown
By purchase too: Lord, keep what now thou hast,
For we shall lose it, if thou hold not fast:
A fairer purchase ne'er was bought or sold;
Nor fickler for the Purchaser to hold.
Were not thy Mercy great and stupifying,
'Twas ne'er worth making, much less worth thy buying.

Infancy.

EPitome of man! why such sad chear
As cries and tears at thy first entrance here?
Sure thou confut'st philosophers of old,
Who tales of spheres harmonious musick told:
Such a celestial quire must by and by
Ravish thy soul with charming melody;
But thou art deaf to them, they mute to thee:
'Twixt deaf and dumb new-met, what sympathy?
Alass but small. But thou thus dost not cry
Their errour to confute, or to descry:
Thou'st cause enough besides; thy pain in birth,
And birth to future pain, whilst here on earth:
Thou com'st from whence thou hadst content before;
And whilst thou'rt here, shalt never have it more.
Can thy diminutive heart chuse but mourn
To restless pains and crosses to be borne?
Alas, what hath this empty world that's rare
To please thee with? a teat, a bib, fine ware,
A rattle, whistle? toys with crying after
These rarities may justly challenge laughter,
Though not worth joying in, nor yet injoying,
But that thy crying fits are husht with toying.
Yet this i'll say for thee, who in no wise
Canst for thy little self apologize:
Men riper year'd pursue as eagerly
More noxious bables, and sing lullaby
To their deluded souls in those enjoying,
Which mostly are their selves and souls destroying.
Bacchus wins men with bibbs: Cupid with teats:
Whilst Mars with whistles calls to famous feats;
But all-commanding Mammon rattles makes
With cursed coyn-baggs, cheating metal-cakes,
Worse then At'lanta's apples in the way
To Heav'n: they force us both to stay and stray.
Oh then let's cease to laugh at thy weak wits,
And learn to mourn for our own frantick fits.
Far better we delighted in thy toys,
Then by our own to lose eternal joys.
But ah thy innocence in act! could wee
In that perfection equalize but thee,
We happy were. Such must we be; for none
But some way such, shall Heav'n attain alone.
Lord make us such; for only thou canst tame
Our headstrong natures, and make us disclaim
Proud self, who (flown aloft) doth meteorize
And with false flashes dazles faith's weak eyes.
Extinguish Lord this fatal Comet in us;
Infantize thou our high-swoln hearts, and win us
To humble meckness: by thy peerless skill;
Make us stout men, yet little children still;
That with humility and innocence
'Gainst all assailants we may make defence,
And strive to victory. Oh thou most high!
List us for soldiers of thy infantry.

The Epigram.

WEakest of creatures! what? come naked forth
Into the world's vast wilderness? it's worth
Thy cries and tears, yea cares and fears beside,
What may thee in this solitude betide.
Yet ne'er despair; take for thy comfort this,
'Tis the most beaten road to future bliss.
Husband thy teares, treasure them up in store,
To mourn for sin: thy joy shall be the more.
Foes thou hast great, and many: but a friend,
That's gone this way unto the journey's end,
Hath weak'ned them, yea will them all subdue,
Only believe in him: he's yet in view,
In eye of faith: keep still thy innocence:
Be still a child, in giving no offence:
Keep thy friend's foot-steps home to Heaven door,
For 'tis Heav'ns-God's-son that is gone before.

Puerility.

INfancy was illiterate and past
In wordless craving, to be pleas'd in hast.
The A. B. C of man next treads the stage;
It foots the world's great ball, which riper age
Doth head, and hearts so much, that oft' it strains
Her heart-stings to a crack: oft' breaks her brains.
Childhood's a pretty fiddle; but the rod
Doth spoil it's case, and makes it's musick odd
And harsh, which else would mostly pleasant be,
Though much more out of tune: the Birchen tree
Terrifies more in schools then English oaks
'Erst did their foes at Sea with thunder strokes:
Whence some of this small tribe will dare aver
Nero not half so bad's a school-master.
See, see our way-ward nature! native hate
To means whose ends might us felicitate!
We willingly will precious time advance
To loss of knowledge, gain of ignorance;
A barter that breaks all the Merchants trust,
Yet satisfies none but the Devil and lust,
His foes, not creditors. Hark, wanton! hark!
Walk in the day, for danger's in the dark:
Knowledge no burthen is, save unto those
Whom ignorance marks out for wisdom's foes.
Learn but what's good, and what is evil shun:
Play on as long's thou wilt, the game is won.
Surely thy life's a puppet-play, wherein
[...]hy acted parts allude to future sin:
[...]hy pot-guns may to Cannons grow: thy cash
Of rounded slats, breed love of that base trash
That so inchants earth's pilgrims, that they sell
Their lives, their souls, for coyn; to purchase Hell.
Thy plays in which thou pris'ners tak'st, descry
The course of wars, where some pursue, some fly.
Thy hood-winck't sports give ignorance her due,
[...]n emblem fabulous, whose moral's true.
These (thy now counterfeits) in future times,
Become, thy real actions, and thy crimes.
Lord, what a gallimaufry of deceit
[...]s man's frail life! who first doth counterfeit,
Next rea-lize those vanities which tend
At last to falshood, and an endless end!
End, end these wanton toys: play not the sot.
To make a trade of that which profits not;
[...]eason thy new-made clome with sipid liquor,
These us'd as recreations may make quicker
Thy parts of soul and body for that trade,
In whose sole profit thou art marr'd or made;
Oh! 'tis of high concernment: weigh thy time,
And weigh it to the grains: it's rare pastime,
Full fraught with true content, rich gain to boot:
And now's thy time, yea now's high time to do't.
Each minute this way spent, will win thee store
Of wealth and bliss, when time shall be no more.
Think in thy play, each step of thine steps on
One step towards thy grave, which steps-time gone
Thou never canst recal, to re-imploy
More profitably for thy future joy.
When thou dost learn thy book, each letter think
Sin's embleme: as the paper's stain'd with ink,
Sin staines thy self: each sin's a letter foul,
A capital character for thy soul,
Wherein to read its doom, if penitence
Rinse not away with blood, guilt and offence.
Learn'st thou to write? Ah! then thou act'st to life
Thy own life's acts, to sins-blurs far more rife,
And prone then fairest paper is to take
The blurs that thy miss-guided pen doth make:
And learn from hence occasions to avoyd,
Whereby thy soul with sin might be annoy'd.
These uses make of thy occurrent playes,
And of thy labours too; that so thy wayes
By both may better'd be: Though this seem hard,
It's worth thy pains, and will return reward:
Reward, that will requite thy vigilance
Ten thousand-fold: Yea, thy estare advance
To a degree of contentation here:
In time to come, unto eternal cheer.
But oh! it's uncouth, harsh to flesh and blood,
In thy small volume, to affect what's good;
Though in thy youngers we with ease may 'spie
An in-nate proneness to depravity.
VVell: take thy course; I here presented have
Before thee life and death: And now I crave,
And wish thy better choyce: But if thou wilt
Run nature's course, shun grace, and so be spilt;
Forget not what is told thee: this withal,
God will to strict account thee shortly call.
Chant on, my pretty Cricket; but remember.
March-singing Thrushes meet a mute December.

An Epigram on the same.

CHildhood's a cyens of man's tree: And lo,
As you it bend, 'twill straight, or crooked grow:
Bend it betime to grace, and humble make it,
Lest bigger grown, a head-strong stiffness take it:
Then will your labour be to little end:
Such rugged stocks will rather break then bend.
And thou (my little Mannikin) give ear,
To good directions; fit corrections bear:
They both are physick good: they will procure
Thy lasting health: they'll thee for ever cure.
Wilt thou not take them, but keep on thy tomming?
Then take this pill: WELL, wanton, winter's comming.

Youth.

FAirest of sub-celestials! draw thee near:
Grace our great stage; thou art an Angels phe [...]
If but with grace replete: But i'm mistaken:
And Lark-like with a stale and day-net taken,
Deeming a glass the Sun: I see my error:
I finde from thee deep grounds of fear and terror.
Help, help me, store of manacles, and gyves,
Stocks, shackles, pillories, and all that gives
Correction to untamed man; yea, call
For bridles, halters, bits, and curbs withall,
Ropes, fetters, barnacles, and cables strong:
Nay, bring the Ax, and Gallows both along,
Whose pow'rs can briefly tame both man and beast:
Bring any Engine else, not here exprest:
Then fetch me all earths Conjurers and Witches,
Whom Satan makes believe they wear the britches,
And can him rule: bring Devil and all: These forces
May tame Bears, Lyons, Boars, Bulls, Tygers, Horses,
And all wild beasts: Ships under sayl, and winds,
In roughest storms, Sea, where a way it finds;
Fire, water, earth, and ayr: yet cannot fear
More untam'd youth from its most wild career.
Hark, witless wild-oats! though thou raunt'st it thus,
I've got a lusty guard: And some of us
Shall one day tame thee: Nay, i'll tell thee more:
He that brings up the Re [...]r, hath quite o'erbore
And captivated thee: who know'st it not:
The sadder much thy case, the worse thy lot.
His subtilty is Serpentine, beware;
Give him an Inch, hee'll take an Ell: who dare
Allow him but the lordship of a thought,
Into his vassallage are sliely brought
In thoughts, words, acts and all, till he erect
His kingdom in their souls: a sad effect
Of such a slighted cause. Resolve therefore
To free thee of his thraldom, serve no more.
No more serve him: But serve him who hath bought
Thy freedom out by price unheard, unthought,
Till Gospel it reveal'd: By his heart-blood
He freed thee from thy sin-bound prentice-hood:
And he makes all his servants perfect free:
The world yeelds no such master else for thee:
His silver's only currant, his gold pure,
Thy wages thousandfold, thy payment sure.
Oh take him; he thy Cov'nant long since seal'd:
Put seal to his, lest thine should be repeal'd.
Christophorize, and make the legend true.
Forsake the Devil, and take a master new.
But know withal, this master's such a one,
As will a new man have, or else have none.
Renew, renew thy life: imploy thy strength
In those atchievements that bring bliss at length:
Squander not time, and money both, for that
Which is not bread: whose best contentment's flat,
Dull, dead, and low, unsating to thy soul:
Yea, mortal poyson venemous and foul:
Such are thy lusts, which thou pursu'st amain;
They'll neither end in pleasure, nor in gain,
But rueful wo, and loss. Recal thy minde;
Summon thy senses in, which reason blind;
'Lure them to her subjection; will suppress,
And give more sway to grace, to nature less:
Ne'er man layd grain of honour in the dust,
By yeelding unto grace, but unto lust.
I know thou look'st aloft, thou prizest self,
Thou valu'st honour more then worldly pelf:
For this I should commend thee, didst thou know
But what true honour is; not this below:
Not Scutchions fair; not worm-fret monuments,
Nor large-dimension'd pettigrees; great rents:
Millions of Mannors; princely Fabricks rais'd
By glorious Ancestors, whose fame is blaz'd
In dateless old Records, to be descended
From an Heroick stock, whose worth transcended
Earth's greatest Monarchs: Nor from him that claims
Her universal Crown, whose boundless aims
Lay title to the Heavens, Earth, and Hell,
When but the last's his due. No, no, know well,
To be, or come from such, false honour is,
Whose affectation cheateth us of bliss:
It's but imaginary. Honour true
Puts off the old man, and puts on the new:
Strives not to seem, but be more good then great:
To sinful thoughts, words, actions, sounds retreat.
For them most mourns: Of them is most asham'd:
Hating to be deform'd, more then defam'd;
Deform'd in soul; for that's true ugliness:
As sanctity is truest comeliness.
Take God's Word for thy glass: there see thy face
Of soul, and body both: with tires of grace
Adorn thy self: So shalt thou fairer be,
Then the best beauty mortal ere did see.
Let faith, repentance, patience, modesty,
Chastity, temperance, sobriety,
Charity, justice, mercy, zeal, and peace,
Fortitude, meekness, and such gems as these,
Give lustre to thy life: they'll make thee shine
In humane eyes, and more in eyes divine.
If gray hairs fraught with Grace, a glory be,
'Tis much-more glory, Grace in Youth to see.
Thou glory'st in thy beauty, stature, strength,
Activity, wit, wealth, or cloaths: at length
All these will fade, and fayl thee: know'st how soon?
Thy morning's past, and most will reach but noon.
But what relate I these? thou glory'st in
Horrid Impieties; thou boast'st of sin,
Which might make thy bright Sun this minute set
In everlasting Darkness: That's a Debt
That dares Damnation: wooes Eternal Death:
Makes love to vengeance: shipwracks Hope and Faith:
Jeers God at's Nose; and deifies a sin,
That scarce by Mercie's self hath pardon'd been.
Forbear! forbear, young Hotspur! thy account
Will one day to the vaster sum amount:
For this doth double charge thy debts: and thou
Art surely broke, unless thou learn to bow:
It's better bow, then break: Bow, bow thee low;
Humilitie's a Grace whose heighth none know,
But the Lamb's lambs, whose pasture is Mount Sion:
Who have thereby o'ercome the roaring Lyon:
It is a Star, that, fix'd in Youth's high Sphere,
Transcends the reach of each Astronomer:
For none can take it's Altitude, but he,
Who's above all, and for whom all things be.
Let thy Grand-Siegnior Will (that Turk-like swayes
Thy soul and body by tyrannick wayes)
Submit in all things to his Will Divine,
Who gave thee Will, and all that else is thine:
But if thou wilt not here submit unto't,
Will'st thou, or nill'st thou, thou in Hell shalt do't.
Take that from me: and take it for me too:
Remember I have told thee what to do.

An Epigram on the same.

POst! why so fast? I've heard, haste seldom thrives;
But he must needs go fast, whom Devil drives:
Thy way is broad, smooth, plain, and fair to eye,
Full with a foul fair-seeming company,
Who bless themselves therein; yet (credit me)
'Tis the great road to endless misery.
Turn to the right-hand; that rough, narrow path
Leads to the place, where joy no ending hath:
The way is deep, but firm, keep on right forth:
Creep where thou fear'st to go; it's labour-worth:
Creeping one hour, forwards thee in thy way
More then thy galloping can in a day:
And truth to say; though horse or foot may venter
To climb, or claim, none but who creeps can enter:
Yea, thou some creeping holes so streight may'st find
As may require thy clothes to be resign'd:
But happy thou, if once thou canst get in,
Though with the loss both of thy clothes and skin.

Manhood.

MAnhood, the Lyon of our age, appear;
When thou dost roar, all forest-beasts do fear.
Youth's rashness is extinct: thou now hast got
Judgment, with resolution, courage hot,
And strength, with wit, to manage all things well
For thy advantage: and (which doth excel)
Wisdom, the crown of man: oh wer't but true!
But it's a carnal Idol, feigned shew;
A meer mock-wisdom; greatest foe to grace;
An image dumb, rais'd in true wisdomes place:
'Twere better far, that it demolisht were:
It must be so, ere t'other can appear;
For shadows fly, where substances take place:
So worldly wisdom vanisheth from Grace.
There is a secret sad antipathy
Betwixt these two: the one doth pine and die
Where t'other's entertain'd: and never any
Could harbor both at once: 'twas one too many.
But say thou'rt wise (if grant it needs we must)
Pray wherein is't? surely to please a lust:
Perhaps to scrape up cash, or purchase lands.
Nay, say to conquer Crowns; to get commands:
I cannot but at thy fond wisdom smile;
Who getting These, dost lose thy Self the while.
VVho here are richest, highest, void of Grace,
Shall have in Hell hereafter lowest place:
These Pha-etons will soar an hour on high,
Though for that hour they sink eternally:
Too silly purchase for a fool to make:
Ah leave thy wisdom for its follies sake!
Thou writ'st MAN; shew thee so: for Man was made
For his CREATOR's glory: But thy trade
Drives wholly for Thine own: an empty bubble
That brings to him dishonour, to thee trouble,
Suspitions which intangle and besot
With fears lest others wits should thine out-plot.
And so with restless thoughts thou dost indear
Thy pains to thee: thou woo'st thy further fear:
A jolly subject for mans soul (alone
Inspir'd by God) to spend its spirits on.
Doubtless (if truely weigh'd) the toyes that please
Young children, are not half so bad as these.
Fie! fie! for shame renounce these fond devices;
Whose poyson is like that of Cockatrices:
For Polititians plots kill whom they eye,
Or kill themselves by prime-discovery;
They play at Chess, and by each Check are crost:
But such a Check-mate yeilds their game quite lost:
These are the Rooks, which on the Chess-board, Earth,
Play seeming square: but mostly foil the mirth
Of those whom they assault: who if they have
A Bishop corner-wise to play the Knave,
Will gave Cbeck-mate, unless the care be more
Then oft hath been in games play'd heretofore.
Lo-howe my Muse! what turn'd State-Muse at last?
Come in, come in; thy Checks in flight are vast:
From men, thou fly'st to Chess-men, Bishops, Rooks:
Why? all are men: It seems so by their looks:
They are so serious playing on their game,
Some for preferment, some for gain, some fame,
For pleasure some; some for this, some for that;
And some, for neither I, nor they know what.
Cease man to play for trifles; I'll shew skill
In game for prize; make stakes: lay down thy will,
I'll stake against it an immortal Crown:
The way to win my stake's to lose thine own.
Ungird the robes of sin that thee infold:
Cast off thy rags, and banish all that's old:
Yea, empt' thy self of sin, to make thee light,
Nimble to run a race, to fight a fight:
But such a race, and fight (with help that's given)
A child may run, may fight, and purchase Heav'n.
Cheer up; resolve; and thou shalt win the prize:
Cut off thy hands, thy legs, pluck out thine eyes,
And cast them from thee: thou the better far
Shalt fight, run, see, and manage this great war,
Wherein all flesh obstructs: Gods Spirit alone
Must guide thy course, and then the game is won.
Imploy thy strength, wit, wisdom, policies,
Thee to assist 'gainst greatest Enemies:
Their Generals are three, world, flesh and devil;
These all have many instruments of evil,
Their under-officers, who lie in lurch
At home, abroad, in the house, in the Church,
At board, in bed, yea ev'ry where, with eyes
Most watchful for a time thee to surprise:
Nay, they have Ambuscadoes laid within thee,
Self against self suborn'd, thereby to win thee;
Yet maugre all their cunning, they shall fall:
Play but the man, and thou shalt foyl them all.
Thou hast a friend, in whom put confidence,
(T [...]y elder brother) long since rapt from hence
By their fell spite; which plot of theirs un-nerv'd
Their warlike pow'rs, and for their conquest serv'd:
For he triumph'd o'er their chief general:
Him tongue-ty'd: manacled his hands withall.
If thou by faith that friend canst cleave unto,
They can have nothing more to say or do:
Nothing to purpose; they may stir, or tempt,
But never shall prevail: Thou art exempt
From their enfeebled pow'r: yet strive thou must
Their false temptations all from thee to thrust:
Fight them couragiously unto the last;
For from thy friend thou this commandment hast,
Who looks it at thy hands; for though he did,
And suffer'd, for thee (that which God forbid
Should have been left for thee to do, or bear,
For then had all mankinde been lost) forbear
To turn his grace to wantonness; or spin
Thy Christian liberty, to that of sin;
That threed will break: and break the spinster too;
For though Christ did enough, yet we must do
That little that we can, to shew our faith:
Faith's dead where there's no fruit (as Scripture saith)
And he did much, to win our imitation
In second place, though first to work salvation.
March on: march on, brave man! and trample down
Thy sordid lusts, if thou expect the crown:
Quench thy incensed passions; and o'ercome
Thy loose affections: quick, begin at home
This holy war: mortifie thy corruptions:
Then shalt thou fight untoil'd with interruptions
From inward cause: when self and flesh submits;
The world and Devil assault by weaker fits:
The home-bred foes are they that most annoy
Thy fair proceedings, and obstruct thy joy:
Subdue self fully once, and (I dare say)
The rest will throw down arms, and run away.
She is thy castle's porter, she lets in
World, Devil and all, that may provoke to sin;
Call self forth to the bar, thou needst not try her,
She's both judg'd and condemn'd: go, crucifie her.
Methinks (as did Copernicus) I 'spy
The world with all her trinkets round to fly
At that brave sentence, Satan sneak away,
As one that in the field hath lost the day,
Like black Cur scar'd, with tail betwixt his legs,
Seeing he sate abrood on addle eggs.
Walk on, brave heart! now thou'rt a man indeed:
Now thou hast done the work; no more then need:
Hadst not, thou hadst for ever been undon;
Run cheerly forth, thou'lt come to Heav'n anon.

An Epigram on the same.

MAn, know thy self, and wherefore thou wert made:
Not wealth to seek, or make deceit a trade:
Deceit's a trade that will deceive at last
Greatest Deceivers, when th'accounts are cast.
If thou wilt needs deceive, deceive thy foes,
(Who have and do deceive thee at thy nose)
The devil, world and flesh, all three at once:
I'll shew thee how to do't, if thou have sconce.
Thou hast two men within thee: (here's the skill)
Cast out the old, and keep the new man still:
This new-mans sent alone, packs them for ever;
'Twill conjure better then Tobiah's liver.

Age.

MAn's no stay'd creature: Lo! he now appears
Transform'd from what he was: his hoary hairs
And baldness shew that Winter's neer, when late
'Twas but high harvest. Ceres (out of date)
Pursues her sister Flora on with speed,
Blow'th to bespeak of her, for next years seed.
Thus times revolve, and then return: but man
Review's no more what's past: the strongest can
But one time have, and but once have that time;
To Platonize, in Christians is a crime.
Grave Sir! time present's only in your power,
The past and future times are none of your:
You can't the first recal, nor latter tell
What it shall bring to pass: this you know well:
If you but lose the present, your time's lost,
Irrevocab'ly gone; nay more, 'Twill cost
Your loss of labour, body, soul, and all,
And that for ever: Oh! let this appal
Your subtle heart; rouze your clogg'd memory
Time to redeem, lest you eternally
Rue that neglect: you're wise: pray therefore weigh
How your state stands▪ for he that did conveigh
All to you that you have, or can have here,
Past it but for six days, not for a year:
Four of the best expir'd, if rightly cast,
Infancy, childhood, youth and manhood past;
You now are in the fifth, at Fryday's stage;
But Saturday left for your doating age;
And that's half pain, half play, the school-boys maze,
And old mens too: for then their life's a blaze;
Like a spent candle, which if let alone,
Burns dim, then flashes, and is forthwith gone.
But ah! look further; then comes on the day
That should thy Sabbath be; the day of pay
'Twill be to all: for all shall have their hire,
As they deserve, though not as they desire:
Who finde it not a pleasure-day of rest,
Finde it a pain-day not to be exprest
Oh then begin to think, and cast about
With care how to work your salvation out.
I know your care is great those things to save,
Whereof no use at all you'll shortly have:
You're penny-wise, pound-foolish: nay, much worse:
You're body-wise, soul-foolish: O dire curse!
You to advise (as others) were too bold:
Might jealousie provoke; since you are old,
Should I to you, Put off the old man, say,
You'll think I bid you cast your self away.
That's a fond errour: pray mistake me not:
It will not shorten health or life a jot:
Suppose the worst, if you should thereby die;
'Twill screw your life up to eternity.
Work: work your change: for now the days are neer,
Of which you'll say in sorrow, pain, and fear,
I have no pleasure in them; when your sky,
Sun, Moon, and Stars shall dark'ned be on high,
And Clouds shall follow rain, House-k eepers tremble,
The strong men bow themselves, and grinders nimble
Through paucity shall cease, the window-peepers
Be darkned, and the street-doors shut by keepers;
When you shall undergo those other woes
That Isr'el's royal preacher quaintly shows:
Desire shall fail, your dust to earth return,
Your soul to God, your carkase to the urn.
'Twill be too late to work, when death's dark night
Hath you envelopt, robb'd of light, and sight;
Sure none defer their work (but thriftless fools)
'Till dotage hath depriv'd them of their tools
That they should work with: think you he that gave
Men souls, and bodies, with endowments brave
To do him service, can contented be
In his foe's work them all imploy'd to see?
And take the Devil's gleanings? we such folly
Would highly scorn: And can our God, most holly
An wise, be so deluded? Man, remember,
Thy yeer is almost past, it's high December:
Work ne'er so hard, who'll give thee a yeers pay,
To work for him 'twixt this and new-yeers day?
Yet God will do't, if thou wilt faithful prove,
And serve him in true fear, with fraudless love:
Give him thy heart; and less thou canst not give,
Nor craves he more: So thou shalt surely live:
Live, beyond date of death, or force of fear,
Where nothing that offends shall more come near.
What canst expect thy gain more to advance,
Then thy life's change, for firm inheritance?
Such an inheritance earth ne'er did see:
Thy self thy everlasting heir shalt be:
A better Lord was never tenant had,
If thou refuse him, thou art worse then mad:
He'll make thee co-heir with his own sole son,
The Lord of Heaven and Earth, and with him one.
Haste, haste; accept the motion whilst thou may'st:
'Tis a cheap purchase, whatsoe'er thou pay'st:
And he expects no more but thy old clothes,
Thy carnal habits, which he likewise lothes,
But will's thou cast them off; for he retains
No servitor, on whom such ragg remains:
He'll clothe thee in white Robes of righteousness,
Whose glory Cherubims cannot express:
Add to the pow'r he gives but thy endeavour,
And thou shalt sit inthron'd with him for ever.
Quick; shift thy vestments; and go hide thee in
Those splendent Robes; cast off thy rags of sin:
Let lusts and passions a new Master get:
Speed; lest thou be prevented by Sun-set:
Now; now's thy time to do't: for who doth know
Whe'er thou shalt live a minute more, or no?
This done, thou'lt reap invaluable gains:
And I'll require but thanks for this my pains:
Nay, if thou give me none, content I'll be,
He for whose glory 'tis, will pay them me.

Epigram.

GRay Hair with graceless Heart! a guilded tomb!
Greedy, yet fruitless, like a barren womb!
It's Harvest high, and yet no fruit appears:
This plague's far worse then Egypts fruitless years:
Those Harvests fail'd, but they had Grain in store;
Here's no fruit now, nor hopes of any more.
Yet sow good seed, and plow thy furrows deep:
And thou shalt reap rich harvest in thy sleep.

Dotage.

AH! what a sight is here? a man turn'd child:
Nay, infinitely worse: with sin defil'd,
Yet knows it not. See, proud rebellious Chit,
Who vaunt'st of youth, strength, beauty, wisdom, wit,
Health, and accursed Policie! weigh well
This rue-ful spectacle, which might excel
Thee in them all in time, but now bereft
Of all by his own natures trait'rous theft.
Thou the same nature hast, of the same mold:
And may'st be such perhaps ere half so old;
Oh, pride thee not in these indowments so;
Thou seest their frailty, how they come and go.
This less then man, & worse then child, once though [...]
He never should have to this pass been brought,
Nor can believe he's so: which much augments
His sad condition: utterly prevents
His Reformation: makes him doat along
In Hell's wide rode, with a presumption strong,
That he's in Heavens path, and knows the way
As well's the best, and scorns to go astray:
When he no more that way doth know or minde,
Then new-born Infants know, or plod to finde
The North-west passage to the Indies hence:
Howe'er, if you'l him teach, he takes offence.
Ah wayward, froward, and untoward man
To God and all that's good! A Negro can
L [...]ave his black skin unto a snow-white hue,
Much sooner then man can himself renew.
It's far more easie to make Earth change place,
Then change corrupted Nature into Grace:
'Tis madness to a truce to seek to win them;
The quintessence of Opposition's in them;
Cease therefore, self-deluding-man, to try
To compass an impossibility
Rouze up thy soul his pow'rful help to crave,
Who is Almighty, and alone can save:
Who only can such change as this effect;
And all the fraud of thy false Heart detect,
Whose Will perverse is greatest foe to grace;
Cashier old Will and give new Will the place,
This poor anatomy of man doth still
Retain in height of strength its wonted will,
(Though totally of other strength depriv'd)
And would retain that, if it were three-liv'd.
Oh saddest sight! Let's view it once again;
It's a meer Magazine of grief and pain:
Mortalitie's Memorial here is limm'd
Full to the life, and with Death's shadows trimm'd:
The snuff of man, half in, half out; if blown
It seems the quicker, Is but quicker gone.
Once it was man: now a meer living creature,
Not prefect man, nor beast, of humane feature.
You'll think I doat, to doatage thus to speak,
Lest it miss-apprehend me: for it's weak,
Yet wilful too: of reason quite bereft,
Almost of sence: it hath no sences left
Save pains-sense, unimpair'd; few active, now,
Unless you lingua, and non-sence allow
For senses too (as some loose wits would have them
In women) for their labour e'en beknave them.)
Yet I to doaters on my harp may strike
A note as well's to infants, much alike:
But i'll speak faire. Father, you [...] run the ring
Of nature like a man (or some such thing)
A child you crawl'd from earth, your mother's womb:
Now are a child crawling to earth, your tomb:
You're going whence you came: are what you were,
Except that innocence, which did appear
First in your soul, which sin deleted hath,
And made you the old man; a child of wrath:
'Twere better far you had continu'd still
Such innocent: yet I can teach you skill
How you more innocency may recover,
If you'll re-act your childs pa [...] rightly over.
Weep heartily, and cry for your sins past,
Neglect of duties, want of true fore-cast
In your unlawful actions: and desire
The Gospels milk sincere: blow in the fire
Of that small spark of grace that God affords
Your half-extinguisht soul, and blaze records
Of your true zeal, though weak: hugg the sweet breasts
Of divine consolation: make attests
Of good desires, by lifting up your eyes
And hands to him that gave them: let your cries
Be for the bread of life: cast off the toys
Of this deluding world: slight her false joys;
Allot to alms the treasures earth affords;
Chaunt out your tuneless songs, your phraseless words
To his great glory, who such love hath shown
To your poor soul, when you deserved none:
Play with the babes of grace, and take delight
In little children; such in God's pure sight:
If any beat thee; to thy father cry;
Thy moan to him brings certain remedy;
Hang fast upon thy elder brothers neck:
Kiss, kiss the Lamb, his Bride with garlands deck.
Such plays content the soul: whereas your joys
Unsatisfying are: yea sinful toys.
Look on the se-ven candlestick's bright lights
Insite in purest gold: joy in such sights:
Reject world's worthless trifles: catch the crown
To thee held forth; and so in peace lye down
In earth's great cradle, hush'd in silence shy,
Where earthquakes rock, and windes sing lullaby:
'Till thy exciting by those trumpets blasts
Who'll summon dead to life that ever lasts,
In Resurrections morn; whose joys transcend,
Immensly; voyd of measure, as of end.

The Epigram.

BRave man! what? doating now? who would have thought
Thou to this market wouldst thy hoggs bave brought?
Love is youth's doatage: make thy doatage love:
Then doat on, spare not, on the things above:
They're worth thy doating on: and thou shalt see
Thy doatage seeds spring to eternity.

Death.

GReat King of terrours! Sythe-man of the earth,
Whose harvest rounds the year; thou ne'er hadst dearth
Since the world first was peopled; nor shalt have,
Till it unpeopled be: the silent grave
Is thy head-quarters, where all mankind keep
Their gen'ral Rendevouz lull'd fast asleep
In equal darkness, yet in quiet rest:
There's no distinction of the worst from best;
Great, small, friends, foes: all undisturbed ly,
Of Sympathy void, and Antipathy:
Lay Calvin with Calvus, (a popish Priest)
Their arguments a child may here untwist:
Put Alexander into Codrus toomb,
He'll never justle for more elbow-room.
Cesar's with Pompey's dust will co-unite,
As well as Jonathan's with David's might.
Death is the truest Leveller, that smoothes
The lofti'st turrets with the lowest boothes.
No controversies in her court arise:
No titles question'd there in any wise;
The plaintiff and defendant there may ly
In peace together, with their Lawyers by
Each on both sides: as here perhaps they were
Much to their prejudice; but not so there.
The taxing souldier, and the taxed clown,
Shall be joynt-tenants when they here ly down
In sweet, ungrumbling silence: land-lords great
And tenants poor, shall have a like estate
In this demesnes: the Emperour, and groom
Partake without precedency this room.
No fears, or jealousies disturb their rests:
No Herauld needs to place this princes ghests.
'Tis a Decree in this great Court alone,
TAKE PLACES AS YOU COME (or else have none.)
Yet no distaste is taken, if it hap
A beggar placed be in Caesar's lap.
Death strikes with equal stroak: lays equal rates:
All Adam's progeny with her are mates.
More perfect order never yet hath been
In any Monarch's Court that Earth hath seen.
Say, Princess great, why is thy look so grim
To what's meer man, being so fair and trim
To gracious souls? it's but the fear of change
That makes thee so: And yet (oh wonder strange!)
Want of change caus'th that fear; man, hear my breath:
Change but thy self, thou'lt ne'er fear change by death.
Death's visage is a looking-glass, wherein
Thou view'st thy foul deformity by sin:
It's guilt of that, breeds fear of death in man,
Whilst rinsed souls with joy embrace it can.
See, see (besotted earth-worm) who hast run
The race of man, and nought but cob-webs spun:
Sow'd rotten seed: death thy race terminates,
Cuts off thy warp: thy harvest antidates,
And makes it dreadful, which might joyful be,
If thou thy way of safety couldst but see.
Death is a bond-mark-bridge to Heav'n and Hell,
On yonder side: On this, to earth as well;
Three spatious Kingdoms; (yea the three and all)
On this side are two roads which equal fall
At the bridge-end, the roads of joy and wo,
And every man in one of them doth go:
On t'other side, two spatious Inns are built;
The one for innocence, t'other for guilt,
To entertain the Travellers that pass
The former roads: In these, a boundless mass
Of joyes and woes, are treasur'd up in store,
Where they shall joy, or mourn for evermore:
Both Inns are at Bridge-end on t'other side:
One hath a narrow gate, the other wide:
Whoe'er in either enters, ne'er returns,
But there eternally, or joys, or mourns.
Joy's road is narrow, rough, and thorny: woe's
Broad, plain and smooth, wherein the whole world goes.
Have care to chuse thy path, and rightly judge,
For there's no changing paths beyond the bridge,
But each of all the num'rous pilgrims throngs
Lies in that Inn that to his path belongs,
And there remains for ever: Heed thy walk:
It's of concernment high whereof we talk:
Tread the straight path, then death will be thy friend,
And guide thee to joy's Inn at journey's end:
For she presents the ghests in both the places,
And is chief Umpire in all doubtful cases:
For many seem to walk in way of zeal,
Whose specious shews do good opinion steal
Ev'n of the best; Yet (tri'd by death's true test)
Lie down in sorrows Inn among the rest:
Others (but few) may seem to walk the ways
That lead to wo, whom death at last displays
To be the joy-house ghests, who there sit down,
And for their crosses here, enjoy a crown.
Death is both ferry-man and boat, whereby
We launch the Ocean of eternity:
The Poets Charon, who doth waft alone
Souls to Elysium, or to Acheron:
It is the intermitting point whereby
We time divide from perpetuity:
Our time dies with us, though time's self remain
Unto the time when we shall rise again.
In brief, it's but a blank at life's line's end:
To bad men, mortal foe; to good, a friend:
It's amiable in a faithful eye,
But horrible to Belial's progeny.
Fond man! cease death to fear: make right thy heart;
Faith steeps in Balsamum death's surest dart,
Trans-forms its wounds to cures; for thou shalt live
Eternally by the wound death doth give.

The Epigram.

PAle Princess! spare thy threats, we know thy force,
Thou su'st the soul and bodies short divorce:
It lasts but one night's rest, and that's a toy,
For in the morning they shall meet with joy.
Thou wounded'st once our brother, Lord and King,
And in that wound drone-like didst lose thy sting:
Now thou canst hurt no more; save such mad elves
As bring thee a new sting to kill themselves.
'Twere better for them death had kept his sting,
Then they be stung to death by stings they bring.
Though plain perire be a fate past jest,
Pennis perire propriis grave est.

Judgment.

HArk! hark, rebellious man; the trumpet sounds
Thy judgment-march: the earth for fear rebounds:
Rocks rock: the mountains tremble: all the world
Is ague-shook: into hearts passion hurl'd:
Tellus keeps open house, the grave's unfraught:
Thetis re-renders up the dead she caught;
Both now their captives forth to judgment bring,
Before the throne of Heav'ns eternal King:
They can't detaine a dust of good, nor bad,
But re-deliver must whate'er they had.
The ratling flames with horrid whirling roar,
Drink up the Sea, and eat at once the shoar:
It's quite in vain to mountains now to cry,
Or rocks to hide: they all like atoms fly
Hence in the beams of fire-light. Oh! look, look;
Sun, Moon and Stars, have Firmament forsook;
They fall like mellow fruit in blustring storms:
The spheres are shrivel'd up, and loose their forms.
The Elements do melt; the fixed Stars
Fall down pel-mel, as soldiers drop in wars;
The Heavens can no canopy afford,
No curtain thee to hide: for (in a word)
Both Heav'n and earth are nonplus'd at this blast,
And shall together in new molds be cast:
Thou'rt past advising now: appear thou must,
Thy sentence to receive, which will be just:
That's all thy comfort: and small comfort 'tis
To those who in this life have done amiss:
For all accounts shall here be fully cast,
And each man have full pay for labour past.
See yonder where the Judges books are come,
Whereby, he judges, and will pay all home,
According as appears by those records,
Whose counterparts thy own scar'd soul affords,
And still hath kept, lockt up in conscience-chest,
But now must bring them forth among the rest:
Both she, and thou, and all know, all is true
In those records: so there needs no review:
Sentence will soon be past: the judge will say
To you of his left-handed herd, Away;
Depart from me, ye cursed, into fire
That lasts for ever, fitted for your Sire
The Devil, and his Angels: Oh sad doom!
Yet ne'er to be revok'd for time to come.
Wer't but to death, or to annihilation,
The pains would end by senses deprivation:
But in these torments, life and sense remain,
Yet neither life, nor sense, save those of pain;
Pains measureless, and endless pour'd on thee,
Where wronged mercy, will most cruel be.
Millions of ages past, thy pains appear
As far from end, as when thou first wast there:
Their measure is as much as Devils can
Devise of torment, to inflict on Man:
Or an Almighty God can storm on those,
Who have declar'd themselves his mortal Foes:
There needs no more be spoke: Ah wretched wight!
Think on this day, before eternal night
Prevent thy thinking on't, by being in't:
Fence off the blow, before thou feel the dint:
It's true in God's, as well's in Nature's school,
QUIS EXPECTAVIT is a cure-less fool:
If hearing man be told that death is nigh,
And scorns to heed it, he must surely die.
Heed, heed thy way of peace, in this thy time:
Repent each former, shun each future crime:
Redeem thy time to come: (none can what's past)
Spend thy first hour, as if it were thy last:
Think still thou dost the trumps loud summons hear,
ARISE you Dead, to Judgement quick appear.
With penitential water lave the blurs
That in thy book appear: Make no demurs
In thy great suit for pardon: get it out
With restless speed: in thy proceedings doubt
Lest Errour be in thy Original,
Or any other Writ; and make sure all,
As thou go'st on: cast often thy account,
And see to what thy sums receiv'd amount,
And how expended: what thou see'st amiss,
Amend in future by more carefulness:
For past debts, take Repentances keen knife,
And raze them out: then (to avoid all strife)
Smooth it with Faith's rough pummice, o'er and o'er:
Thy Creditor never will charge it more:
This play seems foul, but is not: though he know
Thy crafty trick, he loves to have it so:
And (though such tricks may Merchants seem to stain
It both augments his glory, and thy gain.
Now shall the Earth-amazing Dooms-day be
A day of joy and comfort unto thee:
Thy hearts chief solace in the saddest fits,
Whose thoughts might formerly have scar'd thy wits.
Look how the chased Hart desires the Brooks,
The blind Gods Herd their living Idols looks;
As Mariners nigh shipwrack'd wish for shore,
Or tyred School-boyes learning to give o'er;
As poor deserted Souls for faith do long,
The faithful for Plerophory▪ so strong
Will thy desires, wishes, and longings be
To see that day, once terrible to thee.
Thy soul (once thus sublim'd) will ever cry
With yerning Bowels, Come, Lord Jesus; Hye:
And with the Spirit and the Bride will say,
Come, come, Lord, quickly, (while it is to day)
That Trump whose very thought the world doth fray,
Will be thy Cock-crow to eternal day.

The Epigram.

STout Man! why quak'st to think on this days sound?
Thy fear doth from thy inward guilt redound:
Sweep clean thy conscience: mundifie thy Heart:
Through-captivate thy will to his, whose art
Of love, did thee redeem; thence Judgements trump,
Will cheer thy soul, whose thought now doth it dump:
At this Assizes fear not to appear:
The Judge will read thy Neck-Verse for thee here:
Plead guilty, and condemn thy self before:
Confess, and so be sav'd for evermore.
Lord, what vast difference herein appear'th,
Betwixt thy Laws of Heaven, and ours of earth!

Hell.

HOrrid'st of Creatures! who wast solely made
To please Eternal Justice: thy black shade
Abounds with Contradictions: freezing fires,
With torrid chilness; Infinite desires,
Void of the least attainments: Howling theams
Compos'd all of Exordiums: fiery beams
Flashing, yet light-less. This school's Alphabet
Abjures Omega: they who there are met
To roar out Palinodes, and Elegies,
Are still beginning: Cain (if there he lies)
Is no whit farther in his lesson come,
Then he that last went hence to that sad home:
Nay, Lucifer, grand-paedagogue of all,
Hath not learn'd A. B. C. since his first fall:
Though our, and his great Master taught him better,
The Dullard is not yet past the first letter:
His lesson's now as far from learning out,
As 'twas when first he troopt the Angel-rout
Into Rebellion: and the Lesson's dire;
'Tis wo and lamentations, in a fire
Tormenting, not consuming: burning still:
Still killing, yet doth never fully kill:
Eternal labour, with eternal loss;
Uncessant cares, and yet uncessant cross:
A death-less death, a life-less life remains,
Which multiplies the terrour of the pains;
Measureless, endless, hapless, hopeless fate!
Whoe'er comes here, findes it too soon, too late:
Too soon to sense the pain: but to prevent
That sense too late, since too late to repent.
Ah, careless, cureless, heedless, headless man!
Leap not into the fire, out of the pan:
Whilst here Afflictions Cauldron thou dost shun,
Thou darest Hell, and so art quite undone:
Temporal crosses may be better born
Then those eternal: do not counsel scorn
That's good, and given gratis: strike thy sails;
Stoop thy top-gallant, Will: it nought avails,
Poor Sculler, these to mount in a Bravado,
When he's in viron'd with a strong Armado:
If thou stand out, thou'rt sunk and lost for ever:
Submit, submit: to change thy will endeavour:
Look ere thou leap, thy foot is at pits brink:
Move but a hairs-breadth forward, thou must sink,
And sink eternally: see here the Chasm,
Against whose wounds there is no Cataplasm:
Who falls here, wounded is beyond all cure;
And must beyond all time, his pains endure:
This Dungeon, hath nor joy, nor rest, nor ease,
Nor comforts, nor a hope of ought like these:
But desperation of them, and assurance
Of perpetuity of pain's endurance.
View! view, (bewitched man) this place of wo;
Jehovah's Magazine of Terrour: Lo,
This Den from beatifick Vision is
Excentrick: quite exterminate from bliss:
Its Ghests all captive mourners, who delight
Each other to torment, and to affright:
Mutual Assassinates, and merciless:
Unsatiate in fiercest cruelness:
VVhose hideous howlings, raving, roaring cries,
Gnashing of teeth, loud shreeks, would rend the skies:
Shake all the earth to shivers: melt proud man
Into a floud of tears: make beauty wan,
Strength feeble, and his specious frame dissolve
To nothing, once to hear them. Oh! revolve
This frequently in heart, lest Hells dark flame
(The thought whereof should wildest Mortals tame)
Prove the first light that gives thee sight of sin,
And sense of second death: when once thou'rt in,
There's no Redemption: Poenitence too late,
VVill but increase thy torment, not abate.
Here shalt thou see Nimrod's stern progeny
Tyranniz'd o'er, as they lov'd tyranny;
Gygantick Cyclops may tormented be
By Pygmey feinds, t'augment their misery.
The pompous Dives there shall not command
One drop of water from a Lazar's hand,
Nor it obtain, yet begging heartily,
To cool his parched tongue, although it fry.
Abaddon, and Apoll'on here do raign,
Great Lords of mis-rule o'er the damned train,
'Mongst whom confusion is the perfect'st order,
And greatest mercy worse then horrid'st murder:
Where Lucifer and Beelzebub now ly,
Inflicting pains, and pain'd eternally:
These lapsed Angels, knowing their own fate
Irrevocable, are incens'd with hate
Against both God and man: but wanting power
God to infest, they seek man to devour:
Whom living, they by flatt'ry strive to win,
But dead, torment most justly for his sin.
Their first plot is, Gods image to deface
Once stampt on us, now re-ingrav'd by grace,
Since our base forfeitute of that great favour
In Paradise, by breach of good behaviour:
Whilst sweet redemption crusht that curst design,
They now do re-inforce to undermine
Us by our neerest friends, the world and flesh,
Yea, self on self fiercely assaults afresh;
And did not an Almighty pow'r defend us,
These our three friends to those our soes would send us▪
Blessed Redeemer! with thy banner shield us▪
Oh let thy Spirit still assistance yeild us
Against those subtile falshoods, fly devices
VVhereby Hell's regent our poor souls intices;
Confound his plots, and by thy grace relieve us,
And from this dismal dungeon Lord reprieve us.

The Epigram.

SE [...] man thy creature's creature; this curst place
Of endless torment: thy sweet meats sow'r sawce;
Thy honey's gall: house of thy sins foundation:
Tophet, the cell of thy deserv'd damnation.
Critical Atheists have a question stirr'd,
VVhere it should be: thereto wise men demurr'd:
But i'll resolve that doubt: whoe'er thou be,
Atheist, approach and feel, draw neer and see,
And doubtless thou shalt have full satisfaction
For thy nice question and each godless action.
Thou'rt right i'th' way: no guide needs: yet know this,
Death will most surely shew thee where it is.

Heaven.

ETernal Majesty, who here dost raign!
My Muse assistance by thy Spirit daign:
In mercy pardon this my bold adventure,
The holiest of holies thus to enter:
Oh! circumcise my heart: my foul lips touch
VVith thy great Altar's cole, ere I approach
Thy honour's dwelling: Sanctifie my verse:
Let this its Our ano-graphy rehearse
Soul-charming strains, that ravish may with love
My self, and others, of the things above.
I kiss thy threshold, Lord, and so creep in,
VVhere's no approach for ought defil'd with sin:
Not that i'm pure, but foul: yet purged cleer,
Lo, Lord, my sacrifice and Priest are here
At thy right hand of glory, with thee one:
The glory both of thy right hand and throne,
The wonder of thy mercy, love and grace:
VVho bears all Heavens joys summ'd in his face:
The Heav'n of Heav'n: Men cannot wish more bliss,
Then to behold thy sacred face, and his,
Though but a moment: who such sight might have,
Would hug the silent hushtness of the grave;
Kiss death; yea, woo Hells self, on the condition,
(When time's spent to the snuff) to have fruition
Of that transcendent joy. Oh grace divine!
Incomprehensible, save by the Tri'ne!
It forc'th my tongue-ty'd Muse (rapt with delight)
To stutter forth a far-short Epithite.
Oh su-per-su-per-su-su-per-la-tive
Stupendious Love! Into whose depth to dive,
Would non-plus Heav'ns Angelick Hierarchy;
VVonder-strike all the Saints to Lethargy:
Yet (as if these essentials of that joy
VVere too too small for mankinde to enjoy,
Too slight a guerdon for a sinful worm,
VVhose sting death-stung the Lord of Life, whose form
First most divine, is self-deform'd by guilt)
God for augmenting circumstantials built
This New Jerusalem, Joys splendid throne:
A City whose high walls are precious stone:
Her streets transparent gold: her unshut gates
Of Orient pearls, all of unvalu'd rates:
VVhere needs nor Sun by day, nor Moon by night,
For God's great glory gives eternal light:
The Lamb's the Lamp thereof: within it walk
Earth's saved Tribes, whose musick, and whose talk
Are Allelu-iahs: whose white Robes out vie
The purest snow in candor: such no eye
Of Mortal ever saw; nor heart of man
Can half conceive: where Jesus leads the Van
Of sacred Myriades, host of Lord of hosts,
VVith millions of Angels for the posts
And scouts of that Coelestial Army, grac'd
VVith many thousand-thousand Kings; all plac'd
In thrones of glory, crown'd with endless peace,
And sceptred with triumphant Palms: where cease
All oppositions to eternity:
For all their Enemies subdued lie
Chain'd up in deathless flames, in sulph'ry smother,
Tormenting, and tormented by each other:
Doom'd to so horrid and immense a curse,
As God himself can wish his Foes no worse.
But what need Joys Antipathetical,
Where Sympathetical drown heart and all,
In sweet satiety, and pleasing fulness,
Blessedly void of nauseating dulness?
This feast's cates cloy not, ne'er so freely ta'en,
The Ghests need fear no surfeiting, or bane:
Yet it's a lasting, everlasting feast;
Like free for all, the greatest or the least.
Here winged Cherubims bring in the Ghests
From all Earth's quarters, after Death's arrests:
That Vinegar prepares their appetites
To feed on unexpressible delights:
For that's Gods wonted way, (as all Saints know)
Who'll feast above, must taste sowre sauce below.
Afflictions are Preparatives to bliss:
VVho rightly bear one, rarely t'other miss;
I might say, never. Lord! what fools are we,
VVhom sense misseads to doat on what we see,
Hear, feel, smell, taste, with Organs physical?
Sense-comforts have Soul-poyson in them all:
The Spider sucks them thence: and heedless Bees
Fixing on them, their 'fore-got honey leese,
And labour too. Avaunt,! avaunt, dear souls!
Let Faith's bright eye aspire beyond the Poles,
And view those everlasting Mansions there,
Void of disturbance, anguish, care or fear,
Of all that discontents, all that annoys:
And full refert with boundless, endless joys.
Here the celestial choristers declare
Their maker's glory, chaunting hymns most rare
Sweet odes and Epithalamies they'll sing,
To celebrate the nuptials of their king:
Mount Sion's Lamb, Lyon of Judah's tribe;
Whose bless'd inauguration they'll describe
In soul-amazing notes, that ravish quite
All ears with sweet excess of choice delight;
The Heav'n, and Heav'n of Heavens ring with peals
Of acclamations at the open'd seals:
The mystery of God fulfill'd they'll see,
And joy therein to all eternitie.
Methinks I hear the most melodious songs,
The none-such ditties warbled by those throngs:
My towring soul transmounts the cast back skies,
Sensing (in her degree) those rhapsodies,
Hyper-noetick strains, that quite transform
My lowly muse into a lofty form:
Make nature lethe-drunk: inflame my heart
With restless longing there to bear a part,
Where who the least part bears, shall bear a weight
Of countless, endless glory, great, yet light:
A crowning burthen burthenless: who bear
The Cross right here, shall there the crown right wear;
An Amarantine Crown of glory, lasting
Further beyond, then 'tis to everlasting.
Lord! why doth this dull lump of earth detain
My mounting soul from their consort that raign
With thee in glory? I should groan to be
Dissolv'd, that I thy presence bright might see,
Whereof a glympse I spy: but sinful flesh
Still conjures up desires of life afresh;
Of life not worth desiring, now I view
The difference 'twixt it and this that's true.
True life is only here: our life below
Is but a mock-life, meerly life in show,
But real death. Lord, that I here might stay
And wait at my Redeemer's feet for aye!
But ah! it cannot be; I must descend
And re-invested be in flesh, to end
My task by thee appointed me beneath,
Till (summon'd by thy Pursevant grim death,
Or judgement's change) I re-appear before
Thy throne, to be with thee for evermore.
Dear God, in mercy dangers all prevent
That may affayl my soul in this descent;
From sin-defilement keep her pure and free,
And then thy will be done (O Lord) on me.
Yet ah! i'm loath to part: my soul much fear'th
To fall from highest heav'n, to lowest earth:
Guide me, and her (Lord) while we there remain,
And then ere long, we shall return again.

The Epigram.

OH! what all-dazling lustre's here? whose bright
Corruscancy deprives all eyes of sight,
All tongues of words expressive, and all hearts
Of comprehensive thoughts? all these weak parts
Are stupifi'd hereat: yet this great throne
Was made for worthless man's fruition.
What miracles hath mercy more to do?
What! forgive sins! give sinners heaven too!
There needs no more of mercy for man's lot;
Get hea-ven, and get all that need be got.
Of getting other things learn the forgetting,
For when all's got, heav'n's all that's worth the getting.

Valedictio vanitatibus.

1.
FArewel (fond Cupid) with thy gamesome pleasure,
Childhood, and youth inchanting▪
Whose self-betraying leasure
Thy pathes of vanity is always haunting,
And whose fanatick souls,
Like Dotterels, (those foolish fowls)
Are caught by imitation,
And train'd to death by doating on the fashion.
2.
Honour! Our manhood's bubble and her bauble
Charming us with vain-glory,
To seek what is not stable,
And dare damnation for fame transitory:
Chameleon-like to live,
By airy praise that others give,
And slight our souls salvation:
Farewel, there's danger in so high a station.
3.
Farewel, old Ages folly, cheating treasure!
False de [...]ity of worldly wife:
Who crave that past all measure
Which needless is: What most they need, despise;
Who Ant-like without rest▪
Labour to fill their borrow'd nest,
Then Cuckoo-like leave unto strangers
Eggs, nest and all, to finde eternal dangers.

I must acknowledge the ensuing-valedictions to be unto more relations then I ever had at one and the same time in being: But (ayming to express (according to my low power) the nothingness in worth of our temporal to our eternal en­joyments) at sight of the blessed society above: I have briefly and abruptly bid farwel to all below. Amen.

Sequuntur Quatuordecem Valedictionis Quatuordecimales.

1. To the World, and its Inhabitants.

FArewel my fellow-citizens of Earth,
Frail self-like Mortals, made of flesh and blood,
Whose greatest fear's death, sickness, war, and dearth!
Though you I love, I'll leave your Neighbourhood:
For I am bent for new discoveries:
My faith another world hath in her eye,
Far situate beyond the azure skies,
Whose subjects all are Saints; thither go I:
There shall this drossy flesh and blood (refin'd)
Immortal grow, and free from all your fears:
Where (whilst my Saviour's presence cheers my mind)
My heart shall vent no sighs, my eyes no tears:
But fill'd with joy, from age to age I'll sing
Sweet Allelu-iahs to my God and King.

2. To Europe, and Europaeans.

FArewel my worldly fellow-quarterers,
Plac'd in the Earths Right eye, by grace divine,
Who gives more knowledge to thy sojourners,
Then to all quarters else, where Sol doth shine;
Ye are most civiliz'd of all the rest
Of this worlds pilgrims: though proud China boast
Of her two eyes, compar'd with thee, at best
She must confess at least one of them lost.
I must remove my quarters, (though so good)
For I have took up new beyond the poles,
Dear-purchas'd by my General's heart-blood;
To those that quarter there, you're blind as moles.
There I shall know, as I am known, and be
Perfect in Knowledge to Eternity.

3. To Britain, and Britain's.

FArewel dear Country-men, Heav'ns Paramours!
For God hath choycest blessings heap'd on you
Beyond all other lands: That Isle of yours
Earth's Cornucopiae may be lik'ned to,
Wherein are all things needful for man's life:
Plenty of most. But oh! the means of grace
By Gospel-Ministers (though now at strife)
So plentiful in no Land ever was.
But I must take my leave, lest your dissention
About the way to life, should error breed
In my frail heart: i'll therefore (for prevention)
To everlasting unity with speed.
To Grace's Crown of glory I ascend:
What needs the means, when l've attain'd the end?

4. To Shire-mates.

FArewel my Shire-mates, whom this Isle's division
Hath neighbouriz'd to me, and me to you:
Whose rights have in one Counties Courts decision,
Peace to maintain, and to give each his due!
Native vicinity commands my love:
Yet I must traverse all my actions hence;
I'll get out an injunction from above,
To try at God's tribunal each offence:
There I a righteous Chancery shall finde,
Yet have my Judge, my advocate to be,
And have no costs unto my foe assign'd,
The Playntiff Satan, who impleadeth me
On trespasses oft' done against the Judge,
Who will release me: pray then who can grudge?

5. To Parishioners.

FArewel Parochial Neighbours, whom this Nation
By custome in one Register inrols,
And hath held of one Church, one Congregation,
And chosen one for Curate of our souls!
These civil ties, and neighbour-hood, endear
You much to me: But I must from you part;
Amongst you I of Schism and faction fear,
Another Congregation hath my heart,
Where one-ness indivisible appears,
Whose Curate is the Bishop of our souls,
Melchi-zedeck, whose flock is free from fears
Of Wolf, or Fox, of ravenous beasts, and fouls,
Yet guarded by a Lamb, whose song we'll sing
With Saints and Angels, till the heavens ring.

6. To Servants.

FArewel my Servants! for my Covenant
Requires me to depart: mourn not for me;
For your attendance I no more shall want:
Your Master and mine own I go to see:
I must confess, a truant I have been,
And in his service faith-less, dull and dead:
Yet he hath sworn he'll pay my wages in,
If I but with his only Son will wed.
Serve I him but the twinckling of an eye,
I shall have wages payd eternally:
His Debtor deep and desperate was I,
Who sent his Son to die to ransome me.
Oh love! stronger then death! my soul, away,
Make speed, lest thy dear Master for thee stay.

7. To familiar acquaintance.

FArewel acquaintance! I'll acquaint you where
Are better to be got then you and I:
I'll challenge you to dare to meet me there,
And promise you rich fare and melody:
Ambrosia, Nectar, and the Poet's cates
Are husks, and gall, to that celestial fare:
The Spheres harmonious musick jars and grates,
To their Diviner Quavers warbled there:
Where no associates we so base shall find
As Earth's most potent King or Emperour;
True joy shall fill the body, soul, and mind
With contentation lasting evermore.
What poor society doth earth afford!
Draw up my heart of steel, dear loadstone Lord.

8. To intimate friends.

FArewel my mind's embosom'd darlings dear,
'Mongst whom one heart may many bodies serve,
And act unitely in them all! It's clear,
I highly prize your love: Yet needs must swerve
From hugging your enjoyment: for I'm call'd
By the great friend of friends, the god of love,
VVith his triumphant friends to be install'd
In Love's great Principality above.
The King of Kings commands me: I must hence,
To more, and greater friends, then Earth affords:
Detain me not: Nor count this an offence,
If I cease to be yours, to be the Lords.
I'll be both his and yours, if you'll his be;
And you in him again shall meet with me.

9. To Brothers, Sisters and Kindred.

FArewel my flesh and blood, my kindred here!
Our homogeneal parts at first were one,
'Till rib-made Eve made two, (who still one were)
Millions of millions now in number grown:
Adieu t'ye all, but most to those most near:
I have attain'd new consanguinity
All of my elder Brothers blood (d'ye hear?)
Yet not of mine, but of divine affinity:
A breed of quondam men, now glorifi'd,
Who sing sweet Requiems eternally
To their inthroned souls: not to be ey'd
By Mortals opticks; where the starry Skie
Their foot-stool is: their seat the glorious flore
Of his great Throne, that raigns for evermore.

10. To Father.

FArewel my being's instrumental Cause,
Assign'd by him from whom all beings flow,
Who my new Father is, and old one was,
Ere you were so! methinks my heart doth grow
With grief to part: But yet part needs I must
From all relations that Heav'ns Canopy
Surrounds, to find the merciful and just,
Who's Father to us all: whose Progeny
Are all man-kind: whose wonderful affection
By his Son's blood redeem'd me: who before,
Made love sole ground of my poor souls election:
For which I'll sing his praise for evermore.
Father! if you are loath I gone should be;
Come but to him, you'll surely come to me.

11. To Mother.

FArewel dear mold, where in my mortal clay
First by th'eternal potter formed was!
In pain that ba [...]'st me nine months night and day,
And after grievous travel, gav'st me pass
Into this vale of tears! thy torments bind
Me to a boundless love: yet wonder not
If I now leave thee, for a new I find,
Who hath me born again since 'twas thy lot;
A mother militant, who hath prepar'd
A third triumphant for me, who doth dwell
Where never to approach a foe yet dar'd,
Above the fear and spite of Earth and Hell.
Oh let me fly: and haste thee after me;
For she to both of us will mother be.

12. To Children.

FArewel sweet implings, quick Epitomes
Of me and my dear second! I must leave
Your lov'd society: death's Writ of Ease
Doth me remove, yet not of life bereave:
That's length'ned by my change: you I commit
Unto a faithful guardian, yea a father
To me and you, with whom I go to sit
In everlasting glory: who will gather
You all to me again, when his time comes:
Only be faithful to the death, and he
Will give you crowns of life, when your bless'd homes
Shall be th'imperial Heaven, where with me,
With Angels, Saints and Martyr's crowned throng,
You'll sing for ever Sion's Lamb's sweet song.

13. To Wife.

FArewel my better half, life of my life,
And sub-celestial comforts; we must cleave
One heart in two at parting (dearest wife)
As we made one of two at meeting: leave:
Spare those heart-melting cries, those thriftless tears,
Thy frailties to bewail: in those streams swim
Home to thy harbour where my faith me bears:
There my Bridegroom and thine doth mansions trim
For us with everlasting ornaments;
With whom we both shall newly marri'd be,
And raign eternally fill'd with contents,
Passing what heart can think, ear hear, eye see.
I do but go before, and thee expect,
Among the number of the Lord's Elect.

14. To all Joyntly.

FArewel World, Europe, Britain, native Shire,
And Parish too, servants, acquaintance, fri [...]ds,
Kindred, with Father, Mother, children dear,
And dearest Wise! have all contented mindes:
Fot I am to so high preferment call'd,
That (if you lov'd me) you would urge me on,
To haste away, that I may be install'd
A death-less prince, crown'd King by him whose throne
Is over all: whose Scepter sways at once,
Heav'n, Earth and Hell, with their inhabitants.
That Triple Crown that girts the pride-puft sconce
Of Antichrist (who there of falsly vaunts)
Is this Kings right alone, stil'd in truth's words
The only King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.

The Charge.

BRitain, thy glory's sunk; swoln are thy sins,
To an o'erwhelming torrent, that begins
Thee to o'erwhelm; thy erst indulgent God
Hath turn'd his hand against thee: see; his rod
Begins to whip thy follies, whose dread sword
Did lately fight thy battels: whose pure word
Made the earth's Goshen; thou begin'st to grope
In an Egyptian darkness; many hope
To see th' unbottom'd pits black mists o'ercloud
Thy splendent Sun: yea, thy own sons have vow'd
To put out that great light, to raise thereby
Their ignis fatuus light of phantasie.
Father of lights, frustrate their curs'd design;
The comfort shall be ours, but glory thine:
Let not the pit's black torches smokie fumes
Eclipse thy Sun-shine here, though he presumes
To see it so, who is the man of sin,
Who among us those false fires usher'd in,
To light us on to darkness: Lord return
Those fires into his bosom; let them burn
Mysterious Babylon; their heat calcine
The scarlet whore, and beast, to ashes fine:
Their light discover Antichrist to all:
That they and their false fires together fall
Quench'd in eternal flames; and then on high,
And here beneath, thy Church shall glorifie
Thy aweful name. But (ah Lord) we betray
Our selves to them by sin; wildely display
Our nakedness; and what defects we have.
Thy hand's not shortned, that it cannot save:
Nor thine ear heavie, that it will not hear:
But our iniquities (O God most dear)
Have separated us from thee; our sins
Have stockt our feet in their intangling gins;
Our gross abominations in thy sight,
Have thee provok'd to take from us the light,
That we so long unworthily enjoy'd:
Thanklesly too; which made the favour void:
Our disesteeming of thy sacred light;
Perverting it to doctrines of the night,
To schisms, and errours, heresies and factions,
Have justly brought on us these sad distractions:
And since so many of us dare to scoft it,
Thou justly may'st henceforth deprive us of it;
Thou may'st remove our candlestick to those
Who'll bring forth better fruit then our vain shows,
Our painted leaves and blossoms, which discrie,
Our faith but fain'd, our zeal hypocrisie;
Provoke thy patience to fierce wrath's effusion:
And woo thy vengeance to our own confusion.
But Lord forbid, forbid dear God the sins
Of us poor nothings, who have nothing in's
But sin and folly, ever should out-vie
Thy boundless mercy; force thee to defie
Fond weakling worms (yet thy own creatures Lord,
Create', Redeem'd, preserved by thy word,
And those whom thou hast lov'd.) Oh rather turn
Us from our sins to thee (for them to mourn)
Then thee from us, to view them, and in wrath
For them to punish: Lord, thy mercy hath
Ways to prevent thy justice; and can give
Light unto all, that all may see to live,
Hoping to live to see the gen'ral call
Of nations to the light, by all in all,
Who shall have all the glory that redounds
Eccho'd from Heav'ns and earth's remotest bounds:
And when all other Kingdoms are o'erthrown,
Pow'r and dominion shall be all his own;
Which hasten Lord, that we may see with joy
To thine Elect, and to their foes annoy:
And oh prepare us for that glorious day,
Turn us from each perverse and crooked way
Wherein we wander: fit this Island's ghests
For thy bright coming, and for the arrests
Of death and judgment, that whate'er befal,
The glory may be thine, joy ours, in all.
But Lord, our sins have at such height o'erbore us,
That they transcend all Nations past before us:
It well may make (at sight of our base pride)
Lucifer blush to see himself out-vi'd.
And we have those, (by us'ry and oppression)
Who would wrest Mammon's self out of possession:
Fraud and deceit to such a height are grown,
That most men it for their profession own;
And many more, whose words do it defie,
Do in their practice give themselves the lie.
Achitophel (if living now) would be
An ass to most in wicked policie.
Joab a man of mercie would appear
Among such blood-hounds as have lived here.
And Absalom a most obedient son,
Compar'd with ours; who wilder courses run.
Drunken King Elah would too civil be,
By far, for modern Roarers companie.
Lot's drunken Incest which he doubled in,
Have we out-vi'd, as a small venial sin.
Yea, Sodomy is prov'd a puisne crime:
For many have committed in our time
Foul Rapes on Beasts, some of the wrong sex too;
Nay, acts with Devils, (as mostly witches do,)
Whose seed's not only Molech's sacrifice,
But Beelzebub's, the Prince of feinds and flies.
And we have those whose Concubines are more
Then Solomon's: for all his regal store.
But oh our female's lust! we women have,
Who, were each hair upon their head a knave,
Would find all wicked work; who change desire
To quench th' unsated flames of lustful fire.
Heliogabalus was temperate;
Nero, a Prince of mercies, to who late
Have sway'd these Isles. Plague-soars have quite ore­spread
The body politick from foot to head:
Oppressors swarm; and brother against brother
Do act the Devils part upon each other;
And by an uncouth way, sublim'd deceit
Hath taught the smaller to oppess the great;
As true as strange, though mostly undescry'd:
For poorer sort have (to maintain their pride,)
Inhauns'd their price of hire; yet lessen still
Their daily labour; both are what they will:
No past age heard the like prepost'rous curse,
Bred by proud heart, wedded to beggers purse:
A subtile down-right theft: yet lawful held;
Satan hath so this generation spell'd,
Charm'd, and deluded, that most part believe,
It's charity and wisedom to deceive;
And (truth to say) the rich so cruel be,
So voyd of mercy, and humanity
Towards the poor, that both all conscience smother,
And God doth justly plague them each by other.
Yea, all degrees amongst us are perverted
From God and good; and grown so stubborn hearted,
In their own wayes: So self-ishly inclin'd,
So headstrong, wilful; each will have his mind,
Though thereby all should be undone, they knew,
And universal ruine should ensue.
Our Princes are like Rampant Lyons grown,
Seizing on poor mens right, as if their own:
Their Courts have Theaters of vices been,
Where Devils incarnate made a sport of sin:
Where, pride and luxury, sloth and excess,
With emulation, envy, drunkenness,
And hypocritick flattery, was taught,
Yea where mens blood was often sold and bought:
Where God's name was prophan'd, his worship scorn'd,
Or mungrelliz'd by those the beast suborn'd
To puddle our pure streams, and turn their course
From truth to errour, and from that to worse.
Our Peers have been like Judahs Peers of old,
When Joash reign'd; of whom thy word hath told,
That they by flatteries the King seduc'd
From thy true worship (which before he us'd)
To groves and Idols: and not to attend,
VVhen God to him his prophets oft did send;
They have been proud, luxurious, avaricious,
And prone to bribery, extreamly vicious,
In all their ways: a Peerage fitter for
The commonwealths of Sodom, or Gomorrh',
Then for a Christian state: and God hath now
For their great sins enforc'd their pride to bow.
Our Priests have been blind watch-men, nothing knowing,
Dumb dogs that cannot bark (yet always crowing)
In sleep delighted, and so sleeping lie,
Whilst their neglected flocks do stray and die:
As greedly dogs, that ne'er enough can have,
They look all their own way, how they may save
For their advantage, and their purposes:
And mutually provoking to excess;
Crying, Come, we'll bring wine, and we will fill
Our selves with strong drink, till our bellies swill;
And having spent this day in jollity,
Much more abundant shall to morrow be.
Yea many (if not worse) have been as bad
As any prophets Jezebel ere had.
VVhen God a sad decree pronounc'd the while
Against his person, and his projects vile,
They sent their King by their base flattery,
And lies, to Ramoth-Gilead, there to dy:
Who would not notice take of Micah's word
(When he not long had raign'd) sent from the Lord;
Although he had receiv'd express directions,
Not to be led by such false prophets fictions:
And many other prophets cunningly,
Preach up division for divinity;
Vent schisms, and errours, fantasies of men,
For divine truths: but I'll instruct my pen
In brief to tell whence these instructers come:
They're Seminaries sent us forth from Rome:
And (wer't not that our sins them here detain)
We'ld send them with the mischief back again,
Or give them to the sowls of Heaven here,
For a sweet meal of politick good cheer.
Our judges who our seats of justice fill'd,
More in corruption, then in law were skill'd,
Unless in wresting it to base by-ends,
To vex their honest-foes, please their knave-friends:
The proverb prov'd true here, birds of a feather
Did (by the help of angels) hang together;
Had man's help but at Tyburne hung them so,
T' had sav'd these Isles much blood and treasure too.
And, as a mighty torrent breaking out
From mountains top, frets every side about,
And drowns the vales with its impoison'd streams;
So did injustice dart her lightless beams,
And pour her floods from those high courts, about
On all the lower courts the land throughout.
Mayors, Justices of peace, and Constables,
With under-sh'riffs, and all the lower rabbles
Of officers, in this great Isle were grown
Corrupt; yea many to take bribes did own
In face of justice; daring impudence!
Enough to make Heaven blush at the offence,
And pour down thunder-bolts of indignation,
To root for ever hence our Name and Nation,
To puff us off like th'atoms of a feather,
And Sodomize us into Hell together.
Shalt thou not visit Lord for this? and be
Aveng'd on such a Nation as are we?
It's more then miracle we being have
On this side Hell, at least this side the grave:
It's thy meer mercy Lord. Oh give us sense
Of thy forbearance, and our own offence.
Oh that my lines (like Jonah's crying) could
Ninivetize our hearts; our souls new-mould;
Wrest cries from man, and bellowing from beasts;
Charm us from daily food, and nightly rests,
Till thou be pleas'd to hear, and hearing see,
And seeing heal, our plague-sick malady,
Our sin-sick State, and to reform our ways,
And send us truth and peace, and we thee praise.
But Lord, we in our wilfulness go on,
Just as our Fathers have before us done;
They ate sowre grapes, our teeth are set on edge
Vith eating sowrer; for none can alledge
Our God unjust: thou long since profer'dst us
A way of peace; but we (grown mutinous)
VVould walk our own: and thou mayst justly send
Our froward ways a fatal journeys end.
VVe heard a voice behind us plainly say,
Let God elect with you, this is your way,
Walk in't and prosper; yet we still will choose
Members, whose discord will the body lose,
Unless thy grace prevent: for we are running
A way chalk'd out by thine, and our most cunning
And mortal foes: a way devis'd at Rome,
VVhich will these lands to desolation doom;
Our bodies to sharp sword, and famine thin:
Our souls ro utter darkness for our sin:
Deprive us of thy candlestick that live,
And to posterity dark Lanthorns give,
To guide in pathes of death: and to deceive
Our progeny false Gospels to believe,
Unless thy grace prevent. Bless'd God, arise,
And let thy foes be scatter'd, that despise
And persecute thy truth and people thus:
Draw us to thee, and be thou GOD WITH US.
Cease our divisions; chase all schisms and errours:
All Heresies and Ath'ism, hence with terrours;
And with confusion unto those that broach'd them,
And recantation to those that approach'd them:
Let Reformation true at last come in
To our distracted Church and State, which sin
Hath long kept off: let love, with truth and peace,
And blessed union, daily more increase
In these distressed lands; chase hence the swarms
Of black-pits locusts, whose inveigling charms
Dicotomize the world, whose industry
Makes King fight King, and men make war with thee.
Lord, let eternal mercy turn us thus
From all our sins, and all thy wrath from us:
For none but thine Almighty hand can cure
Our desp'rate wounds: thy enemies make sure
Shortly to sway these lands; and therewithal,
To ruine thy reformed Churches all:
Unless thy grace prevent. Help Lord at need;
It's in the mount, it's time thou help indeed:
For vain is mans false help: we fools have try'd
By Egypt's friendship to be fortifi'd,
Whose broken reeds have pierc'd our heedless hands,
And drawn thy judgments on these sinful lands;
Avert them Lord, and turn us unto thee,
Thy fury just from us; else lost are we.
Thy stock of wonted mercies we have spent:
And are undone, unless thy grace prevent.
We set up Princes (Lord) but not of thee:
Rulers whom thou know'st not, who'll fatal be
Unto this land, and make us soon repent
Our foolish choice: unless thy Grace prevent.
Oh let the BRANCH spring forth and bud, and bear,
(If thou so will'st) whilst we are pilgrims here:
The birth is at wombs mouth: Oh God, help strength,
To bring that bless'd production forth at length,
Which our sins keep obstructed in the womb;
And let the Son of David's Kingdom come.
But out great crimes defer that blest event,
And urge thy wrath: Lord, let thy Grace prevent.
Prevent our just-deserved ruine, Lord:
Let love obliterate our crimes abhor'd:
Recruit our stock of grace so vainly spent;
And our just fears, Lord let thy grace prevent.

Angliae Omen.

OH stupid England! how hath S. befool'd thee,
Not to give ear to what thy G. hath told thee?
But to F. P. thou willingly canst hearken,
Which will (I fear) thy brightest glory darken.
E. and D. fight (like fools) by J. deceived
To make S. sport; unless by G. relieved.
G. chalk'd thee out a way: yet thou refusest
Therein to walk; his mercies thou abusest;
Pervert'st the means of grace to schism and faction;
Wrest'st profer'd peace into perverse distraction.
P. B. is spil'd, whence P. in mirth exceedeth,
Whil'st P. spoyls P. the heart of C. C. bleedeth:
And thou still glorying in thy shame abidest;
Sweet mercies scornest; judgments fierce deridest:
Exceed'st in pride, oppression, blood, and thieving,
Excess, and bold profaneness: never grieving
For all thy horrid acts, whose exclamation
Rings up to Heav'n, and croaks thy desolation:
For which thy crimes, one of these are attending,
Thy soon repentance, or thy latter ending.

It is not to me unknown that divers exquisite pens have poëtically translated the following Lamentations; whose La­bours I honour, and aym not herein to detract from; nei­ther strive I to claw mans ear, or tickle his fancie: but have (as neer as I was enabled) kept the very words of the Text it self in our most usual English Translations (hoping the divine gravity, and interwoven plainness of that stile, may prove powerful above all mans ingenious flourishes hereon) as fitting best the parallel times and people, where­ [...]n, and for whom they were first written. Amen.

Hodie mihi, Cras tibi.
Let Jury Britain's warner be:
Let Jebus London teach:
That we Gods ways may heed and see,
Whilst Jews to English preach.

The Lamentations of Jeremiah in metre.

CHAP. I.

verse 1 HOw doth the thronged City sit desert?
How art thou widowed, (O thou) that wert
The great among the Nations, Princess took
Of Provinces; and now in tributes yoak?
verse 2 Her nightly tears make torrents o'er her cheeks:
In vain she comfort from all lovers seeks:
Her friends perfidious all, are foes become.
verse 3 Judah's gone captive from her native home;
Because of servitude, and great affliction:
Among the Heathen she finds no refection:
Her persecuters 'twixt the straights o'ertake her:
verse 4 Zions wayes mourn since solemn feasts forsake her▪
Her Priests do sigh; her gates are desolate;
verse 5 Virgins afflicted; She in bitter state:
Her soes are chief, and prosper; for the Lord
Hath her afflicted for her most abhorr'd,
And multipli'd transgressions: and her Sons
Her enemies led captive all at once.
verse 6 All Zions Daughters beauty is departed:
Her Princes are like Harts in pastute thwarted,
verse 7 As finding none: and they are strengthless gone
verse 8 Before pursuers. Jebus now thinks on
Her pleasant things (in days of old enjoy'd)
By miserie's afflicting hand made voyd:
Her Sons faln in the hands of enemies,
Quite helpless; foes her Sabbaths did despise.
verse 9 Jerusalem hath sinned grievously;
Therefore removed, of her friends cast by,
Who saw her shame: she sighs & backward turns:
verse 10 Her filth is in her skirts, and she adjourns
The day of her last end: whence she descends
To wonderment; yet voyd of cheering friends.
Lord, view my sorrow; for the foe doth boast,
verse 11 And snatch our pleasant things we value most.
She in her Temple sees the Heathen Nations,
Whom thou forbad'st t'approach thy Congregati­ons.
verse 12 Her people sigh, and seek their bread; they give
Their pleasant things for food them to relieve.
See Lord, consider; for I vile am grown.
verse 13 Is it to you as nothing? have yee known
(O all by-passers) any grief like mine?
In his fierce angers day by sacred Trine
verse 14 Afflicted? fire from Heaven he hath sent
Into my bones; his net spread with intent
My feet to trap: Yea, he hath turn'd me back,
And made me faint and desolate alack.
verse 15 His hand hath bound the yoak of my transgressi­ons,
Which wreathed mount, & cause my neck's oppressi­ons:
My strength he made to fall; he gives me over
Into their hands, from whom I can't recover.
verse 16 In me he trampled on my men of might:
Assembled those that crush'd my young men quite:
As in a wine-press he that wears Heav'ns crown
The Virgin Judah's Daughter hath trod down.
verse 17 For this I weep: mine eye, mine eye fleets on;
Because from me the Comforter is gone,
That should relieve my soul: And desolate
My children are; 'cause those prevail'd that hate
verse 18 All comfortless, Zion spreads forth her hands:
Concerning Jacob, God his foes commands
To hem him round; and poor Jerusalem
Is as a menstrous woman made by them.
verse 19 The Lord is righteous; for against his Laws
I have rebelled: Oh! I pray you pawse,
All people hear and see my sorrow, bred
By my young men, and Virgins captive led.
verse 20 I call'd my lovers, but they me deceiv'd;
My Priests and Elders were of life bereav'd
In City, while they sought meat for relief.
verse 21 Behold (O Lord) me in distress and grief,
My bowels vexed, and my heart is quelled:
Since against thee I grievously rebelled:
The sword abroad bereaves, and death at home.
verse 22 My foes have heard i'm comfortless become,
And that I sigh in trouble: They rejoyce,
That thou hast done it: Lord, thy sacred voyce
Hath call'd a day, which thou wilt bring to be,
And they shall then be all like unto me.
verse 23 Look on their wickedness, and them reward,
As thou hast me for my transgressions, Lord:
For many are my sighs, and numerous;
My heart is faint for thy afflicting us.

CHAP. II.

verse 1 HOw hath the Lord in anger covered
Poor Zions Daughter, with a cloud o'e [...] sprea [...]
And cast from Heaven (his imperial City)
Down to this dunghil earth, the splendid beauty
Of Israel, and calls not now to minde
His foot-stool in his day of wrath assign'd?
verse 2 The Lord hath swallow'd up all Jacob's Tents;
And pitiless in Judah's holds made rents,
And brought them to the ground: he hath defil'd
The Kingdom, and the Princes all exil'd.
verse 3 In his fierce wrath he'th cut off Isr'els horn:
His right hand from foes presence back is born:
'Gainst Jacob like a flaming fire he burneth,
Which round about devoureth and o'erturneth.
verse 4 His bowe he foe like bent: with his right hand
He stood as adversary; with death fan'd
All those that pleasant were, unto the eye,
In Zions daughters Tabernacle high:
He pour'd his fury forth like flaming fire.
verse 5 The Lord was foe, and swallow'd in his ire
All Israel, her palaces, and all
Strong holds: and mourning hath increas'd withall,
verse 6 With Judah's daughters wo: with violence
His Tabernacle he remov'd from thence,
Even as a garden; and destroyed rests
The place of his assembly: solemn feasts,
And Sabbaths he hath caus'd to be forgot:
In Zion King and Priest he heeded not,
verse 7 In his wrath's indignation. God hath cast
His Altars off, abhorr'd his Temple wast;
Her Palace-walls, he gave up to her foes:
By them a noise in the Lord's house arose,
verse 8 As in a solemn feast: God purpos'd hath
Destroying Zion's daughter's wall in wrath:
He hath stretch'd out a line; neither withdraw'd
His hand from ruining: he therefore made
The rampart, and the wall both to lament;
They languish'd joyntly both in discontent.
verse 9 Her gates are all interr'd; her bars are broke;
Her King and Princes under Gentiles yoke;
The law is fled. Prophets no vision see.
verse 10 And Zion's daughters elders silenc'd be,
Sitting on ground, dust-headed, sack-cloth-girt:
Jebus her Virgins hang down heads in dirt.
verse 11 Mine eyes do fail with tears; my bowels vex'd;
My liver poured out on earth, perplex'd
For the destruction which my people meets:
Children and sucklings swoon in City-streets.
verse 12 They ask of Mothers corn and wine; and swoonded,
As those that in the City-streets are wounded;
VVhilst in their mothers bosoms thus they cry'd,
They poured out their souls, expir'd and dy'd.
verse 13 VVhat thing shall I to witness take for thee?
To what by me may'st thou compared be?
verse 14 (O daughter of Jerusalem) what shall
I equal to thee, that I may let fall
Some drop of comfort, thy sad soul to chear,
O Virgin Sions daughter? it is clear,
Thy breach is Ocean-like in magnitude:
verse 15 Who can thee heal? thy Prophets have seen rude,
Vain, foolish things for thee; would not display
Thy sins, thy captive state to turn away;
But have for thee seen burthens false, and causes
verse 16 Of banishment. By-passers all make pauses,
Clap hands, and hiss, and wag their heads at thee▪
Daughter of Jebus; crying, Is this she,
Beautie's perfection term'd? joy of the earth?
verse 17 Thy foes all gape against thee; and in mirth
Hiss, gnash their teeth: now certainly (they say)
VVe have her swallow'd up; this is the day
VVe looked for, which we have found and see:
verse 18 God hath what he devised done, and he
Fulfilled hath his word of old commanded:
He hath thrown down, not piti'd, and hath banded
Thine enemies against thee to rejoyce,
Set up thine adversaries horn and voice.
verse 19 Their heart unto thee (Lord) aloud did cry:
O wall of Sions daughter; from thine eye
Let tears run down (like rivers) night and day:
And give thy self no rest, thine eyes no stay.
verse 20 Arise; make nightly cries, when watch begins,
Pour out thy heart (like water) for thy sins
Before God's face; and lift thy hands on high
To Him, for thy young babes that fainting lie
verse 21 On top of every street. O Lord, behold;
Consider to whom thou hast done what's told:
Shall women eat their fruit? a span-long child?
Prophet and Priest be in the Temple kill'd?
verse 22 The young and old lie groveling in the streets;
The sword my virgins, and my young men meets;
Thou in thy day of wrath hast slain them all:
Thou hast them kill'd, and let no pity fall.
verse 23 Thou summon'd hast (as in a solemne day)
My terrours round about, that none away
In thy wrath's day escaped, or remain'd:
The children that I swaddeled, and train'd,
Brought up and cherish'd, (and to keep presum'd)
My mortal enemy hath all consum'd.

CHAP. III.

verse 1 I Am the man that hath affliction seen
verse 2 By his wrath's rod. By him led have I been
Into obscurest darkness; (grief to tell)
But not into the light (save that like Hell.)
verse 3 Surely against me is he turned right:
His hand is turn'd against me day and night.
verse 4 He hath made old my flesh, and skin; and spilt
verse 5 My broken bones: He hath against me built.
With gall and travel he hath compass'd me.
verse 6 (Like dead of old) in the dark places he
Me fet: He hath me hedged round about:
verse 7 Made my chain heavy; that I can't get out.
verse 8 My pray'r he shuts out, when I shout and cry.
verse 9 He curv'd my paths, and wall'd my ways up high.
verse 10 VVith squared stone. He was a bear to me,
Lying in wait: and lyon-like was he
verse 11 In secret place. My wayes he turn'd aside:
And into pieces he did me divide;
verse 12 And made me desolate. He bent his bowe,
Made me his shafts-mark, so to shoot me through:
verse 13 He caus'd his quiver's arrows in my reins
verse 14 To enter deep. And in their merry veins,
Distressed I, the people's laughter was,
verse 15 And song all day. He me hath fill'd (alas)
VVith bitterness, with wormwood made me drunk.
verse 16 VVith gravel stones my teeth he broke, and sunk
verse 17 Me under ashes. And far off from peace
My soul thou hast remov'd: In me doth cease
verse 18 Prosperitie's remembrance. And I said,
My strength and hope is from the Lord decai'd.
verse 19 Recording mine affliction, misery,
verse 20 The wormwood and the gall: my soul (still shy)
In their remembrance humbled is in me.
verse 21 This I re-call to minde, and thence hope see.
verse 22 'Tis the Lords mercy we are not o'erborn;
verse 23 'Cause his compassions fail not: Ev'ry morn
They are renew'd; great is thy faithfulness.
verse 24 My soul doth say the Lord my portion is;
verse 25 Therefore I'll hope in him. The Lord is good
To them that wait for him, to souls that woo'd
verse 26 His face. It's good for man to hope and wait
verse 27 The Lords salvation quietly, (though strait)
verse 28 The youth-born yoke is good which having born,
verse 29 He sits in silence still. And doth adorn
His mouth with dust; if so there hope may be.
verse 30 He gives his cheek to smiters, fill'd is he
verse 31 Full with reproach: for God will not for ay
verse 32 Cast off. And (though he causeth grief to day)
He will compassion have, according to
verse 33 His mercies multitude. God doth not do
That willingly, that may afflict or grieve
verse 34 The sons of men; to crush (and not reprieve)
verse 35 Earth's pris'ners under feet; to turn awry
The right of man before his face most high.
verse 36 The Lord approves not to subvert man's cause.
verse 37 Who's he that saith, and it doth come to pass
verse 38 When God commands it not? Both good and ill
Proceed they not out of the Lords mouth still?
verse 39 Wherefore doth man complain? man for his sins
verse 40 Just punishment? Let's search, and try what's in's,
verse 41 And to the Lord rerurn: to God in heaven
verse 42 Let's lift our hearts and hands: for we have even
Transgrest, rebell'd, and pardon thou gav'st none.
verse 43 With anger thou hast covered alone,
And persecuted us: thou hast us slain,
verse 44 And hast not pitied. Thou dost detain
Thee in a cloud, that our prayers should not pass.
verse 45 Thou hast us made as the off-scowring: as
verse 46 Refuse in peoples mid'st. And all our foes
verse 47 Open'd their mouths against us: fear, snare, woes,
Destruction, desolation on us lie.
verse 48 Rivers of tears do run down from mine eye,
For the destruction that is come upon
verse 49 My peoples daughter: Mine eye trickleth down,
And ceaseth not, without all intermission,
verse 50 Till God look down from heav'n on her condition,
verse 51 And it behold. Mine eye affects my heart,
Because of all my cities daughter's smart.
verse 52 Mine enemies me chased very sore,
(Ev'n like a bird) without a cause wherefore.
verse 53 They have cut off my life; in dungeon throw'd
verse 54 A stone upon me. And the waters flow'd
Over my head: I am cut off, (said I)
verse 55 And in low dungeon on thy Name did cry.
verse 56 O Lord, thou hast me heard; hide not thine ear
verse 57 At my sad cry and breathing. Thou drew'st near
I'th' day that I did call on thee, and said'st
verse 58 Fear not. O Lord, thou my souls causes plead'st:
verse 59 Thou hast redeem'd my life. Thou see'st my wrong;
verse 60 Judge thou my cause. Thou hast seen all along
verse 61 Their vengeance and their thoughts against me. Thou
Hast their reproaches heard (O Lord) and how
verse 62 Against me they imagine; lips of those,
And their device, that up against me rose
verse 63 All day. Behold their sitting and their rising;
verse 64 I am their musick. Lord, for their devising,
Render them recompence, according to
verse 65 Their handy-work. Give them heart-sorrow, wo,
verse 66 Thy curse unto them. Persecute, destroy
In wrath them from beneath thy throne of joy.

CHAP. IIII.

verse 1 HOw is the gold come dim! the fine gold chang'd
In each streets top! the Temples stones (e­strang'd)
verse 2 Are poured out. How Zions pretious s [...]nes
To fine gold comparable, are at once
Esteem'd as earthen pitcher, potters creature!
verse 3 Ev'n dragons draw the brest, and give by nature
Suck to their young: my people's daughter is
Cruel become, like to the ostriches
verse 4 In wilderness. For thirst the suckling's tongue
Cleaves fast to his mouth's roof; the children young
verse 5 Ask bread, and no man breaks to them. They that
Fed delicately, are now desolate:
I'th' streets the scarlet brood dunghils embrace.
verse 6 My peoples daughters punishment takes place
Of Sodom's sin's high punishment, o'erthrown
In moment, when on her stay'd no hand known.
verse 7 Her Nazarites purer then snow, more white
Then whitest milk, in body ruddy, bright
More then the rubies were, their polish'd hew
verse 8 Was saphire; and their visage now we view
Blacker then coal: in streets they are not known:
Their wither'd skin cleaves fast unto the bone:
verse 9 It's stick-like 'come. They whom the sword hath slain,
Are better then whom hunger rid of pain:
For these pine thorow-struck for field-fruits want.
verse 10 Pittiful womens hands have in the scant
Sodden their children, they their meat were after,
In the destruction of my peoples daughter.
verse 11 The Lord his fury hath accomplished,
He hath pour'd out his anger fierce, kindled
A fire in Zion, and it her foundations
verse 12 Devoured hath. Earth's Kings and all the Nati­ons
O'th' world, would never have believ'd the foe,
And adversary enter should into
verse 13 Jerusalems gates. For her Prophet's crimes,
And for her Priests iniquities, (oft times)
That in the mid'st of her just mens blood shed:
verse 14 As blind men in the street they wandered;
With blood themselves polluted, so that men
verse 15 Could not their garments touch; they cryed then,
Depart, it is unclean, touch not, depart,
When they did flie and wander; they (with smart)
Among the heathen said, They shall no more
verse 16 There sojourn. The Lords anger hath full so [...]e
Divided them; he'll them no more respect:
The Persons of the Priests they quite neglect:
verse 17 They favour'd not the elders. As for us,
Our eyes for our vain help yet failed thus
In watching; we have for a Nation watch'd.
verse 18 That could not save; our steps they hunt, & catch'd,
That we can't walk the streets; our end is neer,
Our days fulfilled are, our end is here.
verse 19 Our cruel Persecutors are more swift
Then Heavens Eagles: they had us in drift
Upon the mountains; for us they laid wait
verse 20 In wilderness. In their pits, by their bait,
Our nostrils breath, the Lords anointed was
Surpris'd, of whom we often said (alas)
Under his shade 'mongst heathens live shall we.
verse 21 Rejoyce, O Edom's daughter, and glad be
Who dwel'st in Uz-land; but the cup pass shall
Thorow to thee: and thou shalt drunken fall;
verse 22 And make thee naked. Zions daughter (high)
The punishment of thine iniquity
Accomplish'd is; he will no more thee carry
Captive away. O Edom's daughter wary,
The Lord will visit thine iniquity:
He will thy sins discover and descry.

CHAP. V.

verse 1 O Lord remember what upon us comes;
verse 2 Consider our reproach. Behold, our homes
Are turn'd to aliens, our inheritance
verse 3 To strangers; we are fatherless, orphans:
verse 4 Our mothers widowes are. We drunk our water
For money, wood is sold unto us after.
verse 5 Our necks are under persecution:
We labour, and of rest have no fruition;
verse 6 To Egypt, and to Ashur, hands we gave,
That we to satisfie us bread might have.
verse 7 Our fathers sin'd, and are not: we bore their
verse 8 Iniquities: servants our rulers were,
And none out of their hands delivers us.
verse 9 Getting our bread, our lives are perilous,
verse 10 Because of wildernesses sword. Our skin
Was ov'n-like black, because of famine thin,
verse 11 But terrible. In Zion ravish'd they
The women, and by force with maydens lay
verse 12 In Judah's Cities. Princes hang'd appear
By their fierce hands: the elders faces were
verse 13 Not honoured. They made the young men grinde;
The children fall under the wood behinde.
verse 14 The elders from the gate have ceas'd: young men
verse 15 From musick: our heart's joy is ceased, when
verse 16 Our daunce is into mourning turn'd. The crown
Off from our head is likewise fallen down:
verse 17 Wo unto us that we have fin'd. For this
Our eyes are dim; for these our heart faint is:
verse 18 Because of Zions mountain desolate,
verse 19 The foxes walke on it. Thou Lord in state
Remain'st for ever; and thy throne is set
verse 20 From age to age: why dost thou us forget
For ever, and so long forsake us? see;
verse 21 Turn us to thee, and we shall turned be:
Return our days as in the time of old.
verse 22 But thou, O Lord (as if thy love grew cold)
Hast utterly rejected us: thou art
Exceeding wrath against us (hence we smart.)

Confessio & Petitio.

1.
GOD hath chalk'd us out a way
Leading unto peace and life;
We rebellious run astray,
In the pathes of death and strife:
Did not mercie us preserve,
VVhat we chuse, we best deserve:
Peace and Life, we loath and wave:
Death and Strife we love and have.
Turn us, Lord, or we shall never
Turned be, but stray for ever.
2.
Thou to us, Lord, hast made known,
What shall in the end bring peace,
VVhen the Rule shall be thine own,
And all Tyranny shall cease:
VVhen all Pow'rs on earth that be,
Shall depend alone on thee,
VVhen the Lord shall peace compose:
But we still thy ways oppose.
Turn us, Lord, or we shall never
Turned be, but stray for ever.
3.
When thou shalt our Rulers chuse,
Who can doubt of happy dayes?
Since no people ere did lose
Ought by walking in thy wayes?
Oh that we that time might see,
When we shall be rul'd by thee!
Haste it, Lord, and let it come;
But we still do stray and roam.
Turn us, Lord, or we shall never
Turned be, but stray for ever.
4.
We in Changes run our course,
Not to change from bad to good:
But to change from bad to worse,
Though by thee to better woo'd.
Since in changes we delight,
Lord, direct our changes right,
That from bad to good we change;
And us from our sins estrange.
Change us, Lord, or we shall never
Changed be, yet change for ever.
5.
Can a Blackmore change his skin?
Or a Leopard his spots?
Then may we forsake our sin,
VVhich accustom'd us besots,
And allures us more and more
To worse courses then before:
So impossible a change
Unto man, to Thee's not strange.
Change us, Lord, or we shall never
Changed be, yet change for ever.
6.
VVe are froward, and perverse,
Cross to thee in all our wayes,
Prone to bad, from good averse,
Cold in prayers, thanks, and praise:
Faith is bashful; hope too bold;
Charity benum'd with cold;
Conscience in a Lethargy;
All religion like to dy.
Change us Lord, or we shall never
Changed be, yet change for ever.
7.
Thine Almighty hand alone
Can this pow'rful change effect,
To make supple hearts of stone,
And their secret depths detect,
Whose meandred windings lie,
Intricate, beyond our eye:
And in us no pow'r is left,
Since thereof by sin bereft.
Turn us, change us; else we never
Shall be turn'd, or chang'd for ever.
Change us, turn us; then shall we
Truly turn'd and changed be.

Amen.

Postscriptio: sed Praemonitio.

BRitain! thy sins have stupifi'd thy sense
Of sin, of danger, though not purse-expence:
There thou'rt too quick of feeling: 'ware the trash
Thou striv'st to keep, prove not thy fatal lash.
Thou'rt blind; and seest not sweetest mercie's guide
In thy sweet way of peace: wilt not confide
In men or means that God hath rais'd for thee,
As instruments of thy felicity.
Thou'rt deaf; yea, wilful deaf: and wilt not hear
Thy Gods Prescripts, nor his Election bear.
Thou'rt Nose-pent: canst not smell the powder-plots
Of thy grand foes, whose craft thee quite besots.
Thy taste dis-relisheth the Cates of Heaven,
Yet chew'th the Cud upon thy musty leaven:
Thy Passover may not with that be tane:
Take heed thy love of old, bring not new bane:
Accept what God doth give; never confound
Thy self and thine, to run the world's wild round.
Wilt not God's will feel? see? hear? smell? and taste?
Then do thine own; But thou wilt rue't at last:
Yet when thou hast proclaim'd thy self God's foe,
His will shall stand, whether thou wilt or no,
When thou mayst feel his Iron Rod strike home:
See this thy Paradise, Desart become:
Hear the loath'd noise of thy triumphing foes:
Smell thy dead corpses to annoy thy nose:
Taste (wanting what to taste through Famine thin)
The bitter fruits of thy unequall'd sin.
Reverte: Te inverte, diverte & converte:
Ut se vertat Deus ad te, & haec avertat à te:
Ne te evertat.—

Amen, Amen.

Cura Malorum.

1.
ENgland! why hanker'st (in times fatal nick,)
On various projects, which dicotomize
Thy vital parts? why! (though at heart death-sick)
Wilt not accept of physick, or advise?
Miss-dyet render will thy grief past cure:
Fie, fie, forbear; doubtless thy doctor's skill
Merits thy confidence; his physick's pure:
Nought can obstruct its working, but thy will.
Accept Urania's bountiful advise:
Take for thy Lot, the Lot; be well: be wise.
2.
Curb then thy wayward will: s [...]e self [...] proud sway;
Let thy dissenting parties re-unite,
In the most equal sortilegious way,
Whereto both God and good men thee invite:
A fairer path (freer from just exception)
To cement jars, no Nation ere enjoy'd,
Nor ever shall; it's worthy thy reception,
Lest by refusal thou be soon destroy'd.
Accept Urania's bountiful advise:
Take for thy Lot, the Lot; be well: be wise.
3.
Rinse thy obstructing sins with early tears,
Le [...] Finer's fire and Fuller's sope supply
Late penitences place: prevent thy fears
By turning to who calls thee, lest thou dy.
Beloved Nation! 'tis thy dearest Lord
Summons thy will to homage, hailes thee in;
Strike sayls: stoop in: submit unto his word,
And flie his vengeance threatned for thy sin.
Accept Urania's bountiful advise:
Take for thy Lot, the Lot; be well: be wise.
One and All.
OFt' calls made unjust judge late notice take.
Take thou thy Lot, lest thou thy Lot do take:
FINIS.

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