Ecclesiastes, otherwise called the Preacher :: :: University of Virginia Library

Ecclesiastes, otherwise called the Preacher

Containing Salomons Sermons or Commentaries (as it may probably be collected) vpon the 49. Psalme of Dauid his father. Compendiously abridged, and also paraphrastically dilated in English poesie, according to the analogie of Scripture, and consent of the most approued writer thereof. Composed by H. L. Gentleman [i.e. Henry Lok]. Whereunto are annexed sundrie Sonets of Christian Passions heretofore printed, and now corrected and augmented, with other affectionate Sonets of a feeling conscience of the same Authors

Lok, Henry

[epigraph]

[dedication]

[section]

To the vertuous Lady, the Lady Woollie.

Certaine poems to the Authour of the worke.

To the worke.

To the Author.

TO THE QVEENES MOST EXCELLENT MAIESTIE.

[1. These sacred words king Dauids son did preach, who Israel taught ]

II.

III.

10.

11.

12.

Adue to worlds vaine delight.

Sundry Psalmes of Dauid translated into verse, as briefly and significantly as the scope of the text will suffer; by the same Author.

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13. Who feares not God shall not escape: his daies as shadows pas;
14. Though wicked men triumph sometimes, & iust men waile alas.

13.

But it shall not be well to the wicked, neither shal he prolong his dayes, he shall be like a shadow, because he feareth not before God.

When as contrariwise, the wicked one
Shall be dismounted from his seat of trust,
Dismayd and desolate, forlorne alone,
Pursu'd by heauen and earth, by iudgement iust:
Of God and man, forsaken and contemnd:
As he the innocent before condemnd.

The pompe and glory of his passed pride,
Like to a flowre, shall vanish and decay,
His life like ruines, downe shall headlong slide,
His fame like to a shadow vade away;
Because he feared not the God of might,
In iustice shall these woes vpon him light.

14.

There is a vanitie which is done vpon the earth that ther be righteous men to whom it commeth according to the worke of the wicked: and there be wicked men to whom it commeth according to the worke of the iust: I thought also that this is vanitie.

And yet in truth, it is a wondrous case,
To see the iust so many woes sustaine,
(Not that I thinke that pitie can haue place
With wicked ones, to make them wrong refraine:
But that the God of iustice doth permit
His seruants, to be subiect vnto it.)

For you shall lightly see, the better man
The more afflicted in his worldly state,
The vilest person (worst that find you can)
Most wealthy' and loued most, though worthy hate,
But it is vaine to search Gods mind herein,
Thereof to descant I will not begin.