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Soone as Aurora, with her blushing face,
Vsherd the Gyant out to run his race,
His longest Iourney from the East to West,
Good Ioseph, though he ouernight did feast,
Eu'n all th' astates of Egypt with their traine,
His father in more state to entertaine,
Gets vp and with his seruants all repaires
Vnto a chappell by, to publike praiers,
Which Pharoh had giu'n Ioseph there to serue
God, who from famine Egypt did preserue,
No time to men of action is so free
For their deuotions, as the Mornings bee,
Especially for those that liue at Court,
Where they make Dinners long, but Prayers short,
But they done; Ioseph doth his speech direct

Thus to his Brethren: you perhaps expect,
That I, now for mine owne and houses grace,
Should raise you all to honourable place,
And make you Lords at least in Pharohs land,
But if you wisely things will vnderstand.
And know that honour ladeth more then graces,
If wealth and vertues answer not your places,
No grace nor honour can giue such contents
To you, as quietly to liue in tents.
You that haue had your Breeding in such sort,
Cannot obserue the Niceties of Court:
They, whose ambition would be ouer all,
The higher climb'd oft take the greater fall:
Equals enuy, Superiours such disdaine,
Inferiours maligne, all seeke their gaine,
Grace and Preferment by anothers frowne;
Who get vp seeke to thrust the other downe.
Courtiers are Dials, whilst Sol on them shines,
Obseru'd of all, else but as painted Lines.
Many Court-honour onely do admire,
And as another heau'n on earth desire:
These onely looke on outward splendour, showne,
Our inward cares and dangers are vnknowne,
None would enuy our glory and content,
Knew they the weight and cares of gouernment:
They Altas burthen on their shoulders brare,
To whom committed is the publique Care,
Besides most stand in such high slippery places,
I would not haue their hazard for their graces.
I speake not to dehort from gouernment
The wise, for feare of griefes and discontent,
Vnder this burthen they must bow their backe,
Lest if the wicked rule all goes to wracke:
But who are prudent, moderate and wise,
Are rather raisd for worth, then seeke to rise:
And such like tubs on their owne bottome stand,
Nor neede the least support of others hand;
When they which want this true worth of their owne,
No sooner clamberd vp, but tumble downe,
The first like fixed Starres stand firme and fast,
Last make faire showes, like Comets, but sonne wast,
Their matter is pure elementall fire,
Of these ambitious humour and desire.
Such is the Humour of Ambition vaine,
For grace and offices to take much paine,
Wherein they neuer comfort take nor rest,
So feare of loosing doth their mind molest:
When could they their faire Fortunes vse aright,
They Freedome might enioy with much delight.
I fiue of you, my brethren, will present
To Pharoh, who I know hath an intent
To giue you any honour you require,
But you his Fauour onely shall desire,
And tell him plainely how you haue been bred,
And heards and cattell all your life time fed.
(My reason is, for that this occupation
Is here in Egypt of small reputation)
Desiring you of his high grace may hold,
Some pastures onely for your flocks and fold,
Where you may serue God free from care and strife,
And pray for Pharohs long and happy life:
Should I you all now raise to Dignitie,
Ones Folly ruine might the Family;
Many vnited stronger are then one,
But 'tis most: what more safe to stand alone:
Especially so high; where one mans fall
May make a breach, and so indanger all.
Oh happinesse, if knowne, of country bowers!
Where in Deuotion they their freer howers
May spend, and with Groues citizens sweet sing
Diuinest praises to the heau'nly King:
Where free from plots and vndermining Arts,
All may the Truth speake boldly from their hearts,
(For to a goodman 'tis no little paine
To flatter for the greatest grace and gaine)
There may they see their Lambs grow great and more,
And heauenly blessings on their stocke and store;
There may they see corne thriue vpon their lands,
And God to prosper all workes passe their hands:
Happy whose lot falls in so faire a ground,
Such pleasures are at Court but seldome found;
But lets make hast, my brethren to the court,
My businesse is long, my time but short.

And now had Phœbus climb'd vp to such height,
His beames did warme the world, as well as light,
When Israell old, with trauell wearied,
Slept sound, till waking, he much wondred
(Thinking himselfe at first in his owne tents)
To see such costly gorgeous ornaments:
But soone remembring where he did abide,
He turnes to Leah lying by his side:

And thus begins, Deare wife! should I suruay
Gods blessings from my birth, vnto this day,
And in a summe his benefits recount,
They would my dayes, nay eu'n my howres surmount.
His Goodnesse, Wisedome, Foure, Loue in those past
Shin'd seuerall, but all now in this last:
Goodnesse in drawing so much good from ill,
To worke the sound good purpose of his will:
His powre herein is manifestly showne,
In raising vp the meeke, and throwing downe
The prowd; his heauenly wisedome did foresee:
And told vs all by dreames which now we see:
The Starres eleu'n to Ioseph bow'd long sence,
Now we the Sunne and Moone him reuerence:
And lastly here appeares his wondrous Loue
That all for's glory and our good doth proue.
Thus Israel doth Gods benefits recite,
Beginning in the morning eu'n till night.
But whilst he thus Gods Bounty magnifide,
Like fairest Ewe with twin Lambs by each side,
Comes Asenah, on either hand a sonne,
Smugge, liuely, like two Rabbets newly run:
Which seemd their mothers gracefull steps to guide,
As two trim Squires that leade to Church a Bride,
The tender boyes, whose mothers pious care,
Before had taught themselues aright to beare,
Downe on their knees before their Grandsire fall,
And sweetly to him for his blessing call:

The good old man whose heart doth dance for ioyes
To see his Nephews, thus begins, sweete boyes,
Which like two fairest Iuly flowers showne,
Or buds of damaske Roses scarcely blowne.
Oh these my daughter giue you more content
Then Egypts wealth and costliest ornament.
Me thinks they hang vpon each arme of thine,
Like two faire Clusters on a fruitfull Vine.
These shall renew our dying memory,
And vs reuiue vnto Posteritie.
Behold I see in little Ephraims face,
My dearest Rachels louely lookes and grace.
Manasses like to Ioseph doth appeare,
Who aboue all his brethen was my deare.
But oh! my daughter, how much am I bound
To you, for vndeserued fauours found;
But Ioseph more; a Princesse of your state
So lowly to descend to be his mate?
God make him worthy of your grace and loue,
And that he may as acceptable proue
To you his deare, as he was wont be blest
With highest fauours, alwayes of the best.
For he at home in Bondage, Prison, Court,
In grace was alwayes with the better sort.
I Potiphar the Gaoler, and the King
Best lou'd and trusted him in euery thing:

Then Asenah? I wish you were obserued
Here, my deare father, as you haue deserued:
As for your sonne no noblenesse of birth,
Nor Egypts dowers can counteruaile his worth,
Who me hath taught the vanity of state,
Me worthy make as happy of my mate;
Such is his worth and noblenesse of mind,
I wonder not that he should fauour find
Amongst the best: But shall I you intreate
To tell your daughter, what you vse to eate,
For here you all must as at home command,
We but desire your will to vnderstand.

Daughter saith Iacob I was neuer nice
Nor dainty to consume things of high price,
That's alwayes best you easiliest can prepare,
Better are homely Cates then forraine fare.
My heards my foode, my sheepe my clothing breede,
No better weare I, nor no other feede:
Sixe score and ten yeares haue I beene content
To liue on milke, fruits, and such nourishment:
Yet few or none that to mine age attaine,
So strong of body are, and free from paine:
But aboue all, the weather being faire,
I loue to walke abroad in freshest aire;
After my mornings draught to stirre, is good
For to refresh the Spirits and warme the blood,
This is the way diseases to preuent,
I thanke God, I neere knew what phisicke ment.
Thus whilst they talke in plaine familiar sort,
Lo Ioseph vnexpected comes from Court,
And tells his father, how he did present
His brethren to the King, who is content
Them to employ according to their breeding,
In looking vnto sheepe and cattell feeding,
And now he much desires to see your face,
And with all Courtly honour you to grace:
I (Iacob saith) with all my heart will goe
To that good King, that Ioseph honours so,
But I desire of him no greater grace,
Then to liue in his Land and see thy Face,
I hope he likewise will conceiue my breeding,
And leaue me to my flockes and Cattell feeding.

Ioseph his Father then to Pharoh brings,
Who doing first Obeisance due to Kings
Begins, oh! blessed, blest thou euer be,
That rais'd my Ioseph to such Dignitie,
From Dungeon where stockes did his Limbs enroule,
And yrons enter'd eu'n into his Soule,
To rule all Egypt by thy borrowed might,
And be alone great Pharohs Fauorite.
And blest be ay for thy Benignitie,
Who sauest me and all my Family
From perishing; Alas! for want of food,
God render in thy Bosome all thy good,
And double thy fore-Fathers daies vpon
Thee, and thy seede that sit vpon thy throne.

Thus ends the Sage: when Pharoh thus replide,
How much more cause haue I to blesse the tide,
That noble Ioseph did to Egypt driue,
To saue me and my people all aliue:
Come hither Iacob, let me thee embrace,
How can I but loue thee, and all thy race,
Whom now as Cause and Author I doe see
Of Ioseph? Father of all mine and mee:
It ioyes me Israel most exceedingly,
When I thy sonne in ought can gratifie,
To whom my Kingdome, Life, and all I ow,
As thou and thine, and all the people know:
God sent thy Ioseph, as a man before,
To lay vp here against this famine store,
For had we not by his foresight beene fed,
We, thou and all, for want, had perished.
Thy Ioseph doth informe my Senatours,
And Wisedome teach vnto my Counsellours:
Well may he rule then ore my house and Land,
And all my substance haue at his command,
I am to this by Prouidence but led,
God hath indeed thus Ioseph honored.
Thou seemst of no lesse wisedome and desert,
Then good old father, tell how ould thou art,
And in what course, thou hast worne out this terme,
I aske not to examine, but to learne:
Examples more then precepts teach to liue;

Good King, saith Iacob, thou doest eu'n reuiue
My older age to heare thy wondrous loue
To Ioseph, whom more then my selfe I loue.
But seeing thou inquirest of mine age,
Know that the dayes here of my Pilgrimage
A hundred and full thirty yeares haue beene,
The dayes are few and ill which I haue seene,
Nor haue I yet attained to the age,
And dayes of my forefathers Pilgrimage.
Two things I studdy here especially,
The first to liue well, second well to die,
For what is all our life once gone and past,
But eu'n a way vnto our happy last.
The terms from whence to all flesh is the wombe;
That whither all doe hasten is the Tombe.
He happiest here who findeth on the way,
Fewest impediments his course to stay.
Some passe through sicknesse, pouerty, some wealth,
Honour, preferment, pleasure, strength and health,
Some equally of both participate,
This is the meane, yet safe and happiest Fate,
The highest I did euer here aspire:
And in this state I still to liue desire.
The highest honours to your Grace are due,
For God hath with a Kingdome honourd you,
Whereof you haue your selfe most worthy showne,
In looking to Gods glory, not your owne.
Wisely therefore, I speake it to your praise,
You honour them, whom God would haue you raise,
And in your Kingdome prudently depresse,
Those whom God hateth for their wickednesse.
Thus needs your Gouernment must happy be,
When King and Senatours in one agree,
The proud to cast downe, and to raise the iust,
So may the Rulers one another trust.
God that from Famine vs deliuered,
And by a dreame foretold, thee counselled
Both for thy land, and houshould to prouide,
And all the world, which else for want had dide,
Feede thee with inward and spirituall grace,
And giue in heau'n an euerlasting place,
For this, I your poore Beadsman, night and day,
Will in a homely countrey cottage pray.
Pharoh much ioy'd, would faine haue entertaind,
And him at his owne boord with bread sustaind.
But good old Iacob modestly denide,
And sayd, How long haue I on earth to bide?
I cannot now of good from ill make choyce,
Nor musique iudge by instrument or voyce,
Why should I be a burthen to the King?
And he reward so my small-meriting,
But let my sonne for me before thee stand,
And ready alwayes be at thy command.

Good man, saith Pharaoh, I haue giu'n command
To place thee in the fattest of my Land,
The Land of Goshen be a habitation
To thee, thy children and thy generation
There is best pasture-ground for them to keepe,
Their Camels, Asses, Cattell, Gotes and Sheepe.
To raise to place of honour I desire
Thee and thy sonnes, but they of me require
Still to be Heardsmen: wherefore the most bould
And actiue, I make Rulers of my fould.
Then Iacob blessing Pharoh did depart
Out of his presence with a ioyfull heart.

Seu'nteene yeares after in prosperitie,
Liu'd Jacob and did greatly multiplie,
And Ioseph in his former Grace did stand,
Still vnder Pharoh ruling all the Land.
Nor might be ere out of his masters sight,
Because he was his onely Fauorite,
Till one day Ioseph, absent from the Court,
Pharoh bespeakes his seruants in this sort.

Nere thrise ten times the Sunne with panting horse
Hath run through heau'n his swift and yeerly course,
Since first arose in this our hotter clime,
That hebrew Sun, which euer since did shine,
And all the time he did in court appeare,
We haue had Spring and Summer all the yeare,
I cannot eate by day nor sleepe by night,
Without his Beames most comfortable bright:
That honest man, in whose ingenuous face,
A man may reade what in his heart hath place,
Now, by my life, I higher doe esteeme
This Hebrew, then great Egypts Diademe.
Nor is it to the least of you vnknowne,
He hath beene better to me then my Crowne,
And beares still for me, to all mens content,
The weight of all my kingdomes gouernment,
In those seu'n yeares of Famine and of Store,
When his employments greater were and more,
If he were but one day out of my sight,
I certaine was to heare from him at night,
But now of's light hath beene neere three daies pause
Yet no man here will tell to me the cause.

When thus the Butler (who by Pharohs grace
Restor'd was as he dream'd to's former place)
Dread Soueraigne! some small clouds do in this sort
Shadow his beames, which wont to shine at Court:
But no defect in his ay-constant light,
He's still the same, and shines as euer bright.
Ioseph at home for Pharohs health now prayes,
To Israels God, these are his mourning dayes.
His father old now sleepes in happy rest,
Who dying made to him this last request.

My dearest sonne the honour of my race,
If in thy sight thy father hath found grace,
(For though thou art my sonne by true relation
Yet I am subiect to thy domination)
Now graciously and truely with me deale,
Not for my priuate, but our common weale;
Well do I know that our posteritie,
Will soone admire faire showes and vanitie,
And not regard the land of happinesse,
The Type of future and of present blesse,
Therefore to me, my dearest Ioseph, sweare,
Thou wilt not me in Egypt here enterre,
But safely carry to the land of Rest.
With my forefathers there my Bones to rest,
It may be ours will sooner hasten thither,
Where all their Fathers Bones doe lye togither.
Then Ioseph sware and Israel worshipped,
The Feare of Isaack sitting on his bed.
These words he me desir'd, with many teares,
That I would publish in King Pharohs eares,
And Licence of thee to that end obtaine,
Which done he would to Court returne againe.

When Pharoh thus: Is that good old man dead,
Like apple ripe in Autumne gathered?
We all must follow, who can tell how soone,
Some fall at night, at morning, some at noone?
But I desire, if any here can tell,
How that good old man dide, that liu'd so well,
For most what it befals mortalitie,
As they haue liued here, eu'n so to dye.

Good Ioseph, saith the Butler, thus me told,
That Iacob growing weake, as he grew old,
He Ephraim and Manasses his two sonnes,
Takes with him, and vnto his Father comes,
Wherewith his weakenesse greatly comforted,
He takes his strength, and sits vp in his bed.
And thus begins: My sonne, my Ioseph deare,
The God Almightie did to me appeare
At Luz in Canaan, where he did me blesse,
And promise to my seede much fruitfulnesse,
Assuring me to make a mightie Nation,
And giue that Land vnto my Generation:
For those two sonnes God here hath giu'n to thee,
Before my comming, thou shalt giue them me,
As Simeon and Ruben, they are mine,
Thy Children since begotten, shall be thine;
These two, I meane, shall be two Tribes, The rest
In these Tribes names, shall be of Land possest;
For I a double portion thee allot,
As my First borne: Because I thee begot
Of Rachel deare, my first, my lawfull Wife,
Who on my hand in Canaan left her life,
Her there, alas! I buried on the way
To Ephrata, call'd Beth'lem to this day.
But what are these two Lads? my Ioseph deare,
My sonnes saith Ioseph God first gaue me heere:
Oh! bring them me saith Iacob to this place,
Before I die, to kisse, blesse, and embrace:
Sweet Boyes! Good Ioseph, I nere thought indeed
To see thy face, but now I see thy seede:
The old man then, though he were dimme of sight,
His left hand on Manasses, and his right
On younger Ephraim layes, and wittingly,
Thus blesseth Ioseph in his Progeny:
God in whose sight I here haue walk'd alway,
Who all my Life-long fed me to this day,
The God of Abram, and great Isaacks dread,
And th' Angell which hath me deliuered
From euill, blesse these Lads, and let my name
With name of Isaack and of Abraham,
Be in them nam'd and in their Tribes renew'd;
And grow on earth eu'n to a multitude.
But it displeasing was to Iosephs sight,
To see on Ephraims head, him lay his right,
And on Manasses his left hand to place;
And would his First borne with the right hand grace,
But Iacob nould, but said I know indeed
Thy First-borne shall be great: But lo! the seede
Of Ephraim, shall be greater farre then he,
And a more strong and mightie people be.
Thus aged Iacob bless'd them both that day,
And said in thee let Israel blesse and say,
God send thee Ephraims and Manasses store,
But Ephraim he Manasses set before:
Then said he, Lo! I die, now out of hand,
And God shall bring you to your fathers land,
Then ere he dide, he swan-like sung this song,
Most sweete, because he liu'd not after long,