 | A Metrical History of Christianity |  |
The Glory of Divine Grace
Sweet Gospell Grace, thy shine grown now more dim
Than it in former Centuries hath bin:
My Eyes deservedly may to my pen
Be made an Ink bottle, And tears from them
May be mine inke to write with, while my Muse
A longer foot doth ware and sighs doth Choose,
And rather bleare ey'd Elegies tones than
Playes Musick in a Sapphick note and Pen.
I therefore Change my verse and bring out Rhimes
Tunde to the Melancholy Shape of Times.
Than it in former Centuries hath bin:
My Eyes deservedly may to my pen
Be made an Ink bottle, And tears from them
May be mine inke to write with, while my Muse
A longer foot doth ware and sighs doth Choose,
And rather bleare ey'd Elegies tones than
Playes Musick in a Sapphick note and Pen.
I therefore Change my verse and bring out Rhimes
Tunde to the Melancholy Shape of Times.
Where shall we find thy Glory, Grace to shine
But in the Gospell Stars which dart its rayes
We then for these will search first Asia's Clime
And at Jerusalem where first this blaze
Did glory forth there's little now a dayes.
But in the Gospell Stars which dart its rayes
We then for these will search first Asia's Clime
And at Jerusalem where first this blaze
Did glory forth there's little now a dayes.
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Yet God be praisd, some few doth still appeare
In her 'mongst whom was Zacharias one
When Persians tooke her and he captive were
Full fourteen years, till they were overthrown:
And then he was restor'd unto his own.
In her 'mongst whom was Zacharias one
When Persians tooke her and he captive were
Full fourteen years, till they were overthrown:
And then he was restor'd unto his own.
Sophronius after him was bishop here,
An holy man and Orthodox its said
Whose eyes beheld the last destruction there
Then by the Sarrasen Prince Haumas made
Some other few are namde, not else displaide.
An holy man and Orthodox its said
Whose eyes beheld the last destruction there
Then by the Sarrasen Prince Haumas made
Some other few are namde, not else displaide.
Poor Palestine! How low art thou? Farewell.
I come to Syria. Here Antioch
Had after Gregory as stories tell
One Anastase, whom th'wicked Jews did Choke
With Excrements and many saints down broke.
I come to Syria. Here Antioch
Had after Gregory as stories tell
One Anastase, whom th'wicked Jews did Choke
With Excrements and many saints down broke.
Alas poor Antioch! though some few more
Thou hast on file set down its but their name.
The Amathantines had one Theodore.
At Rhinocare was Gregory who came
With money Captives out of Persia t'gain.
Thou hast on file set down its but their name.
The Amathantines had one Theodore.
At Rhinocare was Gregory who came
With money Captives out of Persia t'gain.
At Nicomedia Peter Christ displaid
And at Apamea Thomaricus.
At Cyzicum Stephen was bishop made
And at Seleucia Macrobius.
At Gortyn Basill, at Choos Geogius.
And at Apamea Thomaricus.
At Cyzicum Stephen was bishop made
And at Seleucia Macrobius.
At Gortyn Basill, at Choos Geogius.
John was at Philodelph, at Tarsus rose
One Theodore at Ephesus another
At Lydon Zimark, Sardis Marine shows
Philalethes Cesaria tends, moreover
And Pergamus Theodore wings do cover.
One Theodore at Ephesus another
At Lydon Zimark, Sardis Marine shows
Philalethes Cesaria tends, moreover
And Pergamus Theodore wings do cover.
At Laodicea Tiberius stands,
Photicus doth teach the Gospe[l] now at Nice
John doth at Chalcidon ope Gods Commands
And others scattered in their Cities rise
Ore Asia but in a slender Guise.
Photicus doth teach the Gospe[l] now at Nice
John doth at Chalcidon ope Gods Commands
And others scattered in their Cities rise
Ore Asia but in a slender Guise.
Alas! Poore Asia! where is the shine
Of Glorious Grace that first sprang up in thee?
What is it thus obscured? Doth it decline
And turnd a setting sun? I sigh to see.
Farewell Farewell I Africk come to thee.
Of Glorious Grace that first sprang up in thee?
What is it thus obscured? Doth it decline
And turnd a setting sun? I sigh to see.
Farewell Farewell I Africk come to thee.
| A Metrical History of Christianity | |