Du Bartas :: :: University of Virginia Library

Du Bartas

His Divine Weekes And Workes with A Compleate Collectio[n] of all the other most delight-full Workes: Translated and written by yt famous Philomusus: Iosvah Sylvester

Sylvester, Josuah (1563-1618)

[section]

Anagammata Regia: Regi.

Iacobvs Stvart: Iusta Scrutabo.

CORONA DEDICATORIA.

[These laureat Temples which the Laurel grace]

EPIGRAM. To M. Iosuah Sylvester.

In praise of the Translator.

To M. Iosvah Sylvester, of his Bartas Metaphrased.

To my good friend, M. Sylvester, in honour of this sacred Work.

To M. Iosvah Sylvester. A SONNET.

Flexanimo Salustij du Bartus interpreti, Ios. Sylvesteri, carmen Encomiasticon.

In Commendation of du Bartas, and his Translator, M. Iosvah Sylvester. A Sonnet.

In Commendation of this worthie Worke.

An Acrostick Sonnet, to his friend M. Iosva Sylvester.

To the Same.

Du BARTAS His FIRST WEEK, OR BIRTH OF THE WORLD:

Du BARTAS HIS SECOND WEEKE, DISPOSED (After the proportion of his First) Into Seaven Dayes: (viz.)

TO MY EVER-MOST HONOVRED MISTRESS, Mris Essex, wife to the right worthy, William Essex of Lamborn, Esquier; and eldest Daughter of the right valiant, and Nobly-descended, Sir Walter Harecourt of Stanton-Hare-court, Knight Baron of Ellen-Hall.

TO VERTVES PATTERNE, AND BEAVTIES Paragon, Mris Ione Essex: now wife to the right worthy, William Anderson Esquier (second Son of the late Lord Anderson) and only Sister of the Honorably-descended William Essex of Lamborn, Esquire.

VRANIA. OR The Heauenly Muse.

THE TRIVMPH OF FAITH

TETRASTICHA. OR THE QVADRAINS OF GVY DE FAVR, Lord of Pibrac.

SONNETS Vpon THE LATE MIRACVLOVS PEACE IN FRANCE.

A DIALOGVE VPON THE TROVBLES PAST:

AN ODE OF THE LOVE AND BEAVTIES OF ASTRÆA.

EPIGRAMS & EPITAPHES vpon Warre and Peace.

THE PROFIT OF IMPRISONMENT.

LITTLE BARTAS:

Micro-cosmo-graphia: THE LITTLE-WORLDES DESCRIPTION; OR THE MAP OF MAN

CERTAIN EPIGRAMS of the same Mr. H. S.

THE MAIDENS BLVSH:

THE PARLIAMENT OF VERTVES ROYALL:

A DIVINE & TRVE TRAGI-COMEDY; IOB TRIVMPHANT in his Triall:

[To Arthur's Castle (call'd by Art's Chast Lvre)]

To The Right Reverend & honorable Father, George Abbot, Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury

TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE, the Lord Elesmore. L. High Chancelour of England.

TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE, William Harbert, Earle of Penbroke, Lord Chamberlaine, &c.

TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE, Sir Edvvard Coke, Knight; Lord Chief Iustice of England and one of his Maiesties most Honorable Priuie Councell.

TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE Lords Spirituall and Temporall;

IOB TRIVMPHANT in his Triall.

BETHVLIANS RESCVE.

A HYMN OF ALMS: OR THE BEGGERS BELL; heard, from beyond THE CHARTER-HOVSE,

MEMORIALS OF MORTALITIE.

St. LEWIS; THE KING:

HENRIE THE GREAT (The Fourth of that Name) LATE King of France and Navarr: HIS Tropheis and Tragedie. Written in French By Piere Mathiev.

THE BATTAIL OF YVRY:

SIMILE NON EST IDEM: Seeming is not the Same.

A GLIMSE OF HEAVENLY IOYES:

AVTO-MACHIA: OR The Self-Conflict of a Christian.

TOBACCO BATTERED;

LACRYMÆ LACRYMARVM:

AN ELEGIAC-EPISTLE Consolatorie.

HONOR'S FARVVEL To Her Honorable Friends: Or The Ladie Hay's Last Will

A FVNERAL ELEGIE

To Gods Glory. IN PIOVS MEMORY OF the nobly vertuous and religious Matrone, Margarite, Wife of Robert Hill, Dr. of Divinity, and Pastor of this Parish.

Vxor Felix. Loquitur post funera virtus.

A HOLY PREPARATION to a ioifull Resurrection.

THE MYSTERIE OF MYSTERIES.

Collapse All | Expand All expand section

886

A DIVINE & TRVE TRAGI-COMEDY; IOB TRIVMPHANT in his Triall:

OR THE HISTOIRE OF His Heroicall Patience, In A measured METAPHRASE.

887

[To Arthur's Castle (call'd by Art's Chast Lvre)]

To Arthur's Castle (call'd by Art's Chast Lvre)
My Hope Heere Hastneth, For My Hart's Last Cvre.

Sir, Yov haue seen, in my Panaretvs,
A Svveet IDEA of --- Our hopes in You:
A Real Act of that Ideal Vievve,
In my St. Levvis Roy --- All-Vertuous.
Heer, (more Heroik, and more Holy-True)
I bring your Highness yet A Higher Peece
(Past all the Patterns of old Rome & Greece)
Faith's PATIENT Chāpion, in His Triumph due.
Farre bee His Crosses frō my Prince, I pray:
Neer bee His Courses (As the most complete
In sacred Graces that beseeme The Great)
Towards God & Man; in cleer or cloudy Day;
So much More needfull in This Sin-full Age,
By How Much Satan (neer his end) doth rage:
VVith VVhom and His, the better Aye to wrastle,
Great Michael gard & strengthen Arthvr's Castle;

praies Prostrate Iosvah Sylvester.

888

To The Right Reverend & honorable Father, George Abbot, Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury

IN Grate-full HONOR
Of Your Many Giftes
Of Grace & Natvre
(Apted to Your Place)
This Dorike Pillar
My Devotion liftes;
To shew Heere-After,
What We owe your Grace:

Both, for Your Prudence,
And Your Pious Zeale;
Learning And Labour
In Your Double Charge;
Swaying The Chvrch,
Staying the Common-Weale;
Most Stvdiovs Euer
EITHER to Enlarge:

And Last (not least) of all,
For Constant standing
On Right's vveake Side,
Against the Tide of wrong;
When Philistines,
And Daliladies banding,
With Armes or Charmes
Would bind or blind the Strong:

In Honor of these Honors, this I bring To Reuerend Abbot, & His Second; King. Vester—Syl—Vester Deditissimus.

889

TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE, the Lord Elesmore. L. High Chancelour of England.

Thomas Egertonvs: (Anagramma) Nestor Theomagvs.

Graue , God-Wise Nestor; Neuer did a Name
(Saue A Ivst Master) better speak a man
(As Court and Councell, with Mee witnes can)
Than doth Your Owne in This Your Anagram.
Should I A Volume of Your Vertues frame,
Broad as my Brest, and Thicker then my Span;
Could I say More more True more Duly, than
The Character concluded in This same?
For, Piovs-Prudence cannot but be Iust:
And Iustice cannot but be Temperate:
And Temperance from Courage issue must.
So that Your Name doth Your whole Life relate,
So Nestor-like, for grace-full, Godly-Sage,
That Nothing wants, but (what we wish) His Age.

Exanimo exoptat

Ios. Sylvester.

TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE, William Harbert, Earle of Penbroke, Lord Chamberlaine, &c.

Patience preuailes (when Passions are vndon)
This doth This Volume truly intimate:
So doth Your Vertue, firm, and fortunate,
Now cheer'd with Radiance of our Royall Sun.
O! long and Happy may Hee shine vpon
So Noble a Plant (mo Such to propagate)
So Grace-full, Vse-full both in Court and State;
Help-full to All, Hurt-full at-all to None.
Among Those Many whom your Worth hath won
(Of either Sexe, of euery Age, and State)
With glad Applauses to congratulate
The worthie Honour of Your Charge begun
(Though not, perhaps, so long and lowd, as Many)
Accept My AVE, as Deuout as Any.

Your Lordships most obliged, Iosvah Sylvester.

890

TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE, Sir Edvvard Coke, Knight; Lord Chief Iustice of England and one of his Maiesties most Honorable Priuie Councell.

Edvardvs Cocvs: (Anagrama) Svccedo, Ardvvs.

Hardy and Happy may You long Succeed,
In all the Courses of your Christian Zeale,
To scourge Abuse; and purge the Publike-Weale,
Of vicious Humors, with auspicious Speed.
Hardy and Happy Neuer more did need,
To meet with Malice, and with Might to deale;
And sift the Drift the Serpent would conceale.
How happy Heav'n You for these times decreed!
Hardy and Happy may you still proceed,
Vntill You finde, confound and suffocate,
The Viperous Vermin that destroy the State.
Hardy and Happy, be your Minde and Meed
With GOD and Men: applauded and approou'd
Of Prince and People; of All Good, belou'd:

Ex Animo Exoptat

Iosvah Sylvester.

891

TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE Lords Spirituall and Temporall;

The Knights and Burgesses of the Lower-House; And to all generous and ingenuous Readers.

Your prest Assistance and Assistance, past,
Vouchsafed, Heer, when you were summond last,
Binde and imbold mee once more to present
My humble Briefs, in form of Parliament;
Hoping no lesse Consent of Your Good-wills
In passing These, then of Our former Bills;
So-much more Need-full in this Weed-full Time,
By How-much Vice doth ouer Vertue clime.

893

VVhose seueral Acts, of sweet and souerain Vse
To cherish Vertue, and to check Abuse
(Too rough transcribed, by too rude a hand,
For so high Statutes of the Holy-Land)
Are heere presented, as fit Precedents
Of sacred Rules for your High Parliaments;
By (th'once, least Moat in th'Vpper-Houses Sun)

You Vnder-Clarke, Vnworthily Vndon (By ouer-trusting to a starting Bow-Yer-while too-strong, to my poor VVrong and VVoe) Iosvah Sylvester.

894

IOB TRIVMPHANT in his Triall.

The Proëm.

A solid Rock, farre-seated in the Sea
(Where many Vessels haue been cast away)
Though blackest Storms of blustering Winds dothress,
Though boistrous Rage of roaring Billowes beat;
Though it be reakt with Lightning, and with Thunder;
Though all at once assault, and Each asunder;
With massie Bulk of it Selfes Marble Tower,
Still, still repells th'ineuitable Stower;
And seemes still firmer, and more permanent,
The more the Tempest hath been violent:
Right so the Faithfull; in whose humble Brest
Religious feare of God is deepe imprest;
What-euer Stroak of Fortune threat his State,
What-euer Danger him discommodate,
What-euer Mischiefe that betide him shall,
VVhat-euer Losse, what-euer Crosse befall;
Inflexible, inuincible, pursues
The sacred Footings he did euer vse:
And aye more constant and confirm'd is He,
The more extream his sad Afflictions be.

If any Spirit inspir'd with Holy-mood,
Carefully-curious of the Publike Good,
Would liuely limne th'immortall Excellence
Of such a Pattern of such Patience,
As neither Elements displaced quight,
Nor enuious Starres, nor angry Foes despight,

895

Nor all the Fiends insatiate Furie fell
(By fraud or force) could euer quail or quell:
Twere labour lost, to fable (Homer-like)
The strange long Voyage of a wily Greek;
The Paines, the Perills, and extream Disease
That he endured, both by Land and Seas;
Sith sacred Truth's Heav'n-prompted Books present
In Constant Iob, a worthier Argument.

Thou then, Vrania, to whom right belongs
The sacred Consort of Celestiall Songs,
Tune Thou my Voyce, Thou teach me to record
Who did incite, what did inuite the Lord,
With Miseries so rewfull and so rife,
So to disturb his quiet happy Life;
What haynous Sin, what horrid high Offence,
The Almightie's Vengeance mought so deep incense:
Or else what Cause, what Obiect, else might stir-it.
Boiles there such Wrath in an impassiue Spirit?

Bvt , O Presumption! Why haue I begun
(Alas! no Prophet, neither Prophet's Sonne?
No Priest, no Leuite; nay no Israelite
(Such as Nathanael) but a Cananite
Full of Corruption, foule of hand and hart)
To touch the Ark? to vnder-take This Part?

Ah! pardon Lord; O! purifie mee all
From all Prophanenesse; from Sinne's bitter Gall:
And as yer-while it pleasd thee to infuse
In mine vnschooled and vnskilfull Muse
(By vertue of Thine All-sufficing Grace)
Immediat power du-Bartas Track to trace:
So as (how euer weak, and Art-lesse, I,)
That Worke findes Welcome with the grauest Eye:
Now more good Lord, my Wits and Words refine,
To treat diuinely Matter so Diuine:
O! sacred Spirit now sanctifie my Stile;
Let not my Sensuall, thy pure Sense defile:
But tune mee, right, to Eccho, as belongs,
Thy Hvssian's Sighs, and then Thy Iessean's Songs.
And to that end, vouchsafe me (at thy pleasure)
Lesse Need-full Life, in a lesse Care-full leasure.

Neere where Idume's dry and sandy Soile
Spreads Palmful Forests, dwelt a Man yer-while,
Of life vnblotted, and vnspotted Fame;

Cap. 1.

God-fearing, Iust, Sin-flying, Iob by Name.

With due respect to Heauen's and Nature's Law
In Wedlocks sweet Yoake did he seemly draw:
Whence, by that Bountie, whose all Blessings bee,
Seaven Sonnes he had, and louely Daughters Three.

896

Great was his Substance: for, of fleecie Sheep
Vpon the Downes seavn Thousand did he keep;
Fiue hundred yoak of Oxen did he owe;
Fiue hundred Ass shees, Camels six times so:
Great Train within doores, & great Train with-out,
Made him esteem'd through all the East about.

His Sons, by turns, their Sisters did inuite
And feast each other, in a Daily Rite:
Iob blest them euery Even; and euery Morn
When first Aurora's rosie beames return,
The good Old-man, to God, in humble-wise,
For each of them did offer Sacrifice:
Lest They might haue mis-don, mis-said, mis-thought,
Or (in their Feasts) offended God by ought.

While happy Iob thus brought the yeere about,
It came to pass one day when all the Rout
Of Light-full Angels did themselues present
Before the Foot-stoole of th'Omnipotent,
There also came the Executioner,
Th'ambitious Prince, Malicious Lucifer:
With whom the Lord expostulating, Thus
Said; Sathan, say, Whence comest Thou to Vs?
I come, said He, from walking in and out,
And compassing the Earthlie Ball about.
Hast thou not then suruey'd my Seruant Iob
(Reply'd the Lord) whose like in all the Globe
There is not found; so full of loving-feare,
So faithfull, fruitfull, rightfull, and sincere?

Is it for Nothing, said the subtle Foe,
That Iob adores, and loues and fears Thee so?
Hast thou not hedg'd him safe on euery side?
Hast thou not heapt him Blessings far and wide?
But, for awhile with-hold thy Fauour's stream,
With-draw thy hand, and hide thy Bounties beam,
Then shalt thou see (or double my Disgrace)
Hee will anon blaspheme thee to thy Face.

Lo, said th'Eternall from this instant hower
All that he hath is in thy hand and power;
All, but Himselfe, Himselfe I sole exempt.
Satan eftsones assumes his bold Attempt.

As all his Children were together met,
Their elder Brothers hartie Cheere to eat
Came one to Iob running, and breathless nigh,
Scarce could he speak, yet weakly thus did cry,
Ah! woe is me to be the Messenger
Of so sad Newes as now I bring you, Sir:
As all your Oxen vnder painfull yoak,
Their pointed Iourneyes in your Fallowes broke;

897

And as your Asses in the Meads did feed,
Sabéan Thieues came forth with furious speed
And tooke them all, and all your Seruants slew,
I onely scap't, to come and tell it you.

While He yet spake, there came Another in,
Hared and hot, and Thus did He begin:
Sir, from the Heav'ns a suddaine Fire did fall
Among your Sheep, and hath consum'd them all,
And slaine your Seruants yer they could eschew;
I onely scap't, to come and tell it You.

While He yet spake, Another came, amaz'd,
And sadly said; Sir, while your Camels graz'd
In your owne Pastures vp and down the lands,
The proud Chaldeans, in three armed Bands,
Surpriz'd them all, and all your Seruants slew;
I onely scap't, to come and tell it you.

While He yet spake, Another came and cryde
In pitious Fright (as if himselfe beside)
O, Sir! your Sonns and Daughters (all the rest)
Were met to day at my young Masters Feast,
VVhere, from beyond the VVilderness anon
A suddain VVhirle-wind, rose, and rusht vpon
The corners of the House, and shooke it so
That instantly it fell from Top to Toe,
And with the Fall them altogether slew;
I onely scap't, to come and tell it you.

Then starting vp, Iob gan his clothes to rent,
Shaues his hoare haire, his head with ashes sprent;
As in a swoune falls to the ground with grones,
And sadly sighing Thus himselfe bemones
Ah! Naked came I from my Mothers wombe,
Naked I shall returne vnto my Tombe:
The Lord hath taken what himselfe hath giuen:
Blessed be God, th'Almighty Lord of Heauen.

Yet did not Iob, for all that him mis-fell,
Murmur at God, nor inly sink or swell;
Nor sinne against th'eternall Prouidence,
But suffred all with humble Patience.

Another day, when all the sacred Bands

Cap. 2.

Came all attending their high Kings commands,
Came also Hee, whose Envie (since Hee fell
From Heau'n hath striu'n to hale down Man to Hell;
With whom the Lord expostulateth Thus:
Now Sathan, say, Whence comest Thou to Vs?
I come said He, from walking in and out,
And compassing the Earthlie Ball about.
Then, Hast thou found, replyes the Omnipotent,
In all thy Circuit, Man more confident,

898

Or minde more Constant, or more faithfull Soule,
Therr Iob my Seruant: whom thine Enuy foule,
Late, vrg'd my Leaue by sharp Assaults to try?
How hast thou sped? What hast thou got thereby?

Alas, said Hee, I reft him but the things
That flie from Men with transitory wings;
And therefore he regards his losse the lesse:
But would thy Power him somwhat neerer presse,
Would'st thou permit me touch him to the quick,
I yeeld me conquer'd, if he doe not kick;
If more he serue, trust, pray, or praise thy Grace,
If he, in fine, blaspheme not to thy Face.
Pinch but his Body, and then, Skin for Skin,
Hee'l wince without, and sodain flinch within.

Go Fiend, said God; sith th'art so obstinate,
Fall on my Iob, him felly cruciat:
Touch not his Soule; his Body only touch.

Hence Satan hyes, glad that he might so much.
Without Delay then, with the most Despight,
He sets on Iob; and in most pitious Plight,
With vlcerous Anguish fils his body so,
That crusted all in Scabs from top to toe,
Amid the Ashes, sad and desolate,
Scraping his Sores with shels (or sherds) he sate;
Yet Constant still, still calmely Patient,
Without a word of grudging Discontent.

Then said his Wife, VVhat helps Integrity?
What boots it, Man? alas! curse God, and die.
Go, foolish Woman, the good man reply'd,
Thy rebell heart doth thy rash tongue mis-guide:
Shall we, from God, of Good receiue our Fill;
And, at his pleasure, not partake of Ill?
So Iob as yet, for all that him mis-fell,
Displeas'd not God, but bore it wondrous well.

By This, the light-foot, feather-tongued Dame
Had farr and wide spread and disperst the fame
Of Iob's Mis-fortunes (from the first begun)
That He was halfe dead, and was whole vndone.

His Friends then, Eliphas the Themanite,
Bildad the Shuite, the Naamathite
Zophar (as others) hearing this report,
As soone as might be towards him resort;
Resolu'd with Comforts, to relieue in part
Their Friends Affliction, and asswage his Smart.

But, there arriued, at the very sight
Of his so wofull and so wretched Plight,
They all amaz'd their Garments sadly tore,
Their heads with Ashes all besprinkled o're;

899

And for seav'n dayes and nights in Sorow drown'd,
Lay grieuing, by him, groueling on the ground,
Without word speaking, lest vntimely trouble
Amid his Anguish should his Dolors double.

Iob therefore straining his obstructed voice,
Began Thus, sadly with a shiuering noise:

Cap. 3.

O! Wo be to the Day when I was born:
O! be it euer of the Light forlorn:
O! may it euer vnder Darknes lie,
And neuer Sun vouchsafe it cheerfull eye;
Nor God regard it: let a deadly Shade
O're-clowde it aye, as euer Dismall made.

O! wo be also to the Night wherein
My Mother my Conception did begin:
Lightning and Thunder thrill it euermore,
Whirle-wind and Tempest may it euer roare:
Of Fogs, of Frosts, of Showers, of Snowes, of Haile,
Of Mists, of Mil-drawes may it neuer faile:
May it no more in Calendar be plaç't;
But, from the Role of Months and Yeares be raç't:
May th'Euening Stars be dark: No light returning:
May it no more see th'Eye-lids of the Morning,
Because it clos'd not, at my wretched Birth,
The fruitful Doore that brought me weeping forth,
But let me passe into this woefull Light,
To vndergoe so miserable Plight.

O! Why, when shapelesse in my Mothers Womb
I lay as dead, VVhy did not Death strike home:
VVhy not (alas!) amid the bearing Throes,
VVhen I began to feele Mans feeble VVoes?
VVhy did the knees support me? VVhy the Brest
Supply me suck? VVhy was I swath'd and drest?
Sith else (alas!) I had now lien at ease,
Had been at rest, had slept in quietnesse,
Among the high and mighty Potentates,
Kings, Counsellors, great Lords, and Magistrates,
Who in the World to leaue their Names Renowne,
Haue built them Bowers which others shall pul-downe:
And those rich Princes that haue heapt of-old
Their houses full of Siluer and of Gold.
Or, VVhy (alas!) as an Abortiue Birth,
VVas I not hid and buried in the Earth?
There, Tyrants cease from their imperious Pride:
There, Vertuous VVorkers at their rest abide:
There, Prisoners rest from their Oppressors Braule:
There, Slaues are free from their fell Masters Thrall:
There, High and Lowe (without Disdain, or Dread)
Rest all together in one Common bed.

900

O! wished Death (more to be wisht then Life)
Thou breakst the Force of Enuies Engines rife:
Thou cuttest-off our Trauails Tediousnesse:
Thou kilst our Cares, Thou calm'st our most Distress.
O! to the wretched why is Light imparted?
Why Life (alas!) vnto the heauie-hearted?
(Who longs for Death: and if it linger long,
Would fainer seek it then euen Gold (among)
And gladder find it (as of Ioys the Chiefe)
Within their Graue to burie all their Griefe)
Especially, to Him whose Way is hid:
Whom God hath shut-vp, stopt and streightened?
Sith, yer I eate, My Sighes refell my Food,
My Roarings gush out like a raging Flood.

For (though my Plenty, neuer made me proud;
My Power imperious; nor to pleasure bow'd:)
What most I doubted I endure, (alas!)
And what I feared is euen comn to passe.
For Care and Feare, I had no rest before;
Yet Trouble's come, and trebbles more and more.

Cap. 4.

Iob ceasing so; began the Themanite,
Inly perplext, an Answer thus to dight:
If We presume to comfort thee, deer Friend,
Will our Discourse (I feare it will.) offend?
Will thy Disease our kinde Good-wills disdain?
But, in this Case (alas!) Who can refrain?
Who so hard-hearted, or vnciuill-bred,
That can vnmoued see thee thus bested?
To see and heare Thee in this deep Distresse,
Who can keep silence? Who can hold his peace?

Why! Thou wert wont, in thy Prosperities,
To stay weak hands, and strengthen feeble knees;
To counsell those that in their Course had stray'd,
To comfort those whom Crosses ouer-lay'd:
Now that Mis-hap on thine owne head hath hit,
Now that the Storm hath thine owne vessell smit,
Now that the Case is Thine, How art thou sunk
From thine owne Succor! From thy self how shrunk.

Where is alas! Where is thy Confidence,
Thy Constancy, thy Hope, thy Patience,
Thy Piety, thy Faith, thy Feare of God,
And th'vpright Path which Thou hast euer trod?

O! ponder this: Who euer Innocent
Hath perished? Hath the Omnipotent
Eternall Iustice euer plagu'd the Iust;
Destroyd the Righteous who Him only trust:
As I haue seen Those that haue plough'd and sow'n
Iniquity, reap sodenly their owne;

901

When with the Blast of God they blasted fall,
And with his Breath are quick consumed all?
God, in his Fury starueth in distresse
The roaring Lion and the Lionesse;
Their rauening Whelps are scattered far away,
Their Teeth are broken, and they pine for Prey.

I'll tell thee more: Once, in a certain Night,
Silent, I heard a Voyce, and saw a Sight.
(About the time when Sleep begins to seaze
Our drowzie Lids, our Daily Loads to ease)
Amaz'd with Feare my haire began to heaue,
My heart to tremble, euery part to leaue
His proper Part; When to mine eyes a-space
Appeerd the Image of an vnknowne Face:
One stood before me, Whence (yet more dismaid)
I heard a Voice, and Thus (me thought) it said:

Shall Man be iuster then his God (said He)?
The Creature purer then his Maker be?
Behold, he found not in his Angels bright
Firme Fealty, but Folly in his sight:
How much more, then, in Those whose habitation
Is but of Clay, but Dust their best Foundation?
Whose brittle Vessels heer so little last,
That yer they know them they are often past:
Whose fickle Garment (how-so-euer loath)
Shall be destroy'd and done, before the Moath:
Whose doubtfull Daies yer they begin, be gon;
Cut downe by Death, when least they think thereon:
Whose Dignities (how-euer graç't, or Great)
Shall die with them, and Them the Wormes shall eat.

Now call thou lowd, if any will reply:

Cap. 5.

Among the Saints where wilt thou turne thine eye?
Two sorts of Fooles (th'Idiot and Enuious) die;
Of Anger th'one, th'other of Iealousie.
I haue beheld the Foole faire rooted yerst:
Yet haue I soon his Habitation curst;
Because his Children succour-less shall suffer
By Iustice Doom, and none shall Pittie offer:
Him Selfe withall confounded void of Hope,
To gather-in his long expected Crop,
Which th'hunger-starued from the Thorns shal snatch;
The Thirstie shall his substance all dispatch;
A Misery, which God doth oft permit:
For, th'Earth it selfe is not the Cause of it;
Sith, were not Sin it should not barren be:
But, Man, for Sin, must toile him seruilelie,
In Sweatfull Labour, borne for Labour's end
As properly as Sparkles to ascend.

902

But were My Case, as Thine; in this Distresse,
Rather to God would I my selfe addresse:
Him would I seek of Him would I enquire,
Whose Works are great, whose Wonders all admire;
Vnspiable, Vnspeakeable by Man;
Immutable, Inscrutable to scan:
Who on the Earth the raine at pleasure powres,
And in the Streets distills the liquid Showres:
Who lifts the Lowely vp, brings downe the Lofty;
And reares sad Mourners vnto Health and Safety:
Who dissipates the craftiest Policies;
And dis-appoints the Counsells of the Wise:
Who takes the wariest in their proper Wiles;
And Wicked ones in their owne Guile beguiles;
So that they meet with Darknes in the Day,
And, as at Midnight, grope at Noon their way:
But, He preserues the Poore, from sword & tongue,
And cruell hands of Tyrants, prone to wrong:
So that the Poore shall haue their blessed Hope:
But Wicked ones their cursed mouthes shal stop.

Lo, then, how happy he whom God correcteth?
Repine not therefore that he Thee afflicteth.
He wounds, and heales; he strikes and he restores:
He sendeth Plagues, and Plaisters for the Sores:
He in six Troubles, shall deliuer thee;
And in the seauenth, thou shalt be danger-free,
He will preserue thee from fel Famines rage;
And from the Sword of War thee dis-ingage:
Thou shalt be safe from scourging tongues of Momes,
Nor shalt thou fear Destruction when it comes:
Nay, thou shalt laugh at it, and dearth deride;
Not dreading Beasts of fellest Pawes and Pride.
Stones, thornes, and thistles shal be friends with thee:
With thee the Beasts in constant league shall be.
And, as without, thou shalt haue Peace within
Thy house; thou shalt behold it, and not sin.
Thou shalt perceiue thy Seeds seeds seed to spred
As Grass in Fields, and Flowers in euery Mead.
In a full Age to thine own Graue shalt Thou,
As, in due time, Come to the Barne or Mow.
Lo, This is Truth; and Thus we daily try-it:
Consider it, and to thy Selfe apply-it.

Cap. 6.

Iob then reply'd: O! were my Sorows waigh'd,
And with my Suffrings in iust Balance layd,
They would exceed the Seas wet Sands in poize:
Therefore (alas!) they swallow vp my voice:
For th'Arrowes of th'Almightie, keen and quick,
Haue thrilled me, and still within mee stick;

903

Their Anguish makes my spirits faint and quaile me.
Alas! the Terrors of the Lord assaile me.

Braies the while Asse if he haue grass his fill?
Or lowes the Oxe if he haue fodder still?
Vnsauory things who without Salt can eat?
In whites of Eggs is there a taste of meat?
Yet am I faine, alas! and forç't (indeed)
Of what my soule abhorred most to feed.

O! that the Lord would daign me my desire,
Grant me my Longing, grant what I require:
Which is but This; that He would end my dayes,
Let goe his hand, and let me goe my waies.
So should I yet haue Comfort (though I burn
In bitter pangs of Death, I will not spurn.
Let him not spare me) for yet do not I
The holy Word of th'Holy-One denie.
But O! What Power haue I to persist?
What may ensue, if I shall long subsist?
Am I as hard, as tough, as strong (alas!)
As strongest Stones? or is my Flesh of Brass?
Nay, am I not already Impotent,
My spirits consumed, and my strength all spent?

In Crosses, comforts should Friends most afford:
But men (alas!) haue left to feare the Lord.
My Brethren haue deceiu'd mee, as a Brooke.
As rising Flouds, they haue me soone forsook;
Which, foule and deep, in VVinter all o're-flow,
Or, crusted thick with Ice, no moisture show;
Or else, in Summer, by Sol's thirsty Ray
Are licked-vp, and quicklie dry'd away,
While Trauailers to Thæma, and Saba thought
To water there, and for their succour sought;
But failing quite, and frustrate of the same,
They are confounded, and they blush for shame:
Even such are you, you see me ill appaid
In dismall Plight, and you are all dismaid:
Why are yee so? When haue I bid you bring,
Or out of yours supply me any thing?
Or crav'd of you auxiliarie Bands
To rescue me from Foes, or Tyrants hands?
Shew me mine Error, where I haue gone wrong:
Tell me my Fault, and I will hold my tongue.
But, bold and free's the speech of Innocence:
Which of you can reproue; and what Offence?
Thinke You aduantage of my words to haue,
As if Affliction made me wildely raue?
Then on the Orphan doth your furie fall;
You dig a Pit to catch your Friend withall.

904

Therefore, vouchsafe me better to revise;
Wrong me no more: My words be neither lyes,
Neither my deeds (as you shall find, I trust,
If you returne) in that behalfe vniust
Complain I causeless? Do I counterfait?
Is not my mouth with Anguish all repleat?

Cap. 7.

Hath not Man's warfare his set limits heere,
As hath the Hireling (by the day, or yeere)?
As toyled Seruants for the Night attend;
And weary Taskers for their Labors end;
So haue I looked, but (alas!) in vain,
For end of Sorrowes, and for ease of Pain.
Perpetually my fruitlesse Months proceed;
My tedious Nights inceslantly succeed:
No sooner layd down but I long to rise,
Tired with tossing, till the Morning spies.
My Flesh is clad with Worms, with excrement
Of lothsom dust, my Skin doth rot and rent:
My Dayes flit faster then the Shuttles slide
From Weauers hands, whipping from side to side.

Consider, Lord, my Life is but a Blast:
Mine eye no more shall see the Goodnes past:
Who now beholds me, shall no more, anon:
If Thou look-on Me, I eft-soones am gon.
As Clowdes do passe, and quite away do flit,
Whoso descends ascends not from the Pit;
Neither returnes vnto his wonted owne;
Nor of his place is any more be-known.

Therefore (alas!) I will not spare to speake;
I cannot hold, needs must I silence break,
Amid the anguish of my Spirits distresse,
And in the depth of my Soules bitternesse.

Am I a Sea? or Whale? that with a Gard
Thou girtest me, and keep'st me in so hard?
If I haue said; In silence of the Night
(When drousie Humor fiels-vp every Sight;
When All, aboue, in, vnder Aire, Earth, Seas;
In quiet Slumber seem to take their Ease)
It may be that my painfull Pangs shall cease:
It may be that my Passions shall haue peace:
With fearefull Visions then thou doost affray me,
With Dreames and Fansies dreadfully dismay me:
So that my Soule had rather chuse (at once)
To die, then liue in Durance of my Bones.
Wearie of life, liue alwaies shall I not;
Then leaue me, Lord, alas! my dayes are nought.

O! What is Man that thou extoll'st him so?
That Thou on Him doost euen thy heart bestow?

905

That euery Morning Him thou visitest?
And euery Moment Him examinest?
How is it that Thou leau'st me not a little?
Alas! nor lett'st me swallow-in my spettle?

O! Thou Preseruer of Mankind, I knowe,
And I acknowledge I haue sinn'd: but, O!
What shall I say? What shall I do to Thee?
Why in thy Wrath doost Thou incounter Mee?
Why mak'st Thou Me (alas!) the Mark and White
To thy Displeasure, in my Self's despight?
Remit, O Lord, what I haue ill omitted:
Remoue (alas!) what I haue miss-committed.
For, now I goe down to the dust, to lie:
And, if Thou seek, to morrow, none am I.

Bvt Bildad then (loth longer to refrain)

Cap. 8.

Said; Iob, How long wilt thou this Plea maintain
VVith words, as high as Tempests vehemence,
Blow'n by the breath of thine Impatience?
Dar'st Thou averre, that God doth Right subuert?
Or that th'Almighty, Iudgement doth peruert?

Though, sith thy Sons had sinned them he sent
To the due Place of their sinnes punishment;
Yet, if Thou early vnto God repaire,
And to th Almighty make thine humble Prayer,
If Thou be pure, and in his sith sincere;
He will again awake to Thee: and reare
Thy ruin'd State; thy righteous House restore
With Peace and Plentie, manifoldly more.

Aske of the Ages past: inquire (I pray)
Of th'Ancient Fathers (for, of yesterday
We Nouices knowe nothing in effect;
Our dayes are but a Shadow in respect)
Will not They teach thee (without wiles of Art)
And truly speak the language of their hart?

Can Rushes spring? are Sedges seen to grow,
Where is no moisture; where no waters flow?
Say that they should: yet would they sooner wither,
Though neuer cut, then all else grasse together.
Such is the way of all that God forget:
So failes the Hope of th'Holy-Counterfait:
His Hope shall be cut off: his Confidence
Like busie Spider's brittle Residence:
He shall be leaning on his House, but it
Shall not be able to support him; yet
He shall hold fast, and theron fix him sure;
But that (alas!) shall neuer long endure:
As doth the Tree, which growing in the Sun,
O're-spreds an Orchard with fresh Boughes, anon,

906

His happy Roots among the Fountaines winding,
And round about the rockie banks them binding:
If from his Place to pluck it any ween,
It will denie; as safe as if not seen:
Lo, by this meanes it will reioyce, the while
That it may prosper in another Soile:
So God will neuer the Sincere reiect.
Neither the wicked by the hand erect.
Till he haue filld thy mouth with meriment,
Thy lips with triumph (in intire content)
Thy Foes shall all be with confusion clothed,
Wrapped in shame, disperst, despisd and loathed;
Th'vngodly shall be razed to the ground,
Their Tabernacle shall no more be found.

Cap. 9.

Iob then reply'd: I know, I grant you This;
I God's respect, that No Man righteous is.
No: if He argue, if He question;
O! Who can answer of a Thousand, one?
What heart so constant! O! what soule so clear,
That dares for Iust before that Iudge appear?
He is All-prudent, and All-powerfull too:
VVho thriues, that striues with what he minds to doo?
He mounts the Vallies, and he vailes the Mountains:
He shakes the Earth; he opes and stops the Fountains:
He bids the Sun shine, and forbids it soon:
He seales the Starres vp, he conceales the Moon:
He spreads alone the Heauens large Canapey:
He treads vpon the bound-lesse ground-lesse Sea:
He makes Arcturus Starre, the

Orion.

Stormy youth,
The Pleiades, and Climats of the South:
He worketh mighty things and manifold,
Miraculous, and more then can be told:
He passeth by me, and repasseth so,
Vnseen of me, and vnperceiued tho:
He, when him pleaseth, if a Prey he take,
Who can compell him to restore it back?
Nay: who so bold into his Acts to pry?
Or, Who dares question What he doth, or Why?
His Anger is not stopt, nor stoopt a whit;
But strongest helps are fain to stoop to it.
Then, how-much-less; O! how-much-less am I
Able (alas!) with Him my Case to try?
No: were I iust, I were not absolute;
But, to my Iudge would I make humble Sute:
And, to my Cry if he reply, yet hard
Can I beleeue that He my voyce hath heard.
For, with a Tempest he destroyes me sterne;
And wounds me Cause-lesse (for ought I discerne);

907

Nor suffers me so much as breathe at all;
But fills me still with Bitternesse and Gall,

If Strength we speak of; Who is strong but He?
If Iudgement; then, Who shall mine Vmpire be?
If I would iustifie my Selfe (with Him)
He by mine owne Mouth will me soon condemn:
If I would plead me perfect and vpright,
He, He would iudge me wicked, in his sight:
Though I were perfect (to my Selfe) from Sin;
Alas! I know not mine owne Soule within.
Therefore (Thus vexed and perplexed rise)
I loath alas! and I abhorre my life.

Yet, grant I not; but that the Lord doth smite
(Which you deny) both Wicked and Vpright.
Else, when He strikes a People (old and young)
Would He seem smile at Good mens Stripes emong?
Would He bestowe vpon th'Vngodly-most
Earth's Soueraintie, and let them rule the Rost?
Would He permit profane Bribe-blinded ones
With blunted Sword to sit on Iustice Thrones;
While that the Vertuous to the wall are thrust?
While th'Innocent are troden in the Dust?
For, Who, but He, directs, acts, orders All
In all the World, what euer doth befall?

My Daies far swifter then a poste haue past;
Past without sight of any Good (to-last):
As swiftest Ships, so haue they slid-away;
Or as the Eagle hasting to her prey.
If that I say, I will forget my Griefe,
Forgoe my VVrath, and yet re-hope Reliefe:
Ah! then my Torments all afresh affright,
VVith Terrours, lest Thou wilt not quit me quight.
For, if I be Vngodly, all in vaine
I cry to Thee, and to no end I plaine:
Or, if Vnguilty, Cleane, and White as Snowe
(In mine owne sight) in Thine I am not so;
But in the sight of Thy pure Eyes, as soild,
And with the Garment that I weare defil'd.

God is not Man, as I (in equall Sute)
That I with Him should argue or dispute:
Nor is there (should we meet) a Moderator,
Twixt Him and Me to arbitrate the Matter.
Let him leaue-off his hold, take-off his Rod,
Lay-off his Awfull Maiesty, as God;
Then will I speake, and freely, voyd of Feare:
But, as it is, I must, I will forbeare.

As dead aliue, vpon my Selfe I'll lay

Cap. 10.

My sad Complaint; and in mine Anguish pray

908

Thus to the Lord: O Lord, condemne me not;
But show me, why thou huntest me so hot.
Lord! art Thou pleased to oppresse me Thus?
O! dost Thou iudge as do the Vnrighteous
(Vnheard, vntry'd, and vnsuspect) to trip
And cast-away thine owne hands Workmanship?
Seest Thou as Man? or hast Thou carnall Eyes?
Years as Mans Years? Daies as Mans Daies, who dies;
That thus Thou rack'st Me, and protractst Me still,
Searching and sifting to find out mine Ill?
I cannot sin, Thou know'st, but Thou must see:
For, from Thine hands can None deliuer Me.

Thy hands haue made Me, all, and euery part:
And wilt Thou now thine owne hands Work subuert?
Remember, Lord, how fraile and brittle stuff
Thou mad'st me of (then vse me not so rough)
Euen of the Clay, as is the Potters Crust:
And wilt Thou then re-crush me into Dust?

Thou pourd'st me out as Milk (within the womb)
Thou mad'st me there, as Cheese, a Crud becom;
With Skin and Flesh Thou cloth'dst me fair and fit,
With Bones and Sinewes fast together knit:
Inspir'dst me Life and Soule, Reason and Sense;
And still preseru'dst me by thy Prouidence.
These Things as hidden in thy Bosome bee:
But well I know, that it is so with Thee.

If I haue sinned, Thou wilt sift me neer;
And of my Guilt Thou wilt not hold me cleer.
If VVicked I haue been; then Woe to Me:
If Righteous; Yet still will I humble be;
Though deep confounded, and amazed much,
To see, and feele, my sad Affliction Such.

But, be it more: come, Lion-like set on-me;
Returne and show Thee maruelous vpon me:
And so (indeed) Thou doost: for, Thou renew'st
Thy plagues on me; and me more fierce pursew'st:
Changes of Woes, Armies of Paines extreame,
Afresh inuade me, and me round behem.

Then, Why (alas!) VVhy didst thou bring me forth
From fruitfull VVomb (being no better worth)?
O! that I there had perished, vnseen:
And that I were as if I had not been,
Brought from the Womb (one Tomb, vnto Another)
To Earth my Mother, from my Earthly Mother.

Is not my Glasse neere out? My Date neer done?
O! let him cease, and leaue-off laying-on;
That I may take a little Comforts breath,
Yer quite I goe to to the dark land of Death;

909

A Land of Darkness, Darkness Selfe (I say)
And Shade of Death: where is no Light, no Day.

Then answered Zophar, the Naamathite;
Should words preuail? Shall prating pass for right?

Cap. 11.

Should all be mute? Shall no man dare reply,
To mock thy Mocks, and giue thy Lie the Lie?

For, Thou hast said (and that, too-vehement)
My Words, and Deeds, and thoughts, are innocent;
Pure in Thine eyes. But O! that God would speak;
That He would once His sacred Silence break)
To shew thee wisdome's Secrets: Thou might'st see,
Thou merit'st double what he layes on Thee;
And surely know that (in his Iustice strict)
After thy Sins, He doth not Sores inflict:
But seems to haue forgotten, or forgiuen
Thy Trespasses against Him Selfe and heauen.

Canst Thou, by searching, God's deep Counsel find?
Conceiue th'Almighty? Comprehend His mind?
Reach His perfection? It doth Heauen excell
In Height; in Depth exceeds the lowest Hell:
Longer then Earth: larger then all the Seas.
O! What? When? Where? How wilt Thou measure These?

If He cut-off, shut-vp, collect, reiect;
Who can diuert Him? Who his Course correct?
He knowes vain Men: He sees their harts that hard them
In Guiles and Wiles, and will not He regard them?
That foolish man, made wise, may be reclaimed;
Borne brute and dull, as an Asse Colt, vntamed.

If therefore, by Repentance, thou prepare
Thine humbled heart: if that, in hearty Prayer,
Thou stretch thine hands vnto his Throne aboue:
Though thou haue sinn'd; if Thou thy Sin remoue:
If Thou remoue it, and permit no more
Iniquity to dwell within thy Doore:
Then shalt Thou, doubtlesse, free from Fault and Feare,
Settled and safe, thy Face againe vpreare:
Then shalt thou sure forget thy Misery;
Or, but esteem it as a Streame past by:
Then shall thy Daies be then the Noon more bright;
And Thou shalt shine, as Morning after Night:
Then shalt thou rest secure and confident,
Hopefull and Happy, in thy proper Tent,
In thine owne Dwelling: where, for Eminence,
Sutors shall flock, with seemly Reuerence.

But, as for stubborne, wilfull Wicked-ones,
That still run-on in their Rebellions,
Their Helps shall faile, and all their Hap shall fall;
And as a Gasp, their Hopes shall vanish all.

910

Cap. 12.

Then said the Hussian: You, vndoubtedly,
You are the Men: Wisdom with you must dy:
Yet (would yee knew it) somwhat know I, too;
I vnderstand perhaps as well as you.
Nor will I yeeld you in this Iarre a iot:
VVhat you haue vrg'd I know: and Who doth not?

Yee say, I lie; yee tell me that I mock:
But I am made my Fellowes Laughing-stock:
Who calls on God, and whom He heareth prest,
Th'Vpright and Iust (indeed) is made a Iest:
And He that's going downe (in state forlorne)
Like dying Lamp, is to the Rich a Scorne;
While (for the most) Oppressors prosper, sure;
And God-prouokers, safely and secure,
Haue in their hand (God in their hand hath put)
The Horne of Plenty, them at will to glut.

Aske but the Beasts: inquire of Earth, or Seas;
Or Fowles, or Fish: for, which is it of These,
But knowes, and showes, and plainly tells thee This;
That God's their Maker: and of All that is:
That in His hand's the Life of all that liues:
That He alone, to All Men, Breathing giues.

Doth not the Eare try Speeches (bad or good)?
And, for it Selfe, the Palate aste the food?
So, Wisedom should be to the Many-year'd;
And Vnderstanding to the Hoary-hair'd.

With Him it is (with th'Ancient of Daies)
VVith Him is Counsaile, Wisedom, Power and Praise:
Lo, He destroyes, and no man can restore:
VVhom He shuts-vp, can be let out no more:
He stops the Streams; then dry they vp and shrink;
He sends them forth; then all the Earth they sink.

With Him is Strength: with Him is All that is:
Who erreth, and VVho maketh erre, are His:
He doth distract the Counsailors of State:
He makes the Iudges as infatuate:
He breaks the Bonds of Kings Imperiall Awe;
And brings them bounden vnder Others Law:
He leads the Princes as a Captiue prey:
Dismounts the Mightie; and, with strange dismay,
He dulls the Learned, dumbs the Eloquent,
And reaues the Iudgement of the Ancient:
He powres contempt vpon the Noble-born:
He strips the Strong: He leaues the Stout forlorn:
He deepest Secrets soone discouereth:
He brings to light the darkest shades of Death:
He multiplieth People; and He mowes
Them down again (by Famin, Plague, or Blowes):

911

He sends them forth in Colonies to spread;
And brings them back (by wrack, lack, sack, or dread):
He reaues the hearts of those that rule the Earth,
And makes them roam through Desert sands of Dearth,
Where None go by; They grope as in the Dark;
They haue no Light, no Sight; no certain Mark;
They stray; they stumble; to and fro they wheel:
And He, He makes Them, Drunkard-like, to reel.

Al This mine eies haue seen, mine eares haue heard:

Cap. 13.

All This my heart hath weigh'd, and well conferd.
So that, in This, what you haue known, I knew;
And am not Heerein to giue place to You.

But, as You wish, I also wish: O! would
Th'Almighty pleas'd that I might be so bold
(In his own Presence, at his Bar to stand)
To plead with him the Cause I haue in hand.
For, You, indeed, are too Sophisticall:
Silly Physicians, for my Sicknes, all.
O! that you therefore had still held you mute:
So might you still haue held a wise Repute.
But, list you now vnto my Arguing:
Mark well my Reasons, and the Proofes I bring.

Will You speak falsly for th'Almighty Lord?
Will you for Him pronounce a Guilefull word?
Will you be partiall for His persons sake?
Will you for Him, with Cauels vnder-take?
Shall it auaile you? will He con you Thank
At his great Audit for this double Prank?
(Or, ween you, smoothing, these Deceits to smother?
Or, but to mock Him, as one Man another)?

No: you shall know, He wil not brook nor beare it,
Put chide you sharp; how-euer secret were it.
Shall not the brightnes of His Face affray you?
His Maiestie with awefull Rayes dismay you,
Meer Earth and Ashes (daring thus to play)
Your Best but Dust: your rest but Durt and Clay?
Hold you your tongues: no more your silence break
But (at my Perill) giue Me leaue to speak.

Why should I teare me (as one out of Sense)
With mine own Teeth? or doe Selfe-Violence?
No: should He slay me, I would hope again
(Though in his sight I still my right maintaine)
For, He himselfe will saue and doe me right;
And cleere mee from your doome of Hypocrite:
Sith, in His presence Such can haue no place,
Nor hope such help of His assisting Grace.
Giue therefore eare vnto my words; and waigh
With due regard what I shall truly say.

912

Lo, heere I stand, as ready to be try'd
(And well I knowe I shall be iustifi'd)
Come, who will charge me, and oppose my Pleas?
(Alas! I die, if now I hold my peace)
Onely, but spare me in Two things: with-drawe
Thy heauie hand; with-hold thy glorious Awe
From frighting me: then from before thy face
I shall not hide me; nor betray my Case:
Then, at thy choice, be in this Cause dependant
(I am indifferent) Plaintif, or Defendant.

What, and How-many are my Sins (pretended)?
Show me Wherein, and How, I haue offended,
That Thou should'st shun, and turn thee from me so;
And handle me as thy most hated Foe.
Doost Thou vouchsafe a witherd Leafe to crush?
Against dry Stubble doost Thou daign to rush?
That in so bitter and seuere a stile
Thou doost indight mee: and recite (the while)
My sinnes of Youth (them re-recording fresh,
VVith th'Heritage inherent vnto Flesh):
And putt'st my feet into the Stocks so strait;
VVatchest my VVaies, and at my heeles doost wait,
To finde some hole in my fore-acted Life
(Scourging mine Errors with thy Terrors rife)
VVhile, rotten-like, it wasteth, as a Cloth
Grown full of holes and eaten by the Moth.

Cap. 14.

Man, born of Man's and Womans loynes, alas!
Hath but few dayes, and those full sad, to pass.
Much like a Flower he shooteth vp, and fades;
Quickly cut downe: he vanisheth, as Shades;
Of no continuance [here]. Yet, dost Thou daign
To frowne at Such? and striue with Me, so vaine?

Who, from Pollution, can pure thing extract?
O! there is None; none that is so exact.
Sith then his dayes Thou hast determined;
Sith that his Months with thee be numbered;
Sith Thou hast set the certain Time he has
(To Him vncertain) which He cannot pass,
Forbeare awhile, and from him looke away,
Till (as the Hireling) he hath done his Day.

For, though a Tree be felled; from the Root,
Yet is there hope that Branches will re-shoot:
Though in the Earth the Root be old and dry,
Though on the Earth the Trunk as dead do be;
Yet, by the Sent of the neer-winding blood,
It will reuiue, and as a Plant, re-bud:
But Man (man's Body from his Soule bereft)
Man down and dead; O! what of Him is left?

913

Sith, as Sea-waters, past, re-passe no more;
As Riuers, dry'd, returne not to their Shore:
Man, Dead-asleep, shall neuer wake againe;
Nor neuer rise, till Heav'n no more remaine.

O! wert thou pleas'd, me in my Graue to hide,
Vntill thy Wrath were past and pacifi'd!
Or that there were some Time, or Term assign'd me,
When Thou wilt cease; & in thy Mercy mind me!
Or, shall a Man neer dead, heer liue againe;
Still liuing-dying in continuall Pain;
And shall I still, in this distressed state,
Wait, all the Dayes of mine appointed Date,
Vntill my Change (my Renouation) come;
When Thou shalt call me: nor shall I be dumb,
But answere thee: Then, then thou wilt approue
That Thou the Works of thine own hands doost loue;
Though now my steps thou numbrest so exact;
Not'st all my Sins, and seem'st them to haue packt
As in a sagge, safe sealed; yea, to add
New Trespasses vnto the old, I had.
So that, as Mountains, mouldring down do sink;
As from their places shiuer'd Rocks do shrink:
As waters break the Stones; as Showres surround
The dusty Earth; Thou doost Man's hope confound;
And tryumph'st euer ouer Him, deiected;
Transform'd in Face, as from thy Face reiected.
Nor knoweth He, whether his deer Posteritie
Shall poorely fare, or flourish in Prosperitie:
But, while his Soule his Body beares about,
That shall haue VVoe within; and This, without.

914

IOB. The second Booke.

Cap. 15.

To This of His (so hot and vehement)
Thus Eliphas (in the same Element):
Should one so wise (as thou doost vaunt thee heere)
Discourse so vainly? bring such idle geare?
Vent from the Centre of a swelling brest
As noysome Gales as the vnholsome East?
Trifle the Time (about I wot not what)
In idle and vnprofitadle chat?
Nay: nullifie Religious Feare and Pietie,
Not praying to, but pleading with the Deitie?
Which thine own mouth hath witnest too-too-far,
With subtile Cauils of a Sophister.
Yea, thine own mouth (not mine) shall thee conuince:
Against thy Selfe thy lippes giue Euidence.

VVhy Man! wert Thou the first man on the earth?
Or, wert Thou born before the Hills had birth?
Hast Thou alone God's Secret vnderstood?
And hast Thou onely Wisedom, in thy-Hood?
What is't Thou knowest, that VVe haue not kend?
VVhat vnderstand'st Thou, but VVe comprehend?
There are of Vs as old as Thou; or rather,
Some (I suppose) more antient then Thy Father:
And doost Thou slight our Comfort (godly sent)?
Or hast Thou of thine Owne more excellent?
Why doth thy heart, and whither, thee transport?
Why doost thou close thine eyes? that in this sort
Thy Spirit turns (shall I say spurns?) at God,
And from thy Lips spets words so bold and broad?

O! What is Man that He should clean exist?
Or Womans Son that He should Iust persist?
Behold, He found, his Angels stood not sure:
Neither, the Heauens, in His pure sight, are pure:
Then, How much-more, before Aim, filthy stinks
Stock-stained Man, who Sin, as Water, drinks?

I'll therfore shew thee (hark, and marke me well)
What I haue seen; I will declare and tell

915

What, from their Elders, Sages yerst haue know'n,
And to their Heires successiuely haue show'n.
Such as, indeed, haue had the Helm in hand,
To steer their Owne, and Strangers to with-stand.

The Wicked Man's in-labour, all his Life;
In bitter Pains, in Pangs, in Passions rife:
Number of yeares are seldome His, to summe:
A Sound of Feares still in His eares doth humme:
Or, if at all He seem in ease to swim;
The swift Destroyer shall soon seize on him,
Hap-less, and Hope-less euer to recouer;
Seeing the Sword, him euer hanging ouer.

Needy, indeed; or greedy still of more
(Pining in Plenty, staruing in his Store)
He wanders, seeking of his Bread about;
In dread of Want; of a Black Day, in doubt:
Trouble and Anguish shall him deep affright;
As royall Armies ready for the Fight.

For, He hath stretched his proud hand at Heav'n;
And stubbornly hath with th'Almighty striv'n,
Running at Him, rushing vpon his Neck,
Yea, on the Bosses of his Shield so thick:
Because his Fat, his full broad Face doth couer;
And lardie Collops on his sides hang ouer;
And dwels in Houses, rather Townes of late
(By Him) dis-patron'd and depopulate;
By Him, re-built, re-gilt, re-glost, re-glas'd;
By Him, re-Named (ready to be ras'd).

Yet, shall not He be Rich; nor in Prosperity
Persist, nor leaue Possession to Posterity:
Nor, out of Darknes euer get shall He;
Nor euer other then inglorious be:
His Branch shall wither, and with Flame be wasted:
Him Self shall, sodain, with God's Breath be blasted,

Then, let not (hard-beleeuing haut Humanity)
O! let not the Deceiued trust in Vanity.
For, Vanity shall be his Recompence:
Before his Time shall he be snatched hence:
His Spring shall neuer sprout, his Flowers shall fall,
His Fruit, yer ripe, shall he off-shaken all
(As Grapes and Oliues, with vntimely Frost)
The Lord shall shake them, and they shall be lost.

For, th'Hypocrites Dissembling Congregation,
Shall be disperst, and brought to Desolation;
And sodainly shall Fire consume the Tents
Of Briberie with all their Instruments.
For, They conceiue but Mischiefe; breed But Guile,
And bring forth vain Iniquitie the while.

916

Cap. 16.

He pausing heer, Iob Thus replies him, sad:
Yet more of This? This haue we often had.
You are indeed a sort of Visiters;
A Crew of cold and wretched Comforters,
Shall idle, addle, aiery, Words surcease?
Or what doth make thee dare to dwel on these?

Could I, as you, if you were in my Case,
And I in yours; your Soule in my Soules place:
Could I, against you, words haue multipli'd?
Insulted on you? at you, shook my head?
No: I should rather haue raught you Reliefe,
And with my speeches haue asswag'd your Griefe.

But, though I plain, my Griefe's not mitigated;
Either, forbeare I, What is it abated?
For, He hath wearied me: Yea, Lord, Thou hast
Spoild me of All: and laid me wholly waste:
The wrinkled Furrowes, on my Brow and Back
(Bare skin and bone) bear witnesse of my Wrack.

My Foe's fell wrath hath raakt and rent me sore:
He striues against me; and still angry more,
More eager still, gnasheth his Teeth vpon me;
And with his eyes keen flashing frowneth on-me.

My Friends (alas!) they laugh at me the while,
They buffet me, and bitterly reuile;
They gape vpon me, and together gather,
Not to relieue me, but to grieue me, rather.
Thus hath God hemm'd me with vngodly Bands,
And turnd me ouer into Wicked hands.

I was at ease; When, by the Neck he took-me,
Brake me a-sunder, and to shiuers shook me:
And (whether for Disport or for Desptie.
Made me his Butte, and set me as his White.
His cunning Archers do beset me round:
He cleaues my Reines; and ruth-less, on the ground
Poures-out my Gall: with doubled Blowes he crushes,
And Giant-like, vpon me fiercely rushes.

I Haue in Sack-cloth sadly sow'd my Skin,
In Dust and Ashes haue I humbled bin,
I haue (alas!) besmeard my Face with Teares,
On mine Eie-lids Death's Shade hath swom, in Fears:
For no foule Sin; neither, for Fashions sake,
To seem a Saint: pure Prayers did I make,
Pure and Sincere: else, neuer may they come
In Heau'n, to haue either regard or roome.
Neither, O Earth! if euer Blood I shed,
O! let it not by Thee be couered.

But lo, my Witnesse is in Heav'n aboue;
My Record there, my Conscience to approue.

917

My friends contemne me, and condemne me too:
But, drown'd in teares, to God appeal I doo.
O! that one might (as Man with Man, in Sute)
That, Neighbor-like, one might with God dispute.
For the few Daies of my set number gone,
I goe the Way from whence Returne is none.

My Spirit's spent: my Daies are don (and leaue me)
The Graue's already ready to receiue me.

Cap. 17.

Yet are there with me none but those that mock me:
Doth not mine eye still see them still prouoke me?

But, put me in a Surety, giue me Pledge,
To answer me what I shall then alledge.
Who'll vndertake it? VVho will giue his hand,
That to the Triall Thou wilt daign to stand?
Sith Thou, O Lord, Their hearts hast hidden quight,
From Vnderstanding, and from iudging right;
And therefore wilt not, for their Arrogance,
Admit of them, nor them so high aduance.

Not, that I would, they should haue sooth'd me neither:
For such shall perish, and their Seed together.
But, to the Vulgar I am made a Song,
A Tale, a Tabret vnto euery Tongue
(Through grief whereof, mine Eye decaies and dims;
And as a Shadowe are my other Limbs).
The better sort, amazed at my Plight,
The Innocent, iudge me an Hypocrite.
Yet, shall the Righteous still hold on his Course;
And the Sincere shall still adde force to force.

Therefore, my Friends, returne, recant, re-call
Your hard Opinions, and mis-Censures, all:
For, of you all, not one Wise man I finde;
Nor fit Physician for a troubled minde.

My Dayes are past; and my Dessignes vndon;
Yea, euen my Hopes (my hearts Possessions) gon:
My Noone (alas!) is changed into Night;
Small ods there is twixt Darknesse and my Light.
What can I looke for, but among the Dead
To make my House? to haue my Graue, for Bed?
For, to Corruption, thus aloud I call;
Thou art my Father: to the Worms that crawl,
You are my Mother and my Sisters, all.

Where's then my Hope? How shall that Hap appeer,
Which you yer-while did so re-promise, heer?
Those things, with me, shall downe into the Deep:
And, with my Dust, amid the Dust shall sleep.

Then said the Shuhite: Will you neuer cease

Cap. 18.

Your tedious Talking? Neuer hold your peace?
Forbeare a while; giue eare a little now:
Obserue our Speech, and we will answer you.

918

But, why, as Beasts, are we vpbraided thus?
And why so basely doe you count of vs?
He, rather seems to be besides his Sense,
That wounds him Selfe in his Impatience.

Why? Shall the Earth, for Thy sake be forsaken?
The Rocks remou'd? and solid Hils be shaken?
No, no: The Light of Wicked-ones shall out:
His Fiery Sparkle shall not shine about;
Within his Doores shall Darknes be for Light:
With Him, his Candle shall be quenched quight:
His Strength shall faile him (or be fatall to him):
His Counsels cast him; His owne Wit vndoo-him:
For, his owne Feet shall bring him to the Net;
And willingly vpon the Gin shall iet:
Him, by the heele the subtill Snare shall catch:
Him, shall the Theeues and Robbers ouer-match:
For him are laid the Meshes of Mis-hap;
Traines on the ground, and in his wayes a Trap:
Him, on all sides, sad Terrors shall affright;
And sudden driue him to his Feet, to flight:
His plentious Store shall Famine soon deuour:
Destructions, Sword shall hunt-him euery-hower,
Consume his Sinewes, and vn-bar his Skin:
And Pestilence (Death's Heire) shall rage within,
His Hope shall hop without his expctation:
His Confidence shall from his Habitation
Be rooted out, and razed (as it were)
And bring him downe to the drad King of Feare;
Who aye shall dwell within His Tabernacle,
(Because not His, not his owne Habitacle):
Some secret Harme, som Flash, som Sulphury shower,
Shall sudden spred amid his cursed Bower:
His Roots belowe shall rot amid the Clay;
His Boughes aboue be cut and cast away:
His Memorie shall perish from the Earth;
His Name heer nameless (as before his Birth)
He shall be driv'n to Darknes, from the Light:
And forth the World he shall be hunted quight.
Nor Sonne, nor Nephew shall be leaue behind;
Nor in his Houses any of his Kind.
So that, the Ages, present, and to come,
Shall stand amazed at his dismall Doome.
And This is sure the Lot, the heauie Load
Of VVicked-ones, that fear not, know not God.

Cap. 19.

Iob then reply'd: Alas! how long will Yee
Torment my Soule, with words; and torture Mee:
Ten times ye haue with too obdurate minde,
Reproacht mee This: vnciuill and vnkind.

919

But, put the Case, that I haue sinn'd, indeed:
Must not I beare it? Then (alas!) what need
You load me more; and magnifie your wit,
To amplifie my Guilt, and Griefe of it?
Seeing you see that Go o hath cast me downe,
And with his Net hath compassed me round.

Lo, I cry-out of wrong and violence;
Aloud I cry; yet haue no Audience,
Nor Ease at all: He hath so hedg'd my VVay,
I cannot passe: My Paths, in stead of Day,
Are Darke beset: He hath my glorie reft;
And from my head He hath the Crowne bereft:
He hath destroy'd me, euery-way vndone:
My Hope, remoued (as a Tree) is gone:
And more, His Wrath against me fiercely fryes;
He reckons Me among his Enemies:
His Troupes assembled, march against Me, egre;
And, round about my feeble Tent beleguer:
He hath disperst my Brethren from me farre;
To Me, my Kindred as meer Strangers are;
My Neighbors flie me; my Familiar Frend
Hath now forgot me (as if neuer kend):
Nay: mine own Household; Men, Maid-seruants, all,
Count me a Stranger, care not for my Call,
Nor will come at me; though I speak them faire:
Nay: to mine own Wife (for the noisome aire)
My Breath is strange, though I beseech her, sad,
By those deer Pledges wee together had.
The Basest scorn me; and when vp I rise,
They spet their Spight in bitter Obloquies.
Mine Intime-most, Those that I loued best
Abhor mee All, and me the most molest.
My Bones, in stead of Flesh, cleaue to my skin;
And that not sound, saue what my Teeth grow in.
Then pitty me, O pitty me, my Friends;
Sith God on me his heauie hand extends:
Ah! Why do you yet persecute me, rough,
As God? Alas! hath not my Flesh enough?

O! that my words (the words I now asseuer)
Were writ, were printed, and (to last for-euer)
Were grav'n in Marble with an Iron pen
With Lead in-yoated (to fill vp agen).

I surely knowe that my Redeemer liueth:
And that He shall (This, firme my Faith belieueth.)
In th'End of Time, return and rise from Dust
(The First and Last) to iudge and saue the Iust:
And, that, I shall, when worms haue eat This Clod,
I shall awake, and in my flesh see GOD:

920

Yea: I shall see him with These Eyes of mine;
And with none else: though Now in Paines I pine.

The rather, therefore should you now retract,
And Thus Your-selues discreetly now correct:
Why persecute We Him? Why hate Him, Wee?
Sith This Foundation is thus fixt in Mee,
Then, be you warn'd: beware, and fear the Sword:
For Wickednes and Cruelty [in word]
Incenseth Wrath: Know, there shall Iudgement come,
To doom them right, who Others (rash) misdoom.

Cap. 20.

Scarce had He done, when the Naamathite
Replyes him Thus: Therefore my thoughts incite
My suddain Answer: therfore, am I spurr'd
(Regarding light thy sharp and shamefull Gird)
With speed to speake, vnto the Point in hand,
What I conceiue, and rightly vnderstand.

Know'st thou not This of old, through euery Age,
Since first on Earth began Man's Pilgrimage;
That the triumphing of the Wicked Sort,
The Ioy of th'Hypocrite is euer short?
Although to Heav'n hee mount his glorious Top;
Though to the Clowds his head be lifted vp;
Yet shall he perish, as his dung, for aye:
And who hath seen them, shal ask, Where are they?
As Dreames forgotten, shall he take his flight;
Yea chas'd away, as Visions of the Night:
Th'Eye that hath seen him, shall not see him twise,
Nor shall his Places him againe reuise.
His Children shall be fawning on the Poore,
And His Extortions shall to them restore:
His Bones are full of his Youth's sinnes (his Lust)
VVhich shall not leaue him till he lie in dust:
Though to his Taste his Sin be passing sweet,
Though vnder-neath his Tongue he couer it,
Though there he spare it, and not spet it out,
Though on his Palate still it roule about;
Yet is his Meat turnd, in his Bowells, all;
And is, within him, as the Aspic's Gall:
H'hath swallow'd Wealth, but God shall make him fain
To spue it out, to cast it vp againe:
He shall the Aspic's direfull Poison suck:
With Vipers tongues he shall be deadly stuck:
He shall not see the Oylie Riuers Currents,
Nor Brooks of Butter, nor the Honny Torrents:
His Labour neuer shall regain his Losse:
He shall restore whom he before did crosse;
The Restitution shall be all his state;
He neuer shall digest, nor ioy thereat;

921

Because the Poore he crushed, and forsook;
And Others Houses violently took.
Sure he shall haue no quiet Calm within;
Without, no Store of what he ioyeth in.
There shall be no Remainder of his meat;
And his Reuersions none shall wait to eat:
Nay: in his Ruffe, and at his greatest Height,
He shall be stocked in full many a Strait:
Continuall Hazards shall him round enring;
Each spigthfull hand shall haue at him a fling:
When he is readie for his rich Repast,
On Him will God his fierie Furie cast;
Amid his Feasts his drad Displeasure thrilling
Instead of Food, his brest with horror filling;
If he escape the Sword; from Bowe's of steel
Steel-headed Arrowes shall him thorough thrill:
The naked Swords bright-shining terror shall
Peep through his Bosom, creep thruogh guts and gall.
Horrors shall haunt him: and so, hard-bestid,
From hiding him, all Darknes shall behid.
A Fire vnblow'n him suddain shall consume:
And woe to them that tarry in his Roome:
Heav'n shall discouer his Iniquities,
And Earth for witnesse shall against him rise;
All his Reuenewes, all his state, and stay,
Shall flowe to Others in his VVrathfull Day.
This is the Portion of the Wicked: This
His Heritage by God appointed is.

So, Zophar ceast. Then Iob reply'd: I pray

Cap. 21.

Heare heedfully what Now I haue to say:
Be this the Comfort you vouchsafe, alone;
Let Me but speak; and afterwards, mock on.

Doe I complain, or make my moan to Man?
Why doe you crosse, or interrupt me, than?
If I haue cause of Griefe should not my spirit
Be moou'd withall? Can flesh and Bloud forbear it?
Behold me well; and be withall dismay'd:
And let your hand vpon your mouth be layd.
Thought of the like (else-where) would me affright,
And daunt my Flesh: How then, my present sight?

How comes it, that the Wicked liue, liue long;
Grow Rich, grow Great; wex Eminent, and Strong;
They see their Children, and Grand-children, rife
Settled about them: In their House, no Strife;
No Feare; no Foe: They feele not any Rod,
No stripe, no stroak, of the drad hand of God.
Their Bullock genders, and proues euer fit:
Their Heifer calues, and neuer casteth it:

922

Their Little ones, like Lambkins send they out;
Their Stripplings play and skip, and daunce about;
They tune their Voice to sweetest Instruments,
Harp, Pipe and Tabret; to delight their sense:
In Wealth and Health They liue; scarce, euer, sick.
Of long Disease; but to their Graues go quick.

Yet These are Those, that to th'Almighty say,
Depart from vs; ne will not learn thy Way:
Who is the Lord? that we should Him obay?
What should we profit, if to Him we pray?

They haue not sure the power in their Owne hand,
To get and keep their Wealth at their Command.
Be therefore farre, be euer farre from Mee,
Their Works, and Words, and Thought's Impietie:
Farre be their Counsailes: far be all their VVaies:
And farre the Peace of their so prosperous Dayes.

And yet, how often is their Lamp put-out?
How often are They compassed about
With swift Destruction? In his Furie strict,
How oft doth God their Paiment here inflict?
How oft, as Straw before the winde, are They,
And as the Chaff with Tempest whift away?
How oft doth God, in the Vngodly's sight,
For Their own Guilt, their own deere Issue smite?
Or, lets Themselues heer see themselues vndone;
Drinking the hot Wrath of th'Almighty-one?
For, what is it to Them? or what care They
(Their Months cut off; Their mouths once stopt with clay)
What hap their house what hazard follow shall:
What Weale or VVoe, vnto their Heires befall?

But herein, who God's VVisedome shall impeach?
Or, who shall Him, that rules the highest, teach?
One dies at ease, in Strength's perfection growing;
His Brests with Milk, his Bones with Marrow flowing.
Another dies in Anguish of his Spirit;
And neuer did good Day or Night inherit:
Both are, alike, laid in the Dust together;
And VVormes, alike, doo case and couer Either.

Lo, I conceiue your mis-conceipts, from hence;
Your mis-collections, and your wrested Sense:
For, VVhere (say ye) Where's now the Princes Court?
And VVhere the Palace of the wicked sort?
Haue ye not asked those that trauaile by?
And doe ye, can ye, yet Their Marks deny?
That (for the most) the VVicked most are spared,
Repriued heer; till That dread Day prepared
For dire Destruction: and then (for their Errors)
Shall be brought-forth, in That great Day of Terrors.

923

For Heer so Mighty and so Great they are;
Who, to their face shall their Offence declare?
Who dares disclose it? Who shall prosecute?
And their due Sentence Who shall execute?

Nay (notwithstanding) to their Graue in peace
They passe, with Pompe of solemne Obsequies;
Accompany'd, attended (in their kinde)
With Mourning Troupes, before them and behinde:
Entomb'd among their Ancestors; and rest
In gloomie Vales, as happy as the Best.
How do You then, Me comfort, or confute;
VVhile vainly thus, and falsly you dispute?

IOB. The third Booke.

Th' old Thæmanite, as mou'd withall, replies:

Cap. 22.

Can Man, to God (as to Him-selfe, the Wise)
Be profitable? Any pleasure is't
Vnto the Lord, if Righteous Thou persist?
If Thou be iust, if perfect, and vpright;
Is God the better? Gaines th'Almighty by't?
For feare of Thee, will He reproue thee (strict)
Enter in Iudgement, and thee thus afflict?
Is not thy Sin great and thy Wickedness;
And infinite thy foule Vnrighteousness?

Yes: Thou hast ta'en thy Brothers Pledge for nothing,
And stripped euen the Naked of their Clothing:
Thou hast not giuen the wearie Drink, at need;
Nor to the Hungry, wherewithall to feed:
The Eminent and Mighty had their fill:
They held the Earth, and swayd thee at their will:
But silly Widowes hast thou empty packt;
And th'armes of Orphans haue bin crusht and crackt.
Thence is it, now, that Snares beset thee round,
And sodain Feares thee trouble and confound:
Or a black Darknes that thou canst not see;
And a huge Deluge that ore-whelmeth thee.

Is not the Lord in th'High Empyreall Blisse?
Behold the Stars, how high their Distance is:
And then (saist Thou) What can th'Almighty mark?
How iudgeth He? What sees he through the Dark?
Clowds couer Him from spying so far hence:
He walketh in the Heav'ns Circumference.

But, hast not Thou obseru'd the ancient Track
The Wicked trod, to their vntimely Wrack;

924

Who, quick cut downe, supplanted where they stood,
Had their Foundations swallowed with the Flood?
Who said to God, Depart from vs; and thought,
What can th'Almighty doo to vs, in ought:
Yet, with good things He fill'd their habitations.
But, farre from me be their Imaginations.

This see the Righteous; safe the while, and glad:
And laugh at them, in their Destruction sad.
For, We shall stand; our Substance not decay:
But their Remainder shall the Fire destroy.

Therefore, acquaint thee (and that quickly too)
With God; make peace: and Thou right wel shalt doo;
Receiue (I pray thee) from his mouth Direction;
And in thy heart, lay-vp his Words instruction.

If, to th'Almighty, Thou at-once returne;
Thou shalt be built-vp: and shalt brauely spurne
Iniquity faire from thy Selfe away;
And from thy Dwellings put it farre, for aye.
Then, as the Dust thou shalt hiue Gold, at will;
Pure Ophyr Gold, as Pebbles of the Rill:
Yea, the Almighty Thy defence shall be:
And store of Siluer shall be still with Thee.
For, in the Lord thy Pleasure shalt thou place;
And vnto Him shalt thou lift vp thy Face:
Him shalt thou pray-to; He shall heare thy Layes,
And grant thy Sute; and Thou return him Praise:
Thou shalt decree, and He shall make it good,
(So thy good Purpose shalt not be withstood):
And on Thy Wayes, and in all Works of Thine,
His Light of Grace (and glory too) shall shine.
Nay: when-as Others (as thy selfe art now)
Shall be cast downe; re-comfort them shalt Thou,
And Thus re-cheer them: Yet, yet may you rise;
For God will saue such as haue humbled eyes.
Yea: on the Noxious will he pittie take,
For th'Innocent; and spare them for thy sake.

Cap. 23.

Then answered Iob: Though to this Day my Mones
Right bitter be, my Griefe exceeds my Grones:
How is it then, that I, as yet, am held,
For hauing plain'd, as if I had rebeld?

O! that I knew, that some would shewe me, VVhere
I might goe find my Souerain Arbitrer.
That I might speedy vnto him repaire;
And euen approach to His Tribunall Chaire.
I would before Him plead my iust Defence,
And fill my Mouth with pregnant Arguments.
Then would I know what should His Answer be:
And vnderstand what He would say to me.

925

Would He oppose me with his Power divine?
No: rather would He steel and strengthen mine.
There might the Iust in his iust Plea proceed:
And I should ever from my Iudge be freed.

But, Whether to the West I take my way;
Or to the pearly Portall of the Day;
Or, to the Norward, where hee worketh rife;
Or, to the South, the Cell of blustering-strife:
Whether I look before me or behinde;
On This, or That side: Him I cannot finde.

Yet, knowes He well my Way: and hath me try'd:
And I, like Gold, shall come forth purified.
My Foot hath walked in His steps: His Way
Haue I observed; and not gon astray:
Nor haue I started from His Precepts set,
But priz'd them more then my appointed Mear.

Yet, He persisteth in one purpose still.
Who can divert him? He doth what he will;
And will perform what is of me decreed.
And many such things are with Him, indeed.

Therfore, before Him, am I wonder-smit;
Affraid of Him, when I consider it.
For, God hath suppled and made soft my heart,
And deep perplext me in my inward Part;
Because my Languors neither end, nor I:
Nor can I see, nor sound the Reason, Why.

Bvt, can it be (How can it other be?)

Cap. 24.

But that the Times of the Divine Decree
Concerning Iudgements more or less severe;
When, Why, and Who, and How, and What, and Where)
Hidden with God, and hidden from his Owne;
Should to the World, and wicked be vnknowne?

They shift the Land-marks from their ancient seat:
They take by force mens Flocks, to feed, or eat:
They driue away the silly Orphans Asse:
They take for Pledge the Widowes Ox (alas!):
They turn the Needy form their neerest Way:
They make the Poor together hide them aye:
Lo, Like wilde Asses in the Wilderness,
They ramp about their brutish Business:
Rising betimes for Boot (like Free-booters):
The Desart Field yeelds Food for them and theirs.
They reap them Each a Crop, from Others Crop:
They gather Each a wicked Vintage vp:
They cause the Naked without Clothes to lie,
Quivering for Cold, no Covering but the Skie;
Washt with the Showers that from the Mountains shed;
Embracing Clifts, for Shelter; Rocks for Bed:

926

They pluck the Pupill from the tender Brest:
They take from Poor a Pawne of all their best;
They leaue them Naked; Nay, the Hungry soule
Even of his Sheaf, and gleaned handfulls poule:
Yea; Labourers, that in Their service toyle;
That tread their Wine-press, and that make their Oyle,
That trudge and drudge in their Affairs; in fine
They let them starue, and even for thirst to pine.

The Citie grones vnder their Wicked Thrall:
Th'oppressed, slain, and wounded, cry, and call:
Yet, 'tis apparant (as the Sun is cleer)
God doth not alwaies smite (nor cite) them heer.

Yet, These are Those that aye the Light abhor:
Know not her Way, nor keep, nor care it for:
The Murd'rer rises (early) yer the Light;
To kill the Poor: and robbeth (late) at Night:
Th'Adulterer's Eye doth for the Twy-light wait;
And, muffled, thinks, None sees my quaint Deceit:
They (Burglars) digge through houses in the Dark,
Which, in the Day, they for their owne did mark.
But, Light they loath: Morning to Them is death:
Death's Terror, Day; which all discovereth:
On Waters swim they light and swift, for Fear:
On Earth, as Vagrants, fly they heer and there
(Their cursed portion) every-where vndon:
By-waies they seek, and the High-waies they shun.

As Heat and Drought, dissolve and drink the Snow;
The wicked-one the Graue shall swallow so.
The Womb that bare him, shall him quite forget;
And, to the Worm he shall be well-com Meat.
He shall, with Men, no more remembred be:
But broken-off, as is a withred Tree.
He weds the Barren that brings never forth;
And, if a Widowe, leaues her nothing worth.
Yet, by his power, He drags the Mighty down;
And none is safe, if He in Fury frown:
No; though, with Presents they his Patience buy,
And build on it; on Them he casts an eye.

Such, for a little, are aloft: Anon
As lowe as Others; as All others, gon:
Soon taken hence, shut-vp, cut-off, and shorn
As (with the Haile) the tufted ears of Corn.
If Thus it be not, Who will (I desire)
Disproue my Speech; and proue me now a Lyer.

Cap. 25.

To This, the Shuhite answered shortly Thus:
He is Almighty, Dradly-Glorious;
Whose Power imperiall, and All-humbling Aw,
Rules his High Places in most peacefull Law.

927

Is any number of His Armies known?
What Light so bright, but His hath over-shone?
How, then, may Man, with God, be iust defin'd?
Or, He be Clean, that's born of Woman-kind?
Behold, the Moon, before Him, is not bright:
Stars are not pure in his (All-pearcing) sight.
Then, How-much-less? How-much-less Man (alas!)
The Son of Man: a Worm, a Worthless Mass?

Iob, heervnto replyes incontinent:

Cap. 26.

Well haue ye said; but, How Impertinent!
How hast Thou holp the weak and feeble wight?
How fit defended him that hath no might?
How sweetly taught the simple and vnwise?
How full declar'd the Matter, as it lyes?
To Whom doost Thou this Speech of thine direct?
What mooues thee to it? and to what effect?

For, I (for My part) know, that, Not alone,
Th'Eternall rules, on his supernall Throne
The things aboue, in their harmonious Course;
But heer belowe, the Better and the Worse.

Beneath the Waters, dead things formed bin;
And, dumb (their owne Inhabitants) within:
Hell is not hid from Him: Destructions Caue,
From His inspection, can no Covering haue.
He, th'ample Heav'ns over the Void extends:
He, vpon Nothing the sad Earth suspends:
Within his Clowds He bottles vp the Rain,
Which with it weight tears not the Clowds in twain:
He hath in-bowd the fore-front of his Throne,
And spread his clowdy Canapey thereon:
He hath begirt the Waters with a List
Shall ever last, till Day and Night desist.
The massie Pillers of the Pole doe shake
If He but chide; and at His check they quake.
He, by his Power, doth the deep Sea divide:
His Prudence smites her in her fellest pride:
He, by his Spirit, the spangled Heav'ns hath drest
With glittering Signes; the Serpent, and the rest.

Lo, These are parcels of his Waies suprem:
But, O! How little do we heare of Him!
Who can conceiue? Who vnderstands the Thunders
Of His more secret, and most sacred Wonders?

While none reply'd, Iob grauely Thus goes on:

Cap. 27.

As liues the Lord, th'Almighty Holy-One,
Who seems a space my Verdict to suppress,
Loading my Soule with brunts of Bitterness;
While Breath is in me; till my Spirit, inspir'd
By God, be gon, and from me quite expir'd;

928

My Lips shall speak no wickedness, no wile;
Nor shall my Tongue deliver any guile.

No; God forbid that I should iustifie
Your rash miss-Iudgement. Mine Integritie
I'll not abandon, to my Dying-day:
Mine Innocence I never will betray:
My Righteousness still will I fast retain;
And, my cleer Conscience, while I liue, maintain.
But, as the Wicked, be mine Enemies:
Those, as Vnrighteous, that against me rise.

For, what's the Hope of th'hollow Hypocrite
(Though He haue heaped Treasures infinite)
When God shall take (in a disastrous Day)
His Land (his Life) his Goods (his Gods) away?
Will God regard, or heare his howling Cry,
When He is compast with Calamitie?
Or, in th'Almightie can He comfort take?
Will he to God continuall Prayer make?

I'll show you, how th'Almightie hand doth deale:
God's wonted Course I will not now conceale:
Nay; you your Selues you all haue seen it too.
Why talk ye then thus vainely as yee doo?

This is, with God, the Portion and the Part
Of the Vngodly and the Cruell heart:
This heritage shall impious Tyrants haue
From the Almightie, This they shall receaue:

If many Children he shall leaue behinde,
As many shall the Sword or Famine finde:
Or, if that any in Remain be left;
They, by the Plague, shall, vnbewail'd, be rest.

If He haue heaped Silver, as the Dust;
And Cloathes, as Clay; he may: but sure the Iust
Shall ioy his Silver, and his Treasures share;
And weare his Warde-robe, how-so rich and rare.

If braue he build; it is but like the Moth
(On others ground, as that in others Cloth)
Soon dispossest: or, like a Watch-house, soon
To be set vp, and suddenly pull'd-down.

Such Rich, shall die; and lie without regard,
Vngather'd to his Fathers Toomb prepar'd:
Nothing of Him remains in Memorie:
He vanisheth in Twinkling of an eye.
Horrors shall seize him, as a Flood, with Fright;
And as a Tempest hurry him in the night.
An Eastern Storm him quite away shall chase;
And, as a Whirle-winde, hurle him from his place.
So pittiless, in wrathfull Ielousie,
(While glad and fain he would his fingers flie)

929

Will God pursue him; and Good men shall smile,
And clap their hands, and hiss at him, the while.

Svre, there are Mynes and veinlings (vnder ground)

Cap. 28.

Whence Silver's fetcht, and wherein Gold is found:
Iron out of Earth, and out of Stone the Brass
Is melted down (into a purer mass).
Beyond the bounds of Darkness Man hath pry'd,
And th'Excellence of vnder-ground descry'd:
The rarest Stones, and richest Minerals,
From deadly Damps and horrid Darks he hales:
And, if som Torrent come there rushing in
(Such as no Foot hath felt, no Eye hath seen)
He can revert it, or divert it, soon,
Without Impeachment to his Work begun.

Earth's surface yeelds him Corn and Fruits, for Food;
Her vnder-folds, some burning Sulphury flood:
Amid the Quars of Stone are Saphires store:
Among the Dust, the precious Golden Ore
(Where never Bird, before did Path descry,
Where never Vultur cast her greedy Eye,
Where savage Whelps had never never traç't;
Nor furious Lion ever by had past):
On Cliffs of Adamant He layes his hands;
Their height and hardness He at will commands;
Slents them with Sledges, crops their clowdy crown:
He, by the roots turns Mountains vp-side down:
To let out Rills, He cleaveth Rocks insunder:
His Eye perceiues all that is precious, vnder:
He binds the Waters, that they shall not weep;
And diues for Riches in the deepest Deep.

All This, and more, hath Man. But where is found
That souerain Wisedom, sacred and profound?
That vnderstanding of the Waies divine,
Of God's supream and secret Discipline?

Man knowes it not; nor kenns the worth of it:
It is not found in any living Witt.
The Deeps confess, the Sea acknowledgeth;
Tis not in Me; nor with Me; th'other faith.

Nor Gold, nor Silver, nor all Gems that are,
Can purchase it, nor equall it by farre:
No wedge of Ophir, never so refin'd;
No Æthiopian Topaze, Pearle of Inde,
No precious Onyx, neither Saphire pure
(Corall and Crystall passe I, as obscure)
No Carbuncle, no Diamant so rare;
No One, nor All, with Wisedom may compare.

But, Whence is then, and Where is to be found
That sacred Wisedom, secret and profound?

930

Sith it is hidden from all humane Eyes;
And from the sight of every Foule that flyes.
Death and Destruction say; We of the same
Haue with our eares but onely heard the Fame.

God, God alone, doth vnderstand it Way;
And knowes the place where it abideth aye.
For, He, at once beholdeth all that is
In all the World: All vnder Heav'n he sees,
To poyze the Winds, and portion (at his pleasure)
Vnto the Waters their due weight and measure.

When for the Raine he stablisht a Decree,
And for the Thunder's Lightning Mutinie;
Then did He see it, and fore-see it fit:
He numbred, pondred, and prepared it:
And vnto Man This Maxime did apply;
GOD's Feare is Wisdom, and From Sin to flie.

Cap. 29.

Iob yet proceeded, and said furthermore,
O! were it with me, as it was of yore,
In my fore-passed Months, my former Dayes,
When God preserv'd me; when with gracious rayes
His Lightfull Lamp reflected on my head,
Whereby I walkt through Darkness, voyd of Dread:
As in my younger times, when yet the Lord
Vouchsaf't me Blessings of my Bed and Boord;
When yet the Lord was with me in my Tents,
And showred there his hidden Providence.

When, where I went, my wayes were bath'd in Butter,
And Rocks about me Rills of Oyle did gutter:
When I had gone vnto the publique Gate
To take my place where all our Senate sate,
At sight of Me, would Young men hide them thence,
And th'Elder sort stand vp, for reuerence:
Nobles were silent if I present were;
And, if I spake, they turn'd their Tongue to Eare:
And th'Eare that heard me blessed me: and th'Eye,
That saw me, witnest mine Integritie.

For, I delivered every Poor opprest,
The Orphan and the Helpless I redrest:
He blessed me that was wel-neer vndon:
The Widowes heart I cheered: I put-on,
I put on Iustice, as a seemly Gowne;
It was vnto me as a Robe and Crowne.
I, as an Eye vnto the blinde became;
And as a Foot vnto the Halt and Lame:
A Father was I to the Poor: and where
The Case was Dark, I would discuss it Cleer.
I also brake th'Oppressors greedy Iawes,
And took the Prey out of his Teeth and Pawes.

931

Then thought I, sure, to die at home, in rest:
And said, I shall with long good Dayes be blest.
For, by the Waters was my Root out-spred:
Vpon my Top Heav'ns nightly Deaw was shed:
My Wealth increast, mine Honour daily grew,
My Bowe of Health (my Strength) did still renew.

When I had spoken, every Eare was prest
To giue me eare, and in my Counsels rest,
Without Reply: and as the later Rain
The thirstie Earth, my Words they entertain.
If I had laught, or smil'd on any, neer,
They took no notice, nor would change my Cheer.
I sate as Chief, I onely rul'd the roast,
Dwelt as a King amid an armed Hoast;
And, as a Man, amid a mourning Rout,
That, from his lips, pours liuely Comforts out.

Bvt now (alas!) My Puisnès Me deride:

Cap. 30.

The meanest mock me; Yea, and Those (beside)
Whose ragged Fathers I refus'd, to keep
My Shepheards Curs (much more to cure my Sheep).
For, to say truth, what service could they doo?
So idle bred (both Young and Elder too)
Weakned with Sloath, and wicked Conversation;
And waxen old, in wretched Desolation:
For Cold and Hunger wandring heer and there,
With Mallowes fed, and roots of Iuniper:
Pursewd as Theeues, hunted from place to place
With Hue and Cries; and ever had in Chase;
And therefore fain, for Shelter's sake, to creep
In Clifts and Caues; in Rocks and Dungeons deep:
Among the Thorns and Thickets roaring rife;
Wilde Out-lawes, leading a most beastiall life:
The Breed of Fooles, the Fry of basest birth,
Of name-less Men: indeed the Scums of Earth.

And yet, to Such am I now made a Song,
A Ballad and a By-word on their tongue:
Yea, These despise me, and despight me too,
Spet in my Face, and make no more adoo.
Because the Lord my Bowe-string hath vnbent,
And slackt my Cord, therefore these insolent
Insulters Now loose and let-go the Raines
Of all Respect, vnto their lewd Disdaigns.

Now, very Boyes doe take the Wall of me,
Trip at my Feet; and (in their Iollitie)
Mis-iudge my Life, and of me Rumors raise,
After their owne cruell and cursed Waies:
They mar my Path that I haue walked in,
Further my Woes, and haue no help therein:

932

As a wide Flood-breach they haue rushed on-me,
And with the Ruines have roul'd-in vpon-me.
Terrors are turn'd vpon me, and pursew
My Life as Winde; my Weale; as Vapours flew:
Therefore my Soule, in sore Afflictions vext,
Is poured out, and inly deep perplext.

Dayes dark and irksom haue vpon me seaz'd:
And in the Night (when others most are eas'd)
My very Bones within me are opprest,
Nay, pearced through; my Sinnewes take no rest:
My strange Disease, with angry violence
Of th'hot Impostumes loathsom Virulence,
Hath staind my Garments: and, with straining Dolor,
About my Neck it gripes me as a Coller.
Laid in the Dust, I roule the Mire among,
Becomn, indeed, like Ashes, Durt, and Dung.

To Thee I cry, to Thee the while I call;
But, Lord, Thou hear'st not, nor doost heed at all.
Nay, Thou art also Cruell turn'd, to me;
With hot Assaults, as on an Enemie:
Thou lift'st me vp, (as in a Storm, the Stubble)
To ride a Whirle-winde, while (with Fear and Trouble)
I faint, and fall (dissolved, as it were)
In deadly Swoun, hurry'd I wot not where:
But well I wot, Thou soon wilt bring me home
To death, the House where all that liue shall come;
Whither, thy Hand thou wilt no longer stretch;
And Whence, no Prayers boot, nor need, to fetch.

Did not I weep, for Others Wofulness?
Was not my Soule griev'd at the Poores Distress?
When Good I lookt for, Evill came: when Light,
A dismall Darkness, worse then blackest Night.
My bowels boyled with continuall heat;
A troublous time vpon me sudden set:
Not with the Sun, but Sorrow, black I turn'd:
Amid th'Assembly lowd I cry'd and mourn'd,
With hideous Noyse (for horrid Anguishes)
As kin to Dragons and to Ostriges.
My Harp is tuned to a heauy Tone;
My Musick turned to the voyce of Mone.

Cap. 31.

I made a Covenant with my constant Eyes,
From gazing out on blazing Vanities:
(Having my Choyce, whereon my thoughts were staid)
Why should I once mis-think vpon a Maid?
For, O! for such, what Part, what Portion is
With God, aboue in th'Heritage of Bliss?
Nay: is there not destruction still behinde,
Strange Punishment, for Wicked (of this kinde)?

933

Are not my Paths apparant vnto God?
Doth not He see and summe the Steps I trod?

If I haue walkt in Vanitie and Pride:
If vnto Fraud my Foot haue ever hy'd:
In his iust Balance let him weigh me right,
And hee shall finde me by his Beam vpright.

If that my Steps haue straid, or trod awry:
If that my Heart haue hearkened to mine Eye:
If to my Hand haue cleaved any Spot:
If Blood or Bribes the same did ever Blot;
Then let me Sowe, and Others eat my Crop;
Yea, let my Plant be ever plucked-vp.

If ever Woman haue my heart beguil'd;
Or I layd wait t'haue Others Wife defil'd:
Let mine again vnto Another grinde,
And me be punisht in my Sins owne kinde.
For This is sure a high and hainous Crime,
To be condemn'd and punisht in the prime:
Yea, 'tis a Fire, whose Fury would not cease,
But ruine all, and root out my Increase.

If ever I despis'd my Man, or Maid,
Debating with me, and them over-waid;
What shall I doo? What Answer shall I make,
When God, as Iudge, their Cause shall vndertake?
Did not one Maker them and me create,
Of Matter like, in Manner like, and Fate?

If ever I delay'd the Poor's desire:
Or let the Widowes longing Hopes to tire:
Or ever eat my Morsels all alone,
And gaue the Orphan and the needy none
(He hath been with me from my Child-hood bred
As with a Father: Shee, in Husband's sted,
Hath ever had my Counsell for her Guide,
My Power for Guard; my Purse her Want supply'd.)

If I haue seen or suffered any Poor
To lie and die, Naked, or out of Door:
Nay, if his Loynes be-blest not me from harm,
Because my Fleece and Cottage kept them warm:

If ever I, against the Impotent,
Poor, Father-less or Friend-less Innocent
(For Feare or Favour, of a Friend or Foe,
For Gain, or Grudge that I did ever owe)
Haue lift my hand, or him in right witstood;
Or, when I might haue, haue not don him good:
Then let mine Arme off from my Shoulder fall,
And from the bone be pasht to powder all.
For, God's drad Iudgements did I alwaies fear:
Whose Highness VVrath I could nor balk nor bear.

934

If I on Gold haue fixt my Hope, or Heart;
Or, to the Wedge haue said: My Trust thou art:
If I haue ioy'd for being grow'n so Rich;
Or for my Hands had gotten me so much:

If, when I saw the Sun or Moon to shine,
My heart (intiç't) in secret did incline
To th'idle Orgies of an Idolist;
Or (Heathen-like) my Mouth my Hand hath kist:
Or, if, in Summer of my golden Dayes,
Or silver Nights shining with prosperous Rayes,
My heart in private hath been puft too-high,
Ascribing all to mine owne Industrie
(Which had been impious Sacrilege and Pride:
For, then had I the God of Heav'n deny'd):

If I reioyç't at Ruine of my Foes,
Or haue triumphed in their Overthrowes;
Or haue so much as let my Tongue to roule,
Or Heart to wish a curse vnto their Soule:
Though oft, my Servants, in their rage extream,
Would fain haue beaten, nay, haue eaten them:

If I haue shut the Stranger out of Door;
Or let-not-in the weary Pilgrim poor:
If I (like ADAM) haue conceald my Sin,
And closely cloakt my Wickedness with-in:
(Although I could haue over-born, with Aw,
Whole multitudes; the meanest Groom I saw,
I feared so, I durst not wring, nor wrong,
Nor wrangle with: but kept my Tent and Tongue).

O! that I had an equall Arbitrer,
(To heare, and waigh, consider, and confer).
Behold my Aime: th'Almightie I desire
(A certain Signe of mine Intent intire)
For, He, I know, would sentence on My side;
And witness for me, that I haue not ly'd.

Then, though against me (in his fell Despite)
Mine Adversarie should a Volume write,
It, as a Robe, I on my back would beare,
And as a Garland on my head it weare:
I would, by peece-meale, shew my Conversation,
All so vnlike to all his Accusation,
That clearing Me, it should him more convince,
To come and aske me Pardon, as a Prince.

But, if my Land against me plead or plain;
Or, If my Furrowes cry-out, or complain:
If, Tithe-less, Tax-less, Wage-less, Right-less, I
Haue eat the Crop, or caus'd the Owners die;
In sted of Barley, and the best of Corn,
Grow nothing there, but Thistles, Weeds and Thorn.

Heere Iob surceast.

935

IOB. THE FOVRTH BOOK.

Here also ceast the Three fore-named Friends
From farther Speech (as hopeless of their ends)

Cap. 32.

Sith Iob so stifly still maintain'd his right
Of Righteousness, in his owne proper sight.

Then angry Zeale began to swelt and swell
In Elihu the sonne of Barachel,
The Buzite born, and of the Race of Ram:
Both against Iob began his wrath to flame
(Because, as tenor of his words imply'd,
Rather Himselfe, then God, he iustify'd)
And also Those his Foe-friends, for so strict
Condemning Iob, vntry'd, and vnconvict.

His modestie him hitherto with-held,
As giving place to others of more Eld:
But, seeing Iob to a full Period come;
And th'other Three without Reply, as dumb;
His Zeal burst out, and Thus in briefe began:

I must confess, I am too young a man
T'haue interrupted you (so old) before
In This Dispute; and therefore I forbore:
I was in doubt; I durst not speak (till now)
My weak Opinion, and present it you.
For, Dayes (thought I) and Years can farther reach:
And long Experience Wisedom best can teach.

Men haue a Soule, and Reason's light inherit:
But, Wisedom is inspir'd by th'Holy-Spirit
(Which bloweth where it will, and worketh free,
Not ty'd to Age, nor to Authoritie):
For, Great men alwaies are not wisest found,
Nor the most Ancient still the most profound.
Therfore awhile to Me giue eare, I pray;
And let Me also mine Opinion say.

936

I well observ'd your words, with diligence
I scan'd your Reasons, markt your Arguments:
Yea, neer and narrow haue I watcht and waigh'd
What Each of you, and All of you haue said:
Yet is there None of you (apart, or ioynt)
Convinces Iob; or answers to the Poynt.
Lest You should say; We Wisedom compass can,
God will evince him; not the Wit of Man.
For Me, Me yet hee never did gain-say:
Nor doe I mean to answer him, your way.

Heer-with amaz'd, they still continuing mute
Without Reply, or shew of more Dispute
(For I expect dyet some Speech from some:
I waited still: and when as none would come)
I will, said I, now prosecute my Part,
To giue my Censure from a single heart:
For, I am full of matter to the top;
My Spirit within me, strains me, stirs me vp:
My Brest is like a Wine-Butt, wanting Vent,
Ready to burst; or Bottles, like to slent.
I'll therefore speak, that I may yet re-spire;
And ope my mouth, to fanne mine inward fire.

Yet None, I pray, from Me the while expect
Smooth, soothing Titles; personall Respect:
For, soothing Titles know not I to giue;
Nor, should I, would my Maker let me liue.

Cap. 33.

Now therefore, Iob, hark with attentiue heed
To all the Words that from me shall proceed:
For, what I speak, premeditated is;
Not out of Passion, or of Preiudice:
But most sincere, and from a single heart,
Out of cleer Knowledge (without Clowds of Art).

One and the same, of the same Mass of Mire,
Made Me, as Thee; and did my Spirit inspire:
Fear not therefore, if Thou haue ought to say;
Oppose and answer: put thy Words in ray:
I am (according to thy wish) to plead
And parley with thee, in th'Almighties stead;
And yet, a Man: My Terrors shall not fright thee,
Neither my hand with heauy Tortures smite thee.

Lo, Thou hast sayd (I heard and markt it well)
In Mee, there none Iniquity doth dwell:
I am Vpright, and Clean, and Innocent:
Yet, as a Foe, Hee is against mee bent:
Hee picks occasions to inflict mee Stroaks;
Sifts all my Waies, and sets mee in the Stocks.
And lo, in This, even in This saying so,
Thou art not Iust: for (if thou know'st not) know,

937

That God is Greater than All Men: then, Why
Striv'st Thou with Him? whose supreme Soveraignty.
Yeelds vs no Reason, nor Account at all,
Of His high Counsails; Why, or How, they fall.

For once, yea twice, to Man th'Almighty speaks;
Yet Man perceiues not (or it little reaks)
By Dream, or Vision of the Night, in Sleep
Vpon his Bed; or in some Slumber deep:
Then opens He Mens eares, and him revealeth,
And sweetly there their meet Instruction sealeth;
To turn a Man from his intended Ill,
And hide the Pride of his ambitious Will:
To keep his Soule back from the brink of Hell;
And saue his Life from Death and Dangers fell.

Some-times, Hee's also chast'ned on his Bed,
With grievous Sicknes, from the foot to head;
Incessant burning in his Bones and Blood:
So that he loatheth the most dainty Food.
His Flesh consumed, and his Bones so high
That they appeare (as an Anatomie):
His Life and Soule draw neer vnto the Pit,
(The Graue doth gape, and Worms doo wait for it).

If with Him be a holy Messenger
(One of a Thousand) an Interpreter,
To shew to Man the Iustice of his God,
In his Correction, with his sharpest Rod;
And, Rightly humbled, re-advance the Meek,
By Faith, aboue his Righteousness to seek,
And pray to Him; He will propitious stand,
And to his Servant He will Thus command,
Deliver him from going to the Graue,
I am appeas'd: a Ransom found I haue.

Then, than a Childe shall fresher be his Flesh,
He shall return vnto his Youth afresh:
Then shall he call on God, and God shall be
Right gracious to him: He with ioy shall see
His glorious Face. For, He will render than
(He will impute) His Righteousness to Man.

He visits Men; and if that any say,
I haue offended: I haue gon astray:
I haue miss-done: I haue perverted Right:
O! I haue sinn'd, and had no profit by't;
He will deliver, from Infernall Doom,
His Soule; his Life from an vntimely Toomb.

Lo, all These things doth God doo twice or thrice
(Oft and again) to Man (too prone to Vice)
To re-reduce his Soule from Death's dark Night;
To be enlightned with the living Light.

938

Iob, mark it well, And harken farther yet
What I shall speak: saue, when thou seest it fit,
If ought thou haue to answer, or obiect,
Speak on, in God's Name (for I much affect
To iustifie and cleer thee (if I may):
If otherwise, if nought thou haue to say;
List, and obserue with silence, I beseech;
And I shall teach thee Wisedom, by my Speech.

Cap. 34.

So, he proceeded, and said furthermore:
Heare Me, ye Sages; Men of Skilfull lore:
For, as the Palate doth discern of Food,
Th'Eare tryeth words (how they be bad, or good).
Let's then debate This Matter, among vs;
Examine it, and what is right, discuss.

For, Iob hath said: O! I am Iust, Vpright;
And yet (saith He) GOD hath bereft my Right.
Should I belye my Cause? My thrilled Wound
Is past all Cure; and yet no Crime is found.

What man, like Iob, himselfe so over-thinks?
Who (wilfully) Contempt, like Water, drinks:
Who, with the Wicked and Vngodly walks,
Iumps iust with Them, and in their language talks.
For, he hath said; Man hath no profit by 't
To walk with GOD, and in Him to delight.

But, heare me now, all yee that vnderstand;
O! be it farre from the All-ruling hand
Of Iustice Selfe (th'Almighty God, most High)
To doe Iniustice, or Iniquitie.

No: He to Each man his owne Work repayes;
And makes him finde according to his Waies.
Vndoubtedly, the Lord of Hosts, the Strong,
Nor hath, nor doth, nor will, nor can, do wrong.

Who hath to Him charge of the Earth impos'd?
And, Who but He, hath the whole World dispos'd?
If He but please on Man to set his minde,
To re-assume his Spirit, his Breath, his Winde;
All Flesh at once (if He but hold his breath)
Shall turn to Dust; and perish all, in death.

Now note Thou this, if so thou hast a heart
To vnderstand; list what my Words impart:
Shall He haue Rule, that Iudgement loathes (and lacks)?
And for vniust, wilt Thou the Iustest tax?
Beseems it Any to a King to say,
O! Thou art Wicked (in thy partiall Sway)?
Or vnto Princes (to vpbraid them) Thus,
You are Vngodly, you are Impious?
Then, how-much-less to Him that puts no Ods
Touching the Persons of those Earthly Gods;

939

Nor twixt the Rich and Poor, the Great and Small;
For, they (alike) are his owne Hands-work, all.

They (at His will) shall in a moment die;
Yea, even at Midnight (vnexpectedly)
The People shall be troubled and transported;
And even the Princes, without hands subverted.
For, evermore His Eyes are open wide
On all Mens Waies, on every Step and Stride.
There is no Darkness, nor no Shade of Death,
For Wicked-ones to hide them vnder-neath:
Nor, will he Any yet so over-load,
That they may iustly grudge, or plead with God.

By Heaps, will He to peeces grinde the Great,
And (in their steed) set Others in their seat:
For, vnto Him, their Works are manifest;
Night turn'd to Light: and they shall be supprest.
Them, as most Wicked, smites he (as it were,
In all mens sight, in open Theatre)
Because from Him they did revolt and swerue;
And would not any of his Waies obserue:
But caus'd the loud Cries of the Poor ascend
To Him, who alwaies doth their Cries attend.

When He giues Quiet, who dares be so bold
To cause Disturbance? And, if He with-hold
His Countenance, who then behold Him can;
Whether a People, or a Private man?
That th'Hypocrite no more may Raign (as King)
Nor, vnder him, the snared People wring.

Vs therefore Thus beseems, to say to God:
I beare with Patience thy correcting Rod:
I will not murmur, nor burst out therfore;
But sigh in silence, and offend no more:
Shew me my Sins I see not, nor perceiue;
And, Hence forth will I all Iniustice leaue.

Or, should it be after Thy pleasure ay?
No: will-thou-nill, He will (not I) repay.
Now, therefore speak thy Conscience seriously;
And let the prudent mark and testifie,
That, voyd of Knowledge, Iob hath mis-averr'd;
And, wide of Wisdom, his Discourse hath err'd.

Would therefore (Father) he might yet be try'd:
Sith for the Wicked he hath so reply'd;
For, to his Sin he doth Rebellion ad:
Claps hands at vs, as He the Better had:
And (too-too-pure in his too-prudent Eyes)
Against th'Almighty, Words he multiplies.

Elihu speaking, Thus moreover said:

Cap. 35.

Thinkst Thou this right (if it be rightly waid)

940

Which thou hast spoken (or thy Speech imply'd)
My Righteousness is more than God's (O Pride!).
For, Thou hast said, What will it vantage mee,
What shall I gain, if I from Sin be free?

I'll answer thee; and with Thee, All so dreaming:
Look-vp, and see the Heav'ns aboue thee gleaming;
Behold, how high: If therefore thou transgress,
And multiply thy Sin and Wickedness;
What hurt doost Thou to God? What Detriment?
On th'other side, if Thou be Innocent,
If Iust; What doost Thou to his Goodnes giue?
Or, from Thy hand, What, What doth He receiue?
Thy Wickedness may hurt a Man (like thee):
Thy righteousness, to Man may helpfull be.

For manifold and frequent Tyranny,
Oppressors make oppressed-ones to cry;
Yea, to cry-out for cruell Violence
Of Mighty-ones, of Men of Eminence:
But, there is None that saith (as due belongs)
Where's God, my Maker (Who by Night giues Songs,
Who teacheth vs, hath vs more Wisedom given,
Than Beasts of Earth, or to the Fowles of Heaven).
There cry they oft; but none doth heare or heed,
For, th'Evils sake (who in all Ills exceed):
For, Vanity, God doth not, hath not heard;
Nor ever will th'Almighty it regard.

Now, though Thou saist, thou seest Him not, Hee's Iust:
With Him is Iudgement; therefore in Him trust:
For want whereof, his Wrath hath visited;
Yet not so hot as Thou hast merited.
Therefore doth Iob open his Mouth in vain:
And voyd of Knowledge, yet, yet, mis-complain.

Cap 36.

Elihu said: A little suffer me;
For I haue yet more to alledge to Thee,
On God's behalfe. I'll fetch mine Arguments
From farre (confirm'd by long Experience)
To iustifie my Maker's Holiness,
Giue Him his owne, and right his Righteousness.
I'll speake no Falshood, nor no Fraud propound:
All my Discourse shall be sincere and sound.

Lo, God is Mighty; yet doth none despise:
Omnipotent, Omniscient; Strong and Wise.
He spareth not the Life of Wicked wights;
But, the Oppressed in their wrongs he rights:
His Eyes are never off the Righteous sort:
Them on the Throne He doth with Kings consort:
Them He advances; and beyond all Term
Doth them establish, and them fast confirm.

941

Or, if that ever Fetters them befall,
Or, they be holden in Afflictions Thrall;
He lets them see their Works, their Wickedness,
Their wandring By-waies, and their bold Excess;
And opens then their Eare to Disciplin,
Commanding quick, that they return from Sin.
If they return, to serue and Him obey,
Their Dayes and Years right happy spend shall They:
If not; the Sword shall smite them suddenly:
And in their wilfull Folly shall they die.

But Hypocrites, the Men of double heart,
They heap-vp Wrath: they cry not when they smart.
They die in Youth; their Life among th'Vncleane,
Most Insolent, most Impudent, Obscœne.

He th'humble Poor in his Affliction frees:
Their Eares he opens, in Calamities:
So would He, Thee from Thy Distress haue freed,
And brought thee forth far from the Streits of Need,
To spacious Plenty; and thenceforth thy Boord
Should with the best and fattest haue been stor'd:
But, Thou, too-wicked-like, too-stiffe hast stood;
As their presumptions seeming to make good;
Not stoopt, but strutted in Contesting Pride.
Therefore, on Thee doth Iudgement yet abide.

Sith wroth he is, beware to tempt him more;
Lest with his Stroak, he sudden smite thee ore:
Or hisse thee hence with his all-mighty Breath:
Then can no Ransom thee redeem from Death.
Will He regard thy Goods? or reak thy Gold?
Thy State, or Strength (how much, or manifold?

Nor wish Thou (hope-less) for the (hap-less) Night,
When from their place People are taken quight:
Beware, regard not Thou Iniquitie;
Neither (alas!) through faint Infirmitie,
Chuse rather That, than thine Affliction's Part,
With humble Patience of a Constant heart.

Behold the Lord is, for his Power, suprem:
And, for his Prudence, Who doth teach like Him?
Who hath appointed vnto Him his way?
Or, Who can tell him, Thou hast gon astray?

Rather, remember that thou magnifie
His publike Works, apparant to our Eye;
So visible, that both the young and old,
Them from a farre do bright and brim behold.

Lo, God is Greater then We comprehend:
Nor can the Number of his years be kend.
He makes the thick exhaled Vapours thin,
That down again in silver Deaws they spin,

942

From strouting Clowds aboundantly distilling
For th'vse of Man, the Plains with Plenty filling.

Also, can Any vnderstand th'Extent
Of Clowds, or know the Rattling of his Tent?
Behold, He spreadeth out his Light there-over,
And even the bottom of the Sea doth cover.
For, by the same He worketh divers-waies,
Both to his Iustice and his Mercie's Praise:
That, through excess causing a fearfull Flood;
This, temperate, producing store of Food.
He vailes the Light with Clowds that come between,
Forbids it shine, and lets it not be seen:
Boading a Shower, or Storms approaching rage:
Which oft, even Cattell of the Field presage.

Cap. 37.

Here-at, my Heart trembles for inward Feare,
As if remov'd from it owne place it were:
Hark, hark with heed vnto the hideous Noyce,
The horrid Rumbling of his dreadfull Voyce,
Which, with his Lightning, he directeth forth,
Vnder whole Heav'n, and over all the Earth.
After the Flash, a Clash there roareth high;
He thunders-out his Voyce of Maiestie:
And then no longer will He keep them back,
When that is heard over our heads to crack.

God, with his Voyce, doth thunder wondrously,
And works great things that we cannot discry:
He bids the Snow to cover Hill and Plain;
So, drizling Showers; and so, his Mighty Rain;
Whereby, From Field-works He seals-vp mens hands,
That they may know His works how He commands.
Then, to their Den the Savage Heards do hie;
And for a season in their Covert lie.

From Southern Chambers the hot Whirl-wind coms:
From Northren Cels, That which with Cold benumbs.
The Frost is given vs, by the breath divine;
When Crusts of Crystall spreading Floods confine.
The blackest Clowd He doth exhaust of waters:
And, his bright Clowd (the Lightnings shroud) he scatters.
And (by the Counsaile of his Providence)
All This, by Turns, in round Circumference
Is turn'd about: and ready at his Call,
Throughout the World, to do his will, in all.
For, He commands them come, for Punishment,
Or Loue to His; or else Indifferent.

Harken to This, O Iob; stand still, and ponder
The Works of God, so full of waight and wonder.
Know'st Thou (alas!) when He disposed them;
Or caus'd the Light out of his Lump to beam?

943

Know'st Thou the Clowd's iust Poize (the high or lower)
And wondrous works of the All-perfect Knower?
How, when He calms the Earth with Southern puff,
Thy thinnest Clothes thou findest warm enough.
Hast Thou, with Him, spred forth the spangled Skie,
That (liquid Crystall-like) strong Canopie?

If so; then shew vs, what to say to Him:
For, what to say, we are (alas!) too dim.
Should I mis-speak, needs any Him inform?
Nay, should I not be swallowed vp (in storm)?

None fixly can (when clowds be clear'd away)
Behold the bright and shining Lamp of Day.
From out the North stream goodly Beams of gold:
With God is Light more bright by manifold,
More pure, more pearcing, past a mortall Eye;
More dreadfull farre. His glorious Maiestie
(Dwelling aboue, in Splendors inaccessible)
For vs to find out, is a poynt impossible.
Hee's excellent in Prudence: passing Strong:
Plentious in Iustice: and doth No man wrong.
Therefore Men fear him: Yet, for Their desert,
Regards not He those that are Wise of heart.

Then, drad Iehova from a Whirle-wind spake
In sacred tearms; and Thus with Iob hee brake:

Cap. 38.

Where? Who is He, that (to Himselfe so holy)
Darkens my Counsailes, with contentious Folly?
Come, gird thy loynes, prepare thee, play the Man;
I will oppose thee: answer, if thou can.

Why! Where wert Thou, tell (if thou know'st, dis-maid)
When the Foundations of the Earth I laid?
Who marked first the Measure of it out?
Or (canst Thou tell) Who stretcht the Line about?
What Bases had it; and fixt Where-upon?
Or, Who thereof layd the first Corner-stone,
When Morning-Stars for Ioy together sang,
And all God's Children cheerfull eccho rang?
Or, Who with Doores, shut-in the Sea so streight,
When from the Womb it rushed with such weight?
When as I made the Clowd a Clowt for it,
And blackest Darkness as a Swathe-band fit:
And Cradled it, in mine appointed place,
With Bars about, and Doores at every pace:
And sayd vnto it; Hitherto extend;
And farther, not: Heer, thy proud Waues be pend.

Hadst Thou the Morning from thy birth, at beck?
Mad'st thou the Dawn in his due place to break;
That it might reach the Earth's Circumference,
And that the wicked might be shaken thence:

944

To stamp it (various, as the Potters Clay)
With many Formes, in manifold array,
When as th'Vngodly shall be all descry'd;
That Iustice hand may break the armes of Pride?
Hast Thou gon down into the Sea it selfe;
Walkt in the Bottom; searched every Shelfe;
Survaid the Springs? Or have the Gates of Death
Been opened to Thee; and those Dores beneath
Death's gastly shadows? Know'st Thou (to conclude)
(Tell, if thou know'st) the Earth's iust Latitude?

Which is the way where louely Light doth dwell?
And as for Darkness, where hath Shee her Cell;
That Thou should'st Both, in both their bounds comprise;
And know their dwellings, and their Paths, precise?
Needs must Thou know them: Thou wert born yer than:
No doubt Thou wert, Thou art so old a man.

Hast Thou the Treasures of the Snow survay'd?
Or seen the Store-house of my Hail (vp-layd
And hid in heaps, against a time of need)
For War-like Battry, where I haue decreed?

Which is the way whence Lightning flasheth out,
Scattering th'vnhealthy Eastern Gales about?
Who hath dispos'd the vpper Spouts and Gutters,
Whereby the Aire his over-burthen vtters?
Or given the Lightning and the Thunder way,
To cause it rain on places parcht away;
On thirstie Desarts, where no People pass;
On barren Mountains, to reviue the Grass?

Had Rain a Father? Or, begot by whom
Was pearly Deaw? Or, from what pregnant Womb
Came crystall Ice? Or, canst Thou rightly render,
Who did the hard and hoary Frosts ingender,
When Waters creep vnder a Stone-like cover,
And th'Oceans surface is thick-glased over?

Canst Thou restrain the pleasant Influing
Of Pleiades (the Vshers of the Spring)?
Or, canst Thou lose Orion's Icie Bands
(Who rules the Winter with his chill Commands)?
Canst Thou bring forth (the soultry Summers Guide)
Bright Mazaroth (or Dog-star) in his Tide?
Or canst thou lead Arcturus (and his Train,
Th'Autumnall Signes) his Sons or Charls his Wain)?

Know'st Thou the Statutes of the Heav'ns aboue?
Or canst Thou (here) them in their order moue?
Wilt Thou command the Clowds, and Rain shall fall?
Will Lightning come, and answer, at thy call?

Who hath infus'd Wisedom in th'inner part?
Or Vnderstanding who hath given the hart?

945

Who can sum-vp the Clowds, or clear the Sky?
Or ope Heav'ns bottles, when the Earth is dry?
To steep the Dust, and knead the clotted Clay,
Yerst over-baked with too-hot a Ray?

Wilt Thou go hunt, th'old Lioness to help;

Cap. 39.

Or fetch-in prey to fill her greedy whelp,
When they are couchant in their Den, or watch
For passant Heards, their wonted Boot to catch?

Who, for the Raven, provideth timely Food;
When as her hungry greedy-gaping Brood,
Wandring about, and wanting what to eat,
Doe (croaking) call, and cry to Me for meat?
Know'st Thou the time when mountain Goats and Hindes
Doe yean and calue according to their Kindes)?
Canst Thou keep reckning of the Months they go,
And how their Burdens to their Birth-time grow;
When they but bow them, and forthwith let fall
Their tender Fruit, and all their Pains withall?

Who hath sent out the Wilde Ass, free to feed;
Or let him loose (from serving humane need)
Whose house and haunt I haue ordaind express
Within the brackie barren Wilderness?
He scorns the Cities multitude and noyse:
He reaks not of the yawning Drivers voyce:
The craggy Cliffs his shaggy Pastures been;
Where, off he croppeth what he findeth green.

Will th'Vnicorn thee willingly obay?
Or, will hee come vnto thy Crib, for Hay?
Will he be brought to harrow or to plow?
Or, will he bring thy Corn vnto thy Mow?
Wilt Thou presume of Him, for strength in fight?
Orleane to him, thy Labour to acquite?

Didst Thou bestow the Peacocks goodly Fan?
Or, gav'st Thou Feathers to the Stork (or Swan)?
Or, to the Ostridge her delicious Tress
(Th'ambitious Badge as well of War as Peace)
Who layes her egges, and leaues them in the Dust,
To hatch them there, with radiant Heat adust,
Without her help, or heed; lest Tread or Track,
Of Man or Beast them all to peeces crack:
Vnkindest Dam, the labour of her wombe
That dares annull; while Hers not Hers become:
So void I made her of Intelligence,
And kinde instinct of Natures Influence:
Yet, with her Wings and Feet so fast she skips,
That Shee the Horse and Rider both out-strips.

Hast Thou indew'd the Horse with strengthfull wonder,
And cloath'd his crest, and fill'd his brest with thunder?

946

Canst Thou affright Him, as a Grass-hopper;
Whose nostrils pride snorts Terrors every where?
He pawes the Plain, he stately stamps, and neighs,
And glad goes-on against the arm'd Arraies,
Disdaining Fear. For, for the Sword and Shield,
Dart, Pike, and Lance, He 'll not forsake the Field,
Nor turn his back (how-ever thick they shiver)
Nor for the Cross-bow, and the rattling Quiver.
He swallowes-vp the Earth in furious heat;
Nor will beleeue the Sound of the Retreat.
Among the Trumpets, sounds his cheerfull Laugh,
Ha-Ha-ha-ha: hee smelleth a far-off
The wished Battaile; hears the thundring Call
Of proud Commanders; and lowd Shouts of all.

Is 't by thy wisedom that the Hawk doth mew,
And to the Southward spreads her winged Clew?
Doth th'Eagle mount so high at thy Behest,
And build aloft (so neer the clowds) her Nest?
Shee dwels vpon the Rock and ragged Cliffe,
And craggy places the most steep and stiffe:
From whence, about to seek her prey she flies;
Which, from afar, her quick keen Sight espies:
Her young ones also, onely Blood doo suck:
And where the Slain are, thither doo they ruck.

Cap. 40.

Moreover, yet, The Lord, proceeding, said
To Iob: Shall He that dares with God to plead,
Teach Him His Part? Let him (who God doth tax)
Heer let me hear the Answer that he makes.

Iob sadly then Thus humbly did reply:
O! Lord, behold; O! most-most Vile am I.
What shall I answer Thee? What shall I say?
Onely, my hand vpon my mouth I'll lay.
Once haue I spoke, and twice; and too-too bold:
But now, for ever I my Tongue will hold.

Again, the Lord out of the Whirle-winde spake,
And said to Iob: Yes, yes; thy Theam re-take:
Gird vp thy loyns again, and play the Man:
I'll question thee: now answer, if Thou can.

Wilt Thou make voyd my Iudgements (iust and hie);
Condemning Me, thy Selfe to iustifie?
Hast thou an Arme like to the Arme divine?
Or is Thy Voyce as Thunder-like as Mine?

Put-on thy Robes of Maiestie and Might:
Deck Thee with Glory, and with Bewty bright;
Dart forth the Lightnings of thy wrathfull Frown,
Against the Proud, and bring them tumbling down:
Behold Thou all and every one that's Proud,
And down with Them, and all the Wicked Croud:

947

Trample vpon them, in their very Place:
Hide them in Dust at once; there binde their Face:
Then will I grant (what Thou hast vrg'd so braue)
That thine owne Selfe thine owne right hand can saue.

But, Now, behold (thy Fellow) Behemoth,
Thy fellow Creature; for, I made you Both.
He, like an Ox amid the Field doth graze:
In's Loynes and Navell his most Strength he has:
He whisks his sinnewie Taile, stiff as a Ceder;
His Stones (within) with Nerues are wreathd together.
His Bones and Ribs be strong as Brazen Bars,
And as vnyeelding as the Iron-Spars:
Hee's of the Master-peeces of the Lord,
Who also arm'd him with a ready Sword.
The Mountains yeeld him meat; where night and day,
All other Beasts doo fear-less feed and play.
Beneath the broad-leav'd shady Trees he lodges
Amid the Fens, among the Reeds and Sedges,
Compast with Willowes of the Brook about:
Where, when he enters (in the time of Drought)
The massie bulk of his huge bodie bayes
The Torrents course, and even the Current stayes:
There, yer he go, the River dry he drinks;
And in his Thirst to swallow Iordan thinks.
Dare any come, before him, Him to take,
Or bore his Snout, of Him a Slaue to make?

Canst Thou hale vp the huge Leviathan,

Cap. 41.

With hook and line amid the Ocean?
Canst Thou his tongue with steely Crotchets thrill;
Or with a Thorn his snuffing Nose, or Guill?
Will He come sue, by Supplications, to-thee?
Will He with smooth and soothing Speeches woo-thee?
Will He by Covenant, serue thee, at thy beck;
Or, be thy slaue, for ever at thy Check?
Wilt Thou with Him, as with a Sparrow, play;
And giue him, ty'd, vnto thy Girles, away?
Shall Fisher-men of Him a Feast prepare?
Shall They his flesh among the Marchants share?
Canst Thou his skin with barbed pheons pearce?
Or plant his Head with groues of Otter-spears?

Lay hold on Him: set on him: but, before
Think on the Battell, and come there no more.
For, 'tis so farre from hope of Victory,
That even His sight would rather make thee fly.
There's none so fierce that dares Him rouze or hunt.

[Then, Who shall safely Me my Selfe affront?
Who hath prevented Me? To Whom haue I
Been first beholding for a Curtesie,

948

Or bound at all for any Benefit
Bestow'd on Me, that I should guerdon it?
Why? is not All Earths ample arms confine,
All vnder Heav'n, All in the Ocean, Mine?

I will not hide his Parts and Properties;
Neither his Strength, nor seemly Symmetries.
Who shall vnhood him? Who with double Rain
Shall bridle him, with Snaffle, Trench, or Chain?
Or put the Bit between his Iawes (his Portall)
Impal'd with Terror of his Teeth so mortall?
His Shield-like Scales, he chiefly glories in,
So close compact, glew'd, sealed; that, between,
No Aire can enter, nor no Engin pearce,
Nor any Point dis-ioyne them or disperse.

His Sneesings cause a Light, as brightly burning;
His Eyes are like the Eye-lids of the Morning;
Out of his Mouth flowe blazing Lamps, and flie
Quick Sparks of Fire, ascending swift and hie:
Out of his Nostrils, Smoak, as from a Pot,
Kettle or Caldron when it boyleth hot:
His Breath doth kindle Coals, when with the same
He whirleth-out a Storm of Fume and Flame:
Strength dwelleth in his Neck; so that he ioyes
In saddest Storms, and triumphs of Annoyes:
His Flakes of Flesh are solid to his Bone;
His Heart's as hard as Wind-mils neather-stone.

To see Him rise, and how he breaks withall;
The stoutest stoop, and to their Prayers fall.
No Weapons of Defence, or of Offence,
Can Him offend, or from Him be Defence:
Iron and Brasse He waighes as Sticks and Straw:
Sling-stones and Arrowes Him do never aw:
Darts daunt Him not, more then they Stubble were:
He laugheth at the shaking of a Speare:
Sharp ragged Stones, Keen-poynted Sherds and Shels,
He resteth on, amid his muddy Cels.
He makes the deep Sea like a Pot to boyl,
A Pot of Oyntment (casting scummy Soyl):
Where He hath past, he leaues vpon the streams
A shining Path, and th'Ocean hoary seems.

In Earth is Nothing like Him to be seen;
So Fear-less made, so full of hawty Spleen;
Despising all high things, Him-selfe beside.
He is the King of all the Sons of Pride.

Cap. 42.

Iob, prostrate then, Thus to the Lord profest:
Drad God, I know, and I acknowledge prest,
That All Thou canst; and all Thou kennest too:
Our Thoughts not hid; Thine owne not hard to doo.

949

I am the Man, Who (to my self too-Holy)
Darkned thy Counsells, with Contentious Folly.
For, I haue spoken what I vnderstood not,
Of wondrous things which comprehend I could not.

Yet, Lord, vouchsafe, vouchsafe, I thee beseech,
An Eare, and Answer to my humble Speech.
Till now, mine Eare had only heard of Thee:
But, now, mine Eye thy Gratious Selfe doth see.
Therefore, My Selfe I loath, as too-too-bad;
And heer repent in Dust and Ashes, sad.

Now, after This with Iob; it came to passe,
The Lord did also speake to Eliphaz
The Thæmanite; and Thus to him said He:
My wrath is kindled with thy Friends and Thee:
For None of You haue spoken of My Path,
So tight and iust as Iob my Seruant hath.

Therefore go take you Rams and Bullocks faire,
Seav'n of a sort; and to my Iob repaire;
Bring for your Selues your Burnt Oblations due,
And Iob my Seruant He shall pray for you,
(For, Him will I accept) lest, Iustly-strict,
After your Folly I reuenge inflict;
Because You haue not spoken of my Path,
So right and iust as Iob my Seruant hath.

So Eliphaz, the ancient Thæmanite,
Bildad the Shuhite, the Naamathite
Zophar (together) them prepar'd and went
And did according God's Commandement.

Also the Lord accepted Iob, and staid
His Thral-full State (when for his Friends he praid)
And turned it to Solace-full, from sad;
And gaue him double all the Goods he had.

Then all his Brethren, Sisters all, and Kin;
And all that had of his acquaintance bin,
Came flocking to his House, with him to feast;
To wail his Woes, and comfort him their best,
For all the Euill which the Lord (of late)
Had brought vpon his Person and his state.
And Each man gaue him (as best beare they could)
A peece of Money and Ear-ring of Gold.

So, that the Lord blessed Iob's later Time,
With more abundance then his flowry Prime.
For, Fourteen Thousand Sheep were now his flock;
Camels six Thousand; Steers a Thousand yoak;
Shee-Asses twice fiue Hundred; Familie
Iust as before: Seuen Sons, and Daughters Three.

Th'Eldest Iemima, Kezia the Next:
And Keren-Happuch (saith my sacred Text)

950

The Third he named (Names of goodly Sense,
Alluding to some Gracefull Excellence:
The first, as much as Lustre of the Morn;
Cassia, the Next; last, Albastrine Horn)

In all the Countrey were no Women found
So faire as These. Iob, of his Goods and Ground,
Among their Brethren gaue them Heritage.

Yet, after This, Iob liv'd a goodly age,
Twice Seauenty yeers, and saw his Sons Sons Sons,
Successiuely, Four Generations:
And then He dy'd, Ancient and Full of Dayes.

To GOD, for Him, and all his Saints, be Praise,
And for his Succour in These sacred Layes. AMEN.

VVho, SELF, The World, & Satan, triumphto're;
Who, Wealth's & Health's & Children's rufull, Losse;
Who, Frends Rebuke, Foes rage, Wifes cursing Crosse;
Hevns Frowne, Earth's force, Hels Furie, Calmely bore:
Th'Inuincible in Vertue, IOB, Her Pheere,
The Virgin Patience (Widow now) toomb'd Heer.