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:

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.

To the Right Honorable William Cecill, Earle of Salisbury.

THE TROPHEIS OF THE VERTVES AND Fortune of Henrie the Great.

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

156

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

The I. Adam,

The II. Noah,

The III. Abraham,

The IV. David.

The V. Zedechias,

The VI. Messias,

The VII. Th'Eternall Sabbath.

But, of the three last, Death (preuenting Our Noble Poet) hath depriued vs.

157

TO THE MOST ROYAL PATTERN AND PATRON OF LEARNING AND RELIGION, THE HIGH AND MIGHTY PRINCE, IAMES (By The Grace Of God) KING OF GREAT BRITAINE, FRANCE, & IRELAND: TRVE DEFENDER OF THE TRVE, ANCIENT CHRISTIAN, CATHOLIKE, AND APOSTOLIKE FAITH, &c.

158

1. Sonnet.

From Zeal-Land, sayling with the Winde of Loue,
In the Bark Labovr, steer'd by Theorems,
Laden with Hope, and with Desire t'approue,
Bound for Cape-Comfort in the Ile of Iemmes;
In such a Mist wee fell vpon the Coast,
That suddenly vpon the Rock Neglect
(Vnhappily) our Ship and Goods we lost,
Even in a Place that we did lease suspect.
So, Cast-away (my Liege) and quight vn-don,
We Orphan-remnants of a woefull Wrack,
Heer cast a-shore, to Thee for succour run:
O Pittie vs, for our deer Parent's sake;
Who Honour'd Thee, both in his Life and Death,
And to thy guard his Posthvmes did bequeath.

2. Sonnet.

These glorious Works, and gratefull Monuments
Built by Du BARTAS, on the Pyrenæis
(Your Royall Vertues to immortalize,
And magnifie your rich Munificence)
Haue prov'd so Charge-full to Trans-port from thence,
That our small Art's-stock hardly could suffize
To vnder-go so great an Enterprize;
But, is even beggerd with th'vn-cast Expense.
So that, except our Muses SOVERAIN
With gracious Eye regarde her spent Estate;
And, with a hand of Princely Fauour, daign
To stay her fall (before it be too-late)
She needs must fail: as (lending Light about)
Self-spending Lamps, for lack of Oyl, go-out.

Voy (Sire) Saluste.

159

TO THE RIGHT EXCELLENT, and most hopefull young Prince, Henry, PRINCE of WALES.

The TROPHEIS, and MAGNIFICENCE.

Anagr. Henricus Stuartus. Hic strenuus ratus.

The gracious Welcome You vouchsaf't yer-while
To my graue Pibrac (though but meanly clad)
Makes Bartas (now, no Stranger in this Isle)
More bold to come (though suited euen as bad)
To kiss Your Highnes Hand; and, with Your Smile,
To Crown His Haps, and our faint Hopes to glad
(Whose weary longings languish in our Stile:
For in our Wants, our very Songs be sad)
He brings, for Present to so great a Prince,
A Princely Glasse, made first for Salomon:
The fitter therefore for your Excellence
As oft to look-in, as you look vpon.
Some Glasses flatter: other-some deforme:
This, ay, presents You a true Prince's Form.

Voy Sire Saluste.

160

TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE, the Lord High Chancelor of England.

THE LAWE.

Anagr. Thomas Egerton. 1. Gestat Honorem. 2. Age mett Honors. 3. Honors mett Age.

Most humbly
Shewes to thy Great Worthiness,
(Graue Moderator of our Britain Lavves)
The Muses Abiect (subiect of Distress)
How long Wrong-vext, in a not-Need-less Cause,
Not at the Kings-Bench, but the Penny-less)
By one, I Want (the son of Simpleness);
Vnable, more to greaze the scraping paws
Of his Attorney Shift, or oyl the iaw
Of his (dear) Counsell, Serieant Pensiueness;
He is compell'd, in forma pauperis,
To Plead, himselfe (and shewe his (lttle) Lavv)
In the free Court of thy milde Courtesies.
Please it thee therefore an Iniunction grant,
To stay the Suit between himselfe and Want.

For Thee and Thine, for ay, So He and His shall pray.

I. S.

161

TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE, the Earle of Salisbury, Lord high Threasurer of England.

THE CAPTAINES.

Anagr. Robertus Cecilius. Cui ortus celebris: Robertus Comes Sari. (vel) Robertus Cecillius. Cerebro sic Tulius. Carus est Orbi sermo.

Arms yeeld to Arts: the Trumpet to the Tongue:
Stout Aiax Prize the wise Vlysses wan:
It will not seem then that we haue mis-sung,
To sing of CAPTAINES to a Counsail-man:
Sith without Counsaile, Courage is but rage;
Rude in Resoluing, rash in Acting it:
In which respect those of the Antique Age
Fain PALLAS Goddess both of War and Wit:
Therefore, to Thee, whose Wit so much hath sted
(In War and Peace) our Princes and our STATE:
To Thee, whose Vertue hath now Triumphed
Of Cause-less Enuy, and misgrounded Hate:
To Thee (Witt's-WORTHIE) had it not been wrong.
Not to haue sounded my War-WORTHIE's Song?

I. S.

TO THE RIGHT HONOBLE, the Earle of Dorset (late) Lord high Threasurer of England.

THE SCHISME.

Anagr. Sacvilus. Vas lucis. Comes Dorsetius. Esto decor Musis. Sacris Musis celo deuotus.

Not with-out Error, and apparent Wrong
To Thee, the Muses, and my Self (the most)
Could I omit, amid this Noble Hoast
Of learned Friends to Learning, and our Song,
To muster Thee; Thee, that hast lov'd so long
The sacred Sisters, and (sad sweetly-most)
Thy Selfe hast sung (vnder a fayned Ghost)
The tragick Falls of our Ambitious Throng.
Therefore, in honour of Thy younger Art,
And of the Muses, honour'd by the same,
And to express my Thankfull thoughts (in part)
This Tract I sacre vnto Sackvil's Name,
No less renown'd for Numbers of Thine Owne,
Than for thy loue to Other's Labours show'n.

I. S.

162

TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE, the Earle of Pembroke.

THE DECAY.

Anagr. William Harbert. With liberall arm.

Far be The Title of this tragick page
From Thee (rare Module of Heroïk mindes)
Whose noble Bountie all the Muses bindes
To honour Thee; but mine doth most engage:
And yet, to Thee, and to Thy Patronage
(For present lack of other gratefull signes)
Needs must I Offer these Decayed lines
(Lyned with Horrors of Isaacian rage)
Where-in, to keep decorum with my Theam,
And with my Fortunes (ruin'd euery-way)
My Care-clogd Muse (still carried down the stream)
In singing Other's, sighes her Own Decay
In stile, in state, in hap, in hope, in all:
For, Vines, vnpropped, on the ground do craul.

I. S.

TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE the Earle of Essex, Earle Marshall of England, &c.

EDEN.

Great Strong-bowe's heir, no self-conceipt doth cause
Mine humble wings aspire to you, vnknowne:
But, knowing this, that your renown alone
(As th'Adamant, and as the Amber drawes:
That, hardest steel; this, easie-yeelding strawes)
Atterrs the stubborn, and attracts the prone:
I haue presum'd (O Honors Paragon!)
To graue your Name (which all Iberia awes)
Heer, on the fore-front of this little Pile;
T'inuite the vertuous to a sacred feast,
And chase-away the vitious and the vile;
Or stop their lothsom enuious tongues, at least.
If I haue err'd, let my submission scuse:
And daign to grace my yet vngraced Muse.

I. S.

163

TO THE SAME RIGHT Honourable Earle of ESSEX, &c.

THE ARK.

From th'Ark of Hope, still tossed in distresse
On th'angry Deluge of disastrous plight,
My silly Doue heer takes her second flight,
To view (great Lord) thy World of worthiness:
Vouchsafe (rare Plant of perfect Nobleness)
Som branch of safety, whereon she may light;
Som Oliue leaf, that may presage me right
A safe escape from this wet wilderness.
So when the Flood of my deep cares shall fall,
And, I be landed on sweet Comfort's Hill;
First, my pure thoughts to Heav'n present I shall:
Then on thy fauours meditating still,
My Zealous Muse shall daily striue to frame
Som fairer Tropheis to thy glorious Name.

I. S.

TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE Charles Lord Mount-ioy, Earle of Deuonshire.

THE IMPOSTVRE.

Though in thy Brook (great Charles) there swim a Swan,
Whose happy, sweet, immortall tunes can raise
The vertuous Greatness of thy Noble praise
To higher notes, than my faint Numbers can;
Yet, while thy Lucan doth in silence scan
Vnto himselfe new meditated laies,
To finish vp his sad Pharsalian fraies;
Lend ear to Bartas (now our Country-man).
For, though his English be not yet so good
(As French-men hardly do our tongue attain)
He hopeth yet to be well vnderstood;
The rather, if you (worthy Lord) shall daign
His bashfulness a little to aduance,
With the milde fauours of your countenance.

I. S.

164

TO THE SAME RIGHT Honourable Earle of Deuonshire, &c.

THE HANDY-CRAFTS.

The Mome-free Passage, that my Muse hath found
Vnder Safe-Conduct of thy Patronage,
Through carping Censures of this curious Age
(Where high conceited happy wits abound)
Makes her presume (O Mount-ioy, most Renownd!)
To bear again, in her re-Pilgrimage,
The noble Pasport of thy Tutelage,
To salue her still from sullen Enuies wound.
Let thy (true Eagle) Sun-beholding Eyes
Glance on our Glowe-worme's scarce discerned spark:
And while Witt's towring Falcons touch the skies,
Obserue a while our tender-imped Lark.
Such sparks may flame, and such light Larks may flie
A higher pitch, than dross-full Vanity.

I. S.

TO THE SAME RIGHT Honourable the Earle of Deuonshire, &c.

THE COLONIES.

Renowned Scipio, though thine Ennius
Still merit best the best of thy regard:
Though (worthily) his Trumpet be pre-ferr'd
To sound the Triumphs thou hast won for vs;
Yet sith one Pen, how-euer plentious
(Were it the Mantuan or Meonian Bard)
Suffizeth not to Giue Fame's full Reward
To thy great Deeds, admir'd and glorious:
Though Hee, thy Homer be; Thou, his Achilles;
Both by Each other Happy: Thou (heer-in)
T'haue such a Trump as his immortall Quill-is;
Hee such a Theam as thy High Vertues bin:
It shall (Great Worthy) no Dis-Honour be,
That (English) Bartas hath Sung (thrice) to Thee.

I. S.

165

TO THE HONORABLE, learned, and religious Gentleman, Sir Peter Yovng of Seton, Knight, Almoner of Scotland, and one of his Maiesties Priuy Councell there.

THE COLVMNS.

Yovng, Ancient Seruant of our Soueraign Lord,
Graue Master of thy Master's minor-yeares;
Whose Prudence and whose Piety appeares
In his Perfection, which doth thine record:
Whose loyall Truth, His royall Trusts approue
By oft Embassage to the greatest Peers:
Whose Duty and Deuotion he endeers
With present fauours of his Princely Loue:
In Honour of these Honours many-fold,
And for memoriall of Thy kinde regard
Of these poor Orphanes (pyn'd in Hope-less cold)
Accept these Thanks for thy firm Loues reward;
Where-in (so Heav'ns prosper what we haue sung)
Through euery Age thou shalt liue euer Yovng.

I. S.

TO THE RIGHT VERTVOVS (fauourer of Vertue, furtherer of Learning) Sir Thomas Smith (of London) Knight, (late) Lord Embassadour for his Maiesty, to the Emperour of Rvssia.

IONAS.

To thee, long tost in a fell Storm of State;
Cast out, and swallowed in a Gulfe of Death,
On false-suspect of thine vnspotted Faith,
And flying from thy (Heav'n-giuen) Charge of late:
For much resemblance of thy troublous Fate
(Much like in Case to that he suffereth,
Though (in effect) thy Cause far differeth)
I send my Ionas; to congratulate
Thy (happy) Rescue, and thy holy Triall:
Where-by (as Fire doth purifie the Gold)
Thy Loyaltie is more notorious Loyall,
And worthy th'Honours which thou now doo'st hold.
Thus, Vertue's Palms, oppressed, mount the more:
And Spices, bruz'd, smell sweeter than before.

I. S.

166

TO THE MOST HONORABLE, learned, and religious Gent. Mr. Anthony Bacone.

THE FVRIES.

Bound by thy Bounty, and mine own Desire,
To tender still new Tribute of my Zeal
To Thee, whose fauour did the first repeal
My proto-Bartas from Self-doomed Fire:
Hauing new tuned to du Bartas Lyre,
These tragick murmurs of his Fvries fell,
Which (with the Horrors of an Earthly Hell)
The Sin-curst life of wretched Mortals tire:
To whom, but Thee, should I present the same?
Sith, by the Breath of Thine incouragement,
My sacred-fury thou didst first inflame
To prosecute This sacred Argument.
Such as it is, accept it, as a signe
Of Thankfull Loue, from Him, whose all is Thine.

I. S.

TO THE SAME MOST Honourable Gentleman, Master Anthony Bacone.

BABYLON.

Thy friendly censure of my first Essaie
(Du Bartas Fvries, and his Babylon)
My faint Endeuours hath so cheared on,
That both His Weeks are also Ours, to-day.
Thy gracious hand, repriuing from decay
My fame-less Name doom'd to obliuion,
Hath so stirr'd-vp my Soule's deuotion,
That in my Songs thy Name shall liue for ay.
Thy milde acceptance of my simple myte
(Pattern and Patron of all vertuous drifts)
Doth heer againe my gratefull Muse inuite
To re-salute thee with mine humble gifts;
Indeed, no Gifts, but Debts to Thy desart:
To whom I owe my hand, my head, my heart.

I. S.

167

ADAM.

THE FIRST DAY OF THE SECOND WEEK;

Containing

I. Eden,
II. The Impostvre,
III. The Fvries,
IV. The Handy-Crafts.

169

1. Eden.

THE FIRST PART OF THE FIRST DAY OF THE II. WEEK.

The Argvment.

Our Poet, first, doth Gods assistance seek:
The Scope and Subiect of his Second Week.
Adam in Eden: Edens beauties rare;
A reall Place, not now discerned where:
The Tree of Life; and Knowledge-Tree withall:
Knowledge of Man, before and since his Fall:
His exercise, and excellent Delights,
In's Innocence: of Dreams and Ghostly Sights:
Nice Questions curb'd: Death, Sins effect; whereby
Man (else Immortall) mortall now, must Dy.

Great God, which hast this World's Birth made me see,

Inuocation of the true God, for assistance in Description of the Infancy & first estate of the World.

Vnfold his Cradle, shew his Infancy:
Walke thou, my Spirit, through all the flowring alleys
Of that sweet Garden, where through winding valleys
Foure liuely floods crauld: tell me what mis-deed
Banisht both Edens, Adam and his seed:
Tell who (immortall) mortalizing, brought-vs
The Balm from heav'n which hoped health hath wrought-vs:
Grant me the story of thy Church to sing,
And gests of Kings: Let me this Totall bring
From thy first Sabbath to his fatall toomb,
My stile extending to the Day of Doome.

Lord, I acknowledge and confess, before,
This Ocean hath no bottom, nor no shore;
But (sacred Pilot) thou canst safely steer
My vent'rous Pinnasse to her wished Peer;

170

Where once arriv'd, all dropping wet I will
Extoll thy fauours, and my vows fulfill.

The Translator, cōsidering his own weakness and insufficiency for a Work so rare & excellent, as all the World hath worthily admired: craueth also the assistance of the Highest, that (at least) his endeuour may both stir-vp som abler Spirit to vndertake this Task; & also prouoke all other good Wits to take in hand som holy Argument: and with-all, that Himselfe may be for euer sincerely affected, and (as it were) throughly seasoned with the sweet relish of these sacred & religious discourses.

And gratious Guide, which doost all grace infuse,
Since it hath pleas'd thee task my tardy Muse
With these high Theames that through mine Art-less Pen
This holy Lamp may light my Country-men:
Ah, teach my hand, touch mine vnlearned lips;
Lest, as the Earths grosse body doth Eclipse
Bright Cynthia's beames, when it is interpos'd
'Twixt her and Phœbus: so mine ill-dispos'd,
Dark gloomy Ignorance obscure the rayes
Of this diuine Sun of these learned dayes.
O! furnish me with an vn-vulgar stile,
That I by this may wain our wanton Ile
From Ouids heirs, and their vn-hallowed spell
Heer charming senses, chaining soules in Hell.
Let this prouoke our modern Wits to sacre
Their wondrous gifts to honour thee, their Maker:
That our mysterious ELFINE Oracle,
Deep, morall, graue, Inventions miracle;
My deer sweet Daniel, sharp conceipted, brief,
Ciuill, sententious, for pure accents chief:
And our new Naso that so passionates
Th'heroike sighes of loue-sick Potentates:
May change their subiect, and aduance their wings
Vp to these higher and more holy things.
And if (sufficient rich in self-inuention)
They scorn (as I) to liue of Strangers Pension,
Let them deuise new Weeks, new works, new wayes
To celebrate the supreme Prince of praise.

Simile.

And let not me (good Lord) be like the Lead
Which to som Citie from som Conduit-head
Brings holsom water; yet (self-wanting sense)
It selfe receiues no drop of comfort thence:
But rather, as the thorough-seasoned But

Simile.

Wherein the tears of death-prest Grapes are put,
Retains (long after all the wine is spent)
Within it selfe the liquors liuely sent:
Let me still sauour of these sacred sweets
Till Death fold-vp mine earth in earthen sheets;
Lest, my young layes, now prone to preach thy glory
To Brvtvs heyrs, blush at mine elder Story.

Narration. God, hauing treated & established Man Lord of the creatures, lodgeth him in the fair Garden of Eden.

God (supreme Lord) committed not alone
T'our Father Adam, this inferiour Throne;
Ranging beneath his rule the scaly Nation
That in the Ocean haue their habitation:
Those that in horror of the Desarts lurk:
And those that capering in the Welkin work;

171

But also chose him for a happy Seat
A climate temperate both for cold and heat,
Which dainty Flora paveth sumptuously
With flowry Ver's inameld tapistry;
Pomona pranks with fruits, whose taste excels;
And Zephyr fils with Musk and Amber smels:
Where God himself (as Gardner) treads the allies,
With Trees and Corn covers the hils and vallies,
Summons sweet sleep with noyse of hundred Brooks,
And Sun-proof Arbours makes in sundry nooks:
He plants, he proins, he pares, he trimmeth round
Th'ever green beauties of a fruitfull ground;
Heer-there the course of th'holy Lakes he leads,
With thousand Dies hee motleys all the meades.

Ye Pagan Poets that audaciously

The Elysian Fields of the Heathen Poets are but Dreams.

Haue sought to dark the ever Memory
Of Gods greeat works; from henceforth still be dum
Your fabled prayses of Elysium,
Which by this goodly module you haue wrought,
Through deaf tradition, that your Fathers taught:
For, the Almighty made his blisfull Bowrs
Better indeed, then you haue fained yours.

For, should I say that still, with smiling face,

A large Description of the rich beauties of the Garden of Eden or earthly Paradise.

Th'all-clasping Heav'ns beheld this happy place;
That honey sweet, from hollow rocks did drain;
That fostring milk flow'd vp and down the Plain;
That sweet as Roses smelt th'ill-savory Rew:
That in all soyls, all seasons, all things grew:
That still there dangled on the self-same treen
A thousand fruits, nor over-ripe, nor green:
That egrest fruits, and bitterest hearbs did mock
Madera Sugars, and the Apricock;
Yeelding more holesom food then all the messes,
That now taste-curious, wanton Plenty dresses,
Disguising (in a thousand costly dishes)
The various store of dainty Fowls and Fishes,
Which far and neer wee seek by Land and Seas,
More to provoke then hunger to appease;

Or should I say, each morning, on the ground

Excellent estate of the Earth, & especially of Eden before Adams fall.

Not common deaw, but Manna did abound:
That never gutter-gorging durty muds
Defil'd the crystall of smooth-sliding floods,
Whose waters past, in pleasant taste, the drink
That now in Candia decks Cerathus brink:
That shady Groves of noble Palm-tree sprays,
Of amorous Myrtles, and immortall Bays
Never vn-leav'd; but evermore, their new
Self-arching arms in thousand Arbours grew:

172

Where thousand sorts of birds, both night and day,
Did bill and woo, and hop about, and play;
And, marrying their sweet tunes to th'Angels layes,
Sung Adams bliss and their great Makers prayse.
For then, the Crowes, night-Rav'ns, and Howlets noise
Was like the Nightingals sweet-tuned voyce;
And Nightingals sung like divine Arion,
Like Thracian Orpheus, Linus, and Amphion.

Th'Aire's daughter Eccho, haunting woods among;
A blab that will not (cannot) keep her tongue,
Who never asks, but onely answers all,
Who lets not any her in vain to call;
She bore her part; and full of curious skill,
They ceasing sung, they singing ceased still:
There Musick raign'd, and ever on the Plain,
A sweet sound rais'd the dead-liue voyce again.

All discommodities far from Eden before Sin.

If there I say the Sun (the Seasons stinter)
Made no hot Sommer, nor no hoary Winter,
But louely Ver kept still in liuely lustre
The fragrant Valleys smiling Meads, and Pasture:
That boistrous Adams body did not shrink
For Northren windes, nor for the Southren wink:
But Zephyr did sweet musky sighes afford,
Which breathing through the Garden of the Lord,
Gaue bodies vigour, verdure to the field,
That verdure flowrs, those flowrs sweet savor yeeld:
That Day did gladly lend his sister, Night,
For half her moisture, half his shining Light:
That never hail did Harvest preiudice,
That never frost, nor snowe, nor slippery ice
The fields en-ag'd: nor any stormy stowr
Dismounted Mountains, nor no violent showr
Poverisht the Land, which frankly did produce
All fruitfull vapours for delight and vse:
I think I ly not, rather I confess

Edens principal and most excellent beauty.

My stammering Muses poore vnlearnedness.
If in two words thou wilt her praise comprise,
Say 't was the the type of th'vpper Paradise;
Where Adam had (O wondrous strange!) discourse
With God himself, with Angels intercourse.

Of the place where the Garden of Eden was situate.

Yet (over-curious) question not the site,
Where God did plant this Garden of delight:
Whether beneath the Equinoctiall line,
Or on a Mountain neer Latona's shine,
Nigh Babylon, or in the radiant East.
Humble content thee that thou know'st (at least)
That, that rare, plentious, pleasant, happy thing
Whereof th'Almighty made our Grand-sire King,

173

Was a choyce soil, through which did rowling slide
Swift Ghion, Pishon, and rich Tigris tyde,
And that fair stream whose silver waues do kiss
The Monarch Towrs of proud Semiramis.

Now, if that (roaming round about the earth)

It was a certain materiall Place, howsoeuer now a-dayes, we can exactly obserue neither the Circuit, nor extent of it.

Thou finde no place that answers now in worth
This beautious place, nor Country that can showe
Where now-adayes, those noted flouds do flowe:
Include not all within this Close confin'd,
That labouring Neptunes liquid Belt doth binde.
A certaine place it was (now sought in vain)
Where set by grace, for sin remov'd again,
Our Elders were: whereof the thunder-darter
Made a bright Sword the gate, an Angel Porter.

Nor think that Moses paints, fantastik-wise,

It was no allegoricall nor mysticall Garden.

A mystike tale of fained Paradise:
('Twas a true Garden, happy Plenties horn,
And seat of graces) least thou make (forlorn)
An Ideall Adams food fantasticall,
His sinne suppos'd, his pain Poeticall:
Such Allegories serue for shelter fit
To curious Idiots of erronious wit;
And chiefly then, when reading Histories,
Seeking the spirit, they do the body leese.

But if thou list to ghesse by likelyhood,

It was defaced by the generall Flood.

Think that the wreakfull nature-drowning flood
Spar'd not this beautious place, which formost saw
The first foul breach of Gods eternall law:
Think that the most part of the plants it pull'd,
And of the sweetest flowrs the spirits dull'd,
Spoild the fair Gardens, made the fat fields lean,
And chang'd (perchance) the rivers chanell clean:

Why the Situation of the Garden of Eden is now hard to finde.

And thinke, that Time (whose slippery wheel doth play
In humane causes with inconstant sway,
Who exiles, alters, and disguises words)
Hath now transform'd the names of all these Fordes,
For, as through sin we lost that place, I feare
(Forgetfull) we haue lost the knowledge where
'T was situate, and of the sugred dainties
Wherewith God fed vs in those sacred plenties.

Now of the Trees wherewith th'immortall Powr

Of the two Trees seruing as Sacraments to Adam.

Adorn'd the quarters of that blisfull Bowr,
All serv'd the mouth, saue two sustaind the minde:
All serv'd for food, saue two for seals assign'd.

God gaue the first, for honourable stile,

Wherof the Tree of Life was a Sacrament.

The tree of Life: true name; (alas the while!)
Not for th'effect it had, but should haue kept,
If Man from duty never had mis-stept.

174

For, as the ayr of those fresh dales and hils
Preserued him from Epidemick ills,
This fruit had ever-calm'd all insurrections,
All civill quarrels of the crosse complexions;
Had barr'd the passage of twice-childish age,
And ever-more excluded all the rage
Of painfull griefes, whose swift-slowe posting-pase
At first or last our dying life doth chase.

The excellency of that Tree.

Strong counter-bane! O sacred Plant divine!
What metall, stone, stalk fruit, flowr, root, or ryne,
Shall I presume in these rude rymes to sute
Vnto thy wondrous World-adorning Fruit?
The rarest Simples that our fields present-vs
Heale but one hurt, and healing too torment-vs:
And with the torment, lingring our reliefe,
Our bags of Gold void, yer our bulks of griefe.
But thy rare fruits hid powr admired most,
Salveth all sores, sans pain, delay, or cost:
Or rather, man from yawning Death to stay,
Thou didst not cure, but keep all ils away.

We cannot say what Tree it was.

O holy, peer-less, rich preservatiue!
Whether wert thou the strange restoratiue
That suddenly did age with youth repair,
And made old Æson younger then his heir?
Or holy Nectar, that in heav'nly bowrs,
Eternally self-pouring Hebé pours?
Or blest Ambrosia (Gods immortall fare)?
Or else the rich fruit of the Garden rare,
Where, for three Ladies (as assured guard)
A fire-arm'd Dragon day and night did ward?
Or pretious Moly, which Ioues Pursuiuan
Wing-footed Hermes brought to th'Ithacan?
Or else Nepenthe, enemy to sadness,
Repelling sorrows, and repealing gladness?
Or Mummie? or Elixir (that excels
Saue men and Angels every creature els)?
No, none of these: these are but forgeries,
But toyes, but tales, but dreams, deceipts, and lies.
But thou art true, although our shallow sense
May honour more, then sound thine Excellence.

Of the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Euill.

The Tree of Knowledge, th'other Tree behight:
Not that it selfly had such speciall might,
As mens duls wits could whet and sharpen so
That in a moment they might all things knowe.
'Twas a sure pledge, a sacred signe, and seal;
Which, being ta'n, should to light man reveal
What ods there is between still peace, and strife;
Gods wrath, and loue; drad death, and dearest life;

175

Solace, and sorrow; guile, and innocence;
Rebellious pride, and humble obedience.

For, God had not depriv'd that primer season

Of the excellence of mans knowledge before Sin.

The sacred lamp and light of learned Reason:
Mankinde was then a thousand fould more wise
Then now: blinde Error had not bleard his eyes,
With mists which make th'Athenian Sage suppose
That nought he knowes saue this, that nought he knowes.
That even light Pirrhons wavering fantasies
Reaue him the skill his vn-skill to agnize.
And th'Abderite, within a Well obscure,
As deep as dark, the Truth of things immure.

He (happy) knew the Good, by th'vse of it:

How he knew good and euill before Sin.

He knew the Bad, but not by proof as yet:
But as hey say of great Hippocrates,
Who (though his limbs were numm'd with no excess,
Nor stopt his throat, nor vext his fantasie)
Knew the cold Cramp, th'Angine and Lunacy,
And hundred els-pains, whence in lusty flowr
He liv'd exempt a hundred yeers and foure.
Or like the pure Heav'n-prompted Prophets rather,
Whose sight so cleerly future things did gather,
Because the World's Soule in their soule enseal'd
The holy stamp of secrets most conceal'd.

But our now-knowledge hath, for tedious train,

Of mans knowledge since his Fall.

A drooping lise, and over-racked brain,
A face forlorn, a sad and sullen fashion,
A rest-less toyl, and Cares self-pining passion.
Knowledge was then even the soules soule for light,
The spirits calm Port, and Lanthorn shining bright
To straight-stept feet: cleer knowledge; not confus'd:
Not sowr, but sweet: not gotten, but infus'd.

Now Heav'ns eternall all-fore-seeing King,
Who never rashly ordereth any thing,
Thought good, that man (hauing yet spirits sound-stated)

Why the Lord put man in the Garden of Eden.

Should dwell els-where, then where he was created;
That he might knowe, he did not hold this place
By Natures right, but by meer gift and Grace;
That he should never taste fruits vn-permitted,
But keep the sacred Pledge to him committed,
And dress that Park, which, God without all tearm,
On these conditions gaue him, as in farm.

God would, that (void of painfull labour) he

Of his exercise there.

Should liue in Eden; but not idlely:
For, Idleness pure Innocence subverts,
Defiles our body, and our soule perverts:
Yea, sobrest men it makes delicious,
To vertue dull, to vice ingenious.

176

But that first trauell had no sympathy
With our since-trauails wretched cruelty,
Distilling sweat, and panting, wanting winde,
Which was a scourge for Adams sin assign'd.

4. Comparisons.

For, Edens earth was then so fertile fat,
That he made onely sweet Essayes, in that,
Of skilfull industry, and naked wrought
More for delight, then for the gain he sought.
In briefe, it was a pleasant exercise,
A labour lik't, a paine much like the guise

Of cunning dauncers; who, although they skip,
Run, caper, vault, trauerse, and turn, and trip,
From Morn till Even, at night again full merry,
Renew their dance, of dancing never weary.

Or else of Hunters, that with happy luck
Rousing betimes som often breathed Buck,
Or goodly Stagge, their yelping Hounds vncouple,
Winde lowd their horns, their whoops and halloos double,
Spur-on and spare not, following their desire,
Themselues vn-weary, though their Hackneys tyre.

But, for th'end of all their iolity,
There's found much stifness, sweat and vanity.
I rather match it to the pleasing pain

Of Angels pure, who ever sloath disdain:

Or to the Suns calm course, who pain-less ay
About the welkin posteth night and day.

Adam admires the beauties of the World in generall.

Doubtless, when Adam saw our common aire,
He did admire the mansion rich and faire
Of his Successors. For, frosts keenly cold
The shady locks of Forrests had not powl'd:
Heav'n had not thundred on our heads as yet,
Nor given the Earth her sad Diuorces Writ.

But most especially of the Garden of Eden.

But when he once had entred Paradise,
The remnant world he iustly did despise:
[Much like a Boor far in the Countrey born,
Who, never having seen but Kine and Corn,
Oxen, and Sheep and homely Hamlets thatcht
(Which, fond, he counts as kingdomes; hardly matcht)

In this comparison my Author setteth down the famous Citie of Paris: but I haue presumed to apply it to our own City of London, that it might be more familiar to my meere English & vn-trauaild Readers.

When afterward he happens to behold
Our wealthy London's wonders manifold,
The silly peasant thinks himselfe to be
In a new World; and gazing greedily,
One while he Art-less, all the Arts admires,
Then the Fair Temples, and their top-less spires,
Their firm foundations, and the massie pride
Of all their sacred ornaments beside:
Anon he wonders at the differing graces,
Tongues, gests, attires, the fashions and the faces,

177

Of busie buzzing swarms, which still he meets
Ebbing and flowing ouer all the streets;
Then at the signes, the shops, the waights, the measures,
The handy-crafts, the rumours trades, and treasures.
But of all sights, none seems him yet more strange
Then the rare, beautious, stately, rich Exchange.
Another while he maruails at the Thames,
Which seems to bear huge mountains on her streams:
Then at the fur-built Bridge; which he doth iudge
More like a tradefull Citie then a Bridge;
And glancing thence a-long the Northren shore,
That princely prospect doth amaze him more.]

For in that Garden man delighted so,
That (rapt) he wist not if he wak't or no;
If he beheld a true thing or a fable;
Or Earth, or Heav'n: all more then admirable.
For such excess his extasie was small:
Not having spirit enough to muse withall,
He wisht him hundred-fold redoubled senses,
The more to taste so rare sweet excellences;
Not knowing, whether nose, or ears, or eyes,
Smelt, heard, or saw, more sauours, sounds, or Dies.

But, Adams best and supreame delectation,

Happiness of the first Man before his sail.

Was th'often haunt and holy conversation
His soule and body had so many wayes
With God, who lightned Eden with his Rays.
For spirits, by faith religiously refin'd,
'Twixt God and man retain a middle kinde:
And (Vmpires) mortall to th'immortall ioyne;
And th'infinite in narrow clay confine.

Som-times by you, O you all-faining Dreams,

Of the visions of the spirit.

We gain this good; but not when Bacchus streames
And glutton vapours over-flowe the Brain,
And drown our spirits, presenting fancies vain:
Nor when pale Phlegm, or Saffron coloured Choler,
In feeble stomacks belch their divers dolor,
And print vpon our Vnderstandings Tables;
That, Water-wracks; this other, flamefull fables:
Nor when the Spirit of lies, our spirits deceiues,
And guilefull visions in our fancy leaues:
Nor when the pencill of Cares ouer-deep
Our day-bred thoughts depainteth in our sleep.
But when no more the soules chiefe faculties,
Are sperst to serue the bodie many waies,
When all self-vned, free from days disturber,
Through such sweet Transe, she findes a quiet harbour;
Where som in riddles, som more plain exprest,
She sees things future, in th'almighties brest.

178

Of the certainty of the visions of the spirit, the body beeing at rest.

And yet far higher is this holy Fit,
When (not from flesh, but from flesh cares, acquit)
The wakefull soule it selfe assembling so,
All selfly dies; while that the body though
Liues motion-less: for, sanctified wholly,
It takes th'impression of Gods Signet solely;
And in his sacred Crystall Map, doth see
Heav'ns Oracles, and Angels glorious glee:
Made more then spirit, Now, Morrow, Yesterday,
To it, all one, are all as present ay.
And though it seem not (when the dream's expir'd)
Like that it was; yet is it much admir'd
Of rarest men, and shines among them bright
Like glistering Stars, through gloomy shades of night.

Of diuine & extraordinary visions and Reuelations.

But aboue all, that's the divinest Transe,
When the soules eye beholdes Gods countenance;
When mouth to mouth familiarly he deales,
And in our face his drad-sweet face he seales.
As when S. Paul on his deer Masters wings,
Was rapt aliue vp to th'eternall things:
And he that whilom for the chosen flock,
Made wals of waters, waters of a rock.

Of the excellency of such visiōs & Reuelations.

O sacred flight! sweet rape! loues soverain bliss!
Which very loues deer lips dost make vs kiss:
Hymen, of Manna, and of Mel compact,
Which for a time dost Heav'n with Earth contract:
Fire, that in Limbeck of pure thoughts divine
Doost purge our thoughts, and our dull earth refine:
And mounting vs to Heav'n, vn-moving hence,
Man (in a trice) in God doost quintessence:
O! mad'st thou man divine in habitude,
As for a space; O sweetest solitude,
Thy bliss were equall with that happy Rest
Which after death shall make vs ever-blest.

What manner of visions the first Man had in Eden.

Now, I beleeue that in this later guise
Man did converse in Pleasant Paradise
With Heav'ns great Architect, and (happy) there
His body saw, (or bodie as it were)
Gloriously compast with the blessed Legions
That raign aboue the azure-spangled Regions.

Man is put in possession of Eden, vnder a condition.

Adam, quoth He, the beauties manyfold
That in this Eden thou doest heer behold,
Are all thine, onely: enter (sacred Race)
Come, take possession of this wealthy place,
The Earth's sole glory: take (deer Son) to thee,
This Farm's demains, leaue the Chief right to me;
And th'only Rent that of it I reserue, is
One Trees fair fruit, to shew thy sute and service:

179

Be thou the Liege, and I Lord Paramount,
I'le not exact hard fines (as men shall woont).
For signe of Homage, and for seal of Faith,
Of all the profits this Possession hath,
I onely aske one Tree; whose fruit I will
For Sacrament shall stand of Good and Ill.
Take all the rest, I bid thee: but I vow
By th'vn-nam'd name, where-to all knees doo bow,
And by the keen Darts of my kindled ire
(More fiercely burning then consuming fire)
That of the Fruit of Knowledge if thou feed,
Death, dreadfull Death shall plague Thee and thy Seed.
If then, the happy state thou hold'st of me,
My holy mildness, nor high Maiesty,
If faith nor Honour curb thy bold ambition,
Yet weigh thy self, and thy owne Seeds condition.

Most mighty Lord (quoth Adam) heer I tender

Before Sin, Man was an humble and zealous seruant of God.

All thanks I can, not all I should thee render
For all thy liberall fauours, far surmounting
My hearts conceit, much more my tongues recounting.
At thy command, I would with boyst'rous shock
Go run my selfe against the hardest rock:
Or cast me headlong from som Mountain steep,
Down to the whirling bottom of the Deep:
Yea, at thy beck, I would not spare the life
Of my deer Phœnix, sister-daughter-wife:
Obeying thee, I finde the things impossible,
Cruell, and painfull; pleasant, kinde, and possible.

But since thy first Law doth more grace afford
Vnto the Subiect, then the soverain Lord:
Since (bountious Prince) on me and my Descent,
Thou doost impose no other tax, nor Rent,
But one sole Precept, of most iust condition
(No Precept neither, but a Prohibition);
And since (good God) of all the fruits in Eden
Ther's but one Apple that I am forbidden,
Even only that which bitter Death doth threat,
(Better, perhaps, to look on then to eat)
I honour in my soule, and humbly kiss
Thy iust Edict (as Author of my bliss):
Which, once transgrest, deserues the rigor rather
Of sharpest Iudge, then mildness of a Father.

The Firmament shall retrograde his course,
Swift Euphrates goe hide him in his source,
Firm Mountains skip like Lambs; beneath the Deep
Eagles shall diue; Whales in the ayr shall keep,
Yer I presume, with fingers ends to touch
(Much less with lips) the Fruit forbod so much.

180

Description of the beauties of the Garden of Eden.

Thus, yet in league with Heav'n and Earth, he liues;
Enioying all the Goods th'Almighty giues:
And, yet not treading Sins false mazy measures,
Sails on smooth surges of a Sea of pleasures.

Heer, vnderneath a fragrant Hedge reposes,
Full of all kindes of sweet all-coloured Roses,
Which (one would think) the Angels daily dress
In true-loue-knots, tri-angles, lozenges.

The Orchard.

Anon he walketh in a levell lane
On either side beset with shady Plane,
Whose arched boughs, for Frize and Cornich bear
Thick Groues, to shield from future change of air:
Then in a path impal'd, in pleasant wise,
With sharp-sweeet Orange, Limon, Citron trees;
Whose leauy twigs, that intricately tangle,
Seem painted wals whereon true fruits do dangle.

Now in a plentious Orchard planted rare
With vn-graft trees, in checker, round and square:
Whose goodly fruits so on his will doe wait,
That plucking one, another's ready straight:
And having tasted all (with due satiety)
Findes all one goodness, but in taste variety.

The Brooks.

Anon he stalketh with an easie stride,
By som cleer River's lilly-paved side,
Whose sand's pure gold, whose pebbles pretious Gemms,
And liquid silver all the curling streams:
Whose chiding murmur, mazing in and out,
With Crystall cisterns moats a mead about:

The Bridges.

And th'art-less Bridges, over-thwart this Torrent,
Are rocks self-arched by the eating current:
Or loving Palms, whose lusty Femals willing
Their marrow-boyling loues to be fulfilling,
(And reach their Husband-trees on th'other banks)
Bow their stiff backs, and serue for passing-planks.

The Alleis, Beds and Borders.

Then in a goodly Garden's alleys smooth
Where prodig Nature sets abroad her booth
Of richest beauties, where each bed and border
Is like pide posies divers dies and order.

The Caues.

Now, far from noise, he creepeth covertly
Into a Caue of kindly Porphyry,
Which, rock-fall'n spowts, congeald by colder air,
Seem with smooth anticks to haue seeled fair:
There laid at ease, a cubit from the ground,
Vpon a Iaspir fring'd with yvie round,
Purfled with veins, thick thrumm'd with mossie Bever,
Hee falls asleep fast by a silent River;

The pleasant murmur of the Waters.

Whose captiue streams, through crooked pipes still rushing,
Make sweeter Musick with their gentle gushing,

181

Then now at Tiuoli, th'Hydrantick Braul
Of rich Ferrara's stately Cardinall:
Or Ctesibes rare engins, framed there
Whereas they made of Ibts, Iupiter.

Musing, anon through crooked Walks he wanders,

The Maze.

Round-winding rings, and intricate Meanders,
Fals-guiding paths, doubtfull beguiling strays,
And right-wrong errors of an end-less Maze:
Not simply hedged with a single border
Of Rosemary, cut-out with curious order,
In Satyrs, Centaurs Whales, and half-men-Horses,
And thousand other counterfaited corses;

The wonderfull Plants.

But with true Beasts, fast in the ground still sticking,
Feeding on grass, and th'airy moisture licking:
Such as those Bonarets, in Scythia bred

The Bonarets.

Of slender seeds, and with green fodder fed;
Although their bodies, noses, mouthes and eys,
Of new-yeand Lambs haue full the form and guise;
And should be very Lambs, saue that (for foot)
Within the ground they fix a liuing root,
Which at their nauell growes, and dies that day
That they haue brouz'd the neighbour-grass away.

O wondrous vertue of God onely good!
The Beast hath root, the Plant hath flesh and blood:
The nimble Plant can turn it to and fro;
Then numméd Beast can neither stir nor go:
The Plant is leaf-less, branch-less, void of fruit;
The Beast is lust-less, sex-less, fire-less, mute:
The Plant with Plants his hungry panch doth feed;
Th'admired Beast is sowen a slender seed.

Then vp and down a Forrest thick he paseth;

The Trees of the Garden of Eden.

Which, selfly op'ning in his presence, baseth
Her trembling tresses never-vading spring,
For humble homage to her mighty King:
Where thousand Trees, waving with gentle puffs
Their plumy tops, sweep the celestiall roofs:
Yet envying all the massie Cerbas fame,

The Cerbas.

Sith fifty pases can but clasp the same.

There springs the Shrub three foot aboue the grass,

The Balm.

Which fears the keen edge of the Curtelace,
Whereof the rich Egyptian so endears
Root, bark and fruit, and much-much more the tears.

There liues the Sea-Oak in a little shel;

The Sea Oak.

There growes vntill'd the ruddy Cochenel:

The Cochenel.

And there the Chermez, which on each side Arms

The Chermez.

With pointed prickles all his precious arms;
Rich Trees, and fruitfull in those Worms of Price,
Which pressed, yeeld a crimsin-coloured juyce,

182

Whence thousand Lambs are died so deep in grain,
That their own Mothers knowe them not again.

The admirarable Melt.

There mounts the Melt, which serues in Mexico
For weapon, wood, needle, and threed (to sowe)
Brick, hony, sugar, sucket, balm and wine,
Parchment, perfume, apparell, cord and line:
His wood for fire, his harder leaues are fit
For thousand vses of inventiue wit.
Somtimes thereon they graue their holy things,
Laws, lauds of Idols, and the gests of Kings:
Somtimes, conioyned by a cunning hand,
Vpon their roofs for rowes of tile they stand:
Somtimes they twine them into equall threeds;
Small ends make needles; greater, arrow-heads:
His vpper sap the sting of Serpents cures:
His new-sprung bud a rare Conserue indures:
His burned stalks, with strong fumosities
Of pearcing vapours, purge the French disease:
And they extract, from liquor of his feet,
Sharp vinegar pure hony, sugar sweet.

The shame faced.

There quakes the Plant, which in Pudefetan
Is call'd the Sham-faç't: for, asham'd of man,
If towards it one doo approach too much,
It shrinks his boughs, to shun our hatefull touch;
As if it had a soule, a sense, a sight,
Subiect to shame, fear, sorrow and despight.

A Tree whose leaues trāsform to fowl and fish.

And there, that Tree from off whose trembling top
Both swimming shoals, and flying troops doo drop:
I mean the Tree now in Iuturna growing,
Whose leaues, disperst by Zephyr's wanton blowing,
Are metamorphos'd both in form and matter;
On land to Fowls, to Fishes in the water.

A modest correct on of our Poe vnwilling to wade, urthee in curtous search of hidden secrets.

But, seest thou not (dear Muse) thou treadst the same
Too-curious path thou dost in others blame?
And striv'st in vain to paint This Work of choice,
The which no humane spirit, nor hand, nor voice,
Can once conceiue, less pourtray, least express,
All over-whelm'd in gulfs so bottomless.
Who (matching Art with Nature) likeneth
Our grounds to Eden, fondly measureth
By painted Butter-flies th'imperiall Eagle;
And th'Elephant by every little Beagle.

Or to wander vnprofitably in nice Questions, concerning the Garden of Eden and man's abode there.

This fear to fail, shall serue me for a bridle,
Lest (lacking wings and guide) too busie-idle,
And over-bould, Gods Cabinet I clime,
To seek the place, and search the very time
When both our Parents, or but one was ta'en
Out of our Earth, into that fruitfull Plain:

183

How long they had that Garden in possession,
Before their proud and insolent Transgression:
What Children there they earned, and how many,
Of whether sex: or, whether none or any:
Or how (at least) they should haue propagated,
If the sly malice of the serpent hated,
Causing their fall, had not defil'd their kin,
And vnborn seed, with leprosie of Sin.

If void of Venus; sith vnlike it is,
Such blessed state the noble flowr should miss
Of Virgin-head; or, folk so perfect chaste
Should furious feel, when they their loues imbraç't,
Such tickling flames as our fond soule surprise
(That dead a-while in Epilepsie lies)
And slack our sinews all, by little and little
Drowning our reason in foul pleasure brittle.

Or whether else as men ingender now,
Sith spouse-bed spot-less laws of God allow,
If no excess command: sith else again
The Lord had made the double sex in vain.

Whether their Infants should haue had the powr
We now perceiue in fresh youths lusty flowr,
As nimble feet, limbs strong and vigorous,
Industrious hands, and hearts courageous;
Sith before Sin, Man ought not less appear
In Natures gifts, then his then-seruants were:
And lo the Partridge, which new-hatched bears
On her weak back her parent-house, and wears
(In stead of wings) a bever-supple Down,
Follows her dam through furrows vp and down.

Or else as now; sith in the womb of Eue
A man of thirty yeers could never liue:
Nor may we iudge 'gainst Natures course apparant,
Without the sacred Scriptures speciall warrant:
Which for our good (as Heav'ns dear babe) hath right
To countermaund our reason and our sight.

Whether their seed should with their birth haue brought
Deep Knowledge, Reason, Vnderstanding-thought;
Sith now we see the new-fall'n feeble Lamb
Yet stain'd with bloud of his distressed Dam,
Knowes well the Wolf, at whose fell sight he shakes,
And, right the teat of th'vnknowne Ewe he takes:
And sith a dull Dunce, which no knowledge can,
Is a dead image, and no living man.

Or the thick vail of ignorance's night
Had hooded-vp their issues inward sight;
Sith the much moisture of an Infant brain
Receives so many shapes, that over-lain

184

New dash the old; and the trim commixation
Of confus'd fancies, full of alteration,
Makes th'vnderstanding hull, which settle would,
And findes no firm ground for his Anchors hould.

Whether old Adam should haue left the place
Vnto his Sons; they, to their after-race:
Or whether all together at the last
Should gloriously from thence to Heav'n haue past;

The decision of such Questions is a busie idlenes.

Search whoso list: who list let vaunt in pride
T'haue hit the White, and let him (sage) decide
The many other doubts that vainly rise.
For mine own part I will not seem so wise:
I will not waste my trauell and my seed
To reap an empty straw, or fruit-less reed.

Sin makes us perceiue more than sufficiently what happinesse our Grand-sire lost, and what misery he got, by his shamefull Fall.

Alas! we knowe what Orion of grief
Rain'd on the curst head of the creatures Chief,
After that God against him war proclaim'd,
And Satan princedom of the earth had claim'd.
But none can knowe precisely, how at all
Our Elders liv'd before their odious Fall:
An vnknowne Cifer, and deep Pit it is,
Where Dircean Oedipus his marks would miss:
Sith Adam's self, if now he liv'd anew,
Could scant vnwinde the knotty snarled clew
Of double doubts and questions intricate
That Schools dispute about this pristin state.

But for sin, man had not beene subiect to death.

But this sole point I rest resolved in,
That, seeing Death's the meer effect of sin,
Man had not dreaded Death's all-slaying might,
Had he still stood in Innocence vpright.

Simile.

For, as two Bellows, blowing turn by turn,
By litte and little make cold coals to burn,
And then their fire inflames with glowing heat
An iron bar; which, on the Anvill beat,
Seems no more iron, but flies almost all
In hissing sparks, and quick bright cinders small:
So, the World's Soule should in our soule inspire
Th'eternall force of an eternall fire,
And then our soule (as form) breathe in our corse
Her count-less numbers, and Heav'n-tuned force,
Wherewith our bodies beauty beautifi'd,
Should (like our death-less soule) haue never di'd.

Obiections against the estate of man, who had not been subiect to death but for sin.

Heer (wot I well) som wranglers will presume
To say, Small fire will by degrees consume
Our humor radicall: and, how-be-it
The differing vertues of those fruits, as yet
Had no agreement with the harmfull spight
Of the fell Persian dangerous Aconite;

185

And notwithstanding that then Adam's taste
Could well haue vsed all, without all waste,
Yet could they not restore him every day
Vnto his body that which did decay;
Because the food cannot (as being strange)
So perfectly in humane substance change:
For, it resembleth Wine, wherein too rife

Simile.

Water is brew'd, whereby the pleasant life
Is over-cool'd; and so there rests, in fine,
Nought of the strength, sauour, or taste of Wine.
Besides, in time the naturall faculties
Are tyr'd with toil; and th'Humour-enemies,
Our death conspiring, vndermine, at last,
Of our Soules prisons the foundations fast.

I, but the Tree of life the strife did stay

Answer to those obiections.

Which th'Humours caused in this house of clay;
And stopping th'evill, changed (perfect good)
In body fed, the body of the food:
Onely the Soules contagious malady
Had force to frustrate this high remedy.

Immortall then, and mortall, Man was made;

Conclusion.

Mortall he liv'd, and did immortall vade:
For, 'fore th'effects of his rebellious ill,
To dy or liue, was in his power and will:
But since his Sin, and proud Apostasie,
Ah! dy he may, but not (alas!) not-dy;
As after his new-birth, he shall attain
Onely a powr to never-dy again.

FINIS.

186

2. The Impostvre.

THE II. PART OF THE FIRST DAY OF THE II. WEEK.

The Argvment.

Iustice and Mercy modul'd in their kinde:
Satans proud Hate, and Enuy to Mankinde:
His many Engins, and malitious Wiles,
Whereby the best he many-times beguiles:
Why he assum'd a Body, and began
With Eue; by Her to vndermine her Man:
Their dreadfull Fall: Their drouzy Conscience:
Gods righteous Sentence. for their foul Offence,
On them (and Theirs): Their Exile: Eden barr'd
With flaming Sword, and Seraphin for guard.

O who shall lend me light and nimble wings,
That (passing Swallowes, and the swiftest things)
Even in a moment, boldly-daring, I
From Heav'n to Hell, from Hell to Heav'n may fly?
O! who shall shew the countenance and gestures
Of Mercy and Iustice? which fair sacred sisters,
With equall poiz, doo ever balance ev'n
Th'vnchanging Proiects of the King of Heav'n.
Th'one stern of look, the other milde-aspecting:
Th'one pleas'd with tears, the other bloud affecting.
Th'one bears the Sword of vengeance vn-relenting:
Th'other brings Pardon for the true-repenting.
Th'one, from Earths-Eden, Adam did dismiss:
Th'other hath rais'd him to a higher Bliss.
Who shall direct my pen to paint the Story
Of wretched mans forbidden-Bit-lost glory?
What Spell shall charm th'attentiue Readers sense?
What Fount shall fill my voice with eloquence?

187

So that I, rapt, may ravish all this ILE
With graue-sweet warbles of my sacred stile;
Though Adams Doom, in every Sermon common,
And founded on the error of a woman,
Weary the vulgar, and be iudg'd a iest
Of the profane zeal-scoffing Atheïst.

Ah! Thou my God, even Thou (my soule refining

He hath recourse to God, the only giuer of all sufficiency and dexterity in good and holy things.

In holy Faiths pure Furnace, cleerly shining)
Shalt make my hap far to surmount my hope,
Instruct my spirit, and giue my tongue smooth scope:
Thou (bountious) in my bould attempts shalt grace-me,
And in the rank of holiest Poets place-me;
And frankly grant, that (soaring neer the sky)
Among our Authors, Eagle-like I fly:
Or, at the least (if Heav'n such hap denay)
I may point others, Honors beautious Way.

While Adam bathes in these felicities,

The enemy of God envieth man, and plotteth his destruction.

Hell's Prince (sly parent of revolt and lies)
Feels a pestiferous busie-swarming nest
Of never-dying Dragons in his brest,
Sucking his blood, tyring vpon his lungs,
Pinching his entrails with ten thousand tongues,
His cursed soule still most extreamly racking,
Too frank in giving torments, and in taking:
But aboue all, Hate, Pride, and Envious spight,
His hellish life doo torture day and night.
For, th'Hate he bears to God, who hath him driv'n
Iustly for ever from the glittering Heav'n,
To dwell in darknes of a sulph'ry clowd
(Though still his brethrens service be allow'd):
The Proud desire to haue in his subiection
Mankinde inchain'd in gyues of Sins infection:
And th'Enuious heart-break to see yet to shine
In Adams face Gods Image all divine,
Which he had lost; and that Man might atchiue
The glorious bliss his Pride did him depriue;
Growen barbarous Tyrants of his treacherous will,
Spur-on his course, his rage redoubling still.

Or rather (as the prudent Hebrue notes)
'Tis that old Python which through hundred throats
Doth proudly hiss, and (past his wont) doth fire
A hell of Furies in his fell desire:
His envious heart, self-swoln with sullen spight,
Brooks neither greater, like, nor lesser wight:
Dreads th'one, as Lord; as equall; hates another;
And (iealous) doubts the rising of the other.

To vent his poyson, this notorious Tempter

His subtilty in executing his Designes.

(Meer spirit) assails not Eue, but doth attempt her

188

In fained form: for else, the soule diuine,
Which rul'd (as Queen) the Little-worlds designe,
So purely kept her Vow of Chastity,
That he in vain should tempt her Constancy.
Therefore he fleshly doth the Flesh assay
(Suborning that) her Mistress to betray;
A suttle Pandar with more ticing sleights
Then Sea hath Fish, or Heav'n hath twinkling lights.

Why he hid him in a body.

For, had he been of an ethereall matter,
Of fiery substance, or aiereall nature;
The needfull help of language had he wanted,
Whereby Faiths ground-work was to be supplanted:
Sith such pure bodies haue nor teeth, nor tongues,
Lips, artires, nose, palate, nor panting lungs,
Which rightly plac't are properly created
True instruments of sounds articulated.

Why he appeared not in his own likenes: nor transformed him into an Angell of light.

And furthermore, though from his birth h' had had
Heart-charming cunning smoothly to perswade,
He fear'd (malitious) if he, care-less, came
Vn-masked (like himself, in his owne name)
In deep distrust man entring, suddenly,
Would stop his ears, and his foul presence fly:
As (opposite) taking the shining face
Of sacred Angels full of glorious grace,
He then suspected, lest th'Omnipotent
Should think man's Fal scarce worthy punishment.

Simile.

Much like (therefore) som theef that doth conceiue
From trauellers both life and goods to reaue,
And in the twi-light (while the Moon doth play
In Thetis Palace) neer the Kings high-way
Himself doth ambush in a bushy Thorn;
Then in a Caue, then in a field of Corn,
Creeps to and fro, and fisketh in and out,
And yet the safety of each place doth doubt;
Till, resolute at last (vpon his knee
Taking his levell) from a hollow Tree,
He swiftly sends his fire-wingd messenger,
At his false sute t'arrest the passenger:
Our freedoms felon, fountain of our sorrow,

He hides him vnder diuers figures.

Thinks now the beauty of a Horse to borrow;
Anon to creep into a Haifers side;
Then in a Cock, or in a Dog to hide;
Then in a nimble Hart himself to shroud;
Then in the starr'd plumes of a Peacock proud;
And lest he miss a mischief to effect,
Oft changeth minde, and varies oft aspect.

Why he chose the Serpent.

At last, remembring that of all the broods
In Mountains, Plains, Airs, Waters, Wildes and Woods,

189

The knotty Serpents spotty generation
Are filled with infectious inflammation:
And though they want Dogs teeth, Boars tusks, Bears paws,
The Vultures bill, Buls horns, and Griphins claws;
Yea, seem so weak, as if they had not might
To hurt vs once, much less to kill vs quite:
Yet, many times they treacherously betray vs,
And with their breath, look, tongue or train they slay vs;
He crafty cloaks him in a Dragons skin
All bright-bespect; that, speaking so within
That hollow Sagbuts supple-wreathing plies,
The mover might with th'Organ sympathize.
For, yet the faith-less Serpent (as they say)
With horror crawl'd not groueling on the clay,
Nor to Mankinde (as yet) was held for hatefull,
Sith that's the hire of his offence ingratefull.

But now, to censure how this change befell

Sundry opinions hereupon.

Our wits com short, our words suffize not well
To vtter it: much less our feeble Art
Can imitate this sly malitious part.

Somtimes me seems (troubling Eues spirit) the Fiend
Made her this speaking fancy apprehend.
For, as in liquid clouds (exhaled thickly)
Water and Air (as moist) doo mingle quickly;
The euill Angels slide too easily,
As subtile Spirits, into our fantasie.

Somtimes me seems She saw (wo-worth the hap)
No very Serpent, but a Serpents shape:
Whether that, Satan plaid the Iuggler there,
Who tender eys with charmed Tapers blear,
Transforming so, by subtile vapoury gleams,
Mens heads to Monsters, into Eels the beams:
Or whether, Divels having bodies light,
Quick, nimble, actiue, apt to change with sleight,
In shapes or shewes, they guilefull haue propos'd;
In brief, like th'Air whereof they are compos'd.
For, as the Air, with scattred clouds bespred,
Is heer and there black, yellow, white and red,
Resembling Armies, Monsters, Mountains, Dragons,
Rocks, fiery Castles, Forrests, Ships and Wagons,
And such to vs through glass transparent clear
From form to form varying it doth appear:
So, these seducers can growe great, or small,
Or round, or square, or straight, or short, or tall,
As fits the passions they are moved by,
And such our soule receives them from our ey.

Somtimes; that Satan (onely for this work)
Fain'd him a Serpents shape, wherein to lurk.

190

For, Nature framing our soules enemies,
Of bodies light, and in experience wise,
In malice crafty, curious they assemble
Small-Elements, which (as of kin) resemble,
Whereof a Mass is made, and thereunto
They soon giue growth and lively motion too.
Not, that they be Creators: for, th'Almighty,
Who first of nothing made vaste Amphitrite,
The Worlds dull Centre, Heav'ns ay-turning Frame,
And whirling Air, sole merits that high Name:
Who (onely Beeing) Being giues to all,
And of all things the seeds substantiall
Within their first-born bodies hath inclos'd,
To be in time by Natures hand dispos'd:
Not those, who (taught by curious Art or Nature)
Haue giv'n to things Heav'n-pointed form and stature,
Hastned their growth, or wakened learnedly
The forms that formless in the Lump did ly.

But (to conclude) I think 'twas no conceipt,
No fained Idoll, nor no iuggling sleight,
Nor body borrowed for this vses sake,
But the self Serpent which the Lord did make
In the beginning: for, his hatefull breed
Bears yet the pain of this pernicious deed.

Yet't tis a doubt whether the Divell did
Gouern the Dragon (not there selfly hid)
To raise his courage, and his tongue direct,
Locally absent, present by effect:
As when the sweet strings of a Lute we strike,
Another Lute laid neer it, sounds the like;
Nay, the same note, through secret sympathy
(Vntoucht) receiving Life and Harmony:
Or, as a star, which (though far distant) pours,
Vpon our heads, hap-less or happy showrs.

Or, whether for a time he did abide
Wit in the doubling Serpents damask hide,
Holding a place-less place: as our soule dear,
Through the dim lanthorn of our flesh, shines clear;
And bound-less bounds it self in so straight space,
As form in body, not as body in place.

But this stands sure, how-ever else it went,
Th'old Serpent serv'd as Satans instrument

Conclusion of the former opinions. A comparison.

To charm in Eden, with a strong illusion,
Our silly Grandam to her selfs confusion.
For, as an old, rude, rotten, tune-less Kit,
If famous Dowland daign to finger it,
Makes sweeter Musick then the choicest Lute
In the gross handling of a clownish Brute:

191

So, whiles a learned Fiend with skilfull hand
Doth the dull motions of his mouth command,
This self-dumb Creature's glozing Rhetorike
With bashfull shame great Orators would strike.
So, Faiery Trunks within Epyrus Groue,
Mov'd by the spirit that was inspir'd by loue,
With fluent voyce (to every one that seeks)
Fore-tell the Fates of light-beleeuing Greeks:
So, all incenst, the pale Engastromith
(Rul'd by the furious spirit he's haunted with)
Speaks in his womb; So, well a workmans skill
Supplies the want of any organ ill:
So doth the Phantike (lifting vp his thought
On Satans wing) with a tongue distraught
Strange Oracles, and his sick spirit doth plead
Euen of those Arts that he did never reade.

O ruth-less murderer of immortall Soules!

The sundry sutle and horrible endeavours of the Divell, putting on divers forms to overthrow man-kinde.

Alas to pull vs from the happy Poles,
And plunge vs headlong in thy yawning hell,
Thy ceas-less frauds and fetches who can tell?

Thou play'st the Lion, when thou dost engage
Bloud-thirsty Nero's barbarous heart with rage,
While flesh in murders (butcher-like) he paints
The Saint-poor world with the dear bloud of Saints.

Thou play'st the Dog, when by the mouth profane
Or som false Prophet thou doost belch thy bane,
While from the Pulpit barkingly he rings
Bold blasphemies against the King of kings.

Thou play'st the Swine, when plung'd in pleasures vile,
Som Epicure doth sober mindes defile;
Transforming lewdly, by his loose impiety,
Strict Lacedæmon to a soft society.

Thou play'st the Nightingale, or else the Swan,
When any famous Rhetorician,
With captious wit and curious language, draws
Seduced hearers; and subverts the laws.

Thou play'st the Fox, when thou dost fain a-right
The face and phrase of som deep Hypocrite,
True painted Toomb, dead-seeming coals but quick;
A Scorpion fell, whose hidden tail doth prick.

Yet, this were little, if thy spight audacious
Spar'd (at the least) the face of Angels gracious,
And if thou didst not (Ape-like) imitate
Th'Almighties Works, the wariest Wits to mate.

But (without numbring all thy suttle baits,

The Poet resumeth his Discourse touching the temptation of Eue.

And nimble iuggling with a thousand sleights)
Timely returning where I first digrest,
I'le onely heer thy first Deceipt digest.

192

The Dragon then, Mans Fortress to surprise,
Follows som Captains martiall policies,

Comparison.

Who, yer too neer an adverse place he pitch,
The situation marks, and sounds the ditch,
With his eys leuell the steep wall he metes,
Surveies the flanks, his Camp in order sets;
And then approaching, batters sore the side
Which Art and Nature haue least fortifi'd:
So, this old Souldier, hauing marked rife
The first-born payrs yet danger-dreadless life;
Mounting his Canons, suttly he assaults
The part he findes in evident defaults:
Namely, poor Woman, wauering, weak, vnwise,
Light, credulous, news-louer, giv'n to lies.

Sathans Oratiō.

Eue, Second honour of this Vniverse!
Is 't true (I pray) that iealous God, perverse,
Forbids (quoth he) both you and all your race
All the fair Fruits these siluer Brooks embrace;
So oft bequeath'd you, and by you possest,
And day and night by your own labour drest?

With th'air of these sweet words, the wily Snake
A poysoned air inspired (as it spake)

Eues answer.

In Eues frail brest; who thus replies: O! knowe,
What e'r thou be (but, thy kinde care doth showe
A gentle friend) that all the fruits and flowrs
In this earths-heav'n are in our hands and powrs,
Except alone that goodly fruit diuine,
Which in the midst of this green ground doth shine;
But, all-good God (alas! I wot not why)
Forbad vs touch that Tree, on pain to dy.
She ceast; already brooding in her heart
A curious wish, that will her weal subvert.

A fit cōparison.

As a false Louer, that thick snares hath laid
T'intrap the honour of a fair young Maid,
When she (though little) listning ear affords.
To his sweet, courting, deep-affected words,
Feels som asswaging of his freezing flame,
And sooths himself with hope to gain his game;
And rapt with ioy, vpon this point persists,
That parleing City never long resists:
Even so the Serpent, that doth counterfet
A guilefull Call t'allure vs to his net;
Perceiuing Eue his flattering gloze digest,
He prosecutes, and jocund, doth not rest,
Till he haue try'd foot, hand, and head, and all,
Vpon the Breach of this new-battered wall.

The Diuels reply.

No, fair (quoth he) beleeue not, that the care
God hath, mankinde from spoyling death to spare,

193

Makes him forbid you (on so strict condition)
This purest, fairest, rarest Fruits fruition:
A double fear, an envie, and a hate,
His iealous heart for ever cruciate;
Sith the suspected vertue of This Tree
Shall soon disperse the cloud of Idiocy,
Which dims your eyes; and further, make you seem
(Excelling vs) even equall Gods to him.
O Worlds rare glory! reach thy happy hand,
Reach, reach, I say: why dost thou stop or stand?
Begin thy Bliss, and do no fear the threat
Of an vncertain God-head, onely great

His audacious impudency.

Through self-aw'd zeal: put on the glistring Pall
Of immortality: do not fore-stall
(As envious stepdame) thy posteritie
The soverain honour of Diuinitie.

This parley ended, our ambitious Grandam,
Who only yet did heart and ey abandon

The Apostasy of Eue.

Against the Lord; now farther doth proceed,
And hand and mouth makes guiltie of the deed.

A novice Theef (that in a Closet spies
A heap of Gold, that on the Table lies)

A Comparison.

Pale, fearfull shivering, twice or thrice extends,
And twice or thrice retires his fingers ends,
And yet again returns; the booty takes,
And fain ly-bold, vp in his cloak it makes,
Scarce findes the doore, with faultring foot he flies,
And still lookes back for fear of Hu-on cries:
Even so doth Eue shew by like fear-full fashions
The doubtfull combat of contending Passions;
She would, she should not not; glad, sad; coms, and goes:
And long she marts about a Match of Woes:
But (out alas!) at last she toucheth it,
And (hauing toucht) tastes the forbidden bit.

Then as a man that from a lofty Clift,

Another comparison liuely expressing the Fall of Man, by the prouocation of his wife.

Or steepy Mountain doth descend too swift,
Stumbling at somwhat, quickly clips som lim
Of som deer kinsman walking next to him,
And by his headlong fall, so brings his friend
To an vntimely, sad, and sudden end;
Our Mother, falling, hales her Spouse anon
Down to the gulf of pitchy Acheron.
For, to the wisht Fruits beautifull aspect,
Sweet Nectar-taste, and wonderfull effect,
Cunningly adding her quaint smiling glances,
Her witty speech, and pretty countenances,
She so prevails; that her blind Lord, at last,
A morsell of the sharp-sweet fruit doth taste.

194

Now suddenly wide-open feel they might
(Siel'd for their good) both soules and bodies sight;

The effects of their disobedience.

But the sad Soule hath lost the Character,
And sacred Image that did honour her:
The wretched Body, full of shame and sorrow
To see it naked, is in forc't to borrow
The Trees broad leaues, whereof they aprons frame,
From Heav'ns faire ey to hide their filthy shame.

Alas, fond death-lings! O! behold how cleer
The knowledge is that you haue bought so deer:
In heav'nly things yee are more blinde then Moals,
In earthly Owls. O! think ye (silly soules)
The sight that swiftely through th'Earth's solid centers
(As globes of pure transparent crystall) enters
Cannot transpearce your leaues? or do ye ween,
Covering your shame so to conceal your sin?
Or that, a part thus clowded, all doth lie
Safe from the search of Heav'ns all-seeing ey?

Thus yet, mans troubled dull Intelligence
Had of his fault but a confused sense:
As in a dream, after much drink it chances,
Disturbed spirits are vext with raving fancies.

The extraordinary presence of God, awakes their drowsie soules swallowd vp of Sin: and begins to arraign them.

Therefore, the Lord, within the Garden fair,
Moving betimes I wot not I what ayre,
But supernaturall; whose breath divine
Brings of his presence a most certain signe:
Awakes their Lethargie, and to the quick,
Their self-doom'd soules doth sharply press and prick:
Now more and more making their pride to fear
The frowning visage of their Iudge severe:
To seek new-refuge in more secret harbors
Among the dark shade of those tufting arbors.

Adam, quoth God, (with thundring maiesty)
Where art thou (wretch!) what doost thou? answer me
Thy God and Father; from whose hand, thy health
Thou hold'st, thine honour, and all sorts of wealth.

Description of the horrible effects of a guilty Conscience summoned to the presence of God.

At this sad summons, wofull man resembles
A bearded rush that in a riuer trembles:
His rosie cheeks are chang'd to earthen hew;
His dying body drops in ycie deaw;
His tear-drown'd eyes, a night of clouds bedims;
About his ears, a buzzing horror swims;
His fainted knees, with feebleness are humble;
His faultring feet do slide away and stumble:
He hath not (now) his free, bold, stately port;
But down-cast looks, in fearfull slavish sort;
Now, nought of Adam, doth in Adam rest;
He feeles his senses pain'd, his soule opprest:

195

A confus'd hoast of violent passions iar;
His flesh and spirit are in continuall war:
And now no more (through conscience of his error)
He hears or sees th'Almighty, but with terror:
And loth he answers (as with tongue distraught)
Confessing (thus) his fear, but not his fault.

O Lord! thy voyce, thy dreadfull voyce hath made

Adams answer.

Me fearfull hide me in this covert shade.
For, naked as I am (O most of might!)
I dare not come before thine awfull sight.

Naked (quoth God)? why (faith-less renegate,

God vrgeth the cause of his deiection & feare.

Apostate Pagan!) who hath told thee that?
Whence springs thy shame? what makes thee thus to run
From shade to shade, my presence still to shun?
Hast thou not tasted of the learned Tree,
Whereof (on pain of death) I warned thee?

O righteous God (quoth Adam) I am free

Adams reply, excusing himself & couertly insputing his Guile to God.

From this offence: the wife thou gavest me,
For my companion and my comforter,
She made me eat that deadly meat with her.

And thou (quoth God) O! thou frail treacherous Bride,

Examination of Eue, who excuseth her selfe likewise on another.

Why, with thy self, hast thou seduc't thy Guide?

Lord (answers Eue) the Serpent did intice
My simple frailty to this sinfull vice.

Mark heer, how He, who fears not who reform

An example for Iudges & Magistrates.

His high Decrees, not subiect vnto form,
Or stile of Court: who, all-wise, hath no need
T'examine proof or witness of the deed:
Who for sustayning of vnequall Scale,
Dreads not the Doom of a Mercuriall;
Yer Sentence pass, doth publikely convent,
Confront, and heer with eare indifferent
Th'Offenders sad: then with iust indignation,
Pronounceth thus their dreadfull Condemnation.

Ah cursed Serpent, which my fingers made

The Sentence of the supreame Iudge against the guilty Prisoners: and first of all against the Serpent.

To serue mankinde: th'hast made thy selfe a blade
Wherewith vain Man and his inveigled wife
(Self-parricides) haue reft their proper life.
For this thy fault (true Fountain of all ill)
Thou shalt be hatefull 'mong all creatures still.
Groueling in dust, of dust thou ay shalt feed:
I'le kindle war between the Womans seed,
And thy fell race; hers on the head shall ding
Thine: thine again hers in the heel shall sting.

Rebell to me, vnto thy kindred curst,

Against the Woman.

False to thy husband, to thy self the worst:
Hope not, thy fruit so easily to bring-forth
As now thou slay'st it: hence-forth, every Birth

196

Shall torture thee with thousand sorts of pain;
Each artire, sinew, muscle, ioynt and vain,
Shall feel his part: besides foul vomitings,
Prodigious longings, thought-full languishings,
With change of colours, swouns, and many others,
Eternall fellows of all future mothers:
Vnder his yoak, thy husband thee shall haue,
Tyrant, by thee made the Arch-tyrants slaue.

Against man.

And thou disloyall, which hast harkned more
To a wanton fondling then my sacred lore,
Henceforth the sweat shall bubble on thy brow:
Thy hands shall blister, and thy back shall bow:
Ne'r shalt thou send into thy branchie vains
A bit, but bought with price of thousand pains.
For, the earth feeling (even in her) th'effect
Of the doom thundred 'gainst thy foul defect;
In stead of sweet fruits which she selfly yeelds
Seed-less, and Art-less over all thy fields,
With thorns and burs shall bristle vp her brest:
(In short) thou shalt not taste the sweets of rest,
Till ruth-less Death by his extreamest pain
Thy dust-born bodie turn to dust again.

Obiections to excuse the Sin of Man.

Heer I conceiue, that flesh and blood will brangle,
And murmuring Reason with th'Almighty wrangle,

Who did our parents with Free-will indue,
Though he fore-saw, that that would be the clew
Should lead their steps into the wofull way
Where life is death ten thousand times a day:
Now all that he fore-sees, befals: and further,
He all events by his free powr doth order.

Man taxeth God of too-vniust severity,
For plaguing Adams sin in his posterity:
So that th'old yeers renewed generations
Cannot asswage his venging indignations,
Which haue no other ground to prosecute,
But the mis-eating of a certain fruit.

Answers to the first obiection.

O dusty wormling! dar'st thou striue and stand
With Heav'ns high Monarch? wilt thou (wretch) demand

Count of his deeds? Ah! shall the Potter make
His clay, such fashion, as him list, to take?
And shall not God (Worlds Founder, Natures Father)
Dispose of man (his own meer creature) rather?
The supream King, who (Iudge of greatest Kings)
By number, weight and measure, acts all things,
Vice-loathing Lord, pure Iustice, Patron strong,
Law's life, Right's rule, will he do any wrong?

Man, holdest thou of God thy frank Free-will,
But free t'obay his sacred goodness still?

197

Freely to follow him, and do his hest,
Not Philtre-charm'd, nor by Busiris prest?
God arms thee with discourse: but thou (O wretch!)
By the keen edge the wound-soule sword doost catch;
Killing thy selfe, and in thy loins thy line.
O banefull Spider (weaving wofull twine)
All Heav'ns pure flowrs thou turnest into poyson:
Thy sense reaues sense: thy reason robs thy reason.
For, thou complainest of Gods grace, whose Still
Extracts from dross of thine audacious ill,
Three vnexpected goods; praise for his Name;

Bliss for thy self; for Satan endless-shame:
Sith, but for sin, Iustice and Mercy were
But idle names: and but that thou didst erre,
Christ had not com to conquer and to quell,
Vpon the Cross, Sin, Satan, Death, and Hell;
Making thee blessed more since thine offence,
Then in thy primer happy innocence.

Then, might'st thou dy; now death thou doost not doubt:
Now, in the Heav'n; then, didst thou ride without:
In Earth, thou liv'dst then; now in Heav'n thou beest:
Then, thou didst hear Gods word; it, now thou seest:
Then, pleasant fruits; now, Christ is thy repast:
Then might'st thou fall; but now thou standest fast.

Now, Adams fault was not in deed so light,
As seemes to Reason's sin-bleard Owlie sight:
But 't was a chain where all the greatest sinns
Were one in other linked fast, as Twins:
Ingratitude, pride, treason, gluttony,
Too-curious skill-thirst, enuy, felony,
Too-light, too-late beleef; were the sweet baits
That made him wander from Heav'ns holy straights.

What wouldst thou (Father) say vnto a Son
Of perfect age, to whom for portion
(Witting and willing, while thy self yet livest)
All thy possessions in the earth thou givest:
And yet th'vngratefull, grace-less, insolent,
In thine own Land, rebellion doth invent?
Map now an Adam in thy memory;
By Gods own hand made with great maiesty,
Not poor, nor pined; but at whose command
The rich aboundance of the world doth stand:
Not slaue to sense, but hauing freely might
To bridle it, and range it still aright:
No idiot fool, nor drunk with vaine opinion;
But Gods Disciple and his deerest Minion:
Who rashly growes for little, nay for nought,
His deadly foe that all his good had wrought:

198

So mayst thou ghess, what whip, what rope, what rack,
What fire, were fit to punish Adams lack.

Answers to the second obiection.

Then, sith Mans sin by little and little runs

End-less, through every Age from Sires to Sons;
And still the farther this foul sin-spring flowes
It still more muddy and more filthy growes:
Thou ought'st not marvail, if (even yet) his seed
Feel the iust wages of this wicked deed.
For, though the keen sting of concupiscence
Cannot, yer birth, his fell effect commence;
The vnborn Babe, hid in the Mothers womb,
Is sorrow's servant, and Sin's servile groom,
As a frail Mote from the first Mass extract,
Which Adam baen'd by his rebellious fact.
Sound off-spring coms not of a Kinde infected:
Parts are not fair, if totall be defected:
And a defiled stinking sink doth yeeld
More durt then water to the neighbour field.

While nights black muffler hoodeth vp the skies,

Simile.

The silly blind-man misseth not his eyes:
But when the day summons to work again,
His night, eternall then he doth complain,
That he goes groping, and his hand (alas!)
Is fain to guide his foot, and guard his face:
So man, that liveth in the wombs obscurity,
Knowes not, nor maketh known his lusts impurity:
Which, for 't is sown in a too-plentious ground,
Takes root already in the Caues profound
Of his infected Hart: with's birth, it peers,
And growes in strength, as he doth growe in years;
And waxt a Tree (though proin'd with thousand cares)
An execrable deadly fruit it bears.

Thou seest, no wheat Helleborus can bring:

Simile.

Nor barly, from the madding Morrell spring:
The bleating Lambs braue Lions doe not breed:
The leprous Parents, raise a leprous seed:
Even so our Grand-sire, living Innocent,
Had stockt the whole world with a Saint-descent:
But suffering sin in Eden him invade,
His sons, the sons of Sin and Wrath he made.

For, God did seem t'indow, with glory and grace,
Not the first Man so much, as all mans race;
And after reaue again those gifts divine,
Not him so much, as in him all his line.

Simile.

For, if an odious Traitour that conspires,
Against a Prince, or to his state aspires,
Feel not alone the laws extremity;
But his sons sons (although somtimes they be

199

Honest and vertuous) for their Fathers blame,
Are hap-less scarr'd with an eternall shame:
May not th'Eternall with a righteous terror,
In Adams issue punish Adams error?
May he not thrall them vnder Deaths command,
And fear their brows with everlasting brand
Of infamy, who in his stock (accurst)
Haue graft worse slips then Adam set at first?

Mans seed then iustly, by succession,

Conclusion of the former disputations, and execution of God's Decree against Adam & Eue; they are driven out of Eden.

Bears the hard penance of his high transgression:
And Adam heer, from Eden banished,
As first offender is first punished.

Hence (quoth the Lord) hence, hence (accursed race)
Out of my Garden: quick, auoyd the place,
This beautious place, pride of this Vniverse,
A house vnworthy Masters so perverse.

Those that (in quarrell of the Strong of Strongs,

Simile.

And iust reuenge of Queen, and Countries wrongs)
Were witnesses to all the wofull plaints,
The sighes, and tears, and pitifull complaints,
Of brauing Spaniards (chiefly braue in word)
When by the valiant Heav'n-assisted sword
Of Mars-like Essex, Englands Marshall-Earl
(Then Albions Patron, and Eliza's Pearl)
They were expulst from Cadiz, their deerest pleasure,
Losing their Town, their honour, and their treasure:
Wo worth (said they) wo worth our Kings ambition;
Wo worth our Cleargie, and their Inquisition:
He seeks new Kingdoms, and doth lose his old;
They burne for conscience, but their thirst is gold:
Wo, and alas, wo to the vain brauados
Of Typhon-like inuincible Armados,
Which like the vaunting Monster-man of Gath,
Haue stirr'd against vs little Dauids wrath:
Wo-worth our sins: wo-worth our selues, and all
Accursed causes of our sudden fall.

Those well may ghess the bitter agonies,
And luke-warm Rivers gushing down the eyes
Of our first Parents, out of Eden driv'n
(Of Repeal hope-less) by the hand of Heav'n;
For, the Almightie set before the dore
Of th'holy Park, a Seraphin that bore
A wauing sword, whose body shined bright,

The earthly Eden shut-vp foreuer from Mankinde.

Like flaming Comet in the midst of night;
A body meerly Metaphysicall,
Which (differing little from th'One vnicall,
Th'Act-simply-pure, the only-beeing Beeing)
Approcheth matter; ne'rtheless, not being

200

Of matter mixt: or rather is so made
So meerly spirit, that not the murdering blade,
His ioyned quantity can part in two:
For (pure) it cannot Suffer ought, but Doo.

FINIS.

201

3. The Fvries.

THE THIRD PART OF THE FIRST DAY OF THE II. WEEK.

The Argvment.

The World's transform'd from what it was at first:
For Adams sin all creatures else accurst:
Their Harmony distuned by His iar:
Yet all again concent, to make him war;
As, th'Elements, and aboue all, the Earth:
Three ghastly Fvries; Sickness, War, and Dearth,
A generall Muster of the Bodies Griefs:
The Soules Diseases, vnder sundry Chiefs:
Both, full of Horror, but the later most;
Where vgly Vice in Vertues Mask doth boast.

This's not the World. O! whither am I brought?

Sin hath changed and disfigured the face of the World.

This Earth I tread, this hollow-hanging Vault,
Which Dayes reducing, and renewing Nights,
Renews the grief of mine afflicted sprights;
This Sea I sail, this troubled Ayr I sip,
Are not The First-weeks glorious Workmanship:
This wretched Round is not the goodly Globe
Th'Eternall trimmed in so various Robe:
'Tis but a Dungeon and a dreadfull Caue,
Of that first World the miserable Graue.

All-quickning Spirit, great God, that (iustly-strange,

Inuocation.

Iudge-turned-Father) wrought'st this wondrous change,
Change and new-mould me; Lord, thy hand assist,
That in my Muse appear no earthly mist:
Make me thine organ, giue my voyce dexterity
Sadly to sing this sad Change to Posterity.

202

And, bountious Giuer of each perfect gift,
So tune my voyce to his sweet-sacred Clift,
That in each strain my rude vnready tong
Be liuely Eccho of his learned Song.
And, hence-forth, let our holy Musick rauish
All well-born Soules, from fancies lewdly-lauish
(Of charming Sin the deep-inchaunting Syrens,
The snares of vertue, valour-softning Hyrens)
That toucht with terror of thine indignation,
Presented in this wofull Alteration,
We all may seek; by prayer and true repentance,
To shun the rigour of thy wrathfull Sentence.

The Translator heer bumbly vaileth bonnet to the Kings Maiesty; who many yeeres since (for his Princely exercise) translated these FVRIES, the VRANIA, and som other peeces of Du BARTAS.

But, yer we farther pass, our slender Bark
Must heer strike top-sails to a Princely Ark
Which keeps these Straights: He hails vs threatfully,
Star-boord our helm; Com vnderneath his Lee.
Ho, Whence your Bark? Of Zeal-land: Whither bound?
For Vertues Cape: What lading? Hope. This Sound
You should not pass; saue that your voyage tends
To benefit our Neighbours and our Frends.
Thanks, Kingly Captain; daign vs then (we pray)
Som skilfull Pylot through this Fvriovs Bay;
Or, in this Chanell, sith we are to learn,
Vouchsafe to togh vs at your Royall Stern.

Yer That our Sire (O too too proudly-base)
Turn'd tail to God, and to the Fiend his face,

Happy estate of the World, before Sin: set forth by a Similitude.

This mighty World did seem an Instrument
True-strung, well-tun'd, and handled excellent,
Whose symphony resounded sweetly-shrill
Th'Almighties praise, who play'd vpon it still.
While man serv'd God, the World serv'd him; the lyue
And liue-less creatures seemed all to striue
To nurse this league; and, loving zealously
These two deer Heads, embraced mutually:
In sweet accord, the base with high reioyc't,
The hot with cold, the solid with the moist;
And innocent Astræa did combine
All with the mastick of a loue divine.

The Sympathy yet appearing between certain Creatures, is but as a little shadow of the perfect vnion which was among all Creatures, before Mans Fall.

For, th'hidden loue that now-adaies doth holde
The Steel and Load-stone, Hydrargire and Golde,
Th'Amber and straw; that lodgeth in one shell
Pearl-fish and Sharpling: and vnites so well
Sargons and Goats, the Sperage and the Rush,
Th'Elm and the Vine, th'Oliue and Myrtle-bush,
Is but a spark or shadow of that Loue
Which at the first in every thing did moue,
When as th'Earth's Muses with harmonious sound
To Heav'ns sweet Musick humbly did resound.

203

But Adam, being chief of all the strings
Of this large Lute, o're-retched, quickly brings
All out of tune: and now for melody.
Of warbling Charms, it yels so hideously,
That it affrights fell Enyon, who turmoils
To raise again th'old Chaos antick broils:

Heav'n, that still smiling on his Paramour,

Of the Discord that Sin hath brought among all things.

Still in her lap did Mel and Manna pour,
Now with his hail, his rain, his frost and heat,
Doth parch, and pinch, and over-whelm, and bear,
And hoares her head with Snowes, and (iealous) dashes
Against her brows his fiery lightning slashes:

On th'other side, the sullen, envious Earth

Sundry notable Antipathies.

From blackest Cels of her foul brest sends forth
A thousand foggy fumes, which every-where
With cloudy mists Heav'ns crystall front besmear.

Since that, the Woolf the trembling Sheep pursues;
The crowing Cock, the Lion stout eschews:
The Pullein hide them from the Puttock's flight,
The Mastiffe's mute at the Hyænas sight:
Yea (who would think it?) these fell enmities
Rage in the sense-less trunks of Plants and Trees:
The Vine, the Cole; the Cole-wort Swines-bread dreads,
The Fearn abhors the hollow waving Reeds:
The Oliue and the Oak participate,
Even to their earth, signes of their ancient hate,
Which suffers not (O date-less discord!) th'one
Liue in that ground where th'other first hath growen.
O strange instinct! O deep immortall rage,
Whose fiery fewd no Læthe sloud can swage!

So, at the sound of Wolf-Drums rattling thunder
Th'affrighted Sheep-skin-Drum doth rent in sunder:
So, that fell Monsters twisted entrails cuts
(By secret powr) the poor Lambs twined guts,
Which (after death) in steed of bleating mute,
Are taught to speak vpon an Yvory Lute:
And so the Princely Eagles ravening plumes
The feathers of all other Fowls consumes.

The First-mov'd Heav'n (in 't self it self still stirring)
Rapts with his course (quicker then windes swift whirring)
All th'other Sphears, and to Alcides Spyres
From Alexanders Altars driues their Fires:
But mortall Adam, Monarch heer beneath,
Erring draws all into the paths of death;
And on rough Seas, as a blinde Pilot rash,
Against the rock of Heav'ns iust wrath doth dash
The Worlds great Vessell, sayling yerst at ease,
With gentle gales, good guide, on quiet Seas.

204

The estate of Man before Sin.

For (yer his Fall) which way so e'r he rowl'd
His wondering eyes God every-where behold;
In Heav'n, in Earth, in Ocean, and in Ayr,
He sees, and feels, and findes him every-where.
The World was like a large and sumptuous Shop
Where God his goodly treasures did vnwrap:
Or Crystall glass most linely representing.
His sacred Goodness, every-where frequenting.

His estate after Sinne.

But, since his sin, the wofull wretch findes none
Herb, garden, groue, field, fountain, stream or stone,
Beast, mountain, valley, sea-gate, shoar or haven,
But bears his Deaths-doom openly ingraven:
In brief, the whole scope this round Centre hath,
Is a true store-house of Heav'ns righteous wrath.

Al creatures frō the highest to the lowest, enemies to Man.

Rebellious Adam, from his God revolting,
Findes his yerst-subiects 'gainst himselfe insulting:
The tumbling Sea, the Ayr with tempests driven,
Thorn-bristled Earth, the sad and lowring Heav'n
(As from the oath of their allegeance free)
Revenge on him th'Almighties iniury.

The Heauens, with all therein.

The Stars coniur'd through envious Influence,
By secret Hang-men punish his offence:
The Sun with heat, the Moon with cold doth vex-him,
Th'Ayr with vnlookt-for sudden changes checks-him,
With fogs and frosts, hails, snowes, and sulph'ry thunders,
Blasting, and storms, and more prodigious wonders.

Al the Elemēts.

Fire, fall'n from Heav'n, or else by Art incited,

Fire.

Or by mischance in som rich building lighted,

Aire.

Or from som Mountains burning bowels throw'n,
Repleat with Sulphur, Pitch, and Pumy stone,
With sparkling fury spreads, and in few hours
The labour of a thousand years devours.

Sea.

The greedy Ocean, breaking wonted bounds,
Vsurps his Heards, his wealthy Iles and Towns.

Earth.

The grieved Earth, to ease her (as it seems)
Of such profane accursed weight, somtimes
Swallowes whole Countries, and the airie tops
Of Prince-proud towrs, in her black womb she wraps.

Earth brings forth weeds.

And in despight of him, abhord and hatefull
She many waies proues barren and ingratefull:
Mocking our hopes, turning our seed-Wheat-kernel
To burn-grain Thistle, and to vapourie Darnel,
Cockle, wilde Oats, rough Burs, Corn-cumbring Tares,
Short Recompence for all our costly cares.

Venomous plants.

Yet this were little, if she more malicious,
Fell stepdame, brought vs not Plants more pernicious:
As sable Henbane; Morell, making mad:
Cold poysoning Poppy, itching, drowsie, sad:

205

The stifning Carpese, th'eyes-foe Hemlock stinking,
Limb-numming belching: and the sinew-shrinking
Dead-laughing Apium, weeping Aconite
(Which in our Vulgar deadly Wolfs-bane hight)
The dropsie-breeding, sorrow-bringing Psylly
(Heer called Flea-Wurt) Colchis banefull Lilly,
(With vs Wilde-Saffron) blistring byting fell:
Hot Napell, making lips and tongue to swell:
Blood-boyling Yew, and costiue Misseltoe:
With yce-cold Mandrake, and a many mo
Such fatall plants; whose fruit, seed, sap, or root,
T'vntimely Grace doe bring our heed-less foot.

Besides, she knowes, we brutish value more,

Poyson hidden among the Metals.

Then Liues or Honours, her rich glittering Ore:
That Auarice our bound-less thought still vexes:
Therefore among her wreakfull baits she mixes
Quick siluer Lithargie and Orpiment,
Where with our entrails are oft gnawn and rent:
So that somtimes; for Body, and for Minde,
Torture and torment, in one Mine we finde.

What resteth more? The Masters skilfull most,

The excellency of Mans Dominion ouer the Creatures before his Fall.

With gentle gales driv'n to the wished Coast,
Not with less labour guide their winged wayns
On th'azure fore-head of the liquid plains:
Nor crafty Iugglers, can more easily make
Their selfe-liv'd Puppets (for their lucres fake)
To skip, and scud, and play, and prate, and praunce,
And fight, and fall, and trip, and turn, and daunce:
Then happy we did rule the scaly Legions
That dumbly dwell in stormy water-Regions;
Then feathered singers, and the stubborn droues
That haunt the Desarts and the shady Groues:
At every word they trembled then for aw,
And every wink then serv'd them as a law;
And always bent all duty to obserue-vs,
Without command, stood ready still to serue-vs.

But now (alas!) through our fond Parents fall,

The Creatures now becom Tyrants and Traitors to Him, whose slaues and seruants they were before Sin.

They (of our slaues) are growen our tyrants all.
Wend we by Sea? the drad Leuiathan
Turns vpside-down the boyling Ocean,
And on the suddain sadly doth intoomb
Our floting Castle in deep Thetis womb;
Yerst in the welkin like an Eagle towring,
And on the water like a Dolphin scowring.
Walk we by Land? how many loathsom swarms
Of speckled poysons, with pestiferous arms,

206

In every corner in close Ambush lurk
With secret bands our sodain banes to work?
Besides, the Lion and the Leopard,
Boar, Beare, and Wolf to death pursue vs hard;
And, ielous vengers of the wrongs divine,
In peeces pull their Soverains sinfull line.
The huge thick Forrests haue nor bush nor brake
But hides som Hang-man our loath'd life to take:
In every hedge and ditch both day and night
We fear our death, of every leafe affright.
Rest we at home? the Masty fierce in force,
Th'vntamed Bull, the hot courageous Horse,
With teeth, with horns, and hooues besiege vs round,
As griev'd to see such tyrants tread the ground:
And ther's no Fly so small but now dares bring
Her little wrath against her quondam King.

An admirable description of Mans miserable Punishments, tortured by himselfe.

What hideous sights? what horror-boading showes?
Alas, what yels? what howls? what thund'ring throws?
O! Am I not neer roaring Phlegeton?
Alecto, sad Meger' and Thesiphon?
What spels haue charm'd ye from your dreadfull den
Of darkest Hell? Monsters abhord of men,
O Nights black daughters, grim-faç't Furies sad,
Stern Plutos Postes, what make ye heer so mad?
O! feels not man a world of wofull terrors,
Besides your goaring wounds and ghastly horrors?

So soon as God from Eden Adam draue,
To liue in this Earth (rather in this Graue,
Where raign a thousand deaths) he summon'd-vp
With thundering call the damned Crew, that sup
Of Sulphury Styx, and fiery Phlegeton,
Bloody Cocytus, muddy Acheron.

Come snake-trest Sisters, com ye dismall Elves,
Cease now to curse and cruciate your selues:
Com, leaue the horror of your houses pale,
Com, parbreak heer your foul, black, banefull gall:
Let lack of work no more from henceforth fear-you,
Man by his sin a hundred hells doth rear-you.

This eccho made whole hell to tremble troubled,
The drowsie Night her deep dark horrors doubled,
And suddainly Auernus Gulf did swim
With Rozin, Pitch, and Brimstone to the brim,
And th'vgly Gorgons, and the Sphinxes fel,
Hydraes and Harpies gan to yawn and yel.

As the heat, hidden in a vapoury Cloud,
Striuing for issue with strange murmurs loud,
Like Guns astuns, with round-round-rumbling thunder
Filling the Ayr with noyse, the Earth with wonder:

207

So the three Sisters, the three hideous Rages,
Raise thousand storms, leaving th'infernal stages.

Already all rowle-on their steely Cars

The Fvries with their funiture and tranie, representing the Horror of Sinne, and the cursed estate of an euill conscience.

On th'ever-shaking nine-fould steely bars
Of Stygian Bridge, and in that fearefull Caue
They iumble, tumble, rumble, rage and raue.
Then dreadfull Hydra, and dire Cerberus
Which on one body, beareth (monsterous)
The heads of Dragon, Dog, Ounse, Bear, and Bull,
Wolf, Lion, Horse (of strength and stomack full)
Lifting his lungs, he hisses, barks and brays,
He howls, he yels, he bellows, roars, and neighs:
Such a black Sant, such a confused sound
From many-headed bodies doth rebound.

Hauing attain'd to our calm Hav'n of light,
With swifter course then Boreas nimble flight,
All fly at Man, all at intestine strife,
Who most may torture his detested life.

Heer first coms Dearth, the liuely form of Death,

1 Description of Famine with her traine.

Still yawning wide, with loathsom stinking breath,
With holloweys, with meager cheeks and chin,
With sharp lean bones pearcing her sable skin:
Her empty bowels may be plainly spy'd
Clean through the wrinkles of her withered hide:
She hath no belly, but the bellies seat,
Her knees and knuckles swelling hugely great:
Insatiate Orque, that even at one repast,
Almost all creatures in the World would waste;
Whose greedy gorge, dish after dish doth draw,
Seeks meat in meat. For, still her monstrous maw
Voyds in deuouring, and somtimes she eates
Her own deer Babes for lack of other meats:
Nay more, sometimes (O strangest gluttony!)
She eats her selfe, her selfe to satisfie;
Lessening her self, her selfe so to inlarge:
And cruell thus she doth our Grand-sire charge;
And brings besides from Limbo, to assist-her,
Rage, Feeblenes, and Thirst, her ruth-less sister.

Next marcheth Warr, the mistriss of enormity,

2 Of Warre and her traine.

Mother of mischiefe, monster of Deformity:
Laws, Manners, Arts, shee breaks, she mars, she chaces:
Blood, tears, bowrs, towrs; she spils, swils, burns, and razes:
Her brazen feet shake all the Earth asunder,
Her mouth's a fire-brand, and her voice a thunder,
Her looks are lightnings, every glaunce a flash:
Her fingers guns, that all to powder pash.
Fear and Despaire, Flight and Disorder, coast
With hasty march, before her murderous hoast:

208

As, Burning, Waste, Rape, Wrong, Impiety,
Rage, Ruine, Discord, Horror, Cruelty,
Sack, Sacriledge, Impunity, and Pride,
Are still stern consorts by her barbarous side:
And Pouerty, Sorrow, and Desolation,
Follow her Armies bloody transmigration.

3 Sicknes exactly described with all her partakers and dependers.

Heer's th'other Fvrie (or my iudgement fails)
Which furiously mans wofull life assails
With thousand Cannons, sooner felt then seen,
Where weakest strongest; fraught with deadly teen:
Blinde, crooked, cripple, maymed, deaf, and mad,
Cold-burning, blistered, melancholik, sad,
Many-nam'd poyson, minister of Death,
Which from vs creeps, but to vs gallopeth:
Foul, trouble-rest, fantastik, greedy-gut,
Blood-sweating, hearts-theef, wretched, filthy Slut,
The Childe of Surfait, and Ayrs-temper vicious,
Perillous knowen, but vnknowne most pernitious.

Innumerable kindes of diseases.

Th'inammeld meads, in Sommer cannot showe
More Grashoppers aboue, nor Frogs belowe,
Then hellish murmurs heer about doe ring:
Nor never did the prety little King
Of Hony-people, in a Sun-shine day
Lead to the field in orderly array
More busie buzzers, when he casteth (witty)
The first foundations of his waxen Citty;
Then this fierce Monster musters in her train
Fel Souldiers, charging poor mankind amain.

Lo, first a rough and furious Regiment
T'assault the Fort of Adams head is sent,
Reasons best Bulwark, and the holy Cell
Wherein the soules most sacred powers dwell.

The first Regiment sent to assaile the Head, Man's chiefest fortresse. Simile.

A King, that ayms his neighbours Crown to win,
Before the brute of open warrs begin,
Corrupts his Councell with rich recompences;
For, in good Councell stands the strength of Princes:
So this fell Fury, for fore-runners, sends
Manie and Phrenzie to suborne her frends:
Whereof, th'one drying, th'other over-warming
The feeble brain (the edge of iudgement harming)
Within the Soule fantastikly they fain
A confus'd hoast of strange Chimeraes vain,
The Karos th'Apoplexie, and Lethargie,
As forlorn hope, assault the enemy
On the same side; but yet with weapons others:
For, they freez-vp the brain and all his brothers;
Making a liue man like a liue-less carcass,
Saue that again he scapeth from the Parcas.

209

And now the Palsie, and the Cramp dispose
Their angry darts; this bindes, and that doth lose
Mans feeble sinews, shutting vp the way
Whereby before the vitall spirits did play.

A similitude of the effects and endeuors of sicknesse.

Then as a man, that fronts in single Fight
His suddain foe, his ground doth trauerse light,
Thrusts, wards, auoids and best advantage spies,
At last (to daze his Riuals sparkling eyes)
He casts his Cloak, and then with coward knife,
In crimsin streams he makes him strain his life:
So Sicknes, Adam to subdue the better
(Whom thousand Gyues al-ready fastly fetter)
Brings to the field the faith-less Ophthalmy
With scalding blood to blind her enemy,
Darting a thousand thrusts; then she is backt
By th'Amafrose and cloudy Cataract,
That (gathering-vp gross humors inwardly
In th'Optike sinnew) clean puts out the ey:
This other caseth in an enuious caul
The Crystall humour shining in the ball.

This past: in-steps that insolent insulter,
The cruell Quincy, leaping like a Vulture
At Adams throat, his hollow weasand swelling
Among the muscles, through thick bloods congealing,
Leauing him onely this Essay, for signe
Of's might and malice to his future-line:
Like Hercules, that in his infant-browes
Bore glorious marks of his vndaunted prowes,
When with his hands (like steely tongs) he strangled
His spightfull stepdams Dragons spotty-spangled;
A proof, præsaging the tryumphant spoyls
That he atchiv'd by his Twelue famous Toyls.

The second Regiment with deadly darts

The second Regiment assaulting the vitall Parts.

Assaulteth fiercely Adam's vitall parts:
Al-ready th'Asthma, panting, breathing tough,
With humors gross the lifting Lungs doth stuff:
The pining Phthisick fills them all with pushes,
Whence a slowe spowt of cor'sie matter gushes:
A wasting flame the Peripneumony
Within those spunges kindles cruelly:
The spawling Empiem, ruth-less as the rest,
With foul impostumes fils his hollow chest:
The Pleurisie stabs him with desperate foyl
Beneath the ribs, where scalding blood doth boyl:
Then th'Incubus (by some suppos'd a spright)
With a thick phlegm doth stop his breath by night.

The Ague with her train, her kinde and cruell effects.

Deer Muse, my guide; cleer truth that nought dissembles,
Name me that Champion that with fury trembles,

210

Who arm'd with blazing fire-brands, fiercely flings
At th'Armies heart, not at our feeble wings:
Hauing for Aids, Cough, Head-ache, Horror, Heat,
Pulse-beating, Burning, cold-distilling-Sweat,
Thirst, Yawning, Yolking, Casting, Shiuering, Shaking,
Fantastick Rauing, and continuall Aking,
With many mo: O! is not this the Fury
We call the Feuer? whose inconstant fury
Transforms her ofter then Vertumnus can,
To Tertian, Quartan, and Quotidian,
And Second too; now posting, somtimes pawsing,
Euen as the matter, all these changes causing,
Is rommidged with motions slowe or quick
In feeble bodies of the Ague-sick.

Our Poet, hauing been himselfe for many yeers grieuously afflicted with the Feuer, complaineth bitterly of her rude violence.

Ah trecherous beast! needs must I knowe thee best:
For foure whole years thou wert my poor harts guest,
And to this day in body and in minde
I beare the marks of thy despight vnkind:
For yet (besides my veins and bones bereft
Of blood and marrow) through thy secret theft
I feel the vertue of my spirit decayd,
Th'Enthousiasmos of my Muse allaid:
My memory (which hath been meetly good)
Is now (alas!) much like the fleeting flood;
Whereon no sooner haue we drawn a line
But it is canceld, leauing there no signe:
For, the deere fruit of all my care and cost,
My former study (almost all) is lost,
And oft in secret haue I blushed at
Mine ignorance: like Coruine, who forgat
His proper name; or like George Trapezunce
(Learned in youth, and in his age a Dunce).
And thence it growes, that maugre my endeuour
My Numbers still by habite haue the Feuer;
One-while with heat of heauenly fire ensoul'd;
Shivering anon, through faint vn-learned cold.

The third Regiment warring on the naturall Powers.

Now, the third Regiment with stormy stours
Sets-on the Squadron of our Naturall Powers,
Which happily maintain vs (duly) both
With needfull food, and with sufficient growth.
One-while the Boulime, then the Anorexie,
Then the Dog-hunger, or the Bradypepsie,
And childe-great Pica (of prodigious diet)
In straightest stomacks rage with monstrous ryot:
Then on the Liver doth the Iaundize fall,
Stopping the passage of the cholerick Gall;
Which then, for good blood, scatters all about
Her fiery poyson, yellowing all without:

211

But the sad Dropsie freezeth it extream,
Till all the blood be turned into fleam.

But see (alas!) by far more cruell foes
The slippery bowels thrill'd with thousand throes:
With prisoned windes the wringing Colick pains-them,
The Iliack passion with more rigour strains-them,
Streightens their Conduits, and (detested) makes
Mans mouth (alas!) euen like a lothsom Iakes.
Then, the Dysentery with fretting pains
Extorteth pure blood from the flayed veins.
On th'other side, the Stone and Strangury,
Torturing the Reins with deadly tyranny,
With heat-concreted sand-heaps strangely stop
The burning vrine, strained drop by drop:
As opposite, the Diabete by melting
Our bodies substance in our Vrine swelting,
Distills vs still, as long as any matter
Vnto the spout can send supply of water.

Vnto those parts, wherby we leaue behind-vs
Types of our selues in after-times to mind-vs,
There fiercely flies defectiue Venery,
And the foul, feeble, fruit-less Gonorrhe
(An impotence for Generations-deed,
And lust-less Issue of th'vncocted seed)
Remorse-less tyrants, that to spoyl aspire
Babes vnconceiv'd in hatred of their Sire.

The fell fourth Regiment, is outward Tumours

The fourth Regiment forrageth, and detaceth the Body our waraly.

Begot of vicious indigested humours:
As Phlegmons, Oedems, Schyrrhes, Erysipiles,
Kings-euils, Cankers, cruell Gouts, and Byles,
Wens, Ring-worms, Tetters: these from euery part
With thousand pangs braue the besieged hart:
And their blind fury, wanting force and courage
To hurt the Fort, the champain Country forrage.

O tyrants! sheath your feeble swords again:
For, Death al-ready thousand-times hath slain
Your Enemy; and yet your enuious rigour
Doth mar his feature and his limbs disfigure.
And with a dull and ragged instrument
His ioynts and skin are saw'd, and torn, and rent.
Methinks most rightly to a coward Crew

Comparison.

Of Wolues and Foxes I resemble you,
Who in a Forrest (finding on the sand
The Lyon dead, that did aliue command
The Land about, whose awfull Countenance
Melted, far off, their yce-like arrogance)
Mangle the members of their liue-less Prince,
With feeble signes of dastard insolence.

212

The Lowzie Disease.

But, with the Griefs that charge our outward places,
Shall I account the loathsome Phthiriasis?
O shamefull Plague! O foul infirmitie!
Which makes proud Kings, fouler then Beggers be
(That wrapt in rags, and wrung with vermin sore,
Their itching backs sit shrugging euermore)
To swarm with Lice, that rubbing cannon rid,
Nor often shift of shirts, and sheets, and bed:
For, as in springs, stream stream pursueth fresh,
Swarm follows swarm, and their too fruitfull flesh
Breeds her own eaters, and (till Deaths arrest)
Makes of it selfe an execrable feast.

Diseases proper to certaine Climats & Natiōs.

Nor may we think, that Chance confusedly
Conducts the Camp of our Third Enemy:
For, of her Souldiers, som (as led by reason)
Can make their choice of Country, Age, and Season.
So Portugall hath Phthisiks most of all,
Eber Kings-euils; Arne the Suddain Fall;
Sauoy the Mumps; West-India, Pox; and Nyle
The Leprosie; Plague, the Sardinian-Ile,
After the influence of the Heav'ns all ruling,

To som ages of man.

Or Countries manners. So, soft Child-hood puling
Is wrung with Worms, begot of crudity,
Are apt to I aske through much humidity:
Through their salt phlegms, their heads are hid with skalls,
Their Limbs with Red-gums and with bloody balls
Of Menstruall humour which (like Must) within
Their bodies boyling buttoneth all their Skin.
To bloody-Flixes, Youth is apt inclining,
Continuall-Feuers, Phrenzies, Phthisik-pyning.
And feeble Age is seldom-times without
Her tedious guests, the Palsie and the Gout,
Coughes and Catarrhs. And so the Pestilence,
The quartan-Ague with her accidents,

To the Seasons of the yeare.

The Flix, the Hip-gout, and the Watry-Tumour,
Are bred with vs of an Autumnal humour:
The Itch, the Murrein, and Alcides-grief,
In Ver's hot-moysture doe molest vs chief:
The Diarrhœa and the Burning-Feuer,
In Sommer-season doo their fell endevour:
And Pleurisies, the rotten-Coughes, and Rheums,
Wear curled flakes of white celestiall plumes:
Like sluggish Souldiers, keeping Garrison
In th'ycie Bulwarks of the Years gelt Son.

Some Diseases contagious.

Som, seeming most in multitudes delighting,
Bane one by other, not the first acquiting:
As Measels, Mange, and filthy Leprosie,
The Plague, the Pox, and Phthisik-maladie.

213

And some (alas!) we leaue as in succession,

Some hæreditarie.

Vnto our Children, for a sad possession:
Such are Kings-euils, Dropsie, Gout, and Stone,
Blood-boyling Lepry, and Consumption,
The swelling Throat-ache, th'Epilepsie sad,
And cruell Rupture, payning too-too bad:
For, their hid poysons after-comming harm
Is fast combin'd vnto the Parents sperm.

But O! what arms, what shield shall we oppose,

Some not known by their Cause, but by their Effects only.

What stratagems against those treacherous foes,
Those trecherous griefs, that our frail Art detects
Not by their cause, but by their sole effects?
Such are the fruitfull Matrix suffocation,
The Falling-sicknes, and pale Swouning-passion;
The which, I wote not what strange windes long pause,
I wot not where, I wote not how doth cause.

Or who (alas!) can scape the cruell wile

Some by sundry Causes encreasing and waxing worse.

Of those fell Pangs that Physicks pains beguile?
Which beeing banisht from a body, yet
(Vnder new names) return again to it:
Or rather, taught the strange Metempsychosis
Of the wise Samian, one it self transposes
Into som worse Griefe; either through the kindred
Of th'humour vicious, or the member hindred:
Or through their ignorance or auarice
That doe profess Apollos exercise.
So, Melancholy turned into Madnes:
Pro the Palsie, deep-affrighted Sadnes;
Th'Il-habitude into the Dropsie chill:
And Megrim growes to the Comitial-Ill.

In brief, poor Adam in this pitious case

Comparison.

Is like a Stag, that long pursu'd in chase,
Flying for succour to some neighbour wood,
Sinks on the suddain in the yeelding mud;
And sticking fast amid the rotten grounds,
Is over-taken by the eger Hounds:
One bites his back, his neck another nips,
One puls his brest, at's throat another skips,
One tugs his flank, his haunch another tears,
Another lugs him by the bleeding ears;
And last of all, the Wood-man with his knife
Cuts off his head, and so concludes his life.
Or like a lusty Bull, whose horned Crest

Another comparison.

Awakes fell Hornets from their drowsie nest,
Who buzzing forth, assaile him on each side,
And pitch their valiant Bands about his hide;
With fisking train, with forked head, and foot,
Himselfe, th'ayre, th'earth, he beateth (to no boot)

214

Flying (through woods, hills, dales, and roaring rivers)
His place of griefe, but not his painfull grievers:
And in the end, stitcht full of stings he dies,
Or on the ground as dead (at least) he lies.

An amplification of Mans miseries, compared with other Creatures seldomer sick, & sooner healed: & that by naturall Remedies of their owne: hauing also taught Men many practices of Physike.

For, man is loaden with ten thousand languors:
All other Creatures, onely feele the angors
Of few Diseases: as, the gleaning Quail
Onely the Falling-sicknes doth assail:
The Turn-about and Murrain trouble Cattel,
Madnes and Quincie bid the Masty battel.

Yet each of them can naturally find
What Simples cure the sickness of their kind;
Feeling no sooner their disease begin,
But they as soon haue ready medicine.
The Ram for Physick takes strong-senting Rue,
The Tortois slowe, cold Hemlock doth renue:
The Partridge, Black-bird, and rich painted Iay.
Haue th'oyly liquour of the sacred Bay.
The sickly Beare, the Mandrak cures again;
And Mountain-Siler helpeth Goats to yean:
But, we know nothing, till by poaring still
On Books, we get vs a Sophistik skill;
A doubtfull Art, a Knowledge still vnknowen:
Which enters but the hoary heads (alone)
Of those, that (broken with vnthankfull toyl)
Seek others Health, and lose their own the-while:
Or rather those (such are the greatest part)
That waxing rich at others cost and smart,
Growe famous Doctors, purchasing promotions,
While the Church-yards swel with their hurtfull potions;
Who (hang-man like) fear-less, aed shame-less too,
Are prayd and payd for murders that they doo.

I speak not of the good, the wise, and learned,
Within whose hearts Gods fear is well discerned;
Who to our bodies can again vnite
Our parting soules, ready to take their flight.
For, these I honour as Heav'ns gifts excelling,
Pillars of Health, Death and Disease repelling:
Th'Almighties Agents, Natures Counsellers,
And flowring Youths wise faithfull Governours.

Yet if their Art can ease some kinde of dolors,
They learn'd it first of Natures silent Schollers:
For, from the Sea-Horse came Phlebotomies,
From the wild Goat the healing of the eys;
From Stork and Hearn, our Glysters laxatiue,
From Beares and Lions Diets wee deriue.

'Gainst th'onely Body, all these Champions stout
Striue; some, within: and other some, without.

215

Or, if that any th'all-fair Soule haue striken,
'Tis not directly; but, in that they weaken
Her Officers, and spoyle the Instruments
Wherwith she works such wonderous presidents.

But, lo! foure Captains far more fierce and eger,

Of foure Diseases of the Soule, vnder them comprehending all the rest.

That on all sides the Spirit it selfe beleaguer,
Whose Constancy they shake, and soon by treason
Draw the blind Iudgement from the rule of Reason:
Opinions issue; which (though selfe vnseen)
Make through the Body their fell motions seen.

Sorrow's first Leader of this furious Crowd,

1 Sorrow described with her company.

Muffled all-over in a sable clowd,
Old before Age, afflicted night and day,
Her face with wrinkles warped every-way,
Creeping in corners, where she sits and vies
Sighes from her hart, tears from her blubbered eys;
Accompani'd with selfe-consuming Care,
With weeping Pity, Thought, and mad Despaire
That bears, about her, burning Coales and Cords,
Asps, poysons, Pistols, Halters, Kniues, and Swords:
Foul squinting Envy, that self-eating Elf,
Through others leanness fatting vp herself,
Ioying in mischiefe, feeding but with languor
And bitter tears her Toad-like-swelling anger:
And Ielousie that never sleeps, for fear
(Suspicions Flea still nibbling in her ear)
That leaues repast and rest, neer pin'd and blinde
With seeking what she would be loth to finde.

The second Captain is excessiue Ioy:

2 Ioy with her Traine.

Who leaps and tickles, finding th'Apian-way
Too streight for her: whose senses all possess
All wished pleasures in all plentiousnes.
She hath in conduct false vain-glorious Vaunting,
Bold, soothing, shameless, lowd, iniurious, taunting:
The winged Giant lofty-staring Pride,
That in the clouds her brauing Crest doth hide:
And many other, like the empty bubbles
That rise when raine the liquid Crystall troubles.

The Third, is blood-less, hart-less, witless Feare,

3 Feare & her Followers.

That like an Asp-tree trembles every-where:
She leads black Terror, and base clownish Shame,
And drowsie Sloath, that counterfaiteth lame,
With Snail-like motion measuring the ground,
Having her arms in willing fetters bound,
Foul, sluggish Drone, barren (but, sin to breed)
Diseased, begger, starv'd with wilfull need.

And thou Desire, whom nor the firmament,

4 Desire, a most violent Passion, accompanied with others like: as Ambition, Auarice, Anger, and Foolish Loue.

Nor ayr, nor earth, nor Ocean can content:

216

Whose-looks are hookes, whose belly's bottom-less,
Whose hands are Gripes to scrape with greediness,
Thou art the Fourth: and vnder thy Command,
Thou bringst to field a rough vnruly Band:
First, secret-burning, mighty-swoln Ambition
Pent in no limits, pleas'd with no Condition,
Whom Epicurus many Worlds suffice not,
Whose furious thirst of proud aspiring dies not,
Whose hands (transported with fantastike passion)
Bear painted Scepters in imagination:
Then Auarice all-arm'd in hooking Tenters
And clad in Bird-lime; without bridge she venters
Through fell Charybdis, and false Syrtes Nesse;
The more her wealth, the more her wretchedness:
Cruel, respect-less, friendless, faith-less Elf,
That hurts her neighbour, but much more her self:
Whose foule base fingers in each dunghill poar
(Like Tantalus) starv'd in the midst of store:
Not what she hath, but what she wants she counts:
A wel-wingd Bird that neuer lofty mounts.

Then, boyling Wrath, stern, cruell, swift, and rash,
That like a Boar her teeth doth grinde and gnash:
Whose hair doth stare, like bristled Porcupine;
Who som-times rowles her ghastly-glowing eyn,
And som-time fixtly on the ground doth glaunce,
Now bleak, then bloody in her Countenance;
Rauing and rayling with a hideous sound,
Clapping her hands, stamping against the ground;
Bearing Bocconi, fire and sword to slay,
And murder all that for her pitty pray;
Baning her self, to bane her Enemy;
Disdaining Death, prouided others dy:
Like falling Towers o'r-turned by the winde,
That break themselues on that they vnder-grinde.
And then that Tyrant, all-controuling Loue:
(Whom heer to paint doth little me behooue,
After so many rare Apetleses
As in this Age our Albion nourishes)
And to be short, thou doest to battail bring
As many Souldiers 'gainst the Creatures King,
(Yet not his owne) as in this life, Mankinde
True very Goods, or seeming-Goods doth finde.

Now, if (but like the Lightning in the sky)
These sudden Passions past but swiftly by,
The fear were less: but, O! too-oft they leaue
Keen stings behinde in Soules thar they deceiue.

The horrible effects of the Passions of the soule far more dangerous then the diseases of the body.

From this foul Fountain, all these poysons rise,
Rapes, Treasons, Murders, Incests, Sodomies,

217

Blaspheaming, Bibbing, Theeuing, False-contracting,
Church-chaffering, Cheating, Bribing, and Exacting.

Alas! how these (far-worse then death) Diseases
Exceed each Sickness that our body seises;
Which makes vs open war, and by his spight
Giues to the Patient many a holsom light,
Now by the colour, or the Pulses beating,
Or by som Fit, som sharper dolor threatning;
Whereby, the Leach neer-ghessing at our grief,
Not seldom findes sure meanes for our relief.
But, for the Ills raign in our Intellect
(Which only, them both can and ought detect)
They rest vnknown, or rather self-conceal'd;
And soule-sick Patients care not to be heal'd.

Besides, we plainly call the Feuer, Feuer:
The Dropsie, Dropsie: over-gliding never,
With guile-full flourish of a fained phraze,
The cruell Languors that our bodies craze:
Whereas, our fond self-soothing Soule, thus sick,
Rubs her own sore; with glozing Rhetorick
Cloaking her vice: and makes the blinded Blain
Not fear the touch of Reasons Cautere vain.

And sure, if ever filthy Vice did iet
In sacred Vertues spot-less mantle neat,

The miserable corruption of our Times, worse then all former Ages.

'Tis in our dayes, more hatefull and vnhallow'd,
Then when the World the Waters wholly swallow'd.

Ile spare to speak of foulest Sins, that spot
Th'infamous beds of men of mighty lot;
Lest I the Saints chaste tender ears offend,
And seem them more to teach, then reprehend.

Who bear vpon their French-sick backs about,

All riotous Prodigality disguised with the name of Liberality.

Farms, Castles, Fees, in golden shreads cut-out;
Whose lavish hand, at one Primero-rest,
One Mask, one Turney, or one pampering Feast,
Spend treasures, scrap't by th'Vsurie and Care
Of miser Parents; Liberall counted are.

Who, with a maiden voice, and mincing pase,

Effeminate curiosity & luxurious Pride, miscalled Cleanlinesse.

Quaint loooks, curl'd locks, perfumes, and painted face,
Base coward-hart, and wanton soft array,
Their man-hood only by their Beard bewray;
Are Cleanly call'd. Who like Lust-greedy Goates,

Insatiate lust and Beast-like Loosenes, surnamed Loue.

Brothel from bed to bed; whose Siren-notes
Inchant chaste Susans, and like hungry Kite
Fly at all game, they Louers are behight.

Who, by false bargains, and vnlawfull measures
Robbing the World, haue heaped kingly treasures:

Extream Extortion scunted Thrift.

Who cheat the simple; lend for fifty fifty,
Hundred for hundred, are esteemed Thrifty.

218

Blasphemous Quarrels, brauest Courage.

Who alwaies murder and revenge affect,
Who feed on blood, who never doe respect
State, Sex, or Age: but in all humane liues
In cold blood, bathe their paricidiall kniues;

Inhumane Murder highest Manhood.

Are stiled Valiant. Grant, good Lord, our Land
May want such valour whose self-cruell hand
Fights for our foes, our proper life-blood spils,
Our Cities sacks, and our owne Kindred kils.
Lord, let the Lance, the Gun, the Sword, and Shield,
Be turn'd to tools to furrow vp the field,
And let vs see the Spyders busie task
Wov'n in the belly of the plumed Cask.

But if (braue Lands-men) your war-thirst be such,
If in your brests sad Enyon boyl so much,
What holds you heer? alas! what hope of crowns?
Our fields are flock-less, treasure-less our Towns.

Goe then, nay run, renowned Martialists,
Re-found French-Greece, in now-Natolian lists;
Hy, hy to Flanders; free with conquering stroak
Your Belgian brethren from th'Iberians yoak:
To Portugal; people Galizian-Spain,
And graue your names on Lysbon's gates again.

FINIS.

219

4. The Handy-Crafts.

THE IIII. PART OF THE FIRST DAY OF THE II. WEEK.

The Argvment.

The Praise of Peace, the miserable states
Of Edens Exiles: their vn-curious Cates,
Their simple habit, silly habitation:
They find out Fire. Their formost Propagation:
Their Childrens trades, their offerings; enuious Cain
His (better) Brother doth vnkindly brain:
With inward horror hurried vp and down,
He breakes a Horse, he builds a homely Town:
Iron's inuented, and sweet Instruments:
Adam fortels of After-Worlds euents.

Heav'ns sacred Imp, fair Goddess that renew'st

The Poet here welcomes peace which (after long absence) seems about this time to haue returned into France. The Benefites she brings with her.

Th'old golden Age, and brightly now re-blew'st
Our cloudy skie, making our fields to smile:
Hope of the vertuous, horror of the vile:
Virgin, vnseen in France this many a yeer,
O blessed Peace! we bid thee welcom heer.

Lo, at thy presence, how who late were prest
To spur their Steeds, and couch their staues in rest
For fierce incounter; cast away their spears,
And rapt with ioy, them enter-bathe with tears.
Lo, how our Marchant-vessels to and fro
Freely about-our trade-full waters go:
How the graue Senate with iust-gentle rigour,
Resumes his Robe; the Laws their antient vigour.
Lo, how Obliuions Seas our striefes do drown:
How walls are built that war had thundred down:

220

Lo, how the Shops with busie Crafts-men swarm;
How Sheep and Cattell cover every Farm:
Behold the Bonfires waving to the skies:
Hark, hark the cheerfull and re-chanting cries
Of old and young; singing this ioyfull Dittie,

Thanks-giuing to God for peace.

Iö reioyce, reioyce through Town and Cittie,
Let all our ayr, re-eccho with the praises
Of th'everlasting glorious God, who raises
Our ruin'd State: who giveth vs a good
We sought not for (or rather, we with-stood):
So that to hear and see these consequences
Of wonders strange, we scarce beleeue our senses.
O! let the King, let Mounsieur and the Sover'n

Gratefull remēbrance of the means thereof.

That doth Nauarras Spain wrongd Scepter gouern,
Be all, by all, their Countries Fathers cleapt:
O! let the honour of their names be kept,
And on brass leaues ingrav'n eternally
In the bright Temple of fair Memory,
For having quencht, so soon, so many fires,
Disarm'd our arms, appeas'd the heav'nly ires,
Calm'd the pale horror of intestine hates,
And dammed-vp the bifront Fathers gates.

Much more, let vs (deer, World-diuided land)
Extoll the mercies of Heav'ns mighty hand,
That (while the World; Wars bloody rage hath rent)
To vs so long, so happy Peace hath lent
(Maugre the malice of th'Italian Priest,
And Indian Pluto (prop of Anti-christ;
Whose Hoast, like Pharaoh's threatning Israel,
Our gaping Seas haue swallowed quick to hell)
Making our Ile a holy Safe-Retrait
For saints exil'd in persecutions heat.

An imitation thereof, by the Translator, in honour of our late gracious Souerain Elizabeth: in whose happy Raigne God hath giuen this Kingdom so long peace and rich prosperitie.

Much more, let vs with true-heart-tuned breath,
Record the Praises of Elizabeth
(Our martiall Pallas and our milde Astræa,
Of grace and wisdom the divine Idea)
Whose prudent Rule, with rich religious rest,
Wel-neer nine Lustres hath this Kingdom blest.
O! pray we him that from home-plotted dangers
And bloody threats of proud ambitious Strangers,
So many years hath so securely kept her,
In iust possession of this flowring Scepter;
That (to his glory and his deer Sons honour)
All happy length of life may wait vpon her:
That we her Subiects, whom he blesseth by her,
Psalming his praise, may sound the same the higher.

But waiting (Lord) in som more learned Layes,
To sing thy glory, and my Soueraigns praise;

221

I sing the young Worlds Cradle, as a Proëm
Vnto so rare and so diuine a Poëm.

Who, Fvll Of wealth and honours blandishment,

An Elegant cōparison representing the lamentable condition of Adam and Eue driuen out of Paradise.

Among great Lords his yonger yeares hath spent;
And quaffing deply of the Court-delights,
Vs'd nought but Tilts, Turneis, and Masks, and Sights:
If in his age, his Princes angry doom
With deep disgrace driue him to liue at home
In homely Cottage, where continually
The bitter smoak exhales aboundantly
From his before-vn-sorrow-drained brain
The brackish vapours of a silver rain:
Where Vsher-less, both day and night, the North,
South, East, and West windes, enter and goe forth:
Where round-about, the lowe-rooft broken wals
(In stead of Arras) hang with Spiders cauls:
Where all at once he reacheth, as he stands,
With brows the roof, both wals with both his hands:
He weeps and sighs, and (shunning comforts ay)
Wisheth pale Death a thousand times a day:
And, yet at length falling to work, is glad
To bite a brown crust that the Mouse hath had,
And in a Dish (for want of Plate or Glass)
Sups Oaten drink in stead of Hypocras.
So (or much like) our rebell Elders, driven
For ay from Eden (earthly type of Heav'n)
Ly languishing neer Tigris grassie side,
With nummed limbs, and spirits stupefied.

But powrfull Need (Arts ancient Dame and Keeper,

The first Maner of life.

The early watch-clock of the sloathfull sleeper)
Among the Mountains makes them seek their living,
And foaming rivers, through the champain driving:
For yet the Trees with thousand fruits yfraught
In formall Checkers were not fairly brought:
The Pear and Apple liued Dwarf-like there,
With Oakes and Ashes shadowed every-where:
And yet (alas!) their meanest simple cheer
Our wretched Parents bought full hard and deer.
To get a Plum, somtimes poor Adam rushes
With thousand wounds among a thousand bushes.
If they desire a Medlar for their food,
They must go seek it through a fearfull wood;
Or a brown Mulbery, then the ragged Bramble
With thousand scratches doth their Skin bescramble.

Wherefore (as yet) more led by th'appetite.

Great simplicity in their kinde of life.

Of th'hungry belly then the tastes delight,
Living from hand to mouth, soon satisfi'd,
To earn their supper, th'after-noon they ply'd,

222

Vnstor'd of dinner till the morrow-day;
Pleas'd with an Apple, or som lesser pray.
Then, taught by Ver (richer in flowrs then fruit)
And hoary Winter, of both destitute,
Nuts, Filberds, Almonds, wisely vp they hoord,
The best provisions that the woods affoord.

Their Cloathing.

Touching their garments: for the shining wooll
Whence the roab-spinning pretious Worms are full,
For gold and silver wov'n in drapery,
For Cloth dipt double in the scarlet Dy,
For Gemms bright lustre, with excessiue cost
On rich embroideries by rare Art embost;
Somtimes they doe the far-spread Gourd vnleaue,
Somtime the Fig-tree of his branch bereaue:
Somtimes the Plane, somtimes the Vine they shear,
Choosing their fairest tresses heer and there:
And with their sundry locks, thorn'd each to other,
Their tender limbs they hide from Cynthias Brother.

Somtimes the Iuie's climing stems they strip,
Which lovingly his liuely prop doth clip:
And with green lace, in artificiall order,
The wrinkled bark of th'Acorn-Tree doth border,
And with his arms th'Oaks slender twigs entwining,
A many branches in one tissue ioyning,
Frames a loose Iacquet, whose light nimble quaking,
Wagg'd by the windes, is like the wanton shaking
Of golden spangles, that in stately pride
Dance on the tresses of a noble Bride.

But, while that Adam (waxen diligent)
Wearies his limbs for mutuall nourishment:
While craggy Mountains, Rocks, and thorny Plains,
And bristly Woods be witness of his pains;
Eue, walking forth about the Forrests, gathers
Speights, Parrots, Peacocks, Estrich scattered feathers,
And then with wax the smaller plumes she sears,
And sowes the greater with a white horse hairs,
(For they as yet did serue her in the steed
Of Hemp, and Towe, and Flax, and Silk, and Threed)
And thereof makes a medly coat so rare
That it resembles Nature's Mantle fair,
When in the Sunne, in pomp all glistering,
She seems with smiles to woo the gawdie Spring.

When (by stoln moments) this she had contriv'd,
Leaping for ioy, her cheerfull looks reviv'd,
Sh' admires her cunning; and incontinent
'Sayes on her selfe her manly ornament;
And then through path-less paths she runs apace,
To meet her husband comming from the Chase.

223

Sweet-heart, quoth she (and then she kisseth him)
My Loue, my Life, my Bliss, my Ioy, my Gem,
My soules deer Soule, take in good part (I pree-thee)
This pretty Present that I gladly giue-thee.
Thanks my deer All (quoth Adam then) for this,
And with three kisses he requites her kiss.
Then on he puts his painted garment new,
And Peacock-like himselfe doth often view,
Looks on his shadow, and in proud amaze

Eues industrie in making a Garment for her Husband.

Admires the hand that had the Art to cause
So many severall parts to meet in one,
To fashion thus the quaint Mandilion.

But, when the Winters keener breath began
To crystallize the Baltike Ocean,
To glaze the Lakes, and bridle-vp the Floods,
And perriwig with wooll the bald-pate Woods;
Our Grand-sire, shrinking, gan to shake and shiver,
His teeth to chatter, and his beard to quiver.
Spying therefore a flock of Muttons comming
(Whose freez-clad bodies feel not Winters numming)
He takes the fairest, and he knocks it down:
Then by good hap, finding vpon the Down
A sharp great fishbone (which long time before
The roaring flood had cast vpon the shore)
He cuts the throat, flayes it, and spreads the fell,
Then dries it, pares it, and he scrapes it well,

Their winter sutes.

Then cloathes his wife therewith; and of such hides
Slops, Hats, and Doublets for himselfe provides.

A vaulted Rock, a hollow Tree, a Caue,

Their lodging and first building.

Were the first buildings that them shelter gaue:
But, finding th'one to be too-moist a hold,
Th'other too-narrow, th'other over-cold;
Like Carpenters, within a Wood they choose
Sixteen fair Trees that never leaues do loose,
Whose equall front in quadran form prospected,
As if of purpose Nature them erected:
Their shady boughs first bow they tenderly,
Then enterbraid, and binde them curiously;
That one would think that had this Arbor seen,
'T had been true seeling painted-over green.

After this triall, better yet to fence
Their tender flesh from th'ayry violence,
Vpon the top of their fit-forked stems,
They lay a-crosse bare Oken boughs for beams

A building som-what more exact.

(Such as dispersed in the Woods they finde,
Torn-off in tempests by the stormy winde)
Then these again with leauy boughes they load,
So covering close their sorry cold abode,

224

And then they ply from th'eaues vnto the ground,
With mud-mixt Reed to wall their mansion round,
All saue a hole to th'Eastward situate,
Where straight they clap a hurdle for a gate
(In steed of hinges hanged on a With)
Which with a sleight both shuts and openeth.

The inuention of Fire.

Yet fire they lackt: but lo, the winds, that whistle
Amid the Groues, so oft the Laurell iustle
Against the Mulbery, that their angry claps
Do kindle fire, that burns the neighbour Cops.

When Adam saw a ruddy vapour rise
In glowing streame; astund with fear he flies,
It followes him, vntill a naked Plain
The greedy fury of the flame restrain:
Then back he turns, and comming somwhat nigher
The kindled shrubs, perceiving that the fire
Dries his dank Cloathes, his Colour doth refresh,
And vnbenums his sinews and his flesh;
By th'vnburnt end, a good big brand he takes,
And hying home a fire he quickly makes,
And still maintains it, till the starry Twins
Celestiall breath another fire begins.
But, Winter being comn again it griev'd him;
T'haue lost so fondly what so much reliev'd him,
Trying a thousand waies, sith now no more
The iustling Trees his domage would restore.

How the first Man inuented Fire for the vse of himselfe and his posterity.

While (else-where musing) one day he sate down
Vpon a steep Rocks craggy-forked crown,
A foaming beast come toward him he spies,
Within whose head stood burning coals for eyes;
Then suddenly with boisterous armes he throwes
A knobby flint, that hummeth as it goes;
Hence flies the beast, th'ill-aimed flint-shaft grounding
Against the Rock, and on it oft rebounding,
Shivers to cinders, whence there issued
Small sparks of fire no sooner born then dead.

This happy chance made Adam leap for glee:
And quickly calling his cold company,
In his left hand a shining flint he locks,
Which with another in his right he knocks
So vp and down, that from the coldest stone
At every stroak small fiery sparkles shone.
Then with the dry leaues of a withered Bay
The which together handsomly they lay,
They take the falling fire, which like a Sun
Shines cleer and smoak-less in the leaf begun.

Eue, kneeling down, with hand her head sustaining,
And on the lowe ground with her elbowe leaning,

225

Blowes with her mouth: and with her gentle blowing
Stirs vp the heat, that from the dry leaues glowing
Kindles the Reed, and then that hollow kix
First fires the small, and they the greater sticks.

And now, Man-kinde with fruitfull Race began

Beginning of Families.

A litle corner of the World to man:
First Cain is born, to tillage all adicted;
Then Abel, most to keeping flocks affected.

The seuerall Occupations of Abel & Cain.

Abel, desirous still at hand to keep
His Milk and Cheese, vnwildes the gentle Sheep
To make a Flock; that when it tame became
For guard and guide should haue a Dog and Ram.
Cain, more ambitious, giues but little ease
To's boistrous limbs: and seeing that the Pease,
And other Pulse, Beans, Lentils, Lupins, Rïce,
Burnt in the Copses as not held in price,
Som grains he gathers: and with busie toyl,
A-part hee sowes them in a better soyl;
Which first he rids of stones, and thorns, and weeds,
Then buries there his dying-living seeds.

By the next Haruest, finding that his pain
On this small plot was not ingrately vain;
To break more ground, that bigger Crop may bring
Without so often weary labouring,
He tames a Heifer, and on either side,
On either horn a three-fold twist he ty'd
Of Osiar twigs, and for a-Plough he got
The horn or tooth of som Rhinocerot.

Now, th'one in Cattle, th'other rich in grain,

Their sacrifice.

On two steep Mountains build they Altars twain;
Where (humbly-sacred) th'one with zealous cry
Cleaues bright Olympus starry Canopy:
With fained lips, the other low'd-resounded
Hart-wanting Hymns, on self-deseruing founded:
Each on his Altar offereth to the Lord
The best that eithers flocks, or fields affoords.

Rein-searching God, thought-sounding Iudge, that tries

God regardeth Abel and his Sacrifice, and reiecteth Cain and his: wheras Cain enuieth, and finally kils his Brother; whose blood God reuengeth.

The will and heart more then the work and guise,
Accepts good Abels gift: but hates the other
Profane oblation of his furious brother;
Who feeling, deep th'effects of Gods displeasure,
Raues, frets, and fumes, and murmurs out of measure.

What boots it (Cain) O wretch! what boots it thee
T'haue opened first the fruitfull womb (quoth he)
Of the first mother; and first born the rather
T'haue honour'd Adam first, with name of Father?
Vnfortunate, what boots thee to be wealthy,
Wise, actiue, valiant, strongly-limb'd, and healthy,

226

If this weak Girl-boy, in mans shape disguis'd,
To Heav'n and Earth be dear, and thou despis'd?
What boots it thee, for others night and day
In painfull toyl to wear thy self away:
And (more for others then thine own relief)
To haue deuised of all Arts the chief;
If this dull Infant, of thy labour nurst,
Shall reap the glory of thy deeds (accurst)?
Nay, rather quickly rid thee of the fool,
Down with his climbing hill, and timely cool
This kindling flame: and that none over-crowe thee,
Re-seise the right that Birth and Vertue owe thee.

Ay in his minde this counsail he revolues:
And hundred times to act it he resolues,
And yet as of relents; stopt worthily
By the pains horror, and sins tyranny.

But, one day drawing with dissembled loue
His harm-less brother far into a Groue,
Vpon the verdure of whose virgin-boughs
Bird had not pearcht, nor never Beast did brouz;
With both his hands he takes a stone so huge,
That in our age three men could hardly bouge,
And iust vpon his tender brothers crown,
With all his might he cruell casts it down.

The murdred face lies printed in the mud,
And lowd for vengeance cryes the martyr'd blood:
The battered brains fly in the murd'rers face.
The Sun, to shun this Tragike sight, a-pace
Turns back his Teem: the amazed Paricide
Doth all the Furies scourging whips abide:
Externall terrors, and th'internall Worm
A thousand kindes of living deaths do form:
All day he hides him, wanders all the night,
Flies his owne friends, of his own shade affright,
Scarr'd with a leaf, and starting at a Sparrow,
And all the World seems for his fear too-narrow.

By reason of the multiplying of mankinde, the children of Adam begin to build houses for their commodity and retreat.

But for his Children, born by three and three,
Produce him Nephews, that still multiply
With new increase; who yer their age be rife
Becom great-Grand-sires in their Grand-sires life;
Staying at length, he chose him out a dwelling,
For woods and floods, and ayr, and soyl excelling.

One fels down Firs, another of the same
With crossed poles a little lodge doth frame:
Another mounds it with dry wals about
(And leaues a breach for passage in and out)
With Turf and Furse: som others yet more grosse
Their homely Sties in stead of walls inclose:

227

Som (like the Swallow) mud and hay do mix,
And that about their silly Cotes they fix:
Som make their Roofs with fearn, or reeds, or rushes,
And som with hides, with oase, with boughs, and bushes.

He, that still fearfull, seeketh still defence,

Cain thinking to find som quiet for the tempests of his consciece, begins to fortify, and build a Towne.

Shortly this Hamlet to a Town augments.
For, with keen Coultar having bounded (wittie)
The four-fac't Rampire of his simple Citie;
With stones soon gathered on the neighbour strand,
And clayie morter readie there at hand,
Well trod and tempered, he immures his Fort,
A stately Towr erecting on the Port:
Which awes his owne; and threats his enemies;
Securing som-what his pale tyrannies.

O Tigre! think'st thou (hellish fratricide)
Because with stone-heaps thou art fortifi'd,
Prince of som Peasants trained in thy tillage,
And silly Kingling of a simple Village;
Think'st thou to scape the storm of vengeance dread,
That hangs already o'r thy hatefull head?
No: wert thou (wretch) incamped at thy will
On strongest top of any steepest Hill:
Wert thou immur'd in triple brazen Wall,
Having for aid all Creatures in this All:
If skin and heart, of steel and yron were,
Thy pain thou could'st not, less auoid thy fear
Which chils thy bones, and runs through all thy vains,
Racking thy soule with twentie thousand pains.

Cain (as they say) by this deep fear disturbed,

Supposeth to secure himselfe by the strength and swiftnes of a Horse, which he begins to tame.

The first of all th'vntamed Courser curbed;
That while about on others feet he run
With dustie speed, he might his Deaths-man shun.
Among a hundred braue, light, lustie, Horses
(With curious ey, marking their comly forces)
He chooseth one for his industrious proof,
With round, high, hollow, smooth, brown, ietty hoof,

Description of a gallant Horse.

With Pasterns short, vpright (but yet in mean);
Dry sinewie shanks; strong, flesh-less knees, and lean;
With Hart-like legs, broad brest, and large behinde,
With body large, smooth flanks, and double-chin'd;
A crested neck bow'd like a half-bent Bowe,
Whereon a long, thin, curled mane doth flowe;
A firm full tail, touching the lowely ground,
With dock between two fair fat buttocks drownd;
A pricked ear, that rests as little space,
As his light foot; a lean, bare bonny face,
Thin joule, and head but of a middling size,
Full, liuely-flaming, quickly rowling eyes,

228

Great foaming mouth, hot-fuming nosthrill wide,
Of Chest-nut hair, his fore-head starrifi'd,
Three milky feet, a feather on his brest,
Whom seav'n-years-old at the next grass he ghest.

The maner how to back, to break & make a good Horse.

This goodly Iennet gently first he wins,
And then to back him actively begins:
Steady and straight he sits, turning his sight
Still to the fore-part of his Palfrey light.
The chafed Horse, such thrall ill-suffering,
Begins to snuff, and snort, and leap, and fling;
And flying swift, his fearfull Rider makes
Like som vnskilfull Lad that vnder-takes

Simile.

To holde som ships helm, while the head-long Tyde
Carries away the Vessell and her Guide;
Who neer deuoured in the jawes of Death,
Pale, fearfull, shivering, faint, and out of breath,
A thousand times (with Heav'n erected eyes)
Repents him of so bold an enterprise.

But, sitting fast, less hurt then feared; Cain
Boldens himselfe and his braue Beast again:
Brings him to pase, from pasing to the trot,
From trot to gallop: after runs him hot
In full career: and at his courage smiles;
And sitting still to run so many miles.

The ready speed of a swift Horse presented to the Reader, in a pleasant and liuely descriptiō.

His pase is fair and free; his trot as light
As Tigres course; as Swallows nimble flight:
And his braue gallop seems as swift to goe
As Biscan Darts, or shafts from Russian bowe:
But, roaring Canon, from his smoaking throat,
Never so speedy spews the thundring shot
(That in an Army mowes whole squadrons down,
And batters bulwarks of a summon'd Town)
As this light Horse scuds, if he doe but feel
His bridle slack, and in his side the heel:
Shunning himself, his sinewie strength he stretches;
Flying the earth, the flying ayr he catches,
Born whirl-winde-like: he makes the trampled ground
Shrink vnder him, and shake with doubling sound:
And when the sight no more pursue him may,
In fieldy clouds he vanisheth away.

Good Horsemanship.

The wise-waxt Rider, not esteeming best
To take too-much now of his lusty Beast,
Restraines his fury: then with learned wand
The triple Corvet makes him vnderstand:
With skilfull voice he gently cheers his pride,
And on his neck his flattering palm doth slide:
He stops him steady still, new breath to take,
And in the same path brings him softly back.

229

But th'angry Steed, rising and reaning proudly,

The Coūtenance, Pride and Port of a courageous Horse, when he is chafed.

Striking the stones, stamping and neighing loudly,
Calls for the Combat, plunges, leaps and praunces,
Befoams the path, with sparkling eys he glaunces,
Champs on his burnisht bit, and gloriously
His nimble fetlocks lifteth belly-high,
All side-long iaunts, on either side he iustles,
And's waving Crest courageously he bristles,
Making the gazers glad on every side
To give more room vnto his portly Pride.

Cain gently shoaks him, and now sure in seat,

The Dexterity of a skilfull Rider.

Ambitiously seeks still som fresher feat
To be more famous; one while trots the Ring,
Another while he doth him backward bring,
Then of all four he makes him lightly bound;
And to each hand to manage rightly round;
To stoop, to stop, to caper, and to swim,
To dance to leap, to hold-vp any lim:
And all, so don, with time-grace-ordered skill,
As both had but one body and one will.
Th'one for his Art no little glory gains:
Th'other through practice by degrees attains
Grace in his gallop, in his pase agility,
Lightnes of head, and in his stop facility,
Strength in his leap, and stedfast managings,
Aptnes in all, and in his course new wings.

The vse of Horses thus discovered,
Each to his work more cheerly fetteled,
Each plies his trade, and trauels for his age,
Following the paths of painfull Tubal sage.

While through a Forrest Tubal (with his Yew

The inuention of iron.

And ready quiver) did a Boar pursue,
A burning Mountain from his fiery vain
An yron River rowls along the Plain:
The witty Huntsman, musing, thither hies,
And of he wonder deeply 'gan devise.
And first perceiving, that this scalding mettle,
Becomming cold, in any shape would settle,
And growe so hard, that with his sharpned side
The firmest substance it would soon divide;
He casts a hundred plots, and yer he parts
He moulds the ground-work of a hundred Arts:
Like as a Hound, that (following loose, behinde

Comparison.

His pensive Master) of a Hare doth finde;
Leaves whom he loves, vpon the sent doth ply,
Figs to and fro and fals in cheerfull Cry;
And with vp-lifted head and nosthrill wide
Winding his game, snuffs-vp the winde, his guide:

230

A hundred wayes he measures Vale and Hill:
Ears, eys, nor nose, nor foot, nor tail are still,
Till in her hot Form he haue found the pray
That he so long hath sought for every way.

Casting of the first instruments of Iron.

For, now the way to thousand works reveal'd,
Which long shall liue maugre the rage of Eld:
In two square creases of vnequall sises
To turn to yron streamlings he devises;
Cold, takes them thence: then off the dross he rakes,
And this a Hammer, that an Anvill makes;
And, adding tongs to these two instruments,
He stores his house with yron implements:
As, forks, rakes, hatchets, plough-shares, coultars, staples,
Bolts, hindges, hooks, nails, whittles, spoaks and grapples;
And grow'n more cunning, hollow things he formeth,
He hatcheth Files, and winding Vices wormeth,
He shapeth Sheers, and then a Saw indents,
Then beats a Blade, and then a Lock invents.

The execution vses and commodities of Iron.

Happy device! we might as well want all
The Elements, as this hard minerall.
This, to the Plough-man, for great vses serves:
This, for the Builder, Wood and Marble carves:
This arms our bodies against adverse force:
This clothes our backs: this rules th'vnruly Horse:
This makes vs dry-shod daunce in Neptunes Hall:
This brightens gold: this conquers self and all;
Fift Element, of Instruments the haft;
The Tool of Tools, and Hand of Handy-Craft.

While (compast round with smoaking Cyclops rude,
Half-naked Bronis, and Sterops swarthy-hewd,
All well-neer weary) sweating Tubal stands,
Hastning the hot work in their sounding hands,

Inuention of Musick.

No time lost Iubal: th'vn-full Harmony
Of vn-even Hammers, beating diversly,
Wakens the tunes that his sweet numbery soule
Yer birth (som think) learn'd of the warbling Pole.
Thereon he harps, and ponders in his minde,
And glad and fain som Instrument would finde
That in accord those discords might renew,
And th'iron Anvils rattling sound ensew,
And iterate the beating Hammers noise
In milder notes, and with a sweeter voice.

Inuention of the Lute and other instruments.

It chanc't, that passing by a Pond, he found
An open Tortoise lying on the ground,
Within the which there nothing else remained
Saue three dry sinews on the shell stiff-strained:
This empty house Iubal doth gladly bear,
Strikes on those strings, and lends attentiue ear;

231

And by this mould frames the melodious Lute,
That makes woods harken, and the windes be mute,
The Hils to dance, the Heav'ns to retro-grade,
Lions be tame, and tempests quickly vade.

His Art, still waxing, sweetly marrieth
His quavering fingers to his warbling breath:
More little tongues to's charm-care Lute he brings,
More Instruments he makes: no Eccho rings
'Mid rocky concaves of the babbling vales,
And bubbling Rivers rowl'd with gentle gales,
But wiery Cymbals, Rebecks sinews twin'd,
Sweet Virginals, and Cornets curled winde.

But Adam guides, through paths but seldom gone,

While Cain and his children are busie for the World, Adam & his other Sons exercise themselues in Piety & Iustice and in searching the godly secrets of Nature.

His other Sons to Vertues sacred throne:
And chiefly Seth (set in good Abel's place)
Staff of his age, and glory of his race:
Him he instructeth in the waies of Verity,
To worship God in spirit and sincerity:
To honour Parents with a reverent aw,
To train his children in religious law:
To love his friends, his Country to defend,
And helpfull hands to all mankinde to lend:
To knowe Heav'ns course, and how their constant swaies
Divide the yeer in months, the months in daies:
What star brings Winter, what is Sommers guide;
What signe foul weather, what doth fair betide;
What creature's kinde, and what is curst to vs;
What plant is holesom, and what venimous.

No sooner he his lessons can commence,
But Seth hath hit the White of his intents,
Draws rule from rule, and of his short collations
In a short time a perfect Art he fashions.
The more he knowes, the more he craves; as fewell
Kils not a fire, but kindles it more cruell.

While on a day by a cleer Brook they travell,

Seth questions his Father concerning the start of the World frō the Beginning to the End.

Whose gurgling streams frizadoed on the gravell,
He thus bespake: If that I did not see
The zeal (dear Father) that you bear to me,
How still you watch me with your carefull ein,
How still your voice with prudent discipline
My Prentice ear doth oft reverberate;
I should misdoubt to seem importunate;
And should content me to haue learned, how
The Lord the Heav'ns about this All did bow;
What things have hot, and what have cold effect;
And how my life and manners to direct.
But your milde Love my studious heart advances
To ask you further of the various chances

232

Of future times: what off-pring spreading wide
Shall fill this World: What shall the World betide;
How long to last: What Magistrates, what Kings
With Iustice Mace shall govern mortall things?

Adams answer.

Son (quoth the Sire) our thoughts internall ey
Things past and present may by means descry;
But not the future, if by speciall grace
It read it not in th'One-Trine's glorious face.

Thou then, that (onely) things to come dost knowe,
Not by Heav'ns course, nor guess of things belowe.
Nor coupled points, nor flight of fatall Birds,
Nor trembling tripes of sacrificed Heards,
But by a clear and certain prescience
As Seer and Agent of all accidents,
With whom at once the three-fould times do fly,
And but a moment lasts Eternity;
O God, behould me, that I may behold
Thy crystall face: O Sun, reflect thy gold
On my pale Moon; that now my veiled eyes,
Earth-ward eclipst, may shine vnto the skyes.
Ravish me, Lord, ô (my soules life) reviue
My spirit a-space, that I may see (alive)
Heav'n yer I dy: and make me now (good Lord)
The Eccho of thy all-celestiall Word.

The power of Gods spirit in his Prophets: and the difference between such, and the distracted frantike Ministers of Satan.

With sacred fury suddenly he glowes,
Not like the Bedlani Bacchanalian froes,
Who, dancing, foaming, rowling furious-wise
Vnder their twinkling lids their torch-like eys
With ghastly voice, with visage grizly grim;
Tost by the Fiend that fiercely tortures them,
Bleaking and blushing, panting, shreeking, swouning,
With wrathless wounds their senseless members wounding:
But as th'Imperiall Airy peoples Prince,
With stately pinions soaring-hy from hence,
Cleaves through the clouds, and bravely-bold doth think
With his firm ey to make the Suns ey wink:
So Adam, mounted on the burning wings
Of a Seraphick love, leaves earthly things,
Feeds on sweet Æther, cleaves the starry Sphears,
And on Gods face his eys he fixtly bears:
His brows seem brandisht with a Sun-like fire,
And his purg'd body seems a cubit higher.

Adam declares to his sonne in how many daies the World was created.

Then thus began he: Th'ever-trembling field
Of scaly folk, the Arches starry seeld,
Where th'All-Creator hath disposed well
The Sun and Moon by turns for Sentinell;
The cleer cloud-bounding Air (the Camp assign'd
Where angry Auster, and the rough North-winde,

133

Meeting in battell, throwe down to the soil
The Woods that middling stand to part the broil);
The Diapry Mansions, where man-kinde doth trade,
Were built in Six Daies: and the Seav'nth was made
The sacred Sabbath. So, Sea, Earth and Air,
And azure-gilded Heav'ns Pavilions fair;
Shall stand Six Daies; but longer diversly
Then the daies bounded by the Worlds bright ey.

The First begins with me: the Seconds morn

How many Ages it shall endure. 1. Adam. 2. Noah. 3. Abraham.

Is the first Ship-wright, who doth first adorn
The Hils with Vines: that Shepheard is the Third,
That after God through strange Lands leads his Heard,
And (past mans reason) crediting Gods word,
His onely Son slaies with a willing sword:
The Fourth's another valiant Shepheardling,

4. Dauid.

That for a Cannon takes his silly sling,
And to a Scepter turns his Shepheards staff,
Great Prince, great Prophet, Poet, Psalmograph:
The Fift begins from that sad Princes night

5. Zedechias.

That sees his children murdred in his sight,
And on the banks of fruitfull Euphrates,
Poor Iuda led in Captiue heauiness:
Hoped Messias shineth in the Sixt;

6. Messias.

Who, mockt, beat, banisht, buried, cruci-fixt,
For our foul sins (still-selfly innocent)
Hath fully born the hatefull punishment:
The Last shall be the very Resting-Day,

7. Th'Eternall Sabbath.

Th'Air shall be mute, the Waters works shall stay;
The Earth her store; the Stars shall leave their measures,
The Sun his shine: and in eternall pleasures
We plung'd, in Heav'n shall ay solemnize, all,
Th'eternall Sabbaths end-less Festiuall.

Alas! what may I of that race presume

Consideration of Adam vpon that which should befall his Pouerty, vnto the end of the first World destroyed by the Floods according to the relation of Moses in Genesis in the 4. 5. 6 and 7. chapters.

Next th'irefull Flame that shall this Frame consume,
Whose gut their god, whose lust their law shall be,
Who shall not hear of God, nor yet of me?
Sith those outrageous, that began their birth
On th'holy groundsill of sweet Edens earth,
And (yet) the sound of Heav'ns drad Sentence hear,
And as ey-witnes of mine Exile were,
Seem to despight God. Did it not suffize
(O lustfull soule!) first to polygamize?
Suffiz'd it not (O Lamech) to distain
Thy Nuptiall bed? but that thou must ingrain
In thy great-Grand-sires Grand-sires reeking gore
Thy cruell blade? respecting nought (before)
The prohibition, and the threatning vow
Of him to whom infernall Powrs do bow:

234

Neither his Pasports sealed Character
Set in the fore-head of the Murderer.

Courage, good Enos: re-advance the Standard
Of holy Faith, by humane reason slander'd,
And troden-down: Invoke th'immortall Powr;
Vpon his Altar warm bloud-offrings pour:
His sacred nose perfume with pleasing vapor,
And teend again Truths neer-extinguisht Taper.

Thy pupil Henoch, selfly-dying wholly,
(Earths ornament) to God he liveth solely.
Lo, how he labours to endure the light
Which in th'Arch-essence shineth glorious-bright:
How rapt from sense, and free from fleshly lets,
Somtimes he climbs the sacred Cabinets
Of the divine Ideas everlasting,
Having for wings, Faith, fervent Praier and Fasting:
How at somtimes, though clad in earthly clod,
He (sacred) sees, feels, all enioyes in God:
How at somtimes, mounting from form to form,
In form of God he happy doth transform.
Lo, how th'All-fair, as burning all in love
With his rare beauties, not content above
T'haue half, but all, and ever; sets the stairs
That lead from hence to Heav'n his chosen heirs:
Lo, how he climeth the supernall stories.

Adieu, dear Henoch: in eternall glories
Dwell there with God: thy body, chang'd in quality
Of Spirit or Angell, puts-on immortality:
Thine eys already (now no longer eyes,
But new bright stars) doo brandish in the skyes:
Thou drinkest deep of the celestiall wine:
Thy Sabbath's end-less: without vail (in fine)
Thou seest God face to face; and neer vnite
To th'One-Trine Good, thou liv'st in th'Infinite.

But heer the while (new Angell) thou dost leaue
Fell wicked folk, whose hands are apt to reaue,
Whose Scorpion tongues delight in sowing strife,
Whose guts are gulfs, incestuous all their life.

O strange to be beleev'd! the blessed Race,
The sacred Flock, whom God by speciall grace
Adopts for his, ev'n they (alas!) most shame-less
Do follow sin, most beastly-brute and tame-less,
With lustfull eys choosing for wanton Spouses
Mens wicked daughters; mingling so the houses
Of Seth and Cain; preferring foolishly
Frail beauties blaze to vertuous modesty.

From these profane, foul, cursed kisses sprung
A cruell brood, feeding on blood and wrong;

235

Fell Gyants strange, of haughty hand and minde,
Plagues of the World, and scourges of Mankinde.

Then, righteous God (though ever prone to pardon)
Seeing His mildeness but their malice harden,
List plead no longer, but resolves the Fall
Of man forth-with, and (for mans sake) of all:
Of all (at least) the living creatures gliding
Along the air, or on the earth abiding.

Heav'ns crystall windows with one hand he opes,
Whence on the World a thousand Seas he drops:
With th'other hand he gripes and wringeth forth
The spungy Globe of th'execrable Earth,
So straightly prest, that it doth straight restore
All liquid flouds that it had drunk before:
In every Rock new Rivers doo begin;
And to his aid the snowes com tumbling in:
The Pines and Cedars haue but boughs to showe,
The shoars doo shrink, the swelling waters growe.
Alas! so many Nephews lose I heer
Amid these deeps, that but for mountains neer,
Vpon the rising of whose ridges lofty,
The lusty climb on every side for safety,
I should be seed-less: but (alas!) the Water
Swallows those Hils, and all this wide Theater
Is all one Pond. O children, whither fly-you?
Alas! Heav'ns wrath pursues you to destroy-you:
The stormy waters strangely rage and roar,
Rivers and Seas haue all one common shoar,
(To wit) a sable, water-loaden Sky
Ready to rain new Oceans instantly.

O Son-less Father! O too fruitfull hanches!
O wretched root! O hurtfull, hatefull branches!
O gulfs vnknown! O dungeons deep and black!
O worlds decay! O vniversall wrack!
O Heav'ns! O Seas! O Earth (now Earth no more)
O flesh! O bloud! Heer, sorrow stopt the door
Of his sad voice; and, almost dead for wo,
The prophetizing spirit forsook him so.

236

NOAH.

THE SECOND DAY OF THE SECOND WEEK.

CONTAINING

I. The Ark,
II. Babylon,
III. The Colonies,
IV. The Colvmnes.

237

1. The Ark.

THE FIRST PART OF THE SECOND DAY OF THE II. WEEK.

The Argvment.

Noah prepares the Ark: and thither brings
(With him) a Seed-pair of all liuing things:
His exercise, a-ship-board: Atheist Cham
His holy Fathers humble Zeal doth blame;
And diversly impugns Gods Providence:
Noah refells his Faith-less arguments:
The Flood surceast: Th'Ark landed: Blood forbid:
The Rain-bowe bent; what is prefigured:
Wine drowneth Wit: Cham scoffs the Nakednes
Of's sleeping Sire: the Map of Drunkennes.

If now no more my sacred rimes distill

A Preamble, wherein by a modest complaint the Poet stirs up the Reader's attention, and makes himself way to the invocation of the Name of God.

With Art-less ease from my dis-custom'd quill:
If now the Laurell, that but lately shaded
My beating temples, be dis-leav'd and vaded:
And if now, banisht from the learned Fount,
And cast down head-long from the lofty Mount
Where sweet Vrania sitteth to endite,
Mine humbled Muse flag in a lowely flight;
Blame these sad Times ingratefull cruelty,
My houshold cares, my healths infirmity,
My drooping sorrows for (late) grievous losses,
My busie suits, and other bitter crosses.

Lo, there the clogs that waigh down heavily
My best endevours, whilom soaring high:
My harvest's hail: the pricking thorns and weeds
That in my soule choak those diviner seeds.

238

O gracious God! remove my great incumbers,
Kindle again my faiths neer-dying imbers:
Asswage thine anger (for thine own Sons merit)
And from me (Lord) take not thy holy Spirit:
Comb, gild and polish, more then ever yet,
This later issue of my labouring wit:
And let not me be like the winde, that proudly
Begins at first to roar and murmur loudly
Against the next hils, over-turns the woods,
With furious tempests tumbles-vp the floods,
And (fiercely-fell) with stormy puffs constrains
The sparkling flints to roul about the Plains;
But flying, faints; and every league it goes,
One nimble feather of his wing doth lose:
But rather like a River poorly-breeding
In barren Rocks, thence drop by drop proceeding:
Which, toward the Sea, the more he flees his source,
With growing streams strengthens his gliding course,
Rowls, roars and foams, raging with rest-less motion,
And proudly scorns the greatnes of the Ocean.

The comming of the Flood, and building of the Ark.

The Dooms of Adam lackt not long effect.
Eor th'angry Heav'ns (that can, without respect
Of persons, plague the stubborn Reprobate)
In Waters buried th'Vniversall state:
And never more the nimble painted Legions
With hardy wings had cleft the airy Regions:
We all had perisht, and the Earth in vain
Had brought such store of fruits, and grass, and grain,
If Lamech's Son (by new-found Art directed)
That huge vast vessell had not first erected,
Which (sacred refuge) kept the parent-pairs
Of all things moving in the Earth and Airs.

Noahs exercises aboord the Ark.

Now, while the Worlds-re-colonizing Boat
Doth on the waters over Mountains float,
Noe passeth not, with tales and idle play,
The tedious length of daies and nights away:
But, as the Sommers sweet distilling drops
Vpon the medowes thirsty yawning chops,
Re-greens the Greens, and doth the flow'rs re-flowr,
All scorcht and burnt with Auster's parching powr:
So, the care-charming hony that distils
From his wise lips, his house with comfort fils,
Flatters despair, dryes tears, calms inward smarts,
And re-advanceth sorrow-daunted harts.

Cheer yee, my children: God doth now retire
These murdering Seas, which the revenging ire
Of his strict Iustice holy indignation
Hath brought vpon this wicked generation;

239

Arming a season, to destroy mankinde,
The angry Heav'ns, the water, and the winde:
As soon again his gracious Mercy will
Clear cloudy Heav'ns, calm windes, and waters still,

His wrath and mercy follow turn by turn;
That (like the Lightning) doth not lightly burn
Long in a place: and this from age to age
Hides with her wings the faithfull heritage.
Our gracious God makes scant-weight of displeasure,
And spreads his mercy without weight or measure:
Somtimes he strikes vs (to especiall ends)
Vpon our selues, our children, or our friends,
In soule or body, goods, or else good names,
But soon he casts his rods in burning flames:
Not with the fist, but finger he doth beat-vs;
Nor doth he thrill so oft as he doth threat-vs:
And (prudent Steward) gives his faithfull Bees
Wine of his Wrath, to rebell Drones the Lees.
And thus the deeds of Heav'ns Iust-gentle King,
The Second Worlds good Patriarch did sing.

But, brutish Cham, hat in his brest accurst

Cham full of impiety, is brought in, answering his Father, and diuersly impugning the wisdome and irreprehensible Prouidence of God Almighty and all-mercifull: and the humble and religious zeal of Noah.

The secret roots of sinfull Atheisme nurst;
Wishing already to dis-throne th'Eternall,
And self-vsurp the Maiesty supernall:
And to himself, by name of Iupiter,
On Afrik funds a sumptuous Temple rear:
With bended brows, with stout and stern aspect,
In scornfull tearms his Father thus be-checkt:

Oh! how is grieues me, that these servile terrors.
(The scourge of Cowards, and base vulgars errors)
Haue ta'en such deep root in your feeble brest!
Why, Father, alwayes selfly thus deprest?
Will you thus alwaies make your self a drudge,
Fearing the fury of a fained Iudge?
And will you alwayes forge your self a Censor
That waighs your words, and doth your silence censure?
A fly Controuler, that doth count your hairs,
That in his hand your hearts keyes ever bears,
Records your sighs, and all your thoughts descries,
And all your sins present and past espies?
A barbarous Butcher, that with bloody knife
Threats night and day your grievous-guilty life?

O! see you not the superstitious heat
Of this blinde zeale, doth in your minde beget
A thousand errors? light credulity
Doth drive you still to each extreamity,
Faining a God (with thousand storms opprest)
Fainter then Women, fiercer then a Beast.

240

Who (tender-hearted) weeps at others weeping,
Wails others woes, and at the onely peeping
Of others blood, in sudden swoun deceases,
In manly brest a womans heart possesses:
And who (remorse-less) lets at any season
The stormy tide of rage transport his reason,
And thunders threats of horror and mishap,
Hides a Bears heart vnder a humane shape.
Yet, of your God, you one-while thus pretend;
He melts in tears, if that your fingers end
But ake a-while: anon, he frets, he frowns,
He burns, he brains, he kiss, he dams, he drowns.

The wildest Boar doth but one Wood destroy;
A cruell Tyrant but one Land annoy:
And yet this Gods outrageous tyranny
Spoils all the World, his onely Empery.

O goodly Iustice! One or two of vs
Have sinn'd perhaps, and mov'd his anger thus;
All bear the pain, yea even the innocent
Poor Birds and Beasts incurr the punishment.

No, Father, no: ('t is folly to infer it)
God is no varying, light, inconstant spirit,
Full of revenge, and wrath, and moody hate,
Nor savage fell, nor sudden passionate,
Nor such as will for som small fault vndoo
This goodly World, and his own nature too.

All wandring clouds, all humid exhalations,
All Seas (which Heav'n through many generations
Hath hoorded vp) with selfs-waight enter-crusht,
Now all at once vpon the earth have rusht:
And th'end-less, thin air (which by secret quils
Had lost it self within the windes-but hils
Dark hollow Caves, and in that gloomy hold
To icy crystall turned by the cold)
Now swiftly surging towards Heav'n again,
Hath not alone drown'd all the lowely Plain,
But in few daies with raging Floods o'r-flow'n
The top-less Cedars of mount Libanon.

Answers of Noah to all the blasphemies of Cham and his fellow-Atheists.

Then, with iust grief the godly Father, gall'd,
A deep, sad sigh from his hearts centre hal'd,
And thus reply'd: O false, rebellious Cham;
Mine ages sorrow, and my houses shame;
Though self-conceipt contemning th'holy Ghost,
Thy sense is baend, thine vnderstanding lost:
And ô I fear (Lord, falsifie my fear)
The heavy hand of the high Thunderer
Shall light on thee, and thou (I doubt) shalt be
His Furies obiect, and shalt testifie

241

By thine infamous lifes accursed state,
What now thy shame-less lips sophisticate.

I (God be prays'd) knowe that the perfect Circle

1 Answer: God is infinite, immutable, Almighty and incomprehensible.

Whose Center's every-where, of all his circle
Exceeds the circuit; I conceiue aright
Th'Almighty-most to be most infinite:
That th'onely Essence feels not in his minde
The furious tempests of fell passions winde:
That mooueless, all he moves: that with one thought
He can build Heav'n; and, builded, bring to nought:
That his high Throne's inclos'd in glorious Fire
Past our approach: that our faint soule doth tire,
Our spirit growes spright-less, when it seeks by sense
To found his infinit Omni-potence.
I surely know the Cherubins do hover
With flaming wings his starry face to cover.
None sees the Great, th'Almighty, Holy-One,
But passing by and by the back alone.
To vs, his Essence is in-explicable,
Wondrous his wayes, his name vn-vtterable;
So that concerning his high Maiesty
Our feeble tongues speak but improperly.

So that men cannot speak of Him but improperly.

For, if we call him strong, the prayse is small:
If blessed spirit, so are his Angels all:
If Great of greats, he's voide of quantity:
If good, fayr, holy, he wants quality;
Sith in his Essence fully excellent,
All is pure substance, free from accident.
Therefore our voice, too-faint in such a subiect

Why we cannot speak of God but after the manner of men.

T'ensue our soule and our weak soule her obiect,
Doth alwayes stammer; so that euer when
'Twould make Gods name redoubted among men
(In humane phraze) it calls him pitifull,
Repentant, iealous, fierce, and angerfull.

Yet is not God by this repentance, thus,

2. Answer. The Repentance and the change which the Scripture attribute is to God, is far frō Error & defect.

Of ignorance and error taxt, like vs:
His iealous hatred doth not make him curious,
His pitty wretched, nor his anger furious.
Th'immortall Spirit is ever calmly-cleer:
And all the best that feeble man doth heer,
With vehemence of some hot passion driv'n;
That, with ripe iudgement doth the King of Heav'n.

Shall a Physician comfortably-bold,

Two comparisons explaining the same.

Fear-less, and tear-less, constantly behold
His sickly friend vext with exceeding pain,
And feel his pulse, and give him health again?
And shall not th'euer-selfe-resembling God
Look down from Heav'n vpon a wretched clod,

242

Without he weep, and melt for griefe and anguish;
Nor cure his creature, but himselfe must languish?

And shall a Iudge, self-angerless, prefer
To shamefull death the strange adulterer;
As onely looking fixtly all the time
Not on the sinner, but the sinfull crime?

3. Answer: Iustice being a vertue in Man cannot be a vice in God.

And shall not then th'Eternall Iusticer
Condemn the Atheist and the Murderer,
Without selfs-fury? O! shall Iustice then
Be blam'd in God, and magnifi'd in men?
Or shall his sacred Will, and soverain Might
Be chayn'd so fast to mans frail appetite,
That filthy sin he cannot freely hate,
But wrathfull Rage him selfly cruciate?

4. Answer: God doth not punish Offenders for defence of his owne Estate: but to man and vertue & cōfound loue.

Gods sacred vengeance, serues not for defence
Of his own Essence from our violence
(For in the Heav'ns, aboue all reach of ours,
He dwels immur'd in diamantine Towers);
But, to direct our liues and laws maintain,
Guard Innocence, and Iniurie restrain.

5. The iniquitie of the world deserued extreame punishment.

Th'Almighty past not mean, when-he subuerted
Neer all the World from holy paths departed.
For Adams Trunk (of both-our Worlds the Tree)
In two faire Branches forking fruitfully,
Of Cain and Seth; the first brought forth a sute
Of bitter, wilde, and most detested fruit:
Th'other, first rich in goodnes, afterward
With those base Scions beeing graft, was marr'd:
And so produced execrable clusters
Worthy so wicked and incestuous lusters:
And then (alas!) what was ther to be found
Pure, iust, or good, in all this Earthly Round?

6. When all are generally depraued, all merite to be destroyed.

Cain's Line possest sinne, as an heritage;
Seth's as a dowry got by mariage:
So that (alas!) among all humane-kinde
Those Mongrell kisses marr'd the purest minde.

7. The least imperfect passe condemnation, euen then when they are most liuely chasticed.

And we (even we, that haue escaped here
This cruell wrack) within our conscience bear
A thousand Records of a thousand things
Conuincing vs before the King of kings;
Whereof not one (for all our self-affection)
We can defend with any iust obiection.

8. God destroying the workmā, doth no wrong to the Tools, if, he break, & batter them with their Master.

God playd no Tyrant, choaking with the floods
The earthly Bands and all the ayrie broods:
For, sith they liv'd but for mans seruice sole,
Man, raz'd for sin out of the Liuing Roule,
Those wondrous tools, and organs excellent,
Their Work-man rest, remain'd impertinent.

243

Man's only head of all that draweth breath.
Who lacks a member, yet persevereth
To liue (we see): but, members cut away
From their own head, do by and by decay.

Nor was God cruell, when he drown'd the Earth.

9. A Traytor deserues to haue his house razed to the ground.

For, sit hence man had from his very birth
Rebeld against him; was't not equity,
That for his fault, his house should vtterly
Be rent and raz'd? that salt should there be sow'n,
That in the ruins (for instruction)
We for a time might reade and vnderstand
The righteous vengeance of Heav'ns wrathfull hand,
That wrought this Deluge: and no hoorded waues
Of ayry clouds, or vnder-earthly caves?

If all blew Curtins mixt of ayr and water,

10. The Flood was no naturall accident, but a most iust iudgement of God.

Round over-spreading this wide All-Theater,
To som one Climate all at once should fly,
One Country they might drown vndoubtedly:
But our great Galley hauing gone so far,
So many months, in sight of either Star,
From Pole to Pole through sundry Climats whorld,
Showes that this Flood hath drowned all the world.

Now non plust, if to re-inforce thy Camp,

11. The waters of the Flood sprung not from a naturall motion only, but proceeded from other then naturall Causes, which cannot produce such effects.

Thou fly for succour to thine Ayery Damp:
Showe, in the concave of what Mountains steep
We may imagine Dens sufficient deep
For so much ayr as gushing out in fountains,
Should hide the proud tops of the highest Mountains;
Sith a whole tun of ayr scarce yeelds (in triall)
Water ynough to fill one little Viall.
And what should then betide those empty spaces?
What should succeed in the forsaken places
Of th'air's thin parts (in swift springs shrinking thence)
Sith there's no voyd in th'All-circumference?

Whence (wilt thou say) then coms this raging flood,

12. The consideration of the power of God in subiecting the creatures to Noah: in sustaining & feeding them so long in the Ark (which was as a sepulchre) confuteth al the obiections of Atheists.

That ouer-flowes the windy Ryphean Wood,
Mount Libanus, and enuiously aspires
To quench the light of the celestiall fires?

Whence (shall I say) then, whence-from coms it (Cham)
That Wolues, and Panthers waxing meek and tame,
Leaving the horror of their shady home,
Adiourn'd by Heav'n, did in my presence com,
Who holding subiect vnder my command
So many creatures humbled at my hand,
Am now restor'd to th'honour and estate
Whence Adam fell through sin and Satans hate?
Whence doth it com, or by what reason is't,
That vnmann'd Haggards to mine empty fist

244

Com without call? Whence coms it, that so little
Fresh water, fodder, meal, and other victuall,
Should serue so long so many a greedy-gut
As in the dark holds of this Ark is shut?
That heer the Partridge doth not dread the Hauk?
Nor fearfull Hare the spotted Tiger baulk?
That all these storms our Vessell haue not broak?
That all this while we do not ioyntly choak
With noysom breath, and excrementall stink
Of such a common and continuall sink?
And that our selues, mid all these deaths, are sav'd
From these All-Seas, where all the rest are Grav'd?

13. The Arke full of Miracles, which confound the wits, & slop the mouthes of profane wranglers.

In all the compass of our floating Inns,
Are not so many planks, and boords, and pins,
As wonders strange, and miracles that ground
Mans wrangling Reason, and his wits confound:
And God, no less his mighty powr displayd
When he restor'd, then when the World he made.
O sacred Patron! pacific thine ire,
Bring home our Hulk: these angry floods retire;
A-liue and dead, let vs perceiue and proove
Thy wrath on others, on our selues thy love.

Thus Noah sweetens his Captivity,
Beguiles the time, and charms his misery,

God causeth the Flood to cease.

Hoping in God alone: who, in the Mountains
Now stopping close the veins of all the Fountains,
Shutting Heav'ns fluces, causing th'ayr (controul'd)
Close-vp his channels, and his Seas with-hould,
Cals forth the windes. O Heav'ns fresh fans (quoth he)
Earths sweeping Brooms, O Forrests enmity,
O you my Heralds and my Harbengers
My nimble Postes and speedy Messengers,
Mine arms, my sinews, and mine Eagles swift
That through the ayr my rowling Chariot lift,
When from my mouth in my iust-kindled ire
Fly Sulph'ry fumes, and hot consuming fire,
When with my Lightning Scepters dreadfull wonder
I muster horror, darknes, clouds and thunder:
Wake, rise, and run, and drink these waters dry,
That hills and dales haue hidden from the sky.

The Arke resteth on the Mountain Ararat, in Armenia.

Th'Æolian Crowd obays his mighty call,
The surly surges of the waters fall,
The Sea retreateth: and the sacred Keel
Lands on a Hill, at whose proud feet do kneel
A thousand Hils, his lofty horn adoring
That cleaues the clouds, the starry welking goaring.

What Noah did before he went forth.

Then hope-cheer'd Noah, first of all (for scout)
Sends forth the Crowe, who flutters neer-about;

245

And finding yet no landing place at all,
Returns a-boord to his great Admirall.

Som few daies after from the window flyes
The harm-less Doue for new discoueries:
But seeing yet no shoar, she (almost tyr'd)
Aboord the Carrack back again retir'd.

But yet the Sun had seav'n Heav'n-Circuits rode,
To view the World a-fresh she flyes abroad;
And brings a-boord (at evening) in her bill
An Oliue branch with water pearled still.

O happy presage! O deer pledge of loue!
O wel-com newes! behold the peacefull Doue
Brings in her beak the Peace-branch, boading weal
And truce with God; who by this sacred seal
Kindly confirms his holy Couenant,
That first in fight the Tiger rage shall want,
Lions be cowards, Hares couragious,
Yer he be false in word or deed to vs.
O sacred Oliue! firstling of the fruits,
Health-boading branch, be it thy tender roots
Haue lived still, while this strange Deluge lasted,
I doe reioice it hath not all things wasted:
Or be it since the Ebb, thou newly spring,
Prays'd be the bounty of th'immortall King
That quickens thus these dead, the World induing
With beauty fresh so suddainly renuing.

Thus Noah spake: And though the World gan lift

He exspecteth Gods commandement to goe forth whereby, at the first hee was shut vpon the Ark.

Most of his Iles above the waters drift:
Though waxen old in his long weary night,
He see a friendly Sun to brandish bright:
Though choak't with ill ayr in his stinking stall,
Hee'l not a-shoar till God be pleas'd with-all;
And till (deuout) from Heav'n he vnderstand
Som Oracle to licence him to land.

But, warn'd by Heav'n, he commeth from his Cave,
(Or rather from a foul infectious Grave)
With Sem, Cam, Iapheth, and their twice-two Brides,
And thousand pairs of liuing things besides,
Vnclean and clean: for th'holy Patriark
Had of all kinds inclosed in the Ark.

But, heer I hear th'vngodly (that for fear
Late whispered softly in each others ear,
With silent murmurs muttering secretly)
Now trumpet thus their filthy blasphemie;

Who will beleeve (but shallow-brained Sheep)

New obiection of Atheists, concerning the capacity of the Ark.

That such a ship scarce thirty Cubits deep,
Thrice fifty long, and but once fifty large,
So many months could bear so great a charge?

246

Sith the proud Horse, the rough-skinn'd Elephant,
The lusty Bull, the Camell water-want,
And the Rhinocerot, would, with their fodder,
Fill-vp a Hulk farr deeper, longer, broader?

Answer.

O profane mockers! if I but exclude
Out of this Vessell a vast multitude
Of since-born mongrels, that deriue their birth
From monstrous medly of Venerean mirth;
Fantastik Mules, and spotted Leopards,
Of incest-heat ingendred afterwards:
So many sorts of Dogs, of Cocks and Doves,
Since, dayly sprung from strange and mingled loues
Wherein from time to time in various sort,
Dedalian Nature seems her to disport:
If playner, yet I proue you space by space,
And foot by foot, that all this ample place,
By subtile iudgement made and Symmetrie,
Might lodge so many creatures handsomly,
Sith euery brace was Geometricall:
Nought resteth (Momes) for your reply at all;
If, who dispute with God, may be content
To take for current, Reasons argument.

An vn-answerable answer to all profane obiections.

But heer t'admire th'Almighties powerfull hand
I rather loue, and silence to command
To mans discourse: what he hath said, is don:
For, euermore his word and deed are one.

By his sole arm, the Gallions Masters saw
Themselues safe rescu'd from deaths yawning iaw;
And offers-vp to him in zealous wise,
The Peace-full sent of sweet burnt-sacrifice;
And sends withall above the starry Pole
These winged sighes from a religious soule;

World-shaking Father, Windes King, calming-Seas,
With milde aspect behold vs; Lord appease
Thine Angers tempest, and to safety bring
The planks escap't from this sad Perishing:
And bound for ever in their antient Caves
These stormy Seas deep World-deuouring waves.

Comandements, Prohibitions, & Promises of God to Noah & his Posteritie.

Increase (quoth God) and quickly multiply,
And fill the World with fruitfull Progeny:
Resume your Scepter, and with new beheasts
Bridle againe the late revolted Beasts,
Re-exercise your wonted rule again,
It is your office ouer them to raigne:
Deere Children, vse them all: take, kill, and eate:
But yet abstain, and do not take for meat
Their ruddy soule: and leaue (O sacred seed!)
To rav'ning Fowls, of strangled flesh to feed.

247

I, I am holy: be you holy then,
I deeply hate all cruell bloody men:
Therefore defile not in your brothers blood
Your guilty hands; refraine from cruell mood;
Fly homicide: doe not in any case,
In man, mine Image brutishly deface:
The cruell man a cruell death shall taste;
And blood with blood be venged first or last;
For euermore vpon the murderers head
My roaring storms of fury shall be shed.

From hence-forth, fear no second Flood that shall

The Rain-Bowe giuē for a Pledge of the Promise, that there shal be no more generall flood.

Cover the whole face of this earthly Ball:
I assure ye no; no, no, I sweare to you
(And who hath ever found mine Oath vntrue?)
Again, I swear by my thrice sacred Name:
And to confirm it, in the Clouds I frame
This coloured Bowe. When then som tempest black
Shall threat again the feareful World to wrack,
When water loaden Heav'ns your Hils shall touch,
When th'ayr with Midnight shall your Noon be-pitch,
Your cheerfull looks vp to this Rain-bowe cast.
For, though the same on moystfull Clouds be plaç't,
Though hemm'd with showrs and though it seem to sup
(To drown the World) all th'Oceans waters vp,
Yet shall it (when you seem in danger sink)
Make you, of me; me, of my promise, think.

Noah looks-vp, and in the Ayr he views

Description of the Rain-Bowe.

A semi-Circle of a hundred hews:
Which, bright ascending toward th'æthereall thrones,
Hath a lyne drawn between two Orizons
For iust Diameter: an even-bent bowe
Contriv'd of three; whereof the one doth showe
To be all painted of a golden hew,
The second green, the third an orient blew;
Yet so, that in this pure blew-golden-green
Still (Opal-like) som changeable is seen.
A Bowe bright-shining in th'Arch-Archers hand,
Whose subtill string seems level with the Land,
Half-parting Heav'n; and over vs it bends,
Within two Seas wetting his horned ends;
A temporall beauty of the lampfull skies,
Where powrfull Nature shewes her freshest Dies.

And if you onely blew and red perceive,
The same as signes of Sea, and Fire conceiue;

What it signifieth.

Of both the flowing and the flaming Doom,
The Iudgement past, and Iudgement yet to come.

Then, having call'd on God, our second Father
Suffers not sloth his arms together gather,

Noah falls to Husbandry, andtills the Earth, as he had done before the Flood.

248

But fals to work, and wisely now renew'th
The Trade he learn'd to practice in his youth.
For, the proud issue of that Tyrant rude
That first his hand in brothers bloud imbrewd,
As scorning Ploughs, and hating harm-less tillage,
And (wantons) prising less the homely village,
With fields and Woods, then th'idle Cities shades;
Imbraced Laws, Scepters, and Arts, and Trades.
But Seths Sons, knowing Nature soberly
Content with little, fell to Husbandry,
Thereto reducing, with industrious care,
The Flocks and Droves cover'd with wool and hair;
As prayse-full gain, and profit void of strife,
Art nurse of Arts, and very life of life.

So the bright honour of the Heav'nly Tapers
Had scarcely boxed all th'Earths dropsie vapours,
When hee that sav'd the store-seed-World from wrack,
Began to delve his fruitfull Mothers back,
And there soon-after planteth heedfully
The brittle branches of the Nectar-tree.

He plants a vine.

For, 'mong the pebbles of a pretty hill
To the warm Sunsey lying open still,
He sets in furrows or in shallow trenches
The crooked Vines choice scyons, shoots, and branches:
In March he delves them, re-re-delves, and dresses:
Cuts, props and proins; and God his work so blesses,
That in the third September for his meed
The plentious Vintage doth his hopes exceed.

He is ouer-taken with Wine.

Then Noah, willing to beguile the rage
Of bitter griefs that vext his feeble age,
To see with mud so many Roofs o're-growen,
And him left almost in the World alone;
One-day a little from his strictness shrunk,
And making merry, drinking, over-drunk:
And, silly, thinking in that hony-gall
To drown his woes, he drowns his wits and all.

Description of a drunken-man.

His head growes giddy, and his foot indents,
A mighty fume his troubled brain torments,
His idle prattle from the purpose quite,
Is abrupt, stuttering, all confus'd, and light:
His wine-stuft stomack wrung with winde he feels:
His trembling Tent all topsie turuie wheels:
At last, not able on his legs to stand,
More like a foul Swine then a sober man,
Opprest with sleep, he wallows on the ground
His shame-less snorting trunk, so deeply drownd
In self-obliuion, that he did not hide
Those parts that Cæsar covered when he died.

249

Ev'n as the Ravens with windy wings o'r-fly

Fit Comparisons to set forth the nature and property of Slanderers, & Detracters imitating Cham.

The weeping Woods of Happy Araby,
Despise sweet Gardens and delicious Bowrs
Perfuming Heav'n with odoriferous flowres,
And greedy, light vpon the loathsom quarters
Of som late Lopez, or such Romish Martyrs:
Or as a young, vnskilfull Painter raw,
Doth carelesly the fairest features draw
In any face, and yet too neerly marks
Th'vnpleasing blemish of deformed marks,
As lips too great, or hollowness of eys,
Or sinking nose, or such indecencies:
Even so th'vngodly Sonns of Leasings Father
With black Obliuions sponge ingrately smother
Fair Vertues draughts, and cast despightfully
On the least sinns the venom of the ey,
Frump others faults, and trumpet in all ages
The lightest trips of greatest Personages:
Like scoffing Cham that impudently viewd
His Fathers shame, and most profanely-lewd,
With scornfull laughter (grace-less) thus began
To infamize the poor old drunken man,

Com (brethren) com, com quickly and behould
This pure controuler that so oft contrould

His speech to his Brethren, seeing his fathers nakednes.

Vs without cause: see how his bed he soyls:
See, how the wine (his master) now recoyls
By's mouth, and eys, and nose: and brutely so
To all that com his naked shame doth showe.

Ah shame-less beast (both brethren him reproov'd,
Both chiding thus, both with iust anger moou'd)
Vnnaturall villain, monster pestilent,
Vnworthy to behould the firmament;

Their discreet behauiour.

Where (absent we) thou ought'st haue hid before
With thine owne Cloak, but with thy silence more,
Thy Fathers shame, whom age, strong wine, and grief,
Haue made to fall, but once in all his life;
Thou barkest first, and sporting at the matter
Proclaim'st his fault on Infamies Theater.
And saying this (turning their sight a-side)
Their hoary Fathers nakedness they hide.

When wine had wrought, this good old-man awook,

Noah awaked curseth Cham & his posterity: & blesseth Sem and Iaphet and their issue.

Agniz'd his crime, ashamed, wonder-strook
At strength of wine, and toucht with true repentance,
With Prophet-mouth gan thus his Sons fore-sentence:

Curst be thou Cham, and curst be (for thy scorn)
Thy darling Canaan: let the pearly Morn,
The radiant Noon, and rheumy Euening see
Thy necke still yoaked with Captiuity.

250

God be with Sem: and let his gracious speed
Spread-wide my Iapheths fruitfull-swarming seed.

An execration of Drunkennes, described with its shamefull, dangerous and detestable effects.

Error, no error, but a wilfull badnes:
O soul defect! O short, O dangerous madnes!
That in thy rage, dost harm-less Clytus smother,
By his deer friend; Pentheus by his Mother.
Phrenzie, that makes the vaunter insolent;
The talk-full, blab; cruell, the violent:
The fornicator, wax adulterous;
Th'adulterer, becom incestuous:
With thy plagues leauen swelling all our crimes;
Blinde, shameless, sense-less, quenching of entimes
The soule within itself: and oft defames
The holiest men with execrable blames.
And as he Must, beginning to re-boyl,
Makes his new vessels wooden bands re-coyl,
Lifts-vp his lees, and spews with fuming vent
From his Tubs ground his scummy excrement:
So ruin'st thou thine hoast, and foolishly
From his harts bottom driv'st all secrecy.
But, hadst thou neuer don (O filthy poison!)
More mischief heer, but thus bereft of reason
This Vertues Module (rather Vertues best)
We ought thee more then Death it self detest.

FINIS.

251

2. Babylon.

THE SECOND PART OF THE SECOND DAY OF THE II. WEEK.

The Argvment.

Th'Antithesis of Blest and Cursed States,
Subiect to Good and Euill Magistrates:
Nimrod vsurps: His prowes-full Policy,
To gain himself the Goal of Souerainty:
Babel begun: To stop such out-rages,
There, God confounds the, builders Languages:
Tongues excellent: the Hebrew, first and Best:
Then Greek and Latin: and (aboue the rest)
Th'Arabian, Toscan, Spanish, French, and Dutch,
And Ours, are Honoured by our Author much.

O happy people, where good Princes raign,

A preface, representing the felicity & happy estate of Common weales gouerned by good and prudent princes & the misery of those that liue in subiection vnto Tyrants: which the Poet very fitly proposeth as his introduction to the life and Manners of Nimrod.

Who tender publike more then priuate gain!
Who (vertue's patrons, and the plagues of vice)
Hate Parasites, and harken to the wise:
Who (self-commanders) rather sin suppress
By self-examples, then by rigorousnes:
Whose inward-humble, outward Maiesty
With Subiects loue is guarded loyally:
Who Idol-not their pearly Scepters glory,
But knowe themselues set on a lofty story
For all the world to see and censure too:
So, not their lust, but what is iust they do.

But, 't is a hell, in hatefull vassallage,
Vnder a Tyrant to consume ones age:
A self-shav'n Dennis, or a Nero fell,
Whose cursed Courts with bloud and incest swell:

252

An Owl, that flies the light of Parliaments
And State-assemblies iealous of th'intents
Of priuate tongues; who (for a pastime) sets
His Peers at ods; and on their fury whets:
Who neither faith, honour, nor right respects:
Who euery day new Officers erects:
Who brooks no learned, wise, nor valiant subiects,
But daily crops such vice-vpbraiding obiects,
Who (worse then Beasts, or savage monsters been).
Spares neither mother, brother, kiff, nor kin:
Who, though round fenç't with guard of armed Knights,
A-many moe he fears, then he affrights:
Who taxes strange extorts; and (Caniball)
Gnawes to the bones his wretched Subiects all.

A Prayer fitted to the former discourse, and giving entry to that which followeth.

Print (O Heav'ns King!) in our kings harts a zeal,
First of thy lawes; then of their publik weal:
And if our Countries now-Po-poisoned phrase;
Or now-contagion of corrupted daies
Leave any tract of Nimrodizing there;
O! cancel it that they may euery where,
In stead of Babel build Ierusalem:
That lowd my Muse may eccho vnder them.

Nimrod's exercises and essayes to make himselfe Master of the rest.

Yer Nimrod had attain'd to twise six yeers,
He tyranniz'd among his stripling-peers,
Out stript his equals, and in happy howr,
Layd the foundations of his after-powr;
And bearing reeds for Scepters, first he raigns
In Prentice-Princedom ouer sheep-heard Swains.

Then knowing well, that whoso ayms (illuster)
At fancied bliss of Empires awful lustre;
In valiant acts must pass the vulgar sort,
Or mask (at least) in louely Vertues Port:
He spends not night on beds of down or feathers,
Nor day intents, but hardens to all weathers
His youthfull limbs: and takes ambitiously
A rock for Pillow, Heav'n for Canapey:
In stead of softlings iests, and iollities,
He ioyes in Iousts, and manly exercises:
His dainty cates, a fat Kids trembling flesh,
Scarce fully slain, luke-warm and bleeding fresh.

Perseverance in painfull and laborious exercises of Nimrod growne gracious with the people.

Then, with one breath, he striueth to attain
A Mountains top, that ouer-peers the Plain:
Against the stream to cleave the rowling ridges
Of Nymph-strong floods, that haue born down their bridges,
Running vnrean'd with swift rebounding sallies
A-cross the rocks within the narrow vallies:
To ouertake the dart himselfe did throwe,
And in plain course to catch the Hinde or Roe.

253

But, when fiue lustres of his age expir'd,
Feeling his stomach and his strength aspir'd
To worthier wars, perceiv'd he any-where,
Boar, Libbard, Lyon, Tiger, Ounse, or Bear,
Him dread-less combats; and in combat foyls,
And rears high Tropheis of his bloody spoyls.

The people, seeing by his war-like deed
From theeues, and robbers every passage freed:
From hideous yels, the Desarts round about:
From fear, their flocks; this monster-master stout,
This Hercules, this hammer-ill, they tender,
And call him (all) their Father and Defender.

Then Nimrod (snatching Fortune by the tresses)

He abandons his first petty Chase, and hunteth wilier for a more pretious Prey.

Strikes the hot steel; sues, sooths, importunes, presses
Now these, then those, and (hastning his good Hap)
Leaues hunting Beasts, and hunteth Men to trap.
For, like as He, in former quests did vse
Cals, pit-fals, toyls, sprenges, and baits, and glews:
And (in the end) against the wilder game,
Clubs, darts, and shafts, and swords, their rage to tame:
So, som he wins with promise-full intreats,
With presents som, and som with rougher threats:
And boldly (breaking bounds of equity)
Vsurps the Child-World's maiden Monarchy;
Whereas, before each kindred had for guide
Their proper Chief, yet that the youthfull pride
Of vpstart State, ambitious, boyling fickle,
Did thrust (as now) in others corn his sickle.

In-throniz'd thus, this Tyrant gan deuise

Tyrannicall rule of Nimrod, and his proud enterprize.

To perpetrate a thousand cruelties,
Pel-mel subverting for his appetite
God's, Man's, and Natures triple sacred Right.
He braves th'Almighty, lifting to his nose
His flowring Scepter: and for fear he lose
The peoples aw; who (idle) in the end
Might slip their yoak; he subtle makes them spend,
Draws dry their wealth, and busies them to build
A lofty Towr, or rather Atlas wilde.
W' have liv'd (quoth he) too-long like pilgrim Grooms:
Leave we these rowling tents, and wandring rooms:
Let's raise a Palace, whose proud front and feet
With Heav'n and Hell may in an instant meet;
A sure Asylum, and a safe retrait,
If th'irefull storm of yet-more Floods should threat:
Lets found a Citie, and vnited there,
Vnder a King let's lead our liues; for fear
Lest sever'd thus, in Princes and in Tents,
We be disperst o'r all the Regiments

254

That in his course the Dayes bright Champion eyes.
Might-less our selues to succour, or aduise.
But, if the fire of som intestine war,
Or other mischief should diuide vs far,
Brethren (at least) let's leaue memorialls
Of our great names on these cloud-neighbouring wals.

A comparison, shewing liuely the efficacy of the attempts of Tyrants, the Rods of Gods righteous vengeance vpon vngodly people.

Now, as a spark, that Shepheards (vnespied)
Haue faln by chance vpon a forrest side,
Among dry leaues; a-while in secret shrowds,
Lifting a-loft small, smoaky-wauing clowds,
Till fanned by the fawning windes, it blushes,
With angry rage; and rising through the bushes,
Climbs fragrant Hauthorns, thence the Oak, and than
The Pine, and Firre, that bridge the Ocean:
It still gets ground, and (running) doth augment,
And never leaues till all neer Woods be brent:
So, this sweet speech (first broacht by certain Minions)
Is soon applauded 'mong the light opinions:
And by degrees from hand to hand renu'd,
To all the base confused multitude;
Who longing now to see this Castle rear'd,
Them night and day, in differing crafts bestirr'd,

Som fall to felling with a thousand stroaks
Aduenturous Alders, Ashes, long-liv'd Oaks;
Degrading Forrests, that the Sun might view
Fields that before his bright rayes never knew.

Liuely Description of the people occupied in som great business.

Ha 'ye seen a Town expos'd to spoyl and slaughter
(At victors pleasure) where laments and laughter
Mixtly resound; som carry, som conuay,
Som lug, som load; 'gainst Souldiers seeking Prey
No place is sure, and yer a day be done,
Out at her gate the ransack't Town doth run:
So (in a trice) these Carpenters disrobe
Th'Assyrian hils of all their leafie robe,
Strip the steep Mountains of their gastly shades,
And powle the broad Plains, of their branchy glades:
Carts, Sleds, and Mules, thick iustling meet abroad,
And bending axles groan beneath their load.

Heer, for hard Cement, heap they night and day
The gummy slime of chalkie waters gray:
There, busie Kil-men ply their occupations
For brick and tyle: there for their firm foundations,
They dig to hell; and damned Ghosts again
(Past hope) behold the Suns bright glorious wain:
Their hammers noyse, through Heav'ns rebounding brim,
Affrights the fish that in fair Tigris swim.
These ruddy wals in height, and compasse growe;
They cast long shadow, and far-off do showe:

255

All swarms with work-men, that (poor sots) surmise
Even the first day to touch the very skies.

Which, God perceiving, bending wrathfull frowns,

God displeased with the audatious enterprise of Nimrod, and his, resolueth to break their Designes by confounding their Language.

And with a noyse that roaring thunder drowns;
'Mid clowdy fields, hils by the roots he rakes,
And th'vnmov'd hinges of the Heav'ns he shakes.

See, see (quoth he) these dust-spawn, feeble, Dwarfs,
See their huge Castles, Wals, and Counter-scarfs:
O strength-full Peece, impregnable! and sure
All my iust anger's batteries to endure.
I swore to them, the fruitfull earth, no more
Hence-forth should fear the raging Oceans roar;
Yet build they Towrs: I will'd that scattered wide
They should go man the World; and lo they bide
Self-prisoned heer: I meant to be their Master,
My self alone, their Law, their Prince, and Pastor;
And they, for Lord, a Tyrant fell haue ta'en-them;
Who (to their cost) will roughly curb and rean them;
Who scorns mine arm, and with these braving Towrs
Attempts to scale this Crystall Throne of Ours.

Com, com, let's dash their drift; and sith, combin'd
As well in voyce, as blood, and law, and minde,
In ill they harden, and with language bold
Incourage-on themselues their work to hold,
Let's cast let 'gainst their quick diligence:
Let's strike them straight with spirit of difference;
Let's all confound their speech: let's make the brother,
The Sire, and Son, not vnderstand each other.

This said, as soon confusedly did bound

Execution of Gods decree.

Through all the work I wot not what strange sound,
A iangling noyse; not much vnlike the rumors
Of Bacchus Swains amid their drunken humors:
Som speak between the teeth, som in the nose,
Som in the throat their words do ill dispose,
Som howl, som halloo, som do stut and strain,
Each hath his gibberish, and all striue in vain
To finde again their know'n beloved tongue,
That with their milke they suckt in cradle, young.

Arise betimes, while th'Opal-coloured Morn,

A fit cōparison.

In golden pomp doth May-dayes door adorn:
And patient hear th'all-differing voyces sweet
Of painted Singers, that in Groues do greet
Their Loue-Bon-iours, each in his phrase and fashion
From trembling Pearch vttering his earnest passion;
And so thou mayst conceipt what mingle-mangle
Among this people every where did iangle.

Bring me (quoth one) a trowell, quickly, quick;
One brings him vp a hammer: hew this brick

256

(Another bids) and then they cleaue a Tree:
Make fast this rope, and then they let it flee:
One cals for planks, another mortar lacks:
They bear the first, a stone; the last an ax:
One would haue spikes, and him a spade they giue:
Another asks a saw, and gets a siue:
Thus crosly-crost, they prate and point in vain;
What one hath made, another mars again:
Nigh breath-less all, with their confused yawling,
In boot-less labour, now begins appawling.

Another elegant comparison shewing that there is no coūsell, no Endeuor, no diligence, no might nor multitude, that can resist God.

In brief, as those, that in som chanell deep
Begin to build a Bridge with Arches steep,
Perceiving once (in thousand streams extending)
The course-chang'd River from the hils descending,
With watry Mountains bearing down their Bay,
As if it scorn'd such bondage to obay;
Abandon quickly all their work begun,
And heer and there for swifter safety run:
These Masons so, seeing the storm arriv'd
Of Gods iust Wrath, all weak, and hart-depriv'd,
Forsake their purpose, and like frantick fools
Scatter their stuffe, and tumble down their tools.

Discommodities proceeding from the confusion of Tongues.

O proud revolt! O traiterous felony!
See in what sort the Lord hath punisht thee
By this Confusion: Ah! that language sweet,
Sure bond of Cities, friendships mastick meet,
Strong curb of anger yerst vnited, now
In thousand dry Brooks strays, I wot not how:
That rare-rich gold, that charm-grief fancy-mover,
That calm-rage harts-theef, quel-pride conjure-lover:
That purest coyn, then current in each coast,
Now mingled, hath sound, waight, and colour lost,
'Tis counterfeit: and over every shoar
The confus'd fall of Babel yet doth roar.

Then, Finland-folk might visit Affrica,
The Spaniard Inde, and ours America,
Without a truch-man: now, the banks that bound
Our Towns about, our tongues do also mound:
For, who from home but half a furlong goes,
As dumb (alas!) his Reason's tool doth lose:
Or if we talk but with our neer confines,
We borrow mouthes, or else we work by signes.

Vn-toyld, vn-tutord, sucking tender food,
We learn'd a language all men vnderstood;
And (seav'n-years old) in glass-dust did commence
To draw the round Earths fair circumference:
To cipher well, and climbing Art by Art,
We reacht betimes that Castles highest part,

257

Where th'Encyclopedie her darling Crowns,
In signe of conquest, with etern renowns.

Now (ever-boys) we wax old while we seek
The Hebrew tongue, the Latin, and the Greek:
We can but babble, and for knowledge whole
Of Natures secrets, and of th'Essence sole
Which Essence giues to all, we tire our minde
To vary Verbs, and finest words to finde;
Our letters and our syllables to waigh:
At Tutors lips we hang with heads all gray,
Who teach vs yet to read, and giue vs (raw)
An A. B. C. for great Iustinians law,
Hippocrates, or that Diviner lore,
Where God appears to whom him right adore.

What shall I more say? Then, all spake the speech

The Hebrew Tongue in all Mens mouthes before the confusion of Languages.

Of God himself, th'old sacred Idiom rich,
Rich perfect language, where's no point, nor signe,
But hides som rare deep mystery divine:
But since that pride, each people hath a-part
A bastard gibberish, harsh, and overthwart;
Which daily chang'd, and losing light, wel-neer
Nothing retains of that first language cleer.

The Phrygians once, and that renowned Nation

A conclusion tried, whereby appeareth that children are naturally apt to learn to speak: not able of thēselues to speak, without example.

Fed with fair Nilus fruitfull inundation,
Longing to know their Languages priority,
Fondly impos'd the censuring authority
To silly Iudges, voyd of iudging sense
(Dumb stammerers to treat of Eloquence)
To wit, two Infants nurst by Mothers dumb,
In silent Cels, where never noyse should com
Of charming humane voyce, to eccho there,
Till triple-twelue months full expired were.
Then brought before the Memphians, and the men
That dwell at Zant, the faint-breath'd childeren,
Cry often Bek; Bek, Bek is all the words
That their tongue forms, or their dumb mouth affords.
Then Phrygians, knowing, that in Phrygian
Bek meaneth bread, much to reioyce began,
Glad that kinde Nature had now grac't them so,
To grant this Sentence on their side to go.

Fools, which perceiv'd not, that the bleating flocks
Which powl'd the neighbour Mountains motly locks
Had taught this tearm, and that no tearms of Rome,
Greece, Ægypt, England, France, Troy, Iewry, come
Com born with vs: but every Countries tongue
Is learnt by much vse, and frequenting long.
Only, we haue peculiar to our race,
Aptness to speak; as that same other grace

258

Which, richly-divers, makes vs differ more
From dull, dumb wretches that in Desarts roar.

Answer to the obiection taken from the cōfused voice of Beasts.

Now, that Buls bellow (if that any say)
That Lions roar, and slothfull Asses bray,
Now lowe, now lowd; and by such languages
Distinctly seem to shew their courages:
Those are not words, but bare expressions
Of violent fits of certain passions:
Confused signes of sorrw, or annoy,
Of hunger, thirst, of anger, loue, or ioy.

To another Obiection, of the chirping of Birds.

And so I say of all the winged quiers,
Which mornly warble, on green trembling briers,
Ear-tickling tunes: for, though they seem to prattle
A part by payrs, and three to three to tattle;
To winde their voyce a hundred thousand wayes,
In curious descant of a thousand layes:
T'haue taught Apollo, in their School, his skill;
Their sounds want sense; their notes are word-less still:
Their song, repeated thousand times a-day,
As dumb discourse, flies in the Woods away.

Aduantage of Man endued with Reason aboue the rest of the Creatures.

But, only Man can talke of his Creator,
Of Heav'n, and earth, and fire, and ayr, and water,
Of Iustice, Temperance, Wisdom, Fortitude,
In choise sweet tearms, that various sense include.
And not in one sole tongue his thoughts dissunder;

Iosephus Scaliger, skilfull in 13. languages.

But like to Scaliger, our ages wonder,
The Learned's Sun: who eloquently can,
Speak Spanish, French, Italian, Nubian,
Dutch, Chaldee, Syriak, English, Arabik,
(Besides) the Persian, Hebrew, Latin, Greek.
O rich quick spirit! O wits Chameleon!
Which any Authors colour can put on:
Great Iulius Son, and Syluius worthy brother,
Th'immortall grace of Gascony, their mother.

Answere to a third obiection touching Parot-resembling Eccho, & speaking without speech.

And, as for Iayes, that in their wyery gail
Can ask for victuals, and vnvictual'd rail;
Who, daring vs for eloquences meed,
Can plain pronounce the holy Christian Creed,
Say the Lords Prayer, and oft repeat it all,
And name by name a good great houshold call:
Th'are like that voice, which (by our voyce begot)
From hollow vale babbles it wots not what:
In vain the ayr they beat, it vainly cleaving,
And dumbly speak, their owne speech not conceiving,
Deaf to themselues: for, speech is nothing (sure)
But th'vnseen soules resounding portrature:
And chiefly when 'tis short, sweet, painted-plain,
As it was all, yer that rough hunters raign.

259

Now, when I note, how th'Hebrew brevity,

The Hebrew tongue the principall.

Even with few words expresseth happily
Deepest conceits; and leads the hearing part
Through all the closets of the mazy hart:
Better then Greek with her Synonimaes,

First reason.

Fit Epithets, and fine Metaphoraes,
Her apt Coniunctions, Tenses, Moods, and Cases,
And many other much esteemed graces:

When I remember, how the Rabbins fet

Second reason.

Out of the sacred Hebrew Alphabet
All that our faith beleeues, or eyes behold;
That in the Law the Arts are all inrold:
Whether (with curious pain) we do transport
Her letters turn'd in many-various sort
(For, as in ciphering, th'onely transportation

Simile.

Of figures, still varies their valuation:
So th'Anagram strengthens or slacks a name,
Giuing a secret twist vnto the same:)
Or whether we (euen as in gross) bestowing
The numbers, which, from one words letters flowing,
Vnfold a secret; and that word again
Another of like number doth contain:
Whether one letter for a word be put;
Or all a sentence in one word be shut:
As Ægypts silence sealed-vp (mysterious)
In one Character a long sentence serious.

When I obserue, that from the Indian Dawning,

Third reason.

Even to our Irish Etna's fiery yawning:
And from hot Tambut, to the Sea Tartarian,
Thou seest (O Sun!) no Nation so barbarian,
Nor ignorant in all the Laws divine,
But yet retains som tearms of Palestine,
Whose Elements (how-so disguiz'd) draw-nigh
The sacred names of th'old Orthography.

When I consider that Gods antient Will

Fourth reason.

Was first enrowled by an Hebrew quill:
That never Vrim, Dream, or Vision sung
Their Oracles, but all in Isaaks tongue:
That in the same, the Lord himselfe did draw
Vpon two Tables his eternall Law:
And that (long since) in Sions Languages,
His Heav'nly Postes brought down his messages:

And (to conclude) when I conceiue, how then

Fift reason.

They gaue not idle, casuall names to men,
But such as (rich in sense) before th'event,
Markt in their liues som speciall accident;
And yet, we see that all those words of old
Of Hebrew still the sound and sense do hold.

260

For, Adam (meaneth) made of clay: his wife
Eua (translated) signifieth life:
Cain, first begot, Abel, as vain: and Seth,
Put in his place: and he that, vnderneath
The generall Deluge, saw the World distrest,
In true interpretation, soundeth Rest.
To th'Hebrew Tongue (how-ever Greece do grudge)
The sacred right of Eldership I iudge.

Praise of the Hebrew Tongue, Mother and Queen of all the Rest.

All hail, therefore, O sempiternall spring
Of spirituall pictures! speech of Heav'ns high King,
Mother, and Mistress, of all Tongues the Prime:
Which (pure) hast past such vast deep gulfs of Time:
Which hast no word but weighs, whose Elements
Flowe with hid sense, thy points with Sacraments.
O sacred Dialect! in thee the names
Of Men, Towns, Countries register their fames
In brief abridgements: and the names of Birds,
Of Water-guests, and Forrest-hanting Heards,
Are open Books where every man might read
Their natures story; till th'Heav'n-shaker dread,
In his iust wrath, the flaming sword had set,
The passage into Paradise to let.

Adam gaue Hebrew names to all the Creatures.

For, Adam then (in signe of mastry) giving
Peculiar names vnto all creatures living,
When in a generall muster ranged right,
They marcht by couples in his awfull sight,
He framed them so fit, that learned ears
Bearing the soul the sound, the maruails bears,
Wherewith th'All-forming voyce adorned fair
Th'inhabitants of Sea, and Earth, and Ayr.

He inriched the Language with the composition of Verbs and Clauses.

And, for each body acts, or suffers ought,
Having made Nowns, his Verbs he also wrought:
And then, the more t'inrich his speech, he brings
Small particles, which stand in lieu of strings,
The master members fitly to combine
(As two great boards, a little glew doth ioyn)
And serue as plumes, which ever dancing light
Deck the proud crests of helmets burnisht bright:
Frenges to mantles; ears, and rings to vessels:
To marble statues, bases, feet, and tressels.

The Hebrew Tongue cōtinued from Adam to the time of Nimrod: Since when it rested in the house of Heber, of whom it is called Hebrew.

This (Adams language) pure persisted since,
Till th'iron Age of that cloud-climbing Prince;
Resounding onely, through all mortall tents,
The peer-less accents of rich eloquence;
But then (as partiall) it it self retyr'd
To Hebers house: whether, of the conspir'd
Rebels, he were not; but in sober quiet,
Dwelt far from Shinar, and their furious ryot:

261

Or whether, thither by compulsion brought,
With secret sighes hee oft his God besought,
So with vnwilling hands helping to make
The wals he wisht deep sunk in Stygian Lake:
As wretched Galley-slaues (beating the Seas.

Simile.

With forced oars, fighting against their ease
And liberty) curse in their grieved spright,
Those, for whose sake they labour day and night;
Or whether else Gods liberall hand, for ever
(As it were) meeting holy mens indevour,
For his owne sake, of his free grace and pleasure,
To th'Hebrew race deposited this treasure;
While the proud remnant of those scattered Masons
Had falsed it in hundred thousand fashions,
When every one where fate him called flew,
Bearing new words into his Countrey new.

But slipp'ry Time, enviously wasting all,

A sub-diuision of the Lāguages first diuided.

Disfigur'd soon those Tongues authenticall,
Which 'mid the Babel-builders thunder, bred
On Tigris banks, o're all the earth were spred:
And, ay the world the more confus'd to leaue,
The least of them in many Tongues did cleaue.

Each language alters, either by occasion

Whereof proceed the sundry changes in one self same Language.

Of trade, which (causing mutuall commutation
Of th'Earths and Oceans wares) with hardy luck
Doth words for words barter, exchange and truck:
Or else, because Fame-thirsting wits, that toyl
In golden tearms to trick their gratious stile,
With new-found beauties prank each circumstance,
Or (at the least) doe new-coyn'd words inhance
With current freedom: and again restore
Th'old, rusty, mouldy, worm-gnawn words of yore.

For, as in Forrests, leaues do fall and spring:

Simile.

Even so the words, which whilom flourishing,
In sweet Orations shin'd with pleasing lustre
(Like snowe-white Lillies in a fresh green pasture)
Pass now no more; but, banisht from the Court,
Dwell with disgrace among the Countrey sort:
And those, which Eld's strict doom did disallow,
And damn for bullion, go for current now.

A happy wit, with gratious iudgement ioyn'd

The liberty of a witty, learned, and iudicious Writer.

May giue a pasport to the words new coyn'd
In his own shop: also adopt the strange:
Ingraft the wilde: inriching, with such change
His powerfull stile; and with such sundry ammell
Painting his phrase, his Prose or Verse enamell.

One language hath no law but vse: and still
Runs blinde, vnbridled, at the vulgars will.

262

Anothers course is curiously inclos'd
In lists of Art; of choice fit words compos'd.
One, in the feeble birth, becomming old,
Is cradle-toomb'd: another warreth bold
With the yeer-spinners. One, vnhappy-founded,
Liues in a narrow valley ever bounded:
Another 'mong the learned troop doth presse
From Alexanders Altars, even to Fez.

Excellency of the Hebrew, Greek, & Latin Tongues aboue the rest.

And such are now, the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin:
Th'Hebrew, because of it we hold the Paten
Of Thrice-Eternals ever sacred Word:
And, of his Law, That is the first Record.
The Greek, as having cunningly compriz'd
All kinde of knowledge that may be devis'd.
And manly Roman sith the sword vndanted
Through all the world her eloquence hath planted.

A pleasant introduction to his following Discourse, wherein Poetically He describeth and bringeth in the principall Languages, together with such as haue excelled in each of them.

Writing these later lines, weary wel-neer
Of sacred Pallas pleasing labours deer;
Mine humble chin saluteth oft my brest;
With an Ambrosial deaw mine eys possest
By peece-meal close; all moving powrs be still;
From my dull fingers drops my fainting quill;
Down in my sloath-lov'd bed again I shrink;
And in dark Lethe all deep cares I sink:
Yea, all my cares, except a zeal to len
A gainfull pleasure to my Countrymen.
For, th'holy loues-charm, burning for their sake,
When I am sleeping, keeps my soule awake.

The God of Dreams.

Gold-winged Morpheus, East-ward issuing
By's crystall gate (it earlier opening
Then dayes bright door) fantastick leads the way
Down to a vale, where moist-cool night, and day,
Still calms and storms, keen cold, and sultry smother,
Rain, and fair weather follow not each other:
But May still raigns, and rose-crown'd Zephyrus
With wanton sighes makes the green trees to buss,
Whose whispering boughs, in Ovall form do fence
This flowrie field's delightfull excellence.

Description of the House, and Image of Eloquence: and of the principall Languages.

Iust in the midst of this enammeld vale
Rose a huge Rock, cut like a Pedestall;
And on the Cornich a Colosius stands
Of during brasse, which beareth in his hands
Both fire and water: from his golden tongue
Growe thousand chains, which all the mead a-long
Draw worlds of hearers with alluring Art,
Bound fast by th'ears, but faster by the hart.
Before his feet, Boars, Bears, and Tigers lie
As meek as Lambs, reclaim'd from crueltie.

263

Neer hils do hop, and neighbour Forrests bound,
Seeming to dance at his sweet voyces sound.

Of Carian pillars rais'd with curious Art
On bases firm, a double rowe doth girt
The soule-charm Image of sweet Eloquence:
And these fair Piles (with great magnificence)
Bear, foure by foure, one of the Tongues which now
Our learned Age for fairest doth allow.

The Hebrew supported by 4. Pillars; (viz).

Now, 'mong the Heav'n-deer spirits supporting heer
The Hebrew tongue, that Prince whose brows appear
Like daunt-Earth Comet's Heav'n-adorning brand,
Who holds a green-dry, withr'd-springing wand,

Moses.

And in his armes the sacred Register
Of Gods eternall ten-fold Law doth bear;
Is Israels guide: first Author, he that first
Vnto his heirs his Writings offer durst:
Whose hallowed Pages not alone preceed
All Grecian Writ, but every Grecian Deed.

Dauid's the next, who, with the melody

Dauid.

Of voyce-matcht fingers, draws sphears harmony,
To his Heav'n-tuned harp, which shall resound
While the bright day-star rides his glorious Round:
Yea (happily) when both the whirling Poles
Shall cease their Galliard, th'ever-blessed soules
Of Christ his champions (cheer'd with his sweet songs)
Shall dance to th'honour of the Strong of strongs;
And all the Angels glorie-winged Hostes
Sing Holy, Holy, Holy, God of Hoasts.

The third, his Son, wit-wondrous Salomon,

Salomon.

Who in his lines hath more wise lessons sow'n,
More golden words, then in his Crown there shin'd
Pearls, Diamonds, and other Gemms of Inde.

Then, Amos Son, in threatnings vehement,

Esay.

Grace-followed, graue, holy and eloquent.

Sweet-numbred Homer here the Greek supports,
Whose School hath bred the many-differing sorts

2. The Greeke by Homer. Plato. Herodotus. Demosthenes.

Of antient Sages: and, through every Realm,
Made (like a Sea) his eloquence to stream:
Plato, the all-divine, who like the Fowl
(They call) of Paradise; doth never foul
His foot on Earth or Sea, but lofty sties
Higher then Heav'n from Hell, aboue the skies:
Cleer-styl'd Herodotus, and Demosthen,
Gold-mouthed hearts-king, law of learned men.

Th'Arch-Foe to factious Catiline and (since)

3. The Latine by Cicero. Cæsar. Salust. Virgil.

To Anthony, whose thundring eloquence
Yeelds thousand streames, whence (rapt in admiration)
The rarest wits are drunk in every Nation:

264

Cæsar, who knowes as well to write, as war:
The Sinnewie Salust: and that Heav'n-fall'n star,
Which straggling Ilium brings to Tybers brink,
Who never seems in all his Works to wink;
Who never stumbled, ever cleer and graue;
Bashfully-bold, and blushing modest-braue:
Still like himself; and else, still like to no-man:
Sustain the stately, graue-sweet antient Roman.

4. The Italian by Boccace. Petrarch. Ariosto. Tasso.

On mirthfull Boccace is the Tuscan plac't:
Bold, choice-tearm'd Petrarch, in deep passions grac't:
The fluent fainer of Orlando's error,
Smooth, pithy, various, quick affection-stirrer:
And witty Tasso, worthy to indight
Heroïk numbers, full of life and light;
Short, sharpe-conceipted, rich in language cleer,
Though last in age, in honour formost heer.

5. The Arabik by Aben-Rois. Eldebag. Auicen. Ibnu-farid.

Th'Arabian language hath for pillars sound,
Great Aben-Rois most subtill, and profound,
Sharp Eldebag, and learned Auicen,
And Ibnu-farid's Figure-flowing Pen.

6. The Dutch by Peuther. Luther. Beucer. Butric.

The Dutch, hath him who Germaniz'd the story
Of Sleidan: next, th'Isleban (lasting glory
Of Wittenberg) with Beucer gilding bright
His pleasing stile: and Butric my delight.

7. The Spanish by Gueuarra. Boscan. Granada. Garcilaco.

Gueuarra, Boscan, and Granade, which sup
With Garcilace, in honey Pytho's cup
The smiling Nectar, beare th'Hyberian:
And, but th'old glory of the Catalan,
Rauisht Osyas, he might well haue claymed
The Spanish Laurell, 'mong these lastly named.

8. The French by Marot.

Now, for the French, that shape-less Column rude,
Whence th'idle Mason hath but grosly hew'd
(As yet) the rough scales from the vpper part,
Is Clement Marot; who with Art-les Art
Busily toyls: and, prickt with praise-full thirst,
Brings Helicon, from Po to Quercy first:
Whom, as a time-torn Monument I honour:
Or as a broken Toomb: or tattered Banner:
Or age-worn Image: not so much for showe,
As for the reuerence that to Eld I owe.

The next I knowe not well; yet (at the least)
He seems som skilfull Master with the rest:
Yet doubt I still. For now it doth appear

Amyot.

Like Iaques Amyot, then like Viginere.

Ronsard.

That, is great Ronsard, who his France to garnish,
Robs Rome and Greece, of their Art-various varnish;
And, hardy-witted, handleth happily
All sorts of subiect, stile, and Poesie.

265

And this du Plessis, beating Atheïsme,

Plessis.

Vain Paganisme, and stubborn Iudaïsme,
With their owne Armes: and sacred-graue, and short,
His plain-prankt stile he strengthens in such sort,
That his quick reasons, wingd with grace and Art,
Pearce like keen arrows, every gentle hart.

Our English Tongue three famous Knights sustain;

9. The English by Sir Thomas Moore. Sir Nicholas Bacone. Sir Philip Sidney.

Moore, Bacone, Sidney: of which former, twain
(High Chancelors of England) weaned first
Our Infant-phrase (till then but homely nurst)
And childish toyes; and rudeness chasing thence,
To civill knowledge, ioyn'd sweet eloquence.
And (World-mourn'd) Sidney, warbling to the Thames
His Swan-like tunes, so courts her coy proud streams,
That (all with-childe with Fame) his fame they bear
To Thetis lap; and Thetis, every-where.

But, what new Sun dazles my tender eyes?
What sudden transe rapts me aboue the skies?
What Princely Port? O! what imperiall grace?
What sweet-bright-lightning looks? what Angels face?

Say (learned Heav'n-born Sisters) is not this

And the incomparable Queen Elizabeth.

That prudent Pallas, Albions Misteris,
That Great Eliza, making hers disdain,
For any Man, to change their Maidens raign?
Who, while Erynnys (weary now of hell)

Her prudence, Piety, Iustice, Religion, Learning, and Eloquence.

With Fire and Sword her neighbour States doth quell,
And while black Horror threats in stormy rage,
With dreadfull down-fall th'vniversall stage;
In happy Peace her Land doth keep and nourish:
Where reverend Iustice, and Religion flourish.
Who is not only in her Mother-voice
Rich in Oration; but with phrases choice,
So on the sudden can discourse in Greek,
French, Latin, Tuscan, Dutch, and Spanish eek,
That Rome, Rhyne, Rhone, Greece, Spain, and Italy,
Plead all for right in her natiuitie.

Bright Northren pearl, Mars-daunting martialist,
To grace the Muses and the Arts, persist:
And (O!) if ever these rude rimes be blest
But with one glaunce of Nature's only Best;
Or (luckie) light between those Yuory palms,
Which holde thy State's stern, in these happy calms,
View them with milde aspect; and gently read,
That for thy praise, thine eloquence we need.

Then thus I spake; O spirits diuine and learned,
Whose happy labours haue your lauds eterned:
O! sith I am not apt (alas!) nor able
With you to bear the burthen honourable

266

Of Albions Fame, nor with my feeble sight
So much as follow your Heav'n-neighbouring flight;
At least permit me, prostrate to imbrace
Your reuerend knees: permit me to inchase
Your radiant crests with Aprils flowry Crown;
Permit (I pray) that from your high renown,
My feeble tunes eternall fames deriue;
While in my Songs your glorious names suruiue.

End of the Vision.

Granting my sute, each of them bowd his head,
The valley vanisht, and the pillers fled:
And there-with-all, my Dream had flow'n (I think)
But that I lim'd his limber wings with ink.

FINIS.

267

3. The Colonies.

THE THIRD PART OF THE SECOND DAY OF THE II. WEEK.

The Argvment.

To stop ambition, Strife, and Auarice,
Into Three Parts the Earth diuided is:
To Sem the East, to Cham the South; the West
To Iapheth falls; their seuerall scopes exprest:
Their fruitfull Spawn did all the World supply:
Antiquities vncertain Search, and why:
Assyria sceptred first; and first imparts,
To all the rest, Wealth, Honour, Arms, and Arts:
The New-found World: Mens diuers humors strange:
The various World a mutuall Counter-change.

While through the Worlds vnhanted wilderness

Being heere to intreat of the Transmigration of so many Nations, issued out of the loignes of Noah, our Poet desireth to be addressed by som speciall fauour of God.

I, th'old, first Pilots wandring House address:
While (Famous Drake-like) coasting every strand
I do discover many a New-found-Land:
And while, from Sea to Sea, with curious pain
I plant great Noahs plentious Vine again:
What bright-brown cloud shall in the Day protect me?
What fiery Pillar shall by Night direct me
Toward each Peoples primer Residence,
Predestin'd in the Court of Providence,
Yer our bi-sexed Parents, free from sin,
In Eden did their double birth begin?

O sacred Lamp! that went'st so brightly burning
Before the Sages, from the spycie Morning,
To shew th'Almighty Infants humble Birth;
O! chace the thick Clouds, driue the darknes forth

268

Which blindeth me: that mine aduenturous Rime,
Circling the World, may search out every Clime.
For, though my Wits, in this long Voyage shift

The true, & only drift of all his indeuours.

From side to side; yet is my speciall drift,
My gentle Readers by the hand to bring
To that deer Babe, the Man-God, Christ, our King.

A comparison expressing the effect of the astonishment, which the confusion of Tongues broght into the Babel-builders.

As When the lowring Heav'ns with loudest raps
Through Forrests thrill their roaring thunder-claps,
The shivering Fowls do suddenly forgo
Their nests and perches, fluttering to and fro
Through the dark ayr, and round about ther rings
A whistling murmur of their whisking wings;
The grissell Turtles (seldom seen alone)
Dis-payer'd and parted, wander one by one;
And even the feeble downie feathered Yong
Venture to fly, before their quils be strong:
Even so, the Builders of that Babel-Wonder,
Hearing Gods voice aloud to roar and thunder
In their rude voices barbarous difference,
Take all at once their fearfull flight from thence
On either hand; and through th'Earth voidly-vast
Each packs a-part, where God would haue him plac't.

For, Heav'ns great Monarch (yer the World began)

Why God would not that the seed of Noah should reside in the Plain of Shynar.

Having decreed to giue the World to man;
Would not, the same a nest of theeues should be,
That with the Sword should share his Legacie;
And (brutely mix) with mongrell stock to stoar
Our Elements, round, solid, slimy floar:
But rather, fire of Couetize to curb,

The Earth distributed among the Sons of Noah To Sem, the East.

Into three Parts he parts this spacious Orb,
'Twixt Sem and Cham, and Iapheth: Sem the East,
Cham South, and Iapheth doth obtain the West.

That large rich Countrey, from Perosite shoars
(Where stately Ob, the King of Rivers, roars,
In Scythian Seas voiding his violent load,
But little less then six dayes sayling broad)
To Malaca: Moluques Iles, that bear
Cloues and Canele: well-tempered Sumater
Sub-equinoctiall: and the golden streams
Of Bisnagar, and Zeilan bearing gemms:
From th'Euxin Sea and surge of Chaldean Twins
To th'Anian Streight: the sloathfull sly my Fens
Where Quinzay stands; Chiorze, where Buls as big
As Elephants are clad in silken shag,
Is great Sems Portion. For the Destinies
(Or rather Heav'ns immutable Decrees)
Assur t'Assyria send, that in short time
Chale and Rhesen to the Clouds might climbe,

269

And Niniue (more famous then the rest)
Aboue them raise her many-towred Crest:
The sceptred Elam chose the Persian Hils,
And those fat fields that swift Araxis fils;
Lud, Lydia: Aram all Armenia had:
And Chalde fell to learned Arphaxad:

Cham became Soverain over all those Realms

To Cham the South.

South-bounded round with Sun-burnt Guinne streams;
Botangas, Benin, Cephal, Guaguametre,
Hot Concritan, too-full of poysonie matter;
North-ward with narrow Mid-terranean Sea
Which from rich Europe parts poor Africa:
Tow'rds where Titans Euening splendor sank,
With Seas of Fez, Cape-verde, and Cape-blanc:
And tow'rds where Phœbus doth each morning wake,
With Adel Ocean and the Crimsin Lake.
And further, all that lies between the steep
Mount Libanus, and the Arabian Deep,
Between th'Erythrean Sea, and Persian Sine,
He (mighty Prince) to's Afrik State doth ioyne.
His Darling Canaan doth nigh Iordan dwell
(One-day ordain'd to harbour Israel):
Put peopled Lybia: Mizriam Egypt mann'd:
And's first-born Chus the Æthyopian strand.

Iapheth extends from struggling Hellespont,

To Iapheth the North & West.

The Tane and Euxin Sea, to th'double Mount
Of famous Gibraltar, and that deep Main,
Whose tumbling billows bathe the shoars of Spain:
And from those Seas, where in the steed of Keels
Of winged Ships they roule their Chariot wheels,
To the Marsilian, Morean, and Thyrrhenian;
Ligurian Seas, and learned Sea Athenian,
Iust opposite to Asia rich in spice,
Pride of the Word, and second Paradise:
And that large Countrey stretcht from Amana
To Tanais shoars, and to the source of Rha.

Forth of his Gomers loigns (they say) sprung all
The war-like Nations scattered over Gaul,
And Germains too (yerst called Gomerits):
From Tubal, Spaniards: and from Magog, Scythes:
From Madai, Medes: from Mesech, Mazacans:
From Iauan, Greeks: from Thyras, Thracians.

Heer, if I list, or lov'd I rover-shooting,

According to his accustomed modesty & discretion, the Poet chaseth rather Silence then to speak vncertainly of things vnknowne.

Or would I follow the vncertain footing
Of false Berosus and such fond Deluders
(Their zealous Readers insolent Illuders)
I could deriue the lineall Descents
Of all our Sires; and name you every Prince

270

Of every Province, in his time and place
(Successiuely) through-out his Ancient Race:
Yea, sing the Worlds so divers populations;
And of least Cities showe the first Foundations.
But, never will I so my sails abandon
To every blast, and rowing so at randon
(Without the bright light of that glorious Star
(Which shines 'boue all the Heav'ns) venture so far
On th'vnknowne surges of so vast a Sea
So full of Rocks and dangers every way;
Having no Pylot, saue som brain-sick Writers
Which coyn Kings names, vain fabulous Inditers
Of their own fancies, who (affecting glory)
Vpon a Flyes foot build a goodly story.

Reasons why the search of such Antiquities is so obscure.

Som words allusion is no certain ground
Whereon a lasting Monument to found:
Sith fairest Rivers, Mountains strangely steep,
And largest Seas, never so vast and deep
(Though self-eternall, resting still the same)
Through sundry chances often change their name:
Sith it befals not alwayes, that his feed
Who builds a Town, doth in the same succeed:
And (to conclude) sith vnder Heav'n, no Race
Perpetually possesseth any place:
But, as all Tenants at the High Lords will,
We hold a Field, a Forrest, or a Hill:
And (as when winde the angry Ocean moues)
Waue hunteth waue, and billow billow shoues:
So do all Nations iustle each the other,
And so one People doth pursue another;
And scarce the second hath a first vn-housed,
Before a third him thence again haue rowsed.

Famous examples to this purpose. Of the ancient Britains. Of the Lombards.

So, th'ancient Britain, by the Saxons chac't
From's natiue Albion, soon the Gaules displac't
From Armonik; and then victoriously
(After his name) surnam'd that, Britannie.

So, when the Lombard had surrendered
Fair, double-named Isthers flowry-bed
To scar-fac't Hunnes; he hunteth furiously
The rest of Gaules from wealthy Insubrie;
Which after fell in French-mens hands again,
Won by the sword of Worthy Charlemain.

Of the Alains, Goths and Vandals.

So, th'Alain and North Vandal, beaten both
From Corduba and Seuil by the Goth,
Seiz'd Carthage straight; which after-ward they lost
To wise Iustinians valiant Roman Hoast:
And Romans, since, ioyn'd with the barbarous troop
Of curled Moors, vnto th'Arabians stoop.

271

The sacrilegious greedy appetite

The causes of such Transmigrations.

Of Gold and Scepters glistering glorious bright,
The thirst of Vengeance, and that puffing breath
Of elvish Honour built on blood and death,
On desolation, rapes and robberies,
Flames, ruins, wracks, and brutish butcheries,
Vn-bound all Countries, making war-like Nations
Through every Clymat seek new habitations.

I speak not heer of those Alarbian Rovers,
Numidian Shepheards; or Tartarian Drovers,
Who shifting pastures for their store of Cattle:
Do heer and there their hairy Tents imbattle:
Like the black swarms of Swallows swiftly-light,
Which twice a-year cross with their nimble flight
The Pine-plough'd Sea, and (pleas'd with purest ayr)
Seek every Season for a fresh repair:
But other Nations fierce, who far and nigh
With their own bloods-price purchast Victory;
Who, better knowing how to win, then wield;
Conquer, then keep; to batter, then to build;
And brauely choosing rather War then Peace,
Haue over-spread the World by Land and Seas.

Such was the Lombard, who in Schonland nurst,

The originall removes, voiages, & conquests of the Lombards.

On Rugeland and Liuonia seized first.
Then having well reveng'd on the Bulgarian
The death of Agilmont, the bold Barbarian
Surpriseth Poland; thence anon he presses
In Rhines fair streams to rinse his Amber tresses:
Thence turning back, he seats him in Morauia;
After, at Buda; thence he postes to Pauia;
There raigns two hundred years: triumphing so,
That royall Tesin might compare with Po.

Such was the Goth, who whilom issuing forth

Of the Goths.

From the cold, frozen Ilands of the North,
Imcampt by Vistula: but th'Air (almost)
Being there as cold as on the Baltick Coast,
He with victorious arms Sclavonia gains,
The Transylvanian and Valacchian Plains.
Thence plies to Thracia: and then (leaving Greeks)
Greedy of spoil, foure times he bravely seeks
To snatch from Rome (then, Mars his Minion)
The Palms which she o'r all the World had won;
Guided by Rhadaguise, and Alaric,
And Vidimarius, and Theodoric:
Then coms to Gaul: and thence repulst, his Legions
Rest ever since vpon the Spanish Regions.

Such th'antik Gaul: who, roving every way,

Of the ancient Gaules.

As far as Phœbus darts his golden ray,

272

Seiz'd Italy; the Worlds proud Mistress sackt
Which rather Mars then Romulus compackt:
Then pill'd Panonia: then with conquering ploughs
He furrows-vp cold Strymons slymie sloughs:
Wastes Macedonia: and (inclin'd to fleece)
Spares not to spoyl the greatest Gods of Greece:
Then (cloyd with Europe) th'Hellespont he past,
And there Mount Ida's neighbour world did waste:
Spoyleth Pisidia: Mysia doth inthrall:
And midst of Asia plants another Gaul.

Most famous Peoples dark Antiquity,
Is as a Wood: where bold Temerity
Stumbles each step; and learned Diligence
If selfe intangles; and blind Ignorance
(Groping about in such Cimmerian nights)
In pits and ponds, and boggs, and quag-mires lights.

He affirmeth finally that the three Sons of Noah peopled the world, and sheweth how.

It shall suffice me therefore (in this doubt)
But (as it were) to coast the same about:
And, rightly tun'd vnto the golden string
Of Amrams Son, in gravest verse to sing,
That Sem, and Cham, and Iapheth did re-plant
Th'vn-peopled World with new inhabitant:
And that again great Noahs wandring Boat
The second time o'r all the World did float.

Not that I send Sem, at one flight vnceast,
From Babylon vnto the farthest East,
Tartarian Chorats silver waues t'eslay,
And people China, Cambula, Cathay,
Iapheth to Spain: and that profanest Cham,
To thirsty Countries Meder' and Bigam,
To Cephala vpon Mount Zambrica,
And Cape of Hope, last coign of Africa.

2. Fit comparisons to represent the same.

For, as Hymetus and Mount Hybla were
Not over-spread and covered in one year
With busie Bees; but yearly twice or thrice
Each Hyue supplying new-com Colonies
(Heav'ns tender Nurcelings) to those fragrant Mountains,
At length their Rocks dissolv'd in Hony Fountains:
Or rather, as two fruitfull Elms that spred
Amidst a Cloase with brooks environed,
Ingender other Elms about their roots;
Those, other still; and still, new-springing shoots
So over-growe the ground, that in fewe years
The somtimes-Mead a great thick Groue appears:
Even so th'ambitious Babel-building rout,
Disperst, at first go seat themselues about
Mesopotamia: after (by degrees)
Their happy Spawn, in sundry Colonies

273

Crossing from Sea to Sea, from Land to Land,
All the green-mantled neather Globe hath mann'd:
So that, except th'Almighty (glorious Iudge
Of quick and dead) this World's ill dayes abbridge,
Ther shall no soyl so wilde and savage be,
But shall be shadowed by great Adams Tree.

Therefore, those Countries neerest Tigris Spring,

Why the first Monarkie began in Assyria.

In those first ages were most flourishing,
Most spoken-of, first Warriors, first that guide,
And giue the Law to all the Earth beside.

Babylon (living vnder th'awfull grace
Of Royall Greatness) sway'd th'Imperiall Mace,
Before the Greeks had any Town at all,
Or warbling Lute had built the Dircean Wall:
Yer Gauls had houses, Latins Burgages,
Our Britains Tents, or Germans Cotages.

The Hebrews had with Angels Conversation,

The Hebrewes and their next neighbors were religious and learned before the Grecians knew any thing.

Held th'Idol-Altars in abhomination,
Knew the Vnknowen, with eyes of Faith they saw
Th'invisible Messias, in the Law:
The Chaldees, Audit of the Stars had made,
Had measur'd Heav'n, conceiv'd how th'Earths thick shade
Eclipst the silver brows of Cynthia bright,
And her brown shadow quencht her brothers light.

The Memphian Priests were deep Philosophers,
And curious gazers on the sacred Stars,
Searchers of Nature, and great Mathematicks;
Yer any Letter, knew the ancient'st Atticks.

Proud Ægypt glistred all with golden Plate,

The Egyptians, & Tyrians had their fill of Riches and Pomp, & Pleasure, before the Greeks or Gauls know what the world meant.

Yer the lame Lemnian (vnder Ætna grate)
Had hammer'd yron; or the Vultur-rented
Prometheus, 'mong the Greeks had fire invented.

Gauls were not yet; or, were they (at the least)
They were but wilde; their habit, plumes; their feast,
But Mast and Acorns, for the which they gap't
Vnder the Trees when any winde had hapt:
When the bold Tyrians (greedy after gain)
Durst rowe about the salt-blew Africk Main;
Traffikt abroad, in Scarlet Robes were drest,
And pomp and pleasure Euphrates possest.

For, as a stone, that midst a Pond ye fling,
About his fall first forms a little ring,
Wherein, new Circles one in other growing
(Through the smooth Waters gentle-gentle flowing)
Still one the other more and more compell
From the Ponds Centre, where the stone first fell;
Till at the last the largest of the Rounds
From side to side 'gainst every bank rebounds:

274

So, from th'Earth's Centre (which I heer suppose
About the Place where God did Tongues transpose)
Man (day by day his wit repolishing)
Makes all the Arts through all the Earth to spring,
As he doth spread, and shed in divers shoals
His fruitfull Spawn, round vnder both the Poles.

The first Colonies of Sem in the East.

Forth from Assyria, East-ward then they trauell
Towards rich Hytanis with the golden grauell:
Then people they the Persian Oroâtis;
Then cleer Choaspis, which doth humbly kiss
The Walls of Susa; then the Vallies fat
Neer Caucasus, where yerst th'Arsaces sat:
Then mann they Media; then with humane seed,
Towards the Sea th'Hyrcanian Plain they speed.

The second.

The Sons of these (like flowing Waters) spred
O'r all the Countrey which is bordered
With Chiesel River, 'boue Thacalistan;
Gadel and Cabul, Bedan, Balestan.

The third.

Their off-spring then, with fruitfull stems doth stoar
Basinagar, Nayard, and either shoar
Of famous Ganges; Aua Toloman,
The Kingdom Mein, the Musky Charazan;
And round about the Desart Op, where oft
By strange Phantasmas Passengers are scoft.

The fourth.

Som ages after, linkt in divers knots,
Tipur they take, rich in Rhinocerots;
Caichin, in Aloes; Mangit, and the shoar
Of Quinz' and Anie lets them spread no more.

First Colonies of Iapheth in the West.

From that first Centre to the West-ward bending,
Old Noahs Nephews far and wide extending,
Seiz less Armenia; then, within Cilicia,
Possess the Ports of Tharsis and of Issea,
And the delicious strange Corycian Caue
(Which warbling sound of Cymbals seems to haue)
Iönia, Cappadocia, Taurus horns,
Bythinia, Troas, and Meanders turns.

The second.

Then passing Sestos Straights; of Strymon cold,
Herber and Nest they quaff; and pitch their Fold
In vales of Rhodope, and plow the Plains
Where great Danubius neer his death complains.

The third diuided into many branches.

On th'other side, Thrace subtle Greece beswarms;
Greece, Italy (famous for Art and Arms):
Italy, France; France, Spain, and Germany
(Rhines fruitfull bed) and our Great Britany.
On th'other side, it spreads about Moldauia,
Mare-Maiour, Podolia, and Morauia,
With Transyluania, Seruia, and Panonia,
The Prussian Plains, and over all Polonia:

275

The verge of Vistula, and farther forth
Beyond the Alman, drawing to the North.

Now turn thee South-ward: see, see how Chaldea.

First Colonies of Cham, toward the South.

Spews on Arabia, Phœnice, and Iudea,
Chams cursed Ligne, which (over-fertill all)
Between two Seas doth into Ægypt fall;
Sowes all Cyrenia, and the famous Coast
Whereon the roaring Punik Sea is tost:
Fez, Dara, Argier, Galate, Guzol, Aden,
Terminan, Tombut, Melle, Gago, Gogden:
The sparkling Desarts of sad Libya,
Zeczec, Benin, Borno Cano Nubia,
And scalding quick-sands of those thirsty Plains
Where Iesvs name (yet) in som reverence raigns;
Where Prester Iohn (though part he Iudaize)
Doth in som sort devoutly Christianize.

But would'st thou knowe, how that long Tract, that lies

Colonies of the North.

Vnder Heav'ns starry Coach, covered with yce,
And round embraced in the winding arms
Of Cronian Seas (which Sol but seldom warmes)
Came peopled first? Suppose, that passing by
The Plains where Tigris twice keeps company
With the far-flowing silver Euphrates,
They lodg'd at foot of hoary Nyphates:
And from Armenia, then Iberia mann'd,
Albania, Colchis and Bosphorian strand:
And then from thence, toward the bright Leuant,
That vast Extent, where now fell Tartars hant
In wandring troops; and towards th'other side
Which (neer her scource) long Volga doth divide,
Moscouy Coast, Permia, Liuonia, Prussia,
Biarmia, Scrifinia White-Lake, Lappia, Russia.

But whence (say you) had that New-World his Guests,

How the New-found World (discouered in our Time) came peopled. A double question.

Which Spain (like Delos floting on the Seas)
Late digg'd from darknes of Oblivions Graue,
And it vndoing, it new Essence gaue?
If long agoe; how should it hap that no-man
Knew it till now? no Persian, Greek, no Roman;
Whose glorious Peers, victorious Armies guiding
O're all the World, of this had never tyding?
If but of late; how swarm their Cities since
So full of Folk? how pass their Monuments
Th'Ægyptian Spires, Mausolus stately Toomb,
The Wals and Courts of Babylon and Rome?

Why! think ye (fond) those people fell from Heav'n

1 Answer.

All-ready-made; as in a Sommer Ev'n
After a sweltring Day, som sultry showr
Doth in the Marshes heaps of Tadpals pour,

276

Which in the ditches (chapt with parching weather)
Lie crusht and croaking in the Mud together?
Or else, that setting certain slips, that fixt
Their slender roots the tender mould betwixt,
They saw the light of Phœbus lyuening face;
Having, for milk, moist deaws; for Cradle, grass:
Or that they grew out of the fruitfull Earth,
As Toad-stools, Turneps, Leeks, and Beets haue birth?
Or (like the bones that Cadmus yerst did sowe)
Were bravely born armed from top to toe?

That spacious Coast, now call'd America,
Was not so soon peopled as Africa;
(Th'ingenious, Towr-full, and Law-loving Soil,
Which, Ioue did with his Lemans name en-stile)
And that which from cold Bosphorus doth spread
To pearl'd Auroras Saffron-coloured Bed.
Because, they ly neerer the diapry verges
Of tear-bridge Tigris Swallow-swifter surges,
Whence our amaz'd first Grand-sires faintly fled,
And like sprung Partridge every-where did spred;
Except that World, where-vnder Castiles King,
Famous Columbus Force and Faith did bring.

But the rich buildings rare magnificence,
Th'infinit Treasures, various gouernments,
Showe that long since (although at sundry times)
'T had Colonies (although from sundry Climes):
Whether the violence of tempestuous weather
Som broken Vessels haue inforced thither;
Whether som desperat, dire extremity
Of Plague, War, Famin; or th'Authority
Of som braue Typhis (in adventure tost)
Brought weary Carvels on that Indian Coast.

Coniectures touching the Peopling of the same.

Who maketh doubt but yerst the Quinzay Fraights
As well might venture through the Anian Straights,
And finde as easie and as short a way
From the East Indies to the Tolguage Bay,
As vsually the Asian Ships are wont
To pass to Greece a-cross the Hellespont:
Spaniards to Fez, a-thwart the Straight Abilia:
Through Messine stream th'Italians to Sicilia?

From Tolm and Quiuir's spacious Plains (wherein
Bunch backed Calues, with Horse-like manes are seen,
And Sheep-like Fleece) they fill Azasia,
Toua, Topir, Canada, Cossia,
Mecchi, Auacal, Calicuaz, Bacalos,
Los Campos de Labor (where Floods are froze).

Wonders of the New-found World.

On th'other side, Xalisco soyl they Man
(Now new Galizia) Cusule, Mechuacan:

277

And cunningly in Mexik Sea they pile
Another Venice (or a City-Ile).
Strange things there see they (that amaze them much)
Green Trees to wither with their very touch;
And in Nicaragua, a Mountain top,
That (Ætna-like) bright Flashes belches vp.
Thence, reach they th'Isthmos of rich Panama,
And on their right hand build Oucanama,
With Cassamalca, Cusco, Quito: and
In famous Peru's very golden Strand
Admire the Lake that laveth Colle about,
Whose Waves be salt within, and fresh without:
And streams of Cinca, that, with vertue strange,
To hardest stone soft Mud and Chalk do change.

Then seiz they Chili, where all day the Deep
Runs roaring down, and all the night doth sleep:
Chinca, the Patagons, and all the shoar
Where th'azure Seas of Magellan do roar.
Left-ward, they spread them 'longst the Darians side;
Where through th'Vrabian Fields the Huo doth slide,
Neer Zenu's stream, which toward the Ocean drags
Pure grains of Gold, as big as Pullets eggs:
To new Granada, where the Mount embost
With Emeralds doth shine; Cumanean Coast,
Where noysom vapours (like a dusky night)
Bedimms their eyes, and doth impair their sight:
Therefore som troops from Cumana they carry
To Caripana, Omagu and Pari:
By Maragnon, all over fell Brasile,
And Plate's fat Plains, where flowes another Nile.

Ghess too, that Grotland yerst did Picne store,
And Ireland fraught Los Campos de Labor;
As Tombut, Melli, Gago and Terminan,
Planted the Plains and shoars of Corican.

Yet (happely) thou'lt gladly grant me this,

How it was possible that Noah and his Sons should so multiply.

That mans ambition ay so bound-less is,
That steepest Hils it over-climbs with ease,
And runs (as dry-shod) through the deepest Seas:
And (maugre meagre Thirst) her Carvels Lands
On Afrik, Tolmon, and Arabian sands;
But hardly credit'st, that one Family
Out of foure couples should so multiply,
That Asia, Europ, Africa, and All
Seems for their off-spring now too straight and small.

If thou set-light by th'everlasting Voice,

1. Answer.

Which now again re-blest the Love-full choice
Of sacred Wedlocks secret binding band;
Saying, Increase, Flourish and Fill the Land:

278

And if (profane) thou hold it for a Fiction,
That Seauenty Iewes, in Ægypt (in affliction)
Within foure-hundred yeers and half three-score,
Grew to fiue-hundred-thousand soules and more:

Consider yet, that being fed that while
With holesom Fruits of an vn-forced soil,
And kindly meats, not marred by the Book,
And wanton cunning of a sawcy Cook;
Waigh furthermore, that being not cut-down
With bloody swords when furious neighbours frown;
Nor worn with Travell, nor enfeebled
With hatefull Sloth; Our Grand-sires flourished
Hundreds of yeers in youth; and even in Age
Could render duly Venus Escuage:
And that Polygamy (in those dayes common)
Most Men vsurping more then one sole Woman,
Made then the World so mightily augment
In vpright Creatures; and (incontinent)
From fruitfull loins of one old Father-stock,
So many branches of man-kinde to flock:

Comparison to that purpose.

Even as an ear of Corn (if all the yield
Be yeerly sow'n still in a fertill Field)
Fils Barns at length; and spreads in spacious Plain
Millions of millions of like ears again.
Or, as two Fishes, cast into a Meer,
With fruitfull Spawn will furnish in few yeer
A Town with victuall, and serve (furthermore)
Their neighbour Waters with their Fry to store.

An example of our daies.

Have not our Daies a certain Father know'n,
Who, with the fruit of his own body grow'n,
Peopled a Village of a hundred Fires,
And issue-blest (the Crown of Old Desires)
In his own life-time, his own off-spring saw
To wed each other without breach of Law?
So far, the branches of his fruitfull Bed
Past all the Names of Kinreds-Tree did spred.

Another example.

'Tis know'n, that few Arabian Families
New-planted Lybia with their Progenies,
In compass of three hundred yeers and less;
And Bugi, Argier, Oran, Thunis, Tez,
Fez, Melli, Gago, Tonbut, Terminan
With hatefull Laws of Heathnish Alcoran.

If this among the Africans we see,
Whom cor'zive humour of Melancholy
Doth alwaies tickle with a wanton Lust,
Although less powrfull in the Paphian Ioust
For Propagation (for, too-often Deed
Of Loues-Delight, enfeebles much their seed:

279

And inly still they feel a Wintery Fever;
As outwardly, a scorching Sommer ever)
Ghess how much more, those, whose hoar heads approach
And see the turnings of Heav'ns flaming Coach,
Doo multiply; because they seldom venter,
And, but in season, Venus lists to enter.
And, the cold, resting (vnder th'Artick Star)
Still Master of the Field in champian War,
Makes Heat retire into the Bodies-Towr:
Which, there vnited, gives them much more powr.

From thence indeed, Hunns, Herules, Franks, Bulgarians,

The North hath exceedingly multiplyed in people: the South not so.

Circassyans, Sweves, Burgognians, Turks, Tartarians,
Dutch, Cimbers, Normans, Alains, Ostrogothes,
Tigurins, Lombards, Vandals, Visigothes,
Have swarm'd (like Locusts) round about this Ball,
And spoil'd the fairest Provinces of all:
While barren South had much a-doo t'assemble
(In all) two Hoasts; that made the North to tremble:
Whereof; the One, that one-ey'd Champion led,
Who famous Carthage rais'd and ruined:
Th'other (by Tours) Charles Martell martyr'd so,
That never since, could Afrik Army showe.

O! see how full of Wonders strange is Nature:

Whēce our Author takes occasion to enter into an excellent discourse of Gods wondrous work in the divers temperatures, qualities, complexions, and manners also many Nations in the World.

Sith in each Climat, not alone in stature,
Strength, hair and colour, that men differ doo,
But in their humours and their manners too.
Whether that, Custom into Nature change:
Whether that, Youth to th'Elds example range:
Or divers Laws of divers Kingdoms, vary-vs:
Or th'influence of Heav'nly bodies, cary-vs.

The Northern-man is fair, the Southern foul;
That's white, this black; that smiles, and this doth scoul:
Th'one's blithe and frolick, th'other dull and froward;
Th'one's full of courage, th'other fearfull coward:
Th'ones hair is harsh, big, curled, th'other's slender;
Th'one loveth Labour, th'other Books doth tender:
Th'one's hot and moist, the other hot and dry;
Th'ones Voice is hoarse, the other's cleer and high:
Th'one's plain and honest, th'other all deceipt:
Th'one's rough and rude, the other handsom neat:
Th'one (giddy-brain'd) is turn'd with every winde:
The other (constant) never changeth minde:
Th'one's loose and wanton, th'other continent;
Th'one thrift-less lavish, th'other provident:
Th'one milde Companion; th'other, stern and strange
(Like a wilde Wolf) loves by himself to range:
Th'one's pleas'd with plainness, th'other pomp affects:
Th'one's born for Arms, the other Arts respects.

280

But middling folk, who their abiding make
Between these two, of either guise partake:
And such have stronger limbs; but weaker wit,
Then those that neer Niles fertill sides do sit;
And (opposite) more wit, and lesser force,
Then those that haunt Rhines and Danubius shoars.

For, in the Cirque of th'Vniversall City;
The Southern-man, who (quick and curious-witty)
Builds all on Dreams, deep Extasies and Transes,
Who measures Heav'ns eternall-moving Dances,
Whose searching soule can hardly be suffiz'd
With vulgar Knowledge, holds the Place of Priest.
The Northern-man, whose wit in's Fingers settles,
Who what him list can work in Wood and Mettles,
Who (Salmon-like) can thunder counterfait;
With men of Arms, and Artizans is set.
The Third (as knowing well to rule a State)
Holds, gravely-wise, the room of Magistrate.
Th'one (to be briefe) loves studious Theory,
The other Trades, the third deep Policy.
Yet true it is, that since som later lustres,
Minerva, Themis, Hermes and his Sisters
Have set, as well, their Schools in th'Artick Parts,
As Mars his Lists, and Vulcan Shops of Arts.

Notable differences between the Nations of Europe.

Nay, see we not among our selves, that live
Mingled almost (to whom the Lord doth give
But a small Turf of earth to dwell-vpon)
This wondrous ods in our condition?
We finde the Alman in his fight courageous,
But salable; th'Italian too-outrageous;
Sudden the French, impatient of delay;
The Spaniard slowe, but suttle to betray:
Th'Alman in Counsell cold, th'Italian quick,
The French in constant, Spaniards politick:

Especially French, German, Italian, and Spaniard.

Fine feeds th'Italian, and the Spaniard spares;
Prince-like the French, Pig-like the Alman, fares:
Milde speaks the French, the Spaniard proud and brave;
Rudely the Alman, and th'Italian grave:
Th'Italian proud in 'tire, French changing much;
Fit-clad the Spaniard, and vn-fit the Dutch:
The French man braves his Fo, th'Italian cheers-him;
The Alman spoils, the Spaniard never bears-him:
The French-man sings, th'Italian seems to bleat;
The Spaniard whines, the Alman howleth great;
Spaniards like Iugglers iet, th'Alman; like Cocks;
The French goes quick, th'Italian like an Ox:
Dutch Lovers proud, th'Italian envious;
Frolick the French, the Spaniard furious.

281

Yet would the Lord, that Noahs fruitfull Race

Causes why the Lord would haue Mankinde so dispersed ouer all the World.

Should over-spread th'Earths vniversall Face:
That, drawing so his Children from the crimes
Which seem peculiar to their Native Climes,
He might reveal his grace: and that Heav'ns lights
Might well incline (but not constrain) our sprights:
That over all the World, his Saints alwaies
Might offer him sweet Sacrifice of Praise:
That from cold Scythia his high Name as far
Mighthy resound as Sun-Burnt Zanzibar:
And that the treasures which strange Soils produce,
Might not seem worth-less for the want of vse;
But that the In-land Lands might truck and barter,
And vent their Wares about to every Quarter.

The World compared to a mighty City, wherein dwell people of all conditions, continually trafficking together and exchanging their particular commodities, for benefit of the Publike.

For, at in London (stuft with every sort)
Her's the Kings Palace, there the Innes of Court:
Heer (to the Thames-ward all a-long the Strand)
The stately Houses of the Nobles stand:
Heer dwell rich Merchants; there Artificers:
Heer Stik man, Mercers, Gold-Smiths, Iewellers:
There's Church-yard furnisht with choice of Books;
Heer stand the Shambles, there the Rowe of Cooks:
Heer wonn Vp-Hosters, Haber dashers, Horners;
There Pothecaries, Gracers, Tailours, Tourners:
Heer Shoo-makers; there Ioyners, Coopers, Coriers;
Heer Brewers, Bakers, Cutlers, Felters, Furriers:
This Street is full of Drapers, that of Diars;
This Shop with Tapers, that with Womens Tiars:
For costly Toys, silk Stockings, Cambrick, Lawn,
Heer's choice-full Plenty in the curious Pawn:
And all's but an Exchange, where (briefly) no man
Keeps ought as private. Trade makes all things common

So com our Sugars from Canary Iles:
From Candy, Currance, Muskadels and Oyls:
From the Moluques, Spices: Balsamum
From Egypt: Odours from Arabia com:
From India, Drugs, rich Gemms and Ivory:
From Syria, Mummy: black-red Ebony,
From burning Chus: from Peru, Pearl and Gold:
From Russia, Furres (to keep the rich from cold)
From Florence, Silks: from Spain, Fruit, Saffron, Sacks
From Denmark, Amber, Cordage, Firres and Flax:
From France and Flanders, Linnen, Woad and Wine:
From Holland, Hops: Horse, from the banks of Rhine.
In brief, each Country (as pleas'd God distribute)
To the Worlds Treasure paies a sundry Tribute.

And, as somtimes that sumptuous Persian Dame

Man, lord of the world: which for the commodity of his life contributes bountifully all manner of necessaries.

(Out of her Pride) accustomed to name

282

One Province for her Robe, her Rail another,
Her Partlet this, her Pantofles the tother,
This her rich Mantle, that her royall Chain,
This her rare Bracelets, that her stately Train:
Even so may Man. For, what wilde Hill so steep?
What so waste Desart? what so dangerous Deep?
What Sea so wrackfull? or so barren Shoar
In all the World may be suppos'd so poor,
But yeelds him Rent; and, free from envious spight,
Contributes frankly to his Lifes Delight?

The same more especially dilated in the particulars.

Th'inammell'd Vallies, where the liquid glass
Of silver Brooks in curled streams doth pass,
Serve vs for Gardens; and their flowry Fleece
Affords vs Sithe-work yeerly twice or thrice;
The Plains for Corn; the swelling Downs for Sheep;
Small Hills for Vines; the Mountains strangely-steep
(Those Heav'n-climb Ladders, Labyrinths of Wonder,
Cellars of Winde, and Shops of Sulph'ry Thunder;
Where stormy Tempests have their vgly birth;
Which thou mis-call'st the blemish of the Earth;
Thinking (profane) that God, or Fortune light,
Made them of envy, or of oversight)
Bound with eternall bounds proud Emperies;
Bear mighty Forrests, full of Timber-Trees
(Whereof thou buildest Ships, and Houses fair,
To trade the Seas, and fence thee from the Air)
Spew spacious Rivers full of fruitfull breed,
Which neighbour-Peoples with their plenty feed;
Fatten the Earth, with fresh, sweet, fertill mists;
Drive gainfull Mills; and serve for Forts and Lists
To stop the Fury of War's waste-full hand,
And ioyn to th'Sea the middle of the Land.
The Wildes and Desarts, which so much amaze-thee,
Are goodly Pastures, that do daily graze-thee
Millions of Beasts for tillage, and (besides)
Store thee with Flesh, with Fleeces, and with Hides.
Yea, the vast Sea (which seems but onely good
To drown the World, and cover with his Flood
So many Countries, where we else might hope
For thrifty pains to reap a thankfull Crop)
Is a large Lardar, that in briny Deeps,
To nourish thee, a World of Creatures keeps:
A plentious Victualler, whose provisions serve
Millions of Cities that else needs must starve
(Like half-dead Dolphins, which the Ebb lets ly
Gasping for thirst vpon the sand, a-dry):
'T increaseth Trade, Iournies abbreviates,
The flitting Clouds it cease-less exhalates;

283

Which, cooling th'air, and gushing down in rain,
Make Ceres Sons (in sight) to mount amain.

But, shall I still be Boreas Tennis-ball?

Heer (as it were) wearied with so long a voiage, from so broad & bottomless an Ocean (in imitation of the inimitable Author) the Translater hoping kinde intertainment, puts in for the Port of England: whose happy praises he prosecutes at large; Concluding with a zelous Prayer for preservation of the King, and prosperity of his Kingdom.

Shall I be still stern Neptunes tossed Thrall?
Shall I no more behold thy native smoak,
Dear Ithaca? Alas! my Bark is broak,
And leaks so fast, that I can rowe no more:
Help, help (my Mates) make haste vnto the shoar:
O! we are lost; vnless som friendly banks
Quickly receive our Tempest-beaten planks.

Ah, curteous England, thy kinde arms I see
Wide-stretched out to save and welcom me.
Thou (tender Mother) wilt not suffer Age
To snowe my locks in Forrein Pilgrimage;
That fell Brasile my breath-less Corps should shrowd,
Or golden Peru of my praise be proud,
Or rich Cathay to glory in my Verse.
Thou gav'st me Cradle: thou wilt give me Herse.

All hail (dear Albion) Europ's Pearl of price,
The Worlds rich Garden, Earths rare Paradise:
Thrice-happy Mother, which ay bringest forth
Such Chiualry as daunteth all the Earth
(Planting the Trophies of thy glorious Arms
By Sea and Land, where ever Titan warms):
Such Artizans as do wel-neer Eclipse
Fair Natures praise in peer-lesse Workmanships:
Such happy Wits, as Egypt, Greece and Rome
(At least) have equall'd, if not overcom;
And shine among their (Modern) learned Fellows,
As Gold doth glister among paler Yellows:
Or as Apollo th'other Planets passes:
Or as His Flowr excels the Medow-grasses.

Thy Rivers, Seas thy Cities, Shires do seem;
Civil in manners, as in buildings trim:
Sweet is thine Air, thy Soil exceeding Fat,
Fenç't from the World (as better worth then That)
With triple Wall (of Water Wood and Brass)
Which never Stranger yet had powr to pass;
Save when the Heav'ns have, for thy hainous Sin,
By som of Thine, with false Keys let them in.

About thy borders (O Heav'n-blessed Ile)
There never crawls the noysom Crocodile;
Nor Bane-breath'd Serpent, basking in thy sand,
Measures an Acre of thy flowry Land,
The swift-foot Tiger, or fierce Lioness
Haunt not thy Mountains, nor thy Wilderness;
Nor ravening Wolves worry thy tender Lambs,
Bleating for help vnto their help-less Dams;

284

Nor suttle Sea-Horse, with deceitfull Call,
Intice thy Children in thy Floods to fall.

What though thy Thames and Tweed have never rowl'd,
Among their gravell, massy grains of Gold?
What though thy Mountains spew no Silver streams?
Though every Hillock yeeld not precious Gemms?
Though in thy Forrests hang no Silken Fleeces?
Nor sacred Incense, nor delicious Spices?
What though the clusters of thy colder Vines
Distill nat Clarets, Sacks, nor Muscadines?
Yet are thy Woolls, thy Corn, thy Cloth, thy Tin,
Mines rich enough to make thee Europes Queen,
Yea Empress of the World; Yet not sufficient
To make thee thankfull to the Cause efficient
Of all thy Blessings: Who, besides all this,
Hath (now nine Lustres) lent thee greater Bliss;
His blessed Word (the witnes of his fauour)
To guide thy Sons vnto his Son (their Saver)
With Peace and Plenty: while, from War and Want,
Thy neighbours Countries never breathed scant.
And last, not least (so far beyond the scope
Of Christians Fear, and Anti-Christians Hope)
When all, thy Fall seem'd to Prognosticate,
Hath higher rais'd the glory of thy State;
In raysing Stvards to thy regal Throne,
To Rule (as David and as Salomon)
With Prudence, Prowesse, Iustice, and Sobriety,
Thy happy People in Religious Piety.
O too too happy! too too fortunate,
Knew'st thou thy Weal: or were thou not ingrate.

But least (at last) Gods righteous wrath consume vs,
If on his patience still we thus presume-vs:
And least (at last) all Blessings had before
Double in Curses to torment-vs more:
Dear Mother England, bend thine aged knee,
And to the Heav'ns lift vp thy hands with me;
Off with thy Pomp, hence with thy Pleasures past:
Thy Mirth be Mourning, and thy Feast a Fast:
And let thy soule, with my sad soule, confesse
Our former sins, and foul vnthankfulnes.

Pray we the Father, through th'adopting Spirit,
Not measure vs according to our merit;
Nor strictly weigh, at his high Iustice Beam,
Our bold Rebellions, and our Pride extream:
But, for his Son (our dear Redeemer's) sake,
His Sacrifice, for our Sins Ransom, take;
And, looking on vs with milde Mercies Ey,
Forgive our Past, our Future Sanctifie;

285

That never more, his Fury are incense
To strike (as now) with raging Pestilence
(Much lesse provoke him by our guilt so far,
To wound vs more with Famine and with War.

Lord, cease thy wrath: Put vp into thy Quiver
This dreadfull shaft: Dear Father, vs deliver:
And vnder wings of thy protection keep
Thy Servant Iames, both waking and a-sleep:
And (furthermore) we (with the Psalmist) sing,
Lord, give thy iudgements to (our Lord) the King,

Psalm. 72.

And to his Son: and let there ay beene
Of his Male Seed to sit vpon his Throne,
To feed thy Folk in Iacob, and (advance)
In Israel thy (dear) Inheritance,
And (long-long-lived) full of Faith and Zeal,
Reform (like Asa) Church and Common-weal;
Raysing poor Vertue, razing proudest Vice,
Without respect of Person or of Price;
That all bold Atheists, all Blaspheamers, then,
All Popish Traitors may be weeded clean.
And, Curst be All that say not heer, Amen.

FINIS.

286

4. The Colvmnes.

THE IIII. PART OF THE SECOND DAY OF THE II. WEEK.

The Argvment.

Seth's Pillars found: Heber instructs his Son
In th'vse thereof, and who them first begun;
Opens the One, and findes, on severall Frames,
Foure lively Statues of foure lovely Dames
(The Mathematiks) furnisht each apart
With Equipages of their severall Art:
Wonders of Numbers and Geometry:
New Observations in Astronomy:
Musiks rare force: Canaan (the Cursed) cause
Of Hebers stop; and Bartas witty pause.

Being about to treat of the Mathematiks, our Poet heer imploreth especiall assistance in handling so high and difficult a Subiect.

If ever (Lord) the purest of my Soule
In sacred Rage were rapt above the Pole:
If ever, by thy Spirit my spirit inspir'd,
Offred thee Layes that learned France admir'd:
Father of Light, Fountain of learned Art,
Now, now (or never) purge my purest part:
Now quintessence my Soule, and now advance
My care-free Powrs in som celestiall Transe:
That (purg'd from passion) thy Divine address
May guide me through Heav'ns glistring Palaces;
Where (happily) my dear Vrania's grace,
And her fair Sisters I may all imbrace:
And (he melodious Sirens of the Sphears,
Charming my senses in those sweets of theirs)
So ravished, I may at rest contemple
The Starry Arches of thy stately Temple:

287

Vnto this end, that as (at first) from thee
Our Grand-sires learn'd Heav'ns Course and Quality;
Thou now mai'st prompt me som more lofty Song,
As to this lofty Subiect doth belong.

After That Mens strife-hatching, haut Ambition

The occasion & ground of this Discourse.

Had (as by lot) made this lowe Worlds partition;
Phalec and Heber, as they wandred, fand
A huge high Pillar, which vpright did stand
(Much like a Rock amid the Ocean set,
Seeming great Neptunes surly pride to threat;
Whereon a Pharos bears a Lanthorn bright,
To save from Shipwrack those that sail by night)
And afterward, another nigh as great;
But not so strong, so stately, nor so neat:
For, on the flowry field it lay all flat,
Built but of Brick, of rusty Tiles, and Slat:
Whereas the First was builded fair and strong
Of Iasper smooth, and Marble lasting long.

What Miracles! what monstrous heaps! what Hills

Phalecs Question.

Heav'd-vp my hand! what Types of antike Skills
In form-less Forms (quoth Phalec)! Father showe
(For, th'Ages past I knowe full well you knowe):
Pray teach me, who did both these Works erect:
About what time: and then to what effect.

Old Seth (saith Heber) Adams Scholler yerst

Hebers answer.

(Who was the Scholler of his Maker first)
Having attain'd to knowe the course and sites,
Th'aspect and greatnes of Heav'ns glistring Lights;
He taught his Children, whose industrious wit
Through diligence grew excellent in it.
For, while their flocks on flowry shoars they kept
Of th'Eastern Floods, while others soundly slept
(Hushing their cares in a Night-shortning nap,
Vpon Oblivions dull and sense-less Lap)
They, living lusty, thrice the age of Rav'ns,
Observ'd the Twinkling Wonders of the Heav'ns:
And on their Grand-sires firm and goodly ground
A sumptuous building they in time do found.
But (by Tradition Cabalistik) taught,
That God would twice reduce this world to nought,
By Flood and Flame; they reared cunningly
This stately pair of Pillars which you see;
Long-time safe-keeping, for their after-Kin,
A hundred learned Mysteries therein.

This having said, old Heber drawing nigher,

The opening of the Pillars.

Opens a Wicket in the Marble Spire,
Where (Phalec following) soon perceive they might
A pure Lamp burning with immortall light.

288

Simile.

As a mean person, who (though oft-disgraç't
By churlish Porters) is convaied at last
To the Kings Closet; rapt in deep amaze,
At th'end-less Riches vp and down doth gaze:
So Phalec fares. O father (cries he out)
What shapes are these heer placed round about,
So like each other wrought with equall skill,
That foure rain-drops cannot more like distil?
What Tools are these? what divine secrets ly
Hidden within this learned Mystery?

The liberall Sciences.

These foure (quoth Heber) foure bright Virgins are,
Heav'ns Babes, and Sisters, the most fair and rare,
That e'r begot th'eternall Spirit (expir'd
From double Spirit) or humane soule admir'd.

Arithmetick.

This first, that still her lips and fingers moves,
And vp and down so sundry-waies removes
Her nimble Crouns; th'industrious Art it is
Which knowes to cast all Heav'ns bright Images,
All Winters hail, and all the gawdy flowrs
Wherewith gay Flora pranks this Globe of ours.
She's stately deckt in a most rich Attire:
All kinde of Coins in glistering heaps ly by-her:
Vpon her sacred head Heav'n seems to drop
A richer showr then fell in Danaes Lap:
A gold-ground Robe; and for a Glass (to look)
Down by her girdle hangs a Table-book,
Wherein the chief of her rare Rules are writ,
To be safe-guarded from times greedy bit.

Her Numbers.

Mark heer what Figure stands for One, the right

Root of all Number; and of Infinite:
Loves happiness, the praise of Harmony,
Nurcery of All, and end of Polymny:
No Number, but more then a Number yet;
Potentially in all, and all in it.

Now, note Two's Character, One's heir apparent,
As his first-born; first Number, and the Parent

Of Female Pairs. Heer now obserue the Three,
Th'eldest of Ods, Gods number properly;
Wherein both Number, and no-number enter:
Heav'ns dearest Number, whose enclosed Center
Doth equally from both extreams extend:
The first that hath beginning, midst and end.

The (Cubes-Base) Foure; a full and perfect summ,
Whose added parts iust vnto Ten doo com;
Number of Gods great Name, Seasons, Complexions,
Windes, Elements, and Cardinall Perfections.

Th'Hermaphrodite Fiue, never multiply'd
By't self, or Odd, but there is still descry'd

289

His proper face: for, three times Fiue arriue
Vnto Fifteen; Fiue Fiues to Twenty-fiue.
The perfect Six, whose iust proportions gather,

To make his Whole, his members altogether:
For Three's his halfe, his Sixt One, Two his Third;
And One Two Three make Six, in One conferd.
The Criticall and double-sexed Seav'n,

The Number of th'vnfixed Fires of Heav'n;
And of th'eternall sacred Sabbaoth;
Which Three and Foure containeth ioyntly both.
Th'Eight, double-square. The sacred note of Nine,

8. 9.

Which comprehends the Muses Triple-Trine.
The Ten, which doth all Numbers force combine:
The Ten, which makes, as One the Point, the Line:

10.

The Figure, th'Hundred, Thousand (solid corps)
Which, oft re-doubled, on th'Atlantik shoars

100. 1000.

Can summ the sand, and all the drops distilling
From weeping Auster, or the Ocean filling.

See: many Summs, heer written streight and even

Addition.

Each over other, are in one contriven:
See heer small Numbers drawn from greater count:
Heer Multipli'd they infinitely mount:

Subtraction. Multiplication.

And lastly, see how (on the other side)
One Summ in many doth it self Diuide.

Diuision.

That sallow-faç't, sad, stooping Nymph, whose ey
Still on the ground is fixed stedfastly,
Seeming to draw with point of siluer Wand

Geometry.

Som curious Circles in the slyding sand;
Who weares a Mantle, brancht with flowrie Buds,
Embost with Gold, trayled with silver Floods,
Bordered with greenest Trees, and Fringed fine
With richest azure of Seas storm-full brine:
Whose dusky Buskins (old and tattered out)
Showe, she hath trauail'd far and neer about
By North and South, it is Geometrie,
The Crafts-mans guide, Mother of Symmetrie,
The life of Instruments of rare effect,
Law of that Law which did the World erect.

Heer's nothing heere, but Rules, Squires, Compasses,

Her Instrumēts and Figures.

Waights, Measures, Plummets, Figures, Balances.
Lo, where the Workman with a steddy hand
Ingeniously a leuell Line hath drawn,
War-like Triangles, building-fit Quadrangles,
And hundred kindes of Forms of Manie-Angles
Straight, Broad, and Sharp: Now see on th'other side
Other, whose Tracts neuer directly slide,
As with the Snayl, the crooked Serpenter,
And that which most the learned do prefer,

290

The compleat Circle; from whose every-place
The Centre stands an equi-distant space.

See heer the Solids, Cubes, Cylinders, Cones,
Pyramides, Prismas, Dodechædrons:
And there the Sphear, which (Worlds Type) comprehends
In't-self it-self; hauing nor midst nor ends:
Arts excellence, praise of his peers, a wonder
Wherein consists (in diuers sort) a hundred:
Firm Mobile, an vp-down-bending-Vault,
Sloaping in Circuit, yet directly wrought.
See, how so soon as it to veer begins,
Both vp and down, forward and back it wends;
And, rapt by other, not it self alone
Moues, but moues others with its motion
(Witnes the Heav'ns): yea, it doth seem, beside,
When it stands still, to shake on every side,
Because it hath but one small point where-on
His equal halves are equi-peiz'd vpon,
And yet this goodly Globe, where we assemble
(Though hung in th'Ayr) doth neuer selfly tremble:
For, it's the midst of the Con-centrik Orbs
Whom neuer Angle nor out-nook disturbs.

All Solids else (cast in the Ayr) reflect
Vn-self-like-forms: but in a Globe each tract
Seems still the same, because it euery-where
Is vniform, and differs not a hair.

More-over, as the Buildings Ambligon
May more receiue then Mansions Oxigon
(Because th'acute, and the rect-Angles too,
Stride not so wide as obtuse Angles doo):
So doth the Circle in his Circuit span
More roum hen any other Fgure can.
Th'other are eas'ly broke, because of ioynts,
Ends and beginnings, edges, nooks, and points:
But, th'Orb's not subiect vnto such distress,
Because 'tis ioyntless, point-less, corner-less.

Chiefly (my Phalec) hither bend thy minde,
And learn Two Secrets which but fewe shall finde,
Two busie knots, Two labyrinths of doubt,
Where future Schools shall wander long about,
Beating their brains, their best endeuours troubling:
The Circles Squareness, and the Cubes Re-doubling.

The certainty of Geometry.

Print euer faster in thy faithfull brain,
Then on brass leaues, these Problemes proued plain,
Not by Sophistick subtle Arguments,
But euen by practice and experience:
Vn-disputable Art, and fruitfull Skill,
Which with new wonders all the VVorld shall fill.

291

Heer-by, the Waters of the lowest Fountains

Her rare inventions.

Shall play the Millers, as the Windes on Mountains:

Mills.

And grain, so ground within a rowling Frame,
Shall pay his duty to his niggard Dame.
Heer-by, a Bullet spewd from Brazen brest
In fiery fume against a Town distrest,

Gunnes.

With roaring powr shall pash the Rocks in sunder,
And with the noise euen drown the voice of Thunder.
Heer-by the Wings of fauourable Windes
Shall bear from Western to the Eastern Indes,

Ships.

From Africa to Tule's farthest Flood,
A House (or rather a whole Town) of Wood;
While sitting still, the Pilot shall at ease
With a short Leauer guide it through the Seas.
Heer-by, the Printer, in one day shall rid

Printing.

More Books, then yerst a thousand Writers did.
Heer-by, a Crane shall steed in building, more

The Crane.

Then hundred Porters busie pains before:
The Iacobs-staff, to measure heights, and Lands,
Shall far excell a thousand nimble hands,

The Staffe.

To part the Earth in Zones and Climats even;
And in twice-twenty-and-foure Figures, Heav'n.
A Wand, Sand, Water, small Wheels turning ay,

Dials and Clocks.

In twice-twelue parts shall part the Night and Day.
Statues of Wood shall speak: and fained Sphears
Showe all the Wonders of true Heav'n in theirs.

Sphears.

Men, rashly mounting through the emptie Skie,
With wanton wings shall cross the Seas wel-nigh:
And (doubt-less) if the Geometrician finde
Another world where (to his working minde)
To place at pleasure and convenience
His wondrous Engines and rare Instruments,
Euen (like a little God) in time he may
To som new place transport this World away.

Because these Two our passage open set
To bright Vrania's sacred Cabinet,
Wherin shee keeps her sumptuous Furniture,
Pearls, Diamonds, Rubies, and Saphires pure:
Because, to climbe starrie Parnassus top
None can, vnless these Two doo help him vp
(For, whoso wants either of these Two eyes,
In vain beholds Heav'ns glistering Canapies):
The Caruer (heer) close by Geometry
And Numbering Art, hath plaç't, Astronomy.

Astronomy.

A siluer Crescent wears she for a Crown,
A hairy Comet to her heels hangs down,
Brows stately bent in milde-Maiestik wise,
Beneath the same two Carbuncles for eyes,

292

An Azure Mantle wauing at her back,
With two bright Clasps buckled about her neck;
From her right shoulder sloaping ouer-thwart-her,
A watchet Scarf, or broad imbrodered Garter,
Flourisht with Beasts of sundry shapes, and each
VVith glistering Stars imbost and poudred rich;
And then, for wings, the golden plumes she wears
Of that proud Bird which starry Rowells bears.

Her 2. Globes.

But what faire Globes (quoth Phalec) seemes she thus,
With spreading arms, to reach and offer vs?

1. The Terrestriall.

My Son (quoth Heber) that round Figure there,
With crossing Circles, is the Mundane Sphear;
Wherein, the Earth (as the most vile and base,
And Lees of All) doth hold the lowest place:
Whom prudent Nature girdeth ouer-thwart
With azure Zone: or rather, euery part
Couers with Water winding round about,
Saue heer and there some Angles peeping out:
For, th'Oceans liquid and sad slyding Waues
Sinking in deepest of Earths hollow Caues,
Seek not (within her vast vnequall height)
The Centre of the wideness, but the weight.

There, should be th'Ayr, the Fire, and wandring Seauen,
The Firmament, and the first-mouing Heav'n
(Besides th'Empyreall Palace of the Saincted)
Each ouer other, if they could be painted.

His 10 Circles.

But th'Artist, faining in the steed of these,
Ten Circles, like Heav'ns Superficies,
To guide vs to them by more easie Path,
In hollow Globe the same described hath.

1. The Equinoctiall.

'Mid th'amplest Six, whose crossing difference
Divides in two the Sphears Circumference,
Stands th'Equinoctiall, equi-distant all
From those two Poles which do support this Ball.
Therefore each Star that vnderneath it slides,
A rest-less, long, and weary Iourney rides,
Goes larger Circuit, and more speedy far
Then any other steady fixed Star
(Which wexeth slowe the more it doth advaunce
Neer either Pole his God-directed Daunce)
And while Apollo driues his Load of Light
Vnder this Line, the Day and dusky Night
Tread equall steps: for, learned Natures hand
Then measures them a-like in every Land.

The next, which there beneath it sloaply slides,

2. The Zodiak.

And his fair Hindges from the World's divides
Twice twelue Degrees; is call'd the Zodiack,
The Planets path, where Phœbus plies to make

293

Th'Yeers Revolution: through new Houses ranging,
To cause the Seasons yeerly foure-fold changing.

Th'other, which (crossing th'Vniuersall Props,
And those where Titans Whirling Chariot sloaps)

3. The 1. Colure.

Rect-angles forms; and, crooking, cuts in two
Heer Capricorn; there burning Cancer too;
Of the Sun's stops it Colure hath to name,
Because his Teem doth seem to trot more tame
On these cut points: for, heere he doth not ride
Flatling a-long, but vp the Sphears steep side.

Th'other, which cuts this equi-distantly
With Aries, Poles, and Scale, is (like-wisely)

4. The 2. Colure.

The Second Colure: The Meridian, This

5. The Meridian.

Which neuer in one Point of Heav'n persists;
But still pursues our Zenith: as the light
Inconstant Horizon our shifting sight.

6. The Horison.

For the foure small ones: heer the Tropiks turn,
Both that of Cancer and of Capricorn.

7 and 8 The Tropiks.

And neerer th'Hindges of the golden Sphear,
Heer's the South-Circle; the North-Circle there:
Which Circles cross not (as you see) at all
The Center-point of th'vniuersall Ball;

9 and 10 The South and North Circles.

But, parting th'Orb into vn-equall ells,
'Twixt th'Equi-nox and them, rest Parallels.

The other Ball her left hand doth support,
Is Heav'ns bright Globe: for, though that Art com short

The Celestiall Globes.

Of Nature far, heer may ingenious soules
Admire the stages of Star-seeled Poles.

O what delight it is in turning soft
The bright Abbridgement of that Vpper Loft,

The diuers aspects of the celestiall Bodies.

(To seem) to see Heav'ns glorious Host to march
In glistring Troops about th'Aethereal Arch!
Where, one for Arms bears Bowe and Shafts: a Sword
A second hath; a trembling Launce a third:
One fals: another in his Chariot rowles
On th'azure Brass of th'ever-radiant Bowles:
This serues a-foot, that (as a Horseman) rides:
This vp, that down; this back, that forward slides:
Their Order order-less, and Peace-full Braul
With-child's the World; fils Sea, and Earth, and All.

I neuer see their glaunces inter-iect

Simile.

In Triangle, Sextile, or Square aspect,
Now milde, now moody; but, mee thinks I see
Som frollik Swains amid their dauncing glee;
Where Men and Maids together make them merry,
With Iigs and Rounds, till Pipe and all be weary:
Where, on his Loue one smiles with wanton eye;
Where-at his Rivall frowns for Iealousie.

294

Question.

But why (quoth Phalec) hath th'All-Fair, who frames
Nought heer below, but's full of Beauties flames;
Ingrav'n on th'Orbs of th'azure Crystalline
(Where Beauties self, and Loue should euer shine)
So many hideous Beasts and Monsters fell:
Fellows, more fit for th'vgly Fiends in Hell.

Answere.

Surely (saith Heber) God's all-prudent pleasure
Makes nothing Art-less, nor without iust measure:
And this the Worlds chiefe praise of Beauty carries
That in each part it infinitly varies.

The reason of the names giuen to the 12-Signes of the Zodiak.

Our learned Elders then, who on this Sphear,
Heav'ns shining Signes imagin'd fitly-fair,
Did vnto each, such Shape and Name devise,
As with their Natures neerly symbolize.

1. Aries.

In form of Ram with golden Fleece, they put
The bi-corn'd Signe, which the Yeers bounds doth 'butt;
Because the World (vnder his temp'rate heat)
In fleece of flowrs is pranked richly neat.

2. Taurus.

Of Bull the next: because the husband-men
With yoaks of slowe-paç't smoking Bullocks then
Tear-vp their Fallows, and with hope-full toyl,
Furbush their Coultars in the Corn-fit soyl.

3. Gemini.

Of Twins the third: because then, of two Sexes
Kinde-cruell Cupid one whole body mixes:
Then all things couple, then Fruits double growe,
Then Flowrs do flourish, and corn Fields do showe.

4. Cancer.

The fourth a Lobstars name and frame they made,
Because then South-ward Sol doth retrograde,
Goes (Crab-like) backward, and so neuer stinteth,
But still his wheels in the same track reprinteth.

5. Leo.

The fift a Lion: for, as Lions breath
Is burning hot; so likewise, vnderneath
This fiery Signe, th'Earth sparkles, and the streams
Seem sod-away with the Suns glowing beams.

6. Virgo.

The sixt a Maid: because with Maid-like honour,
Th'Earth loatheth then the Suns Loue-glances on her
T'inflame her loue: and (reclus'd as it were)
This Virgin Season nought at all doth bear.

7. Libra.

Balance the seuenth: because it equall weighs
Nights louing-silence, and grief-guiding Daies;
And Heat and Cold: and in Must-Month, the Beam
Stands equi-poiz'd in equipeizing them.

8. Scorpio.

Scorpion the next: because his pearcing sting
Doth the first tydings of cold Winter bring.

9. Sagittarius.

The ninth an Archer both in shape and Name,
Who day and night follows his fairest game;
And his keen Arrows euery-where bestowes
Headed with Yce, feathered with Sleet and Snowes.

295

The next a Kid: because as Kids do clime

10. Capricornus.

And frisk from Rock to Rock; about this Time
The Prince of Planets (with the locks of Amber)
Begins again vp towards vs to clamber.
And then, because Heav'n alwayes seems to weep
Vnder th'ensung Signes; on th'Azure steep
Our Parents plaç't a Skinker: and by him,

11. Aquarius.

Two siluer Fishes in his floods to swim.

12. Pisces. A deeper and more curious reason of the same.

But if (my Son) this superficiall gloze
Suffice thee not: then may we thus suppose,
That as before th'All-working Word alone
Made Nothing be All's womb and Embryon,
Th'eternall Plot, th'Idea fore-conceiv'd,
The wondrous Form of all that Form receiv'd,
Did in the Work-mans spirit diuinely ly;
And yer it was, the World was wondrously:
Th'Eternall Trine-One, spreading even the Tent
Of th'All enlightning glorious Firmament,
Fill'd it with figures; and in various Marks
There pourtray'd Tables of his future Works.

See heer the pattern of a siluer Brook

In heauen are patterns of all things that are in earth.

Which in and out on th'azure stage doth crook,
Heer th'Eagle plays, there flyes the rav'ning Crowe,
Heer swims the Dolphin, there the Whale doth rowe,
Heer bounds the Courser, there the Kid doth skip,
Heer smoaks the Steer, the Dragon there doth creep:
There's nothing precious in Sea, Earth, or Ayr,
But hath in Heav'n som like resemblance fair.
Yea, euen our Crowns, Darts, Lances, Skeyns, and Scales
Are all but Copies of Heav'ns Principals;
And sacred patterns, which to serue all Ages,
Th'Almighty printed on Heav'ns ample stages.

Yea surely, durst I (but why should I doubt

A third witty pleasant, & elegant reason of the names aforesaid.

To wipe from Heav'n so many slanders out,
Of profane Rapin and detested Rapes,
Of Murder, Incest, and all monstrous Scapes,
Wher-with (heerafter) som bold-fabling Greeks
Shall foully stain Heav'ns Rosy-blushing cheeks?)
Heer could I showe, that vnder euery Signe
Th'Eternall grav'd som Mystery divine
Of's holy Citty; where (as in a glass)
To see what shall heer-after com-to pass;
As publik and autentik Rowles, fore-quoting
Confusedly th'Euents most worthy noting,
In his deer Church (his Darling and Delight)

O! thou fair Chariot flaming brauely bright,

Plaustrum.

Which like a Whirl-winde in thy swift Career
Rapt'st vp the Thesbit; thou do'st alwaies veer

296

About the North-pole, now no more be-dabbling
Thy nimble spokes in th'Ocean, neither stabling

Bootes.

Thy smoking Coursers vnder th'Earth, to bayt:
The while Elisha earnestly doth wayt
Burning in zeale (ambitious) to inherit
His Masters Office, and his mighty Spirit;
That on the starry Mountain (after him)
He well may manage his celestiall Teem.

Hercules. Lyra. Corona Borealis. Vrsa minor. Pleiades. Cuspis.

Close by him, Dauid in his valiant Fist
Holds a fierce Lions fiery flaming Crest:
Heer shines his golden Harp, and there his Crown:
There th'vgly Bear bears (to his high renown)
Seav'n (shining) Stars. Lo, heer the whistling Lance,
Which frantick Saul at him doth fiercely glance.

Pure Honours Honour, Prayse of Chastity,

Andtomada. Cassiopeia. Cepheus.

O fair Susanna, I should mourn for thee,
And moan thy tears, and with thy friends lament
(With Heav'n-lift-eyes) thy wofull punishment,
Saue that so timely (through Heav'ns prouidence)
Young Daniel saues thy wronged Innocence:

Perseus.

And by a dreadfull radiant splendor, spread

Caput Medusæ.

From Times Child Truth (not from Medusa's head)
Condemns th'old Leachers, and eft-soons vpon
Their cursed heads there hayls a storm of stone.
Also, as long as Heav'ns swift Orb shall veer,
A sacred Trophee shall be shining heer

Draco.

In the bright Dragon, of that Idoll fell,
Which the same Prophet shall in Babel quel.

Pegasus.

Wher-to more fit may Pegasus compair,
Than to those Coursers; flaming in the ayr,
Before the Tyrant of less-Asia's fury
Vsurps the fair Metropolis of Iury?
Wher-to the Coach-man, but Ezechiel?
That so well driues the Coach of Israel.

Cygnus.

Wher-to the Swan, but to that Proto-Martyr,
The faithfull Deacon which endureth torture,
(Yea death) for his dead Lord; whom sure to meet,
So neer his end sings so exceeding sweet?

Piscis Borealis.

Wher-to the Fish which shineth heer so bright,
But to that Fish, that cureth Tobies sight?

Delphinus.

Wher-to the Dolphin, but to that meek Man,
Who dry-shod guides through Seas Erythrean
Old Iacobs Fry: And Iordans liquid glass
Makes all his Hoast dry (without boat) to pass?

And furthermore, God hath not onely graven
On the brass Tables of swift-turning Heav'n

Trigonos.

His sacred Mot; and, in Triangle frame,
His Thrice-One Nature stamped on the same:

297

But also, vnder that stout Serpent-Slayer,

Ophiucus.

His Satan-taming Son (Heav'ns glorious heir)
Who with the Engin of his Cross abates
Th'eternall Hindges of th'infernall Gates:
And, vnder that fair Sun-fixt-gazing Foul,

Aquila.

The God of Gods deer Minion of his Soule,
Which from his hand reaves Thunder often-times,
His Spirit; his Loue, which visits earthly Climes
In plumy shape: for, this bright winged Signe,
In head and neck, and starry back (in fine)
No less resembles the milde simple Doue,
Than crook-bild Eagle that commands aboue.

What shall I say of that bright Bandeleer,
Which twice-six Signs so richly garnish heer?
Th'Years Vsher, doth the Paschal Lamb fore-tell:
The Bull, the Calfe, which erring Israel

Aries.

Sets vp in Horeb. These fair shining Twins,

Taurus.

Those striving Brethren Isaacs tender Sons:
The fourth is Salomon, who (Crab-like) crawls

Gemini. Cancer.

Backward from Vertue: and (fowl Swine-like) fals
In Vices mire: profanest old (at last)
In soule and body growne a-like vn-chaste.
The fift, that Lion which the Hair-strong Prince

Leo.

Tears as a Kid, without Wars instruments.
The sixt, that Virgin, euer-maiden Mother,

Virgo.

Bearing for vs, her Father, Spouse, and Brother.
The next that Beam, which in King Lemuels hand,
So iustly weighs the Iustice of his Land.

Libra.

The next, that Creature which in Malta stings
Th'Apostles hand, and yet no blemish brings;
For 't is indifferent, whether we the same,

Scorpio.

A spotted Scorpion, or a Viper name.
Th'Archer, is Hagars Son: The Goat (I ghess)
Is Arons Scape-Goat in the Wildernes.

Sagittarius. Capricornus. Aquarius.

The next, the deer Son of dumb Zacharias,
Gods Harbinger, fore-runner of Messias:
Who in clear Iordan washeth clean the sin
Of all that rightly do repent with-in.
These Two bright Fishes, those wher-with the Lord

Pisces.

(Through wondrous blessing of his powrfull Word)
Feeds with fiue Loaves (vpon Asphaltis shoar)
Abundantly fiue thousand Folk and more.

But, turn we now the twinkling Globe, and there
Let's mark as much the Southern Hemi-sphear.
Ah! know'st thou not this glorious Champion heer,

Orion. Eridanus.

Which shines so brightly by the burning Steer?
'Tis Nun's great Son, who through deep Iordan leads
His Army dry shod; and (triumphant) treads

298

Canis. Canicula. Lepus.

On Canaan Curs, and on th'Ammorean Hare,
Foyl'd with the fear of his victorious war.

See th'ancient Ship, which, over windes and waues
Triumphing safe, the Worlds seed-remnant saues.

Hydra.

Lo, heer the Brasen Serpent shines, whose sight
Cures in the Desart those whom Serpents bite.

Corvus.

Heer th'happy Rav'n, that brings Eitas cates;

Cratera.

Heer the rich Cup, where Ioseph meditates
His graue Predictions: Heer that Heav'nly Knight

Centaurus.

,
Who prest appearing armed all in white,
To Maccabeus, with his flaming spear

Lupus.

So deep (at last) the Pagan Wolfe doth tear,

Ara.

That on Gods Altar (yerst profan'd so long)
Sweet Incense fumeth, and the sacred Song
Of Leuits soundeth in his House again;

Corona austra.

And that rich Crown th'Asmonean Race doth gain,
To rule the Iewes. Lo, there the happy Fish

Pisers australis.

Which payes Christs Tribute (who our Ransom is):

Balæna.

And heer the Whale, within whose noysom breast,
The Prophet Ionas for three daies doth rest.

A notable correction of the Poet vpon these last Discourses.

But while (my spoaks-man, or I rather his)
Thus Heber comments on Heav'ns Images,
Through path-less paths his wandring steps doth bring,
And boldly quauers on a Maiden string;
Suppose not (Christians) that I take for grounds
Or points of Faith, all that he heer propounds;
Or that old Zeno's Portall I sustain,
Or Stoik Fate (th'Almighties hands to chain):
Or in Heav'ns Volume reading things to-com,
Erroneously a Chaldee-Wise becom,
No, no such thing; but to refresh again
Your tyred Spirits, I sung this novell strain:
That hither to having with patience past
Such dreadfull Oceans, and such Desarts vast,
Such gloomy Forrests, craggy Rocks and steep,
Wide-yawning Gulfs, and hideous Dungeons deep;
You might (at last) meet with a place of pleasure,
Wher-on the Heav'ns lauish their plentious treasure,
Where Zephyre puffs perfumes, and siluer Brooks
Embrace the Meads, smiling with wanton Looks.
Yet (curteous Readers) who is it can say
Whether our Nephews yet another-day
(More zealous then our selues in things Divine)
This curious Art shall Christianly refine;
And giue, to all these glistring Figures then,
Not Heathen names, but names of Holy men?

He proceeds to discouer the secrets of Astronomie.

But seek we now for Heber, whose Discourse
Informs his Phalec in the Planets course:

299

What Epicicle meaneth, and Con-centrik,
With Apagé, Perigé, and Eccentrik:
And how fell Mars (the Seedster of debate)
Dayes glorious Torch, the wanton (Vulcans Mate)
Saturn, and Ioue, three Sphears in one retain,
Smooth Hermes five, faire Cynthia two-times-twain.

For, the Divine Wits, whence this Art doth flowe,
Finding their Fires to wander to and fro,
Now neer, now far from Natures Nave: above,
Confusion, voyd; and rupture to remoue,
Which would be caused, through their wanderment,
In th'Heav'ns inclos'd within the Firmament,
Haue (more then men) presum'd to make, within
Th'Eternall Wheels where th'erring Tapers been,
Sundry small Wheels, each within other closed,
Such equi-distance each-where inter-posed,
That (though they kiss) they crush not; but the base
Are vnder th'high, the high the lowe imbrace:
Like as the Chest-nut (next the meat) within

Simile.

Is cover'd (last) with a soft slender skin,
That skin inclos'd in a tough tawny shel,
That shel in-cas't in a thick thistly fell.

Then takes he th'Astrolabe, wher-in the Sphear
Is flat reduced: he discouers there

The vse of the Astrolabe.

The Card of Heights, the Almycantharats,
With th'Azimynths and the Almadarats
(Pardon me Muse, if ruder phrase defile
This fairest Table, and deface my stile
With Barbarism: For in this Argument,
To speak Barbarian, is most eloquent).

On th'other side, vnder a veering Sight,
A Table veers; which, of each wandring Light
Showes the swift course; and certain Rules includes,
Dayes, names of Months, and scale of Altitudes.
Removing th'Albidade, he spends som leasure,
To shew the manner how a Wall to measure,
A Fountains depth, the distance of a place,
A Countries compass, by Heav'ns ample face:
In what bright starry Signe, th'Almighty dread,
Dayes Princely Planet daily billeted:
In which his Nadir is: and how with-all
To finde his Eleuation and his Fall.
How long a time an entire Signe must wear
While it ascendeth on our Hemi-sphear:
Poles eleuation: The Meridian line:
And diuers Hours of Day and night to finde.

These learned wonders witty Phalec marks,
And heedfully to euery Rule he harks:

300

Wise Alchymist, he multiplies this Gold,
This Talent turns, encreasing many-fold:
And then presents it to his Noble seed,
Who soon their Doctor in his Art exceed.

Simile.

But, even as Mars, Hermes, and Venus bright,
Go visit now the naked Troglodite,
Then Iaue, then Guynney; and (inclin'd to change)
Oft shifting House, through both the Worlds do range

Astronomy by whom, and how maintained.

(Both Worlds ev'n-halv'd by th'Equinoctiall Line):
So the perfection of this Art divine,
First vnder th'Hebrews bred and born, anon
Coms to the Chaldes by adoption:
Scorning, anon, th'olde Babylonian Spires,
It leaues swift Tigris, and to Nile retires;
And, waxen rich, in Egypt it erects
A famous School: yet, firm-less in affects,
It falls in loue with subtill Grecian wits,
And to their hands a while it self commits;
But, in renowned Ptolomeus Raign,
It doth re-visit the deer Memphian Plain:
Yet, Thence re-fled, it doth th'Arabians try;
From thence to Rome: from Rome to Germany.

O true Endymions, that imbrace above
Vpon mount Latmos your Imperiall Love

The prayse of learned Astronomers, and the profite of their Doctrine.

(Great Queen of Heav'n) about whose Bed, for Guard,
Millions of Archers with gold Shields do ward.
True Atlasses: You Pillars of the Poles
Empyreall Palace; you fair learned soules;
But for your Writings, the Starrs-Doctrine soon
Would sink in Læthe of Oblivion:
'Tis you that Marshall Months, and yeers, and dayes:
'Tis you that quote for such as haunt the Seas
Their prosperous Dayes, and Dayes when Death ingraven
On th'angry Welkin, warns them heep their Haven:
'Tis you that teach the Plough-man when to sowe:
When the brave Captain to the Field shall goe;
When to retire to Garrison again;
When to assault a batter'd Peece; and when
To conuoy Victuals to his valiant Hoast:
'Tis you that shewe what season fitteth most
For euery purpose; when to Purge is good,
When to be Bathed, when to be Let-blood:
And how Physicians, skilfully to mix
Their Drugs, on Heav'n their curious eys must fix.
'Tis you that in the twinkling of an ey
Through all the Heav'nly Prouinces do fly:
'Tis you that (greater then our greatest Kings)
Possess the whole World in your Governings:

301

And (to conclude) you Demi-gods can make.
Between your hands the Heav'ns to turn and shake.

O divine Spirits: for you my smoothest quill
His sweetest hony on this Book should still;
Still should you be my Theam: but that the Beauty
Of the last Sister drawes my Love and Duty;
For, now I hear my Phalec humbly crave
The fourth Maids name: his Father, mildely-grave,
Replyes him thus; Observe (my dearest Son)
Those cloud-less brows, those cheeks vermilion,
Those pleasing looks, those eyes so smiling-sweet,

The description of Musick.

That grace-full posture, and those pretty feet
Which seem still Dancing: all those Harps and Lutes,
Shawms, Sag-buts, Citrons, Viols, Cornets, Flutes,
Plaç't round about her; prove in every part
This is the noble, sweet, Voice-ord'ring Art,
Breath's Measurer, the Guide of supplest fingers
On (living-dumb, dead-speaking) sinew-singers:
Th'Accord of Discords: sacred Harmony,
And Numb'ry Law, which did accompany
Th'Almighty-most, when first his Ordinance
Appointed Earth to rest, and Heav'n to dance.
For (as they say) for super-Intendent there,

The Heavens Harmony.

The supream Voice placed in every Sphear
A Siren sweet; that from Heav'ns Harmony
Inferiour things might learn best Melody,
And their rare Quier with th'Angels Quier accord
To sing aloud the praises of the Lord,
In 's Royall Chappell, richly beautifi'd
With glist'ring Tapers and all sacred Pride.

Where, as (by Art) one selfly blast breath'd out

Simile.

From panting bellows, passeth all-about
Winde-Instruments; enters by th'vnder Clavers
Which with the Keys the Organ-Master quavers,
Fils all the Bulk, and severally the same
Mounts every Pipe of the melodious Frame;
At once reviving lofty Cymbals voice,
Flutes sweetest air, and Regals shrillest noise:
Even so th'all-quickning Spirit of God above
The Heav'ns harmonious whirling wheels doth move;
So that re-treading their eternall trace,
Th'one bears the Trebble, th'other bears the Base.

But, brimmer far than in the Heav'ns, heer

A fourefold Consort in the humors, seasons and elements.

All these sweet-charming Counter-Tunes we hear:
For, Melancholy, Winter, Earth belowe,
Bear ay the Base; deep, hollow, sad and slowe:
Pale Phlegm, moist Autumn, Water moistly-cold,
The Plummet-like-smooth-sliding Tenor hold:

302

Hot-humid Bloud, the Spring, transparent Air;
The Maze-like Mean, that turns and wends so fair:
Curst Choler, Sommer, and hot thirsty Fire,
Th'high warbling Treble, loudest in the Quire.

The power of Musik towards all things.

And that's the cause (my Son) why stubborn'st things
Are stoopt by Musik; as reteining springs
Of Number in them: and they feeble live
But by that Spirit which th'Heav'ns dance doth drive.

Towards Men.

Sweet Musik makes the sternest men-at-Arms
Let-fall at once their Anger and their Arms:
It cheers sad soules, and charms the frantik fits
Of Lunatiks that are bereft their wits:
It kils the flame, and curbs the fond desire
Of him that burns in Beauties blazing Fire
(Whose soule, seduced by his erring eies,
Doth som proud Dame devoutly Idolize):

Towards Beasts, Birds, Flies and Fishes.

It cureth Serpents banefull bit, whose anguish
In deadly torment makes men madly languish:
The Swan is rapt, the Hinde deceiv'd with-all,
And Birds beguil'd with a melodious call:
Th'Harp leads the Dolphin, and the buzzing swarm
Of busie Bees the tinkling Brass doth charm.

O! what is it that Musick cannot doo!

Towards God. himself.

Sith th'all-inspiring Spirit it conquers too:
And makes the same down from th'Empyreall Pole
Descend to Earth into a Prophets soule;
With divine accents tuning rarely right
Vnto the rapting Spirit the rapted Spright.
Sith, when the Lord (most moved) threatneth most,
With wrathfull tempest arming all his Hoast;
When angry stretching his strong sinewy arms,
With bended back he throwes down thundry storms;
Th'harmonious sighs of his heart-turning Sheep
Supple his sinews, lull his wrath a-sleep;
While milde-ey'd Mercy stealeth from his hand
The sulph'ry Plagues prepar'd for sinfull Man.

Conclusion of the 2. Day of the 2. Week.

But, while that Heber (eloquently) would
Old Musiks vse and excellence have told;
Curst Canaan (seeking Iordans fatall course)
Past by the Pillars, and brake his Discourse,
And mine withall; for I must rest me heer:
My weary Iourny makes me faint well-neer:
Needs must I crave new aid from High, and step
A little back, that I may farther leap.

The End of the Second Day of the Second Week.

303

ABRAHAM.

THE THIRD DAY OF THE SECOND WEEK.

CONTAINING

I. The Vocation,
II. The Fathers,
III. The Lawe,
IV. The Captains

304

1. The Vocation.

THE FIRST PART OF THE THIRD DAY OF THE II WEEK.

The Argvment.

Abram from Chaldè is Divinely Call'd:
How Blest abroad: His (parted) Nephew Thrall'd
(In Sodom's aid) to Chedorlaomer;
Rescu'd by Him: Type of that bloudy War:
Melchisedec His Hap congratulates:
Ismael great; but God confederates
With (promis'd) Isaak, and his (Christ-kin) Seed,
Which shall in number even the Stars exceed:
Lot harbors Angels; sav'd from Sodom's Fire;
His Wife Transform'd: His Daughters foul Desire.

Vntill this Day (deer Muse) on every side
Within straight lists thou hast been boundifi'd,
Pend in a Path so narrow every-where,
Thou couldst not manage: only heer and there
(Reaching thine arms over the Rails that close
Thy bounded Race) thou caught'st from fragrant Rose,
Som Iuly-flowr, or som sweet Sops-in-Wine,
To make a Chaplet, thy chaste brows to binde.

But now, behold th'art in the open Plain,

Simile.

Where thou maist liuely, like the Horse of Spain
(That having burst his halter and his holde
Flings through the field, where list him, vncontrol'd)
Corvet, and turn, run, prance, advance, and pride-thee,
As sacred fury of thy Zeal shall guide-thee.

Th'whole World is thine: henceforth thy Sythe may mowe
The fairest Crop that in Fame's fields doth growe;

305

And, on the Sea of richest Histories
Hulling at large, a hundred Victories,
A hundred Rowts, a hundred Wonders new
Com huddling in, in heaps before thy view:
So that I fear, lest (train'd with various sent)
Thou be at fault in this vast Argument;
And lest the best choice in so bound-less Store
Pain thee no less now, than did Want before.

But worst thou what, my Muse (my dear delight,
My care, my comfort)? we will follow right

Simile.

The modest hand of a fair Shepherdling,
Who doth not rudely spoil the flowry Spring
Of all her painted beauties; nor deface
All in one day a pleasant Gardens grace;
But mannerly amid the Quarters seeks
Such rarest flowrs as best her fancy likes:
And heer a blew one, there a red she pulls,
A yellow heer, and there a white she culls,
Then bindes them with her hair, and blessed over
With a chaste kiss, she sends them to her Lover:
We'l over-run the Annals of all Ages;
And, choosing-out the chiefest Personages,
And Prodigies amid the Hebrew Story,
We'l offer them on th'Altar of Gods glory.

For He (I hope) who, no less good then wise,
First stirr'd vs vp to this great Enterprise,
And gave vs heart to take the same in hand,
For Level, Compass, Rule and Squire will stand;
Will change the Pebbles of our puddly thought
To Orient Pearls, most bright and bravely wrought;
And will not suffer in this pretious Frame
Ought that a skilfull Builders ey may blame:
Or, if he suffer ought, 't shall be som trace
But of that blindnes common to our Race;
T'abate my glory, and to give me proof,
That (mortall) I build but with mortall stuff.

Iames, richest Gem of Scots, and Scotlands Praise,

Dedication to the Kings Maiesty.

Who, with the same hand that the Scepter swaies,
On Heav'n-faln paper, in a golden stile,
Doost happily immortall lines compile;
And (new Apollo) vnder Others names
Singst in thy Childehood thine Own future Fames:
To whom but Thee should I these Verses vow?
Who through the World hast made me famous now,
And with a liberall learned hand indu'd
My Muse with lustre of a Royall Sute;
Before, so ragged, that she blusht wel-neer
That her chaste Sisters should so homely see-her,

306

The scorn of Art, of Helicon the shame,
Vsurping (wrong) Vrania's sacred Name.

Through thee she's Heav'nly. O wise, worthy Prince,
Maist thou surmount all those in Excellence,
Which have (before thee) Rul'd th'hard-ruled Scots,
And ruder Picts (painted with Martiall spots)
That, first Fergusius (glory of his daies)
Ev'nus and Donald may envy thy Praise;
And even the Scott'sh (or rather th'Hebrew) David
(Iesses great Son, so holily behaved)
Give place to thy Renown, and therwithall
Give thee his Zeal and Heart heroïcall,
And all his best (which doth thee best belong)
As he hath giv'n thee his sweet Harp and Song.

Thovgh profane service of Idolatry
Had drown'd the whole Earth vniversally:
Though shame-less sin (born with the Colonies
Through all the world) through all did Tyrannize:
Yet in Chaldea was their chiefest Seat,
Their strength in Shinaar; and that City great,
Built on the slimy strand of Euphrates,
Was the proud Palace where they held their Feasts.
So that, even Sem's and Heber's sacred Line
(Where God his grace yet seemed to confine)
Sucking the Sin-bane of Assyrian air,
Did (like the Heathen) every day impair;
Forgot the true God, followed (rashly-rude)
The gross grand Error of the multitude;
Degeneriz'd, decaid and withered quight:

Simile.

Like som rare Fruit-Tree over-topt with spight
Of Briers and Bushes which it sore oppress,
With the sowr shadow of their thorny tress,
Till choakt withall, it dies as they do growe,
And beareth nought but Moss and Misseltoe.

The calling of Abraham.

But God, desirous (more for vs, then him)
In som one stock to save Faith's sacred stem
(Like as before from the All-drowning Flood
He sav'd the worlds seed in an Ark of wood)
Marks Abram for his own: and from false Rites
To Men, to Beasts, to Stocks, to Stones, to Sprites,
Him gratiously to his own Service drawes;
Not by meer Conduct of exteriour cause,
As by contempling th'Artship richly-rare
Which gilds the Seeling of this Globe so fair;
Earths fruitfull powr, producing (goodly-green)
From so small seeds so huge and mighty Treen,
Flowrs fragrant air, so fresh and divers-died;
Seas foaming Course, whose ever-Tilting Tide

307

(Ebbing or flowing) is confin'd to Season,
Bounded with lists, guided with reans of Reason:
But, by the motion of his Spirit, which seals
In our hearts Centre what his word reveals,
And prudently in his fit time and place
(Dispensing frankly his free gifts of Grace)
Doth inwardly bear-witnes, and aver-it
Vnder our Spirits that 't is Gods Holy Spirit.

The sacred Faith of Abram languisht not

The fruits of a true faith & the effect therof.

In idleness, but alwaies waakt and wrought,
And ever lively, brought forth Patience,
Humility, Hope, Bounty, Innocence,
Loue, feruent Zeal, Repentance, Temperance,
Sincerity, and true Perseuerance;
Fruits that (like Load-stones) haue a vertue giuen
(Through Faith) to draw their Father-Tree to Heav'n,
And guide the soules to God (the spring of life)
Of's kins-man Lot, and Sara his deer Wife;
Who with him following the Almighti's call,
Wend to the strand where Iordans course doth craul,
Their owne deer Country willingly forsake,
And (true-religious) less account do make
Of goods and lands, and quiet-lifes content,
Than of an end-less, friendless Banishment.

O sacred ground of Vertue's sole perfection!
O shield of Martyrs! Prophets sure direction!
Soule's remedy! O contrite heart's Restorer!
Tears-wiping tame-grief! Hopes guide, hunting horror,
Path of Saluation! Pledge of Immortality!
O liuely Faith! through thy admired quality,
How many wonders dost thou work at once,
When from Sin's slumbers thou hast waakt vs once,
And made vs inly in our spirits conceiue
Beauties that neuer outward eyes perceiue!

Alas! said Abram, must I needs forgoe
These happy fields where Euphrates doth flowe?

Natural considerations to haue stopt the Journey of Abraham.

Heer, first I drew this vitall air, and (pleas'd
With my births news) my Mothers throes I eas'd:
Heer, from her tender brest (as soft as silk)
My tender gums suckt my first drop of milk:
Heer, with the pleasure of mine infant-smile
Her Cares and Cumbers I did oft beguile:
Heer, my chaste Sisters, Vncles, Aunts and Kin,
My pritty prattling have delighted in:
Heer, many a time I wantonly have clung,
And on my fathers wrinkled neck have hung:
Heer, I have past my Lad-age fair and good:
Heer, first the soft Down on my chin did bud:

308

Heer, I have learn'd Heav'ns Motions, and the nature
And various force of Fire, Air, Earth and Water:
Heer, I haue show'n the noblest tokens forth
Both of my Mindes and of my Bodies worth:
Heer, I have spent the best part of mine age:
Heer, I possess a plentious Heritage:
Heer, I have got me many friends and fame,
And by my Deeds attain'd a glorious Name:
And must I hence, and leaue this certain state,
To roam vncertain (like a Runagate)
O're fearfull Hils, and thorough foaming Torrents
That rush-down Mountains with their roaring Currents,
In dreadfull Desarts, where Heav'ns hottest beam
Shall burn without; within vs, Thirst extream:
And gloomy Forrests full of ghastly fear
Of yelling Monsters that are dwelling there?
To seek a Country (God knowes where, and whither)
Whose vnknowen name hath yet scarce sounded hither?
With staff in hand, and wallet at our back,
From Town to Town to beg for all we lack?
To guise our selves (like counterfaiting Ape)
To th'guise of Men that are but Men in shape?
T'have (briefly) nothing properly our own
In all the World; no, not our Grave-place knowen?

Is 't possible, I should endure to see
The sighs and tears my friends will shed for me?
O! can I thus my Native soil forsake?
O! with what words shall I my Farewell take?
Farewell Chaldea: dear delights, adieu:
Friends, Brothers, Sisters, farewell all of you,
Farewell for ever: Can I thus (alas!)
Rudely vnwinde me from the kinde embrace
Of their dear arms, that will me faster hould

2. Comparisons.

Than trembling Ivie doth the Oakenfould;
Or than the Vine doth with her crawling spray
The boughs of Elm, her limber limbs to stay?

Can I expose (with perill of my life)
Th'vn-vulgar beauties of my vertuous wife,
To the none-sparing lust of that loose Nation
That brutely burns in all abomination?

Besides, what rigour? nay, what paricide?
To hale from Tigris shoar to Iordans side
A weak old-man? a man so weak and ould,
He scarce can creep without our help and hould.

His resolution aboue all discourse of reason.

Yet, 't must be so: for so the Lord commands.
A carnall man on carnall reason stands:
But, for all Reasons, Faith suffizeth me.
Who lodge with God can never House-less be.

309

Then cheerly marcht he on, and though the age
And death of Terah slow'd his pilgrimage;
The rest of His he doth conduct (in fine)
To Canaan (since called Palæstine):
Where God pours down such flouds of goods vpon them,

The great blessing of God on his obedience.

And bountiously bestowes such blessings on them,
That their abundance shortly seems t'exceed
Gods Promises, and their desires indeed.
Their fruitfull Heards, that hill and dale do haunt,
Resemble not the breed of th'Elephant,

Simile.

Which (slowe in coupling, and in calving more,
Pining her Master so long time before
With lingring hope) brings-forth, with painfull groans,
But once in twelve yeers, but one Calf at once.
All's white with their wool: all their Cattell proves,
Still, still increasing like to Stares and Doves.
Their Wealth so growes, that, wantoniz'd withall,

Iarre begun between his Seruants, and the Seruants of Lot.

Their envious Shepheards broach a civil Brawl.
But, lest this Mischief, by the Grooms begun,
Between their Masters might vnkindly run,
The grave-milde Grand-sire of the Faithfull (there)
And Ammoa's Father, to cut-off the fear
Of farther strife, and to establish rather
Their Mindes, then Bodies, in a league together;
Divided duly with a deep foresight
Their Flocks and Heards in number infinite.

Then pleas'd and parted; both go live a-part:

Abram & Lot to shun centention, part company.

The Vncle kept the Mountain for his part;
For,'s Nephew chose the fat and flowry Plain,
And even to Sodom stretcht his Tent and Train;
And, dwelling there, becam a Citizen
Among those monstrous, Nature-forcing Men.

O Lot (alas!) what lot hast thou elect?

Lot dwels at Sodom.

Th'eternall verdure, and the trim prospect,
The plentious Pastures, and the purling Springs,
Whose fibrous silver thousand Tributes brings
To wealthy Iordan, watering so the soil
(Like Gods own Garden) doth thy sense beguile,
Blindeth thy iudgement, makes thee (miserable)
To seat thee with a People execrable,
Whose War-thrall'd woes, and odious villanies
To springs of tears shall turn thy tender eyes.

Elam's proud King, great Chedor-Laomer

The battaile of Siddim fought by the king of Elam, with his confederates, against the Kings of Sodom and Gommorrha with heirs.

(Leagued with Arioch King of Ellazar,
The Soverain of the Nations, Thadael,
And with the King of Shynaar, Amraphel)
Made war against the Kings of Sodoma,
Gomorrha, Zeboim, Zoar, Adamah;

310

Who, subiect to him for twelve yeers before,
Rebelled now, and cast the yoak they bore.

Both Camps approach, their bloudy rage doth rise,
And even the face of Cowards terriblize;
New Martiall heat inflames their mindes with ire,
Their bloud is moov'd, their heart is all on fire.
Their cheerfull limbs (seeming to march too slowe)
Longing to meet, the fatall drums out-go;
And even already in their gesture fight:
Th'iron-footed Coursers, lusty, fresh and light,
Marrying their Masters cause and courage both,
Snowe all the field with a white foaming froth,
And prancing with their load (as proud withall)
With loud-proud neighings for the Combat call.

Now both the Hoasts march forward furiously,
The Plain between soon shrinketh equally:
First in the Air begins a fight of dust,
Then on the Earth both Armies bravely ioust.

Brave yet it was: for yet one might behould
Bright swords and shields, and plumed helms of gould
Vn-goard with bloud; no Cask had lost his head,
No Horse his load, no scattered Corps lay dead.
But, on our Corn-fields towards harvest-time

Comparison.

(For punishment of som ingratefull crime)
Th'incensed hand of Heav'ns Almighty King
Never more thick doth slippery Ice-pearls fling,
Than heer the Arrows showr on euery side:
An iron Cloud Heav'ns angry face doth hide
From Souldiers sight; and flying weapons then
For lack of ground fall vpon horse or men:
Ther's not a shaft but hath a man for White,
Nor stone but lightly in warm bloud doth light:
Or, if that any fail their foes to hit
In fall; in flight themselves they enter-split:
The wounds com all from Heav'n: the bravest Hee
Kils and is kild of him he doth not see:
Without an aim the Dart-man darts his spear,
And Chance performs th'effect of Valour there.

Simile.

As two stout Rams, both Ieloux-phrenzy-sick,
Afront two flocks, spurd on with anger's prick,
Rush-on each other with tempestuous shock,
And, butting boisterous, horns and heads do knock:
So, these two Armies enterchanged blowes;
And doubling steps and strokes vpon their Foes,
First flesh their Lances and their Pikes embrew,
Then with their swords about them keenly heaw,
Then stab with daggers; standing bravely to-'t,
Till Foe to Foe they charge them foot to foot;

311

So neer, that oft ones Targets pike doth pearce
Anothers Shield, and sends him to his Herse.
And gawdy plumes of Foes (be-Cedered brave)
Oft on their Foes (vn-plumed) crests do wave.

Of all their stroaks scarce any stroak is vain;
Yet stand they firm, and still the fight maintain:
Still fronting Death, they face to face abide,
None turn their backs; no, neither shrink aside;
Of their own blood, as of their Foe's, as frank.

But, too-too tired, som at last dis-rank:
Then, Threats and Cries, and Plaints, redoubled ay,
And so pel-mel rage-blinded Mars doth play,
That now no more their Colours they discern;
But, knowing none, to all are strangely stern.
The Palestine fights vnder Elams Standard,
The Shinarite with Sodoms Ensignes wander'd:
Even as two swarms of busie Buzzers, mounting

Simile.

Amid the Air, and mutually affronting,
Mingle their Troops; one goes, another coms,
At other turns; a cloud of Moatlings hums
Above our heads, who with their cipres wings
Decide the Quarell of their little Kings:
Either of which a hundred times a minute
Doth lose a Souldier, and as oft re-win-it.

But, may one hope in Champions of the Chamber,

A martial brave of an olde Captain against the effeminate softnes and delicacy of Carpet-Knights.

Soft Carpet-Knights, all senting Musk and Amber
(Whose chief delight is to be over-com)
Vn-danted hearts that dare not Over-com?
In Woman-Men a manly Constancy?
In wanton Arms vn-wearied Valiancy?
No, no (Gomorrah) this is not the place
For quav'ring Lutes a warbling Voice to grace:
No (filthy Sodom) 't is not heer the game
To play with Males in spight of Natures name:
No (Zeboim) heer are no Looking-Glasses
For Para-Nymphs to gaze their painted faces:
To starch Mustachoes, and to prank in print,
And curl the Lock (with fauours braided in 't):
No (Adamah) we spend not heer the day
In Dancing, Courting, Banquetting and Play:
Nor lastly (Zoar) is it heer the guise
Of silken Mock-Mars (for a Mistress-Prize)
With Reed-like Lance, and with a blunted Blade,
To Championize vnder a Tented shade,
As at your Tourneys. Therefore to your Mew:
Lay down your weapons, heer's no Work for you.
'Tis heer the Fashion (and the pride of Wars)
To paint the face with sweat, dust, blood and scars:

312

Our Glass is heer a bright and glist'ring shield:
Our Satten, steel: the Musick of the Field
Doth rattle like the Thunders dreadfull roar:
Death tilteth heer: the Mistress we adore,
Is Victory (true Soverain of our hearts)
Who without danger graceth no Deserts:
Dead carcasses perfume our dainty Nose:
Our Banquets heer, be Banquets for the Crowes:
Flee therefore (Cowards) flee and turn your backs,
(As you were wont in your thought-shaming acts)
But with our swords and Lances (in your haste)
Through-thrilled (Villains) this shall be your last,
Said Amraphel: and charg'd them in such sort,
That 't seems a sudden Whirl-winde doth transport

Defeature of the Sodomites.

Their fainting Troops. Som (best-advised) fly
To tops of Mountains that do neighbour by;
Som, through the Plain: but, neither (in the chace)
Dares once look back (no, not with half a face)
Their fear had no restraint, and much less Art:
This throwes away his shield, and that his dart;
Swords, Morrions, Pouldrons, Vaunt-brace, Pikes & Lances,
Are no defence, but rather hinderances:
They with their hearts, have also lost their sight,
And recking less a glorious end, in Fight,
Than thousand base deaths, desperatly they ran
Into the flood that fats rich Canaan.

Then, Iordan arms him 'gainst these infidels,
With rapid course, and like a sea he swels;
Lakes vnder ground into his chanel range,
And shallowest Foords to ground-less gulfs do change:
He fumes, he foams; and, swiftly whirling round,
Seems, in his rage, these bitter words to sound:

Dy (Villains) dy: O more then infamous
Foul Monsters! drench your damned soules in vs.
Sa, sa, my Floods: with your cold moisture quench
The lust-full flame of their self burning stench.
Drown, drown the Hel-hounds, and revenge the wrong
Which they have don our Mother Nature long.

The River, swiftly whirling-in the slaves,
Above with Boaws, beneath with Bodies paves:
The gaudy Plume, yet floating light and soft,
Keeps for awhile the hollow helm aloft;
But yet (at length) even those that swim the best,
Down to the bottom sink among the rest,
Striving and struggling (topsi-turuy tost).
While fain they would, but cannot, yield the ghost,
Because the flood (vnwilling to defile
His purest waves with spirits so foul and vile)

313

Re-spews them still into themselues, and there
Smoothers, and choaks, and rams them, as it were:
Then both at once (Bodies and Soules) at last
To the main Sea, or his own shoar doth cast.

The Kings of Sodom and Gomorrah then,

Their own Ambush serues against themselues.

Hoping to train the King of Elams men,
Among the Clay-pits which themselues before
(T'intrap the Foe) with boughs had covered o're,
Ran thither-ward: but their confused flight,
In their owne ambush made their owne to light:
Wherein they lost the flowr of all their rest,
Sooner of death, then of deaths fear possest.

One, as he flies with trembling steps the dart
Which (from behinde) nigh pearst him to the heart,
Tangling his foot with twyning tendrels tho
Of a wilde Vine that neer a pit did growe,
Stumbles, and tumbles in, hung by the heels
Vp to the wast in water: where he feels
A three-fold Fate: for there (O strange!) he found
Three deaths in one; at once slain, hangd and drownd.

Another, weening o'r a Well to skip,
From the wet brim his hap-less foot doth slip,
And in he fals: but instantly (past hope)
He catcheth holde vpon a dangling rope,
And so at length with shifting hands gets-vp
By little and litle to the fountains top.
Which Thadael spying, to him straight he hies,
And thus alowd vnto the wretch he cries;
Varlet, is this, is this the means you make,
Your wonted yoak of Elam off to shake?
Is this your Skirmish? and are these your blowes,
Wher-with t'incounter so courageous Foes?
Sir, leaue your ladder; this shall serue as well,
This sword shall be your ladder down to Hell:
Go pay to Pluto (Prince of Acheron)
The Tribute heer deny'd vnto your own:
Heer-with he draws his Fauchin bright and keen,
And at a blowe heaws both his arms off clean:
His trickling hands held fast, down fell his Trunk,
His blood did swim, his body quickly sunk.

Another (roughly pushed by the Foe)
Fals headlong down into a Bog belowe:
Where, on his head deep planted in the mud
With his heels vp-ward, like a tree he stood;
Still to and fro, wauing his legs and arms,

Simile.

As Trees are wont to waue in windy storms.

Another heer (on hors-back) posting over
A broad, deep clay-pit that green boughs do cover,

314

Sinks instantly; and in his sudden Fate
Seems the bave Horse doubly vnfortunate:
For, his own neck he breaks, and bruzing in
(With the keen scales of his bright Brigandin)
His Masters bowels, serves (alas!) for Tomb
To him that yerst so many times did comb
His crispy Crest, and him so frankly fed

Simile.

In 's hollow Shield with oats and beans and bread:
Even so somtimes, the loving Vine and Elm
(With double domage) ioyntly over-whelm;
She wails the wrack of her deer Husbands glade;
He moanes his Spouses feeble arms and shade:
But most it grieves him with his Trunk to crush
The precious Clusters of her pleasing Bush;
And press to death vnkindly with his waight
Her that for loue embraceth him so straight.

Lots valour.

Yet Lot alone (with a small troup assisted)
The Martiall brunt with Manly breast resisted,
And thirsting Fame, stands firmly looking for
The furious hoste of Chedorlaomer:
But as a narrow and thin-planted Cops
Of tender saplings with their slender tops,
Is fell'd almost as soon as vnder-taken
By Multitudes of Peasants Winter-shaken:
Lot's little Number so environ'd round,
Hemm'd with so many swords, is soon hew'n down.

His vndanted resolution.

Then left alone, yet still all one he fares;
And the more danger, still the more he dares:

Simile.

Like a strange Mastiff fiercely set vpon
By mongrell Curs, in number ten to one:
Who tyr'd with running (growen more cunning) gets
Into som corner, where vpright he sits
Vpon his stern, and sternly to his foes
His rage-full, foaming, grinning teeth he showes,
And snarles, and snaps; and this and that doth bite,
And stoutly still maintains th'vnequall fight
With equall fury, till (disdaining Death)
His Enemies be beaten out of breath.

Arioch, admiring, and (even) fearing too
What Lot had done, and what he yet might doo;
Him princely meets, and mildly greets him thus:
Cease (valiant youth) cease, cease t'incounter vs.
Wilt thou (alas!) wilt thou (poor soule) expose
And hazard thus thy life and Fame to lose,
In such a Quarrell, for the cause of such?
Alas, I pitty thy misfortune much.
For, well I see, thy habit and thy tongue
Thine Arms (but most) thy courage (yet so yong)

315

Shewe that in Sodom's wanton wals accurst
Thou wert not born, nor in Gomorrha nurst.
O chief of Chivalry, reserue thy worth
For better wars: yeeld thee: and think hence-forth
I highly prize thy powrs; and, by my sword,
For thousand kingdoms will not false my word.

Past hope of Conquest (as past fear of death)

Lot taken prisoner.

Lot yeelds him then vpon the Princes Faith;
And, from his Camell quick-dismounting, hies
His Royall hand to kiss in humble wise:
And th'Army, laden with the richest spoyl,
Triumphantly to th'Eastward marcht the while.

No sooner noyse of these sad novels cam
Vnto the ears of faithfull Abraham,

Abraham with his family of 300. goes to rescue Lot.

But instantly he arms to rescue Lot,
And that rich prey the heathen Kings had got.
Three hundred servants of his house he brings
(But lightly arm'd with staves and darts, and slings
Aided by Mamre (in whose Plain he wons)
Ascol and Aner (Amor's valiant sons)
So at the heels he hunts the fear-less Foe,
Yet waits advantage yer he offer blowe)
Favour'd by streightness of the wayes they took,
And cover'd close with nights deceitfull cloak.

In Groon-land fields is found a dungeon,

A liuely description of Sleep, with his Cell, Seruants, furniture and company.

A thousand-fold more dark then Acheron,
It hath no door, lest as it turns about
On rusty hooks, it creak too lowdly out,
But Silence serves for Port and Porter there,
A gagged Vsher that doth never wear
Stif-rustling silks, nor rattling chamlet sutes,
Nor gingling spurs, nor creaking spanish boots;
But, that he make no noyse (when ere he sturs)
His high-day sutes are of the softest Furs,
At other times (less-stately-service-full)
Hee's only clad in cotton, shod in wool:
His left fore-finger ore his lips he locks;
With th'other beckens to the early Cocks,
The rushing streams, and roaring Eölus,
Seeming (though dumb) to whisper softly thus:
Sleep silver Torrents; cease, sweet Chante-cleer,
To bid Good-morrow to the Morning heer:
Be still, ye Windes, keep in your native nest;
Let not your storms disturb this house of Rest.

In midst of all this Caue so dark and deep,
On a still-rocking couch lies blear-ey'd Sleep,
Snorting alowd, and with his panting breath
Blowes a black fume, that all envapoureth:

316

Obliuion lies hard-by her drowzie brother,
Who readily knowes not her selfe, nor other:
Then solitary Morpheus gently rockt:
And nasty Sloath self-pyn'd, and poorly frockt,
Irresolute, vnhandsom, comfortless,
Rubbing her eyes with Poppy, and doth press
The yellow Night-shade, and blew Gladiols iuyce,
Wher-with her sleep-swoln heauy lids she glews.
Confusedly about the silent Bed
Fantastick swarms of Dreams there hovered,
Green, red, and yellow, tawny, black, and blew:
Som sacred, som profane; som false, som true;
Som short, som long; som divelish, som divine;
Som sad, som glad; but monstrous all (in fine):

Simile.

They make no noyse, but right resemble may
Th'vnnumbred Moats which in the Sun do play,
When (at som Cranny) with his piercing ey
He peepeth in, som darker place to spy.

Thither th'Almighty (with a iust intent
To plague those tyrants pride) his Angel sent.
No sooner entred, but the radiant shine
Of's glistring wings, and of his glorious eyn,
As light as Noon, makes the dark House of Night.
The gawdy swarm of Dreams is put to slight:
And opening wide the sable Canapey
The winged Herald summon'd Sleep away.

Silence dislodg'd at the first word he spake:
But deaf dead Sleep could not so soon awake.
Hee's call'd a hundred times, and tugg'd and touz'd,
And by the Angel often rubb'd and rouz'd:
At length he stirs, and stretching lazily
His legs and arms, and opening halfe an ey,
Foure or fiue times he yawns; and leaning-on
His (Lob-like) elbowe, hears This Message don.

Great Spirits-restorer, Cares-charm, Chacing-grief,
Night-short'ning Sire, Man's-Rest, and Mind's Relief,
Vp, vp (said he) dispatch thee hence in poste,
And with thy Poppy drench the conquering Hoste
Of those prowd Kings, that (richly charg'd with Prey)
On Canaan Mountains lodge in dis-aray.

Th'Angel, in th'instant back to Heav'n-ward gon,
Sleep slowely harnest his dull Bears anon;
And, in a noys-less Coach all darkly dight,
Takes with him Silence, Drowsiness and Night:
Th'ayr thickning where he goes, doth nod the head,
The Woolf in Woods lies down, th'Ox in the Mead,
Th'Orque vnder Water; and on Beds of Down
Men stretch their limbs, and lay them softly down.

317

The Nightingale, pearcht on the tender spring
Of sweetest Haw-thorn, hangs her drowsie wing,
The Swallow's silent, and the loudest Humber,
Leaning vpon the Earth, now seems to slumber:
Th'Yeugh mooues no more, the Asp doth cease to shake,
Pines bow their heads, seeming som rest to take.

So soon as Sleep's black wings had over-spread
The Pagan Hoast; the Souldiers haste to bed:
For, instantly begin they all to wink,
To hang their heads, and let their weapons sink:
Their words half-spoke, are lost between their lips,
Through all their veins Sleep's charming humor slips,
Which to a deep and death-like Letharge brings
Both Heathen Souldiers, and their Heathen Kings.

Abram perceiving now the Army neer,

Abrams oration to his little Troupe.

By their owne Fires; gan thus his Troups to cheer:
Souldiers (said he) behold, this happy Night
Shall make amends for that dis-astrous Fight
Was fought in Siddim, and acquittance cry,
For Sodom's shame, and Lot's captivity:
Me thinks, already Victory (adorn'd
With Bowes, and Blades, and Casks, and Crowns) return'd
From th'Enemy, on our triumphant spears
Erecteth Tropheis far more rich then theirs:
Methinks, already on our glistering Crests,
The glorious Garland of the Conquest rests;
Our way to vertue lyes so smooth and plain,
With pain-less Honour, and vn-vent'red Gain.
This Hoast you see, is not the valiant Troup
That stript Gomorrha, and made Segor stoop;
That Iordan, Inde, and Euphrates admire;
But a foul heard of Swine wall'wing in mire:
Regard them as they are, not as they were:
See but their sloath, do not their number fear:
He that's asleep is dead and he that's dead
Bites not (they say): What haue we then to dread?
Why stay we, Lads? already down they are,
Their throats be naked, and their bosoms bare,
Their lives lie prostrate heer at our command;
And Fortune cals but for your helping hand.

Com, follow me; rather, the Lord of Hoasts
(Terror of Tyrants) who through all the Coasts
Of all the Earth confoundeth (with a thought)
All worldly powr, and brings mens plots to nought:
Com (happy Troop) follow with one accord
Th'invincible brave Standard of the Lord.

This sayd; eft-soons I wot not what a grace,
What divine beam reflected on his face:

318

Simile.

For as in March, the Serpent, having cast
His olde foul skin, crawls from his hole full fast,
Hisses, and stings, and stares vs in the face,
And (gold-like) glistering, glides along the grass:
So Heav'n inspires fresh vigour in each part,
His blood renews, his heart doth take new heart,
A martiall fury in his breast there boyls,
His stature seems much taller then yer-whiles,
Youth paints his cheeks with Rose and Lilly Dies,
A lovely Lightning sparkles in his eyes;
So that his gallant Port and gracefull voyce
Confirms the faintest, makes the sad reioyce.

Abraham sets vpon the Camp of Chedorlaomer.

Then, on the Camp he sets, where round about
Lie mingled Carrs, and Horse, and Men that rout:
Rest seizeth all; and (wanting what it fed)
The fire it selfe slept in his ashy bed.

Th'Hebrews the-while laid-on on back, or brest,
Or arm, or side, according as their Rest
To th'ground had bound them; and those liues bereft
The which Death's Image in an Image reft.

Heer, one beheaded on a Trunk of Pine,
Pours-out at once his gore, his ghost, and Wine;
The full Helm hops, and with a voyce confused,
Murmurs, as if it his fell Fate accused.
Another, taken by inchanting sleep,
Mid Pots and Cups, and Flagons, quaffing deep,
Doth at a wound, given in his rattling gorge,
The Wine again in his owne Cup dis-gorge.
Another, while ingeniously he plays
Vpon his Lute som passing-pleasing Lays,
Sleep sieles his eyes vp with a gloomy clowd;
And yet his hand still quavers light and lowd:
But, at the last it sinks; and, offring fair
To strike the Base, strikes but the empty ayr:
His soule, descending to th'Infernall Coasts,
Goes to conclude his Song vnto the Ghosts:
Dolefull it was, not for the Argument
(For't was of Loue) but for the sad event.
Another, wak'ned with those lowd alarms,
Starts-vp, and groapeth round about for arms;
Which, ah too soon he findeth, for his part:
For a keen poignard stabs him to the heart.

Simile.

Like as a Tigress, having with the gore
Of Buls and Heifers made her spots the more,
And pav'd a Plain with Creatures mangled lims,
Views on each side her valiant stratagems,
Treads on the vanquisht, and is prowdly-sad,
That no more Foes, nor no more Maw she had:

319

So th'Hebrew stalking round-about the slain,
Braves (but it boots not) and would very fain
That those dead bodies might their ghosts re-gather,
Or that those Mountains would produce him (rather)
Som Foes more wakefull, that more manfully
In blood-drown'd Valleis might his valour try.

Amor's three sons did no less slaughter make;
Abram for zeale, they but for Furies sake:
This, nayls a Souldier with his sword to th'ground;
That, at a blowe, th'heads of two Heads dis-crown'd.
This, vnderneath a Chariot kils the driver:
That, lops off legs and arms, and heads doth shiver.

The Tents already all in blood do swim,
Gushing from sundry Corps, from severall lim.
In brief, so many ravening Woolues they seem,
Within whose breast, fierce Famine biteth keen,
Who softly stealing to som fold of sheep
(While both the Shepheard and his Curr doth sleep)
Furbush their hungry teeth, tear, kill, and prey
Vpon the best, to eat and bear-away.

Yet, at the length, the vanquished awake,
And (re-aray'd) the Victors vnder-take;
Putting the three prowd Amorites, to flight,
Who but for Abram, had bin routed quite.

Sleep, sleep (poor Pagans) sith you needs must die,
Go sleep again, and so die easily,
Die yer you think on death, and in your Dreams
Gasp-out your soules; Let not your dazled beams
Behold the havock and the horror too
Of th'Execution, that our swords shall doo,
Hacking your bodies to heaw-out your breaths,
Yer Death, to fright you with a thousand deaths,
Said Abraham: and pointing every word
With the keen point of his quick-whirled sword
(As swift in doing, as in saying so)
More fiercely chargeth the insulting Foe,
Than ever storm-full cloud, which fed with Water's

Comparison.

Thin moist-full fumes (the snowie Mountains daughters)
Showr'd heaps of hail-shot, or pour'd floods of rain,
On slender stems of the new tender Grain:
Through blood, and blades, through danger, dust and death,
Through mangled Corps and carrs he traverseth;
And partly in the shock, part with the blowes,
He breaketh in through thickest of his Foes,
And by his travail topsi-turneth then
The live and dead, and half-dead horse and men:
His bright-keen Fauchin never threats, but hits;
Nor hits, but hurts; nor hurts, but that it splits

320

Som priuy postern, whence to Hell (in Post)
Som groaning Pagan may gasp out his ghost:
He all assayls, and him so brave bestowes,
That in his Fight he deals more deaths than blowes.

Simile.

As the North-winde, re-cleering-vp the front
Of clowdy Heav'ns, towards the South doth hunt
The showrs that Austers spungie thirst exhales
Out of those seas that circle Orans wals:
So where-so-e're our Hebrew Champion wield
His war-like weapon and his glistring Shield

Elamites ouerthrown by Abraham.

(Whose glorious splendor darts a dreadfull light)
All turn their backs, and all be-take to flight:
Forgetting Fame, Shame, Vertue, Hope, and all,
Their hearts are don, and down their weapons fall:
Or, if that any be so strangely-stout
As not to faint, but bravely yet hould out,
Alas! it boots not, for it cannot stop
The victory, but haste his owne mishap.

God giveth victory.

But in what Fence-schoole, of what master, say,
Brave pearl of Souldiers, learnd thy hands to play
So at so sundry weapons, such passados,
Such thrusts, such foyns, stramazos, and stoccados?
Even of that mighty God, whose sacred might
Made Heav'n and Earth (and them so braue bedight)
Of meerly nothing: of that God of Powr
Who swore to be thy Target and thy Towr:
Of that high God, who fortifies the weak,
Who teacheth his, even steely bowes to break,
Who doth his Childrens zealous hearts inflame;
But daunts the prowd, and doth their courage tame.

Abraham follows the execution.

Thy sword abates th'armed, the strong, the stout;
Thou cleav'st, thou kill'st: The faint dis-armed rout,
The lightning of thine eyes, thy voyces thunder,
And thy stern dreadfull port confounds with wonder:
Death and Despair, Horror and Fury fight
Vnder thine Ensignes in the dismall Night:
Thou slayest this, and that thou threat'st as much:
This thou pursu'st, that thou disdaign'st to touch:
In brief (thou blest Knight brave) thou quelst at once
Valiant and vile, arm'd and vnarmed ones.

Heer, thine even hand (even in a twinkling trice)
In equall halves a pagans head doth slyce:
Down on each shoulder looketh either half,
To gaze vpon his gastly Epitaph,
In lines of blood writ round about him fair,
Vnder the curtain of his parted hair.
Heer, through a Ierkin (more then Musket-proof)
Made twelue-fold double of East-country Buff,

321

Clean through and through thy deadly shaft doth thrill
A Gyants bulk; the wounded hulk doth reel:
The head behinde appears; before, the feathers:
And th'Ethnick soule flies both-waies out togethers:
Heer thou do'st cleaue, with thy keen Fauchins force,
The Bards and Breast-plate of a furious Horse,
No sooner hurt, but he recoyleth back,
Writing his Fortune in a bloody track:
Thy Barbed dart, heer at a Chaldee flies,
And in an instant lardeth both his thighes,
While he (blaspheming his hard stars and state)
Hops (like a Pie) in stead of wonted gate.

Now Lot (the while) escap't from Elams hands,

Lot rescued reuengeth brauely his captiuity.

Free from the burthen of his yron bands;
With iust revenge retorts his taken wrong,
His feet growe swift, his sinnews waxen strong,
His heart reviues; and his revived heart
Supplies new spirits to all and every part.
And as a wilde and wanton Colt, got out
Of some great Stable, staring scuds about,

Simile.

Shakes his proud head and crest, yerks out his heels,
Butts at the ayr, beats on the humble fields,
His flying shadow now pursues amain,
Anon (amaz'd) flies it as fast again,
Again beholds it with self-proud delight,
Looks on his legs, sets his stiff tayl vpright,
And neighs so loud to Mares beyond the Mound,
That with the noyse the neighbour hils resound:
So, one while Lot sets on a Troup of Horse,
A Band of Sling-men he anon doth force,
Anon he pusheth through a Stand of Pikes,
A Wing of Archers off anon he strikes,
Anon he stalks about a steepfull Rock,
Where som, to shun Death's (never shunned) stroak,
Had clambred-vp; at length a path he spies,
Where vp he mounts, and doth their Mount surprise:
Whence, stones he heaves, so heauy and so huge,
That in our Age, three men could hardly bouge;
Vnder whose waight his flying Foes he dashes:
And in their flesh, bones, stones, and steel he pashes:
Somtimes he shoots, somtimes he shakes a Pike,
Which death to many, dread to all doth strike.
Som in the breast he wounds, som in the backs,
Som on the hanch, som on the head he hacks,
He heaws down all; and maketh where he stood
A Mount of bodies in a Moat of blood.

At length the Pagans wholly left the place.

The Pagans wholly put to flight.

Then both sides ran; these chased, those do chase:

322

These only vse their heels; those heels and hands:
Those wish but a fair way; these that the sands
Would quickly gape, and swallow quick to Hell
Themselues that fled, and them that chaç't so fell:
These render nought but blowes; those nought but blood:
Both sides have broak their Ranks: pel-mel they scud;
Choakt-vp with dust, disordered, dis-aray'd;
Neither, Command, Threat, nor Intreat obay'd.

Thou that (late) bragdst, that thy White Wormly braue
Could dry-foot run vpon the liquid Waue,
And on the sand leaving no print behinde
Out-swifted Arrows, and out-went the Winde,
With a steel Dart, by Abrah'm stifly sent,
Art 'twixt thy Cuirace and thy Saddle slent:
And thou that thrice, neer Tigris silver source,
Hadst won the Bell, as best in every Course,
Art caught by Lot, and (thrild from side to side)
Loosest thy speed-praise, and thy life beside.

It seems no Fight, but (rather as befals)
An execution of sad criminals:
Who-so escapes the sword, escapes not so
His sad destruction; or, if any tho
Escap't at all, they were but few (at least)
To rue the fatall ruine of the rest:
For th'Vncle and the Nephew never lin,
Till out of Canaan they haue chac't them clean:

Simile.

Like to a Cast of Falcons that pursue
A flight of Pidgeons through the welkin blew;
Stooping at this and that, that to their Louver,
(To saue their liues) they hardly can recover.

The Kings of Canaan receiued Abraham and his cōpany with great ioy & the gratefull offer of their homage vnto him.

At his return from Fight, the Kings and Lords
Of Palestine, with glad and humble words,
Do welcom Abram, and refresh his Troop;
To 's knees their heads, to 's feet their knees they stoop:
O valiant Victor! for thy high deserts,
Accept the homage of our humble hearts.
Accept our gratefull zeal: or, if ought more
(As well thou mayst) thou dost expect therefore,
Accept (said they) our Lands, our goods, our golde,
Our wiues, our liues, and what we deerest holde:
Take all we haue; for all we haue is thine:
No wrong to vs, to take thy Valours Fine.

Melchisedech blesseth Abraham.

Melchisedec, Gods sacred Minister,
And King of Salem, coms to greet him there,
Blessing his bliss, and thus with zealous cry
Devoutly pearç't Heav'ns starfull Canopey.
Blest be the Lord, that with his hand doth roule
The radiant Orbs that turn about the Pole;

323

And rules the Actions of all Humane-kinde
With full command; and with one blast of winde
Razes the Rocks, and rends the proudest Hils,
Dries-vp the Ocean, and the Empty fils:
Blest be the great God of great Abraham:
From Age to Age extolled be his Name:
Let every Place vnto him Altars build,
And every Altar with his Praise be fill'd,
And every Praise above the Welkin ring
As loud or louder then the Angels sing:
Blessed be He that by an Arm-less crew
Of Art-less Shepheards did so quick subdue
And tame the Tamers of Great Syria so;
And to the servants of an exil'd Foe
Hath given the Riches and the royall store
(Both of their Booty and their Owne before)
Of such an Hoast of Nations that first see
Sol's early rising from Aurora's knee.

But Abraham, to prove that not for Prey,

Abraham distributes the booty, reseruing only a portion for the Amorites that were his cōfederates.

He put-on arms,, divides the Spoyls away:
The Tythe's the Priests: the Rest of all the things
(Yerst lost in field) he renders to the Kings,
Save but the Portion He participates
To th'Amorites, his stout Confederates:
Shewing himselfe a Prince as Politicke
Prudent and iust, as stout and Souldier-like,
That with his Prowess Policy can mel,
And Conquering, can vse his Conquest well,
Magnanimous in deeds, in words as meek,
That scorning Riches, true Renown doth seek.

So, from the Sea, even to th'Euphratean-source,

He is famous far and neer.

And even from Dan, to Nilus crystall course,
Rings his renown: Of him is all the speech,
At home, abroad; among the poor and rich,
In war and peace: the Fame of his high deeds
Confirms the Faithfull in their fainting Creeds;
And terrifies the Tyrant Infidels,
Shaking the sides of their proud Citadels,
That with their fronts the seat of Iove do scorn,
And with their feet at Pluto's crown do spurn.

Voice, Harp, and Timbrel sound his praise together,
Hee's held a Prophet or an Angel rather,
They say that God talks with him face to face,
Hoasts at his house, and to his happy Race
Gives in Fee-simple all that goodly Land
Even from the Sea, as far as Tigris strand.

And it is certain, the Thrice-sacred-One,

God appears vnto him, and maketh covenant with him.

The King of Kings, by Dream or Vision,

324

Speaks with him oft; and cals him thus by name:
Faint not my servant, fear not Abraham;
I am no fiend that with a fained lip
Seek guilefully thy simpleness to trip,
Nor to intice thee (with a baen-full breath)
To bite (like Adam) a new fruit of death:
'Tis I, that brought thee from thy Natiue Var,
From night to day, from death to life (thus far)
I brought thee hither, I haue blest thee heer,
I with thy flocks haue covered far and neer
Canaan's fat Hils; I haue preserv'd thy Wife
From strangers lust, and thee from Tyrants knife,
When thy faint heart, and thy false tongue, affray'd
To tell the Truth, her and thy selfe betray'd:
'Tis I, that haue so oft from Heathens powr
Preserv'd thy person; and (as Conquerour)
Now made thee Triumph over th'Eastern Kings
(Whereof so far thy famous Valour rings):
I am (in briefe) I am the Lord thy God,
Thy help at home, thy Guide and Guard abroad.
Keep thou my Covenant: and (to signifie,
That to the World thou dy'st, to liue to Mee)

Circumcision instituted.

Go Circumcise forth-with thy Selfe and Thine,
Lead holy Life, walke in my Wayes divine
With vpright-foot: so shall my favour hant
Thy House and thee, and thou shalt nothing want:
No, I will make thee Lord of all the Land

Canaan promised to Abraham.

Which Canaans Children haue with mighty hand
So long possest; a happy Land that flowes
With milk and hony: a rich Land where growes
(Even of it selfe) all kinde of Fruit and Corn,
Where smiling Heav'ns pour-down their Plenties-horn:
I'l heap thee there with Honour, Wealth, and Powr,
I will be thy Reward, thy Shield, and Towr.

O Lord (said Abram) though into my lap
In showrs of Gold ev'n all the Heav'ns should drop,
What booted all, to me that am alone?
Alas! my Lord, I haue enough, for one
That hath no issue after to inherit,
But my good servant Eleazar's merit.

Not so, my Son (replies th'Omnipotent)
Mistake not so my bountifull intent;
I'l not disparage to a Servants Fee
The rich estate, and royall Dignity
That in my People shall hereafter shine:
No, no (mine Abram) even a stock of thine,
Thine own deer Nephews, even thy proper Seed
Shall be thine Heirs, and in thy state succeed.

325

Yea, thine own Son's immortal-mortall Race
Shall holde in gage the treasures of my Grace.

The Patriarch, then rapt with sudden Ioy,
Made answer thus: Lives then my wandring Boy?
Lives Ismael? is Ismael alive?
O happy news! (Lord let him ever thrive)
And shall his Seed succeed so eminent?
Ah! let me die then: then I die content.

Ismael indeed doth live (the Lord replies)
And lives, to father mighty Progenies:
For, from the Day when first his Mother (flying
Thy iealous Sara's curst and threatfull crying)
To the dry Desarts sandy horror hy'd,
I have for both been carefull to provide;
Their extream Thirst due-timely to refresh,
Conducting them vnto a Fountain fresh,
In liquid Crystall of whose Mayden spowt
Bird never dipt her bill, nor Beast his snowt.
And if I err not (but, I cannot err:
For, what is hid from Hearts-Artificer?
What can the sight of the Sight-maker dim)?
Another Exile yet attendeth him,
Wher-in he shall (in season) feel and finde,
How much to him I will be good and kinde.
He shall growe Great, yet shall his rest be small;
All shall make war on him, and He on all:
Through Corslets, Rivets, Iacks, and Shirts of Mail,

Ismaels mightinesse.

His shaft shall thrill the Foes that him assail:
A swift Hart's heart he shall (even running) hit:
A Sparrows head he shall (even flying) split:
And in the ayr shall make the Swallow cease
His sweet-sweet note, and slicing nimbleness.

Yea (O Saints-Firstling) onely for thy sake,
Twelue mighty Princes will I shortly make
Spring from his Loigns, whose fruitfull seed shall sway
Even vnto Sur from golden Havila.

Yet, 'tis not He, with whom I mean to knit
Mine inward Covenant; th'outward seal of it
Ismael may bear, but not the efficace
(Thy Son, but after flesh, not after Grace).
But to declare that vnder Heav'ns Frame,
I holde nought deerer then mine Abraham,
I'l open Sara's dry and barren womb,
From whence thine Isaac (Earths delight) shall com,

Isaac promised.

To glad the World; a Son that shall (like thee)
Support the Faith, and prop her Family.

Com from thy Tent, com forth and heer contemple
The golden Wonders of my Throne and Temple,

326

Number the Stars, measure their bigness bright,
With fixed ey gaze on their twinkling Light,
Exactly mark their ordered Courses, driven
In radiant Coaches through the Lists of Heav'n:
Then may'st thou also number thine own Seed,
And comprehend their Faith, and plainly reade
Their noble acts, and of their Publike-State
Draw an Idea in thine own conceit.

In him the Couenant ratified.

This, This is He, to and with whom I grant
Th'eternall Charter of my Covenant.
Which if he truly keep, vpon his Race
I'l pour an Ocean of my plentious Grace:
I'l not alone giue him the Fields heer seen,
But even from India all that flowreth green
To th'vtmost Ocean's vtmost sand and shelfe;
I'l giue him Heav'n, I'l giue him even my Selfe.

Of his ligne shall come Christ the Redeemer.

Hence, hence, the High and mighty Prince shall spring,
Sin's, Death's, and Hell's eternall taming King,
The sacred Founder of Man's soveraign Bliss,
World's peace, world's ransom, and World's righteousness.

Th'Eternall seem'd then towards Heav'n to hie,
Th'olde-man to follow him with a greedy eye,
The sudden dis-appearing of the Lord,
Seem'd like to Powder fired on a boord,
When smokingly it mounts in sudden slash,
With little flame, giving a little clash.

Prosperity pIungeth the Sodomites in all manner of abhominations.

Plenty and Pleasure had o'r-whelm'd the while
Sodom and Gomor in all Vices vile:
So that, already the most ruth-less Rape
Of tender Virgins of the rarest shape,
Th'Adulterous kiss (which Wedlocks bands vnbindes)
Th'Incestuous Bed, confounding Kindreds kindes
(Where Father wooes the Daughter, Sister Brother,
Th'Vncle the Niece, and even the Son the Mother)
They did not hate, nor (as they ought) abhor,
But rather scorn'd, as sports they car'd not for.

Forbear (deer Younglings) pray a-while forbear,
Stand farther from me, or else stop your ear,
At th'obscœne sound of th'vnbeseeming words
Which to my Muse this odious place affords:
Or, if it's horror cannot drive you hence,
Hearing their Sin, pray hear their Punishments.

These beastly Men (rather these man-like Beasts)
Could not be fill'd with Venvs vulgar Feasts;
Fair Nature could not furnish their Desire;

Their most execrable sin.

Som monstrous mess these Monsters did require:
An execrable flame inflam'd their harts,
Prodigiously they play'd the Womens parts:

327

Male hunted Male; and acted, openly,
Their furious Lusts in fruitless Venery.

Therefore, to purge Vlcers so pestilent,
Two heav'nly Scowts the Lord to Sodom sent;

2. Angels sentdown, receiued and guested by Lot.

Whom (deeming Mortals) Lot importunates
To take his Lodging and to taste his Cates.
For, Angels, being meer Intelligences,
Haue (properly) no Bodies nor no senses:
But (sacred Legats of the Holy-One)

Of the nature and essence of Angels.

To treat with vs, they put our Nature on;
And take a body fit to exercise
The Charge they have, which runs, and feeds, and flies;
Dures during their Commission; and, that past,
Turns t'Elements whence first it was amasst.
A simple Spirit (the glittering Childe of Light)
Vnto a bodie doth not so vnite,
As to the Matter Form incorporates:
But, for a season it accomodates,
As to his Tool the quaint Artificer,
(That at his pleasure makes the same to stir)
Yet in such sort that th'instrument (we see)
Holdes much of him that moves it actively.

But alwaies in som place are Angels: though
Not as all filling (God alone is so,
The spirit which all good spirits in spirit adore,
In all, on all, with-out all, evermore):
Nor as inviron'd (That alone agrees
To bodies bounded with extreamities
Of the next substance; and whose superfice
Vnto their place proportionable is):
But rather, as sole selfly limited,
And ioyn'd to place, yet not as quantiti'd;
But by the touch of their liue efficace,
Containing Bodies which they seeem t'embrace:
So, visibly those bodies move, and oft
By word of Mouth bring arrands from aloft,
And eat with vs; but, not for sustentation,
Nor naturally, but by meer dispensation.

Such were the sacred Guests of this good Prince:
Such, curteous Abraham feasted in his Tents,
When, seeing three, he did adore but one,
Which, comming down from the celestiall Throne,
Fore-told the sad and sudden Tragedy,
Of these loose Cities, for their Luxury.

You that your Purse do shut, and doors do bar

Exhortation to Hospitality.

Against the colde, faint, hungry Passenger,
You little think that all our life and Age
Is but an Exile and a Pilgrimage:

328

And that in earth whoso hath never given
Harbour to Strangers, shall have none in Heaven,
Where solemn Nuptials of the Lamb are held;
Where Angels bright and Soules that haue exceld,
All clad in white, sing th'Epithalamie,
Carowsing Nectar of Eternitie.

The Iust-full Sodomites, inflamed with the beauty of the Angels, mutiny against Lot for harboring them.

Sans Hospitality, the Pilgrim poor
For Bed-fellow might haue a Woolf or Boar:
What e'r is given the Strange and Needy one,
Is not a gift (indeed) but 't is a Loan,
A Loan to God, who payes with interest;
And (even in this life) guerdons even the least.
For, alms (like levain) make our goods to rise,
And God his owne with blessings plentifies.

O Hosts, what knowe you, whether (charitable)
When you suppose to feast men at your Table,
You guest Gods Angels in Mens habit hid,
(Heav'n-Citizens) as this good Hebrew did?
Who supped them: and when the time grew meet
To go to bed, he heard amid the street
A wrangling iangling, and a murmur rude,
Which great, grew greater through Nights solitude.

For, those that first these two bright Stars survay'd,
Wilde Stalion-like, after their beauties naigh'd;
But, seeing them by the chaste Stranger sav'd,
Shame-less and sense-less vp and down they rav'd,
From House to House knocking at every dore,
And beastly-brute, thus, thus they rail and rore;

Brethren, shall we endure this Fugitive,
This Stranger Lot, our pleasures to deprive?
O Cowardise! to suffer in our sights
An exile heer t'vsurp our choise delights,
T'embrace a brace of Youths so beautious
(Rather two Gods com-down from Heaven to vs)?
Shall it be said that such an olde colde stock
Such rare yong Minions in his bed should mock:
While wretched we, vnto our selves make mone,
And (Widow-like) wear out our sheets alone?
Let's rather break his doors, and make him knowe,
Such dainty morsels hang not for his Mowe.

Simile.

Even as at Bathe, down from the neighbour hils,
After a Snowe, the melting Crystall trils
Into the Avon (when the Pythian Knights
Strips those steep Mountains of their shirts so white)
Through hundred Valleis gushing Brooks and Torrents,
Striving for swiftness in their sundry Currents,
Cutting deep Chanels where they chance to run,
And never rest till all do meet in one:

329

So, at their cry, from every corner throng
Vnto Lot's house, Men, Children; olde, and yong.
For, common was this execrable sin:
With blear-ey'd Age, as nusled long therein;
With Youth, through rage of lust; with Infancy,
Example-led: all through Impunity.
And thus, they all cry out; Ope, ope the dore,
Com, open quickly, and delay no more:
Let-forth that lovely Payr, that they may prove
With vs the pleasures of Male-mingled love.

Lot lowely then replies: Brethren and Friends,

Lot speaks thē fair, & intreats them earnestly for the safety of his guests.

By all the names that amity commends,
By Nature's Rules, and Rights of Hospitality,
By sacred Laws and lessons of Morality,
By all respects of our com-Burgership
(Which should our mindes in mutuall kindness keep)
I do adiure you all, that you refrain
The honour of my harm-less guests to stain,
Nor in your hearts to harbour such a thought
Whereby their Vertues may be wrongd in ought.

Base busie Stranger, com'st thou hither, thus

Their insolent reply.

(Controller-like) to prate and preach to Vs?
No (Puritan) thou shalt not heer do so:
Therefore dispatch and let thy darlings go;
Let-forth that lovely Payr, that they may prove
With vs the pleasures of Male-mingled love.

The horror of this sin, their stubborn rage,
His sacred promise given his Guests for gage,
Th'olde Hebrew's minde so trouble and dismay,
That well he wots not what to do nor say.
For, though we ought not (if Gods Word be true)
Do any evill that good may ensue:
To shun one ill, another ill he suffers,
He prostitutes his Issue; and he offers,

He offers them his own daughters to rescue his Guests.

Lambs to the guard of Wolues: and thus he cries,
I have (with that, the tears ran-down his eyes)
I have two daughters that be Virgins both;
Go, take them to you (yet alas full loth)
Go, crop the first-fruits to their Bride-grooms due
(O! death to think it): But let none of you
Abuse my chaste Guests with such villany
As merits Fire from Heav'n immediately;
A Sin so odious, that the Name alone
Good men abhor, yea even to think vpon.

Tush: we are glutted with all granted loves,

Their monstrous impudencie.

And common Pleasures nought our pleasure moves:
Lot, our delights (ty'd to no law's conformity)
Consist not in the pleasure, but th'enormity,

330

Which fools abhor: and, saying so they rush,
Som vpon Lot, som at his gates do push.

O cursed City! where the aged Sire,
Vn-able thus to doe, doth thus desire;
And Younglings, yet scarce weaned from their Nurse,
Strive with their Elders whether shall be worse;
Full is the measure of thy monstrous sin:
Thy Canker now o'r all thy bulk hath bin.

Impudence in sinning, doubles the guilt of sin.

God hates all sin: but, extream Impudence
Is even a greater sin than the Offence:
The sweet kinde Kisses of chaste Man and Wife
Although they seem by God and Nature (rife)
Rather commanded then allow'd, and graç't
In their sweet fruits (their issue choicely-chaste)
With Law's large priviledge; yet evermore
(As Modestie and Honestie implore)
Ought to be private, and (as things forbidden
Vnto the sight) with Night's black curten hidden.

Yet, these foul Monsters, in the open street
Where altogether all the Town might see't,
Most impudent, dare perpetrate a sin
Which Hell it selfe before had never seen;
A sin so odious, that the fame of it
Will fright the damned in the darksom Pit.

Before their fearfull destruction, the Angels bring Lot and his family safe out of the Citie.

But now, the Angels, their celestiall kinde
Vn-able longer to conceal, strook blinde
Those beastly Letchers, and brought safe away
Lot and his houshold by the break of day.
But, O prodigious! never rose the Sun
More beautifull, nor brighter shin'd-vpon
All other places (for he rose betimes
To see such Execution on such Crimes):
And yet, it lowrs, it lightens, and it thunders,
It rores, it rains (O most vnwonted wonders!)
Vpon this Land, which 'gainst th'Omnipotent
Had warr'd so long with sins so insolent:
And 'gainst the pride of those detested livers,
Heav'n seems to empty all his wrathfull Quivers.
From Acheron, even all the Furies hie,
And all their Monsters them accompany,
With all their tortures and their dismall terrors,
And all their Chaos of confused Horrors;
All on the the guilty strand of Iordan storm,
And with their Fire-brands all to Sodom swarm,
As thick as Crowes in hungry shoals do light

Simile.

On new-sowen lands; where stalking bold vpright,
As black as Iet they iet about, and feed
On Wheat, or Rye, or other kinde of seed;

331

Kaaking so loud, that hardly can the Steer
The whistling Goad-man's guiding language hear.

It rain'd indeed; but, not such fertile rain
As makes the Corn in Sommer sprout amain;

The manner of their punishmēt by fire & brimstone from Heauen, & the reason thereof.

And all things freshed with a pleasant ayr,
To thrive, and prove more lively, strong and fair:
But in this sink of Sin, this stinking Hell,
A rain of Salt, of Fire and Brimston, fell.
Salt did consume the pleasant fruitfulness,
Which serv'd for fewell to their Wantonness:
Fire punished their beastly Fire within:
And Brimstone's stink the stench of their foul Sin.
So, as their Sin was singular (of right)
Their Punishment was also exquisite:
Heer, open Flames, and there yet hidden Fires
Burn all to ashes, sparing neither Spires
Of Brick nor Stone, nor Columns, Gates, nor Arches,
Nor Bowrs, nor Towrs, nor even their neighbour-Marches.

In vain the-while the People weep and cry,

The same most liuely represented.

To see their wrack and know no remedy:
For, now the Flame in richest Roofs begun,
From molten gutters scalding Lead doth run,
The Slats and Tyles about their ears do split,
The burning Rafters Pitch and Rosin spet:
The whirling Fire re-mounteth to the Skie,
About the fields ten thousand sparks do flie;
Half-burned houses fall with hideous fray,
And Vvlcan makes Mid-night as bright as Day:
Heaven flings down nought but flashing Thunder-shot,
Th'Air's all a-fire, Earth's exhalations hot
Are spewing Ætna's that to Heaven aspire:
All th'Elements (in briefe) are turn'd to fire.

Heer, one perceiving the next Chamber burning,
With sudden leap towards the window turning,
Thinks to cry Fire: but instantly the smoke
And Flame with-out, his with-in Voyce do choke,
Another sooner feels then sees the Fire.
For, while (O horror!) in the stinking mire
Of his foul Lust he lies, a Lightning flash
Him and his Love at-once to dust doth dash:
Th'abhorred Bed is burnt; and they, aswell
Coupled in Plague as Sin, are sent to Hell.
Another yet on tops of Houses crawls:
But, his foot slips, and down at last he fals.
Another feeling all his cloathes a-fire,
Thinking to quench them yer it should com nigher,
Leaps in a Lake: but all the Lake began
To boyl and bubble like a seething Pan,

Simile.

332

Or like a Chaldron that top-full of Oyl,
Environ'd round with fume and flame doth boyl,
To boyl to death som cunning counterfait
That with falfe stamp som Princes Coyn hath beat.
Another, seeing the Citie all in Cinders,
Himselfe for safety to the fields he renders:
But flakes of fire, from Heav'n distilling thick,
There th'horror of a thousand Deaths do strike.

Through Adamah's and Gomor's goodly Plains,
Sodom and Seboim not a soule remains:
Horse, Sheep, and Oxen, Cows and Kids partake
In this revenge, for their vile Masters sake.

Thus hath the hand of the Omnipotent
Inroll'd the Deed of their drad Punishment,
With Diamantin Pen, on Plates of Brass,
With such an Ink as nothing can deface:
The moulten Marble of these cindred Hils,
Asphaltis Lake, and these poor mock-fruit Fields
Keep the Record; and cry through every Age,
How God detesteth such detested rage.

O chastisement most dradly-wonderfull!
Th'Heav'n-cindred Cities a broad standing Pool
O'r-flowes (yet flowes not) whose infectious breath
Corrupts the Ayr, and Earth dis-fertileth:
A Lake, whose back, whose belly, and whose shoar,
Nor Bark, nor Fish, nor Fowl hath ever bore.
The pleasant Soyl that did (even) shame yer-while
The plentious beauties of the banks of Nile,
Now scarr'd, and collowed, with his face and head
Cover'd with ashes, is all dry'd and dead;
Voyd of all force, vitall, or vegetive;
Vpon whose brest nothing can live or thrive:
For, nought it bears save an abortive suit
Of seeming-fair, false, vain, and fained fruit,
A fruit that feeds the ey, and fils the hand,
But to the stomach in no steed doth stand;
For, even before it touch the tender lips
Or Ivory teeth, in empty smoak it slips,
So vanishing: onely the nose receives
A noysom savour, that (behinde) it leaves.

Exhortation to Trauailers that haue seen, & to others that shall reade or heare these fearfull monuments of Gods seuere Instice, to make right vse of this fearfull Example.

Heer, I adjure you vent'rous Trauailours,
That visit th'horror of these cursed shoars,
And taste the venom of these stinking streams,
And touch the vain fruit of these withered stems:
And also you that do beholde them thus
In these sad Verses portray'd heer by vs,
To tremble all, and with your pearly tears
To showr another Sea; and that your hairs

333

Staring vpright on your affrighted head
Heave-vp your Hats; and, in your dismall dread,
To think, you hear like Sulph'ry Storms to strike
On our new Monsters for Offences like.

For, the Almighties drad all-danting arm
Not only strikes such as with Sodom swarm
In these foul Sins; but such as sigh or pity
Sodoms destruction, or so damn'd a Citie,
And cannot constant with dry eyes observe
God's iudgements iust on such as such deserve.

Lot hies to Segor: but his wife behinde

Lots wife Metamorphosed.

Lagged in body, but much more in minde:
She weeps and wails (O lamentable terror!
O impious Piety! O kinde-cruell error!)
The dire destruction of the smoking Cities,
Her Sons-in-Law (which should haue been) she pities,
Grieves so to leave her goods, and she laments
To lose her Iewels and habilliments:
And (contrary to th'Angels Words precise)
Towards the Town she turns her wofull eyes.

But instantly, turn'd to a whitely stone,
Her feet (alas!) fast to the ground be growne.
The more she stirs, she sticks the faster in:
As silly Bird caught in a subtill gin,
Set by som Shepheard neer the Copses side,

Simile.

The more it struggles is the faster ty'd.
And, as the venom of an eating Canker

Simile.

From flesh to flesh runs every day the ranker,
And never rests, vntill from foot to head
O'r all the Body his fell poyson spread:
This Ice creeps-vp, and ceaseth not to num,
Till even the marrow hard as bones becom,
The brain be like the scull, and blood convert
To Alablaster over every part;
Her Pulse doth cease to beat, and in the ayr
The windes no more can wave her scattered hayr:
Her belly is no belly, but a Quar
Of Cardon Rocks, and all her bowels are
A pretious Salt-Mine, supernaturall;
Such, as (but Salt) I wot not what to call;
A Salt, which (seeming to be fall'n from Heav'n)
To curious Spirits hath long this Lesson given,
Not to presume in Divine things to pry,
Which seav'n-times seal'd, vnder nine Locks do lie.
She weeps (alas!) and as she weeps, her tears
Turn in to Pearls fro'rn on her thinkling hairs;
Fain would she speak: but (forced to conceal)
In her cold throat her guilty words congeal;

334

Her mouth yet open, and her arms a-cross,
Though dumb, declare both why and how she was
Thus Metamorphos'd: for, Heav'n did not change
Her last sad gestures in her sudden Change.

No gorgeous Mausole, grac't with flattering verse,
Eternizeth her Trunk, her House, and Herse;
But, to this Day (strange will it seem to som)
One and the same is both the Corps and Tomb.

Almighty Father! Gracious God and Iust!

Mans proneness to fall, without the support of Gods gracious fauour.

O! what hard heartedness, what brutish Lust,
Pursueth man, if thou but turn thy face,
And take but from vs thy preventing grace;
And, if provoked for our past offences,
Thou give vs vp to our Concupiscences?

O Harran's Nieces, you (Lots daughters) saw
Sodom consumed in that Sulphry flaw:
Their Hils and Forrests calcined (in fine)
Their liberall fields sowen with a burning brine,
Their stately houses like a coal-pit smoaking,
The Sun it selfe with their thick vapours choking:
So that within a yard for stinking smother
The Labourers could hardly knowe each other;
Their flowring Valley to a Fen exchang'd:
And your own Mother to a Salt-stone chang'd:
Yet all (alas!) these famous Monuments
Of the iust rigour of God's Punishments
Cannot deterr you: but even Sodom-like
Incestuously a holy-man you seek;
Even your owne Father, whom with wine you fill;
And then by turns intice him to your will:

Lot drawn by his Daughters, in drunkeness to commit Incest with both of them.

Conceiving so (O can heav'n suffer it!)
Even of that seed which did your selues beget:
Within your wombs you bear for nine months time
Th'vpbraiding burden of your shame-less Crime:
And troubling Kindred's names and Nature quight,
You both becom, even in one very Night,
Wiues to your Fathers, Sisters to your Sons,
And Mothers to your Brothers all at once;
All vnder colour, that thus living sole,
Sequestred thus in an vnhanted hole,
Heav'ns enuy should all Adam's race have reft,
And Lot alone should in the World be left.

Had't not been better, never to have bred,
Than t'have conceived in so foul a bed?
Had't not been better never t'have been Mothers,
Than by your Father, to have born your Brothers?
Had't not been better to the death to hate,
Then thus t'have lov'd him that you both begate?

335

Him, so much yours, that yours he mought not be?
Sith of these Rocks God could immediatly
Have rais'd Lot Son-in-lawes; or, striking but
Th'Earths solid bosom with his brazen foot,
Out of the dust haue reared sudden swarms
Of People, stay'd in Peace, and stout in Arms.

FINIS.

336

2. The Fathers.

A PART OF THE II PART OF THE III. DAY OF THE II. WEEK.

The Argvment.

The famous Father of the Faithfull, heer
Limn'd to the life, in strife of Faith and Fear:
His Sonn's sweet nature, and his nurture such,
Endeer his Triall with a neerer Touch:
Keason's best Reasons are by Faith refell'd;
With God, th'Affection, for the Action held;
So, counter-manding His command (atchiev'd)
The Sire's approved, and the Son repriev'd.
Heer (had our Author liv'd, to end his Works)
Should have ensu'd the other Patriarchs.

O! 'Tis a Heav'nly and a happy turn,
Of godly Parents to be timely born:
To be brought-vp vnder the watchfull eyn
Of milde-sharp Masters awfull Discipline:
Chiefly, to be (even from the very first)
With the pure milk of true Religion nurst.

Such hap had Isaac: but his Inclination
Exceeds his Birth, excels his Education.
His Faith, his Wit, Knowledge, and Iudgement sage,
Out-stripping Time, anticipate his age.
For (yet a Childe) he fears th'Eternall Lord,
And wisely waits all on his Fathers word;
Whose steady steps so duly he observes,
That every look, him for a lesson serves:
And every gesture, every wink and beck,
For a command, a warning and a check:

337

So that, his toward Diligence out-went
His fathers hopes and holy document.

Now, though that Abram were a man discreet,
Sober and wise, well knowing what is meet;
Though his dear Son somtimes he seem to chide,
Yet hardly can he his affection hide:
For, evermore his love-betraying ey
On's darling Isaac glanceth tenderly:
Sweet Isaac's face seems as his Glass it were,
And Isaac's name is musick in his ear.

But God, perceiving this deep-settled Love,
Thence takes occasion Abrams Faith to prove;
And tempteth him: but not as doth the Divell
His Vassals tempt (or Man his Mate) to evill:
Satan still draws vs to Deaths dismall Path;
But God directs where Death no entry hath:
Ay Satan aims our constant Faith to foil;
But God doth seal it, never to recoil:
Satan suggesteth ill; God moves to grace:
The Divell seeks our Baptisme to deface;
But God, to make our burning Zeal to beam
The brighter ay in his Ierusalem.

A Prince, that means effectuall proof to make

Simile.

Of som Mans faith that he doth newly take,
Examins strictly, and with much a-doo,
His Words and Deeds, and every gesture too;
And, as without, within as well to spy-him,
Doth carefully by all means sift and try-him.

But God ne'r seeks by Triall of Temptation
To sound Mans heart and secret cogitation
(For, well he knowes Man, and his ey doth see
All thoughts of men yer they conceived be):
But this is still his high and holy drift,
When through temptation he his Saints doth sift,
To leave for pattern to his Churches seed
Their stedfast Faith, and never-daunted Creed.

Yet, out of season God doth never try
His new-converted Children, by and by:
Such novices would quickly faint and shrink:
Such ill-rigg'd ships would even in lanching sink:
Their Faiths light blossoms would with every blast
Be blown away, and bear no fruit at last:
Against so boistrous stroaks they want a shield:
Vnder such weight their feeble strength would yield.
But when his Words dear seed, that he hath sowen
Within their hearts, is rooted well and growen:
And when they have a broad thick Breast-plate on,
High peril-proof against affliction:

338

Such as our Abram: Who, now waxen strong
Through exercise of many trials long,
Of faith, of love, of fortitude and right.
Who, by long weary wandrings day and night,
By often Terrors, Lots Imprisonment,
His Wifes twice taking, Ismaels banishment,
Being made invincible for all assaults
Of Heav'n and Earth, and the infernall Vaults;
Is tempted by the Voice which made all things,
Which sceptreth Shepheards, and vn-crowneth Kings.

Invocation.

Give me a voice, now, O Voice all divine!
With sacred fire inflame this breast of mine:
Ah! ravish me, make all this Vniverse
Admire thine Abram pourtraid in my Verse.

Mine Abram, said the Lord dear Abraham,
Thy God, thy King, thy Fee, thy Fence I am:
Hy straight to Salem, and there quickly kill
Thine own Son Isaac; on that sacred Hill
Heaw him in peeces, and commit the same
In sacrifice vnto the ragefull Flame.

Simile.

As he, that slumbering on his carefull Bed,
Seems to discern som Fancy full of dread,
Shrinks down himself, and fearfull hides his face,
And scant draws breath in half an howers space:
So Abraham at these sharp-sounding words
(Which wound him deeper than a thousand swords)
Seized at once with wonder, grief and fright,
Is well-nigh sunk in Deaths eternall night;
Death's ash-pale Image in his eyes doth swim,
A chilling Ice shivers through every lim,
Flat on the ground himself he groveling throwes,
A hundred times his colour coms and goes,
From all his body a cold deaw doth drop,
His speech doth fail, and every sense doth stop.

But, self-return'd, two sounding sobs he cast,
Then two deep sighes, then these sad words at last:
Cruell command, quoth He, that I should kill
A tender Infant, innocent of ill:
That in cold blood I (barbarously) should murder
My (fear-less, fault-less) faithfull Friend; nay (further)
Mine own dear Son: and what dear Son? Alas!
Mine onely Isaac (whose sweet vertues pass
The lovely sweetnes of his angel-face)
Isaac, sole Pattern of now-Vertue knowen;
Isaac, in yeers yong, but in wisdom growen;
Isaac, whom good men love, the rest envy:
Isaac, my hearts heart, my lifes life, must dy.
That I should stain an execrable Shrine
With Isaac's warm blood, issued out of mine.

339

O! might mine serve, 't were tolerable loss,
'T were little hurt; nay, 't were a welcom cross.
I bear no longer fruit: the best of Mee
Is like a fruit-less, branch-less, sap-less Tree,
Or hollow Trunk, which onely serves for staies
To crawling Ivie's weak and winding spraies.
But, losing Isaac, I not onely leese
My life withall (which Heav'ns have linkt to his)
But (O!) more millions of Babes yet vn-bore,
Than there be sands vpon the Lybian shoar.

Canst thou, mine Arm? O! canst thou, cruell Arm;
In Isaac's breast thy bloody weapon warm?
Alas! I could not but even dy for grief,
Should I but yield mine Ages sweet relief
(My bliss, my comfort, and mine eys delight)
Into the hands of Hang-mens spare-less spight:
But, that mine own self (O extreamest Rigour!)
What my self formed, should, my self, dis-figure:
That I (alas!) with bloody hand and knife,
Should rip his bosom, rend his heart and life:
That (odious Author of a Precedent
So rarely ruth-less) I should once present,
Vpon a sacred Altar, an Oblation
So barbarous (O brute abomination!)
That I should broil his flesh, and in the flame
Behould his bowels crackling in the same;
'Tis horrible to think, and hellish too,
Cruell to wish, impossible to doo.

Doo't he that lists, and that delights in blood:
I neither will, nor can becom so wood,
T'obey in this: God, whom we take to be
Th'eternall Pillar of all verity,
And constant faith; will he be faith-less now?
Will he be false, and from his promise bow?
Will he (alas!) vndoo what he hath don,
Mar what he makes, and lose what he hath won?
Sail with each winde? and shall his promise, then,
Serve but for snares t'intrap sincerest men?

Somtimes, by his eternall self he swears,
That my Son Isaac's number-passing Heirs
Shall fill the Land, and that his fruitfull Race
Shall be the blessed levain of his Grace;
Now he commands me his dear life to spill,
And in the Cradle my health's Hope to kill,
To drown the whole World in the blood of him;
And at one stroak, vpon his fruitfull stem,
To strike-off all the heads of all the flock
That should heerafter his drad Name invoke,

340

His sacred nostrils with sweet smels delight,
His ears with praises, with good deeds his sight.
Will God impugn himself? and will he so
By his command his Covenant overthrowe?
And shall my faith my faith's confounder be?
Then faith, or doubting, are both one to me.

Alas! what saist thou, Abram? pawse thou must.
He that revives the Phœnix from her dust,
And from dead Silk-worms Toombs (their shining Clews)
A living bird with painted wings renews;
Will he forget Isaac, the onely stock
Of his chaste Spouse (his Church and chosen Flock)?
Will he forget Isaac, the onely Light
Of all the World, for Vertues lustre bright?
Or, can he not (if't please him) even in death
Restore him life, and re-inspire him breath?

But mark, the while thou bringest for defence
The All-proof Towr of his Omnipotence,
Thou shak'st his Iustice. This is certain (too)
God can doo all, save that he will not doo.
He loves none ill: for, when the wreakfull Waves
Were all return'd into their wonted Caves;
When all the Meads, and every fruitfull Plain,
Began (with ioy) to see the Sun again;
So soon as Noah (with a gladsom heart)
Forth of his floating Prison did depart,
God did forbid Murder: and nothing more
Then Murder, doth his Maiesty abhor.

But (shallow man) sound not the vast Abyss
Of God's deep Iudgements, where no ground ther is:
Be sober-wise: so, bound thy frail desire:
And, what thou canst not comprehend, admire.
God our Lawmaker (iust and righteous)
Maketh his Laws, not for himself, but vs:
He frees himself; and flees with his Powrs wing,
No where, but where his holy will doth bring:
All that he doth is good: but not therefore
Must he needs doo it 'cause 't was good before:
But good is good, because it doth (indeed)
From him (the Root of perfect good) proceed:
From him, the Fountain of pure Righteousnes:
From him, whose goodnes nothing can express.

Ah, profane thoughts! O wretch! and think'st thou then
That God delights to drink the blood of men?
That he intends by such a strange impiety
To plant his service? You, you forged deity
Of Molech, Milchom, Camosh, Astaroth,
Your damned shrines with such dire Orgies blot:

341

You Tyrants, you delight in Sacrifice
Of slaughtered Children: 't is your bloody guise
(You cruell Idols) with such Hecatombs
To glut the rage of your outrageous dooms:
You hould no sent so sweet, no gift so good,
As streaming Rivers of our luke-warm blood:
Not Abram's God (ay gracious, holy, kinde)
Who made the World but onely for Mankinde:
Who hates the bloody hands; his Creatures loves;
And contrite hearts for sacrifice approves.
You, you, disguiz'd (as angels of the light)
Would make my God Author of this despight,
Supplant my Faith on his sure promise built,
And stain his Altars with this bloody guilt.

No, no, my Ioy, my Boy thrice-happy born
(Yea, more then so, if furious I, forlorn,
Hurt not thy Hap) a Father shalt thou be
Of happy People that shall spring from thee.
Fear not (dear Childe) that I, vnnaturall,
Should in thy blood imbrue my hand at all:
Or by th'exploit of such detested deed
Commend my name to them that shall succeed.
I will, the Fame that of my name shall ring
In time to com, shall flee with fairer wing.

The lofty Pine, that's shaken to and fro

Simile.

With Counter-pufs of sundry windes that blowe,
Now, swaying South-wards, tears som root in twain,
Then, bending North-wards, doth another strain,
Reels vp and down, tost by two Tyrants fell,
Would fall, but cannot; neither yet can tell
(Inconstant Neuter, that to both doth yield)
Which of the two is like to win the Field:
So Abraham, on each side set-vpon
Betwixt his Faith and his Affection;
One while his Faith, anon Affection swaies:
Now wins Religion, anon Reason waighs:
Hee's now a fond, and then a faithfull, Father:
Now resolute, anon relenting rather.
One while the Flesh hath got the vpper hand:
Anon the Spirit the same doth countermand.
Hee's loth (alas!) his tender Son to kill;
But much more loth to break His Fathers will.
For thus (at last) He saith, now sure I knowe,
'T is God, 't is God; the God that loves me so,
Loves, keeps, sustains: whom I so oft haue seen:
Whose voice so often hath my comfort been.
Illuding Satan cannot shine so bright,
Though Angelliz'd: No, 't is my God of Might.

342

Now feel I in my Soule (to strength and stir-it)
The sacred Motions of his sacred Spirit.
God, this sad Sacrifice requires of me;
Hap what hap may, I must obedient be.

The sable Night dis-lodg'd: and now began
Aurora's Vsher with his windy Fan
Gently to shake the Woods on every side,
While his fair Mistress (like a stately Bride)
With Flowrs, and Gems, and Indian Gold, doth spangle
Her lovely locks, her Lovers looks to tangle;
When, gliding through the Air in Mantle blew,
With silver fring'd, she drops the Pearly deaw.
With her goes Abram out; and the third day,
Arrives on Cedrons Margents greenly-gay,
Behoulds the sacred Hill, and with his Son
(Loaden with sacred wood) he mounts anon.

Anon, said Isaac; Father, heer I see
Knife, fire and faggot, ready instantly:
But wher's your Hoste? Oh! let vs mount, my Son,
Said Abram: God will soon provide vs one.
But, scant had Isaac turn'd his face from him
A little faster the steep Mount to climb,

Simile.

Yer Abram changed cheer; and, as new Wine,
Working a-new, in the new Cask (in fine)
For beeing stopt too-soon, and wanting vent,
Blowes-vp the Bung, or doth the vessell rent,
Spews out a purple stream, the ground doth stain
With Bacchus colour, where the Cask hath lain:
So, now the Tears (which manly fortitude
Did yerst as captive in the Brain include)
At the dear names of Father and of Son,
On his pale Cheeks in pearly drops did run:
His eyes full vessels now began to leak:
And thus th'old Hebrew muttering gan to speak
In submiss voice, that Isaac might not hear
His bitter grief, that he vnfoldeth heer.

Sad spectacle! O now my hap-less hand,
Thou whetst a sword, and thou doost teend a brand,
The brand shall burn my heart, the sword's keen blade
Shall my bloods blood, and my lifes life, invade:

And thou, poor Isaac, bearest on thy back
Wood that shall make thy tender flesh to crack;
And yeeld'st thee, (more for mine than thine amiss)
Both Priest and Beast of one same Sacrifice.
O hap-less Son! O more then hap-less Sire!
Most wicked wretch! O what mis-fortune dire
In-gulfs vs heer! where miserable I,
To be true godly, must Gods law deny:

343

To be true faithfull, must my faith transgress:
To be Gods Son, I must be nothing less
Than Isaacs Sire: and Isaac (for my sake)
Must, Soil, and Sire, and Life, and all, forsake.

Yet on he goes, and soon surmounts the Mount;
And, steel'd by Faith, he cheers his mournfull Front:
(Much like the Delian Princess, when her Grace.
In Thetis Waves hath lately washt her face)
He builds his Altar, layes his wood ther-on,
And tenderly bindes his dear Son anon.

Father, said Isaac, Father, Father dear
(What? do you turn away, as loth to hear?)
O Father, tell me, tell me what you mean:
O cruelty vn-knowen! Is this the mean
Wherby my loins (as promised long since-is)
Shall make you Grand-sire of so many Princes?
And shall I (glorious) if I heer do dy,
Fill Earth with Kings, with shining Stars the Sky?

Back, Phœbus: blush, go hide thy golden head:
Retire thy Coach to Thetis watery Bed:
See not this savage sight. Shall Abraham's minde
Be milde to all, and to his Son vn-kinde!
And shall great Abram do the damned deed
That Lyons, Tigers, Boars, and Bears would dread!
See how (incenst) he stops his ear to me,
As dreaming still on's bloody Mystery.
Lord, how precise! see how the Paricide
Seems to make conscience in less sins to slide:
And he, that means to murder me (his Son)
Is scrupulous in smaller faults to run.

Yet (Father) hear me; not that I desire
With sugred words to quench your Angers fire:
In God's Name reap the Grain your self have sowen;
Com take my life, extracted from your owne,
Glut with my blood your blade, if you it please
That I must dy; welcom my death (mine ease):
But, tell me yet my fault (before I dy)
That hath deserv'd a punishment so high.
Say (Father) have I not conspir'd your death?
Or, with strong poyson sought to stop your breath?
Have I devis'd to short my Mother's life?
Or, with your Foes ta'en part in any strife?

O thou Æthereall Palace Crystalline
(Gods highest Court) If in this heart of mine
So damned thoughts had ever any place,
Shut-vp for ever all thy Gates of Grace
Against my Soule; and suffer not, that I
Among thy winged Messengers do fly.

344

If none of these, Abram (for I no more
Dare call thee Father) tell me further-more
What rests besides, that damned I have don,
To make a Father Butcher of his Son?
In memory, that fault I fain would have,
That (after God's) I might your pardon crave
For such offence; and so, th'Attonement driven,
You live content, that I may dy forgiven.

My Son, said He, thou art not hither brought
By my fell fury, nor thine owne foul fault:
God (our God) calls thee, and He will not let
A Pagan sword in thy dear blood be wet;
Nor burning plague, nor any pining pain
With Languor turn thy flesh to dust againe:
But Sacrifiç'd to him (for sweet perfume)
Will have thee heer within this fire consume.
What? Fears my Love, my Life, my Gem, my Ioy?
What God commands, his servants must obey,
Without consulting with frail Flesh and Blood,
How he his promise will in time make good:
How he will make so many Scepters spring
From thy dead dust: How He (All-wise) will bring,
In his due season, from thy sense-less Thighs,
The glorious Son of righteousnes to rise,
Who shall the Mountains bruise with yron Mace,
Rule Heav'n and Earth, and the Infernall place.
For he that (past the course of Natures kinde)
First gave thee birth, can with his sacred Winde
Raise thee again out of the lowest dust.
Ten-thousand means he hath to save the Iust:
His glorious wisdom guides the worlds society
With equall Reans of Power and of Piety.

Mine own sweet Isaac, dearest of my seed
(Too-sweet, alas! the more my grief doth bleed,
The more my loss; the more, with ease-less anguish,
My vexed Bowels for thy lack shall languish)
Adieu, dear Son (no longer mine, but His
Who calls thee hence) let this vnhappy kiss
Be the sad seal of a more sad Fare-well
Then wit can paint, or words have powr to tell.

Sith God commands, and (Father) you require
To have it so, com Death (no longer dire,
But glorious now) com gentle death, dispatch:
The Heav'ns are open, God his arms doth reach
T'imbrace my Soule: O! let me bravely fly
To meet my Lord, and Deaths proud darts defie.

What, Father? weep you now? Ah! cease those showrs:
Weep not for me; for I no more am yours:

345

I was the Lords yer I was born, you knowe;
And he but lent me for a while to you:
Will you recoil, and (Coward) lose the Crown
So neer your head, to heap you with renown?
Shall we so dare to dally with the Lord?
To cast his yoak, and to contemn his Word?
Where shall we fly his hand? Heav'n is his Throne:
The Earth his foot-stool: and dark Acheron
(The Dungeon where the damned soules be shut)
Is of his anger evermore the But.
On him alone all our good hap depends:
And he alone from dangers vs defends.

Ah! weep no more: This sacred Turf doth crave
More blood then tears: let's so our selves behave,
That, ioyn'd in zeal, we yeeld vs willingly
To make a vertue of necessity.
Let's testifie, we have a time abod;
I, in your School; you, in the School of God:
Where we have learned, that his sacred Word
(Which made of Nothing all that ever stirr'd;
Which all sustains, and all directeth still)
To divers ends conducts the good and ill.

Who loves not God more then all Kinn's respect,
Deserves no place among his dear Elect:
And who doth once God's Tillage vnder-take,
Must not look back, neither his Plough forsake.

Heer-with, th'old Hebrew cheerfuller becam,
And (to himself) cries, Courage Abraham:
The World, the Flesh, Adam, are dead in thee:
God, Spirit, and Faith, alone subsisting be.
Lord, by thy Spirit vnto my spirit annex
So lively Faith, that still mine eyes may fix
On thy true Isaac, whose sharp (sin-less) Suffering
Shall purge from Sin me and my sinfull offering.

Scarce had he drawn his sword (in resolution)
With heaved hand for instant execution,
When instantly the thundring Voice of God
Staid heart and hand, and thus the Fact forbod;
Abram, enough: hould, hould thy hand (said he)
Put-vp thy sword; thine Isaac shall not dy:
Now, of thy Faith I have had perfect proof;
Thy Will for Deed I do accept: Enough.

Glad Abram, then, to God gives thanks and praise,
Vnbindes his Son, and in his room he laies
A Lamb (there strangely hampered by the head)
And that, to God, devoutly offered.

Renowned Abraham, Thy noble Acts
Excell the Fictions of Heroïk Facts:

346

And, that pure Law a Son of thine should write,
Shall nothing-else but thy brave deeds recite.
Extoll who list thy wisdoms excellence,
Victorious Valour, frank Beneficence,
And Iustice too (which even the Gentiles honor):
Ill dares my Muse take such a task vpon-her.
Onely thy Faith (not all, with all th'effects)
Onely one fruit of thousand she selects,
For glorious subiect: which (to say the right)
I rather love to wonder-at, then write.

Go Pagans, turn, turn-over every Book:
Through all Memorials of your Martyrs look:
Collect a Scroule of all the Children slain
On th'Altars of your gods: dig-vp again
Your lying Legends: Run through every Temple:
Among your Offerings choose the best example
(Among your Offerings which your Fathers past
Have made, to make their names eternall last)
Among them all (fondlings) you shall not finde
Such an example, where (vnkindely-kinde)
Father and Son so mutually agree
To shewe themselves, Father nor Son to be:
Where man's deep zeal, and God's dear fauour, strove
For Counter-conquest in officious love.

One, by constraint his Son doth sacrifice:
Another means his Name t'immortalize
By such a Fact: Another hopes to shun
Som dismall Plague, or dire Affliction:
Another, onely that he may conform
To (Tyrant) Custom's, aw-less, law-less Form,
Which blears our eys, and blurs our senses so,
That Lady Reason must her seat forgo:
Yea, blindes the iudgement of the World so far,
That Vertue's oft arraign'd at Vice's Bar.

But, vn-constrain'd, our Abram, all alone,
Vpon a Mountain, to the guise of none
(For, it was odious to the Iews to doo)
And in a time of Peace and Plenty too,
Fights against Nature (prickt with wondrous zeal)
And, slaying Isaac, wars against his Weal.

O sacred Muse! that, on the double Mount,
With withering Baies bind'st not thy Singers Front;
But, on Mount Sion in the Angels Quire,
With Crowns of glory doost their brows attire;
Tell (for, thou know'st) what sacred Mystery
Vnder this shadow doth in secret ly?

O Death, Sin, Satan, tremble ye not all,
For hate and horror of your dreadfull Fall

347

So lively figur'd? To behold Gods Bowe
So ready bent to cleave your heart in two?
To see yong Isaac, Pattern of that Prince
Who shall, Sin Satan, Death and Hell, convince?

Both onely Sons, both sacred Potentates,
Both holy Founders of two mighty States,
Both sanctified, both Saints Progenitors,
Both bear their Cross, both Lamb-like Sufferers,
Both bound, both blame-less, both without reply,
Both by their Fathers are ordain'd to dy
Vpon Mount Sion: which high glorious Mount
Serves vs for Ladder to the Heav'ns to mount,
Restores vs Edens key (the key of Eden,
Lost through the eating of the fruit forbidden,
By wretched Adam, and his weaker Wife)
And blessed bears the holy Tree of life.

Christ dies indeed: but Isaac is repriv'd
(Because Heav'ns Councell otherwise contriv'd)
For, Isaac's blood was no sufficient price
To ransom soules from Hell to Paradise:
The Leprosie of our contagious sin
More powr-full Rivers must be purged in.

FINIS.

348

3. The Lavve.

THE THIRD PART OF THE THIRD DAY OF THE II. WEEK.

The Argvment.

Envy, in Pharao, seeks to stop the Cause
Of Iews increase: Moses escapes his claws;
Out of a Burning (vnburnt) Bush, a Voice
For Iacob's Rescue doth of Him make choice;
Sends him (with Aaron) to th'Egyptian King:
His Hardning, Plagving, finall Ruining
In the Red Sea. Israel ingrate for all:
Christ-Typing Manna, Quails, Rock-waters fall:
The glorious Lavve: the golden Calf: strange Fire:
Core in-gulft: Moses prepar'd t'expire.

Arm-arming Trumpets, lofty Clarions,
Rock-batt'ring Bumbards, Valour-murdering Guns,
Think you to drown with horror of your Noise
The choice sweet accents of my sacred Voice?
Blowe (till you burst) roar, rend the Earth in sunder;
Fill all with Fury, Tempest, War and Thunder,
Dire Instruments of Death, in vain yee toil:
For, the loud Cornet of my long-breath'd stile
Out-shrills yee still; and my Stentorian Song,
With warbled Ecchoes of a silver tongue,
Shall brim be heard from India even to Spain,
And then from thence even to the Artik Wain.

Yet, 't is not I, not I in any sort;
My side's too-weak, alas! my breath's too-short
It is the spirit-inspiring Spirit, which yerst
On th'eldest Waters mildely moved first,

349

That furnishes and fills with sacred winde
The weak, dull Organs of my Muse and minde.

So, still, good Lord, in these tumultuous times,
Giue Peace vnto my Soule, soule to my Rimes:
Let me not faint amid so faire a course:
Let the World's end be th'end of my Discourse:
And, while in France fell Mars doth all devour,
In lofty stile (Lord) let me sing thy Powr.

All-Changing Time had cancell'd and supprest
Ioseph's Deserts: his Master was deceast,
His Sons were dead; when currish Envie's strife
Lays each-where ambush for poor Israel's life:
Who, notwithstanding, doth far faster spread

Comparison.

And thicker spring, than, in a fruitfull Mead
Moted with Brooks, the many-leaved locks
Of thriving Charvel; which the bleating Flocks
Can with their daily hunger hardly mowe
So much as daily doth still newly growe.

This Monster wuns not in the Cel she wont,

Description of the Palace of Envy.

Sh' hath rear'd her Palace on the steepest Mount,
Whose snowy shoulders with their stony pride
Eternally do Spain from France divide:
It hath a thousand loop-holes every-way;
Yet never enters there one sunny ray:
Or if that any chance so far to pass,
'Tis quickly quenched by her cloudy face:
At euery Loop, the Work-man wittily
Hath plaç't a long, wide, hollow Trunk, wher-by
Prattling Renowne and Fame with painted wing,
News from all corners of the World do bring,
Buzzing there-in: as, in a Sommer Even,

Simile.

From clefts of Medows that the Heat hath riven,
The Grass-hoppers, seeming to fain the voyces
Of little Birds, chirp-out ten thousand noyses.

It frotun'd now that a swift-flying Fame,

To whom Fame reports Israels prosperity.

Which (lately but) from stately Memphis came,
Sweating, and dusty, and nigh breath-less, fills
With this Report one of her listening Quills:
O curious Nymph (lives there a Wit with vs,
Acute and quick, that is not curious?)
Most wakefull Goddess, Queen of mortall hearts,
Consort of Honor, Wealth, and High-Deserts,
Doo'st thou not knowe, that happy Israel
(Which promiseth, the Conqueror of Hell,
That twice-borne King, here-after to bring-forth,
Who dead shall liue again; and by his Worth
Wipe-out Man's Forfait, and God's Law fulfill,
And on his Cross th'envy of Envy kill)

350

Doth (even in sight) abundantly increase?
That Heav'n and Earth conspire his happiness?
That seaventy Exiles, with vn-hallowed Frie
Couer the face of all the World well-nigh?
And, drunk with wealth, waigh not thy force a iot?
Envie, thou seest it, but fore-seest it not.

Envy incenseth Pharaoh to oppress them.

Swolne like a Toad, between her bleeding iaws
Her hissing Serpents wriggling tails she chaws:
And, hasting hence, in ISIS form she iets;
A golden vessell in one hand she gets,
In th'other a sweet Instrument; her hood
Was Peacocks feathers mixt with Southernwood;
A siluer crescent on her front she set,
And in her bosom many a fostering teat:
And, thus disguis'd, with pride and impudence
She presses-in to the Bubastik Prince;
Who, slumbring then on his vn-quiet Couch,
With Israel's greatness was disturbed much:
Then she (the while, squinting vpon the lustre
Of the rich Rings which on his fingers glister;
And, snuffing with a wrythed nose the Amber,
The Musk and Civet that perfum'd the Chamber)
'Gan thus to greet him: Sleep'st thou? sleep'st thou, son?
And see'st thou not thy self and thine vn-don;
While cruell Snakes, which thy kinde brest did warm,
Sting thee to death, with their vngratefull swarm?
These Fugitiues, these out-casts do conspire.
Against rich Egypt, and (ingrate) aspire
With odious Yoak of bondage to debase
The noble Pharaoh's, God's immortall Race.

With these last words, into his brest she blowes
A banefull ayr whose strength vnfeltly flowes
Through all his veins; and, having gain'd his heart,
Makes Reason stoop to Sense in every part:

Simile.

So th'Aspick pale (with too-right aim) doth spet
On his bare face, that coms too neer to it,
The froth that in her teeth to bane she turns;
A drowzy bane, that inly creeps, and burns
So secretly, that without sense of pain,
Scar, wound, or swelling, soon the Partie's slain.
What shall I farther say? This Sorrow's-Forge,
This Rack of Kings, Care's fountain, Courtier's scourge,

Envies two Twins.

Besides her sable poyson, doth inspire
With Hate and Fear the Princes fell desire.

Hence-forth therefore, poor Israel hath no peace,
Not one good day, no quiet nap, no ease;
Still, still opprest, Tax vpon Tax arose,
After Thefts, Threats, and after Threats com blowes.

351

The silly wretches are compell'd som-while

Slauery of the Israelites.

To cut new chanels for the course of Nile:
Somtimes som Cities ruins to repair
Somtimes to build huge Castles in the air:
Somtimes to mount the Parian Mountains higher
In those proud Towrs that after-worlds admire;
Those Towrs, whose tops the Heav'ns have terrified:
Those Towrs, that scuse th'audacious Titan's pride
(Those Towrs, vain Tokens of a vast expense;
Tropheis of Wealth, Ambition's Monuments)
To make with their owne sweat and blood their morter:
To be at-once Brick-maker, Mason, Porter.
They labour hard, eat little, sleeping less,
No sooner layd, but thus their Task-lords press;
Villains, to work: what? are ye growne so sloth?
Wee'll make yee yeeld vs wax and hony both.

In breefe, this Tyrant, with such servitude,

Pharao his vain policy.

Thought soone to waste the sacred multitude;
Or, at the least, that overlayd with woe,
Weakned with watching, worn with toyling so,
They would in time becom less service-able
In Venvs Battails, and for breed less able
(Their spirits disperst, their bodies over-drid,
And Cypris sap vn-duly qualified):
But, when he saw this not succeed so well,
But that the Lord still prosper'd Israel;
Inhumane, he commands (on bloudy Pain)

His cruell Edict against the male children.

That all their male babes in their birth be slain:
And that (because that charge had don no good)
They should be cast, in Cairo's siluer Food.

O Barbarisme, learned in Hel belowe!
Those, that (alas!) nor steel nor stream do knowe,
Must die of steel or stream: cruell Edicts!
That, with the Infant's blood, the Mother's mix;
That, Childe and Mother both at once cut-off;
Him with the stroke, her with the griefe therof:
With two-fould tears Iews greet their Native Heav'n:
The day that brings them life their life hath reav'n.

But, Iochebed would fain (if she had durst)
Her deer son Moses secretly haue nourç't:
Yet thinking better, her sweet Babe forgo,
Than Childe and Parents both to hazard so,
At length she layes it forth, in Rush-boat weaves-it,
And to God's Mercy and the Flood's she leaves-it.

Though Rudder-less, nor Pilot-less, this Boat
Among the Reeds by the Floods side did float,
And saues from wrack the future Legislator,
Lighting in hands of the Kings gracious Daughter:

352

His Daughter finding Moses exposed, causeth him to be princely brought vp.

Who opening it, findes (which with ruth did strike-her)
A lovely Babe (or little Angel liker)
Which with a smile seem'd to implore the ayd
And gentle pity of the Royall Mayd.
Love, and the Graces, State and Maiesty,
Seem round about the Infants facc to fly,
And on his head seem'd (as it were) to shine
Presagefull rayes of som-what more diuine.

She takes him vp, and rears him royal-like;
And, his quick Spirit, train'd in good Arts, is like

2 Similes.

A wel breath'd Body, nimble, sound, and strong,
That in the Dance-schoole needs not teaching long:
Or a good Tree set in as good a soyl,
Which growes a-pace, without the Husband's toyl.

In time, he puts in Practice what he knowes;
With curteous Mildeness, manly Courage showes:
H'hath nothing vulgar: with great happiness,
In choice discourse he doth his mind express;
And as his Soul's-type his sweet tongue affoords,
His gracefull Works confirm his gracious Words:
His Vertues make him even the Empire's heir:
So means the Prince; such is the peoples prayer.

Gods prouidence in his preseruation.

Thus 'while o're-whelmed with the rapid course
Of Mischief's Torrent (and still fearing worse)
Israel seems help-less and even hope-less too
Of any help that Mortall hand can doo:
And, while the then-Time's hideous face and form
Boads them (alas!) nothing but wrack and storm,
Their Castor shines, their Saviour's sav'd: and Hee
That with high hand shall them from bondage free,
Scourging with Plagues, scarring with endless shame
Th'Egyptian Court, is raised by the same.

For, though him there they as a God adore,

Moses affection & duty toward his Parents and care of his Brethren.

He scorns not yet his friends and kinred poor:
He feels their Yoak, their mournings he laments:
His word and sword are prest in their defence;
And, as ordain'd for their Deliverance,
And sent express by Heav'ns pre-ordinance,
Seeing a Pagan (a proud Infidell,
A Patagon, that tasted nought so well
As Israel's blood) to ill-intreat a Iew,
Him bold incounters, and him bravely slew.

He flies out of Egypt.

But, fearing then lest his inhumane Prince
Should hear of it, young Moses flyes from thence:
And, hard by Horeb, keeping Iethro's sheep,
He Fasts and Prayes; with Meditations deep
His vertuous zeal he kindles more and more,
And prudently he lays-vp long-before

353

Within his Soule (his spirituall Armory)
All sacred Weapons of Sobriety,
Where-with t'incounter, conquer, and suppress
All Insurections of Voluptuousness.
Also, not seldom some deep Dream or Transe

God talketh to him in the Wilderness.

Him suddainly doth even to Heav'n advance:
And Hee, that whilom could not finde the Lord
On plentious shoars of the Pelusian Foord,
In walled Cities with their Towred Ports,
In learned Colledges, nor sumptuous Courts;
In Desart meets him; greets him face to face,
And on his brows bears tokens of his Grace.

For, while he past his sacred Prentiship

Moses vision of the flaming bush.

(In Wilderness) of th'Hebrews Shepheardship;
In driving forth to kiss-cloud Sina's foot
His fleecy Flock, and there attending too't,
He suddain sees a Bush to flame and fume,
And all a-fire, yet not at all consume;
It flames and burns not, cracks and breaks not in,
Kisses, but bites not, no not even the skin:
True figure of the Church, and speaking Signe
Which seemeth thus to, of it selfe, define:
What (Amram's son) Doth Iacob's bitter Teen
Dismay thee so? Behould, this Haw-thorn green
Is even an Image of thine Israel,
Who in the Fire of his Afflictions fell
Still flourishes, on each side hedged round.
With prickly Thorns, his hatefull Foes to wound:
This Fire doth seem the Spirit Omnipotent,
Which burns the wicked, tries the Innocent:
Who also addeth to the sacred Signe,
The more to move him, his owne Word Divine.

I AM I that I am, in me, for me, by me:

The voice of the Lord speaking out of the Bush.

All Beings else Be not (or else vn-selfly be)
But, from my Beeing, all their Beeing gather;
Prince of the World, and of my Church the Father:
Onely Beginning, Midst, and End of all;
Yet sans Beginning, Midst, and End at all:
All in my selfe compris'd, and all comprising
That in the World was, is, or shall be rising:
Base of this Vniverse: th'vniting Chain
Of th'Elements: the Wisedom Soveraign:
Each-where, in Essence, Powr and Providence;
But in the Heav'ns, in my Magnificence:
Fountain of Goodness: ever-shining Light:
Perfectly Blest: the One, the Good, the Bright:
Self-simple Act, working in frailest matter:
Framer of Forms: of Substances Creator:

354

And (to speak plainer) even that God I AM
Whom so long since religious Abraham,
Isaac, and Iacob, and their Progenies
Haue worshipped and prays'd in humble wise.

God hath pity on his People afflicted in Egypt.

My sacred ears are tyred with the noyse
Of thy poor Brethren's iust-complayning voyce:
I haue beheld my Peoples burdens there;
Moses, no more I will, nor can, forbear:
Th'haue groan'd (alas!) and panted all too-long
Vnder that Tyrants vn-relenting wrong.

He ordaineth Moses for their Deliverer, & giues him commission to goe to Pharao.

Now, their Deliuerer I authorize thee,
And make thee Captain of their Colony;
A sacred Colony, to whom (as mine);
I haue so oft bequeath'd rich Palestine.
Therefore from me command thou Pharao
That presently he let my People go
Into the Dry-Arabian Wilderness,
Where far from sight of all profane excess
On a new Altar they may sacrifice
To Me the Lord, in whom their succour lies:
Haste, haste (I say)) and make me no excuse
On thy Tongue's rudenes (for the want of vse)
Nor on thy weaknes, nor vnworthiness
To vnder-go so great a Business.
What? cannot He, that made the lips and tongue,
Prompt Eloquence and Art (as doth belong)
Vnto his Legat? and, who every thing
Of Nothing made, and All to nought shall bring;
Th'Omnipotent, who doth confound (for His)
By weak the strong; by what is not, what is,
(That in his wondrous Iudgements, men may more
The Work-man then the Instruments adore)
Will he forsake, or leave him vn-assisted,
That in his seruice duly hath insisted?
Sith faithfull Servant, to do-well affected,
Can by his Master never be reiected.

Moses (accompanied with his brother Aaron) sets forward in his high Embassage.

No sooner this, the Divine Voice had ended,
And vp to Heav'n the Bushy Flame ascended,
But Moses, with (his fellow in Commission)
His Brother Aaron, wends with expedition
First to his People, and to Pharao then,
The King of Egypt (cruellest of Men):
And inly filled with a zealous flame,
Thus, thus he greets him, in th'Almighties name;
Great Nilvs Lord, thus saith the Lord of Hoasts,
Let go my People out of all the Coasts,
Mine Israel (Pharao) forth-with release,
Let them depart to Horeb's Wildernes;

355

That vnto me, without offence or fear,
Their Hearts and Heifers they may offer there.

Base Fugitive, proud slaue (that art return'd

Pharaos proud answere.

Not to be whipt, but rather hangd, or burn'd)
What Lord, said Pharao? ha! what Soveraign?
O seaven-horn'd Nile! O hundred-pointed Plain!
O City of the Sun! O Thebes! and Thou
Renowned Pharos, do ye all not bow
To vs alone? Are ye not onely Ours?
Ours at a beck? Then, to what other Powrs
Owes your great Pharao homage or respect?
Or by what Lord to be controul'd and checkt?

I see the Drift. These off-scums all at once
Too idlely pampred, plot Rebellions:
Sloth marrs the slaves; and vnder fair pretence
Of new Religion (Traytours to their Prince)
They Would Revolt. O Kings! how fond are we
To think by Favours and by Clemency,
To keep men in their duty! To be milde,
Makes them be mad, proud, insolent and wilde:
Too-much of Grace, our Scepters doth dis-grace,
And smooths the path to Treason's plots a-pace.
The dull Asse, numbers with his stripes his steps:
Th'Ox, over-fat, too-strong, and resty, leaps
About the Lands, casteth his yoak, and strikes;
And waxen wilde, even at his Keeper kicks.

The true Anatomy of a Tyrant.

Well: to enioy a People, through their skin
With scourges slyç't, must their bare bones be seen:
We must still keep them short, and clip their wings,
Pare neer their nails and pull out all their stings;
Loade them with Tribute, and new Towle, and Tax,
And Subsidies vntill we break their backs;
Tire them with trauel, flay-them, pole-them, pil-them,
Suck bloud and fat, then eat their flesh, and kil-them.
'Tis good for Princes to haue all things fat,
Except their Subiects: but, beware of that.
Ha, Miscreants! ha, rascal excrements,
That lift your heel against your gracious Prince;
Hence-forth you get of wood or straw no more,
To burn your Bricks as you haue had before:
Your selues shall seek it out; yet shall you still
The number of your wonted task fulfill.

I haue Commission from the King of Kings,

Moses reply.

Maker, Preseruer, Ruler, of all things,
Replies the Hebrew that (to knowe the Lord)
Thou feel his hand, vnless thou fear his word.

In th'instant, Aaron on the slippery sand

Aaron casteth down his Rod: which immediately turns into a Serpent.

Casts down his Rod; and boldly thus began:

356

So shall thy golden Scepter down be cast,
So shall the Iudgements of the Lord at last
(Now deemed dead) reviue, to daunt thy powr:
So Israel shall Egypts wealth devour,
If thou confess not God to be the Lord:
If thou attend not, nor obserue his Word:
And if his People thou do not release,
To goe and serue him in the Wilderness.

Before that Aaron this Discourse had done,
A green-gold-azure had his Rod put-on,
It glistered bright: and in a fashion strange,
Into a Serpent it did wholly change;
Crawling before the King, and all along
Spetting and hissing with his forked tongue.

The Magicians of Egypt counterfet that miracle, and bewitch the eyes of the King.

The Memphian Sages then, and subtill Priests,
T'vphold the Kingdom of their Osiris,
Vpbraid them thus: Alas! is this the most
Your God can do, of whom so much you boast?
Are these his Wonders? Go, base Monte-banks,
Go shew else-where your sleights and iuggling pranks.
Such tricks may blear som vulgar innocents,
But cannot blinde the Councell of a Prince;
Who, by the gods instructed, doth contain
All Arts perfection in his sacred brain.
And, as they spake, out of their cursed hands
They all let-fall their strange-inchanted Wands;
Which instantly turn into Serpents too,
Hissing and spetting, crawling to and fro.
The King too much admires their cunning Charms:
The place with Aspicks, Snakes and Serpents, swarms;
Creeping about: as an ill-Huswife sees
The Maggots creeping in a rotten Cheese.

Simile.

You, you are Iugglers, th'Hebrew then repli'd:
You change not Nature, but the bare out-side;
And your Enchantments onely doo transform
The face of things, not the essentiall form.
You, Sorcerers, so mock the Princes ey,
And his Imagination damnifie,
That common Sense to his externall, brings
(By re-percussion) a false shape of things.
My Rod's indeed a Serpent, not in showe,
As heer in sight your selves by proof shall knowe.
Immediately his Dragon rear'd his head,
Rowl'd on his brest; his body wriggelled
Somtimes aloft in length; somtimes it sunk
Into it self, and altogether shrunk:
It slides, it sups the air, it hisses fell,
In steed of eyes two sparkling Rubies swell:

357

And all his deadly baens, intrenched strong
Within his trine Teeth and his triple Tongue,
Call for the Combat: and (as greedy) set

Moses rod-Serpent deuoureth the Serpents of the Egyptians.

With sodain rage vpon those Counterfet,
Those seeming-Serpents, and them all devour:
Even as a Sturgeon, or a Pike, doth scour
The Creeks and Pills in Rivers where they lie,
Of smaller Fishes and their feeble Fry.

But, at high Noon, the Tyrant wilfull-blind,

Pharao and his people hardned: Therefore God plagued Egypt.

And deafe to his owne good, is more inclin'd
To Satans tools: the people, like the Prince,
Prefer the Night before Light's excellence.
Wherefore the Lord, such proud contempts to pay,
Ten sundry plagues vpon their Land doth lay:
Redoubling so his dread-full strokes, that there,
Who would not love him milde, him rough should fear.

Smiting the Waves with his Snake-wanded wood,

1. By turning their Waters into blood.

Aaron anon converts the Nile to blood;
So that the stream, from fruitfull Meroe,
Runs red and bitter even vnto the Sea.
The Court re-courst to Lakes, to Springs, and Brooks;
Brooks, Springs, and Lakes had the like taste and looks:
Then to the Ditches; but, even to the brink
There flow'd (alas!) in steed of Water, Ink:
Then, to the likeliest of such weeping ground
Where, with the Rush, pipe-opening Fern is found:
And there they dig for Water: but (alas!)
The wounded soyl spets blood into their face.
O iust-iust Iudgement! Those proud Tyrants fell,
Those bloudy Foes of mourning Israel;
Those that delighted, and had made their game
In shedding blood, are forç't to drink the same:
And those, that ruth-less had made Nile the slaughter
Of th'Hebrew Babes, now die for want of Water.

Anon, their Fields, Streets, Halls and Courts he loads

2. Covering their Land with Frogs.

With foul great Frogs, and vgly croking Toads;
Which to the tops of highest Towrs do clamber
Even to the Presence, yea the priuy Chamber;
As starry Lezards in the Sommer time
Vpon the walls of broken houses clime.
Yea; even the King meets them in every dish
Of Privy-diet, be it Flesh or Fish:
As at his Boord, so on his royall Bed;
With stinking Frogs the silken quilts be spred.

The Priests of Pharao seem to do the same:

The Magicians counterfait the same, but their deceits are vain.

Aaron alone in the Almighties Name,
By Faith almighty: They for instruments
Vse the black Legions of the Stygian Prince:

358

He by his Wonders labours to make knowen
The true Gods glory; onely they their owne:
He seeks to teach; they to seduce awry:
He studies to build vp; they to destroy:
He, striking Strangers, doth His people spare;
They spoile their own, but cannot hurt a hair
Of the least Hebrew: they can onely wound;
He hurts, and heals: He breaks, and maketh sound:
And so, when Pharao doth him humbly pray,
Re-cleers the Floods, and sends the Frogs away.

The King eased of his punishmēt is again hardned.

But (as in Heau'n there did no Iustice raign)
The Kings repentance endeth with his pain.
He is re-hardned: like a stubborn Boy
That plies his Lesson (Hypocritely-coy)
While in his hand his Master shakes the Rod;
But, if he turn his back, doth flowt and nod.
Therefore the Lord, this Day, with loathsom Lice

Therefore 3. Aegypt is plagued with Lyce.

Plagues poor and rich, the nastie and the nice,
Both Man and beast; For, Aaron with his wand
Turns into Lice the dust of all the Land.
The morrow after, with huge swarms of Flies,

4. With Flies &c..

Hornets and Wasps, he hunts their Families
From place to place, through Medows, Fens and Floods,
Hills, Dales, and Desarts, hollow Caves and Woods.

Tremble therfore (O Tyrants) tremble ay,
Poor worms of Earth, proud Ashes, Dust and Clay:
For, how (alas!) how will you make defence
'Gainst the tri-pointed wrathfull violence
Of the drad dare, that flaming in his hand,
Shall path to powder all that him withstand?
And 'gainst the rage of flames eternal-frying,
Where damned soules ly euer-neuer-dying:
Sith the least Flies, and Lice, and Vermine too
Out-braue your braues, and triumph ouer you.

Man caānot hide him from the hand of God, nor auoid his vengeance.

Gallop to Anian, sail to Iucatan,
Visit Botongas, diue beyond the Dane.
Well may you fly, but not escape him there:
Wretches, your halters still about, you bear.
Th'Almighties hand is long, and busie still;
Hauing escap't this Rod, his Sword you feel:
He seems somtimes to sleep and suffer all;
But calls at last for Vse and Principall:
With hundred sorts of Shafts his Quiuer's full,
Som passing keen, som som-what sharp, som dull,
Som killing dead, som wounding deep, som light;
But all of them do alwaies hit the White,
Each after other. Now th'Omnipotence
At Egypt shoots his shafts of Pestilence:

359

Th'Ox falls-down in his yoak, Lambs bleating dy,

5. With the Plague of Pestilence.

The Bullocks as they feed, Birds as they fly.

Anon he couers Man and Beast with cores
Of angry Biles, Botches, and Scabs, and Sores;

6. With Vlcers and grieuous Scabs or Murrain.

Whose vlcerous venoms, all inflaming spread
O're all the body from the foot to head.

Then, Rain, and Hail, and flaming Fire among
Spoyl all their fields: their Cattell great with young

7. With haile & fire from heauen.

All brain'd with hail-stones: Trees with tempest cleft,
Robd of their boughs, their boughes of leaues berest.
And, from Heav'ns rage, all, to seek shelter, glad;
The Face of Egypt is now dradly-sad:
The Söan Virgins tear their Beauties honour;

Egyptians amazed at the extraordinary scourge.

Not for the waste, so much, as for the manner.

For, in that Country neuer see they Clowd,
With waight of Snowes their trees are neuer bow'd,
They know no Ice: and though they haue (as we)
The Yeare intire, their Seasons are but three:
They neither Rain-bowe, nor fat Deaws expect,
Which from else-where Sol's thirsty rayes erect:
Rain-less, their soyl is wet, and Clowd-less, fat;

The naturall fruitfulness & prosperity of Egypt in its selfe maruellous.

Itself's moist bosom brings in this and that:
For, while else-where the Riuer's roaring pride
Is dryed-vp; and while that far and wide
The Palestine seeks (for his thirsty Flock)
Iordan in Iordan, Iabboc in Iabboc;
Their floud o'reflowes, and parched Misraim
A season seems in a rich Sea to swim,
Niles billows beat on the high-dangling Date;
And Boats do slide, where Ploughs did slice of late.

Steep snowy Mounts, bright Stars Etesian gales,
You cause it not: no, those are Dreams and Tales:
Th'Eternall-Trine who made all compassly,
Makes th'vnder waues, the vppers want supply;
And, Egypts Womb to fill with fruits and Flowrs,
Gives swelling Nile th'office of heauenly Showrs.

Then the Thrice-Sacred with a sable Clowd
Of horned Locusts doth the Sun be-clowd,
And swarmeth down on the rebellious Coast
The Grass-hoppers lean, dam-deuouring Hoast,

8 The are vexed with Grasshoppers.

Which gleans what Hail had left, and (greedy) crops
Both night and Day the Husband's whole-year's hopes.

Then, gross thick Darkness over all he dight,
And three fair Dayes turns to one fearfull Night:

9 Wih palpable darkness.

With Ink-like Rheum the dull Mists drouzy vapours
Quench their home Fires, and Temple-sacred Tapers.
If hunger driue the Pagans from their dens,
Ones 'gainst a settle breaketh both his shins;

360

Another, groping vp and down for bread,
Falls down the stayrs, and there he lies for dead.

But, though these works surmount all Natures might,
Though his owne Sages them of guile acquight,
Though th'are not casuall (sith the holy-man

The Israelites in all these plagues vntoucht, yet Pharao still hardned.

Fore-tels perfixtly What, and Where and When)
And though that (liuing in the midst of His)
The Israelites be free from all of This,
Th'incensed Tyrant (strangely obstinate)
Retracts the Leave he granted them of late.

For, th'Ever-One, who with a mighty hand
Would bring his people to the plentious Land
Of Palestine: Who prouidently-great,
Before the eyes of all the World would set
A Tragedy, where wicked Potentates
Might see a Mirror of their owne estates:
And, who (most-iust) must haue meet Arguments,
To showe the height of his Omnipotence;
Hardens the King, and blinding him (selfe-blinde)
Leaues him to Lusts of his owne vicious minde.
For, God doth neuer (euer purely bent)
Came sin, as sin; but, as Sin's Punishment.

10. Therefore all the first borne of Egypt are slain in one night by the Angell.

For, the last Charge, an Angell in one night,
All the first born through all the Land doth smite;
So that from Sues Port to Birdene Plain,
Ther's not a House, but hath som body slain,
Saue th'Israelites, whose doors were markt before,
With sacred Pass-Lamb's sacramentall gore.
And therfore euer-since on that same day,
Yeerly, the Iewes a Yearling Lamb must stay;
A token of that Passage, and a Type
Of th'Holy-Lamb, which should (in season ripe)
By powring-forth the pure and plentious Flood
Of his most precious Water-mixed Blood,
Preserue his People from the drad Destroyer,
That fries the wicked in eternall fier.

Through all the Land, all in one instant cry,
All for one cause, though yet all know not why.
Night heaps their horrors: and the morning showes
Their priuat griefs, and makes them publike woes.

After so many grieuous plagues the Egyptians cry out vpon their King to let the Israelites goe.

Scarce did the glorious Gouernour of Day
O're Menphis yet his golden tress display,
When from all parts, the Maydens and the Mothers,
Wiues, Husbands, Sons, and Sires, Sisters, and Brothers,
Flock to the Court, where with one common voice
They all cry-out, and make this mournfull noyse:

O stubborn stomach! (cause of all our sadnes)
Dull Constancy! or rather, desperat Madnes!

361

A Flood of Mischiefs all the Land doth fill:
The Heav'ns still thunder; th'Air doth threaten still:
Death, ghastly death, triumpheth every-where,
In every house; and yet, without all fear,
Without all feeling, we despise the Rod,
And scorn the Iudgements of the mighty God.
Great King, no more bay with thy wilfullings
His Wrath's dread Torrent. He is King of kings;
And in his fight, the Greatest of you all
Are but as Moats that in the Sun doo fall:
Yeeld, yeeld (alas!) stoop to his powrfull threat;
He's warn'd enough that hath been ten-times beat.

Go, get you gon: hence, hence, vn-lucky Race;

They hasten and importune them to be gon.

Your eyes bewitch our eyes, your feet this Place,
Your breath this air: Why haste you not away?
Hebrews, what lets you? wherfore do you stay?
Step to our houses (if that ought you lack)
Choose what you like, and what you like go take,
Gould, Plate, or Iewels, Ear-rings, Chains, or Ouches,
Our Girdles, Bracelets, Carkanets, or Brouches,
Bear them vnto your gods, not in the sands
Where the Heav'n-kissing Cloud-brow'd Sina stands;
But much, much farther; and so far, that heer
We never more your odious news may hear:
Go, Hebrews, go, in God's Name thrive amain;
By losing you, we shall sufficient gain.

With the Kings leave, then th'Hebrews Prince collects

After their departure Pharao immediately pursves them.

His Legions all, and to the Sea directs.
Scarce were they gon, when Pharaoh doth retract,
And arms all Egypt to go fetch them back;
And, camping neer them, execrably-rude,
Threatens them Death, or end-less Servitude.

Even as a Duck, that nigh som crystall brook

Simile.

Hath twice or thrice by the same Hawk been strook,
Hearing aloft her gingling silver bells,
Quivers for fear, and looks for nothing else
But when the Falcon (stooping thunder-like)
With sudden souse her to the ground shall strike;
And with the stroak, make on the sense-less ground
The gut-less Quar, once, twice, or thrice, rebound:
So Israel, fearing again to feel
Pharaoh's fell hands, who hunts them at the heel,
Quivers and shivers for despair and dread;
And spets his gall against his godly Head.

O base ambition! This false Politick,

The Israelites fear, and murmur against Moses.

Plotting to Great himself, our deaths doth seek:
He mocks vs all, and makes vs (fortune-less)
Change a rich Soil for a dry Wilderness;

362

Allur'd with lustre of Religious showes,
Poor soules, He sels vs to our hatefull Foes:
For, O! what strength? alas! what stratagem?
Or how (good God) shall we encounter them?
Or who is it? or what is it shall save-vs
From their fell hands that seek to slay, or slave-vs?
Shall we, disarmed, with an Army fight?
Can we (like Birds) with still-steep-rising flight
Surmount these Mountains? have we Ships at hand
To pass the Sea (this half a Sea, half sand)?
Or, had we Ships, and Sails, and Owers, and Cable;
Who knowes these Waters to be navigable?
Alas! som of vs shall with Scithes be slasht;
Som, with their Horse-feet all to peeces pasht;
Som, thrill'd with Swords, or Shafts, through hundred holes
Shall ghastly gasp out our vntimely soules.
Sith die we must, then die we voluntary:
Let's run, our selves, where others would vs carry;
Com, Israelites, com, let vs dy together,
Both men and women: so we shall (in either)
Prevent their rage, content their avarice,
And yeeld (perhaps) to Moses even his Wish.

Moses instruction to enourage them, with assured confidence in God.

Why, brethren? knowe ye not (their Ruler saith)
That in his hand God holdeth life and death?
That he turns Hils to Dales, and Seas to Sands?
That he hath (prest) a thousand winged Bands
T'assist his Children, and his Foes t'assail?
And that he helps not, but when all helps fail?
See you this mighty Hoast, this dreadfull Camp,
Which dareth Heav'n, and seems the Earth to damp;
And all inrag'd, already chargeth ours,

Simile.

As thick, or thicker then the Welkin pours
His candi'd drops vpon the ears of Corn,
Before that Ceres yellow locks be shorn?
It all shall vanish, and of all this Crew
(Which thinks already to have swallow'd you)
Of all this Army, that (in Armour bright)
Seems to out-shine the Sun, or shame his light;
There shall to-morrow not a man remain:
Therfore be still; God shall your side sustain.

Calling vpō God he parts the Red Sea so that the people passe through as on dry land.

Then (zealous) calling on th'immortall God,
He smote the Sea with his dead-living Rod:
The Sea obay'd, as bay'd: the Waves, controul'd,
Each vpon other vp to Heav'n do fould:
Between both sides a broad deep Trench is cast,
Dri'd to the bottom with an instant blast:
Or rather, 't is a Valley paved (else)
With golden sands, with Pearl, and Nacre-shels,

363

And on each side is flanked all along
With wals of crystall, beautifull and strong.
This flood-less Foord the Faithfull Legions pass,
And all the way their shoo scarce moisted was.
Dream we, said they? or is it true we try?
The Sea start at a stick? The Water dry?
The Deep a Path? Th'Ocean in th'Air suspending?
Bulwarks of Billows, and no drop descending?
Two Wals of Glass, built with a word alone?
Afrik and Asia to conioyn in one?
Th'all-seeing Sun new bottoms to behould?
Children to run where Tunnies lately roul'd?

Th'Egyptian Troops pursue them by the track;

The Egyptians following them are swallowed in the Sea.

Yet waits the patient Sea, and still stands back;
Till all the Hoast be marching in their ranks
Within the lane between his crystall banks.
But, as a wall, weakned with mining-vnder,

Simile.

The Piles consum'd fall suddenly asunder,
O'r-whelmeth all that stand too neer the breach,
And with his Ruines fills-vp all the ditch:
Even so God's finger, which these Waters bay'd;
Beeing with-drawn, the Ocean swell'd and sway'd;
And, re-conioyning his congealed Flood,
Swallows in th'instant all those Tyrants wood.

Heer, one by swimming thinks himself to save:
But, with his scarf tangled about a Nave,
He's strangled straight; and, to the bottom sinking,
Dies; not of too-much drink, but for not drinking;
While that (in vain) another with lowd lashes
Scours his prowd Coursers through the scarlet Washes:
The streams (whereon more Deaths then Waves do swim)
Bury his Chariot; and his Chariot, him:
Another, swallowed in a Whirl-Whales womb,
Is laid a-live within a living Toomb:
Another, seeing his Twin-brother drowning;
Out of his Coach, his hand (to help him) downing;
With both his hands grasping that hand, his Twin
Vnto the bottom hales him head-long in;
And instantly the water covers either:
Right Twins indeed; born, bred and dead, together.

Nile's stubborn Monarch, stately drawn vpon

Pharao profanely blaspheming & proudly braving Moses and the Sea, is notwithstanding drowned with the rest.

A curious Chariot, 'chaç't with pearl and stone,
By two proud Coursers, passing snowe for colour;
For strength, the Elephants; Lions, for valour;
Curseth the Heav'ns, the Air, the Windes and Waves;
And, marching vp-ward, still blaspheams and braves:
Heer, a huge Billow on his Targe doth split;
Then coms a bigger, and a bigger yet,

364

To second those: The Sea growes ghastly great;
Yet stoutly still he thus doth dare and threat:
Base roaguing Iuggler, think'st thou with thy Charms
Thou shalt preuail against our puissant arms?
Think'st thou, poor shifter, with thy Hel-spels thus
To cross our Counsels, and discomfit Vs?
And, O proud Sea! false, traiterous Sea, dar'st thou,
Dar'st thou conspire 'gainst thine own Neptune now?
Dar'st thou presume 'gainst Vs to rise and roar?
I charge thee cease: be still, I say: no more:
Or, I shall clip thine arms in Marble stocks,
And yoak thy shoulders with a Bridge of Rocks;
Or banish thee from Etham far, for ay,
Through som new Chanell to go seek thy way.

Heer-at the Ocean, more than ever, frets,
All topsie-turvy vp-side-down it sets;
And a black billow, that aloft doth float
With salt and sand; stops his blaspheamous throat.
What now betides the Tyrant? Waters now
Have reft his neck, his chin, cheeks, eyes and brow,
His front, his fore-top: now ther's nothing seen
But his proud arm, shaking his Fauchin keen:
Wherewith he seems, in spite of Heav'n and Hell,
To fight with Death, and menace Israel.
At last he sinks all vnder water quite,
Spurning the sand: again he springs vpright;
But, from so deep a bottom to the top,
So clogg'd with arms, can cleave no passage vp:

Simile.

As the poor Partridge, cover'd with the net,
In vain doth strive, struggle, and bate, and beat;
For, the close meshes, and the Fowler's craft,
Suffer the same no more to whurre aloft.

I to your selves leave to conceive the ioy
Of Iacob's heirs thus rescu'd from annoy;
Seeing the Sea to take their cause in hand,
And their dead Foes shuffled vpon the sand;
Their shields, and staves, and chariots (all-to-tore)
Floating about, and flung vpon the shoar:
When thus th'Almighty (glorious God most high)
For them without them, got the Victory,
They skip and dance; and, marrying all their voices
To Timbrels, Hawboys, and loud Cornets noises,
Make all the shoars resound, and all the coasts,

2. Part of this Tract: where is discoursed of the estate of the people of Israel in the Wlderness, vntill the death of Moses.

With the shrill Praises of the Lord of Hoasts.

Eternall issue of eternall Sire,
Deep Wisdom of the Father, now inspire
And shew the sequell that from hence befell,
And how he dealt with his dear Israel,

365

Amid the Desart, in their Pilgrimage
Towards the Promis'd plentious Heritage:
Tell, for (I knowe) thou know'st: for, compast ay
With Fire by Night, and with a Cloud by Day,
Thou (my soule's hope) wert their sole Guide and Guard,
Their Meat and Drink in all their Iourney hard.

Marching amid the Desart, nought they lack:
Heav'n still distils an Ocean (for their sake)
Of end-less good: and every Morn doth send
Sufficient food for all the day to spend.
When the Sun riseth, and doth haste his Race
(Half ours, half theirs that vnderneath vs pase)
To re-behould the beauty, number, order,
And prudent Rule (preventing all mis-order)
Of th'awfull Hoast lodg'd in the Wilderness,
So favour'd by the Sun of Righteousnes;
Each coms but forth his Tent, and at his dore
Findes his bread ready (without seeking more):
A pleasant bread, which from his plentious clowd,
Like little Hail, Heav'ns wakefull Steward strow'd.
The yellow sands of Elim's ample Plain

God gives them Manna.

Were heaped all with a white sugred grain,
Sweet Corianders; Iunkets, not to feed
This Hoast alone, but even a World (for need).
Each hath his part, and every one is fed
With the sweet morsels of an vn-bought bread.
It never rains for a whole yeer at-once,

It is given from day to day.

But daily for a day's provisions:
To th'end, so great an Hoast, so curbed straight,
Still on the Lord's wide open hand should wait,
And every Dawning have due cause to call
On him their Founder, and the Fount of all:
Each, for his portion hath an Omer-full;
The sur-plus rots, mould, knead it how they will.
The Holy-One (iust Arbitrer of wrong)
Allows no less vnto the weak, than strong:
On Sabbath's Eve, he lets sufficient fall
To serve for that day, and the next withall;
That on his Rest, the sacred Folk may gather,
Not Bodie's meat, but spirituall Manna rather.

Thou, that from Heav'n thy daily White-bread hast,
Thou, for whom Harvest all the yeer doth last,
That in poor Desarts rich aboundance heap'st,
That sweat-less eat'st, and without sowing reap'st,
That hast the Air for farm, and Heav'n for field
(Which, sagred Mel, or melled sugar yeeld)
That, for taste changing doost not change thy cheer,
God's Pensioner, and Angel's Table-peer:

366

It is a liuely figure of Christ the true bread of life.

O Israel! see in this Table-pure,
In this fair glass, thy Saviour's pourtraiture,
The Son of God, Messias promised,
The sacred seed, to bruize the Serpents head:
The glorious Prince, whose Scepter ever shines,
Whose Kingdom's scope the Heav'n of Heav'ns confines;
And, when He shall (to light thy sin-full load)
Put Man-hood on, dis-knowe him not for God.

The same demonstrated by particular conscience.

This Grain is small, but full of substance though:
Christ strong in working, though but weak in showe.
Manna is sweet: Christ as the Hony-Comb.
Manna from high: and Christ from Heav'n doth come.
With that, there falls a pleasant pearly deaw:
Christ coming down doth all the Earth be-streaw
With spiritual gifts. That, vnto great and small,
Tastes to their tastes: and Christ is all to all:
(Food to the hungry, to the needy wealth,
Ioy to th'afflicted, to the sickly health,
Pardon to those Repent, Prop to the bow'd,
Life's sauour to the Meek, Death's to the Prowd).
That's common good: and Christ communicate.
That's purely white: and Christ immaculate.
That gluts the wanton Hebrews (at the last)
Christ and his Word the World doth soon distaste.
Of that, they eat no less that have one measure,
Than who have hundred: and in Christ his treasure
Of Divine Grace, the faith-full Proselyte
Hath no less part, than Doctors (deep of sight).
That's round: Christ simple, and sincerely-round.
That in the Ark: Christ in his Church is found.
That doth (with certain) stinking worms becom:
Christ th'Ever-Word) is scandall vnto som.
That raineth not, but on the sacred Race:
Christ to his Chosen doth confine his Grace.
That's broken, every Grain: Christ (Lamb of God)
Vpon his Cross-press is so torn and trod,
That of his Blood the pretious Flood hath purl'd
Down from Mount Sion over all the World.

The people lust for flesh.

Yet glutted now with this ambrosiall Food,
This Heav'nly bread, so holy and so good,
Th'Hebrews do lust for flesh: a fresh South-winde
Brings shoals of Fowls to satisfie their minde;

God sends them Quails.

A cloud of Quails on all the Camp is sent,
And every one may take to his content:
For, in the Hoast, and all the Country by,
For a day's-iourney, Cubit-thick they ly.

But, though their Commons be thus delicate,
Although their eyes can scarce look out for fat,

367

Although their Bellies strout with too-much meat,
Though (Epicures) they vomit as they eat,
Yet still they howl for hunger; and they long

They long for the Garlick & Onions of Egypt.

For Memphian hotch-potch, Leeks, and Garlick strong:
As Childe-great Women, or green Maids (that miss

Simile.

Their Terms appointed for their florishes)
Pine at a Princely feast, preferring far,
Red-Herrings, Rashers, and (som) sops in Tar;
Yea, coals, and clowts, sticks, stalks, and dirt, before
Quail, Pheasant, Partridge, and a hundred more:
So, their fantastick wearisom disease
Distastes their tastes, and makes them strange to please.

But, when the Bull, that lately tost his horn
In wanton Pride, hangs down his head, forlorn
For lack of Water, and the Souldier bleak
Growes (without Arms) for his own waight too-weak:
When fiery Thirst through all their veins so fierce
Consumes their blood, into their bones doth pearce,
Sups-vp their vitall humour, and doth dry
Their whilom-beauties to Anatomy;
They weep and wail, and but their voice (alas!)
Is choakt already that it cannot pass
Through the rough Straights of heir dry throats; they would

They murmur for want of water, with grieuous imputation to their good Guide.

Roar-out their grief, that all men hear them should.
O Duke! (no Hebrew, but an Ethnick rather)
Is this (alas!) the guerdon that we gather
For all the service thou hast had of vs?
What have we don, that thou betray'st vs thus?
For our obedience, shall we evermore
With Fear and Want be hanted at our door?
O windy words! O periur'd promises!
O gloze, to gull our honest simpleness!
Escap't from Hunger, Thirst doth cut our throat:
Past the Red-Sea, heer vp and down we float
On firm-less sands of this vast Desart heer,
Where, to and fro we wander many a yeer:
Looking for Liberty, we finde not Life;
No, neither Death (the welcom end of strife)
Envy not vs, dear Babes: we envy you,
You happy ones, whom Egypt's Tyrant slue;
Your Birth and Death cam hand in hand together,
Your end was quick nay't was an Entry rather
To end-less Life: We wretches, with our age
Increase our Woes in this long Pilgrimage:
We hope no Harbour where we may take breath:
And Life to vs is a continuall Death.
You blessed live, and see th'Almighties face:
Our Daies begin in tears, in toils they pass,

368

And end in dolours (this is all we doo):
But Death concludes tears, toils, and dolours too.

Moses reproues them, & smites the Rock, from whence issues plenty of water.

Stiff-necked People, stubborn Generation,
Egypt doth witnes (in a wondrous fashion)
God's goodnes (to thee): all the Elements
Expound vnto thee his Omnipotence:
And doost thou murmur still? and dar'st thou yet
Blaspheam his promise, and discredit it?
Said Moses then; and gave a sudden knock
With his dear Scepter on a mighty Rock:
From top to toe it shakes, and splits with-all,
And wel-nigh half vnto the ground doth fall,
As smit with Lightning: then, with rapid rush,
Out of the stone a plentious stream doth gush,
Which murmurs through the Plain; proud, that his glass,
Gliding so swift, so soon re-yongs the grass;
And, to be gaz'd-on by the wanton Sun,
And through new paths so brave a course to run.

Simile.

Who hath not seen (far vp within the Land)
A shoal of Geese on the dry-Sommer sand
In their hoarse language (somtimes lowely-lowd)
Suing for succour to som moist-full clowd;
How, when the Rain descends, their wings they beat,
(With the first drops to cool their swelting heat)
Bib with their Bill, bouz with their throats, and suck,
And twenty-times vnto the bottom duck?
Such th'Hebrews glee: one, stooping down, doth sup
The clear quick stream; another takes it vp
In his bare hand; another in his hat;
This, in his buskin; in a bucket, that
(Well fresht himself) bears fom vnto his Flock;
This fils his pitcher-full; and that, his Crock:
And other-som (whose Thirst is more extream)
Like Frogs ly paddling in the crystall stream.

They march toward Mount Sina, where god deliuereth them his LAW.

From Rephidim, along the Desart Coast,
Now to Mount Sina marcheth all the Hoast;
Where, th'everlasting God, in glorious wonder,
With dreadfull voice his fearfull Lavv doth thunder;
To showe, that His rev'rend, Divine Decrees
(Wherto all hearts should bow, and bend all knees)
Proceed not from a Politick Pretence,
A wretched Kingling, or a petty Prince
(Nymph-prompted Nvma, or the Spartans Lord,
Or him that did Cecropian strifes accord)
Nor from the mouth of any mortall man;
But from that King, who at his pleasure can
Shake Heav'n, and Earth, and Air, and all therin:
That Israel shall finde him (if they sin)

369

As terrible with Vengeance in his hand,
As dreadfull now in giving the Command:
And, that the Text of that drad Testament,
Grav'n in two Tables for vs impotent,
Hath in the same a sadder load compriz'd,
And heavier yoak, then is the yoak of Christ.
That, that doth showe vs Sin, threats, wounds and kils:
This offers Grace, Balm in our sores distils.

Redoubled Lightnings dazle th'Hebrews eies;

With what dreadfull Majesty it was delivered.

Cloud-sund'ring Thunder roars through Earth and Skies,
Louder and louder in careers and cracks,
And stately Sina's massie centre shakes,
And turneth round, and on his sacred top
A whirling flame round like a Ball doth wrap:
Vnder his rocky ribs, in Coombs belowe,
Rough-blust'ring Boreas, nurst with Riphean snowe,
And blub-cheekt Avster, puft with fumes before,
Met in the midst, iustling for room, do roar:
A cloak of clouds, all thorough-lin'd with Thunder,
Muffles the Mountain both aloft and vnder:
On Pharan now no shining Pharvs showes.
A Heav'nly Trump, a shrill Tantara blowes,
The winged Windes, the Lightning's nimble flash,
The smoaking storms, the whirl-fire's crackling clash,
And deafning Thunders, with the same do sing
(O wondrous consort!) th'everlasting King
His glorious Wisdom, who doth give the Law
To th'Heav'nly Troops, and keeps them all in aw.
But, as in Battell we can hear no more

Simile.

Small Pistol-shot, when once the Canons roar:
And as a Cornet soundeth cleer and rife

Simile.

Above the warbling of an Alman Fife;
A dradder voice (yet a distincter voice)
Whose sound doth drown all th'other former noise,
Roars in the Vale, and on the sacred Hill,
Which thrills the ears, but more the heart doth thrill
Of trembling Iacob: who, all pale for fear,
From God's own mouth these sacred words doth hear;

Hark, Israel: O Iacob, hear my Law:
Hear it, to keep it (and thy self in aw).
I am IEHOVA, I (with mighty hand)
Brought thee from bondage out of Egypt Land:
Adore Me only for thy God and Lord,

The Decalogue.

With all thy heart, in every Deed and Word.
Make thee none Image (not of any sort)
To thy own Works My Glory to transport.
Vse not my Name without respect and fear,
Never Blaspheam, neither thy self for-swear.

370

Six days vvork for thy food: but then (as I)
Rest on the Seaventh, and to my Temple hy.
To those that gave thee life, due Reverence give,
If thou desire long in the Land to live.
Imbrve thou not thy hand in hvmane blood.
Stain not anothers bed. Steal no mans good.
Bear no false vvitnes. Covet not to have
Thy Neighbours Wife, his Oxe, his Asse, his Slave,
His House, his Land, his Cattell, or his Coin,
His Place, his Grace, or ought that is not Thine.

The excellency of the Law of God.

Eternall Tutor, O Rule truely right
Of our frail life! our foot-steps Lanthorn bright:
O Soule's sweet Rest! O biting curb of Sin!
Which Bad despise, the Good take pleasure in:
Reverend Edicts vpon Mount Sina given,
How-much-fould sense is in few words contriven!
How wonder-full, and how exceeding far!
How plain, how sacred, how profound you are!
All Nations else, a thousand times (for cause)
Have writ, and raç't, and chopt, and chang'd their Laws;
Except the Iews: but they, although their State
With every Moon almost did innovate
(As somtimes having Kings, and somtimes none)
In all their changes kept their Law still One.

The inconstancy and vanity of Humane Lawes.

What resteth at this day of Salaminian,
Laconian Lavvs, or of the Carthaginian?
Yea Rome, that made even all the World one City,
So strong in Arms, and in States-Art so witty;
Hath, in the Ruines of her Prides rich Babels,
Left but a Relique of her Twice-Six-Tables.

Stability and authority of the Law of God.

But, since in Horeb the High-Thundring ONE
Pronounç't This Law, three-thousand times the Sun
Hath gallopt round Heav'ns golden Bandeleer,
Imbost with Beasts, studded with stars so cleer:
And yet one title hath not Time bereft;
Although the People vnto whom 'twas left,
Be now no People, but (expulst from home)
Through all the corners of the World do roam:
And though their State, through euerie Age almost,
On a rough Sea of Mischiefs hath been tost.

A Butt, a Brook, a Torrent doth confine
All other Lawes: Megarian Discipline
Hath nought of th'Attick: nor the Coronan
Of Theban Rites: nor Thebes of Cadmean:
But, this set Lavv, given Iacob's Generations,
Is the true Law of Nature and of Nations,
Which (sacred) sounds where-ever (to descry)
Th'all-searching Sun doth cast his flaming ey.

371

The Turks imbrace, the Christians honour it,
And Iews with Fear do euen adore it yet.

I only, I (Great God) thy Lavvs do spurn

How all men transgresse the same at euery part.

With my foul feet, I do thy Statutes scorn:
Puft in my Soule with extream Pride, before,
Nay in thy stead, I do my self Adore.
I Serue no wooden gods, nor Kneel to Stones;
But Couetous, I worship Golden ones.
I Name thee not, but in vain Blasphemy,
Or (Achab-like) in sad Hypocrisie.
I Rest the Sabbath: yet I break thy Lavv,
Seruing (for thee) mine idle Mouth and Maw.
I Reuerence Superiors, but in showe;
Not out of Loue, but as compelled so.
I Murder none: yet doth my Tongue too-rife
VVound others Fame, and my Hearts-hate their life.
I Ciuilize, left that I seem Obscœne:
But Lord (Thou know'st) I am Vnchast, vnclean.
I seem no Theef: yet tempted with my Want,
I take too oft the Fruit I did not plant.
I speak not much: yet in my little Talk,
Much Vanity, and many Lies do walk.
I Wish too-earnest, and too-oft (in fine)
For others Fortunes, male-content with mine.

Heer lie I naked: lo th'Anatomie

Remedy for all our sinnes.

Of my foul Heart, O Humane-Deity!
O Christ! th'Almightie's like All-mighty Word,
O put-me-on Thy Robe! as whilom (Lord)
Thou putst-on Mine: me in Thy Blood be-lave;
And in my Soule thy sacred Lawes ingraue.

While with the Duke, th'Eternall did deuise,
And to his inward sight did modulize
His Tabernacle's admirable Form,
And prudently him (faithfull) did inform
In a new Rubrick of the Rytes Diuine,
To th'end the Heirs of promis'd Palestin
After their fancy should not worship him,
Nor (Idol-prone) example leading them,
Into his sacred TEMPLE introduce
The Sacrifices that the Heathen vse;
But, by their Rytes to guide their spirituall eye
To Christ, the Rock on whom their hopes should lie;
Beholde (alas!) frail Aaron, Deputied

In Moses absence Aaron makes the golden Calfe.

During his absence, all the Flock to guide,
Dumb coward Curr, barks not against their ill;
But giuing way to the mad Peoples will,
Casteth a Goulden Calf, and sets it vp,
For them to worship, and vnto it stoop:

372

Gold, Rings and Iewels, which the Lord of Heav'n
Had (as Love-tokens) lately to them given,
Are cast into a Mould; and (which is worse)
Iacob, to wed a Calf, doth God divorce.
Those Feet, that dry-shod past the Crimsin Gulf,
Now dance (alas!) before a Molten Calf:
That Voice, which late on Etham sands had rung
Th'Almightie's glory, now to Satan sung.

Moses sharply reproves Aaron, breaks the Idol, and punisheth the idolaters.

The zealous Prophet, with iust fury moov'd,
'Fore all the Hoast, his Brother sharp reproov'd:
And pulveriz'd their Idol; and eft soons,
Flankt by olde Levie's most religious Sons,
Throngs through the Camp, and each wher strowes his way
With blood and slaughter, horror and dismay:

Simile.

As half a score of Reapers nimbly-neat,
With cheerfull ey choosing a plot of Wheat,
Reap it at pleasure, and of Ceres locks
Make hand-fulls sheaves, and of their sheaves makes shocks;
And through the Field from end to end do run,
Working a-vie, till all be down and don.

Simile.

Or, as so many Canons shot at-once
A front a Camp; th'Earth with the Thunder grones,
Heer flees a broken arm, and breaks another;
There stands th'one half of a halv'd body, th'other
Falls-down a furlong thence: heer flees a shield;
And deep-wide windows make they in the field.

Aaron & Mary (or Miriam) murmur against Moses.

All these sure signes of God's dear estimate
Cannot confirm the Hebrew Magistrate
In his Authority: euen Aaron spites-it,
And Miriam (his Sister) too back-bites-it.
But suddainly, on her in his Defence,
Foul Leprosie did punish this Offence.

Nadab and Abihu for offring of strange Fire, are kild by Fire from Heaven.

His Nephews, scorning his Command, aspire
Before the Lord to offer forrain Fire:
But on them soon a heav'nly Flame down-falling
(As in the Sommer som hot-dry Exhaling,
Or Blazing-Star with suddain flash doth fall
At Palmers feet, and him affright with-all:)
Fires instantly their beards and oyled hair,
And all the sacred vestiments they wear;
Exhales their blood, their Bodies burns to ashes,
Their Censers melts with heat of Lightning flashes,
Their coals are quenched all, and sacred Flame
Th'vnhallow'd Fire devour'd and over-came.

Core, Dathan and Abiram, their conspiracy.

His Kins-man Core then (with Dathan ioyn'd,
And with Abiram) murmur'd and repin'd:
O see, saith he, how many a subtil gin
The Tyrant sets to snare our Freedomins!

373

How we, abus'd with Oracles most vain,
(Which Moses and his brother Aaron fain)
For idle hopes of promis'd Signories,
Do simply lose our sweetest Liberties!
See, how they do ingross between them two,
Into one House, Scepter and Ephod too:
See, how they dally, and with much delay
Prolong their Iorney to prolong their Sway:
And (to conclude) see how sly Course they take,
To build their Greatness on our grievous wrack.
Hear'st thou me (Moses) if thou chiefly ioy
To see thy Brethren's torments and annoy,
'Twer good to walk vs yet for ten years more
About these Mountains in these Desarts poor:
Keep vs still Exiles; Let vs (our Desire)
Languish, wax-olde, and in these Sands expire,
Where cruell Serpents haunt vs still at hand,
A Fruit-less, Flood-less, yea a Land-less Land.
If, rear'd from Youth in Honour, thine Ambition
Cannot com down to priuat mens condition,
Be Captain, Duke and King: for, God approves-thee,
Thy Vertues guard, the Peop'e fears and loves-thee.
But as for Aaron, What is his desert?
What High exploit, what Excellence, what Art
Gain'd him th'High-Priesthood? O good God, what shame?
Alas! hath he for any thing got fame
But Horebs Horn-God? for despising thee,
And thy Commands; and for Conspiracie?

The morrow next, before the Sacred Tent
This Mutiner with sacred Censer went
Adorn'd, selfe-gazing, with a lofty ey,
His faction present; Aaron also by.

Lord shield thy Cause, approve thee veritable,
Let not thy Name be to the Lewd a Fable:
Oint thine Anointed publikely: by Miracle,
Showe whom thou hast selected for thine Oracle,
Said Moses then; and even as yet he spake,
The groaning Earth began to reel and shake,
A horrid Thunder in her bowels rumbles,
And in her bosom vp and down it tumbles,

Their dreadfull punishment.

Tearing her Rocks, Vntill she Yawn a way
To let it out, and to let-in the Day:
Heav'n sees to Hell, and Hell beholdeth Heav'n,
And Divels dazled with the glistring leav'n
Of th'ancient Sun, yet lower fain would diue;
But chain'd to th'Centre all in vain they striue.
Core, round compast with his Rebel friends,
Offers to Belzebvb and to the Fiends:

374

His bodie's batter'd with Rocks falling down,
And arms of Trees there planted vp-side-down:
He goes with Noyse down to the Silent Coast,
Intoombd alive, without all Art or cost.
And all the rest that his proud side assum'd,
Scaping the Gulf, with Lightning are consum'd.

Aarons charge is confirmed by miracle.

And Aaron's Office is confirm'd by God,
With wondrous Signes of his oft-quickned Rod,
Which dead, re-buds, re-blooms, and Almonds bears;
When all his Fellows have no life in theirs.

Sundry victories of the Israelites, vnder the conduct and direction of Moses.

Now, shall I sing, through Moses prudent Sway,
How Israel doth Amalec dismay,
Arad and Og (that of huge Giants springs)
Proud Hesebon, and the fiue Madian Kings,
With the false Prelat, who profanely made
Of Prophets-gifts a sacrilegious trade;
Who false, sayes true; who striving (past all shame)
To force the Spirit, is forced by the same:
Who, snaring th'Hebrews with frail Beauties graces,
Defiles their bodies, more their soules defaces?
Doubt-less his Deeds are such, as would I sing
But halfe of them, I vnder-take a thing
As hard almost, as in the Gangic Seas
To count the Waues, or Sands in Euphrates;
And, of so much, should I a little say,
It were to wrong him, and his Praise betray.

Reseruing the Wars for another Discourse, our Poet hasteth to the death of Moses.

His Noble Acts we therefore heer suspend,
And skip vnto his sweet and happy End:
Sith, th'End is it whereby we iudge the best
(For either Life) how Man is Curst or Blest.

Feeling his vigour by degrees to waste,
And, one Fire quencht, another kindling fast,
Which doth his Spirit re-found, his Soule refine,
And raise to Heav'n, whence it was sent divine;

By his example Men are warned not to defer to make their Will til it be too late to be troubled with the business of this World.

He doth not (Now) study to make his Will,
T'Entail his Land to his Male-Issue still:
Wisely and iustly to divide his Good,
To Sons and Daughters, and his neerest Blood:
T'assigne his Wife a Dowry fair and fit,
A hundred times to adde, and alter it:
To quittance Friendships, with frank Legacies:
To guerdon Service with Annuities,
To make Executors, to Cancel som,
T'appoint himselfe a Palace for a Tomb.
I praise a care to settle our estate:
But, when Death threats vs, then it is too-late.
A seemly Buriall is a sacred Rite:
But let the living take that charge of right.

375

He (lifting higher his last thoughts) besides
The Common-Weale's care, for the Church prouides,
And grauing his discourse with voyce devout,
Bids thus Farwell to all that stand about:

O Iacob's seed (I might say, my deer sons)

He pronounceth the blessing and the curses written in Leuit. 26. & Deutero. 28. where vnto the people say Amen.

Y'are sense-less more then metalls stocks or stones,
If y'haue forgot the many-many Miracles
Wher-with the Lord hath seal'd my sacred Oracles;
And all the Favours (in this sauage Place)
In forty yeers receiued of his grace.
Therefore (O Israel) walk thou in his fear,
And in thy hearts-hart (not in Marble) beare
His ever-lasting Lavv: before him stand,
And to his Service consecrate thy hand.

If this thou do, thy Heav'n-blest fleecie Flocks

Blessings on those that obey.

Shall bound about thy Pastures, Downs and Rocks,
As thick as skip in Sommer, in a Mead,
The Grass-hoppers, that all with Deaw are fed:
Thy fruitfull Eaws, fat Twins shall bring thee euer
And of their Milk shall make a plentious Riuer:
Th'olde Tyrant loads not with so-many loans,
Toules, Taxes, Succours, Impositions,
The panting Vassalls to him Tributary,
As thy rich Fields shall pay thee voluntary:
Thy children and thy children's children, set
About thy Table side by side at meat,
Shall flourish like a long and goodly rowe
Of pale-green Olives that vprightly growe
About a ground, and (full of Fruit) presage
Plenty of Oyl vnto their Master sage:
Sons of thy sons shall serue thy reuerend Eld:
Thou shalt die quiet, thou shalt liue vnqueld:
Blessed at home, and blessed in the Plain:
The blessed God shall send thee timely Rain,
And holsom windes, and with his keyes of grace
Open Heav'ns store-house to thy happy Race:
Thy proud fell Foes with Troops of armed men
Shall charge thee one way, but shall flie thee ten;
The Peace-Plant Olive, or Triumphant Bay
Shall shade thy gates: Thy valour shall dismay
And daunt the Earth: and with his sacred aw
Thy Sauiour-King shall giue the World the Law.

If other-wise; the Megrim, Gowt, and Stone,

Curses on the Disobedient.

Shall plague thee fell with thousand pangs in one
Thy numbry Flocks in part shall barren be,
In part shall bring abortives vnto thee:
Accurst at home, accursed in the Plain,
Thy labour boot-less, and thy care in vain:

376

Thy Field shall be of steel, thy Heav'n of brass,
Thy Fountains dry: and God displeas'd (alas!)
In steed of holsom showrs, shall send down flashes
Of Lightning, Fire, Hail, Sulphur, Salt, and ashes:
Thou shalt reap little where thou much hast shed,
And with that little shall thy Foe be fed;
He shall the fattest of thy Heard devour
Before thy face, and yet thou must not lowr:
Thou shalt build fair, another haue thy Place:
Thou wed a wife, another 'fore thy face
Shall lose her Bride-belt: God with rage shall smite
Thy stubborn heart, with blindness and affright;
So that a wagging leaf, a puff, a crack,
Yea, the least creak shall make thee turn thy back:
Thou never shalt thine adverse Hoast survay,
But to be beaten, or to run away.
A People stout, for strength and number ample,
Which th'Eagle hath for Ensigne and Example,
With a new Wall thine ancient Wall shall dam,
And make thee (Famisht) thy voyd bowels cram
With thine owne bowels, and for want of meat
Thine owne deer Children's trembling flesh to eat.
And then, thy Remnant (far disperst from home)
O'r all the Corners of the Earth shall roam:
To shew their Curse, they shall no Countrey ow'ne,
And (which is worse) they shall not be their Owne.

AMEN, said all the Hoast. Then (like the Swan)
This dying Song, the Man of GOD began:

The Song Of Moses.

Sith Israel (O wil-full!) will not hear;
Hearken O Heavens, and O thou Earth giue ear
Vnto my voyce, and Witness (on my part)
Before the Lord, my zeal and their hard hart.

O Heav'n and Earth attend vnto my Song,
Hear my discourse, which sweetly slides along;
As silver showrs on the dry Meads do trill,
And hony deaws, on tender grass distill.

God grant (I pray) that in their hearts my Verse
(As water on the withered Lawns) may pearce:
And that the hony dropping from my tongue
May serue the olde for rain, for deaw the young.

I sing th'Eternall: O let Heav'n and Earth
Com praise him with me, sound his glory forth,
Extoll his powr, his perfect Works record,
Truth, Goodnes, Greatnes, Iustice of the Lord.

377

But, though for ever He haue showen him such;
His children yet (no Children, rather much
A Bastard Race) full of malicious sin,
All kinde of vice haue foully wallowed in.

O foolish People! doost thou thus requite
His Father-care, who fenç't thee day and night,
As with a Shield? Who chose thee as his heir?
Who made thee, of so foul a mass, so fair?

Vn-winde the bottom of olde Times again,
Of Ages past vn-reel the snarled skain:
Ask of thy Parents and they shall declare;
Thine Elders, and they'l tell thee Wonders rare.

They'l tell thee, how, when first the Lord had spred
Men on the Earth, and iustly levelled
His strait long Measure, th'All-Ball to divide,
He did for thee a plentious Land provide:

For his deer Iacob, whom his fauour then
Seem'd t'haue sequestred from the rest of men,
To th'end his Blessed Seed (in future age)
Should be his care, Loue, Lot and Heritage.

They'l tell thee too, how through the sandy horror
Of a vast Desart, Den of ghastly Terror,
Of Thirst and Hunger, and of Serpents fell,
He by the hand conducted Israel:

Yea (of his goodnes) to direct him still,
By Word and Writ show'd him his sacred Will;
Vnder his wings shade hid him tenderly,
And held him deer, as apple of his ey.

As is the royall Eagle's sacred wont,
When she would teach her tender Birds to mount,
To flie and cry about her Nest, to cheer-them;
And when they faint, on her wingd back to bear-them:

God (without aid of other Gods or Graces)
Safe guide, hath made him mount the highest Places,
Such Oyl and Hony from the Rocks distilling,
In plentious Land with pleasant Fruits him filling.

He gaue him Milk and Butter for his meat,
Kid, Lamb, and Mutton, with the flowr of Wheat;
And for his Drink, a most delicious Wine
(The sprightfull blood of the broad-spreading Vine).

378

But, waxen fat, he lifts his wanton heel
Against his God (to whom his soule should kneel:
Forsakes his Maker, and contemns the Same
That saved him from danger, death, and shame.

Then, he inflam'd the fury of the Lord,
With profane bowing to false Gods abhord:
With serving Idols, and with Sacrificing
To Fiends, and Phansies of his own devising.

For vain false gods, gods vn-renown'd, and new,
Gods that his Fathers nor he never knew,
He hath forgot the true eternall Beeing,
The God of whom he holdes his bliss and being.

God saw it well, and Iealously a-fire,
Against his Children thus he threats his ire:
No; I will hide the brightness of my face,
I'll take from them the treasures of my grace,

Then let vs see what will of them becom:
But, what but mischiefe can vnto them com,
That so perverse with every puff let fly
Their Faith, sole constant in inconstancy?

Th'have made me ieloux of a god, no god:
I'll make them ieloux, I will Wed (abroad)
A People (yet) no People: And their brest
Shall split, for spight, to see the Nations blest.

Devouring Fire, that from my heart doth fume,
Shall fiercely burn and in my wrath consume
The deep of Deeps, the middle Downs, and Fields,
And strong foundations of the steepest Hils.

I'll spend on them my store of punishments,
And all mine Arrows; Famine, Pestilence,
Wilde Beasts, and Worms that basely crawling are,
Without remorse shall make them end-less War.

Abroad, the Sword their strong men shall devour,
At home, through Fear, the Virgin in her flowr,
The fresh young Youth, the sucking Children small,
And hoary head, dead to the ground shall fall.

Yea, even already would I quite deface
And clean destroy them, I would Iacob race,
Raze his memoriall from the Earth for ay,
But that I fear the Heathen thus would say:

379

We haue prevail'd, we by our strength alone
Have quell'd this People, and them over-throwen:
'Twas not their God that did it for their Sins;
No, He himselfe is vanquisht with his Friends.

Ha! sottish blocks, void of all sense and sight:
Could one man put a thousand men to flight;
And two, ten thousand, if the God of Arms
Had not even sould their Troops and bourd their arms?

For God, our God, doth all their gods surpass:
They knowe it well: but, their Wine springs (alas!)
From Sodom's Vine, and grew in Gomor's fields,
Which Gall for Grapes, for Raysins Poyson yeelds.

It is no Wine: no, the black bane it is,
The killing vomit of the Cockatrice;
'Tis bitter venom, 'tis the same that coms
From the fell Aspik's foul infecting gums.

Do not I know it? keep not I account
(In mine Exchequer) how their sins do mount?
Vengeance is mine: I will (in fine) repay
In my due time: I will not long delay.

Their Ruin posteth: then, th'Omnipotent
Shall Iudge for Iacob: then will I repent
To quite destroy mine owne beloved People,
Seeing their strength all fail'd and wholly feeble.

'Twill then be said, Where are their gods becom
(Their deaf, dull Idols, sent-less, sight-less, dumb)
To whom they lift their hearts, and hands, and eyes,
And (as their Guards) so oft did sacrifice?

Now let those trim Protectors them protect;
Let them rise quickly and defend their Sect,
Their Fires and Altars; and com stand before,
To shield the Fondlings that their Fanes adore.

Know therefore, Mortals, I th'Immortal am:
There's none like Me, in or aboue this Frame:
I wound, I heal; I kill, I fetch from Graue,
And from my hands none can the Sinner saue.

I'll lift my hand toward th'arched Heav'ns on high,
And swear with-all by mine Eternity
(Which only Beeing, giues to all to Been)
That if I whet my Sword of Vengeance keen:

380

I force (I say) as soverain King alone,
I sit me down on my high iustice Throne,
I'll venge me roughly on mine Enemies,
And guerdon iustly their iniquities:

My heart-thrill Darts I will make drunk with blood,
I'll glut my sword with slaughter; all the brood
Of rebell Nations I will face (in fine)
To recompense the blood and death of Mine.

O Gentiles, then his People praise and fear,
Sith to the Lord it is so choisely deer:
Sith hee'l avenge his Cause; and, beating down
His enemies, will mildly cheer his Own.

FINIS.

381

4. The Captaines.

THE IIII. PART OF OF THE THIRD DAY OF THE II. WEEK.

The Argvment.

Iust Duked Iosvah cheers the Abramides
To Canaan's Conquest: Iordan self-divides:
Re-Circumcision, what, and where, and why:
Sackt Iericho: Hai won (so Achan die):
Gabaonites guile: strange Hail: the Sun stands still:
Nature repines. Iews (Guide-less) prone to ill.
Adoni-Bezec. Sangar, Debora,
Barac and Iahel conquer Sisara.
Samuel succeeds: Iews craue a King: a vie
Of People-Sway; States-Rule: and Monarchy.

Hail holy Iordan, and you blessed Torrents
Of the pure Waters, of whose crystall Currents

Canaan saluted.

So many Saints haue sipt: O Walls, that rest
Fair Monuments of many a famous Guest:
O Hills, O Dales, O Fields so flowry sweet,
Where Angels oft haue set their sacred feet:
And thou O sacred Place, which wert the Cradle
Of th'only Man-God, and his happy Swadle:
And thou O Soil, (which drank'st the crimsin Showr
That (for our health) out of his veins did pour:
And you fat Hillocks (which I take as given
For a firme pledge of the full ioyes of Heav'n)
Where milk and Hony flowe; I see you all,
Vnder the conduct of my Generall,
Nvn's valiant Son: and vnder Gedeon's Sway,
Sangar, and Samson, Barac, Debora.

382

Argument of this Tract.

For, heer (braue Heroes) your high Feats I sing;
Thrice sacred Spirit, thy speedie succour bring:
O Spirit, which wert their Guide, Guard, strength and stay,
Let not my Verse their Vertue's praise betray.

Iosvah, by Favour nor by Bribes, obtains

Iosua his iust authority, over the People of Israell.

A higher Rank then Royall Soverains
(Who buies in gross, he by retail must sell:
And who gives Favour, Favour asks as well):
He gets it not by Fortune (she is sight-less):
Neither by Force (for, whoso enters (Right-less)
By Force, is forced to go out with shame):
Nor sodain climbs he (raw) vnto the same
(For, to high Place, who mounts not step by step,
He coms not down, but head-long down doth leap):

Simile.

But, even as that grave-gracefull Magistrate,
Which (now) with Conscience, Law doth Moderate,
Was first a Student (vnder others aw)
Then Barister, then Counseller at-Law,
Then Queens Solicitor, then Roules-Arbitrer,
And then Lord-keeper, now Lord Chanceler;
He coms to 't by degrees: and hauing first
Show'n Himselfe wise in spying Canaan yerst,
Faith-full to Moses in his Ministrings,
And Stout in Fight against the Heathen Kings,
God makes him Captain, and the sacred Priests
Pronounce him so, the People pleased is.

His first Oration to the People.

But in his State yer he be stall'd (almost)
Set in the midst of God's beloved Hoast,
He thus dilates: O happy Legions deer,
Which sacred Arms vnder Heav'ns Ensignes beare,
Fear not that I, yet forty years, again
Your wandring Troops in these vast sands should train
'Twixt Hope and Fear: th'vn-hallowed Offerings,
The proud revolts, blasphemous Murmurings
Of your stiff Fathers, have with-holden rather
Then whole with-draw'n th'aid of your heauenly Father:
God tenders it in time, and (pacifi'd)
Nills the set Term without effect should slide.
Serve him therfore, now take him at his word,
And now to Canaan march with one accord,
And bravely shewe that th'Hoast of Israel,
In Valour, far doth his drad Fame excell.

Courageous Iacob, Arad's stoutest hearts
And strongest Holdes have prov'd thy Pikes and Darts,
The Madianites have thine Arms thunder knowen,
Th'hast razed Bazan, ransackt Hezebon,
Scap't scaly Serpents (in these Desarts vast)
Crost the Red-Sea; and Heav'n-prop Sina past,

383

And sent to Hell thy draddest Foes: Lo, now
God offers thee the Crown, accept it thou.

Then turning him to Rvben and to Gad,

He vrgeth particularly Ruben, Gad, and Manasses to take part with their Brethren, in prosecuting the Conquest of Canaan.

And to Manasses, who their Portion had
By Moses grant on Iordan's Eastern verge;
War-eloquent, he thus proceeds to vrge:
Can you (my Harts) finde in your hearts to leaue
Your Ranks, and vs thus of your aids bereaue?
Will you lie wrapped in soft beds a-sleep,
While in colde Trenches your poor Brethren keep?
Will you sit washing (when your Feasts be don)
In sweet Rose-water, while that Orion
His cloudy store in storm-full fury pours,
And drowns your Brethren with continuall showrs?
Will you go dance and dally to and fro,
While in the Field they march to charge the Foe?
Will you expect a part with them in gain,
While they the blowes and all the brunt sustain?
God shield, you should dishonour so your Blood:
Nay rather (leaving on this side the Flood
Your Wiues and Children, and (vnfit for Battell)
Your aged Parents, and your Heards of Cattell)
Com arm your selues, t'advance our Victories,
And share with vs in Perill, as in Prize.

O noble Prince (then all the Hoast reply'd)

The general and ioyfull answer of the people.

March-on a Gods name; and good Hap betide:
Were Canaan turn'd another Wilderness,
Were there before vs yet more crimsin Seas,
Were Horeb, Carmel, and Mount Seir set
Each vpon other (vp to Heav'n to get)
We'l follow thee through all; and only th'end
Of our owne liues shall our brave Iourney end.

After the Ark, then march they in aray
Direct to Iordan, praising all the way
That living God, whose match-less mighty hand
Parted the Sea, that they might pass by Land.

Hoar-headed Iordan neatly lodged was

A poeticall and pleasant description of the Riuer Iordan.

In a large Caue, built all of beaten Glass;
Whose waved Seeling, with exceeding cost,
The Nymphs (his Daughters) rarely had imbost
With Pearls and Rubies, and in-lay'd the rest
With Nacre checks, and Corall of the best:
A thousand Streamlings that n'er saw the Sun,
With tribute silver to his service run:
There, Iris, Avster, and Clowds blewly black
Continually their liquor leaue and take:
There, th'aged Flood lay'd on his mossie bed,
And pensiue leaning his flag-shaggie head

384

Vpon a Tuft, where th'eating waues incroach,
Did gladly wait for Israels approach:
Each haire he hath is a quick-flowing stream,
His sweat the gushing of a storm extream,
Each sigh a Billow, and each sob he sounds
A swelling Sea that over-flowes his bounds:
His weak gray eyes are alwaies seen to weep,
About his loyns a rush-Belt wears he deep,
A Willow Wreath about his wrinkled brows;
His Father Nerevs his complexion showes.

So soon as He their welcom rumour heard
His frosty head aboue the Waues he rear'd,
With both his hands strook back behinde his ears
The waving Tresses of his weeping hairs:
And then perceiving Iacob's Army stay'd
By his prowd streams, he chid them thus, and said:

Prosopopœia.

Presumptuous Brook, dar'st thou (ingratefull Torrent)
Lift-vp thy horn, lash-out thy swelling Current
Against the Lord, and over-flowe thy bound
To stop his passage? Shall the Floods profound
Of the prowd Ocean to his Hoast give-way?
Shall Egypt's honour, shall that Gulf (I say)
That long large Sea, which with his plentious waves
A third or fourth part of the World be-laves;
Shall That yeeld humbly at his Servant's beck?
And thou, poor Rill, or gutter (in respect)
Resist himselfe (his glorious selfe) that Inns
Heer in his Ark, between the Cherubins?
And saying so, he on his shoulder flung
His deep wide Crock, that on his hip had hung,
And down his back pours back-ward all his course.
The stream returns towards his double source;
And, leaving dry a large deep lane betwixt,
The fearfull waves in heaped Hils were fixt,
To give God place, and passage to his hoast,
Towards their Promis'd and appointed coast.

The Israelites passe dry-shod through Iordan.

So, dry they pass (after the sacred Oracle)
And leaue Memorials of that famous Miracle
Vpon Mount Gilgal: and their flesh anon
They seal with Signe of their Adoption.
For, the All-guiding God, th'Almighty Prince,
To giue to His som speciall difference,

Circumcision.

Will'd that all Males of Abram's Progenies
With sacred Rasor should them Circumcise;
And ever-more, that Isaac's blessed Race
Should in their Fore-skin bear his gage of Grace.

A curious Question, why it was appointed in such a place.

But, why (sayst thou) should ancient Israel,
In such a secret place Record and Seal

385

Th'Act of the Covenant: and with bloody smart
Ingrave their glory in a shamefull part?

Who blushes at it, is a grace-less Beast:

A sharp and sober answer.

Who shames to see the Signe of Grace imprest
In shamefull part, he is asham'd of Christ.
Born of that Race, and selfly Circumcis'd.

A hundred subtill Reasons from the Writs
Of Rabbins could I bring: but, sober Wits
Rest satisfied, conceiving that th'incision
Of th'obscœne Fore-skin, signifies th'abscission,

The right application and vse thereof.

Or sacred cutting-off of foul Affects,
Beseeming those whom God for His elects:
That God the Fruits of Flesh and Blood doth hate:
And that through Christ we must regenerate.

Now, th'Hebrews kept their Pass-over; and go

The Passeover.

(By Heav'ns address) to mighty Iericho,
Besieging so the City round about,
That fear got in, but nothing could get out.

Souldiers (said then th'vndaunted Generall)

The siege of Iericho after a strange manner.

Prepare no Mattocks, Ladders, nor Rams at all,
To mine, or scale, or batter-down these Tows:
The great, the high, the mighty God of Powrs
Will fight himself alone: and then he bod
(As first himself had been inform'd by God)
That daily once they all should march the Round
About the City with horn-Trumpets sound;
Bearing about, for only Banneret,
The light-full Ark, GOD's sacred Cabinet:

The Citizens deride it.

Their swords vn-drawn, not making any noise,
Threat-less their brows, and without braves their voice,
No shaft to shoot, no signe of War, no glance,
And even their March doth rather seem a Dance.

What Childre-spell? what May-game have we heer?
What? dare you (Gallants) dare you com no neer?
Is this your brave Assault? is this your Fight?
Ween you with Scar-crowes vs (like birds) to fright?
(Said the besieged) get you som where else
(Poor sots) to shewe your Bug-bears and your spels:
Cease your hoarse musick, leave the stage alone:
Fools, draw the Curten, now your Play is done.

Six dayes together had the Hebrews thus't

On the 7 day, their wals of themselves fall down.

About the Town, seaven-times the Seventh they must;
When sacred Levits sound more lowd and high
Their horny Trumps: then all the people cry,
Com, com (great God) com, batter, batter down
These odious walls, this Idol wedded Town.

It cracks in th'instant, the foundation shrinks,
The mortar crumbles from the yawning chinks,

386

Each stone is loose, and all the wall doth quiver,
And all at once vnto the ground doth shiuer
With hideous noyse; and th'Heathen Guarison
Is but immur'd with Clowds of dust alone:

Simile.

So shall you see a Clowd-crown'd Hill somtime,
Torn from a greater by the waste of Time,
Dreadly to shake, and boundling down to hop;
And roaring, heer it roules tall Cedars vp,
There aged Oaks; it turns, it spurns, it hales
The lower Rocks into th'affrighted Vales,
There sadly sinks, or suddain stops the way
Of som swift Torrent hasting to the Sea.

Boast you, O Bombards, that you Thunder drown:
And vaunt you, Mines, that you turn vp side-down
Rampires and Towrs, and Walls the massie-most:
Yet, your exploits require both time and cost;
You make but a small breach, but a rough way,
And (by mischance) oft your own side betray,
But, th'Hebrews with a suddain showt and cry,
A whole great Town dis-mantle instantly,
And (vnresisted) entring every-where,
They exercise all hostile vengeance there.

Simile.

And, as a sort of lusty Bil-men, set
In Wood-sale time to fell a Cops, by great;
Be-stir them so, that soon with sweating pain,
They turn an Oak-groue to a field of grain:

Iericho sackt and consumed with fire, and all her inhabitants put to the sword without respect of State, Sexe or Age.

So th'Hebrew Hoast, without remorse or pitty,
Through all sad corners of the open City,
Burn, break, destroy, bathe them in blood, and toyl
To lay all leuell with the trampled soyl:
The Idol's Temples, and the delicat
Prince-Palaces are quickly beaten flat:
The Fire lowd-crackling with the Clowds doth meet,
A bloody Torrent runs through euery street,
Their venge-full sword spares neither great nor small;
Neither the Childe that on his hands doth crawl,
Nor him that wears snowe on his shaking head,
Ice in his heart; not the least Peast they bred.
A deed (indeed) more worthy th'Heseline,
Than th'holy Hebrews; had the voice Divine
Not charg'd them so, and choicely armed them
'Gainst Iericho, with his owne

Curse.

Anathem;
Reseruing only for his Sacred Place,
The Gold and Siluer, th'Iron and the Brass.

Acham's Sacriledge.

Yet sacrilegious Achan dar'd to hoord
Som precious Pillage: which incenst the Lord
Against the Camp, so that he let, them fly
(For this Offence) before their Enemy.

387

For, when three thousand chosen Israelites
Were sent to Hai t'assault the Cananites,

Hai summoned the Townes men sally & put the Israelites to flight.

The Town all armes: their Prince the forwardest
(No less-brave Souldier then proud Athëist)
Arms the broad Mountain of his hairy breast;
With horrid scales of Nilus greedy beast;
His brawny arms and shoulders, with the skin
Of the dart-darting wily Porcupin:
He wears for Helm a Dragon ghastly head,
Wher-on for Plume a huge Horse-tail doth spread;
Not much vnlike a Birch-tree bare belowe,

The antik armour of the King. His insolent and blasphemous Oration.

Which at the top in a thick tuft doth growe,
Waving with euery winde, and made to kiss
Th'Earth, now on that side, and anon on this:
In Quyver made of Lezard's skins he wears
His poysoned Arrows; and the Bowe he bears,
Is of a mighty Tree, strung with a Cable,
His Shaft a Lever, whose keen head is able
To pearce all proof, stone, steel, and Diamant.
Thus furnished, the Tyrant thus doth vaunt:
Sirs, shall we suffer this ignoble Race,
Thus shamefully vs from our Owne to chase?
Shall they be Victors yet they overcom?
Shall our Possessions and our Plenty com
Among these Mongrels? Tush: let Children quake
At dreams of Abram: let faint Women shake
At their drad God, at their Sea-drying Lord;
I know no Gods aboue my glittering Sword.
This sayd, he sallies and assaults the Foe
With furious skirmish; and doth charge them so,
As stormy billows rush against a Rock:

3. Simile.

As boystrous windes (that haue their prison broak)
Roar on a Forrest: as Heav'ns sulph'ry Flash
Against proud Mountains surly brows doth dash.

The sacred Troops (to conquer alwayes wont)
Could not sustain his first tempestuous brunt,
But turn their backs: and, as they fly amain,
Foure less than fourty of their band were slain.

Iosuah and the Prince of Israel humbled before the Lord in Prayer.

The son of Nvn then (with th'Isacian Peers)
Before the Ark in prostrate wise appeares.
Sack on his back, dust on his head, his eyes
Even great with teares, thus to the Lord he cries:
O! what alas? what haue we don, O Lord?
The People, destin'd to thy Peoples sword,
Conquers thy people; and the Cananites
(Against thy Promise) chase the Israelites.
O Lord, why did not Iordans rapid Tyde
Still stay our Hoast vpon the other side?

388

Sith heer, in hope to get the Promis'd more,
We hazzard all that we had won before.
Regard and guard vs; nay, regard thy Name:
O! suffer not the seed of Abraham
(Almighty Father, O thou God most high!)
To be expos'd to Heathen's Tyranny!
Much less thy sacred Ark, for them to burn:
And least of all, thy glorious Self, to scorn.

Iosvah (sayd God) let th'Hoast be sanctifi'd,
And let the Church-thief die, that dar'd to hide
Th'vn-lawfull Pillage of that cursed Town
(The Mayden Conquest, prime of thy Renown):
Then shalt thou vanquish, and the lofty Towrs
Of Hai shal fall vnder thy war-like powrs.

The morrow next, after the great Assise,

Achan executed.

Achan (conuicted, not by bare surmize,
But by God's Spirit, which vndermines our mindes,
And cleerly sees our secretest designes;
To whom, Chance is no Chance, and Lot no Lot,
To whom the Die vncertain rouleth not)
Is brought without the Hoast, with all hee hath,
And sacrifiç'd vnto th'Almighties wrath.

Now, between Bethel and Hai's western wall,
There lies a valley close inuiron'd all
Between the forking of a Hill so high,
That it is hidden from all passers-by:
Whose horned clifts, below are hollowed,
And with two Forrests arbour'd ouer-head:
'Tis long and narrow; and a rapid Torrent,
Bounding from Rock to Rock with roaring Current,
Deaffens the Shepheards: so that it should seem
Nature fore-cast it for som stratagem.

An ambush.

Thither the Duke (soon after mid-night) guides
His choycest Bands, and them there war'ly hides:
Ech keeps his place, none speaks, none spets, none coughs;
But all as still, as if they march on moss:

Simile.

So fallow Wolues, when they intend to set
On fearfull flocks that in their Folds do bleat,
Through silent dardness secret ways do groap;
Their feet are feathered with the wings of hope,
They hold their breath, and so still vn-discri'd,
They pass hard by the watchfull Mastie's side.

Mean-while the howrs opened the doors of Day,
To let out Titan that must needs away:
Whose radiant tresses, but with trailing on,
Began to gild the top of Libanon;
When, with the rest of all his Hoast, the

Signifieth but an Earle: but here it is vsurped for the chiefe Captain Iosuah.

Grave
Marcheth amain to giue the Town a braue,

389

They straight re-charge him: as in season warm
The hony-makers busie-buzzing swarm,
With humming threats throngs from the little gates

Simile.

Of their round Towr, and with their little hates
Fiercely assayl, and wound the naked skins
Of such as come to rob their curious Inns.

Why (Cowards) dare you com again for blowes?
Or, do you long your wretched liues to lose?
Com, we are for you; wee'l dispatch you soon:
And for the many wrongs that you haue don
Vnto ourselues, our Neighbours, and our Friends,
This day our swords shall make vs full amends
(Cry th'Amorites): and th'Hebrew Captain then

A stratagem.

Flies, as affraid, and with him all his men
Disorderly retire; still faining so,
Till (politik) he hath in-trayn'd the Foe
Right to his Ambush: then the Souldiers there,
Hid in the Vale hearing their noise so neer,
Would fain be at them, were they not with-held
By threatning gestures of Commanding Eld:
So haue I seen on Lamborn's pleasant Douns,

Simile.

When yelping Begles or som deeper Hounds
Haue start a Hare, how milk-white Minks and Lun
(Gray-bitches both, the best that euer run)
Held in one leash, haue leapt and strain'd, and whin'd
To be restrain'd, till (to their masters minde)
They might be slipt, to purpose; that (for sport)
Watt might haue law, neither too-long nor short.

But, when the Heathen had the ambush past,
The Duke thus cheers his sacred Troops as fast,
Sa, sa, my Hearts; turn, turn again vpon-them,
They are your own; now charge, and cheerly on-them.
His ready Souldiers at a beck obay,
And on their Foes courageous load they lay:
They shoot, they shock, they strike, they stab, they kill

Hai, conquered.

Th'vnhallowed Currs, that yet resisted still;
Vntill behind them a new storm arose
With horrid noise, which daunts not only those,
But with the fury of it's force doth make
The Hills and Forrests, and euen Hell to quake.

Pagans, what will you do? If heer you fly,
You fall on Caleb, where y'are sure to dy:
If there, on Iosuah: O vnfortunate!
Your help-less gods in vain you invocate.
Y'are (O forlorn!) like Rabbets round beset
With wily Hunters, Dogs, and deadly Net:
With shrill Sa-haw, heer-heer-ho, heer-again,

Simile.

The Warren rings; th'amazed Game amain

390

Runs heer and there: but, if they scape away
From Hounds, staues kill them; if from staues, the Hay.
Yeeld, yeeld, and dy then, strive not to retire:
For, even in death behould your Town a-fire.

Then Gabaon, a mighty City neer,
That these Exploits of Heav'ns drad hand did hear,
Sent subtilly, to League with Israel.
No: y'are deceiv'd (said then th'Arch-Colonel)
The Cananites are destin'd long ago
To Fire, and Sword, and vtter Over-throwe;
From Heav'ns high Iudge the Sentence doth proceed:
Man may not alter what God hath decreed.

The Gibeonites' cunning policy, to make league with Israel.

Alas! my Lord (reply'd th'Embassadors)
You may perceive, we are no Borderers
Vpon these Countries: For, our suits, our slops,
Our hose and shoos, were new out of the shops
When we set forth from home; and even that day
This Bread was baked when we came away;
But the long Iourney, we have gon, hath wore
Our cloaths to rags, and turn'd our victuals hoar.
W'adiure you therefore in the sacred Name
Of that drad GOD to whom your vows you frame,
By the sweet air of this delightfull Coast,
By the good Angell that conducts your Hoast,
By dear Embraces of your dearer Wives,
And by your Babes (even) dearer then your lives;
By each of these, and all of these together,
And by your Arms, whose Fame hath drawn vs hither,
T'have pity on vs, and to swear vnto-vs,
To save our lives, and not so to vndo-vs,
As these neer Nations. Israel accords,
And with an Oath confirms the solemn words.

A sacred application of their profane example.

So, I (good Lord) perceiving all the Seed
Of Sin-full Adam vnto Death decreed,
Doom'd to the Vengeance of thy Fury fell,
And damn'd for ever to the deepest Hell;
Would fain be free: but, if I should (alas!)
Com, as I am, before thy glorious face,
Thou (righteous God) wilt turn thine eyes away;
For, Flesh and Blood possess not Heav'n, for ay;
And, the strict Rigour of thy Iustice pure
Cannot (O Lord) the least of sins endure.
Oh then! what shall I doo? I'll similize
These Gabaonites: I will my self disguize
To gull thee, Lord (for, even a holy Guile
Findes with thee grace and fauour often-while):
I'll put-on (crafty) not the cloak of Pride
(For, that was it wherby our Grand-sires di'd;

391

And Lucifer, with his associates, fell
From Ioys of Heav'n, into the Pains of Hell);
But th'humble Fleece of that sweet sacred Lamb
Which (for our sakes) vpon the Cross becam
So torn and tatter'd; which the most refuse:
Scorn of the Gentiles, Scandal of the Iewes.
And, as a piece of Silver, Tin, or Lead,

Simile.

By cunning hands with Gold is covered;
I, that am all but Lead (or dross, more base)
In fervent Crusible of thy free Grace,
I'll gild me all with his pure Beautie's Gould;
Born a new man (by Faith) I'll kill mine ould:
In Spirit and Life, Christ shall be mine example,
His Spirit shall be my spirit, and I his Temple.

I beeing thus in Christ, and Christ in me,
O! wilt thou, canst thou, drive Vs far from thee?
Deprive, from promis'd new-Ierusalem,
Christ thine owne Likenes; and me, like to him?
Banish from Heav'n (whose Bliss shall never vade)
Thy Christ, by whom; and me, for whom 't was made?

But, O Presumption! O too rash Designe!
Alas! to Will it onely, is not mine:
And, though I Would, my flesh (too-Winter-chill)
My spirit's small sparkles doth extinguish still.

O! therefore thou, thou that canst all alone;
All-sacred Father's like all-sacred Son,
Through thy deep Mercy daign thou to transform
Into thy Self, me sin-full silly worm;
That so, I may be welcom to my God,
And live in Peace, not where the Iewes abode,
But in Heav'n-Sion: and that thou maist be
Th'vniting glew between my God and me.
Now, Eglon's, Hebron's, Iarmuth's, Salem's Lords,
And Lachis Kingling (after these Accords)
Wroth, that their Neighbours had betrayed so
Their common Country to their common Foe,
Had made so great a breach, and by the hand
Led (as it were) th'Hebrews into their Land;
Set-vpon Gabaon: but th'Isaacian Prince,
As iust as valiant, hastes to hunt them thence;
And, resolute to rescue his Allies,
He straight bids Battell to their enemies.

The Fight growes fierce; and winged Victory,

The Battell of the five Kings.

Shaking her Laurels, rusht confusedly
Into the midst; she goes, and coms, and goes,
And now she leans to these, and now to those.
Auster the while from neighbour Mountains arms
A hundred Winters, and a hundred storms

392

With huge great Hail-shot, driving fiercely-fell
In the stearn visage of the Infidel:

Extraordinary Volleys of Hail-shot frō Heauen vpon the Infidels.

The roaring Tempest violently retorts
Vpon themselues the Pagans whirling darts,
And in their owne breasts, their owne Launces bore,
Wher-with they threatned th'Hoast of God before:
And (euen) as if it enuied the Renown
Of valiant Iosuah (now by Ganges knowen)
With furious shock, the formost Ranks it whirr'd
Vpon the next, the second on the third:

Simile.

Even as a Bridge of Cards, which Play-full Childe
Doth in an euening on a Carpet build,
When som Wag by, vpon his Work doth blowe;
If one Arch fall, the rest fall all arowe
Each vpon other, and the Childe he cries
For his lost labour, and again he tries.

If any, resting on his knotty Spear,
'Gainst Arms and storms, yet stand out stifly there,
Th'Hail, which the Winde full in his face doth yerk,
Smarter than Racquets in a Court re-ierk
Balls 'gainst the Walls of the black-boorded house,
Beats out his eyes, batters his nose, and brows.
Then turn the Pagans, but without a vail:
For, instantly the stony storm of Hail
Which flew direct a-front, direct now falls
Plumb on their heads, and cleaues their sculs and cauls:
And euer, as they waver to and fro,
Ouer their Hoast the Haily Clowd doth go:
And neuer hits one Hebrue, though between,
But a sword's length (or not so much) be seen:
A buckler one, another a bright helm
Over his threatned or sick head doth whelm;
But, the shield broken, and helm beaten in,
Th'Hail makes the hurt bite on the bloody green.

Those, that escape, betake them to their heels;
Iosuah pursues: and though his sweat distills
From every part, he wounds, he kills, he cleaues.
Neither the Fight imperfect so he leaues:
But, full of faithfull zeal and zealous faith,
Thus (O strange language!) thus alowd he saith;

At the commād of Iosuah the Sun standeth still.

Beam of th'Eternall, daies bright Champion,
Spiall of Nature, O all-seeing Sun,
Stay, stand thou still, stand still in Gabaon;
And thou, O Moon i' th'vale of Aialon,
That th'Ammorites now by their hare-like flight
Scape not my hands vnder all-hiding Night.

As a Caroche, draw'n by foure lusty steeds,
In a smooth way whirling with all their speeds,

393

Stops suddainly, if't slip into a slough,
Or if it cross som Log or massie bough;
The Day-reducing Chariot of the Sun,
Which now began, towards his West to run,
Stops instantly, and giues the Hebrewes space
To rid the Pagans that they haue in chase.

Nature, amaz'd, for very anger shakes:

Description of Nature, who offended thereat, makes her complaint to God.

And to th'Almighty her complaint she makes:
Seemly she marches with a measur'd pase,
Choler puts colour in her lovely face,
From either nipple of her bosom-Twins
A liuely spring of pleasant milke there spins,
Vpon her shoulders (Atlas-like) she bears
The frame of All, down by her side shee wears
A golden Key, where-with shee letteth-forth,
And locketh-vp the Treasures of the Earth:
A sumptuous Mantle to her heels hangs down,
Where-in the Heauens, the Earth, and Sea is showen;
The Sea in Siluer woven, the Earth in Green,
The Heav'ns in Azure, with gold threds between:
All-quickning Loue, fresh Beauty, smiling Youth,
And Fruitfulness, each for her fauour su'th:
Grace still attends ready to do her honour,
Riches and Plenty alwaies waite vpon her.

Accoutred thus, and thus accompani'd,
With thousand sighs thus to the Lord she cri'd:

Prosopopœia.

Shall it be sayd, a Man doth Heav'n command?
Wilt thou permit a brauing Souldiers hand
To wrong thine eldest Daughter? Ah! shall I
Haue the bare Name, and He th'authority
To govern all, and all controul (O Lord)
With the bare winde of his ambitious word?
Shall I (the World's Law) then, receiue the Law
At others hands? of others stand in aw?
If't be thy pleasure, or thou think it fit,
To haue it so, or so to suffer it,
(Pardon me, Father, that I am so free)
I heer surrender thy Lieutenancy:
Bestow't on him, put all into his hand:
Who Heav'n commands, He well may Earth command.

Why (daughter) know'st thou not (God answers her)
That many times my Mercy doth transfer
Into my Children mine owne power, wher-by
They work (not seldom) mine owne Wonders high?
That th'are my sacred Vice-Royes? and that Hee,
Who (stript of Flesh) by Faith is ioyn'd to me,

The power of a stedfast Faith.

May remove Mountains, may dry-vp the Seas,
May make an Ocean of a Wilderness?

394

Th'hast seen it, Daughter: therfore, but thou pine
In Ielousie of this drad arm of mine,
Grudge not at theirs: for they can nothing do,
But what my Spirit inables them vnto.

IOSVAH his victories.

O happy Prince; I wonder not at all,
If at thy feet the stout Anachian fall,
If th'Amorrhite, Hevite, and Cananite,
The Pheresite, Hethite, and Iebusite,
And huge Basanian, by thy daunt-less Hoast
Were over-throwne: and if as swift (almost)
As my slowe Muse thy sacred Conquest sings,
Thou Cam'st, Saw'st, Conquer'dst more then thirty Kings;
Subduing Syria, and dividing it
Vnto twelue Kindreds in twelue portions fit;
Sith (O grand Vicar of th'Almighty Lord)
With onely summons of thy mighty Word,
Thou makest Riuers the most deafly-deep
To lobstarize (back to their source to creep);
Walls giue thee way: after thy Trumpets charge,
Rock-rushing Tempests do retreat, or charge:
Sol's at thy seruice: and the starry Pole
Is proud to pass vnder thy Muster-Roule.

Simile.

As a blind man, forsaken of his Guide
In some thick Forest, sad and self-beside,
Takes now a broad, anon a narrow path,
His groaping hand his (late) eys office hath,
Heer at a stub he stumbles, there the bushes
Rake-off his Cloak, heer on a Tree he rushes,
Strayes in and out, turns, this and that way tries,
And at the last falls in a Pit, and dies:

After his death Israel hauing lost his guide, fals from his God.

Euen so (alas!) hauing their Captain lost,
So blindely wanders Iacob's wilfull Hoast,
Contemns the Fountain of God's sacred Law,
From Idoll-Puddles poysoning drink to draw;
Forsakes th'old true God, and new fals-gods fains,
And with the Heathen friendship entertains.

God therefore forsakes him.

Th'Almighty saw it (for, what sees he not?)
And sodainly his fury wexed hot;
And on their neck, for his sweet yoak, he layd
The Strangers yoak that hard and heauie waigh'd.

Simile.

But, as an Infant which the Nurce lets go
To go alone, waves weakly to and fro,
Feels his feet fail, cries out, and but (alas!)
For her quick hand, would fall and break his face:
So Iacob, iustly made afflictions thrall,
Is neuer ready in the Pit to fall
Of pale Despair, but (if he cry, and craue him)
God still extends his gracious hand to saue him;

395

Raising som Worthy that may break in sunder

Vpon his Repentance God againe receives him to favour.

The Gyves and Fetters that he labours vnder.

So then, assisted by th'immortall hand,
Brave Israel brings vnder his Command
Iervsalem, Lvs, Bethel, Accaron,
Sesai, and Tholmai, Gaza, and Ascalon,
And Bezec too: whose bloudy Tyrant, fled,
Is caught again, and payd with Cake for Bread:
To self-taught Torture he himself is put,

The Tyrant Adoni-Bezec taken & intreated as he had handled others.

His sacrilegious Thumbs and Toes be cut.
Whereby, more inly prickt, then outly payn'd,
God's Vengeance iust he thus confest, and playn'd;

O hand, late Scepter-graç't! O hand, that late
Egypt did dread, and Edom tremble at!

His complaint.

O hand, that (armed) durst euen Mars defie,
And could'st haue pull'd proud Ivpiter from high!
Now, where-to serv'st thou, but t'augment my moan?
Thou canst not now buckle mine Armour on;
Nor wield my mighty Lance with brazen head:
Ah! no (alas!) thou canst not cut my bread.
O feet (late) winged to pursue the slight
Of hundred Armies that I foyl'd in fight,
Now you haue lost your office, now (alas!)
You cannot march, but limp about this place.

But, 'tis the iust God, the iust hard of Heav'n

His confession.

In mine owne Coin hath me my paiment giuen:
For, seventy Kings, thus maim'd of Toes and Thumbs,
I, insolent, haue made to lick the crums
Vnder my boord (like Dogs) and drawen perforce
To serue for blocks when I should mount my horse.

Therefore (O Kings!) by mine example learn

His caueat to all Tyrants and cruell minded men.

To bound your rage, limit you fury stream:
O Conquerers! be warned all by me;
Be to your Thralls, as God to you shall be:
Men, pitty Man, wretched and ouer-throwen;
And think his case may one-day be your owne;
For, chance doth change: and none aliue can say,
He happy is, vntill his dying day:
The Foe that after Victorie survives,
Not for himself but for your glorie liues:
Th'Oliue's aboue the Palm: and th'happiest King
His greatest Triumph, is Self-triumphing.

But Israel, wallowing in his myre again,

Israel again & againe relapseth.

Soon lost the glory former Arms did gain;
And goods and bodies easie booties bin.
To Aram Moab and the Philistin.
What help (O Iacob)? th'hast nor arms, nor head:
Thy Fields with bones of thine owne bands be spread,

Again humble.

396

And th'onely name of thy profaner Foe
Congeals thy bloud, and chils thy heart for Wo.

Flee, flee, and hy thee quickly to recover
The all-proof Target of thine ancient Lover,
Thy gracious God, the glorious Tyrant-tamer,
Terror of terrors, Heathen's dreadfull hammer.

Again & again releeued.

Ah! see already how he rescues thee
From th'odious yoak of Pagan Tyranny;
Breaking the Fetters of thy bondage fel,
By Ahod, Barac, and Othoniel,

Sangar a plow-swam: a famous Champion of Israel.

And Goad-man Sangar, whose industrious hand
With Ox-teem tills his tributary Land.
When Philistins, with Sword and fiery Fury,
Slaughter the Iews, and over-run all Iury,
Deflowr the Virgins, and with lust-full spight
Ravish chaste Matrons in their Husbands sight,
He leaves his Plough, he calls vpon his God;
And, onely armed with his slender Goad,
Alone he sets on all the Heathen Camp.
A Pagan Captain weens him thus to damp;
What means this Fool (saith he)? go, silly Clown,
Get thee to Plough, go home, and till thy ground,
Go prick thy Bullocks; leave the Works of Mars
To my long-train'd, still-conquering souldiers.

First learn thou Dog (replies the Israelite)
To knowe my strength (rather th'Almighties might):
And on his head he laies him on such load
With two quick vennies of his knotty Goad,
And with the third thrusts him between the eies,
That down he falls, shaking his heels, and dies.

Then steps another forth more stout and grim,
Shaking his Pike, and fierce lets flee at him:
But Sangar shuns the blowe; and, with his stroak,
The Pagan leg short-off in sunder broak;
On th'other yet, a while he stands and fights:
But th'Hebrew Champion such a back-blowe smites,
That flat he layes him; then, with fury born,
Forward he leaps; and, in a Martiall scorn,
Vpon his panch sets his victorious foot,
And treads, and tramples, and so stamps into 't,
That blood and bowels (mingled with the bruise)
Half at his mouth, half at his sides, he spews:
As on Wine-hurdles those that dance (for meed)

Simile.

Make with sweet Nectar every wound to bleed,
Each grape to weep, and crimsin streams to spin
Into the Vate, set to receive them in.

Thence thirty steps, a chief Commander prest,
And proudly wags his feather-clouded Crest,

397

And cries, Com hither (Cow-heard) come thou hither,
Com, let vs cope, but I and thou together;
I'll teach thee (peasant) and that quickly too,
Thou hast not with thy fellow swains to doe,
That on Mount Carmel's stormy top do feed.
No, heer (poor sot) thou other fence shalt need.

Sangar runs at him: and he runs so fierce,
That on his staf, him six steps back he beares;
Beares down another with him, and another,
That but with gesture stood directing other:
As, when 'tis dark, when 't rains, and blusters rough,

Simile.

A thund'ring tempest with a sulphury puff
Breaks down a mighty Gate, and that another,
And that a third, each opposite to other:
Smoak, dust, and door-falls, with storms roaring din,
Dismay the stoutest that command within;
The common sort (beside their little wits)
Scar'd from their beds, dare not abide the streets:
But, in their shirts over the walls they run,
And so their Town, yet it be ta'en, is wun;
The suddain Storm so inly-deep dismaies-them,
That fear of Taking to despair betrays them.

Amid their Hoast, then brauely rushes Sangar,
His sinnewy arm answers his sacred Anger:
Who flies, or follows, he alike besteads:
On scattered heape of slaughtered Foes he treads.
This with his elbow heer he over-turns,
That with his brow; this, with his foot he spurns;
Heer, with his staff he makes in shivers fly
Both cask and scull, and there he breaks a thigh,
An arm, a leg, a rib, a chin, a cheek;
And th'hungry Shepheard hardly beats so thick
Nuts from a Tree, as Sangar Foes beats down:
With swords, and shields, and shafts, the Field is sowen:

Comparison.

Alone he foils a Camp: and on the Plain
There six hundred of the Heatben slain.

Almightie God, how thou to thine art good!
Thy peoples Foes are not alone subdu'd
By a rude Clown, whose hard-wrought hands, before
Nothing but soades, coulters and bills had bore:
But, by a silly Woman, to whose hand
Thou for a time committest the Command
Of Israel: for, of no other Head,
Nor Law, nor Lord they for a time are sped,
But prudent Debora: vnto whose Throne
Fly those whose heads with age are hoary growen,

DEBORA.

And those great Rabbies that do grauely sit,
Revolving volumes of the highest Writ,

398

And He that in the Tabernacle serues,
Her sacred voyce as Oracles obserues:
None from her presence ever coms confus'd.
And gotten skill, giues place to skill infus'd.

O Iacob's Lanthorn Load-star pure, which lights
On these rough Seas the rest of Abramites
(Said then the People) what shall vs befall?
Iabin's fell yoak our weary necks doth gall:
We are the Butts vnto all Pagan darts,
And colde Despair knocks at our doors (our hearts).

Israel, saith shee, be of good cheer; for now
God wars vpon your Foes, and leagues with you:
Therefore to Field now let your youth aduance,
And in their rests couch the revenging Lance:

Barac.

This said, on Barac she a Shield bestowes,
Indented on the brims, which plain fore-showes

His shield giuen by Debora.

In curious Boss-work (that doth neatly swell)
The (won and lost) Battails of Israel,
As an abbridgement, where to life appear
The noblest Acts of eight or nine score year.

Lo, heer an army, stooping by the side

Gedeon.

Of a deep River (with their Thirst half dry'd)
Sups, licks, and laps the Stream; of all which rour,
The Captain chuses but three hundred out;
And arming each but with a Trump and Torch,
About a mighty Pagan Hoast doth march,
Making the same, through their drad sodain found,
With their owne Arms themselues to inter-wound:
A hellish rage of mutuall fury swels
The bloudy hearts of barbarous Infidels,
So that the friends that in one Couch did sleep,
Each others blade in eithers brest do steep:
And all the Camp with head-less dead is sowen,
Cut-off by Cozen-swords, kill'd by their owne.

Iephthe.

Lo there, another valiant Champion,
Who having late triumphant Laurels won;
His heed-less Vow (in-humane) to ful-fill,
His onely Daughter doth vnkindly kill:
The frantik Mother, all vnbraç't (alas!)
With silver locks vnkemb'd about her face;
Arming her rage with nails, with teeth, and tongue,
Runs-in, and rushes through the thickest throng:
And, she will saue, and she will haue (she sayes)
Her Deer, her Daughter; and then hold she layes
Vpon the Maid: and tearing-off her Coat,
Away she runs, thinking she her had got.

The Priest dissolues in tears, th'Offring is chearfull;
The Murdred's valiant, and the Murderer fearfull;

399

The Father leads with slowe and feeble pase,
The Daughter seems to run to death a-pace;
As if the Chaplet that her temples ties,
Were Hymen's Flowrs, not Flowrs for Sacrifice:
Her grace and beauties still augment; (in fine)
Whoso beholds her sweet, loue-darting Eyn,
Her Cheeks, Lips, Brow's; fresh Lillies, Coral, Iet,
He sees, or seems to see) a Sun to set.
And (to conclude) the Graver, Maul, and Mould;
Haue given such life to th'Iron, Brass, and Gold,
That heer wants nothing but the Mothers screech,
The Father's sigh, and the sweet Daughter's speech.

Loe heer, another shakes his vnshav'n tresses,
Triumphing on a Lion torn in peeces:

Samson.

O match-less Champion! Pearl of men-at-arms,
That emptiest not an Arcenal of Arms,
Nor needest shops of Lemnian Armourers,
To furnish weapons for thy glorious Wars:
An Asse's Iaw bone is the Club wher-with
Thy mighty arm, brains, beats, and battereth
Th'vncircumcised Camp: all quickly scud;
And th'Hoast that flew in dust, now flowes in bloud.
Heer, th'Iron Gates, whose hugeness wont to shake
The massie Towrs of Gaza, thou doost take
On thy broad shoulders: there (in seeming iest)
Crushing their Palace-pillars (at a feast)
Thou over-whelm'st the House, and with the fall
The Philistims blaspheming Princes all.
Heer, from ones head, which two huge coins do crush,
(As whay from Cheese) the battred brains do gush:
Heer lies another in a deadly swoune;
Nail'd with a broken rafter to the ground:
Another, heer pasht with a paine of wall,
Hath lost his soule, and bodies shape withall:
Ano her, heer o're-taken as he fled,
Lies (Tortois-like) all hidden but the head:
Another, covered with a heap of lome,
Seems with his mooving to re-moue his Toomb:
Even as the soft, blinde, Mine-inventing Moule,

Simile.

In velvet Robes vnder the Earth doth roule,
Refusing light, and little ayr receives,
And hunting worms her mooving hillockes heaves.

Lo, lower heer, a beastly Multitude

The Leuites wife.

On one poor Woman all their lusts intrude;
Whose Spouse (displeas'd with th'execrable Fact)
Into twelues Peeces her dead Body hackt;
And, to twelve Parts of Israel them transfers,
As twelue quick tinders of intestin Wars.

400

The Arke taken by the Philistines.

And lower yet behold (with hatefull scorn)
The Ark of God to Dagon's Temple born;
But, th'Idol yeelds to God, and Dagon falls
Before the Ark, which Heathen's pride appalls.

The Battaile betweene the Israelites and Assyrians with their tron Chariots.

Barac thus arm'd, th'Asorians sets-vpon,
That bright in brass, steel gold, and silver shone:
But, his young Soldiers were much daunted tho,
To see the fearfull Engins of the Foe;
Nine hundred chariots, whirling swift and light,
Whose glistering irons dazle even their sight;
Whose barbed Steeds bear in their heads a Blade
Of the right temper of Damascvs made
(As proud of it as Vnicorns are wont
Of their rich Weapon that adornes their Front)
Amidst their Pettral stands another Pike:
On either-side, long grapples (Sickle-like)
The like at either Nave: so that (in Wars)
'Tis present death t'approach these broaching Cars.

Debora comforteth and incourageth the Israelites.

But Debora, her Troops encouraging,
Bestirs her quick, and steps from wing to wing:
Courage (sayth she) brave Souldiers, sacred Knights,
Strike, and strike home, lay on with all your mights:
Stand, fear them not (O Champions of the Faith)
God drives your Foes into the snares of Death.
Doubtless, they are your owne: their armed Charrets
They are but Buggs to daunt deiected spirits.
No, no (my Hearts) not Arms, nor Engines glorious,
But 'tis the heart that makes a Camp victorious:
Or rather, 'tis God's Thunder-throwing hand,
Which onely doth all Warr's success command:
And, Victorie's his Daughter whom he now
(For his owne sake) frankly bestowes on you.

Simile.

Even as a sort of Shepheards, having spi'd
A Wolf com stealing down a Mountains side,
Cry shrill, Now-now, vp-hill, a Wolf, a Wolfe;
Now, now (sayes Eccho) vp-hill, a Wolf, a Wolf;
And such a noyse between the Vales doth rise,
That th'hungry Thief thence without hunting flies:
So th'Hebrews, heartned with her brave Discourse,
Gave such a showt, that th'armed Carrs and Horse
Turn suddain back, their Drivers Art deceiue;
And, changing side, through their owne Army cleave.

Gods enemies ouerthrowen by their owne Engines.

Som, with the blades in every Coursers brow,
Were (as with Launces) bored through and through:
Som torn in peeces with the whirling wheels:
Som trod to death vnder the Horses heels:
As (in som Countries) when in Season hot,
Vnder Horse feet (made with a whip to trot)

401

They vse to thresh the sheaves of Winter-Corn,

Simile.

The grain spurts-out, the straw is bruis'd and torn.
Som (not direct before the Horse, nor vnder)
Were with the Scithes mow'n in the midst a-sunder:

Simile.

As in a Mead the Grass, yet in the flowr,
Falls at the foot of the wide-straddling Mower,
That with a stooping back, and stretched arm,
Cuts-cross the swathes to winter-feed his Farm.

If there rest any resolute and loth
To lose so soon their Arms and honors both
At first assault, but rather brauely bent
To see so fierce and bloudy Fight's event;
Both Debora and Barac thither pli'd:
But (as 'tis writ of the milde Amramide,
And Nvn's great Son, that Heav'n-deer Mars-like man,

Debora prayes while Barac fights.

Who did transplant the Tribes to Canaan)
She (in the zeale of her religious spirit)
Lifts-vp her hands to pray, and he to fight.
He charges fierce, he wounds, he slaughters all

The Infidels vtterly ouerthrown, and Sisara their Captaine slain by Iahel.

But Sisara, their Captain generall;
Who flies to Iahel, and by her is slain
Driving a nail into his sleeping brain.

At last, the Helm of head-strong Israel
Coms to the hand of famous Samvel;
One rarely-wise, who weds his Policy,
To divine gifts of sacred Prophecie:

Samuel, Iudge.

But, his two greedy Sons, digressing quite
From his good steps, dis-taste the Israelite
Of th'ancient Rvle of th'Heav'nly Potentate:
So that all seek a suddaine Change of State.

Israel askes a KING.

Assembled then in sacred Parliament,
Vp starts a Fellow of a mean Descent
(But of great spirit, well-spoken, full of wit,
And courage too, aspiring high to sit)
And having gain'd attention, thus he sayes:

1. A Declamatiō of a Plebeian or Democracie or People Sway.

Divine Designe! O Purpose worthy-prayse,
To now-Reform the State, and soundly heal
With holsom Lawes th'hurts of the Common weal:
But (prudent Israel) take now heed or never);
Change not an Ague for a burning Fever;
In shaking-off confused Anarchie,
To be intiç't t'imbrace a Monarchie,
Admir'd of Fools, ador'd of Flatterers,
Of Softlings, Wantons, Braves, and Loyterers:
The Freedom and Defence of the base Rabble;
But, to brave mindes a Yoak intolerable.

For, who can brook millions of men to measure
Breath, Life, and Mooving, all at One man's pleasure?

402

One, to keep all in aw? One at a beck
A whole great Kingdom to controule and check?

Is't not a goodly sight, to see a Prince,
Void of all Vertue, full of insolence,
To play with Noble States, as with a straw?
A Fool, to give so many Wise the Law?
A Beast, to govern Men? An infant, Eld?
A Hare to lead fierce Lions to the Field?

The corruption & licentiousnes of most Prosces Courts.

Who is't but knowes, that such a Court as this,
Is th'open Shop of selling Offices?
Th'harbour of Riot, stews of Ribaldry,
Th'haunt of Profusion, th'Hell of Tyranny:
That no-where shines the Regal Diadem,
But (Comet-like) it boads all vice extreme?
That not a King among ten thousand Kings,
But to his Lust his Law in bondage brings?
But (shame-less) triumphs in the shame of Wives?
But bad, prefers the bad, and good deprives?
But gildeth those that glorifie his Folly;
That sooth and smooth, and call his Hell-ness holy
But with the Torrent of continuall Taxes
(Pour'd every-where) his meanest Subiects vexes

Simile.

As an ill-stated Body doth distill
On's feeblest parts his cold-raw humors stil.

That Form of Rvle is a right Common weal,
Where all the People haue an Enter-deal:
Where (with-out aw or law) the Tyrants sword
Is not made drunk with bloud, for a Miss-word:
Where, Each (by turn) doth Bid and doth Obey;
Where, still the Commons (hauing Soverain-sway)
Share equally both Rigour and Reward
To each-man's merit: giving no regard
To ill-got Wealth, nor mouldy Monuments
From great-great-Grand-sires scutcheon'd in Descents
Where, Learned men, vn-soule-clogd (as it were)
With servile giues of Kings imperious Fear,
Fly euen to Heav'n; and by their Pens inspire
Posterity with Vertue's glorious Fire:
Where, Honour's honest Combat never ceasses,
Nor Vertue languishes, nor Valour leeses
His sprightfull nerves, through th'Enuy of a Prince,
That cannot brook another's excellence;
Or, Pride of those, who (from great Elders sprung)
Haue nothing but Their glory on their tongue;
And deeming Others Worth, enough for them,
Vertue and Valour, and all Arts contemn:
Or, base Despair, in those of meaner Calling,
Who on the ground still (woorm-like) basely crawling,

403

Dare not attempt (nor scarcely think, precise)
Any great Act or glorious Enterprise;
Because Ambition, Custom, and the Law,
From high Estate hath bounded them with aw:
Where, He that neuer rightly learn'd t'obay
Commandeth not, with heavy Sword of Sway:
Where, each i'th'Publik having equall part,
All to save all, will hazard life and hart:
Where, Liberty (as deer as life and breath)
Born with vs first, consorts vs to our death.

Shall savage Beasts like-better Nuts and Mast

Simile.

In a free Forrest, than our choise Repast
In iron Cages? and shall we (poor Sots)
Whom Nature Masters of our selues allots,
And Lords of All besides; shall we go draw
On our owne necks an ease-less Yoak of Aw?
Rather (O Iacob) chuse we all to die,
Than to betray our Native Libertie;
Than to becom the sporting Tennis-ball
Of a proud Monarch; or to yeeld vs thrall
To serve or honor any other King
Than that drad Lavv which did from Sina ring.

Another then, whom Age made venerable,

2. Another, of a reverend Senator for Aristocracy or the rule of a chosen Synode of the best men.

Knowledge admir'd, and Office honorable,
Stands-vp, and speaks (maiestically-milde)
On other Piles the Common-Weal to build.

Doubt-less (said he) with waste of Time and Soap,
Y'have labour'd long to wash an Æthiope:
Y'have drawn vs heer a goodly form of State
(And well we have had proof of it of late):
Shall we again the Sword of Ivstice put
In mad mens hands, soon their owne throats to cut?
What Tiger is more fierce? what Bear mor fel?

Comparison.

What Chaff more light? What Sea more apt to swel
Than is th'vnbridled Vulgar, passion-toss't;
In calms elated, in foul-weather lost?
What boot deep Proiects, if to th'eyes of all
They must be publisht in the common Hall?
Sith knowen Designes are dangerous to act:
And, th'vn-close Chief did never noble fact.

Democracy is as a tossed Ship,

Simile.

Void both of Pole and Pilot in the deep:
A Senate fram'd of thousand Kinglings slight;
Where, voices pass by number, not by waight;
Where, wise men do propound, and Fools dispose:
A Fair, where all things they to sale expose:

Simile.

A Sink of Filth, where ay th'infamousest,

Simile.

Most bold and busie, are esteemed best:

404

Simile.

A Park of savage Beasts, that each-man dreads:
A Head-less Monster with a thousand heads.

What shall we then do? shall we by and by
In Tyrants paws deiect vs servilely?
Nay, rather, shunning the extremities,
Let vs make choise of men vpright and wise;
Of such whose Vertue doth the Land adorn,
Of such whom Fortune hath made Noble-born,
Of such as Wealth hath rais'd above the pitch
Of th'obiect Vulgar; and to th'hands of such
(Such as for Wisdom, Wealth, and Birth excell)
Let vs commit the Reans of Israel;
And ever from the sacred Helm exclude
The turbulent, base, moody Multitude.

Take away Choice, and where is Vertue's grace?
What? shall not Chance vnto Desert give place?

Simile.

And Lots, to Right? Shall not the blinde be led
By those whose eyes are perfect in their head?
Chiefly, amid such baulks, and blocks and Pits,
As in best State-paths the best States-man meets?

Comparison.

Who may be better trusted with the key
Of a great Chest of Gold and gems than they
That got the same? And who more firm and fit
At carefull Stern of Policie to sit,
Than such as in the Ship most venture bear:
Such as their owne wrack with the State's wrack fear:
Such as, Content, and hauing Much to lose,
Even Death it selfe, rather than Change, would choose?

3. The Oration of a Noble yong Prince for Monarchy or the sole Soveraintie of a KING.

While he discourst thus on a Theam so grave,
Vp-rose a Gallant, noble, young, and brave,
Fo to the Vulgar, one that hop't (perchance)
One-day t'attain a Scepters governance,
And thus he speaks: Your Rvle is yet too Free.
Y'have proin'd the leaves, not boughs of Publik-Tree:
Y'have qualifide, but not yet cur'd our Grief:
Y'have in our Field still left the tares of Strife,
Of Leagues, and Factions. For, plurality
Of Heads and Hands to sway an Emperie,
Is for the most part like vntamed Bulls:

Simile.

One, this way hales: another, that way pulls:
All every-way; hurried with Passion's windes
Whither their Lust-storms do transport their mindes;
At length-the strongest bears the weakest down,
And to himself wholly vsurps the Crown:
And so (in fine) your Aristocracie
He by degrees brings to a Monarchie.

In brief, the Scepter Aristocratike:
And People-sway, have

A passion following any sicknesse.

Symptomes both alike:

405

And neither of them can be permanent
For want of Vnion; which of Gouernment
Is both the Life-bloud, and Preservatiue,
Wherby a State, yong, strong, and long doth thrive.
But, Monarchy is as a goodly Station,
Built skilfully, vpon a sure Foundation:
A quiet House, wherin (as principall)
One Father is obey'd and serv'd of all:
A well-rigd Ship, where (when the danger's neer)
A many Masters strive not who shall steer.

The world hath but One God: Heav'n but One Sun:
Quails but One Chief: the Hony-birds but One
One Master-Bee: and Nature (natively)
Graves in our hearts the Rule of Monarchy.
At sound of whose Edicts, all ioynt-proceed:
Vnder whose Sway, Seditions never breed:
Who, while consulting with Colleagues he stands,
Lets not the Victory escape his hands:
And, that same Maiesty, which (as the Base
And Pedestal) supports the waight and grace,
Greatnes and glory of a well-Rul'd State,
Is not extinguisht nor extenuate,
By being parcelliz'd to a plurality
Of petty Kinglings, of a mean Equality:

Simile.

Like as a goodly River, deep and large,
Able to bear Ships of the greatest Charge,
If, through new Dikes, his trade-full Waters guided,
Be in a hundred little brooks divided;
No Bridge more fears, nor Sea more waighs the same:
But soon it loses both his trade and name.
And (to conclude) a wise and worthy Prince,
A KING, compleat in Royall excellence,
Is even the Peoples prop, their powrfull nerves,
And lively Law, that all intire preserves:
His Countrie's life, and soule, sight and fore-sight;
And even th'Almightie's sacred Picture right.

While yet he spake, the People loudly cri'd,
A KING, a KING; wee'll have a KING for Guide,
He shall command: He shall conduct our Hoasts,
And make vs Lords of th'Idvmean Coasts.

Ingrate, said Samvel will you then reiect
Th'Almighties Scepter? do you more affect
New Policy, than his olde Providence?
And change th'Immortall for a mortall Prince?

Well (Rebels) well, you shall, you shall have one:

A KINGS Prerogatiue.

But do ye knowe what follows there-vpon?
He, from your Ploughs shall take your Horses out,
To serve his Pomp, and draw his Train about

406

In gilden Coaches (a wilde wanton sort
Of Popiniayes and Peacocks of the Court):
He shall your choisest Sons and Daughters take
To be his Seruants (nay, his slaues to make):
You shall plant Vineyards, he the Wine shall sup:
You shall sowe Fields, and he shall reap the Crop:
You shall keep Flocks, and he shall take the Fleece:
And Pharao's Yoke shall seem but light to his.

Saul anointed King of Israell.

But, Israel doth wilfull perseuere,
And Samvel (prest and importun'd euer)
Anointeth Savl (the son of Cis) a Man
Whose cursed end marr'd what he well began.

You, too-too-light, busie, ambitious wits,
That Heav'n and Earth confound with furious fits:

A cheeck to busie, seditious Malcontents in any State.

Fantastik Frantiks, that would innovate,
And every moment change your form of State:
That weening high to fly, fall lower still:
That though you change your bed change not your Ill:
See, See how much th'Almighty (the most High)
Heer-in abhors your fond inconstancy.

The authority of every kinde of Gouernment is from God.

The People-State, the Aristocracy,
And sacred KINGDOM, took authority
A-like from Heav'n: and these three Scepter-forms
Flourish a-vie, as well in Arts and Arms,
As prudent Laws. Therefore, you stout Helvetians,
Grisons, Genevians, Ragusins, Venetians,

Tharefore every People to persist in the State established.

Maintain your Liberties, and change not now
Your sacred Laws rooted so deep with you.
On th'other side, we that are borne and bred
Vnder KINGS Aw, vnder one Supreame Head,
Let vs still honor their drad Maiesties,
Obey their Laws, and pay them Subsidies.
Let's read, let's hear no more these factious Teachers,
These shame-less Tribunes, these seditious Preachers,
That in all places alwaies belch and bark
Aloud abroad, or whisper in the dark,
Railing at Princes (whether good or bad)
The true Lieutenants of Almighty God.
And let not vs, before a KING, prefer
A Senate-sway, nor Scepter Popular.

'Tis better bear the Youth-slips of a KING,
I'th' Law som fault, i'th' State som blemishing,
Than to fill all with Blood-flouds of Debate;
While, to Reform, you would Deform a State.

One cannot (with-out danger) stir a stone
In a great Building's olde foundation:
And, a good Leach seeks rather to support,
With ordered dyet, in a gentle sort,

407

A feeble Body (though in-sickly plight)
Than with strong Med'cines to destroy it quight.

And therefore, Cursed, ever Cursed be
Our

A just Execration of the Popish Powder-Plot on the fifth of Nouember 1605.

Hell-spurr'd Percie's fel Conspiracy;
And every head, and every hand and hart,
That did Conceiue or but Consent his part:
Pope-prompted Atheists, faining Superstition,
To cover Cruelty, and cloak Ambition:
Incarnat Divels Enemies of Man,
Dam Murdering Vipers, Monsters in-humane,
Dis-natur'd Nero's, impious Erostrates,
That with one Puff would blowe-vp all Estates;
Princes and Peer's and Peoples Government
(For all Three consists our Parliament.)
Religion, Order, Honesty, and all,
And more then all that Fear can fear to fall.

And therefore, Blessed, ever Blessed be
Our glorious GOD's immortall Maiesty;
England's Great Watch-man he that Israel keeps,
Who neuer slumbers and who neuer sleeps:
Our gratious Father, whose still-firm affection
Defends vs still with wings of his Protection:
Our louing Sauiour, that thus Saues vs still
(Vs so vnworthy, vs so prone to ill):
Our sacred Comforter (the Spirit of Light)
Who steers vs still in the True Faith aright)
The Trinitie, th'Eternall Three in One,
Who by his Powr and Prouidence alone,
Hath from the Furnace of their Fiery Zeal
Preserv'd our Prince, our Peers, our Pvblike-Weal,

Therefore, O Prince (our nostrils deerest breath)
Thou true Defender of true Christian Faith,
O! let the Zeal of God's House eat thee vp:
Fill Babylon her measure in her Cup:
Maim the King maiming Kinglings of Bezec:
Pittie not Agag spare not Amalech:
Hunt, hunt those Fox's that would vnder-mine
Root, Body, Branches of the Sacred Vine:
O! spare them not. To spare Them is to spoil
Thy Self thy Seed thy Subiects, and thy Soil.

Therfore, O Peers, Prince-loyall Paladines,
True-noble Nobles, lay-by by-Designes:
And in God's quarrel and your Countries, bring
Counsail and Courage to assist your KING
To counter-mine against the Mines of Rome;
To conquer Hydra, and to ouer-com
And clean cut-off his Horns, and Heads, and all
Whose hearts do Vow, or knees do Bow to Baal:

408

Be Zealous for the Lord, and Faith-full now,
And honor Him, and He will honour you.

Fathers, and Brethren, Ministers of Christ,
Cease civill Warrs: war all on Anti-Christ;
Whose subtle Agents, while you strive for shels,
Poyson the kernel with Erronious Spels:
Whose Envious Seed-men, while you Silent Sleep,
Sowe Tares of Treason, which take root too deep.
Watch; watch your Fold: Feed, feed your Lambs at home:
Muzzle these Sheep-clad bloudy Wolves of Rome.

Therfore, O People, let vs Praise and Pray
Th'Almighty-most (whose Mercy lasts for ay)
To giue vs grace, to euer-keep in minde
This Miracle of his Protection kinde:
To true-Repent vs of our hainous Sin
(Pride, Lust, and Looseness) we haue wallowed in:
To stand still constant in the pure Profession
Of true Religion (with a due discretion
To try the Spirits, and by peculiar choice
To knowe our Shepheards from th'Hyæna's voice):
And, ever loyall to our Prince, t'expose
Goods, Lands, and Liues, against his hate-full Foes:
Among whom (Lord) if (yet) of Thine be found,
Conuert them quickly; and the rest Confound.

And (to Conclude) Prince, Peers, and People too,
Praise all at once, and selfly each of you,
His Holy Hand, that (like as long-agoe,
His Sidrach, Misach and Abednego)
From the hot Furnace of Pope-Powder'd Zeal
Hath Sav'd our Prince, our Peers, our Pvblik-weal.

The end of the Third Daie of the Second VVeek.

409

DAVID.

THE FOVRTH DAY OF THE SECOND WEEK.

CONTAINING

I. The Tropheis,

II. The Magnificence,

III. The Schism,

IV. The Decay.

Translated, & Dedicated To Prince Henry his Highness.

411

TO PRINCE HENRY HIS HIGHNES.

A Sonnet.

Hauing new-mustred th'Hoast of all this All,
Your Royall Father in our Fore-ward stands:
Where (Adam-like) Himself alone Commands
A World of Creatures, ready at his Call.
Our Middle-ward doth not vnfitly fall
To famous Chiefs, whose graue braue heads & hands
In Counsai'ld Courage so Conduct our Bands,
As (at a brunt) affront the force of Baal.
Our Reare-Ward (Sir) shalbe your Princely Charge,
Though last, not least (sith it most Honour brings)
Where Honour's Field before you lies more large:
For Your Command is of a Camp of Kings,
Som good; som bad: Your Glory shall be, heer
To Chuse and Vse the good, the bad Cashier.

A Stanza.

[Iewel of Natvre, Ioy of Albion]

Iewel of Natvre, Ioy of Albion,
To whose perfection Heav'n and Earth conspire:
That in Times fulnes, Thou mayst bless this Throne
(Succeeding in the Vertues of thy Sire)
As happy thou hast begun, goe-on;
That, as thy Youth, we may thine Age admire;
Acting our Hopes (which shall revive our hearts)
Pattern and Patron both of Arms and Arts.

Iosuah Syluester.

412

[DAVID.]

[THE FOVRTH DAY OF THE SECOND WEEK.]

The Tropheis.

THE I. BOOK OF THE FOVRTH DAY OF the Second Week, of Bartas.

The Argvment.

Saul's fall from Fauour, into Gods Disgrace.
Dauid design'd Successor in his Place:
Brauing Goliah, and the Philistins
He brauely foyles: He flyes his furious Prince.
Seem-Samuel rais'd: Saul routed; Selfely-slain:
King Dauids Tropheis, and triumphant Raign.
His heauenly Harp-skill (in King Iames renewd):
His humane frailty, heauily pursewd.
Bersabe bathing: Nathan bold-reprouing:
Dauid repenting (Our Repentance moouing).

Saul king of Israell, fortunate at the first, is afterward reiected, and Dauid elected in his steed.

Heröike force, and Prince-fit forme withall,
Honor the Scepter of courageous Saul;
Successe confirmes it: for the power Diuine
Tames by his hand th'outrageous Philistine,
Edom, and Moab, and the Ammonite,
And th'euer-wicked, curst Amalekite:
O too-too-happy lif his arrogance
Had not transgrest Heauens sacred Ordinance:
But therefore, God in 's secret Counsell (iust)
Him euen alreadie from his Throne hath thrust,
Degraded of his gifts; and in his steed
(Though priuily) anointed Iesse's Seed,
Th'honour of Iacob yea of th'Vniuerse,
Heav'ns darling DAVID, Subiect of my Verse.

Invocation.

Lord, sith I cannot (nor I may not once)
Aspire to DAVID's Diadems and Thrones;

413

Nor lead behind my bright Triumphal-Car
So many Nations Conquered in War:
Nor (DAVID-like) my trembling Aspes adorn
With bloody TROPHEIS of my Foes forlorn:
Vouchsafe me yet his Verse: and (Lord) I craue
Let me his Harp-strings, not his Bowe-strings haue;
His Lute, and not his Lance, to worthy-sing
Thy glory, and the honour of thy King.
For, none but DAVID can sing DAVID's worth:
Angels in Heav'n thy glory sound; in Earth,
DAVID alone; whom (with Heav'ns loue surpriz'd)
To praise thee there, thou now hast Angeliz'd.
Giue me the Laurel, not of War, but Peace;
Or rather giue me (if thy grace so please)
The Ciuik Garland of green Oaken boughes,
Thrice-three times wreath'd about my glorious browes,
To euer-witnes to our after-frends
How I haue rescew'd my con-Citizens,
Whom profane Fames-Thirst day and night did moue
To be beslau'd to th'yoake of wanton Loue:
For (not to me, but to thee, Lord, be praise)
Now, by th'example of my Sacred Layes,
To Sacred Loues our noblest spirits are bent,
And thy rich Name's their only Argument.

HEE, WHOM in priuat wals, with priuy signe,
The great King-maker did for King assigne,
Begins to show hiwself. A fire so great
Could not liue flame-less long: nor would God let
So noble a spirits nimble edge to rust
In Sheapheards idle and ignoble dust.

My Son, how certain we that saying proue,

Iesse (or Vshai) send th Dauid to see hubre thrē in the Campe.

That doubtfull Fear still wayts on tender Loue?
DAVID (saith Iesse) I am full of fears
For thy deer Brethren: Each Assault, salt tears
Draws from mine eyes; mee thinks each point doth stab
Mine Eliah, Samna, and Aminadab.
Therefore goe visite them, and with this Food
Beare them my blessing; say I wish them good;
Beseeching God to shield and them sustain,
And send them (soon) victorious home again.

Gladly goes DAVID, and anon doth spie
Two steep high Hils where the two Armies lie,
A Vale diuides them; where, in raging mood
(Colossus-like) an armed Giant stood:

Descryption of Goliah.

His long black locks hung shagged (slouen-like)
A-down his sides: his bush-beard floated thick;
His hand and arms, and bosom bristled were
(Most Hedge-hog-like) with wyer insteed of haire.

414

His foul blasphemous mouth, a Caues mouth is;
His eyes two Brands, his belly an Abysse:
His legs two Pillars; and to see him go,
He seemd som steeple reeling to and fro.
A Cypresse-Tree, of fifteen Summers old,
Pyramid-wise waues on his Helm of gold.
Whose glistring brightnes doth (with rayes direct)
Against the Sun, the Sun it self reflect;

Simile.

Much like a Comet blazing bloodie-bright
Ouer som City, with new threatfull light,
Presaging down-fall or som dismal fate,
Too-neer approoching to som ancient State.
His Lance a Loom-beam, or a Mast (as big)
Which yet he shaketh as an Osier twig;
Whose harmfull point is headed stifly-straight
With burnisht Brasse aboue an Anuils waight:
Vpon whose top (in stead of Bannaret)
A hissing Serpent seems his foes to threat:
His brazen Cuirasse, not a Squire can carrie;
For 'tis the burthen of a Dromedarie:
His Shield (where Cain his brother Abel slaies,
Where Chus his son, Heav'n-climbing Towrs doth raise;
Where th'Ark of God, to the' Heathen captiuate,
To Dagon's House is led with scorne and hate)
Is like a Curtain made of double planks
To saue from shot some hard-besieged Ranks.
His threatfull voice is like the stormefull Thunder
When hot-cold Fumes teare sulphury clowds asunder.

His brauing Defiance to the Hoast of Israell.

O Fugitiues! this is the forti'th day
(Thus barkes the Dog) that I haue stalked aye
About your fearefull Hoast: that I alone
Against your best and choisest Champion,
In single Combat might our Cause conclude,
To shun the slaughter of the multitude.
Come then, who dares; and to be slaine by mee,
It shall thine honour and high Fortune bee.
Why am I not less strong? my common strength
Might find some Braue to cope with at the length.
But, phy for shame, when shal we cease this geare:
I to defie, and you to fly for feare?
If your hearts serue not to defend your Lot,
Why are you arm'd? why rather yeeld you not?
Why rather doe you (sith you dare not fight)
Not proue my mildnesse, than prouoke my might?
What needed Coats of brasse and Caps of steele
For such as (Hare-like) trust but to their heele?
But, sith I see not one of you (alas!)
Alone dares meet, nor looke me in the face,

415

Come tenne, come twenty, nay come all of you,
And in your ayde let your great God come too:
Let him rake Hell, and shake the Earth in sunder,
Let him be arm'd with Lightning and with Thunder:
Come, let him come and buckle with me heer:
Your goodly God, lesse then your selues, I feare.

Thus hauing spewd, the dreadfull Cyclop stirr'd
His monstrous Limbes; beneath his feet he reard
A Clowd of dust: and, wherefoe're he wend,
Flight, Feare, and Death, his ghastly steps attend.

Euen as a payr of busie chattering Pies,

Simile.

Seeing some hardie Tercell from the skies
To stoop with rav'nous seres, feele a chill feare,
From bush to bush, wag-tayling here and there;
So that no noyse, nor stone, nor stick can make
The timorous Birds their Couert to forsake:
So th'Hebrew Troopes this brauing Monster shun;
And from his sight, som here, som there, do run.
In vain the King commands, intreats and threats;
And hardly three or foure together gets.

What shame (saith he) that our Victorious Hoast

Saul stirreth up his Souldiers, and proposeth ample Reward to him that shall vndertake the Philistine.

Should all be daunted with one Pagans boast?
Braue Ionathan, how is thy courage quaild?
Which, yerst at Boses, all alone assaild
Th'whole Heathen Hoast. O Worthy Abner too,
What chance hath cut thy Nerues of Valour now?
And thou thy selfe (O Saul) whose Conquering hand
Had yerst with Tropheis filled all the Land,
As far as Tigris, from the Iaphean Sea:
Where is thy heart? how is it fall'n away?
Saul is not Saul: O! then, what Izraelite
Shall venge God's honor and Our shame acquite?
Who, spurr'd with anger, but more stird with zeale,
Shall foile this Pagan, and free Izrael?
O! who shall bring me this Wolf's howling head,
That Heav'n and Earth hath so vn-hallowed?
What e're he be, that (lauish of his soule)
Shall with his blood wash-out this blot so foule,
I will innoble him, and all his House;
He shall inioy my Daughter for his Spouse:
And euer shall a Deed so memorable
Be (with the Saints) sacred and honorable.

Yet for the Duel no man dares appeer:
All wish the Prize; but none will win't so deer:
Big-looking Minions, braue in vaunts and vows,
Lions in Court, now in the Camp be Cows:
But, euen the blast that cools their courage so,
That makes my DAVD's valiant rage to glowe.

416

Dauids offer.

My Lord (saith He) behold, this hand shall bring
Th'Heav'n-scorning head vnto my Lord the King.

Alas, my Lad, sweet Shepheard (answers Saul)
Thy heart is great; although thy lims be small:
High flie thy thoughts; but we haue need of more,
More stronger Toyls to take so wilde a Boare:
To tame Goliah, needs som Demi god,
Som Nimrod, rather then a Shepheard-Lad
Of slender growth, vpon whose tender Chin
The budding doun doth scarcely yet begin.
Keep therfore thine owne Rank, and draw not thus
Death on thy self, dis-honour vpon vs,
With shame and sorrow on all Israel,
Through end-less Thraldom to a Fo so fel.

His assurance.

The faintest Harts, God turns to Lions fierce,
To Eagles Doues, Vanquisht to Vanquishers:
God, by a Womans feeble hand subdews
Iabins Lieutenant, and a Iudge of Iews.
God is my strength: therefore (O King) forbear,
For Israel, for thee, or mee, to fear:
No self-presumption makes me rashly braue;
Assured pledge of his prowd head I haue.

Seest thou these arms, my Lord? These very arms
(Steeld with the strength of the great God of Arms)
Haue bath'd Mount Bethlem with a Lions blood:
These very arms, beside a shady wood,
Haue slain a Bear, which (greedy after prey)
Had torn and born my fattest sheep away.
My God is still the same: this sauage Beast,
Which in his Fold would make a Slaughter-feast,
All-ready feels his fury and my force;
My foot al-ready tramples on his Corps:
With his own sword his cursed length I lop,
His head already on the ground doth hop.

The Prince beholds him, as amaz'd and mute
To see a mind so yong, so resolute:
Then son (saith he) sith so confirm'd thou art,
Go, and Gods blessing on thy valiant hart;
God guide thy hand, and speed thy weapon so,
That thou return triumphant of thy Fo.
Hold, take my Corslet, and my Helm, and Launce,
And to the Heav'ns thy happy Prowes aduance.

The faithfull Champion, being furnisht thus,
Is like the Knight, which twixt Eridanus
And th'heav'nly Star-Ship, marching brauely-bright
(Hauing his Club, his Casque, and Belt bedight
With flaming studs of many a twinkling Ray)
Turns Winters night into a Summers day.

417

But, yet that he had half a furlong gon,
The massie Launce and Armour hee had on
Did load him so, he could not freely mooue
His legs and arms, as might him best behooue.
Euen so an Irish Hobby, light and quick

Simile.

(Which on the spur ouer the bogs they prick
In highest speed) If on his back he feel
Too-sad a Saddle plated all with steel,
Too-hard a Bit with-in his mouth; behind,
Crooper and Trappings him too-close to binde;
He seems as lame, he flings and will not go;
Or, if he stir, it is but stiff and slowe.
DAVID therefore lays-by his heauy load;
And, on the grace of the great glorious GOD
(Who by the weakest can the strongest stoop)
Hee firmly founding his victorious hope,
No Arrows seeks, nor other Arcenall;
But, from the Brooke that runnes amid the Vale,
Hee takes fiue Pebbles and his Sling, and so,
Courageously incounters with his Foe.

What Combat's this? On the one side, I see
A moouing Rocke, whose looks do terrifie
Euen his owne Hoast; whose march doth seem to make
The Mountaine tops of Sucoth euen to shake:
On th'other side, a slender tender Boy
Where grace and beautie for the prize doo play;
Shaue but the doun that on his Chin doth peer,
And one would take him for Anchises Pheer:
Or, change but weapons with that wanton Elf,
And one would think that it were Cupids self.
Gold on his head, scarlet in either Cheek,
Grace in each part and in each gest, alike;
In all so louely, both to Foe and Friend,
That very Enuy cannot but commend
His match-less beauties: and though ardent zeale
Flush in his face against the Infidel,
Although his Fury fume, though vp and down
He nimbly trauerse, though he fiercely frown,
Though in his breast boyling with manly hear,
His swelling heart do strongly pant and beat;
His Storme is Calm, and from his modest eyes
Euen gratious seems the grimmest flash that flies.

Am I a Dog, thou Dwarf, thou Dandiprat,
To be with stones repell'd and palted at?
Or art thou weary of thy life so soon?
O foolish boy! fantasticall Baboone!
That never saw'st but sheep in all thy life;
Poore sotte, 'tis heer another kind of strife:

418

We wrastle not (after your Shepheards guise)
For painted Sheep-hooks, or such pettie Prize,
Or for a Cage, a Lamb, or bread and chese:
The Vanquisht Head must be the Victors Fees.
Where is thy sweatie dust? thy sun-burnt scars
(The glorious marks of Soldiers train'd in Wars)
That make thee dare so much? O Lady-Cow,
Thou shalt no more be-star thy wanton brow
With thine eyes rayes: Thy Mistress shall no more
Curl the quaint Tresses of thy Golden ore:
I'll trample on that Gold; and Crowes and Pyes
Shall peck the pride of those sweet smiling eyes:
Yet, no (my girle-boy) no, I will not 'file
My feared hands with blood so faintly-vile:
Go seek thy match, thou shalt not dy by me,
Thine honor shall not my dishonor be:
No (silly Lad) no, wert thou of the Gods,
I would not fight at so vn-knightly ods.

Com barking Curre (the Hebrew taunts him thus)
That hast blasphem'd the God of Gods, and vs;
The ods is mine (villain, I scorne thy Boasts)
I haue for Aide th'almighty Lord of Hoasts.

Th'Ethnik's a-fire, and from his goggle eyes
All drunk with rage and blood, the Lightning flies:
Out of his beuer like a Boare he fomes:
A hellish fury in his bosom roames:
As mad, he marcheth with a dreadfull pase,
Death and destruction muster in his face:
He would a-fresh blaspheam the Lord of Lords
With new despights; but in the steed of words

Simile.

He can but gnash his teeth. Then as an Oxe
Straid twixt the hollow of steep Hils and Rocks,
Through craggie Coombs, through dark and ragged turnings,
Lowes hideously his solitary Moornings:
The Tyrant so from his close helmet blunders
With horrid noise, and this harsh voyce he thunders:

Thy God raigns in his Ark, and I on Earth:
I Chalenge Him, Him (if he dare come forth)
Not Thee, base Pigmee. Villain (sayes the Iew)
That blasphemy thou instantly shalt rue.

Simile.

If e'r you saw (at Sea) in Summer weather,
A Galley and a Caraque cope togither
(How th'one steets quick, and th'other veers as slowe,
Lar boord and star-booord from the poop to prowe:
This, on the winde; that, on her owres relies:
This daunteth most; and that most damnities)
You may conceiue this Fight: th'huge Polypheme
Stands, stifly shaking his steel-pointed beam:

419

Dauid doth trauerse (round about him) light,
Forward and back, to th'left hand, and the right,
Steps in and out; now stoops, anon he stretches;
Then here coyls, on eyther hand he reaches;
And stoutly-actiue, watching th'aduerse blowes,
In euery posture dooth himself dispose.

As, when (at Cock-pit) two old Cocks doo fight,

Simile.

(Bristling their plumes, and (red with rage) do smite
With spurs and beak, bounding at euery blowe,
With fresh assaults freshing their fury so,
That, desperate in their vn-yeelding wrath,
Nothing can end their deadly fewd but death)
The Lords about, that on both sides do bet,
Look partially when th'one the Field shall get,
And, trampling on his gaudy plumed pride,
His prostrate Fo with bloody spurs bestride,
With clanging Trumpet and with clapping wing,
Triumphantly his Victory to sing:
So th'Hebrew Hoast, and so the Heathen stranger
(Not free from fear, but from the present danger)
Behold with passion these two Knights on whom
They both haue wagerd both their Fortunes summ
And eyther side, with voice and gesture too,
Hartens and cheers their Champion well to doo;
So earnest all, hat almost euery one
Seems euen an Actor, not a looker-on.
All feel the skirmish twixt their Hope and Fear:
All cast their eyes on this sad Theater:
All on these two depend as very Founders
Of their good Fortune, or their Fates Confounders.

O Lord, said David (as he whirld his Sling)
Be bowe and Bowe-man of this shaft I fling.

With sudden flerk the fatal hemp lets go
The humming Flint, which with a deadly blowe
Pearç't instantly the Pagans gastly Front,
As drop as Pistol sho in boord is wont.
The villain's sped (cryes all the Hebrew band)
The Dog, the Atheist feels Gods heauy hand.

Th'Isacian Knight, seeing the blowe, stands still.

Goliah ouerthrowne.

Fro th'Tyrants wound his ruddy soule doth trill;
As from a crack in any pipe of Lead
(That conuoyes Water from som Fountains head)

Simile.

Hissing in th'Aire, the captiue Stream doth spin
Insiluer threds her crystall humour thin.

The Giant, wiping with his hand his wound,
Cries Tush, 't is nothing: but eftsoones the ground
Sunk vnder him, his face grew pale and wan,
And all his limbs to faint and fail began:

420

Thrice heaues he vp his head; it hangs as fast,
And all a-long lies Isaac's dread at last,
Couering a rood of Land; and in his Fall,

Simile.

Resembles right a lofty Tower or Wall,
Which to lay leuel with the humble soil
A hundred Miners day and night doo toil;
Till at the length rushing with thundrous roar,
It ope a breach to th'hardy Conquerour.

Then, two lowd cries, a glad and sad, were heard:
Wherwith reviv'd the vaunting Tyrant stird,
Resummoning vnder his weak Controule
The fainting Remnants of his flying Soule;
And (to be once more buckling yer he dies,
With blowe for blowe) he striues in vain to rise
Sach as in life, such in his death he seems;
For euen in death he curses and blasphemes:
And as a Curre, that cannot hurt the flinger,
Flies at the stone and biteth that for anger;
Goliah bites the ground and his owne hands

Simile.

As Traytors, false to his fel hearts commands.
Then th'Hebrew Champion heads the Infidel
With his own sword, and sends his soule to Hell.

Pagans disperse; and the Philistian swarms
Haue Armes for burthen, and haue flight for Armes;
Danger behinde, and shame before their face;
Rowting themselues, although none giue them chase.

Dauids Thanks giuing for the victorie.

Armi-potent, Omnipotent, my God,
O let thy Praise fill all the Earth abroad;
Let Israel (through Thee, victorious now)
Incessant songs vnto thy glory vow:
And let me Lord (said DAVID) euer chuse
Thee sole, for Subiect of my sacred Muse.
O wondrous spectacle! vnheard-of Sight!
The Monster's beaten down, before the Fight:
A Dwarf, a Shepheard, conquers (euen vnarmd)
A Giant fell, a famous Captain, armd.
From a frail Sling this Battery neuer came,
But 'twas the Breach of a Tower-razing Ram:
This was no cast of an vncertain Slinger,
'Twas Crosse-bow-shot: rather it was the finger
Of the Al-mightie (not this hand of mine)
That wrought this work so wondrous in our eyne:
This hath He done, and by a woman weak
Can likewise stone the stout Abimelech:
Therefore, for euer, singing sacred Layes,
I will record his glorious Power and Praise.

Then, Iacob's Prince him ioyfully imbraces,
Prefers to honours, and with fauours graces,

421

Imployes him farre and nigh; and farre and neere,
From all sad cares he doth his Soueraine cleer.
In camp he curbs the Pagans arrogance:
In Court he cures the Melancholy Transe
That toyls his soule; and, with his tunefull Lyre,

Effects of Musick.

Expels th'll Spirit which doth the body tyre.
For, with her sheath, the soule commerce frequents,
And acts her office by his instruments;
After his pipe she dances: and (again)
The body shares her pleasure and her paine;
And by exchange, reciprocally borrowes
Som measure of her solace and her sorrowes.
Th'Eare (doore of knowledge) with sweet warbles pleas'd,
Sends them eftsoons vnto the Soule diseas'd,
With dark black rage, our spirits pacifies,
And calmly cools our inward flame that fries.

So, O Tyrtéus, changing Harmonie,

Examples of the same.

Thy Rowt thou changest into Victorie.
So, O thrice-famous, Princely Pellean,
Holding thy hart's reanes in his Tune-full hand,
Thy Timothie with his Melodious skill
Armes and dis-armes thy Worlds-drad arme (at will),
And with his Phrygian Musicke, makes the same
As Lion fierce; with Dorick, milde as Lambe.
So, while in Argos the chaste Violon
For's absent Soueraine doth graue-sweetly groan,
Queen Clytemnestra doth resist th'alarmes
Of lewd Ægysthus, and his lustfull Charmes.
So, at the sound of the sweet-warbling brasse,
The Prophet rapting his soule's soule a space,
Refines himself, and in his phantasie
Graues deep the seal of sacred Prophecie.
For, if our Soule be Number (som so thought)
It must with number be refreshed oft;
Or, made by Number (so I yeeld so sing)
We must the same with som sweet Numbers bring
To som good Tune: euen as a voice (somtime)
That in its Part sings out of tune and time,

Simile.

Is by another voice (whose measur'd strain
Custom and Art confirms) brought in again.
It may be too, that Davids sacred Ditty
Quickned with Holy Writ, and couched witty,
Exorcist-like, chaç't Natures cruell Foe,
Who the Kings soule did toss and torture so.
How e'r it were, He is (in euery thing)
A profitable seruant to the King:
Who enuious yet of his high Feats and Fame,
His Faith, and Fortitude, distrusts the same:

422

And, the diuine Torch of his Vertues bright
Brings him but sooner to his latest Night;
Saue that the Lord still shields him from on hy,
And turns to Tryumph all his Tragedy.

O bitter sweet! I burst (thus raues the King)

Sauls Envy to Dauid.

To hear them all, in Camp and Court to sing,
Savl he hath slaine a thousand, David ten,
Ten thousand David. O faint scorn of men!
Lo how, with Lustre of his glorious parts,
He steals-away the giddy peoples hearts;
Makes lying Prophets sooth him at a beck;
Thou art but King in name, He in effect:
Yet thou indur'st it; haste thee, haste thee (Sot)
Choak in the Cradle his aspiring Plot;
Preuent his hopes, and wisely-valiant
Off with his head that would thy foot supplant.
Nay, but beware; his death (belov'd so wel)
Will draw thee hatred of all Izrael.
Sith then so high his heady valour flies,
Sith common glory cannot him suffice,
Sith Danger vpon Danger he pursews,
And Victorie on Victorie renewes;
Let's put him to 't: Let's make him Generall,
Feed him with winde, and hazard him in all:
So shall his owne Ambitious Courage bring
For Crown a Coffin to our Iunior King:
Yea, had he Sangars strength, and Samsons too,
He should not scape the taske I'll put him to.

But yet, our David more then all atchieues,
And more and more his grace and glory thriues:
The more he doos, the more he dares aduenture,
His rest-less Valour seeks still new Aduenture.
For, feeling him armd with th'Almighty's Spirit,
He recks no danger (at the least to fear it).
Then, what doos Saul? When as he saw no speed
By sword of Foes so great a Foe to rid,
He tries his owne: and one-while throwes his dart,
At vn-awares to thrill him to the heart:
Or treacherously he layes som subtill train,
At boord, or bed, to haue him (harm-less) slain:
On nothing else dreams the disloyall wretch,
But Dauids death; how Dauid to dispatch.
Which had bin don, but for his Son the Prince

Ionathan's loue to Dauid.

(Who deerly tenders Dauids Innocence,
And neerly marks and harks the Kings Designes,
And warns the Iessean by suspect-less signes)
But for the kinde Courageous Ionathan,
Who (but attended onely with his man)

423

Neer Senean Rocks discomfited, alone,
The Philistines victorious Garison.
About his eares a Shower of Shafts doth fall;
His Shield's too-narrow to receiue them all:
His sword is duld with slaughter of his Foes,
Wherefore the dead he at the liuing throwes:
Head-lined helmes, heawn from their trunks he takes,
And those his vollies of swift shot he makes.
The Heathen Hoast dares him no more affront,
Late number-less; but, easie now to count.

Dauid therefore, flying his Princes Furie,
From end to end flies all the Land of Iurie:
But now to Nob; t'Adullam then, anon
To Desart Zif, to Keilah, Maaon,
Hauing for roof heav'ns arches starry-seeld;
And, for repast, what wauing woods doe yeeld.
The Tyrant (so) frustrate of his intent,
Wreakes his fell rage vpon the innocent;
If any winke, as willing t'haue not seen-him,
Or if (vnweeting what's the oddes between-him
And th'angry King) if any had but hid-him:
He dies for it (if any haue but spid-him):
Yea the High-Priest, that in Gods presence stands,
Escapeth not his paricidiall hands;
Nor doth he spare in his vnbounded rage,
Cattel, nor Curre, nor state, nor sexe, nor age.

Contrariwise, Dauid doth good for ill,
He Hates the haters of his Soueraine still.
And though he oft incounter Saul lesse strong
Then his owne side; forgetting all his wrong,
He shewes him, aye, loyall in deed and word
Vnto his Liege, th'Anointed of the Lord;
Respects and honors him, and mindes no more
The Kings vnkindness that had past before.

One day as Saul (to ease him) went aside
Into a Caue, where Dauid wont to hide,
Dauid (vn-seen) seeing his Foe so neer
And all alone, was strook with suddain fear,
As much amaz'd and musing there-vpon;
When whispering thus his Consorts egge him on:

Who sought thy life is fall'n into thy lap;
Doo'st thou not see the Tyrant in thy Trap?
Now therfore pull this Thorne out of thy foot:
Now is the Time if euer thou wilt doo't:
Now by his death establish thine estate:
Now hugge thy Fortune yer it be too-late:
For, he (my Lord) that will not, when he may,
Perhaps he shall not, when he would (they say).

424

Why tarriest thou? what dost thou trifle thus?
Wilt thou, for Saul, betray thy self and vs?

Wonne with their words, to kill him he resolues
But, by the way thus with himself revolues:
He is a Tyrant. True: But now long since,

Anti-Bellærmin & his Disciples Authors or Fautors of our Powder-mine.

And still, he bears the mark of lawfull Prince:
And th'Ever-King (to whom all Kings doe bow)
On no pretext, did euer yet allow
That any Subiect should his hand distain
In sacred blood of his owne Souerain.
He hunts me cause-less. True: but yet, Gods word
Bids me defend, but not offend my Lord.
I am anointed King; but (at Gods pleasure)
Not publikely: therfore I wait thy leasure.
For, thou (O Lord) regardest Thine, and then
Reward'st, in Fine, Tyrants and wicked men.

Thus hauing sayd, he stalkes with noise-less foot
Behind the King, and softly off doth cut
A skirt or lap of his then-vpper clothing;
Then quick auoydes: and Saul, suspecting nothing,
Comes forth anon: and Dauid afterward
From a high Rock (to be the better heard)
Cries to the King (vpon his humble knee)
Come neer (my Liege) com neer and fear not me,
Fear not thy seruant Dauid. Well I knowe,
Thy Flatterers, that miss-inform thee so,
With thousand slanders daily thee incense
Against thy Seruants spot-less innocence:
Those smooth-sly Aspicks, with their poisony sting
Murder mine honor, me in hatred bring
With thee and with thy Court (against all reason)
As if Convicted of the Highest Treason:
But my notorious Loyalty (I hope)
The venom of their Viperous tongues shall stop;
And, with the splendor of mine actions bright,
Disperse the Mists of Malice and Despight.
Behold, my Lord, (Trueth needeth no excuse)
What better witnesse can my soule produce
Of faithfull Loue, and Loyall Vassalage,
To thee, my Liege, than this most certain gage?
When I cut-off this lappet from thy Coat,
Could I not then as well haue cut thy throat?
But rather (Souerain) thorow all my veins
Shall burning Gangrens (spreading deadly pains)
Benum my hand, then it shall lift a sword
Against my Liege, th'anointed of the Lord;
Or violate, with any insolence,
Gods sacred Image in my Soverain Prince.

425

And yet (O King) thy wrath pursues me still;
Like silly Kid, I hop from hill to hill;
Like hated Wolues, I and my Souldiers starue:
But, iudge thy self, if I thy wrath deserue.

No (my Sonne Dauid) I haue don thee wrong:
Good God requite thy good: there doth belong
A great Reward vnto so gratious deed.
Ah, well I see it is aboue decreed
That thou shalt sit vpon my Seat supream,
And on thy head shalt wear my Diadem:
Then, O thou sacred and most noble Head
Remember Mee and mine (when I am dead):
Be gratious to my Blood, and raze not fell
My Name and Issue out of Israel.

Thus sayd the King; and tears out-went his words:
A pale despair his heauy hart still-girds:
His feeble spirit præsaging his Mis-fortune,
Doth euery-kinde of Oracles importune;
Suspicious, seeks how Clotho's Clew doth swell;
And, cast of Heav'n, wil needs consult with Hell.

In Endor dwelt a Beldam in those daies,
Deep-skild in Charms (for, this weak sex always

The Woman Witch of Endor.

Hath in all Times been taxt for Magik Tricks,
As pronest Agents, for the Prince of Styx:
Whether, because their soft, moist supple brain,
Doth easie print of euery seal retain:
Or, whether wanting Force and Fames desart,
Those Wyzards ween to winn it by Black-Art.)
This Stygian scum, the Furies fury fell,
This Shop of Poysons, hideous Type of Hell,
This sad Erinnys, Milcom's Fauourite,
Chamosh his Ioye, and Belzebubs delight,
Delights alonely for her exercise
In secret Murders, sodain Tragœdies;
Her drink, the blood of Babes; her dainty Feast
Mens Marrow, Brains, Guts, Livers (late deceast).
At Weddings aye (for Lamps) she lights debates;
And quiet Loue much more then Death she hates:
Or if she reak of Love, 'tis but to trap
Som severe Cato in incestuous Lap.
Somtimes (they say) she dims the Heav'nly Lamps
She haunts the Graues, she talks with Ghosts, she stamps
And Cals-vp Spirits, and with a wink controules
Th'infernall Tyrant, and the tortur'd Soules.

Arts admiration, Izraels Ornament,
That (as a Queen) Command'st each Element,
And from the Toomb deceased Trunks canst raise,
(Th'vnfaithfull King thus flatters her with praise)

426

On steepest Mountains stop the swiftest Currents,
From driest Rocks draw rapid-rowling Torrents,
And fitly hasten Amphitrites Flood,
Or stay her Eb (as to thy selfsems good):
Turn day to night: hold windes within thy hand,
Make the Sphears moue, and the Sun still to stand:
Enforce the Moon so with thy Charms som-times,
That for a stound in a deep Swoun she seems:
O thou al-knowing Spirit! daign with thy spell
To raise-vp heer renowned Samuel,
To satisfie my doubtfull soule, in sum,
The issue of my Fortunes yet to-com.

Importun'd twice or thrice, she, that before
Resembled one of those grim Ghosts (of yore)
Which she was wont with her vn-holsom breath
To re-bring-back from the black gates of death,
Growes now more gastly, and more Ghost-like grim,
Right like to Satan in his Rage-full Trim.
The place about darker then Night she darkes,
Shee yelles, she roars, she houles, she brayes, she barkes,
And, in vn-heard, horrid, Barbarian tearms,
She mutters strange and execrable Charmes;
Of whose Hell-raking, Nature-shaking Spell,
These odious words could scarce be hearkned well:

Eternall Shades, infernall Dëities,
Death, Horrors, Terrors, Silence, Obsequies,
Demons, dispatch: If this dim stinking Taper
Be of mine owne Sons fat; if heer, for paper,
I write (detested) on the tender skins
Of time-less Infants, and abortiue Twins
(Torn from the wombe) these Figures figure-less:
If this black Sprinkle, tuft with Virgins tress,
Dipt, at your Altar, in my kinsmans blood;
If well I smell of humane flesh (my food):
Haste, haste, you Fiends: you subterranean Powr's:
If impiously (as fits these Rites of yours)
I haue inuok't your grizly Maiesties,
Harken (O Furies) to my Blasphemies,
Regard my Charms and mine inchanting Spell,
Reward my Sins, and send vp Samuel
From dismall darknes of your deep Abysse,
To answer me in what my pleasure is:
Dispatch, I say, (black Princes) quick, why when?
Haue I not Art, for one, to send you ten?

When? stubborn Ghost! The Palfraies of the Sun
Doo fear my Spells; and, when I spur, they run:
The Planets bow, the Plants giue-ear to me,
The Forrests stoop, and even the strongest Tree,

427

At driery sound of my sad whisperings,
Doth Prophecie, foretelling future things:
Yea (maugre Ioue) by mine almighty Charms,
Through Heav'n I thunder with imperious Arms
And comst not thou? O, so: I see the Sage,
I see th'ascent of som great man: his age,
His sacred habite, and sweet graue aspect
Som God-like raies about him round reflect:
Hee's ready now to speak, and plyant too
To cleer thy doubtings, without more adoo.
Saul flat adores; and wickedly-deuout,
The fained Prophets least word leaues not out.

What dost thou Saul? O Izraels Soverain,

Against those that resort to Witches.

Witches, of late, feard only thy disdain:
Now th'are thy stay. O wretch doost thou not knowe
One cannot vse th'ayde of the Powers belowe
Without som Pact of Counter-Seruices,
By Prayers, Perfumes, Homage, and Sacrifice?
And that this Art (meer Diabolicall)
It hurteth all, but th'Author most of all?
And also, that the impious Athëist,
The Infidel, and damned Exorcist,
Differ not much. Th'one, Godhead quite denies:
Th'other, for God, foul Satan magnifies:
The other, Satan (by Inchantment strange)
Into an Angell of the Light doth change.
When as God would, his voice thou wouldst not hear;
Now he forbids thee, thou consult'st els-where:
Whom (liuing Prophet) thou neglect'st, abhorr'st,
Him (dead) thou seck'st, and his dead Trunk ador'st:
And yet, not him nor his; for th'ougly Fiend
Hath no such power vpon a Saint t'extend,
Who fears no force of the blasphemous Charms
Of mumbling Beldams, or Hels damned Arms:

Against th'illusion of Sathans false Apparitions and Walking Spirits.

From all the Poysons that those powers contriue,
Charm-charming Faith's a full Preseruatiue.
In Soule and Body both, He cannot come;
For, they re-ioyne not till the day of doom:
His Soule alone cannot appeer; for why,
Soules are invisible to mortall eye:
His Body only, neither can it be;
For (dust to dust) that soon corrupts (we see).
Besides all this, if t'were true Samuel,
Should not (alas) thine eyes-sight serue as well
To see and knowe him, as this Sorceresse,
This hatefull Hag, this old Enchanteresse,
This Divell incarnate, whose drad Spell commands
The rebell-Fury of th'Infernall Bands?

428

Hath Lucifer not Art enough to fain
A Body fitting for his turn and train?

Simile.

And (as the rigor of long Cold congeals
To harsh hard Wooll the running Water-Rils)
Cannot he thicken thinnest parts of Air,
Commixing Vapours? glew-them? hue them fair?

Simile.

Even as the Rain-Bowe, by the Suns reflexion
Is painted faire in manifold complexion:
A Body, which we see all-ready formd;
But yet perceiue not how it is performd:
A Body, perfect in apparant showe;
But in effect and substance nothing so:
A Body, hartless, lung-less, tongue-less too,
Where Satan lurks, not to giue life ther to;
But to the end that from this Counter-mure,
More couertly he may discharge more sure
A hundred dangerous Engins, which he darts
Against the Bulwarks of the bravest hearts:
That, in the Sugar (euen) of sacred Writ,
He may em-pill vs with som bane-full bit:
And, that his counterfait and fained lips,
Laying before vs all our hainous slips,
And Gods drad Iudgements and iust Indignation,
May vnder-mine our surest Faiths Foundation.

But, let vs hear now what he saith. O Saul,
What frantick fury art thou moov'd with-all,
To now re-knit my broken thrid of life?
To interrupt my rest? And 'mid the strife
Of struggling Mortals, in the Worlds affairs
(By power-full Charms) to re-entoyl my Cares?
Inquir'st thou what's to-come? O wretched Prince!
Too much, too-soon (what I fore-told long since):
Death's at thy door: to-morrow Thou and Thine
Even all shall fall before the Philistine:
And great-good Dauid shall possesse thy Throne,
As God hath sayd, to be gain-sayd by none.

How Sathan comes to tell things to-come.

Th'Author of Lies (against his guise) tels true:
Not that at-once he Selsly all fore-knew,
Or had revolv'd the Leaues of Destiny
(The Childe alonly of Eternity):
But rather through his busie obseruation
Of circumstance, and often iteration
Of reading of our Fortunes and our Fals,
In the close Book of cleare Coniecturals,
With a far-seeing Spirit; hits often right:
Not much vnlike a skilfull Galenite,
Who (when the Crisis comes) dares even foretell
Whether the Patient shal do ill or well.

429

Or, as the Star-wise somtimes calculates
(By an Eclipse) the death of Potentates;
And (by the stern aspects of greatest Stars)
Prognosticates of Famine, Plague, and Wars.

As he foretold (in brief) so fell it out:

Saules death.

Braue Ionathan and his two Brethren stout
Are slain in fight; and Saul himselfe forlorn,
Lest (Captiue) he be made the Pagans scorn,
He kils him-Self; and, of his Fortune froward,
To seem not conquer'd, shewes him Self a Coward.

For, 'tis not Courage (whatsoe'r men say)
But Cowardize to make ones Self away.

Against Self-killing.

Tis even to turne our back at Fears alarms:
Tis (basely-faint) to yeeld vp all our Arms.
O extreame Rage! O barbarous Cruelty,
All at one Blowe, t'offend Gods Maiesty,
The State, the Magistrate, Thy selfe (in fine):
Th'one, in destroying the deer work divine
Of his almightie Hands, the next, in reauing
Thy needfull Seruice, it should be receiuing;
The third, in rash-vsurping his Commission;
And last, Thy Self, in thine owne Selfs-Perdition,
When (by two Deaths) one voluntarie Wound
Doth both thy body and thy soule confound.
But Isbosheth (his deer Son) yet retains
His Place a space, and Dauid only Raigns
In happy Iuda. Yet, yer long (discreet)
He makes th'whole Kingdoms wracked ribs to meet:
And so He rules on th'holy Mount (a mirror)
His Peoples Ioy, the Pagans only Terror.

If ever standing on the sandy shoar,
Y'haue thought to count the rowling waues that roar

Comparison.

Each after other on the British Coast,
When Æolus sends forth his Northern Poast;
Waue vpon Waue, Surge vpon Surge doth fold,
Sea swallowes Sea, so thickly-quickly roul'd,
That (number-less) their number so doth mount,
That it confounds th'Accompter and th'Accompt:
So Dauid's Vertues when I think to number,
Their multitude doth all my Wits incumber;
That Ocean swallowes me: and mazed so,
In the vast Forest where his Prayses growe,
I knowe not what high Fir, Oak, Chest-nut-Tree.
(Rather) what Brasil, Cedar, Ebonie
My Muse may chuse (Amphion-like) to build
With curious touch of Fingers Quauer-skild
(Durst she presume to take so much vpon-her)
A Temple sacred vnto Dauids honour.

430

Epitome of Dauids Vertues.

Others shall sing his mindes true Constancie,
In oft long exiles try'd so thorowly:
His life compos'd after the life and likeness
Of sacred Patterns: his milde gracious meeknes
Towards railing Shimei, and the

Nabal.

Churlish Gull;
His louely Eyes and Face so bewtifull.
Som other shall his equity record,
And how the edge of his impartiall sword
Is euer ready for the Reprobate,
To hewe them down; and help the Desolate:
How He no Law, but Gods drad Law enacts:
How He respects no persons, but their Facts:
How braue a Triumph of Selfs-wrath he showes,
Killing the Killers of his deadly Foes.
Som other shall vnto th'Empyreall Pole
The holy fervour of his zeal extoll:
How for the wandring Ark he doth prouide
A certain place for euer to abide:
And how for euer euery his designe
Is ordered all by th'Oracle Diuine.

Vpon the wings of mine (els-tasked) Rime,
Through the cleer Welkin of our Western clime,
I'll only bear his Musike and his Mars
(His holy Songs, and his triumphant Wars):
Lo there the sacred mark wherat I aim;
And yet this Theam I shall but mince and maim,
So many Yarnes I still am faine to strike
Into this Web of mine intended Week.

Of his valour and victories.

The Twelue stout Labours of th'Amphitrionide
(Strongest of Men) are iustly magnifi'd:
Yet, what were They but a rude Massacre
Of Birds and Beasts, and Monsters here and there?
Not Hoasts of Men and Armies ouerthrow'n;
But idle Conquests; Combats One to One:
Where boist'rous Limbs, and Sinnews strongly knit,
Did much auaile with little ayde of Wit.
Bears, Lions, Giants, foild in single fight,
Are but th'Essayes of our redoubted Knight:
Vnder his Armes sick Aram deadly droops:
Vnto his power the strength of Edom stoops:
Stout Amalek euen trembles at his name:
Prowd Ammons scorn he doth return with shame:
Subdueth Soba: foyls the Moabite:
Wholly extirps the down-trod Iebusite;
And (still victorious) every month almost
Combats and Conquers the Philistian Hoast:
So that, Alcides massie Club scarce raught
So many blowes, as Dauid Battails fought.

431

Th'expert Great

Pompey.

Captain, who the Pontiks quaild,
Wun in strange Wars; in ciuill Fights he faild:
But, Dauid thriues in all: and fortunate,
Triumphs no lesse of Sauls intestine hate,
Of Isbosheth's and Absalon's designes,
Then of strong Aram, and stout Philistines.
Good-Fortune alwaies blowes not in the Poop
Of valiant Cæsar, she defeats his Troop,
Slayes his Lieutenants; and (among his Friends)
Stabb'd full of Wounds, at length his Life she ends:
But Dauid alwaies feels Heav'ns gratious hand;
Whether in person He himself command
His royall Hoast: or whether (in his sted)
By valiant Ioab his braue Troops be led:
And Happinesse, closing his aged eye,
Even to his Toomb consorts him constantly.
Fair Victory, with Him (even from the first)
Did pitch her Tent: his Infancy she nurst
With noble Hopes, his stronger years she fed
With stately Trophets, and his hoary head
She Crowns and Comforts with (her cheerfull Balms)
Triumphant Laurels and victorious Palms.
The Mountains stoop to make him easie way;
And Euphrates, before Him, dryes away:
To Him great Iordan a small leap doth seem;
Without assault, strong Cities yeeld to Him:
Th'Engine alone of His far-feard Renown
Bears (Thunder-like) Gates, Bars, and Bulwarks down:
Gads goodly Vales, in a gore Pond he drenches;
Philistian Fires, with their owne Bloud he quenches;
And then, in Gob (pursewing still his Foes)
His wrath's iust Tempest on fell Giants throwes.

O strong, great Worthies) will som one-day say,
When your huge Bones they plough vp in the Clay)
But, stronger, greater, and more Worthie He,
Whose Heav'n-lent Force and Fortune made you be
(Maugre your might, your massy Spears and Shields)
The fatt'ning dung-hill of those fruitfull Fields.
His Enimies, scarcely so soon he threats
As ouerthrowes, and vtterly defeats.
On Dauids head, God doth not spin good-hap;
But pours it down aboundant in his Lap:
And He (good subiect) with his Kingdom, ever
T'increase th'Immortall Kingdom doth endeuour.
His swelling Standards neuer stir abroad,
Till he haue Cald vpon th'Almighty God:
He neuer Conquers but (in heav'nly Songs)
He yeelds the Honor where it right belongs:

432

And evermore th'Eternals sacred Prayse
(With Harp and Voice) to the bright Stars doth raise.

His Poesie.

Scarce was he born, when in his Cradle prest
The Nightingale to build her tender nest:
The Bee within his sacred mouth seeks room
To arch the Chambers of her Hony-comb:
And th'Heav'nly Muse, vnder his roof descending
(As in the Summer, with a train down-bending,
We see som Meteor, winged brightly-fair
With twinkling rayes, glide through the crystall Aier,
And soudainly, after long-seeming Flight,
To seem amid the new-shav'n Fields to light)
Him softly in her Iuory arms she folds,
His smiling Face she smilingly beholds:
She kisses him, and with her Nectar kisses
Into his Soule she breathes a Heav'n of Blisses;
Then layes him in her lap: and while she brings
Her Babe a-sleep, this Lullabie she sings.

VRANIA's Lullaby.

Liue, liue (sweet-Babe) the Miracle of Mine,
Liue euer Saint, and growe thou all Divine:
With this Celestiall Winde, where-with I fill
Thy blessed Boosom, all the World ful-fill:
May thy sweet Voice, in Peace, resound as far
And speed as fair as thy drad Arm in War:
Bottom nor bank, thy Fames-Sea never bound:
With double Laurels be thy Temples Crownd.
See (Heav'n-spring Spirit) see how th'allured North,
Of thy Childs-Cry (shrill-sweetly warbling forth)
Al-ready tastes the learned, dainty pleasures.
See, see (yong Father of all sacred Measures)
See how, to hear thy sweet harmonious sound,
About thy Cradle here are thronging (round)
Woods, but with ears: Floods, but their fury stopping:
Tigres, but tame: Mountains, but alwaies hopping:
See how the Heav'ns, rapt with so sweet a tongue,
To list to thine, leaue their owne Dance and Song.

O Idiot's shame, and Envy of the Learned!
O Verse right-worthy to be ay eterned!
O richest Arras, artificiall wrought
With liueliest Colours of Conceipt-full Thought!
O royall Garden of the rarest Flowers
Sprung from an Aprill of spirituall Showers!
O Miracle! whose star-bright beaming Head
When I behold, euen mine owne Crown I dread.

Excellency of the Psalmes of Dauid.

Never els-where did plentious Eloquence,
In euery part with such magnificence
Set-forth her Beauties, in so sundry Fashions
Of Robes and Iewels (suting sundry Passions)

433

As in thy Songs: Now like a Queen (for Cost)
In swelling Tissues, rarely-rich imbost
With Pretious Stones: neat, City-like, anon,
Fine Cloth, or Silk, or Chamlet puts she on:
Anon, more like som handsom Shepheardesse,
In courser Cloaths she doth her cleanly dresse:
What-e're she wear, Wool, Silk, or Gold, or Gems,
Or Course or Fine; still like her Self she seems;
Fair, Modest, cheerfull, fitting time and place,
Illustring all even with a heav'n-like grace.
Like prowd loud Tigris (ever swiftly roul'd)
Now, through the Plains thou powr'st a Flood of gold:
Now, like thy Iordan, (or Meander-like)
Round-winding nimbly with a many-Creek,
Thou runn'st to meet thy self's pure streams behind thee.
Mazing the Meads where thou dost turn and winde-thee.
Anon, like Cedron, through a straighter Quill,
Thou strainest out a little Brook or Rill,
But yet, so sweet, that it shall ever be
Th'immortall Nectar to Posterity:
So cleer, that Poesie (whose pleasure is
To bathe in Seas of Heav'nly Mysteries)
Her chastest feathers in the same shall dip,
And deaw with-all her choicest workmanship:
And so deuout, that with no other Water
Deuoutest Soules shall quench their thirst heer-after.
Of sacred Bards Thou art the double Mount:
Of faith-full Spirits th'Interpreter profound:
Of contrie Hearts the cleer Anatomy:
Of euery Sore the Shop for remedy:
Zeal's Tinder-box: a Learned Table, giuing
To spirituall eyes, not painted Christ, but living.
O diuine Volume, Sion's cleer deer Voice,
Saints rich Exchecker, full of comforts choice:
O, sooner shall sad Boreas take his wing
At Nilus head, and boist'rous Auster spring
From th'icie floods of Izeland, than thy Fame
Shall be forgot, or Honour fail thy Name:
Thou shalt surviue through-out all Generations,
And (plyant) learn the Language of all Nations:
Nought but thine Aiers through air and Seas shall sound,
In high-built Temples shall thy Songs resound,
Thy sacred Verse shall cleer Gods clowdy face,
And, in thy steps the noblest Wits shall trace.
Grosse Vulgar, hence; with hands profanely-vile,
So holy things presume not to defile,
Touch not these sacred stops, these silver strings:
This Kingly Harp is only meet for Kings.

434

And so behold, towards the farthest North,
Ah see, I see vpon the Banks of FORTH
(Whose force-full stream runs smoothly serpenting)
A valiant, learned, and religious King,
Whose sacred Art retuneth excellent
This rarely-sweet celestiall Instrument:
And Dauids Truchman, rightly doth resound
(At the Worlds end) his eloquence renown'd.
Dombertans Clyde stands still to hear his voice:
Stone-rowling Tay seemes thereat to reioyce:
The trembling Cyclads, in great Lummond-Lake,
After his sound their lusty gambols shake:
The (Trees-brood) Bar-geese, mid th'Hebridian wave,
Vnto his Tune their far-flow'n wings doo wave:
And I my Self in my pyde

A kind of light mantle made of a thin checkerd Cloth, worne by the Hil-men in Scotland: and now much vsed with vs for Saddle clothes.

Pleid a-slope,
With Tune-skild foot after his Harp doo hop.

Thus, full of God, th'Heav'n Sirene (Prophet-wise)
Powres-forth a Torrent of mel-Melodies,
In Davids praise. But Davids foule defect
Was yet vn-seen, vncensur'd, vn-suspect.
Oft in fair Flowers the bane-full Serpent sleeps:
Somtimes (we see) the brauest Courser trips:
And som-times Dauid's Deaf vnto the Word
Of the Worlds Ruler, th'everlasting Lord:
His Songs sweet feruor slakes, his Soules pure Fire
Is dampt and dimm'd with smoak of foul desire:
His Harp is layd a-side, he leaues his Layes,
And after his fair Neighbors Wife he neighs.
Fair Bersabe's his Flame, euen Bersabe,
In whose Chaste bosom (to that very day)
Honour and Loue had happy dwelt together,
In quict life, without offence of either:
But, her proud Bewty now, and her Eyes force,
Began to draw the Bill of their Diuorce:
Honor giues place to Loue: and by degrees
Fear from her hart. Shame from her forehead flees.
The Presence-chamber, the High street, the Temple
These Theaters are not sufficient ample
To shew her Bewties, if but Silke them hide:

Bersabe bathing.

Shee must haue windowes each-where open wide
About her Garden-Baths, the while therin
She basks and bathes her smooth Snowe-whiter skin;
And one-while set in a black Iet-like Chair,
Perfumes, and combes, and curls her golden hair:
Another-while vnder the Crystall brinks,
Her Alabastrine well-shap't Limbs she shrinks
Like to a Lilly sunk into a glasse:
Like soft loose Venus (as they paint the Lasse)

435

Born in the Seas, when with her eyes sweet-flames,
Tonnies and Triton, she at-once inflames:
Or like an Iuory Image of a Grace,
Neatly inclos'd in a thin Crystall Case:
Another-while, vnto the bottom diues,
And wantonly with th'vnder-Fishes striues:
For, in the bottom of this liquid Ice,
Made of Musäick work, with quaint deuice
The cunning work-man had contriued trim
Carpes, Pikes, and Dolphins seeming even to swim.

Ishai's great son, too-idly, walking hie

Dauid gazing.

Vpon a Tarras, this bright star doth spy;
And sudden dazled with the splendor bright,
Fares like a Prisoner, who new brought to light
From a Cymmerian, dark, deep dungeon,
Feels his sight smitten with a radiant Sun.
But too-too-soon re-cleer'd, he sees (alas)
Th'admired Tracts of a bewitching Face.
Her sparkling Eye is like the Morning Star:
Her lips two snips of crimsin Sattin are:
Her Teeth as white as burnisht siluer seem
(Or Orient Pearls, the rarest in esteem):
Her Cheeks and Chin, and all her flesh like Snowes
Sweet intermixed with Vermillion Rose,
And all her sundry Treasures selfly swell,
Prowd, so to see their naked selues excell.

What liuing Rance, what rapting Ivory
Swims in these streams? O what new Victory
Triumphs of all my Tropheis? O cleer Therms,
If so your Waves be cold; what is it warms,
Nay, burns my hart? If hot (I pray) whence comes
This shivering winter that my soule benums,
Freezes my Senses, and dis-selfs me so
With drousie Poppey, not my self to knowe?
O peer-less Bewty, meerly Bewtifull;
(Vnknow'n) to me th'art most vn-mercifull:
Alas! I dy, I dy (O dismall lot!)
Both for I see thee, and I see thee not
But a-far-off and vnder water too:
O feeble Power, and O (what shall I doo?)
Weak Kingly-State! sith that a silly Woman
Stooping my Crown, can my soule's Homage summon
But, O Imperiall power! Imperiall State!
Could (happy) I giue Bewties Check the Mate.

Thus spake the King: and, like a sparkle small
That by mischance doth into powder fall,

Simile.

Hee's all a-fire; and pensiue, studies nought,
But how t'accomplish his lasciuious thought:

436

Which soon he compast; sinks himself therin;
Forgetteth Dauid; addeth Sin to Sin:
And lustfull, plaies like a young lusty-Rider

Simile.

(A wilfull Gallant, not a skilfull guider)
Who, proud of his horse pride, still puts him to't:
With wand and spur, layes on (with hand and foot)
The too-free Beast; which but too-fast before
Ran to his Ruine, stumbling euermore
At euery stone, till at the last he break
Against som Rock his and his Riders neck.
For, fearing, not Adulteries fact, but fame:
A iealous Husbands Fury for the same:
And lessening of a Pleasure shar'd to twain:
He (treach'rous) makes her valiant Spouse be slain.

The Lord is moov'd: and, iust, begins to stretch
His Wraths keen dart at this disloiall wretch:
When Nathan (then bright Brand of Zeal and Faith).
Comes to the King, and modest-boldly sayth:

The Prophet Nathan's Parable, reprouing Dauid.

Vouchsafe my Liege (that our chief Iustice art)
To list a-while to a most hainous part.
First to the fault giue ear: then giue Consent
To giue the Faulty his due punishment.
Of late, a Subiect of thine owne, whose flocks
Powl'd all Mount Liban's pleasant plentious locks;
And to whose Heards could hardly full suffice
The flowry Verge that longst all Iordan lies;
Making a feast vnto a stranger-Guest,
None of his owne abundant Fatlings drest;
But (priuy Thief) from a poor neighbour by
(His faithfull Friend) Hee takes feloniously
A goodly Lamb; although he had no more
But euen that one: wherby he set such store,
That every day of his owne hand it fed,
And every night it coucht vpon his Bed,
Supt of his Cup, his pleasant morsels pickt,
And euen the moisture from his lips it lickt.
Nay, more, my Lord. No more (replies the King,
Deeply incenst) 'Tis more then time this thing
Where seen into; and so outrageous Crimes,
So insolent, had need be curbd betimes:
What ever Wretch hath done this Villany
Shall Die the Death; and not alonely Die,
But let the horror of so foul a Fact
A more then common punishment exact.

O painted Toomb (then answerd sacred Nathan)
That hast God in thy Mouth, in thy Minde Sathan:
Thou blam'st in other thine owne Fault denounç't,
And vn-awares hast 'gainst thy self pronounç't

437

Sentence of Death, O King, no King (as then)
Of thy desires: Thou art the very man:
Yea, Thou art hee, that with a wanton Theft
Hast iust Vriah's only Lamb bereft:
And him, O horror! (Sin with Sin is further'd)
Him with the sword of Ammon hast Thou murther'd.
Bright Beauties Eye, like to a glorious Sun,
Hurts the sore eye that looks too-much ther-on:
Thy wanton Eye, gazing vpon that Eye,
Hath given an entrance too-too-foolishly
Vnto that Dwarf, that Divell (is it not?)
Which out of Sloath, within vs is begot;
Who entring first but Guest-wise in a room,
Doth shortly Master of the house become;
And makes a Saint (a sweet, mylde minded Man)
That 'gainst his Life's Foe would not lift his hand,
To plot the death of his deer faith-full Friend,
That for his Loue a thousand liues would spend.

Ah! snak'st thou not? is not thy Soule in trouble
(O brittle dust, vain shadow, empty bubble!)
At Gods drad wrath, which quick doth calcinize
The marble Mountains and the Ocean dries?
No, thou shalt knowe the waight of Gods right hand,
Thou, for example t'other Kings shalt stand.
Death, speedy Death, of that adulterous Fruit,
Which even al-ready makes his Mother rue't,
Shall vex thy soule, and make thee feel (indeed)
Forbidden Pleasure doth Repentance breed.

Ah shame-less beast! Sith thy brute Lust (forlorn)
Hath not the Wife of thy best Friend forborn,
Thy Sons (dis-natur'd) shall defile thy bed
Incestuously; thy fair Wiues (rauished)
Shall doublely thy lust-full seed receaue:
Thy Concubines (which thou behinde shalt leaue)
The wanton Rapes of thine owne Race shall be:
It shall befall that in thy Family,
With an vn-kins-mans kisse (vn-louing Louer)
The Brother shal his Sisters shame discouer:
Thou shalt be both Father and Father-in-law
To thine owne Blood. Thy Children (past all aw
Of God or Man) shall by their insolence.
Euen iustifie thy bloody soul offence.
Thou sinn'dst in secret: but Sol's blushing Eye
Shall be eye-witness of their villany:
All Izrael shall see the same: and then,
The Heav'n-sunk Cities in Asphaltis Fen,
Out of the stinking Lake their heads shall showe,
Glad, by thy Sons, to be out-sinned so.

438

Thou, thou (inhumane) didst the Death conspire
Of good Vriah (worthy better Hire),
Thou cruell didst it: therefore, Homicide,
Cowardly treason, cursed Paricide,
Vn-kinde Rebellion; euer shall remain
Thy house-hold Guests, thy house with blood to stain,
Thine owne against thine owne shall thril their darts:
Thy Son from thee shall steal thy peoples harts:
Against thy Self he shall thy Subiects arm,
And giue thine age many a fierce Alarm,
Till hanged by the hair 'twixt Earth and sky
(His Gallow's pride, shame of the Worlds bright Eye)
Thine owne Lieutenant, at a crimsin spour,
His guilty Soule shall with his Lance let-out.
And (if I fail not) O what Tempest fel
Beats on the head of harm-less Izrael!
Alas! how many a guiltless Abramide

The Plague of Pestilence.

Dies in Three dayes, through thy too-curious Pride!
In hate of thee, th'Air (thick and sloathful) breeds
No slowe Disease; both yong and old it speeds;
All are indifferent: For through all the Land
It spreads, almost in turning of a hand:
To the so-sick, hard seem the softest plumes;
Flames from his eys, from's mouth come Iakes-like fumes:
His head, his neck; his bulk, his legs doth tire;
Outward, all water; inward, all a-fire:
With a deep Cough his spungy Lungs he wastes:
Black Blood and Choler both at once he casts:
His voices passage is with Biles be-layd,
His Soule's Interpreter, rough, foul, and flayd:
Thought of the Grief it's rigor oft augments:
'Twixt Hope and Fear it hath no long suspense:
With the Disease Death iointly trauerseth:
Th'Infections stroak is euen the stroak of Death.
Art yeelds to th'anguish: Reason stoops to rage:
Physicians skill, himselfe doth ill engage.
The streets too still: the Town all out of Town:
All Dead, or Fled: vnto the hallowed ground
The howling Widdow (though she lov'd him deer)
Yet dares not follow her dead Husbands Beer.
Each mounts his Losse, each his owne Case complains,
Pel-niel the liuing with the dead remains.

Simile.

As a good-natur'd and wel-nurtur'd Chyld,
Found in a fault (by's Master sharply-myld)
Blushing and bleaking, betwixt shame and fear,
With down-cast eyes laden with many a tear,
More with sad gesture, than with words, doth craue
An humble Pardon of his Censor graue:

439

So Dauid, hearing th'holy Prophets Threat,

Dauids Repentance.

He apprehends Gods Iudgements dradly-great;
And (thrill'd with fear) flies for his sole defence
To pearly Tears, Mournings, and sad Laments:
Off-goes his Gold; his glory treads he down,
His Sword, his Scepter, and his pretious Crown:
He fasts, he prayes, he weeps, he grieues, he grones,
His hainous Sins he bitterly bemones:
And, in a Caue hard-by, he roareth out
A sigh-full Song, so dolefully devout,
That even the Stone doth groan, and pearç't withall,
Lets it's salt tears with his sad tears to fall.
Ay-gracious Lord (thus Sings he night and day)
Wash wash, my Soule in thy deep Mercies sea:

Psal. 51.

O Mercy, Mercy Lord alowd he Cries;
(And Mercy, Mercy, still the Rock replyes).

O God, my God, sith for our grieuous Sin

Application to France.

(Which will-full we so long haue weltred in)
Thou powr'st the Torrents of thy Vengeance down
On th'azure Field with Goulden Lillies sow'n:
Sith every moment thy iust Anger drad
Roars, thunders, lightens on our guilty head:
Sith Famine, Plague, and War (with bloody hand)
Doo all at once make havock of this Land:
Make vs make vse of all these Rods aright;
That we may quench with our Tears-water quite
Thin Ire-full Fire: our former Vices spurn;
And, true-reform'd, Iustice to Mercy turn.

And so, O Father, (fountain of all Good,

The like to England, now for many yeares together grieuously afflicted with the Plague.

Ocean of Iustice, Mercie's bound-less Flood)
Since, for Our Sins exceeding all the rest,
As most ingrate-full, though most rarely blest
(After so long Long-Sufferance of Thine:
So-many Warnings of thy Word diuine:
So-many Threatnings of thy dread-full Hand:
So-many Dangers scap't by Sea and Land:
So-many Blessings in so good a King:
So-many Blossoms of that fruit ful Spring:
So-many Foes abroad; and False at home:
So-many Rescues from the rage of Rome;
So-many Shields against so many Shot:
So-many Mercies in that Powder-Plot
(So light regarded and so soon forgot).

Since for Our Sins, so many and so great,
So little mov'd with Promise or with Threat,
Thou, now at last (as a iust ielouze God)
Strik'st vs thy Self with thine immediate Rod,
Thy Rod of Pestilence: whose rage-full smart,
With deadly pangs pearcing the strongest heart,

440

Tokens of Terror leaues vs where it lights:
And so infects vs (or at least affrights)
That Neighbour Neighbour, Brother Brother shuns;
The tendrest Mother dares not see her Sons;
The neerest Friend his deerest Friend doth flye;
Yea, scarce the Wife dares close her Husbands eye.
For, through th'Example of our Vicious life,

Simile.

As Sin breeds Sin; and Husband marr's the Wife,
Sister proudes Sister, Brother hardens Brother,
And one Companion doth corrupts another:
So through Contagion of this dire Disease,
It (iustly) doth thy heav'nly Iustice please,
To cause vs thus each other to infect:
Though This we fly, and That too nigh affect.

Since for our Sins, which hang so fast vpon-vs,
So dreadfully thy Fury frowneth on-vs;
Sith still thou Strikest, and still Threat'nest more,
More grieuous Wounds then we haue felt before:
O gratious Father, giue vs grace (in fine)
To make our Profit of these Rods of thine;
That, true-Converted by thy milde Correction,
We may abandon euery foul Affection:
That Humblenes may flaring Pride dis-plume:
That Temperance may Surfaiting consume:
That Chastity may chase our wanton Lust:
That Diligence may wear-off Slothfull rust:
That Loue may liue, in Wrath and Enuies place:
That Bounties hand may Auarice deface:
That Truth may put Lying and Fraud to flight:
That Faith and Zeal may keep thy Sabbaths right:
That Reverence of thy drad Name may banish
Blasphemous Oathes, and all Profaneness vanish.

Since for our Sins (aswell in Court as Cottage)
Of all Degrees, all Sexes, Youth and Dotage,
Of Clarks and Clownes; Rich, Poore; and Great and Small,
Thy fear-ful Vengeance, hangeth ouer all;
O Touch vs all with Horror of our Crimes:
O Teach vs all to turn to thee betimes:
O Turn vs (Lord) and we shall turned be:
Giue what thou bidst, and bid what pleaseth thee:
Giue vs Repentance; that thou mayst repent
Our present Plagve, and future Punishment.

FINIS.

441

The Magnificence.

THE II. BOOK OF THE FOVRTH DAY OF the Second Week, of Bartas.

The Argvment.

Death-summon'd David, in his sacred throne
Instals (instructs) his yong Son Salomon:
His (pleas-God) Choice of Wisedom, wins him Honor:
And Health and Wealth (at once) to wait vpon her:
His wondrous Doom, quick Babe's Claim to decide:
Mis-Matches taxt, in His with Pharaonide:
Their pompous Nuptials: Seav'n Heav'n-Masquers there.
The glorious Temple, Builded richly-rare.
Salem's Renown drawes Saba to his Court:
King Iames, to His, brings Barta's, in like fort.

Happy are You (O You delicious Wits)
That stint your Studies, as your Fury fits:
That in long Labours (full of pleasing pain)
Exhaust not wholly all your learned brain:
That, changing Note, now light and grave canon,
Handle the Theam that first you light vpon:
That, heere in Sonnets, there in Epigrams,
Euaporate your sweet Soule-boyling Flames.

But my deer Honor, and my sacred Vows,
And Heav'ns decree (made in that Higher-House)
Hold mee fast fetter'd (like a Gally-slaue)
To this hard Task. No other case I haue,
Nought else I dream of; neither (night nor day)
Aim at ought else, or look I other-way:
But (alwayes busie) like a Mil-stone seem
Still turned round with the same rapid stream.

442

Thence is't that oft (maugre Apollos grace)
I humme so harsh; and in my Works inchase
Lame, crawling Lines, according to the Fire,
Which (more or lesse) the whirling Poles inspire:
And also mingle (Linsie-woolsie-wise)
This gold-ground Tissue with too-mean supplies.

You, all the year long, doo not spend your wing:
But during only your delightfull Spring
(Like Nightingales) from bush to bush you play,
From Tune to Tune, from Myrtle spray to spray:
But, I too-bold, and like the Swallow right,
Not finding where to rest me, at one flight
A bound-less ground-less Sea of Times I passe,
With Auster now, anon with Boreas.

Your quick Career is pleasant, short, and eath;
At each Lands-end you sit you down and breathe
On som green bank; or, to refresh you, finde
Som Rosie-arbour, from the Sun and winde:
But, end-less is my Course: for, now I glyde
On Ice; then (dazled) head-long down I slyde:
Now vp I climbe: then through the Woods I craul,
I stray, I stumble, somtimes down I fall.
And, as base Morter serveth to vnite

Simile.

Red, white, gray Marble, Iasper, Galactite:
So, to connex my queint Discourse, somtimes
I mix loose, limping, and ill-polisht Rimes.

Yet will I not this Work of mine giue o're.
The Labour's great; my Courage yet is more,
My hart's not yet all voyd of sacred heat:
Ther's nothing Glorious but is hard to get.
Hils were not seen but for the Vales betwixt:
The deep indentings artificiall mixt
Amid Musäiks (for more ornament)
Haue prizes, sizes, and dies different.
And O! God grant, the greatest spot you spie
In all my Frame, may be but as the Fly,
Which on her Ruff (whiter than whitest snowes)
To whiten white, the fairest Virgin sowes:
(Or like the Veluet on her brow: or, like
The dunker Mole on Venus dainty Cheeke:
And, that a few faults may but lustre bring
To my high furies where I sweetest sing.

David waxt old and cold; and's vitall Lamp,
Lacking it's oyl of Natiue moist, grew damp
(But by degrees); when with a dying voice
(But liuely vigor of Discretion choise)
He thus instructs his yong Son Salomon,
And (as Heav'n cals) instals him in his Throne.

443

Whom, with-out Force, Vproar, or Ryualing,

Dauids instructions to his Son Salomon.

Nature, and Law, and Fortune make a King;
Euen He (my Son) must be both Iust and Wise,
If long he look to Rule and Royalize:
But he, whom only, Fortunes Fauour rears
Vnto a Kingdom, by som new-found stairs;
He must appeare more than a man; and cast
By rarest Worth to make his Crown sit fast.

My Salomon, thou know'st thou art my Yongest:
Thou know'st, besides, out of what Bed thou sprungest:
Thou seest what loue all Izrael bears thy Brother:
To honor Thee, what wrong I doo to other;
Yea euen to Nature and our Natiue Law:
'Tis thy part therefore, in all points to draw
To full Perfection; and with rare effect
Of Noblest Vertues hide thy Births defect.

Thou, Izraels King, serue the great King of All,

A king (first of all) ought to be Religious.

And only on his Conducts pedestall
Found thine Affaires: vpon his Sacred Lore
Thine eyes and minde be fixed euermore:
The barking rage of bold Blasphemers hate:
Thy Souerain's Manners (Vice-Roy) imitate.
Nor think, the thicknes of thy Palace Wals,
Thine iron Gates, and high gold-seeled Halls,
Can let his Eye to spie (in euery part)
The darkest Closets of thy Mazie Heart.

If birth or Fate (my Son) had made thee Prince
Of Idumeans or of Philistins,

Valorous.

If Pharaoh's Title had befall'n to thee,
If the Medes Myter bowed at thy knee,
Wert thou a Sophy; yet with Vertues luster
Thou oughtst (at least) thy Greatnes to illuster.
But, to Command the Seed of Abraham,
The Holy Nation to Controule and tame,
To bear a Iosuahs or a Samsons load,
To be Gods Vice-Roy, needs a Demi-God.

Before old Seruants giue not new the start

Impartial in bestowing Preferments.

(Kings-Art consists in Action more then Art.)
Old Wine excelleth new: Nor (giddily)
Will a good Husband grub a goodly Tree
In his faire Orchards midst, whose fruitfull store

Simile.

Hath graç't his Table twenty yeers and more;
To plant a Graft, yer e'r he taste the same,
Saue with the teeth of a (perhaps) false Fame.

These Parasites are euen the Pearls and Rings

Impatient of Parasites and Flatterers.

(Pearls, said I? Perils) in the eares of Kings:
For O, what Mischief but their Wiles can work?
Sith euen within vs (to their aid) doth lurk

444

A smoother Soother, euen our owne Selfs-loue
(A malady that nothing can remoue)
Which, with these strangers, secretly Combin'd
In League offensiue (to the firmest Minde)
Perswades the Coward, he is Wisely-meek:
The drunkard, Stout: the periure, Politick:
The cruell Tyrant, a iust Prince they call;
Sober, the Sot; the Lauish, Liberal:
And, quick nos'd Beagles, senting right his lore
(Trans-form'd into him) euen his Faults adore.

To banish Atheists and all notoriously wicked persons frō his presence.

Fly then those Monsters: and giue no accesse
To men infamous for their wickednesse:
Endure no Atheist, brook no Sorcerer
Within thy Court, nor Thief, nor Murderer:
Lest the contagion of their banefull breath
Poyson the publike fountain, and to death
Infect Thy manners (more of force then Law)
The spring, whence Subiects good or bad will draw.

To over-Rule his owne Passions & Affections.

Rule thine Affects, thy fury and thy fear:
Hee's no true King, who no self's-sway doth beare:
Not what thou could'st, but what thou shouldst, effect:
And to thy Lawes, first thine owne-self subiect.
For, ay the Subiect will (fear set a-side)
Through thick and thin, hauing his King for guide.

To be milde and gratious.

Shew thy Self gratious, affable and meek;
And be not (proud) to those gay godlings like,
But once a year from their gilt Boxes tane,
To impetrate the Heav'ns long wisht-for raine.

To be faithfull of his promise.

To fail his Word, a King doth ill beseem:
Who breaks his faith, no faith is held with him,
Deceipt's deceiv'd: Iniustice meets vniust:
Disloyall Prince armes subiects with distrust;
And neighbour States will in their Leagues commend
A Lion, rather then a Fox, for Friend.

To be readier to Reward then Punish.

Be prodigall of Vertues iust reward:
Of punishments be sparing (with regard).
Arm thou thy brest with rarest Fortitude;
Things Eminent are euer most pursu'd:
On highest Places, most disgraces threat:
The roughest windes on widest gates do beat.

Not to be Quærellous, yet quick & courageous in a iust Cause.

Toil not the World with Wars ambitious spite:
But if thine Honour must maintain thy Right,
Then shew thee David's Son; and wisely-bold
Follow 't as hot, as thou beginst it cold:
Watch, Work, Deuise, and with vn-weary limb,
Wade thorough Foords, and ouer Chanels swim.

His exercise in Warre.

Let tufted Planes for pleasant shades suffice,
In heat; in Cold, thy Fire be exercise:

445

A Targe thy Table, and a Turf thy Bed:
Let not thy Mouth be ouer-dainty fed:
Let labour be thy sauce, thy Caske thy Cup;
Whence for thy Nectar som ditch-water sup:
Let Drums, and Trumpets, and shril Fifes and Flutes
Serue thee for Citterns, Virginals and Lutes:
Trot vp a Hill; Run a whole Field for Race;
Leap a large Dike; Tosse a long Pike, a space:
Perfume thy head with dust and sweat: appear
Captain and Souldier. Souldiers are on fire,
Having their King (before them Marching forth)
Follow in fortune, witness of their Worth.

I should inflame thy heart with learnings loue;
Saue that I knowe what diuine habits mooue

In peace not to be ouer studious: yet, to vnderstand the Principles of all Prince-fit Sciences.

Thy profound Spirit: only, let th'ornament
Of Letters wait on th'Art of Regiment:
And take good heed, lest as excesse of humor
In Plants, becomes their Flowring Lifes consumer;
So too-much Study, and delight in Arts,
Quench the quick vigour of thy Spirituall parts,
Make thee too-pensiue, over-dull thy Senses,
And draw thy Minde from Publike cares of Princes.
With a swift-winged soule, the Course survay
Of Nights dim Taper and the Torch of Day:
Sound round the Cels of th'Ocean dradly-deep:
Measure the Mountains snowie tops and steep:
Ferret all Corners of this neather Ball;
But to admire the Makers Art in all,
His Power and Prudence: and, resemble not
Som simple Courtier, or the silly Sot
That in the base-Court all his time hath spent,

Simile.

In gazing on the goodly Battlement,
The chamfred Pillers, Plinths, and antique Bosses,
Medals, Ascents, Statues, and strange Colosses;
Amaz'd and musing vpon every piece
Of th'vniforme, fair stately Frontispice;
Too-too-self-rapt (through too-self-humoring)
Losing himselfe, while others finde the King.

Holde-even the balance, with clean hands, clos'd eyes:
Revenge seuerely Publike Iniuries;

The principal & peculiar office of a king.

Remit thine Owne. Heare the Cries, see the Tears
Of all distressed poor Petitioners.
Sit (oft) thy selfe in Open Audience:
Who would not be a Iudge, should be no Prince.
For, Iustice Scepter and the Martiall Sword
Ought never seuer, by the Sacred Word.
Spare not the Great; neither despise the Small:
Let not thy Lawes be like the Spiders Caul,

Simile.

446

Where little Flyes are caught and kild; but great
Passe at their pleasure, and pull-down the Net.

Away with Shepheards that their Flocks deface:
Chuse Magistrates that may adorn their Place;
Such as feare God, such as will Iudge vprightly:
Men by the seruants iudge the Master lightly.
Giue to the vertuous; but thy Crown-demain
Diminish not: giue still to giue again:
For there too-deep to dip, is Prodigalitie;
And to dry-vp the Springs of Liberalitie.

Hic labor, hoc Opus.

But aboue all (for Gods sake) Son, beware,
Be not intrapt in Womens wylie snare.
I feare, alas (good Lord, supreamly sage,
Avert from Mine th'effect of this Præsage)
Alas! I feare that this sweet Poyson will
My House here-after with all Idols fill.
But, if that neither Vertue's sacred loue,
Nor fear of Shame thy wanton Minde can moue
To watch in Arms against the Charms of Those;
At least, be warned by thy Fathers Woes.

Fare-well my Son: th'Almightie cals me hence:
I passe, by Death, to Lifes most excellence:
And, to go Raign in Heav'n (from World-cares free)
The Crown of Israel I resigne to thee.

O thou that often (for a Princes Sin)
Transport'st the Scepter, even from Kin to Kin,
From Land to Land; Let it remaine with Mine:
And, of my Sons Sons (in successiue Ligne)
Let that All-Powerfull deer-drad Prince descend,
Whose glorious Kingdom never shall haue end;
Whose iron Rod shall Satans Rule vn-doo:
Whom Iacob trusts in; Whom I thirst for too.

Initium Regni Salomon.

DAVID deceast: His Son (him tracking right)
With heart and voyce worships the God of Might;
Enters his Kingdom by the Gate of Pietie;
Makes Hymns and Psalms in Laud of the true Deitie;
Offers in Gabeon; where, in Spirit he sees

His vision.

(While his Sense sleeps) the God of Maiesties,
The Lord of Hoasts; who, Crownd with radiant flames,
Offers him choice of these foure louely Dames.

First, Glory, shaking in her hand a Pike

Description of Glory.

(Not Maid-like Marching, but braue Souldier-like)
Among the Stars her stately head she beares,
A silver Trumpet shril a-slope she weares,
Whose Winde is Praise, and whose Stentorian sound
Doth far and wide o'r all the world redound.
Her wide-side Robes of Tissue passing price,
All Story-wrought with bloody Victories,

447

Triumphs and Tropheis, Arches, Crowns and Rings;
And, at her feet, there sigh a thousand Kings.

Not far from her, coms Wealth, all rich-bedight

Of Riches.

In Rhea's, Thetis, Pluto's Treasures bright:
The glittering stuff which doth about her fold
Is rough with Rubies, stiff with beaten Gold.
With either hand from hollow steanes she powrs
Pactolian surges and Argolian showrs.
Fortune, and Thrift, and Wakefulnes and Care,
And Diligence, her daily Servants are.

Then cheerfull Health: whose brow no wrinkle bears,

Of Health.

Whose cheek no palenesse, in whose eye no tears;
But like a childe, she's pleasant, quick, and plump,
Shee seems to fly, to skip to daunce, and iump:
And Life's bright Brand in her white hand doth shine:
Th'Arabian birds rare plumage (platted fine)
Serues her for Sur-coat: and her seemly train,
Mirth, Exercise and Temperance sustain.

Last, Wisdome coms, with sober countenance:

Wisdom.

To th'ever-Bowrs her oft a-loft t'advance,
The light Mamuques wing-less wings she has:
Her gesture cool, as comly-graue her pase:
Where e'r she go, she never goes with-out
Compasse and Rule, Measure and waights about:
And by her side (at a rich Belt of hers)
The Glasse of Nature and her-Selfe she wears.

Having beheld their Bewties bright, the Prince
Seems rapt all-ready even to Heaven from hence;
Sees a whole Eden round about him shine:
And, 'mid so many Benefits Diuine,
Doubts which to chuse. At length he thus begun:
O Lord (saith he, what hath thy Servant don,
That so great blessings I should take or touch,
Or thou shouldst daign to honour me so much?
Thou doost prevent my Merit; or (deer Father)
Delight'st to Conquer even my Malice rather.

Fair Victorie's a noble Gift: and nought
Is more desired, or is sweeter thought,
Than even to quench our Furie's thirst with blood,
In iust Revenge on those that wrong our Good:
But oft (alas) foul Insolence comes after;
And, the long Custom of inhumane Slaughter,
Transformes in time the myldest Conquerors
To Tigers, Panthers, Lions, Bears, and Boars.

Happy seems He, whose count-less Heards for Pasture
Dis-roab (alone) mount Carmels moatly Vesture:
For whom alone a whole rich Countrey, torn
With timely Tools, brings forth both Wine and Corn:

448

That hath soft Sereans yellow Spoyls, the Gems
And precious stones of the Arabian streams,
The Mines of Ophir, th'Entidorian Fruits,
The Saban Odours, and the Tyrian Sutes.
But yet we see, where Plenty chiefly swayes,
There Pride increases, Industry decayes:
Rich-men adore their Gold: whoso aspires
To lift lo Heav'n his sight and Soules Desires,
He must be Poor (at least-wise like the Poor)
Riches and Fear are fellows ever-more.

I would liue long, and I would gladly see
My Nephews Nephews, and their Progenie:
But the long Cares I fear, and Cumbers rife,
Which commonly accompany Long-Life.
Who well liues, long liues: for this Age of ours
Should not be numbred by years, dayes and howrs:
But by our brave Exployts: and this Mortality
Is not a moment, to that Immortality.

But, in respect of Lady Wisdomes grace
(Even at their best) the rest are all but base.

Salomons choice.

Honour is but a puffe; Life but a vapour;
Wealth but a wish; Health but a sconce of paper:
A glistring Scepter but a Maple twig;
Gold, Drosse; Pearls, Dust, how-ever bright and big.
Shee's Gods owne Mirror, shee's a Light, whose glance
Springs from the Lightning of his Countenance:
Shee's mildest Heav'ns most sacred influence:
Never decays her Beauties excellence;
Aye like her-Self: and shee doth alwaies trace
Not only the same path, but the same pase.
Without her, Honour, Health, and Wealth would proue
Three Poysons to me. Wisdom (from aboue)
Is th'only Moderatrix, spring, and guide,
Organ and honour of all Gifts beside.

Her, her I like, her only (Lord I craue,
Her Company for-ever let me haue:
Let me for-ever from her sacred lip,
Th'Ambrosiall Nard, and rosiall Nectar sip:
In every Cause, let me consult with her:
And, when I Iudge, be shee my Counsailer.
Let, with her staffe, my yet-Youth govern well
In Pastures fair the Flock of Izrael,
A compt-less Flock, a Flock so great (indeed)
As of a Shepheard sent from Heav'n had need.
Lord, giue her mee: alas! I pine, I die;
Or if I liue, I liue her

Pyrausta.

Flame-bred-Flie:
And (new Farfalla) in her radiant shine,
Too-bold, I burn these tender wings of mine.

449

Hold, take her to thee, said the Lord: and sith
No Beauty else thy soule enamoreth;
For ready hand-maids to attend vpon her,
I'l giue thee also Health, and Wealth, and Honor;
(For 't is not meer, so High-descended Queen,
So great a Lady, should alone be seen)
The rather, that my Bounty may invite
Thee, serving Her, to serue Me day and night.

King Salomon, awaked, plainely knew
That this divine strange Vision never grew
From the sweet Temper of his sound Complexion;
But that it was som Peece of more Perfection,
Some sacred Picture admirably draw'n
With Heav'nly pencill, by an Angels hand.
For (happy) He had (without Art) the Arts,
And Learning (without learning) in all parts:
A more then humane Knowledge beautifies
His princely actions: vp to Heav'n he flies,
He dyues to Hell, hee sounds the Deep, he enters
To th'inmost Cels of the Worlds lowest Centers.

The secret Riddles of the sacred Writ

His excellent Wisdom and vnderstanding in all things.

Are plain to him: and his deep-pearcing Wit,
Vpon few Words of the Heav'n-prompted stile,
In a few Dayes, large Volumes can compile.
He (learned) sees the Sun's Eclipse, sans terror:
He knowes the Planets never erring Error;
And, whether Nature, or some Angel moue
Their Sphears, at once with triple Dance aboue:
Whether the Sun self-shine; his Sister, not:
Whether, Spring, Winter, Autumn, Summer hot,
Be the Suns Sons: what kinde of mounting vapor
Kindles the Comet, and the long-taild Taper:
What boystrous Lungs the roaring Whirlers blow'n:
What burning Wings the Lightning rides vpon:
What Curb the Ocean in his bounds doth keep:
What power Night's Princesse powrs vpon the Deep:
Whether the Heav'ns sweet-sweating Kisse appear
To be Pearls parent, and the Oyster's Pheer;
And whether, dusk, it makes them dim withall;
Cleer, breeds the cleer; and stormy brings the pale.
Whether, from Sea the Amber-greece be sent;
Or be som Fishes pleasant excrement.
He knowes, why th'Earth's immoueable and round,
The lees of Nature, Center of the Mound:
He knowes her measure. And he knowes beside,
How Coloquintida (duely apply'd)
With-in the darkness of the Conduit-Pipes,
Amid the winding of our in-ward Tripes,

450

Can so discreetly the White humour take;
Rheubarb, the Yellow; Hellebore, the Black:
And, whether That in our weak Bulks be wrought,
By drawing 't to them; or by driving 't out.
In brief, from th'Hysop to the Cedar-Tree,
He knowes the Vertues of all Plants that be.
He knowes the Reason why the Woolfs fell tooth
Giues a Horse swiftness; and his footing, floth:
Why the Sex-changing, fierce Hyena's eye
Puts curstest Curs to silence suddenly:
Why th'irefull Elephant becommeth tame
At the approaching of the fleecy Lamb:
Why th'eye-bold Eagle never fears the flash
Or force of Lightning, nor the Thunder-clash:
Why the wilde Fen-Goose (which keeps warm her egs
With her broad feet vnder her heatfull legs,
And, tongue-less, cries) as wing-lym'd, cannot flie,
Except she (glad) Seas brynie glasse descrie.
He knoweth also, whether that our stone
Be caked Earth, or Exhalation:
Whether the Metalls (that we daily see)
Be made of Sulphur and of Mercurie;
Or, of som Liquour by long Cold condenst,
And by the Heat well purified and cleans'd;
Or, of a certain sharp and cindrous humor;
Or whether He that made the Waving Tumor;
The motly Earth; and th'Heav'nly Sphears refin'd,
All-mighty, made them such as now we finde.
He comprehends from whence it is proceeding,
That spotted Iasper-stones can staunch our bleeding:
Saphires, cure eyes, the Topaz to resist
The rage of Lust; of drinke the Amethist:
And also, why the clearest Diamant
(Iealous) impugns the thefts of th'Adamant.

Tunes, Measures, Numbers, and Proportions
Of Bodies with their Shadows, als' he kons;
And (fild with Nectar-Deaws, which Heau'n drips)
The Bees haue made Hony within his lips.
But he imbraceth much more earnestly
The gain-full Practice, than cold Theory:
Nor reaks he so of a Sophistick pride
Of prattling Knowledge (too-self-magnifi'd)
As of that goodly Art to govern well
The sacred Helms of Church and Common-weal,
And happily to entertain in either,
A harmony of Great and Small together.
Especially Hee's a good Iusticer,
And to the Lawes dooth Life and strength confer.

451

And, as the highest of Bigaurian Hils

Simile.

Ay bears his head vp-right, and never yeelds
To either side, scorns Winde and Rain and Snowe,
Abides all weathers, with a cheerfull brow;
Laughs at a Storme, and brauely tramples vnder
His steddy Knees, the prowd, lowd, rowling Thunder:
So hee's a Iudge inflexibly-vpright.
No Loue, nor Hatred, of the Guilty wight
(What e'r he wear for Calling, small or great)
His Venging blade can either blunt or whet;
He spurneth Fauours, and he scorneth Fears,
And vnder foot he treadeth private Tears:
Gold's radiant Lustre never blears his Eye:
Nor is he led through Ignorance a-wry.
His voyce is held an Oracle of all:
The soule of Lawes hee wisely can exhale:
In doubtfull Cases he can subtilize,
And wyliest pleaders hearts anatomize.
Scarce fifteen times had Ceres (since his Birth)
With her gilt Tresses glorifi'd the Earth;
When he decides, by happy Wisdoms means,
The famous quarrell of two crafty Queans.

Is't possible, O Earth (thus cries the first)

The Controuersie between the 2. Harlots for the liue Childe.

But that (alas) thou should'st for anger burst,
And swallow quick this execrable Quean!
Is't possible (O gracious Soverain)
That comming new from dooing such a deed
So horrible, she shame-less dares proceed
T'approch thy sight, thy sacred Throne t'abuse,
Not begging pardon, but even bent t'accuse?
Last night, with surfet and with sleep sur-cloyd,
This care-less step-dam her owne Childe o'r-layd:
And softly then (finding it cold and dead)
Layes it by me, and takes mine in the stead.
Heer, old, bold strumpet, take thy bastard brat,
Hence with thy Carion, and restore me that,
Restore me mine, my louely living Boy,
My hope, my hap, my Loue, my Life, my Ioy.
O cruell Chance! O sacrilegious!
Shall thy foul lips my little Angel busse?
At thy fond prattling, shall hee pret'ly smile?
And tug, and touze thy greasie locks the-while?
And all his Child-hood fill thy soule with glee?
And, grow'n a man, sustaine thine age and thee?
While wretched I haue only, for my share,
His Births hard Travail, and my burthen's Care,
His rest-less rocking, wyping, washing, wringing;
And to appease his way ward Cries with singing?

452

O most vnhappy of all Woman-kinde!
O Child-less mother! O! why is my Minde
More passion-stirred, than my hand is strong?
But, rather than I'l pocket vp this wrong;
To be reveng'd, I'l venter two for one,
I'l haue thy Life, although it cost mine owne.

O filthy Bitch! Vile Witch (sayes th'other tho)
O! who would think, that Wine could mad one so?
O impudent! though God thou fear'st not, fear
The Kings cleer iudgement, who Gods place doth bear.
Art not content t'haue call'd (or rather cry'd)
Me Whore, and Thief, Drunkard and Paricide:
But thou wilt also haue my Childe, my deer
(Whom with so strong a knot Loue links so neer)
My Babe, my Blisse? Yea marry (Minks) and shall:
Who takes my Childe, shall take my life with-all.
Iust Davids iust Son; for thy Father's sake,
For his deer loue, for all that he did make
Of thee a Childe, when he (re-childing) sought
With childish sport to still thy cryes, and taught
(Or'gan to teach) with language soft and weak,
Thy tender tongue som easie tearme to speak:
Or, when (all bloody, breath-less, hot he came
Laden with spoyls of Kings he overcame,
He ran t'imbrace thee, rockt thee in his Targe,
And when thou cry'dst, vpon his shoulder large
Did set thee vp, while thou his beard didst tug,
Play'dst with his nose, about his neck didst hug,
Gap'tst on his glittering Helm, and smil'dst to see
Another Salomon there smile on thee:
And vnderneath his dancing Plume didst play
Like Bird in bush; sporting from spray to spray;
I doe adiure thee to attend my Plea:
By the sweet name of thy deer Bersabe,
Who in the night, shivering for cold, so oft
Hath bow'd her selfe over thy Cradle soft;
Who both the bottles of her Nectar white
Hath spent vpon thee, hundred times a night;
Who on thy head hath set her pearly Crown,
And in Thy life liv'd more than in her Owne:
I doo adiure thee (O great King) by all
That in the World we sacred count or call,
To doe me Right: and if, too-mylde, alas,
Too mercifull thou wilt not Sentence passe
Of iust revenge for my receiued wrong;
Yet, reaue me not what doth to me belong,
What liberall Nature hath bestow'd on me,
What I am feis'd-of (without thank to thee);

453

For pittie doo not my heart blood depriue,
Make me not Childless, having Childe a-liue.

While both, at once, thus to the King they Crie,
'Tis mine, 'Tis mine: thou ly'st; and thou doost lie:
The partiall People divers Verdict spend;
Some favour th'one, others the other friend:
As, when two Gamesters hazard (in a trice)
Fields, Vine-yards, Castles, on the Chance of Dice,

Simile.

The standers-by, diversly stird with-in,
Wish, some that This, and some that That may win:
Waver twixt Hope and Fear: and every-one's
Moov'd, with the mooving of the guilefull Bones.

Only, the King demurrs: his prudent ears
Finde like, both reasons, both complaints, both tears:
The Infants face could not discipher whether
Of both should be the very Mother: neither
Could calculation of their ages, cleer
The Iudges doubt, nor any proof appear.
Then, thus He waighs (but as in dreaming wise);
Th'industrious Iudge, when all proofs fail him, flies
Vnto Coniectures drawn (the probablest;
Out of the book of Nature's learned brest;
Or to the Rack: Now, Mothers loue (thinks hee)
Is Natures owne vnchangeable Decree:
And there's no Torture that exceeds the pains
Which a kinde Mother in her Childe sustains.
Then (as awake) Come, come, no more a-doo,

The Doubt admirably decided.

Dispatch (saith hee) Cleaue the quick Childe in two,
Look that the Sword be sharp; in such a case,
Needs must our Pittie giue our Iustice place:
Iustice (yee see) can iudge him whole to neither:
Divide him therefore, and giue half to either.
O difficult! but thus the King descries
Their hearts deep secrets: all discovered lyes,
The vizor's off; their Tongues, sincerely prest
With true instinct, their very Thoughts exprest:

Bee't (said the stepdam) so, sith 't must be so:
Diuide him iustly from the top to toe.
No (said the other) rather, I renounce
My right in him, take thou him all at once,
Enioy him all; I'l rather haue him Thine
A-liue, and whole, than dead and mangled Mine.
Thine (quoth the King) hee's Thine by Birth (I see)
Thine by thy Loue, and thine by my Decree.

Now, as with Gold growes in the self-same Mine

Simile.

Much Chrysocolle, and also Silver fine:

The wonderfull Prosperitie of Salomon and his People.

So supream Honor, and Wealth (matcht by none)
Second the Wisdom of great Salomon.

454

He far and neer commands by Land and Seas;
A hundred Crowns doo homage vnto His:
His neerest Bounds, Nile's Sea and Sidon seem,
And Euphrates bows his moyst horns to him:
Peru, they say (supposing Ophir so)
By yeerly Fleets into his Fisk doth flowe:
In Sion Gold's as common as the Sand;
As Pebles, Pearls: Through-out all Iury-Land,
There seems an Ocean of all happinesse
To over-flowe; and all doo all possesse:
Each vnder his owne Vine and his owne Tree,
His Grapes and Figs may gather quietly.
Thus he abounds in Blisse; not so to change-ill
Man into Beast, but make of Man an Angel,
To praise th'Immortall, who to him hath given
Even heer a Taste of the delights of Heaven.
This great, wise, wealthy, and well-spoken King
His sweet renown o'r all the World doth ring:
The Tyrian, for Confederate desires him:
Pharao for Son: th'Alien no lesse admires-him:
Than his owne Subiect: and his eyes sweet flames,
As far as Nilus, fire the flower of Dames.

Mis-Matches iustly taxed.

O Salomon, see'st thou not (O mis-hap!)
This Mariage is no Mariage, but a Trap?
That such a mongrell Match of differing Creed,
Of mortall quarels is th'immortall seed?
That Ox and Asse can never well be broak
To drawe one Plough together in one yoak?
Who-ever weds a Miscreant, forth-with
Divorceth God: our Faith still wavereth;
It needs an Aide and not a Tempter nigh,
Not th'instrument of th'old Deceiver slie,
Not deadly poyson in our Coach to couch,
Sleep in our bosome, and our breast to touch,
And breathe into vs (in a kinde of kissing)
An Ir-religion, of the Serpents hissing.
Shee that from Ægypt coms (O King) is none
Flesh of thy Flesh, nor yet Bone of thy Bone:
But a strange Bone, a barbarous Rib, a Peece
Impoysoned all with Memphian Leprosies.

But, thou wilt say, thy Loue hath stript yer-while
Her spotted suite of Idol-serving Nile:
And clad her all, in Innocence, in white;
Becom'n by Faith a true-born Abramite.
It might be so: and to that side I take,
The rather, for that sacred Beauties sake,
Where-of she is a figure. Yet, I fear
Her Train will stain thy Kingdom every-where,

455

Corupt thy Court: and God will be offended
To haue his People with strange People blended;
The mighty Lord, who hath precisely said,
You shall not theirs, nor they your daughters wed.

Vnder the gentle Equinoctiall Line,

A pleasant Description of Loue's fruitfull Groue.

Faire amorous Nature waters freshly-fine
A little Groue clad in eternall green,
Where all the yeer long lusty May is seen,
Suiting the Lawns in all her pomp and pride
Of liuely Colours, louely varified:
There smiles the ground, the starry-Flowers each one
There mount the more, the more th'are trod vpon:
There all growes toyl-less; or, if tild it were,
Sweet Zephyrus is th'onely Husband there.
There Auster never roars, nor Hail dis-leaues
Th'immortall Groue, nor any branch bereaues.
There the straight Palm-Tree stoopeth in the Calm
To kiss his Spouse, his loyall Female Palm:
There with soft whispers whistling all the yeer
The broad-leav'd Plane-Tree Courts the Plane his Pheer,
The Poplar wooes the Poplar, and the Vine
About the Elme her slender armes doth twine:
Th'Ivie about the Oak: there all doth proue,
That there all springs, all growes, all liues in Loue.
Opinion's Porter, and the Gate she bars
Gainst Couetize, cold Age, and sullen Cares,
Except they leaue-off and lay-down before
Their troublous load of Reason at the doore;
But opens wide, to let-in Bashful-Boldness,
Dumb-speaking Signes, Chill-Heat, and Kindled-Coldness,
Smooth soothing Vowes, deep sorrows soon appeas'd,
Tears sudden dry'd, fell Angers quickly pleas'd,
Smiles, Wylie-Guiles, queint witty-pretty Toyes,
Soft Idleness, and ground-less bound-less Ioyes,
Sweet Pleasure plunged over head and ears
In sugred Nectar, immateriall Fears,
Hoarse Waaks, late Walks, Pain-pleasing kindly cruell,
Aspiring Hope (Desire's immortall fuell)
Licentious Loosness, Prodigall Expence
Inchanting Songs, deep Sighs, and sweet Laments.

These frolike Louelings fraighted Nests doe make
The balmy Trees o'r-laden Boughs to crack;
Bewty layes, Fancy sits, th'inflamed heat
Of Loue doth hatch their Couvies nicely-neat:
Som are but kindled yet, som quick appear,
Som on their backs carry their Cradles deer,
Som downy-clad, som (fledger) take a twig
To pearch-vpon, som hop, from sprig to sprig:

456

One, in the fresh shade of an Apple-Tree
Lets hang its Quiver, while soft-pantingly
'T exhales hot Vapour: one, against a Sparrow
Tries his stiff Bowe and Giant-stooping Arrow:
Another sly sets lime-twigs for the Wren,
Finch, Linot, Tit-mouse, Wag-Tail (Cock and Hen):
See, see how some their idle wings forsake,
And (turn'd, of Flyers, Riders) one doth take
A Thrush, another on a Parrat rides,
This mounts a Peacock, that a Swan bestrides,
That manageth a phaisant: this doth make
The Ring-Doue turn: that brings the Culver back:
See how a number of this wanton Fry
Doo fondly chase the the gawdie Butter-fly,
Some with their flowrrie Hat, some with their hands
Some with sweet Rose-boughs, some with Myrtle wands:
But, th'horned Bird, with nimble turns, beguiles
And scapes the snares of all these Loues a-whiles.
Leaue Wags (Cries Venus) leaue this wanton Play:
For so, in steed of Butter-Flyes, you may,
You may (my Chicks) a Childe of Venus strike:
For, some of mine haue Horns and all alike.

This said: eftsoons two twins whose gold-head darts
Are never steeped but in Royall hearts;
Come, Brother deer (said either) come let's to 't,
Let's each a shaft at yon two bosoms shoot.

Their winged words th'effect ensues as wight,
Two or three steps they make to take their flight,
And quick-thick shaking on their sinnewie side
Their long strong sarcels, richly triple-died
Gold-Azure-Crimsin; th'one aloft doth soar
To Palestine, th'other to Nilus shoare.

Pharonida.

Pharo's faire daughter (wonder of her Time)
Then in the blooming of her beauties Prime,
Was queintly dressing of her Tress-full head
Which round about her to the ground did spread:
And, in a rich gold-seeled Cabinet,
Three Noble Mayds attend her in the feat.
One with a peece of double dented Box
Combs out at length her goodly golden locks:
Another 'noynts them with Perfumes of price:
Th'other with bodkin or with fingers nice,
Frizzles and Furls in Curls and Rings a part;
The rest, loose dangling without seeming Art,
Waue to and froe, with cunning negligence
Gracing the more her Beauties excellence:
When, armd with Arrows burning, brightly keen,
Swift Swallow-like, one of these Twins comes in;

457

And, with his left wing hiding still his Bowe,
Into her bosom shot, I wot not how.
My side! my heart (the Royall Maid cries out)

Loves first Feaver.

O! I am slaine: But, searching all about,
When shee perceiu'd no blood, nor bruise; alas,
It is no wound; but, sleeping on the grasse,
Some snake (saith shee) hath crept into me quick,
It gnawes my heart: ah, help me, I am sick,
Haue mee to bed: eigh me, a friezing-frying,
A burning cold torments me living-dying.

O cruell Boy, alas, how mickle gall
Thy baenfull shaft mingles thy Mell withall!
The Royall Maid, which with her Mates was wont
Smile, skip and dance on Fields inammeld front,
Loves solenesse, sadnes, and Self-privacy;
Sighes, sobs and throbs, and yet she knowes not why:
The sumptuous pride of massie Piramides
Presents her eyes with Towrs of Iebusides;
In Niles cleer Crystall shee doth Iordan see;
In Memphis, Salem; and vn-warily
Her hand (vnbidden) in her Sampler sets
The King of Iuda's Name and Counterfets:
Who, medi'ting the Sacred Temple's Plot,
By th'other Twin at the same time is shot:
The shaft sticks fast, the wound's within his veins:
Sleep cannot bring a-sleep his pleasing pains;
Pharonida's his heart, Pharonida
Is all his Theam to talk-of, night and day:
With-in his soule a civill War hee feeds:
Th'all-seeing Sun now early backs his Steeds,
Now mounts his Mid-day, and then setteth soon:
But still his Loue stands at the hot high Noon.
He Rides not his braue Coursers (as hee wont)
Nor Reads, nor Writes, nor in his Throne doth mount
To hear the Widow's Cause; neglects his Court,
Neglects his Rule; Love rules him in such sort.

You prudent Legats, Agents for this Marriage,
Of Rings and Tablets you may spare the Carriage:
For, witty Loue hath with his lovely shaft
In eithers heart grav'n others lively Draught:
Each Liues in other, and they haue (O strange!)
Made of their burning hearts a happy Change.
Better abroad, then home, their hearts delight;
Yet long their bodies to their hoasts t'vnite.

Which soon ensues: the Virgin's shortly had
From Mothers armes imbracing gladly-sad:
And th'aged Father, weeping as hee spake,
Bids thus Adieu when shee her leaue doth take;

458

Sweet Daughter dear, Osiris bee thy guide,
And loving Isis blesse thee and thy Bride
With golden Fruit; and daily without cease
Your mutuall Loves may as your yeers increase.

Wives, Maids and Children, yong and ould, each-where,
With looks and vows from Turrets follow her:
Calm Nilus calmer then it wont is grow'n,
Her Ships haue merry windes, the Seas haue none:
Her footing makes the ground all fragrant-fresh:
Her sight re-flowres th'Arabian Wildernes:
Iury reioyces, and in all the way
Nothing but Trumpets, Fifes and Timbrels play:
The Flowr-crown'd People, swarming on the Green,
Cry still, God save, God save, God save the Queen;
May shee bee like a scion, pale and sick
Through th'over-shading of a Sire too thick:
Which being Transplanted, free, sweet air doth sup,
To th'sweating Clouds her grovy top sends vp,
And prospers so in the strange soil, that (tild)
Her golden Apples all the Orchard gild.

No streets are seen in rich Iervsalem:
For, vnder-foot fine scarlet paveth them,
Silks hang the sides, and over-head they hold
Archt Canapies of glistring Cloth of gold.
They throng, they thrust, an ebbing-flowing Tide
A Sea of Folk follows th'adored Bride:
The ioyfull Ladies from their windows shed
Sweet showrs of flowrs vpon her radiant head;
Yet ielous, lest (dy'd in their native grain)
Her Rosie Cheeks should Natur's Roses stain.

But lo, at last, th'honor of Maiesty,
Glory of Kings, King Salomon draws ny:
Lo, now both Lovers enter-glauncing sweet
(Like Sun and Moon, when at full view they meet
In the mid-month) with amorous raies reflexion
Send mutuall Welcoms from their deep affection:
Both a-like yong, like beautifull, like brave,
Both graç't a-like; so like, that whoso have
Not neer observ'd their heads vnlikenesses,
Think them two Adons, or two Venusses.

These nouice Lovers at their first arrive
Are bashfull both; their passions strangely strive:
The soules sweet Fire his ruby flames doth flush
Into their Faces in a modest blush:
Their tongues are ty'd, their star-bright eyes seem vail'd
With shame-faç't Cipres; all their senses fail'd.

But, pompous Hymen, whither am I brought?
Am not I (heathen) vnder th'happy Vault

459

Where all the gods, with glorious mirth enhanç't,
At Thetis Nuptials ate, and drank, and danç't?

Heer, th'Idumeans mighty Ioue treads, vnder

Salomons Nuptials.

His tripping feet, his bright-light burning Thunder.
A-while hee laies his Maiesty aside,
To Court, and sport, and revell with his Bride;
King, plaies the Courtier; Soverain, Suter 'coms;
And seems but equal with his Chamber-Grooms:
But yet, what e'r hee doo, or can devise,
Disguised Glory shineth in his eies.
Heer, many a Phœbus, and heer many a Muse
On Heav'nly Layes so rarely-sweet doo vse
Their golden bowes, that with the rapting sound
Th'Arches and Columns wel-nigh dance the Round.
Heer, many a Iuno, many a Pallas heer,
Heer, many a Venus, and Diana cleer
Catch many a gallant Lord, according as
Wealth, Beauty, Honour, their affection drawes.
Heer, many a Hebé fair, heer more then one
Quick-serving Chiron neatly waits vpon
The Beds and Boords, and pliant bears about
The boawls of Nectar quickly turned out;
And th'over-burdned Tables bend with waight
Of their Ambrosiall over-filled fraight.
Heer, many a Mars vn-bloody Combats fights,
Heer, many a Hermes findes out new delights,
Heer, many a horned Satyr, many a Pan,
Heer, Wood-Nymphs, Flood-Nymphs, many a Faiery Fawn
With lusty frisks and lively bounds bring-in
Th'Antike, Morisko, and the Mattachine:
For, even God's Servants (God knowes how) have supt
The sugred baen of Pagan Rites corrupt.

But, with so many lively Types, at will
His rich rare Arras shall som other fill:
Of all the sports, I'll onely chuse one Measure,
One stately Mask compos'd of sage-sweet pleasure;
A Dance so chaste, so sacred, and so grave
(And yet so gracefull, and so lofty-brave)
As may beseem (except I mee abuse)
Great Salomon, and my celestiall Muse.

The Tables voided of their various Cates,
They rise at once; and, suiting their Estates,
Each takes a Dame, and then to Dance they com
Into a stately, rich, round-arched Room,
So large and lightsom, that it (right) they call
The Vniversall, or the Worlds great Hall.
O what delight, to see so rich a showe
Of Lords and Ladies dancing in a rowe

460

All in a Round, reaching so far and wide
O'r all the Hall to foot-it side by side!
Their eyes sweet splendor seems a Pharos bright,
With clinquant Raies their Body's clothed light:
'Tis not a Dance, but rather a smooth sliding,
All moove alike, after the Musicks guiding:
Their Tune-skill'd feet in so true Time doo fall,
That one would swear one Spirit doth bear them all:
They poste vn-mooving; and, though swift they passe,
'Tis not perceiv'd: of hundred thousand pase,
One single back they: Round on Round they dance:
And, as they traverse, cast a fruitfull glance.

The Mask of Planets.

Iust in the middle of the Hall, a-sloap
(Even from the floor vnto the very top)
A broad rich Baldrick there extendeth round,
In-laid with gold vpon an azure ground;
Where (cover'd all with Flames) in wondrous art
Five Lords, two Ladies dance; but each a-part.

Saturn.

Heer trips an old-man in a Mantle dy'd
Deep Leaden-hue, and round about him ty'd
With a Snake-girdle biting off her tail.
Within his Robes stuff (in a winding trail)
Creeps Mandrake, Comin, Rue and Hellebore;
With lively figures of the Bear and Boar,
Camell, and Asse (about to bray well-ny):
There the Strimonian Fowl seems even to cry;
The Peacock, even to prank. For Tablet fine,
About his neck hangs a great Cornaline,
Where som rate Artist (curiousing vpon 't)
Hath deeply cut Times triple-formed Front:
His pase is heavy, and his face severe;
His Body heer; but yet his Minde else-where.

Iupiter.

There the Lord Zedec him more spritely bears,
Milde, fair and pleasant; on his back hee wears
Tin-colour'd Tissue, figur'd all with Oaks,
Ears, Violets, Lillies, Olives, Apricocks;
Bordred with Phaisants, Eagles winged-black,
And Elephants with Turrets on their back;
Pointed with Diamonds, powdred and imbost
With Emeralds, perfum'd with wondrous Cost.

Mars.

The third leads quicker on the self same Arch
His Pyrrhik Galiard, like a star-like March:
His face is fiery: Many an Amethist,
And many a Iasper of the perfectest
Doth brightly glister in the double gilt
Of the rich Pommell and the pretious Hilt
Of his huge Fauchin, bow'd from hand to heel:
His boistrous body shines in burnisht Steel:

461

His Shield flames bright with gold, imbossed hie
With Wolves and Horse seem-running swiftly by,
And freng'd about with sprigs of Scammony,
And of Euphorbium forged cunningly.

But, O fair Faëry, who art thou, whose eyes

Venus.

Inflame the Seas, the Air, the Earth, and Skies?
Tell vs, what art thou, O thou fairest Fair,
That trimm'st the Trammels of thy golden hair
With Myrtle, Thyme and Roses; and thy Brest
Gird'st with a rich and odoriferous

A Spouse-belt.

Cest,
Where all the wanton brood of sweetest Loves
Doo nestle close; on whom the Turtle-Doves,
Pigeons, and Sparrowes day and night attend,
Cooing and wooing wheresoe'r thou wend:
Whose Robe's imbrodered with Pomgranat boughs,
Button'd with Saphires, edg'd with Beryl rowes:
Whose capering foot, about the starry floor,
The Dance-guide Prince now follows, now's before?
Art thou not Shee, that with a chaste-sweet flame
Didst both our Brides hearts into one heart frame?

And, was not Hee, that with so curious steps,

Mercury.

Next after thee, so nimbly turns and leaps,
Say, was not Hee the witty Messenger,
Their eloquent and quick Interpreter?
How strange a suit! His meddly Mantle seems
Scarlet, Wave-laced with Quick-silver streams;
And th'end of every Lace, for tuft hath on
A pretious Porphyre, or an Agate stone:
A Cry of Hounds have heer a Deer in Chase:
There a false Fox, heer a swift Kid they trace:
There Larks and Linots, and sweet Nightingals
(Fain'd vpon fained Trees) with wings and tails
Loose hanging seem to swell their little throats,
And with their warblings, shame the Cornets notes.
Light Fumitory, Parsly, Burnets blade,
And winding leaf his crispy Locks beshade:
Hee's light and lively, all in Turns and Tricks;
In his great Round, hee many small doth mix:
His giddy course seems wandring in disorder;
And yet there's found, in this disorder, order.

Avoid base Vulgar, back Profane, stand-by;
These sacred Revels are not for your ey:
Com, gentle Gentles, Noble Spirits, draw neer,
Preace through the Preace, com take your places heer,
To see at full the Bride-groom and the Bride,
A lovely Pair, exactly bewtifi'd
With rare perfections, passing all the rest,
Sole-happy Causes of this sumptuous Feast.

462

Lo where they com: O what a splendor bright!
Mine eyes doo dazle. O thou primer Light!
Sun of the Sun, thy Raies keen point rebate,
Thy dread-spread Fire a little temperate:
O, dart (direct) on thy fair Spouse a-space
Thine eyes pure light, the lustre of thy Face:
For, I no longer can endure it, I
Am burnt to ashes: O, I faint, I dy.
But, blessed Couple, sith (alas) I may-not
Behould you both vnmasked (nay, I can-not)
Yet in these Verses let mee tell (I pray)
Your Dance, your Courting, and your rich Array.

Luna.

The Queen's adorn'd down to her very heels
In her fair hair (whence still sweet deaw distils)
Half hanging down; the rest in rings and curls,
Platted with strings of great, round, orient Pearls:
Her gown is Damask of a Silver-ground,
With Silver Seas all deeply-frenged round;
With Gourds and Moon-wort branched richly-fair,
Flourisht with beasts that onely eat the Air.

But why, my Muse, with Pencill so precise
Seek'st thou to paint all her rich Rarities?
Of all the Bewties, Graces, Honors, Riches,
Wherewith rich Heav'n these Maskers all inriches,
Shee's even the Mother: and then, as a Glasse,
On the Behoulders their effects shee casts.

Sol.

A Garland, braided with the Flowry foulds
Of yellow Citrons, Turn-Sols, Mary-goulds,
Beset with Bal'nites, Rubies, Chrysolites,
The royall Bride-groom's radiant brows be-dights:
His saffron'd Ruffe is edged richly-neat
With burning Carbuncles, and every set
Wrought rarely-fine with branches (draw'n vpon)
Of Laurell, Cedar, Balm and Cinnamon:
On his Gold-grounded Robe the Swan so white
Seems to his honour som new Song t'indite.
The Phœnix there builds both her nest and tomb:
The Crocodile out of the waves doth com:
Th'amazed Reaper down his sickle flings;
And sudden Fear grafts to his Ankles wings.
There the fierce Lion, from his furious ey,
His mouth and nosthrils, fiery Flames lets-fly,
Seems with his whisking train his rage to whet;
And, wrath-full ramping, ready even to set
Vpon a Heard of fragrant Leopards:
When lo, the Cock (that light his rage regards)
A purple Plume timbers his stately Crest,
On his high Gorget and broad hardy Brest

463

A rich Coat-Armour (Or and Azure) shines,
Afrenge of raveld gold about his Loins,
In lieu of Bases. Beard as red as blood;
A short Beak bending like the Eagles brood:
Green-yellow eyes, where Terrours Tent is pight;
A Martiall gait, and spurred as a Knight:
Into two arches his proud Train divides,
With painted wings hee claps his cheerfull sides,
Sounds his shrill Trumpet, and seems with his sight
The Lions courage to have danted quight.

These happy Lovers, with a practiz'd pase,
Forward and backward and a-side doo trace;
They seem to dance the Spanish Pavane right:
And yet their Dance, so quick and lively-light,
Doth never pass the Baldricks bounds (at all)
Which grav'n with Star-Beasts over-thwarts the Hall.

When the brave Bride-groom towards Mount Silo traces,
A thousand Flowrs spring in his spritefull pases:
When towards Mount Olivet hee slides, there growes
Vnder his feet a thousand Frosty Snowes:
For, the Floor, beaten with his Measures ever,
Seems like the Footing of the nimble Weaver.

This lovely Couple now kisse, now recoil,
Now with a lowring ey, now with a smile:
Now Face to Face they Dance, now side by side,
With Course vn-equall: and the tender Bride
Receives strange Changes in her Countenance,
After her Lovers divers-seeming glance.
If vnawares som Envious com between
Her and her Love, then is shee sad be-seen,
Shee shuts her ey, shee seems even to depart:
Such force hath true Love in a noble heart.
But all that's nothing to their Musick choice:
Tuning the warbles of their Angell-Voice
To Foot and Viol, and Care-charming Lute,
In amorous Ditty thus doo they dispute;

“O bright-ey'd Virgin! O how fair thou art!

The Epithalamy.

“O how I love thee, My Snowe-winged Dove!
“O how I love thee! Thou hast rapt my heart:
“For thee I Dy: For thee I Live, my Love.

“How fair art thou, my Dear! How dear to mee!
“Dear Soule (awake) I faint, I sink, I swoun
“At thy dear Sight: and, when I sleep, for Thee
“Within my brest still wakes my sharp-sweet Wound.

“My Loue, what Odours thy sweet Tresse it yields!
“What Amber-greece, what Incense breath'st thou out

464

“From purple fillets! and what Myrrhe distils
“Still from thy Fingers, ringd with Gold about!

“Sweet-Heart, how sweet is th'Odour of thy Prayse!
“O what sweet airs doth thy sweet air deliver
“Vnto my burning Soule! What hony Layes
“Flowe from thy throat! thy throat a golden River.

“Among the Flowrs, my Flowr's a Rose, a Lilly:
“A Rose, a Lilly; this a Bud, that blow'n:
“This fragrant Flowr first of all gather will-I,
“Smell to it, kisse it, wear it as mine owne.

“Among the Trees, my Love's an Apple-Tree,
“Thy fruitfull Stem bears Flowr and Fruit together:
“I'll smell thy Flowr, thy Fruit shall nourish mee,
“And in thy Shadow will I rest for ever.

While Hesperus in azure Waggon brought
Millions of Tapers over all the Vault,
These gorgeous Revels to sweet Rest give place,
And the Earths Venus doth Heav'ns Venus trace.

These Spousals past, the King doth nothing minde
But The Lords House; there is his care confin'd:
His Checker's open, hee no cost respects;
But sets a-work the wittiest Architects.

The building of the TEMPLE.

Millions of hands bee busie labouring;
Through all the Woods, wedges and beetles ring:
The tufted tops of sacred Libanon,
To climb Mount Sion, down the stream are gon:
Forrests are saw'd in Transoms, Beams and Somers;
Great Rocks made little, what with Sawes and Hammers:
The sturdy Quar-man with steel-headed Cones
And massie Sledges slenteth out the stones,
Digs through the bowels of th'Earth baked stiff,
Cuts a wide Window through a horned Cliff
Of ruddy Porphyre, or white Alabaster,
And masters Marble, which no Time can master.
One melts the White-stone with the force of Fire:
Another, leveld by the Lesbian Squire,
Deep vnder ground (for the Foundation) ioins
Well-polisht Marble, in long massie Coins;
Such, both for stuff, and for rare artifice,
As might beseem som royall Frontispice.
This heaws a Chapter; that a Frize doth frame;
This carves a Cornich; that prepares a Iambe;
This forms a Plynth; that fits an Architrave;
This planes a Plank: and that the same doth grave,

465

Gives life to Cedars dead, and cunningly
Makes Wood to move, to sigh and speak well-ny:
And others, rearing high the sacred Wall,
By their bould Labours Heav'n it self appall:
Cheerly they work, and ply it in such sort
As if they thought long Summer-daies too-short.

As in Grape-Harvest, with vnweary pains,

Simile.

A willing Troop of merry-singing Swains
With crooked hooks the strouting Clusters cut,
In Frails and Flaskets them as quickly put,
Run bow'd with burdens to the fragrant Fat,
Tumble them in, and after pit-a-pat
Vp to the Waste; and, dancing in the Must,
To th'vnder-Tub a flowry showr doo thrust:
They work a-vie, to th'ey their Work doth growe,
Who saw't i'th' Morning, scarce at Night can knowe
It for the same: and God himself doth seem
T'have taen to task this Work, and work for them
While in the Night sweet Sleep restores with rest
The weary limbs of Work-men over-prest.

Great King, whence cam this Courage (Titan-like)
So many Hils to heap vpon a rick?
What mighty Rowlers, and what massie Cars
Could bring so far so many monstrous Quars?
And, what huge strength of hanging Vaults embow'd
Bears such a waight above the winged Clowd?

If on the out-side I doo cast mine ey,
The Stones are ioyn'd so artificially,
That if the Mason had not checkerd fine

Syrian.

Syre's Alabaster with hard Serpentine,
And hundred Marbles no less fair then firm;
The whole, a whole Quar one might rightly tearm.

If I look In, then scorn I all with-out:
Surpassing Riches shineth all about:
Floor, Sides and Seeling cover'd triple-fould,
Stone lin'd with Cedar, Cedar limn'd with Gould:
And all the Parget carv'd and branched trim
With Flowrs and Fruits, and winged Cherubim.

I over-passe the sacred Implements,
In worth far passing all these Ornaments:
Th'Art answers to the stuff, the stuff to th'vse.
O perfect Artist! thou for Mould didst chuse
The Worlds Idëa: For, as first the same
Was sever'd in a Three-fould divers Frame,
And God Almighty rightly did Ordain
One all Divine, one Heav'nly, one Terrene;
Decking with Vertues one, with Stars another,
With Flowrs, and Fruits, and Beasts, and Birds, the other:

466

And plaid the Painter, when hee did so gild
The turning globes, blew'd seas, and green'd the field,
Gave precious stones so many coloured luster,
Enameld Flowrs, made Metals beam and glister:
The Carver, when hee cut in leaves and stems
Of Plants, such veins, such figures, files and hems:
The Founder, when hee cast so many Forms
Of winged Fowls, of Fish, of Beasts, of Worms:

Thou doost diuide this Sacred House in Three;
Th'Holy of Holies, wherein none may bee
But God, the Cherubins, and (once a year)
The Sacred Figure of Perfection dear,
Of God's eternal Son (Sins sin-less check)
The everlasting true Melchisedec:
The fair mid-Temple, which is ope alone
To Sun-bright Levits, who on Izrael shone
With Rayes of Doctrine; and who, feeding well
On the Lawes Hony, seem in Heav'n to dwell:
And th'vtter Porch, the Peoples residence,
The Vulgars Ile, the World of Elements:
And various Artist honour'st all the Parts
With Myron's, Phidias, and Apelles Arts.

This Pattern pleas'd thee so, th'hast fram'd by it
Th'eternall Watch-births of thy sacred Wit:
Thy pithy Book of Proverbs, richly-graue,
Vnto the Porch may right relation have;
For that it gives vs O economike Lawes,
Rules politike, and private civill Sawes;
And (for the most) those Lessons generall
At Humane matters aim the most of all.
Ecclesiastes the Mid-Temple seems:
It treadeth down what-ever Flesh esteems
Fair, pleasant, precious, glorious, good or great;
Drawes vs from earth, and vs in Heav'n doth seat;
And, all the World proclaiming Vain of Vains,
Mans happinesse in Gods true Fear maintains.
Sanctvm-Sanctorvm is thy Song of Songs,
Where, in Mysterious Verse (as meet belongs)
Thou mariest Iacob to Heav'ns glorious King:
Where, thou (devoted) doost divinely sing
Christ's and his Chvrches Epithalamy:
Where (sweetly rapt in sacred Extasie)
The faithfull Soule talks with her God immense,
Hears his sweet Voice, herself doth quintessence
In the pure flames of his sweet-pearcing eyes
(The Cabinets where Grace and Glory lies)
Enioyes her Ioy, in her chaste bed doth kisse
His holy lips (the Love of Loves) her Blisse.

467

When hee had finisht and had furnisht full
The House of God, so rich, so beautifull;
O God, said Salomon, great Onely-Trine!

Dedication of the Temple.

Which of this Mystike sacred House of Thine
Hast made mee Builder; build mee in the same
A living Stone. For thy dear David's name,
On David's branches David's blisse revive;
That on his Throne his Issue still may thrive.
O All-comprising, None-comprised Prince,
Which art in Heav'n by thy Magnificence,
In Hell by Iustice, each-where by thy Powrs,
Dwell heer, dear Father, by thy grace (to Ours).
If, in a doubtfull Case, one needs must swear,
Loose thou the Knot, and punish thou severe
Th'audacious Perjure; that hence-forth none chance
Tax thee of Malice, or of Ignorance.
If our dis-flowred Trees, our Fields Hail-torn,
Our empty Ears, our light and blasted Corn,
Presage vs Famine; If, with ten-fold chain,
Thy hand hath lockt thy Water-gates of Rain;
And, towards this House wee humbled cast our ey,
Hear vs, O Lord, hear our complaint and cry.
If Captives wee in a strange Land bewail,
If in the Wars our Force and Fortune fail;
And, towards this House wee humbled cast our ey,
Hear vs, O Lord, hear our complaint and cry.
If Strangers, moov'd with rumour of thy Miracles,
Com heer to Offer, to consult thine Oracles,
And in this House to kneel religiously,
Hear them, O Lord, hear their complaint and cry:
Hear them from Heav'n; and, by thy Favors prest,
Draw to Thy Temple, North, South, East and West.

The passe-Man Wisdom of th'Isacian Prince,
A Light so bright, set in such eminence
(Vn-hideable by enuious Arrogance,
Vnder the Bushell of black Ignorance)
Shines every where, illustres every place:
Among the rest it Lightens in the Face
Of the fair Princesse, that with prudent hand
The soft Arabian Scepter doth command,
The Queen of Saba, where continuall Spring

The Queen of Saba.

Red Cinnamon, Incense and Myrrhe doth bring;
Where private men doo Prince-like Treasures hould,
Where Pots bee Silver, Bedsteds beaten Gould,
Where Wals are rough-cast with the richest Stones,
Cast in Devices, Emblems, Scutchions.
Yet, leaving all this Greatnes of her owne,
Shee coms to view the State of Salomon,

468

To hear his Wisdom, and to see his City,
Refuge of Vertues, School of Faith and Pity.

A iust reproofe of all obstinate Recusants.

You that doo shut your eyes against the raies
Of glorious Light, which shineth in our dayes;
Whose spirits, self-obstin'd in old musty Error,
Repulse the Truth (th'Almightie's sacred Mirror)
Which day and night at your deaf Doors doth knock;
Whose stubbornnesse will not at all vn-lock
The sacred Bible, nor so much as look,
To talk with God, into his holy Book:
O, fear you not, that this great Princesse shall
Of thank-less Sloath one day condemne you all?
Who (both a Woman, Queen, and Pagan born)
Ease, Pleasures, Treasures, doth despise and scorn;
To passe with great pains, and with great expence,
Long weary Iourneys full of diffidence;
And nobly trauels to another Land
To hear the words but of a (mortall) Man?

Her Time's not lost: there (rapt) shee doth contemple
The sumptuous beauties of a stately Temple,
The lofty Towrs of hundred Towns in one,
A pompous Palace, and a Peer-less Throne,
Wals rich without; furnisht in richer sort:
Number of Servants doth adorne the Court,
But more their Order. There, no noise is heard,
Each his owne Office onely doth regard:
And (in one instant) as the quaverings
Of a quick Thumb move all the divers strings
Of a sweet Guittern; and, its skill to grace,
Causeth a Treble sound, a Mean, a Base:
So Salomon, discreetly with a beck,
A wink, a word, doth all the Troops direct:
Each of his Servants hath his proper Lesson,
And (after his Degree) each hath his fashion.

This Queen, yer parting from her fragrant Iles,
Arm'd her with Riddles and with witty Wiles,
T'appose the King; and shee resolves shee will
With curious Questions sift and sound his Skill.
But lo what Oedipus! The Law-learn'd Sage,
Which at the Bar hath almost spent his age,
Cannot so soon a common Doubt decide,
Where Statutes, Customs, and Book-Cases guide,
As hee dissolves her Gordian-knots, and sees
Through all her nights, and even at pleasure frees
Such doubts, as doubt-less might haue taskt (t'vntwist)
The Brachman, Druïde, and Gymnosophist:
And knowing, Good becoms more Good, the more
It is en-common'd, hee applies therefore

469

T'instruct her in the Faith; and (enuious-idle)
His brains rich Talent buries not in Idle.

Alas, I pitie you: alas (quoth He)
Poor Soules besotted in Idolatrie,
Who worship Gold and Siluer, Stocks and Stones,
Mens workmanship, and Fiends Illusions;
And, who (by your sage Mages Lore mis-led)
So-many Godlings haue imagined:
Madame, there is but one sole God, most-High,
Th'Eternall King; nay, self-Eternitie.
Infinit, All in all, yet out of all,
Of Ends the End, of Firsts Originall,
Of Lights the Light, Essence surpassing Essence,
Of Powers pure Act, of Acts the very Puissance,
Cause of all Causes, Ocean of all Good,
The Life of Life, and of all Bewty Flood:
None-seen All-Seer, Starr's guide, Sight of Seeing,
The Vni-forme, which giues all forms their Beeing.
God, and One, is all One; whoso the Vnitie
Denies, he (Atheist) disannuls Diuinitie:
Th'Vnitie dwels in God, ith' Fiend the Twine:
The greater World hath but one Sun to shine,
The lesser but one Soule, both but one God,
In Essence One, in Person Trinely-odde.
Of this great Frame, the Parts so due-devis'd,
This Bodie, tun'd so, measur'd, sympathiz'd,
This Temple, where such Wealth and Order meet,
This Art in every part cannot proceed.
But from one Pattern; and that but from one
Author of all, who all preserues alone.
Else should we see in set Batalions
A hundred thousand furious Partizans,
The World would nource civill intestine Wars,
And wrack it selfe in it selfs factious Iars.
Besides, God is an infinite Divinity:
And who can think of more than one Infinity?
Seeing the one restrains the others might,
Or rather reaues its name and beeing quite.
Therefore (O Pagans) why doe you confine
The Infinite in narrow Walls of lime?
Why shut you Him in a base Trunk or Tree?
Why paint you Whom no mortall eye can see?
Why offer you your carnall seruices
Vnto the Lord, who a meer Spirit is?

Why then do you (sayd she) by our example,
Inclose th'Immortall in this earthly Temple?
Lock him within an Arke? and, worse than we,
Feed him with Fumes, and bloody Butchery?

470

This Sacred House so fair (reply'd he then)
Is not to contain God, but godly men
Which worship him: and, we doe not suppose
That He, whose Arms doo Heav'n and Earth inclose,
Is closed in a Chest; but th'ancient Pact,
The solemne Couenant, and the sure Contract,
Which leagues vs with our God, and each with other,
And (holy Bond) holds Heav'n and Earth together.
As for our Incense, Washings, Sacrifices,
They are not (as is thought) Our vain Devices;
But, God's their Author, and himselfe Ordains
These Elements, whereby he entertaines
And feeds our vnderstanding in the hope
Of his deer Son (of all these Things the Scope);
Setting before vs th'Only Sacrifice,
Which in Christ's Blood shall wash-out all our vice.
Come then, O Lord, Come thou Lawes finisher,
Great King, great Prophet, great Selfs-Offerer:
Come, come thou thrice Great Refuge of our State,
Come, thou our Rançome, Iudge and Advocate:
Milde Lamb, Salue-Serpent, Lion generous,
Vn-chalendg'd Vmpire betwixt Heav'n and Vs,
Come thou the Truth, the Substance and the End
Of all our Offrings (whither, all doo tend):
Come O Messias, and doo now begin
To Raign in Sion, to triumph of Sin;
And, worshipped in Spirit and Truth, restore
Vpon the Earth the Golden Age of yore:
Accept this Queen, as of all Heathen Princes
The deer First-Fruits: take on thee our Offences,
That, stript of Adam's sinfull sute, in fine
With sacred Angels we in Heavn'n may shine.

The Queen, nigh sunk in an Amazefull Swoun,
Bespake him thus: My Lord, prattling renown
Is wont in flying to increase so far,
That she proclaims things greater then they are:

Simile.

And, rarest Spirits resemble Pictures right,
Whereof the rarest seem more exquisite,
Far-off, then neer: but, so far as thy Fame
Excels all Kings, thy vertues passe the same:
Thy peer-less Praise stoops to thy Learned tongue,
And envious bruit hath done thy Wisedom wrong.

So may I say, even so (O Scottish King)

Application to the Kings Maiestie.

Thy winged Fame, which far and wide doth ring,
From th'edge of Spain hath made me ventrously
To crosse the Seas, thy Britain's end to see:
Where (Lord!) what saw I? nay, what saw I not?
O King (Heav'n-chosen, for som speciall Plot)

471

World's Miracle, O Oracle of Princes?
I saw so much, my Soule mistrusts my Senses.
A gray-beards Wisedom in an amber-bush,
A Mars-like Courage in a Maid-like blush,
A settled Iudgement with a supple Wit,
A quick Discourse, profound and pleasing yet;
Virgil and Tully, in one spirit infus'd,
And all Heav'ns Gifts into one Head diffus'd.

Persist, O King, glory on glory mount:
And as thy Vertues thine owne Fame surmount,
So let thy future passe thy former more,
And go-before those that have gone-before:
Excell thy self: and, brave, grave, godly Prince,
Confirm my Songs eternall Evidence.

FINIS.

472

The Schisme.

THE THIRD BOOK OF THE FOVRTH DAY OF THE II. WEEK.

The Argvment.

Reiecting Olde, Young-Counsail'd rash Roboam
Loseth Ten Tribes; which fall to Ieroboam,
He, Godding Calves, makes Izrael to Sin:
His Scepter therefore shortly fails his Kin.
Baaz, Zimri, Omri, Achab (worst of all)
With Iezabel. Elias conquers Baal;
Commands the Clouds; rapt-vp to Heav'n, aliue.
Elisha's Works: his bones the dead reviue.
Samaria's tragick Siege. A Storm at Sea,
For Ionas sake: repentant Ninive.

The miserie of a State distracted by factions into Ciuill Wars.

Heer sing I Isaac's civill Brauls and Broils;
Iacobs Revolt; their Cities sack, their Spoils:
Their cursed Wrack, their Godded Calues: the rent
Of th'Hebrew Tribes from th'Isheans Regiment.

Ah! see we not, som seek the like in France?
With rage-full swords of civill Variance,
To share the sacred Gaulian Diadem?

Application.

To strip the Lillies from their natiue stem?
And (as it were) to Cantonize the State
Whose Law did aw Imperiall Rhine (of late)
Tiber and Iber too; and vnder whom
Even silver Iordan's captiue floods did foam.

Deprecation.

But, let not vs, good Lord, O let not vs
Serue servilely a hundred Kinglings thus,
In stead of one great Monarch: never let
The lawfull Heir from his owne Throne be beat;

473

This Scepter yearly to be new possest;
Nor every Town to be a Tyrants nest:
Keep all intire, re-stablish prudent Raign,
Restore the Sword to Iustice hand again;
That, blest with Peace, thy blessed Praise (O Lord)
My thankfull Layes may more and more record.

The General States of Israel, gathered all,

A Parliament or Assembly of the Estates of Israel.

By thousands now, within strong Sichem's Wall;
All ioyntly name Roboam for their King,
But (strictly stout) his Powr thus limiting:

Command (say they) and Rule in Abram's Fold,
Not as a Wolf, but as a Shepheard should:

The People capitulate with their new King.

Slacken the reans of our late Servitude:
Lighten our gall'd backs of those Burthens rude,
Those heauy imposts of thy Father (fierce):
Repress the rapin of thine Officers:
So, we will serue thee, life and goods at-once:
If other-wife; thy service we renounce.

Heer-with amaz'd, thee moody Prince, in post
Sends for those Ancients which had swayed most
His Fathers Counsails: and he seems to crave
Their sage Advices, in a case so grave.

God hath not made, say they (iumping together)

The Counsail of the ancient Nobles.

Subiects for Kings, but Kings for Subiects rather:
Then, let not thine (already in distress)
Be gnaw'n by others; by thy Self much less.
What boots a Head, with-out the hand and foot?
What is a Scepter, and no Subiects to't?
The greater Milt, the Bodie pines the more:
The Checker's fatting makes the people poor:
A Princes Wealth in Subiects Wealth is set:
The Bank of Thrift, where gold doth gold beget:
Where the good Prince coms never but at need:
For, hee is prais'd for a good Heard (indeed)
Whose Flock is fat and fair, with frolik bounds
Frisking and skipping vp and down the Douns.
Among the Beasts fullest of furious gall,
The Vulgar's fiercest, wildest, worst of all;
Hydra with thousand heads, and thousand stings,
Yet soon agreed to war against their Kings.

If then you wish, their barking rage to cease
Cast them a bone; by an abatement, cease
Their wringing Yoak, thy pity let them proue:
And ground thy Greatness on thy Peoples loue.

Or, if thou (fell) wilt needs feed on their ice,
Yet vse no threats, nor giue them flat Denies:
But, to establish thy yet-new estate,
Giue them som hope, and let them feed on that:

474

And (wisely) minde thy Fathers Saying sage,
That A soft answer (soon) appeaseth rage.

Roboam, leauing their sound aduice leaneth rather to the young furie of his Minions & Flatterers.

Roboam, scorning these old Senators,
Leans to his Yonglings, Minions, Flatterers
(Birds of of a feather) that with one accord
Cry-out, importune, and perswade their Lord,
Not sillily to be by such disturb'd,
Nor let him-selfe so simply to be curb'd;
But, to repress, press, and oppress the more
These Mal-contents, but too-well vs'd before:
With iron teeth to bruise their idle bones,
To suck their Marrow out; and (for the nonce)
Their rebell Pride to fetter (as if were)
And lock their Furie in the stocks of Fear,
And to shake-off (on th'other side) and shun
Those Gray-beards old and cold direction,
Their sawcy censures, snibbing his Minority;
Where-by (too-proud) they trip at his Authority,
Vsurp his place; and (too-too-malapert)
Would teach a wiser then themselues his part:
To knowe that hee's a King; and that hee took
Even in the womb, as th'outward limbs and look,
So th'inward graces, the Discretion
And deep Fore-sight of prudent Salomon;
And, in the shop of Nature, learn'd (long since)
The Art of State, the Office of a Prince.

Wisdom (fond King) her sacred Seat erects
In hoarie brains: and Day the Day directs:
Th'old-man-fore-sees a-far; by past events
He (prudent) ponders future accidents:
The Young-man knowes not (new-com, as it were)
This wily World, but as a passenger;
And, more with courage then with Counsail's guide,
Barely beholds things on the outer side.
Yet, to the last thou lean'st; and, frowning fell,
Checkst thus the Sons, of noble Israel:

The Kings rashness threatning rigour.

Ah! rebell Slaues! you, you will Rule your King:
You'l be his Carvers: you will clip his wing:
You'l hold the sacred helm, Controule the Crown:
You'l rate his State, and turn all vp-side-down.
But, know you (varlets) whom you dally-with?
My little finger over-balanceth
My Father's loigns: he did but rub you light,
I'l slay your backs, he bow'd, I'l break yee quight.
He threatned Rods (or gentle Whips of cord)
But I will haue your carrion shoulders goar'd
With scourges tangd with rowels: and my Name
Shall make you quake, if you but hear the same.

475

As rapid streams, incountring in their way

Simile.

With close-driv'n piles of som new bank or bay,
Or steady pillers of a Bridge built new,
Which last-past Sommer never saw, nor knew;
Swell, roar, and rage far fiercer then they wont,
And with their foam defile the Welkins front:
So yerst griev'd Isaac, now growen desperate,
With loud proud tearms doth thus expostulate:

Why? what haue we to do (what part? what place?)

The Reuolt of the 10. Tribes.

With Boözean Ishay's avaricious race?
Go, Raign (proud Iuda) where thou wilt; for we
Nill bear the burthen of thy Tyranny:
Go vse else-where thy cruell threats and braves;
We are thy Brethren, we, and not thy Slaves.

Thus cry the People, and th'ill-counsail'd King
Vn-kingly yeelds to their rude mutining:
And flies eft-soons with som few Beniamites,
The zealous Levites, and the Iudaïtes:
The rest revolt, and chuse for Soverain
A shame-less, faith-less, bold and busie-brain,
An Ephraimite, who (double-false) doth fall
Both from his King and from his God withall.

Ieroboam.

For, he fore-sees, that if th'Isacians still
(As Law inioyn'd) should mount on Sion Hill,
To sacrifice; with beautie of that Temple,
Their Princes sight, the Doctrine and Example
Of sacred Leuites, they would soon be taken,
And drawn aboord the Bark they had forsaken.
To rent the Church therefore he doth devise,
And God's true Spouse doth Harlot-like disguise:
Will haue them hence-forth worship God the Lord
Vnder the Form of Hay-fed Calues (abhorr'd)
In Dan and Bethel: brings vp Service new:
Profane, vsurping sacred Aaron's Dew.

But, how (ingrate) requit'st thou God, in this?
He, of a Servant, made thee King of His:
Thou, of a God, mak'st him a horned Steer;
Sett'st Altar against Altar; and, the deer,
Cleer Star of Truth beclouding with the vail
Of thine Ambition, mak'st all Israel fail,
And fall with-all into the Gulfe of Death,
So deep (alas!) that from thence-forth, vn-eath
Could th'operation of so many Miracles,
In their hard hearts reprint the Sacred Oracles.

One-day, the while this Priest-King sacrifiz'd)
To's clov'n-foot God in Bethel (self-deviz'd)
A zealous Prophet from the Lord there came,
Who boldly thus his brutish rage doth blame:

476

O odious House, O execrable Cell,
O Satans Forge, O impious Shop of Hell;
Accursed Altar, that so braves and boasts
Against the Altar of the Lord of Hoasts!
Behold, from Dauid shall a King return
That on thy stones thine owne Priests bones shall burn,
Thus saith the Lord: and this shall be the Signe
(Prodigiously to seal his Word in mine)
Thou now in th'instant shalt in sunder shatter,
And in the Air shall thy vile cinders scatter.

Take, take the Sot, said then th'vngodly Prince,
And (as he spake in rage-full vehemence)
Reacht-out his arm: but, instantly the same
So strangely withered and so num became,
And God so rustied every ioynt, that there
(But as the Body stird) it could not stir:
Th'vnsacred Altar sudden slent in twain;
And th'ashes, flying through th'vn-hallowed Fane,

Simile.

Blinde the blinde Priests; as in the Sommer (oft)
The light, white Dust (driv'n by the Winde aloft)
Whirling about, offends the tendrest eye,
And makes the Shepheards (with-out cause) to cry.

O holy Prophet (prayes the Tyrant then)
Deer man of God, restore my hand again:
His hand is heal'd. But (obstinate in ill)
In His Calf-service He persevers still,
Still runs his Race, still every day impairs,
And of his Sins makes all his Sons his heirs,

The King of Iuda little better proves,
His Fathers by-paths so Abijam loves;
The People, pliant to their Princes guise,
Forget their God, and his drad Law despise.

God, notwithstanding (of his speciall grace)
Entails the Scepter to the sacred race
Of his deer Dauid: and he bindes with boughs
Of glorious Laurels their victorious brows:
And evermore (how-ever Tyrants rave)
Som form of Church in Sion he will have.

Aza, Abijam's Son; Iehosaphat
The son of Aza (rightly zealous) hate
All Idol-gods: and, warring with success,
Dung Isaac's Fields with forrain carcasses.

In Aza's ayd fights th'arm armi-potent

Aza.

(Which shakes the Heav'ns, rakes Hils, and Rocks doth rent)
Against black Zerah's overdaring boast,
That with drad deluge of a Million-Hoast
O'r-flow'd all Iuda; and, all sacking (fell)
Transported Afrik into Israel:

477

He fights for His; who, seeing th'Ammonite,
The Idumæan, and proud Moabite,
In Battail 'ray, caus'd all his Hoast to sing
This Song aloud, them thus encouraging:

Sa, sa (my hearts) let's cheerly to the charge;
Having for Captain, for Defence, and Targe,
That glorious Prince to whom the raging Sea
Hath heretofore, in foming pride, giv'n way:
Who, with a sigh (or with a whistle, rather)
Can call the North, South, East, and West together:
Who, at a beck, or with a wink, commands
Millions of millions of bright-winged-bands:
Who, with a breath, brings (in an instant) vnder
The proudest Powrs: whose arrows are the Thunder.

While yet they sang, fell Discord reaching-far,
Hies to the Heathen that encamped are:

Description of Discord.

Clean through her mantle (tatterd all in flakes)
Appears her brest all-ouer gnaw'n with Snakes,
Her skin is scarr'd, her teeth (for rage) doo gnash,
The Basilisk with-in her eyes doth flash;
And, one by one, she plucks-off (in despight)
Her hairs (no hairs, but hissing Serpents right)
And, one by one, she severally bestowes-'em
Through all the Camp, in every Captains bosom,
Blowes every vein full of her furious mood,
Burns every Souldier with the thirst of blood:
And, with the same blade that she died once
In valiant Gedeon's (Brother-slaughtered) Sons,
Shee sets the Brother to assail the Brother,
The Son the Sier, and deerest friends each-other.

The swords, new draw'n against their Enemies,

Miraculous slaughter of the Heathen by their mutual swords, diuided among themselues.

Now (new revolted) hack their owne Allies:
And Mars so mads them in their mutuall Iar,
That strange, turns civill; civill, houshold War:
Proud Edom heaws Moab and th'Ammonite;
Amon hunts Edom and the Moabite;
Moab assaults Amon and Edom too;
And each of them was first with th'other two,
Then with themselues: then Amon Amon thrills,
Moab wounds Moab, Edom Edom kills.

From Hoast to Hoast, blind-fold Despair, in each,
Disports her selfe; those that are one in speech,
Vnder one Colours, of one very coat,
Combat each other, cut each others throat.

Rage-full confusion every-where commands,

The confusion of such a Campe so together by the cars.

Against his Captain the Lieutenant stands,
The Corporall vpon his Seriant flies,
And basest Boyes against their Masters rise.

478

Nay, drad Bellona passeth fiercely further,
Th'owne Vncle doth his owne deer Nephew murther,
The Nephew th'Vncle with the like repayes,
Cosen thrils Cosen, Kins-man Kins-man slayes:
Yea, even the Father kils his Son most cruell,
And from one Belly springs a bloody Duell;
Twins fiercely fight: and while each woundeth other,
And drawes the life-blood of his half-selfe Brother,
Feels not his owne to fail, till in the place
Both fall; as like in fury as in face:
But, strength at length (not stomach) fails in either;
And, as together born, they die together.

The faithfull Hoast drawes neer, and gladly goes
Viewing the bodies of their breath-less Foes.
Men, Camels, Horse (som saddled, som with-out)
Pikes, Quivers, Darts, lie mingled all about
The bloody Field; and from the Mountains nigh
The Rav'ns begin with their pork-porking cry:
Heer seems an Arm, a Giant late did owe,
As if it would to a Dwarf's shoulder growe:
A Princes hand there (knowen by precious signes)
Vnto the arm of a base Porter ioynes;
An olde-Man's head heer to a Stripling's neck;
And there lean buttocks to a brawny back:
Heer of a bodie iustly cloven in two,
The bloody tripes are trailing to and fro;
There, fiue red fingers of a hand cut-off
Gripe still the truncheon of a steeled staff;
And, there (at-once, all broached on one Lance)
Lie three braue Horse-men in a deadly Transe.

Chariots, vnfurnisht and vnharnest, stood,
Over the spoaks, vp to the naves in blood:
Th'Engaddian Snowes melt in vermilion streams,
And (now no marvell) Iarvel warmly steams,
Stopt with dead bodies; so, that never-more
It should haue seen the Ocean (as before)
Nor payd the Tribute that his Dutie craves,
Saue that the crimsin holp the crystall waves.

Praised be God (sayd Iuda) praised be
The Lord of Hoasts, the King of Maiesty,
That moawes his Foes; that doth his owne protect,
That holds so deer the blood of his Elect;
That fights for vs, and teacheth vs to fight,
Conquer, and triumph of the Pagan's might;
And (finally) doth punish Tyrants fell,
With their owne swords, to saue his Israel.

Wicked generation of the wicked.

But, notwithstanding Ieroboam's Plot,
His third Successor yet succeeds him not;

479

A barbarous Furie raigneth in his Race,
His bloody Scepter shifteth hands apace:
Nadab his son, and all his seed beside,
Feels cursed Baasha's cruell Paricide;
And Baasha's issue is by Zimri slain,
Zimri by Zimri: then doth Omri raign;
Omri, accursed for his owne transgression,
But more accursed for the foule succession
Of such a Son as Achab (sold to Sin)
That boldly brings Sidonian Idols in,
Builds vnto Baal; and, of all Kings the worst,
Weds Iezabel, adds Drunkenness to Thirst.

Blind Superstion's like a drop of Oyl

2. Smile.

Still spreading, till it all a Garment spoyl:
Or, like a spark, fall'n in a floor of Mat,
Which soon inflameth all the Chamber; that,
Fires the whole House; the House, the Town about;
Consuming all, and never going-out,
Till Goods, and Bodies, Towrs and Temples high,
All in a Toomb of their owne ashes lie:
When one begins (how little be't) to stray
From the divine Law's little-beaten way,
We cursed fall into the black Abysse
Of all foul Errors: every Sin that is
Donns sacred Mask; and, monsters most abhord,
Killing the Saints we think to please the Lord,
As Achab did; who vanquisht with the spel,
Speach, grace, and face of painted Iezabel,
Presumes to lay his sacrilegious hand
On th'oyled Priests that in Gods presence stand,
Of honest Men his Towns depopulates,
Lessens the Number of his Noble States,
T'augment his Lands; and, with the blood of His,
Writes th'Instruments of his new Purchases.
But slain (at last) by th'Hoast of Benhadad,
His Son

Ahaziah.

succeeds him, (and almost as bad)
He breakes his neck, and leaues his fatall place,
To's brother Ioram, last of Achab's race;
An odious race, th'alliance of whose blood
Corrupts the Heirs of Iosaphat the good,
Causing his Son (charm'd with Athalia's wile)
In's Brother's blood his armed arms to file,
And Ahaziah's giddy brain t'infect
With the damn'd Error of Samarian Sect.

But though these Kings did openly oppugn
And stubbornly the King of Heav'n impugn;
Though Abrah'ms issue (now degenerate)
Did but too-neer their Princes imitate;

480

Though over all, a Chaos of confusion,
A Hell of Horror, Murder, and Delusion,
A Sea of Sins (contempt of God and Good)
Cover'd these Kingdoms (as another Flood):
God left not yet that Age without his Oracles:
A hundred Prophets, strong in word and miracles,
Resist their rage, and from sad drowning keep
The wracked planks on th'Idol-Ocean deep.

Simile.

Cleer Sommer Noons need not a candle-light;
Nor sound, Physician; but clean opposite:
So, in our Soules, the more Sin's Floods do flowe,
The more God makes his Mercie's Gulfe to growe.

Elijah the Prophet.

For his Embassage in sad Achab's dayes,
Thesbite Elijah did th'Almighty rayse;
Who, burning-bold in spirit and speech, cries-out,
In Achab's ears, and all his Court about:
O impious Achab, fear'st thou not quoth he)
The sulphury flames and Thunder-bolts that be
Already roaring in the dreadfull fist
Of God the Lord, that doth the proud resist,
Revengeth wrongs, th'outrageous Heathens Hammer,
Terror of Terrors, and all Tyrants Tamer?
Doost thou not knowe, He threats to Israel
A Heav'n of Brass, if they his grace repel,
Reiect his loue, and get them other Loues,
Whoring about with forrain Gods, in Groves?
God cannot lie: his dreadfull Threatnings ever
Draw dreadfull Iudgements (if our Sin persever):
As the Lord liues, this Thirstie yawning Plain
In seav'n six month's drinks not a drop of Rain.

Description of the extreame Drought in Israel for three years & a half.

No sooner spoken, but in present view,
The Heav'ns begin to change their wonted hew;
Th'Ayre deadly thick, doth quickly vanish quight;
To a sad Day succeeds a sadder Night:
A bloody vapour and a burning cloud,
By day, begirt the Sun (all coaly-browd);
By night, the Moon denies to fading Flowrs
Her silver sweat, and pearly-purled showrs:
The Welkin's studded with new Blazing-Stars,
Flame-darting Lances, fiery Crowns and Cars,
Kids, Lions, Bears, wrapt in prodigious Beams,
Dreadfull to see: and Phœbus (as it seems)
Wearie of travail in so hot a time,
Rests all the while in boyling Cancer's clime.
Hils, lately hid with snowe, now burn amain:
May hath no Deaw, nor February Rain:
Sad Atlas Nieces, and the Hunter's Star
Have like effect as the Canicular:

481

Zephyre is mute, and not a breath is felt,
But hectik Auster's, which doth all things swelt,
And (panting-short) puffs every-where vpon
The withered Plains of wicked Shomeron,
Th'vnsauory breath of Serpents crawling o're
The Lybians pest-full and vn-blest-full shoar.

Now Herbs to fail, and Flowrs to fall began;

The miserable effects thereof.

Mirtles and Bayes for want of moyst grew wan:
With open mouth the Earth the ayd doth crave
Of black-blew Clouds: cleer Kishon's rapid wave
Wars now no more with Bridges arched round;
Soreck, for shame, now hides him vnder ground:
Mokmur, whose murmur troubled with the noise
The sleeping Shepheards, hath nor stream, nor voice:
Cedron's not Cedron, but (late) Cedron's bed,
And Iordan's Current is as dry, as dead.
The beam-brow'd Stag, and strong-neckt Bull do ly
On pale-faç't banks of Arnon (also dry)
But, neither, sup, nor see the Crystall Wave,
Ouer the which so often swom they have:
The lusty Courser, that late scorn'd the ground,
Now lank and lean, with crest and courage downd,
With rugged tongue out of his chained mouth,
With hollow-flanks panting for inward drouth,
Rouling his Bit, but with a feeble rumor,
Would sweat for faintness, but he wanteth humour:
The Towr-backt Camel, that best brooketh Thirst,
And on his bunch could have transported yerst
Neer a whole Houshold, now is able scant
To bear himself, he is so feebly-faint.

Both yong and olde, both of the base and best,
Feele a fell Ætna in their thirstie brest:
To temper which, they breath, but to their wo:
For, for pure air, they sup into them, so,
A putride, thick, and pestilentiall fume,
Which stuffs their Lights, and doth their lives consume.
Ther's not a Puddle (though it strangely stink)
But dry they draw't, Sea-Water's dainty Drink:
And fusty-Bottles, from beyond-Sea (South)
Bring Nile to Somer, for the Kings owne mouth.
For, though the Lord th'whole Land of Syria smites,
Th'heat of his Anger on Samaria lights
With greatest force; whose furious Prince implies
The prophet Cause of all these miseries.

Therefore, he fearing Achab's ragefull hate,
Down to Brook Cherith's hollow banks he gate;
Where, for his Cooks, Caters, and Wayters, tho
From the foure windes the winged people go.

482

Thence, to Sareptha; where he craves the ayd
Of a poor Widow: who thus mildely said,
Alas! fain would I, but (God wot) my store
Is but of bread for one meal, and no more:
Yet, give me (saith he) giue me som (I pray);
Who soweth sparing, sparing reapeth ay:
Sure, a good turn shall never guerdon want;
A Gift to Needlings is not given, but lent:
T's a Well of Wealth, which doth perpetuall run:
A fruitfull Field which thousand yeelds for one.

While thus he said, and staid; the Widow glad,
Gives to him frankly all the bread she had:
She lost not by't: for, all the Famin-while,
That rag'd in Tyre, her little Flowr and Oyl
Decreased not, yet had she plenty still,
For her and hers to feed in time their fill.
At length befell fel Death to take-away
Her onely Son, and with her Son her Ioy:
Shee prayes her Guest, and he implores his God,
And stretching him vpon the breath-less Lad,
Thus cries aloud: Vouchsafe me, Lord, this boon,
Restore this child's soule, which (it seems) too-soon
Thou hast bereft: O! let it not be said,
That heer for nought I haue so oft been fed:
Let not my presence be each-where abhorr'd;
Nor Charity with thee to want Reward.

As a small seedling of that fruitfull Worm,
Which (of it selfe) fine shining Sleaves doth form,
By the warm comfort of a Virgin brest,
Begins to quicken, creepeth (as the rest)
Re-spins a-fresh, and, in her witty loom,
Makes of her corps her corps a pretious Toomb:
This Childe (no Man, but Man's pale Module now)
With death ith' bosom, horror on the brow,
The bait of Worms, the Booty of the Beer,
At sacred words begins his eye to rear;
Swimming in Death, his powrs do re-assemble,
His spirits (rewarm'd) with-in his artirs tremble;
He fetcht a sigh; then liuely rising too,
Talks, walks, and eats, as he was wont to doo.

Fain would the Mother haue besought the Seer
T'have past the rest of his colde Olde-age heer:
But th'holy Spirit him sodain hence doth bring
Vnto Samaria to th'incensed King;
Who rates him thus: O Basilisk! O Bane!

The like Imputation, in our dayes, the blind Popelings and profane Worldlings haue layd vpon the Gospel and the Preachers thereof.

Art not thou He that sow'st th'Isaacian Plain
With Trouble-Tares? Seditious, hast not thou
Profan'd the Laws of our Fore-fathers now?

483

Broken all Orders, and the Altars bann'd
Of th'holy Gods, Protectors of our Land?
Since thy fond Preaching did heer first begin,
More and more heavie hath Heav'ns anger bin
Vpon vs all; and Baal, blasphem'd by thee,
Hath since that season never left vs free
From grievous Plagues: it is a Hell we feel,
Our Heav'n is Brass, our Earth is all of Steel.

No, no, O King (if I the Truth shall tell)
Thou, thou art hee that troublest Israel.
Thou (give me leave) thou and thy Grand-sires, mad
After strange Gods in every Groue to gad,
Have left the true, wise, wondrous (all-abroad)
Omnipotent, victorious, glorious God:
Such shall you proue him, if you dare oppone
All your Baal-Prophets against me, but one.

Content, quoth Achab. Then to Carmel's top
The Schismik Priests were quickly called vp:
Vnto their Baal an Altar build they there;
To God, the Prophet doth another rear:
Both have their Beasts; and by their prayer must prove
Whose God is God, by Fire from Heav'n aboue.
The People's eyes, and ears, and mindes are bent
Vpon these Maruails, to observe th'euent
(Marvails, which might well cleer the difference
That had so long depended in suspence
'Twixt Israel and Iuda; and direct
Th'Earth how to serue Heav'ns sacred Architect)
As when two Buls, inflamed fiercely-fell,

Simile.

Met front to front, their forked arms do mell,
The feeble Heards of Heifers in a maze,
Twixt hope and fear, vnfeeding, stand at gaze,
To see the Fight, and censure which doe proue
The valiantest, that he may be their Loue.

Baal's baalling Priests call and cry out for life,

Baals Priests.

They gash their flesh, with Launcet and with knife,
They cruell make their blood to spin about
(As Claret wine from a pearç't Peece doth spout)
And, madly shaking heads, leggs, sides and arms,
They howling chant these Dithyrambik charms;

Help, Help, O Baal, O Baal attend our cryes,
Baal, heare vs Baal, O Baal, bow downe thine eyes:
O Stratian, Clarian, Eleutherian Powrs,
Panomphæan God, approve vs thine, thee ours:
O Epicarpian! O Epistatirian,
Phyxian, Feretrian, O Exacestirian,
Xemian, Messapian, O Lebradean Baal,
O Assabine, Baal-samen, hear our Call.

484

Elijah, that their bloody Rites abhord,
And knowes aright the seruice of the Lord,
T'appease his wrath he doth not scarre his skin;
Nor with self-wounds presume his grace to win,
Nor makes himselfe vnfitting for his function,
By selfly stripes (as causing more cumpunction)
Nor, thrild with bodkins, raues in frantik-wise,
And in a furie seems to prophetize;
But offers God his heart, in steed of blood:
His speech is sober, and as milde his mood.

Ironia.

Cry loud, quoth he: your God is yet perchance
In a deep sleep, or doth in Arms aduance
Against his Foes (th'Egyptian Deïties)
Or is consulting how to keep the Flies
From off his Altar. But, O Izrael!
Alas! why yoakst thou God with Baal (or Bel)?
Alas! how long thus wilt thou halt twixt either,
And fondly mix Darnel and Wheat together
In thy Faith's Field? If Baal be God indeed,
Then boldly serue him, seek him sole at need:
But, if blew Sea, and winged Firmament,
Th'all-bearing Earth, and Storm-breed Element,
Be but the least Works of th'Almighty hand
Of Iacob's God: If Heav'n, Air, Sea, and Land,
And all in all, and all in every one,
By his owne finger be sustain'd alone:
If he haue cast those cursed Nations out,
Which yerst defil'd this fair, fat Land about;
To give it thee, to plant thee in their place,
Why him alone doost thou not ay imbrace,
And serue him onely in thy Soule and Heart,
Who in his Love brooks none to share a part?
The cord vn-twisted weakens: and who serues
Two Lords at-once, to lose them both deserues.
Baal dead (thou seest) hears not his Servants call,
Much less can grant them their Desires at all:
But, Iacob's God, Iehova, Elohim,
Never deceives their hope that trust in him.

Hear me therefore, O Lord, and from aboue
With Sacred Fire (thy Soverain powr to prove)
Consume this Bullock, and shewe by the same
That thou art God, and I thy Servant am:
And to thy Fold (thy Churches Lap) repeal
Thy wandring Flock, thy chosen Israel.

Simile.

As falls a Meteor in a Sommer Even,
A sodain Flash coms flaming down from Heav'n,
Licks dry the Dikes, and instantly, at-once,
Burns all to Ashes, both the Altar-stones,

485

And th'Offered Bullock: and the People fall
In zealous fury on the Priests of Baal;
And, by Elijah's prayer, soone obtaine
Rain, which so often they had askt in vain.

For, what is it Elijah cannot do?
If he be hungry, Fouls, and Angels too,
Becom his Stewards. Fears he th'armed Bands
Of a fel Tyrant? from their bloody hands
To rescue him, Heav'n (his confederate)
Consumes with Fire them and their fierie hate.
Or, would he pass a Brook that brooks no Bay,
Nor bridge, nor Bank? The Water giues him way.
Or, irks him Earth? To Heav'n alive he hies,
And (sauing Henoch onely He not-dies.

This Man of God, discoursing with his heir

Ellijah taken vp aliue into Heaven.

Of th'vpper Kingdom, and of Gods Affair,
A sodain whirl-winde, with a whiffing Fire,
And flaming Chariot rapts him vp intire,
Burns not, but 'fines; and doth (in fashion strange)
By death-less Death, mortall immortall change.
A long-tail'd squib, a flaming ridge, for rut
Seems seen a while, where the bright Coach hath cut.

This sacred Rape, nigh rapt Elisha too:
Who, taking vp his Tutors Mantle, tho,
Follows as far as well he could with ey
The fire-snort Palfreys, through the sparkling Sky;
Crying, My father, father mine fare-well,
The Chariots and the Horse of Izrael.

The Thisbian Prophet hangs not in the Air,
Amid the Meteors to be tossed there,
As Mists and Rains, and Hail, and hoarie Plumes,
And other Fierie many-formed Fumes:
Amid the Air tumultuous Satan roules;
And not the Saints, the happy, heav'nly Soules.

Nor is he nailed to some shining Wheel,
Ixion-like continually to reel;
For Christ his flesh, transfigur'd, and divine,
Mounted aboue the Arches Crystalline:
And where Christ is, from pain and passion free,
There (after death) shall all his Chosen bee.

Elijah therefore climbs th'Empyreal Pole;
Where, ever-blest in body and in soule,
Contemns this World, becoms an Angel bright,
And doth him firm to the Trine-One vnite.

But how, or why should He this vantage haue
Yet Christ (right call'd the first-fruits of the Grave)?
O happy passage! O sweet, sacred Flight!
O blessed Rape! thou raptest so my spright

486

In this Dispute, and mak'st my weaker wit
So many wayes to cast-about for it,
That (I confess) the more I do contend,
I more admire, and less I comprehend.

For lack of wings, then biding heer belowe
With his Successor, I proceed to showe,
How, soon as he took-vp his Cloak (to beare it)

Elizeus or Elisha.

Within Elisha shin'd Elijah's Spirit;
By powr whereof, immediatly he cleaves
An vn-couth way through Iordan's rapid waves:
Past hope he gives to the Sunamian Wife
A Son; and soone restores him dead to life:
With sodain blindness smites the Syrian Troup
The which in Dothan did him round incoup:
Increaseth bread, and of a pound of Oyl
Fills all the Vessels in a town that while:
His hoary head (in Bethel) laught to scorn,
Is veng'd by Bears, on forty children torn:
Naaman's cleans'd; and for foul Simonie,
Gehazi's punisht with his Leprosie:
Mends bitter Broath, he maketh Iron swim
As porie Cork, vpon the Water's brim.

Rich Iericho's (sometimes) sal-peetry soil,
Through brinie springs that did about it boil,
Brought forth no fruit, and her vn-holsome Brooks
Voyded the Town of Folk, the Fields of Flocks:
The Towns-men, therefore, thus besought the Seer;
Thou seest our Citie's situation heer
Is passing pleasant; but the ground is naught,
The Water worse: we pray thee mend the fault,
Sweeten our Rivers, make them pleasanter,
Our Hills more green, our Plains more fertiler.

The Prophet calls but for a Cruse of Salt
(O strangest cure!) to cure the brynie fault
Of all their Floods; and, casting that in one
Foul stinking Spring, heals all their streams anon:
Not, for an houre, or for a day, or twain,
But to this Day they sweet and sound remain.

Their Valley, walled with bald Hills before,
But even a horror to behold, of-yore;
Is now an Eden, and th'All-circling Sun,
For fruitfull beauty, sees no Paragon.
There (labour-less) mounts the victorious Palm,
There (and but there) growes the all-healing Balm,
There ripes the rare cheer-cheek Myrobalan,
Minde-gladding Fruit, that can vn-olde a Man.
O skilfull Husbands, giue your fattest Plains
Five or six earths; spare neither cost nor pains,

487

To water them; rid them of weeds and stones,
With Muck and Marle batten and baste their bones;
Vnless God bless your Labour and your Land,
You plough the Sea, and sowe vpon the sand.

This, Iurie knowes; a Soil somtimes (at least)
Sole Paradise of all the proudest East:
But now the brutest and most barren place,
The curse of God, and all the Worlds disgrace:
And also Greece, on whom Heav'ns (yerst so good)
Rain nothing now but their drad Furie's Flood.
The grace of God is a most sure Revenue,
A Sea of Wealth, that euer shall continue,
A neuer-failing Field, which needs not ay
The cool of Night, nor comfort of the Day.

What shall I say? This sacred Personage
Not only profits to his proper Age;
But, after life, life in his bones he leaues,
And dead, the dead he raiseth from their graues.

Nor is Elisha famous more for Miracles,
Than for the Truth of his so often Oracles:
He showes the Palms and Foils of Israel,
Benhadad's death, the Raign of Hazael:
Beyond all hope, and passing all appearance,
Deiected Ioram's neer relief he warants.

For, now the Syrian, with insulting Powrs,

The Siege and Famin of Samaria.

So streict besiegeth the Samarian Towrs,
That euen all-ready in each nook agrising,
Fell, wall-break (all-break) Famine, ill-aduising
Howls hideously: euen the bare bones are seen
(As sharp as kniues) thorough the empty skin
Of the best bred: and each-man seems (almost)
No Man indeed but a pale gastly Ghost.

Som snatch the bread from their own Babes, that pine;
Som eat the Draff that was ordain'd for Swine,
Som do defile them with forbidden flesh,
Som bite the grass their hunger to refresh;
Som, gold for Birds-dung (waight for waight) exchange;
Som, of their Boots make them a Banquet strange,
Som fry the Hay-dust, and it sauorie finde;
Som, Almond-shels and Nut-shels gladly grinde,
Som mince their Fathers Wills, in parchment writ,
And so deuoure their Birth-right at a bit.

The King, when weary he would rest awhile,
Dreams of the Dainties he hath had yer-while,
Smacks, swallows, grindes both with his teeth and iaws;
But, only winde his beguil'd bellie draws:
And, then awaking, of his owne spare Diet
Robbs his owne brest, to keep his Captains quiet.

488

He is importun'd heer and there about:
Aboue the rest, a Woman skrieketh out
In mournfull manner, with dissheueled haire;
Her face despight, her fashion showes despaire.

Mothers eate their own Children.

O! stay my Liege, hear, hear a grieuous thing;
Iustice, great Ioram, Iustice, gentle King.
O, no, not Iustice: (did I Iustice craue?)
Fondling, in Iustice, thou canst nothing haue
But a iust death; nay, but a Torture fell;
Nay, but a Torment, like the pains of Hell.
Yet, euen this Plea is worse then death to me:
Then grant me Iustice, Iustice let it be.
For (O!) what horror can restrain desire
Of iust Reuenge, when it is once afire?
My Lord, I bargain'd, and (to bind the Pact)
By solemn Oath I sealed the Contract;
Contract, indeed cruell, yet could not be
Infring'd, or broken, without Crueltie.
(Tell it O, Tongue: why stay'st thou so vpon-it?
Dar'st thou not say-it, hauing dar'd and don-it?
Not hauing fear'd Heavens King, how canst thou fear
An earthly King?) Then, thus (my Liege) while-yer
I, and my Neighbour desperately agreed,
Iointly to eate, successiuely, our seed;
Our own deer Children: and (O luck-less Lot!)
Mine first of all, is destin'd to the Pot:
Forth-with I catch-him, and I snatch him to-me
Vp in mine arms: he straight begins to woo-me,
Stroaks, colls, and huggs me, with his arms and thighes:
And, smiling sweet, Mam-mam, mam-mam, he cryes,
Then kisses me: and with a thousand toyes,
Thinks to delight me with his wonted ioyes.
I looke away; and, with my hand addrest,
Bury my knife within his tender brest:
And, as a Tigresse, or the Dam of Bears,
A Fawn or Kid in hundred gobbets tears,
I tear him quick, dress him, and on our Table
I set him: Oh! ('t is now no time to fable)
I taste him first, I first the feast begin,
His blood (my blood) runs round about my Chin,
My Childe returns, re-breeding in my Womb;
And of my Flesh my Flesh is shamefull Tomb:
Soon cloyd (alas!) but little could I eat,
And vp again that little striues to get.
But she, she layes it in, she greedy plyes-it:
And all night long she sits to gourmandize-it:
Not for her fill so much of such (think I)
As to prolong the more my misery:

489

O God, said she (and smiles in eating it)
What a sweet morsell! what a dainty bit!
Blest be the brest that nurç't such meat for me;
But more the Womb that bare it, so to be.
So (to be brief) my Son is eat: But hers
Aliue and lusty in her arms she bears.

Why should her Pittie, rather her despite,
Do both her Faith, Me, and my Son, vn-right?
Ah! for her belly, rather then her Boy,
She playd this prank (and robd me of my Ioy).
She did it not, of tender hart to saue him;
But, greedy-gut, that she alone might haue him.
Therfore, O King, do Iustice in this case:
Nor craue I pardon of thy princly grace
For mine Offence; (such an Offence, I knowe,
As yet grim Minos never iudg'd belowe)
For if I should, how should I do, for meat;
Not hauing now another Childe to eat?
No: this is all I craue before I die,
That I may taste but of Her sonnes sweet thigh:
Or, that (at least) mine eye, more iust then cruell,
May see him slain by her, my Horrors fuell.

But, if you waigh not mine vnfained tears
(Indeed vn-worthy): yet vouchsafe your ears
To the loud Plaints of my lamenting Son;
Who, with strange murmurs rumbling vp and down,
Seems in my bowels as reviv'd to groan,
And to your Highnes, thus to make his moan;

Sir, will you suffer, without all reuenge,
Mens cursed malice boldly to infringe
Law, Faith, and Iustice, Vows, and Oaths, and all,
As buzzing Flies tear Cob-webs on a wall?
Ah! shall I then descend alone belowe?
Dy vn-reueng'd? foster my cruell Foe?
And then, cast-forth in foulest Excrement,
Infect the Aire, offend the Element;
The while her Darling, on his Hobby-horse
About the Hall shall ride, and prance, and course;
And imitate mens actions (as an Ape),
Build paper-Towrs, make Puppets, sit in Lap?
No: let him die, let him (as I) be cut,
Let him (as I) be in two Bellies put:
Full-fill the Pact; that so our wretched Mothers
Their Guilt and Grief, may eyther's match with others.

The King, less mov'd with pitty than with horror,
Thunders these words, raging in threat-full terror;
Vengeance and mischief on mine owne head light,
If curst Elisha keep his head this night:

490

And, as he spake, forth in a rage he flings,
To execute his bloody Threatenings.

Sir, said the Prophet, you haue seen the scathe
Deuouring Famine heer performed hath;
But, by to-morrow this time (God hath said)
Samaria's Gates shall euen abound with Bread.

Tush, said a Minion of the Court, hard by
(Of surly speech, proud gait, and lofty ey)
Though God should open all Heav'ns windows wide,
It cannot be: Yes, Infidell (reply'd
The zealous Prophet) Thou thy Self (in sum)
Shalt see it then: but shalt not taste a Crum.
Thus said Elisha, and th'Almightie Powr
Perform'd his Sayings in the very howr.

Her scarlet Robe Aurora had not donn'd,
Nor had she yet limn'd the Euphratean strond
With trembling shine, neyther was Phœbus yet
Willing to wake out of a drouzie Fit,

Description and effects of Fear.

When pallid Fear, flyes to the Pagan Hoast,
Wilde-staring Hag, shiv'ring, and wavering most;
She, that her voyce and visage shifts so oft:
She that in Counsails striues to lift aloft
Irresolution, to be President
(Canker of Honor, curse of Gouernment):
She that euen trembles in her surest Arms,
Starts at a leaf, swouns at report of harms:
Beleeues all, sees all; and so swayeth all,
That, if she say, the Firmament doth fall:
There be three Suns: This, or that Mountain sinks:
Paul's Church doth reel, or the foundation shrinks:
It is beleeu'd, 't is seen: and, seis'd by Her,
The other Sense are as apt to err.

Clashing of Arms, Rattling of iron Cars,
Murmur of Men (a World of Soldiers)
Neighing of Horse, noise of a thousand Drums
With dreadfull sound from the next Vale ther coms.

The Syrian Camp, conceiuing that the Troups
Of Nabathites, Hethits, and Ethyops,
Hyr'd by th'Isaacians, came from euery side,
To raise their Siege, and to repell their pride;
Fly for their liues, disordered and disperst
(Amid the Mountains) so well-ordered yerst.
One, in his Cap-case leaues-behinde his Treasure:
To bridle's horse another hath not leasure;
Another, hungry on the grass hath set
His Break-fast out, but dares not stay to eat.
One thinks him farre, that yet hath little gon:
Another weens him in plain ground, anon

491

He breaks his neck into a Pit: another
Hearing the Boughs that brush against each other,
And doubting it to be the Conquerer,
He wretched dies of th'only wound of Fear.

As, after tedious and continuall rain,
The honey-Flies haste from their Hiues again,
Suck heer and there, and bear into their bowr
The sweetest sap of euery fragrant flowr:
So from besieg'd Samaria each man hies,
Vnto the Tents of fear-fled Enemies:
Wherein, such store of corn and wine they pill,
That in one day their hungry Town they fill:
And in the Gate, the Croud, that issueth,
Treads th'vnbeleeuing Courtier down to death;
So that (at once) euen both effects agree
Iust with Elisha's holy prophecie.

From this School comes the Prophet Amethite,
The twice-born Preacher to the Niniuite.

Ionas, be gon: hie, hie thee (said th'Almighty)

The Ship-wrack of Ionas.

To Ninive, that great and wanton Citie:
Cry day and night, cry out vnto them all;
Yet forty dayes, and Niniue shall fall.

But, 'gainst th'Eternall, Ionas shuts his eare,
And ships himself to sail another-where:
Wherfore, the Lord (incensed) stretcht his arm,
To wrack the wretch in suddain fearfull Storm.

Now, Nereus foams, and now the furious waues

A liuely Description of the storm at Sea.

All topsie-turned by th'Æolian slaues,
Do mount and roule: Heav'n Wars against the Waters,
And angry Thetis Earth's green bulwarks batters:
A sable ayr so muffles-vp the Sky,
That the sad Saylers can no light discry:
Or, if som beam break through their pitchy night,
'Tis but drad flashing of the Lightning's light.

Strike, strike our saile (the Master cries) amain,
Vaile misne and sprit-sail: but he cries in vain;
For, in his face the blasts so bluster ay,
That his Sea-gibberish is straight born away.

Confused Cries of men dismay'd in minde,
Seas angry noise, lowd bellowing of the winde,
Heav'ns Thunder-claps, the tackles whisteling
(As strange Musicians) dreadfull descant sing.

The Eastern winde driues on the roaring train
Of white-blew billows, and the clouds again
With fresh Seas crosse the Sea, and she doth send
(In counter-change) a rain with salt y-blend.
Heav'ns (headlong) seem in Thetis lap to fall,
Seas scale the skies, and God to arm this All

492

Against one ship, that skips from stars to ground,
From waue to waue (like Balloons windy bound)
While the sad Pilot, on a foamy Mount,
Thinks from the Pole to see Hells pit profound;
And, then, cast down vnto the sandy shole,
Seems from lowe Hell to see the loftie Pole:
And, feeling foes within and eek without,
As many waues, so many deaths doth doubt.

The billows, beating round about the ship,
Vnchauk her keel, and all her seams vnrip;
Whereby the waters, entring vncontroul'd,
Ebbing abroad, yet flowe apace in hold:
For euery Tun the plied Pump doth rid,
A floud breaks in; the Master mastered
With dread and danger (threatning euery-way)
Doubts where to turn him, what to doo, or say,
Which waue to meet, or which salt surge to flie;
So yeelds his charge, in Sea to liue or die.

Simile.

As, many Cannons, 'gainst a Castle bent,
Make many holes, and much the rampire rent,
And shake the wall, but yet the latest shock
Of fire-wingd bullets batters down the Rock:
So, many mounts, that muster 'gainst this Sail,
With roaring rage do this poor ship assail;
But yet the last (with foaming fury swoln,
With boistrous blasts of angry tempests boln)
Springs the main-mast: the mast with boystrous fall
Breaks down the deck, and sore affrights them all.

Pale Idol-like, one stands with arms a-cross:
One moans himself: one mourns his childrens loss:
One, more than Death, this form of Death affrights:
Another calls on Heav'ns vn-viewed Lights:
One, 'fore his eyes his Ladies looks beholds:
Another, thus his deadly fear vnfolds:
Curst thirst of gold! O how thou causest care!
My bed of Doun I change for hatches bare:
Rather than rest, this stormy war I chose:
T'enlarge my fields, both land and life I lose:
Like peizless plume, born-vp by Boreas breath,
With all these wings I soar, to seek my death,
To Heav'n and Hell, by angry Neptune led,
Where lest I scape it, all these sails I spread.
Then thus another: sure no winde (quoth he)
Could raise this Storm; som rarer Prodigy
Hath caus'd this Chaos (cause of all our grief)
Som Atheist dog, som Altar-spoyling theef
Lurks in this ship: com (Mates) by lot let's trie
(To saue the rest) the man that ought to die.

493

'T is I. quoth Ionas, I indeed am cause
Of this black night, and all the fearfull flaws
Of this rough Winter; I must sole appease
(By my iust death) these wrath-full wrack-full Seas.
Then vp they heave him straight, and from the waste
Him suddenly into the Sea they cast.

The King of Windes cals home his churlish train,
And Amphitrite smooths her front again:
Th'Air's cloudy Robe returns to crystall clear,
And smiling Heav'ns bright Torches re-appear
So soon as Ionas (to them all appease)
O'r head and ears was soused in the Seas.

Thrice coms hee vp, and thrice again goes down
Vnder the waves (yer hee doo wholly drown):
But then hee sinks; and, wretched, roul'd along
The sands, and Oase, and rocks, and mud among,
Thus, thus hee cries with lips of zealous faith;
Mercy, my God, shew mercy, Lord (hee saith).

Then God (who ever hears his childrens wish)
Provided straight a great and mighty Fish,
That swilling swallow'd Ionas in her womb;
A living Corps laid in a living Toomb.

Like as a Roach, or Ruff, or Gudgeon, born

Simile.

By som swift stream into a weer (forlorn)
Frisks to and fro, aloft and vnder dives,
Fed with false hope to free their captive lyves:
The Prophet so (amazed) walks about
This wondrous Fish to finde an issue out,
This mighty Fish, of Whale-like huginess,
Or bigger-bellied, though in body lesse.

Where am I, Lord? (alas!) within what vaults?
In what new Hell doost thou correct my faults?
Strange punishment! my body thou bereav'st
Of mother-earth, which to the dead thou leav'st:
Whither thy wrath drives mee, I doo not knowe.
I am depriv'd of air, yet breathe and blowe:
My sight is good, yet can I see no sky:
Wretch, nor in Sea, nor yet a-shore am I:
Resting, I run; for, mooving is my Cave:
And, quick, I couch within a living Grave.

While thus hee plain'd; the third day, on the sand
The friendly Fish did cast him safe a-land.
And then, as if his weary limbs had been
So long refresht, and rested at an Inn,
Hee seems to flee; and comn to Ninive,
Your sins have reached vp to Heav'n (quoth hee):
Wo and alas, wo, wo vnto you all:
Yet forty daies, and Ninive shall fall.

494

Thus Ionas preacht: But, soon the Citizens,
Sincerely toucht with sense of their foul sins,
Dispatch (in haste) to Heav'n, Repentance sad,
Sweet-charming Prayer, Fasting hairy-clad.

Repentance makes two Torrents of her eies,
Her humble brow dares scant behold the skies:
Her sobbing breast is beaten blew and black:
Her tender flesh rent with rugged sack:
Her head (all hoar'd with harty sorrows past)
With dust and ashes is all over-cast.

Praier's head, and sides, and feet are set about
With gawdy wings (like Ioves Arcadian Scout):
Her body flaming, from her lips there fumes
Nard, Incense, Mummy, and all rich Perfumes.

Fasting (though faint) her face with ioy shee cheers,
Strong in her weaknes, yong in aged yeers;
Quick health's preserver, curbing Cupid's fits,
Watchfull, purge-humors, and refining wits.

Then Faith (Grand Vsher of th'Empyreall Court)
Vshers these Legats by a golden Port
Into the Presence, and them face to face
Before th'All-Monarch's glorious Throne doth place;
Where (zealous) prostrate on her humble knee,
Thus Praier speaks in name of all the Three:

God, slowe to wrath! O Father, prone to grace!
Lord, sheath again thy vengeance-sword a space.
If at thy beam of Iustice thou wilt waigh
The works of men that wander every day:
If thou their metall by that touch-stone try
Which fearfull-sounding from thy mouth doth fly:
If thou shalt summ their sins (which pass the sand)
Before thee, Lord, who shall endure to stand?
Not Ninive alone shall perish then;
But all this All bee burnt to ashes clean:
And even this day shall thy iust wrath prevent
The dreadfull Day of thy last Dooms event,
This world to Chaos shall again return;
And on thine Altars none shall incense burn.

O therefore spare (Lord) spare the Ninivites,
Forgive their sins; and, in their humbled sprites,
From this time forth thy sacred Laws ingrave:
Destroy them not, but daign them Lord to save:
Look not (alas!) what they have been before;
But vs regard, or thine owne mercy more.

Then, God reacht out his hand, vnfolds his frowns,
Disarms his arm of Thunder bruising-Crowns,
Bows graciously his glorious flaming Crest,
And mildely grants, in th'instant, their request.

495

The Decay.

THE IIII. BOOK OF THE FOVRTH DAY OF THE II. WEEK.

The Argvment.

Ambitions bitter fruit, fell Achab's Stock,
With his proud Queen (a painted Beauty-mock)
Extirpt by Iehv: Iehv's ligne likewise
Shallum supplants. King-killing Treacheries
Succeed a-rowe, with Wrack of Israel.
Time-suiting Batts: Athaliah Tigress fell.
Ioash well-nurtur'd, natur'd-ill, doth run
After his kinde: hee kils his Tutors Son.
Zenacherib: life-lengthned Ezechiah:
Nabvchadnezar: Captive Zedechiah.

Hvff-puft Ambition, Tinder-box of War,

Ambition pourtrayed to the life.

Down-fall of Angels, Adam's murderer,
Parent of Treasons, Reason's Contradiction,
Earth's Enemy, and the Heav'ns Malediction,
O! how much Blood hath thy respect-less age
Shed in the World! showred on every Age!
O Scepter's, Throne's, and Crown's insatiat Thirst,
How many Treasons hast thou hatched yerst!

For, O! what is it that hee dares not doo,
Who th'Helm of Empire doth aspire vnto?
Hee (to beguile the simple) makes no bone
To swear by God (for, hee beleeves there's none);
His Sword's his Title; and who scapes the same,
Shall have a Pistoll, or a poysony Dram:
Hee, fear'd of all, fears all: hee breaks at once
The chains of Nature and of Nations:

496

Sick of the Father, his kinde heart is woe
The good Old-man travels to Heaven so slowe:
His owne dear Babes (yet Cradled, yet in Clouts)
Haste but too fast; are at his heels, hee doubts:
Hee passeth to his promis'd Happinesse
Vpon a Bridge of his Friends Carcases;
And mounts (in fine) the golden Throne by stairs
Built of the Sculs of his owne Countries heirs.
Yet thou permitt'st it, Lord; nay, with thy wings
Coverest such Tyrants (even the shame of Kings).
But, not for nothing doost thou them forbear;
Their cruell scalps a cruell end shall tear:
And, when the Measure of their Sin is full,
Thy Hands are iron, though thy Feet bee wooll.
The Throne of Tyrants totters to and fro:
The blood-gain'd Scepter lasts not long (wee knowe):
Nail driveth Nail: by tragick deaths device,
Ambitious hearts do play at

A kinde of Christmas play: wherein each hunteth other from his Seat. The name seems derived from the French levezsus, in English, arise vp.

Level sice;
Proov'd but too plain in both the Houses Royall
Of Iacobs issue, but too-too disloyall:
As, if thou further with thy grace divine
My Verse and Vows, shall heer appear in time.

God Novv no longer could support th'excess
Of Achab's House, whose cursed wickednes
Was now top-full: and, Dogs already stood
Fawning and yawning for their promis'd blood.
Heav'ns haste their Work. Now, in tumultuous wise,
'Gainst Achab's Son doo his owne Souldiers rise;

Iehu.

Iehu's their Captain: who foresees, afar,
How-much, dispatch advantageth in War;
And, politick, doubles his Armies speed
To get before; yea, before Fame, indeed.

Ioram, surpriz'd in feeble Bulwarks then
(Vnfurnished of Victuals and of Men)
And, chiefly, wanting royall fortitude,
Vn-kingly yeelds vnto the Multitude.

Bould Nimshi's Son, Sir Iehu, what's this Thing?
What mean these Troops? what would you of the King?
Where shall the bolt of this black Thunder fall?
Say, bring'st thou Peace? or bring'st thou War, withall?
Sayd Ioram, lowd: but, Iehu lowder saith,
No (wretch) no Peace, but bloody Wars and death.

Simile.

Then fled the King: and (as a Ship at Sea,
Hearing the Heav'ns to threaten every way,
And Winter-Storms with absent Stars compack,
With th'angry Waters to conspire her wrack,
Strives not to ride it out, or shift abroad,
But plies her Oars, and flees into the Road)

497

Hee ierks his Iades, and makes them scour amain

Simile.

Through thick and thin, both over Hill and Plain.

Which, Iehu spying, and well eying too,
As quick resolveth what hee hath to doo;
Cries, Boy, my Bowe: then nocks an Arrow right,
His left hand meets the head, his brest the right.
As bends his Bowe, hee bends; lets go the string:
Through the thin air, the winged shaft doth sing
King Ioram's Dirge; and, to speed the more,
Pearces behinde him, and peeps-out before.

The Prince now hurt (that had before no hart)
Fals present dead, and with his Courtly-Cart
Bruiz'd in the Fall (as had the Thisbite said)
The Field of Naboth with his blood beraid:
And Salem's King had also there his due,
For ioining hands with so profane a Crew.
Then, the proud Victor leads his loyall Troops
Towards the Court (that all in silence droops);
And, more for Self-love, then for God's pure zeal,
Means to dispatch, th'Earth's burden, Iezabel.

The Queen had inkling: instantly shee sped

Iezabel.

To curl the Cockles of her new-bought head:
The Saphyr, Onyx, Garnet, Diamond,
In various forms cut by a curious hand,
Hang nimbly dancing in her hair, as spangles:
Or as the fresh red-yellow Apple dangles
(In Autumn) on the Tree, when too and fro
The Boughs are waved with the windes that blowe.

The vpper garment of the stately Queen,

Her Pride.

Is rich gold Tissue, on a ground of green;
Where th'art-full shuttle rarely did encheck
The

Changeable.

cangeant colour of a Mallards neck:
'T is figur'd o'r with sundry Flowrs and Fruits,
Birds, Beasts, and Insects, creeping Worms, and Neuts,
Of Gold-Smiths Work: a fringe of Gold about,
With Pearls and Rubies richly-rare set-out,
Borders her Robe: and every part discries
Cunning and Cost, contending for the prize.

Her neat, fit, startups of green Velvet bee,
Flourisht with silver; and beneath the knee,
Moon-like, indented; butt'ned down the side
With Orient Pearls as big as Filberd's pride.

But, besides all her sumptuous equipage

Her Painting.

(Much fitter for her State then for her age)
Close in her Closet, with her best Complexions,
Shee mends her Faces wrinkle-full defections,
Her Cheek shee cherries, and her Ey shee cheers,
And fains her (fond) a Wench of fifteen yeers;

498

Whether shee thought to snare the Dukes affection;
Or dazle, with her pompous Prides reflexion,
His daring eyes (as Fowlers, with a Glass,
Make mounting Larks com down to death apace):
Or, were it, that in death shee would bee seen
(As 'twere) interr'd in Tyrian Pomp, a Queen.

A iust Invective against those 2. (predominant) Court Qualities.

Chaste Lady-Maids, heer must I speak to you,
That with vile Painting spoil your native hue
(Not to inflame yonglings with wanton thirst,
But to keep fashion with these times accurst)
When one new taen in your seem-Beauties snare,
That day and night to Hymen makes his Praier,
At length espies (as Who is it but spies?)
Your painted brests, your painted cheeks and eies,
His Cake is dough; God dild you, hee will none;
Hee leaves his sute, and thus hee saith anon:
What should I doo with such a wanton Wife,
Which night and day would cruciate my life
With Ieloux pangs? sith every-way shee sets
Her borrow'd snares (not her owne hairs) for Nets
To catch her Cuckoos; with loose, light Attires,
Opens the door vnto all lewd Desires;
And, with vile Drugs adultering her Face,
Closely allures th'Adulterers Imbrace.

But, iudge the best: suppose (saith hee) I finde
My Lady Chaste in body and in minde
(As sure I think): yet, will shee Mee respect,
That dares disgrace th'eternall Architect?
That (in her pride) presumes his Work to tax
Of imperfection; to amend his tracts,
To help the Colours which his hand hath laid,
With her frail fingers with foul dirt beraid?
Shall I take her that will spend all I have,
And all her time, in pranking proudly-brave?

How did I doat! the Gold vpon her head,
The Lillies of her brests, the Rosie red
In either Cheek, and all her other Riches,
Wherewith shee bleareth sight, and sense bewitches;
Is none of hers: it is but borrow'd stuff,
Or stoln, or bought, plain Counterfet in proof:
My glorious Idol I did so adore,
Is but a Visard, newly varnisht o'r
With spauling Rheums, hot Fumes, and Ceruses:
Fo, phy; such Poysons one would loath to kiss:
I wed (at least, I ween to wed) a Lass
Yong, fresh and fair: but, in a yeer (alas!)
Or two, at most; my lovely lively Bride
Is turn'd a Hag, a Fury by my side;

499

With hollow, yellow teeth (or none perhaps)
With stinking breath, swart cheeks, and hanging chaps;
With wrinkled neck; and stooping as shee goes,
With driveling mouth, and with a sniveling nose.

The Queen, thus pranked, proudly gets her vp
(But sadly though) to her gilt Palace top;
And, spying Iehu, from the window cride:
Art thou there, Zimri, cursed Paricide?
Fell master-killer, canst thou chuse but fear
For like offence, like punishment severe?

Bitch, cries the Duke, art Thou there barking still?
Thou, Strumpet, Thou art Cause of all this Ill:
Thou broughtst Samaria to Thine Idol-Sin:
Painting and Pois'ning first Thou broughtest in
To Court and Country, with a thousand mo
Loose Syrian Vices, which I shame to showe.
Thou broughtst-in Wrong, with Rapine and Oppression,
By Perjury supplanting Mens possession
And life withall: yea, Thou hast been the Baen
Of Peers and Seers (at Thy proud pleasure slain):
Thou life of Strife, Thou Horse-leach sent from Hell,
Thou Drouth, Thou Dearth, Thou Plague of Israel,
Now shalt Thou dy: Grooms (is there none for mee?)
Quick, cast her down, down, with her instantly.

O tickle Faith! O fickle Trust of Court!

The perfection of Courtship.

These Palace-mice, this busie-idle sort
Of fawning Minions, full of sooths and smiles,
These Carpet-Knights had vow'd and sworn yer-whiles,
Promis'd, protested vnto Iezabel,
Rav'd, brav'd and bann'd (like Rodomont in Hell)
That in her cause they every Man would dy,
And all the World, and Hell and Heav'n defie;
Now, Icy Fear (shivering in all their bones)
Makes them with Fortune turn their backs at once.
They take their Queen between their traiterous hands,
And hurl her headlong, as the Duke Commands;
Whose Courser, snorting, stamps (in stately scorn)
Vpon the Corps that whilom Kings had born:
And, to fulfill from point to point the Word
Elijah spake (as Legat of the Lord)
The doggs about doo greedy feed vpon
The rich-perfumed, royall Carrion:
And Folk by thousands issuing at the Gate,
To see the sight, cry thus (as glad thereat)
Ses, ses, heer Dogs, heer Bitches, doo not spare
This Bitch that gnaw'd her subiects bones so bare;
This cruell Cur, that made you oft becom
Saints Torturers, and many a Prophets Tomb:

500

This Whore of Baal, tear her so small, that well
No man may say, Heer lieth Iezabel.

Iehu's drad Vengeance doth yet farther flowe;
Curst Achab's issue hee doth wholly mowe:
Hee slaies (moreover) two and forty men
Of Ahaziah's hap-less Bretheren:
Baal's idoll Clergy hee doth bring to nought,
And his proud Temple turns into a Draught:
Good proofs of zeal. But yet a Diadem,
Desire of Raign, keeps from Ierusalem
His service due; content (at home) by halves
To worship God vnder the form of Calves.

His Son and Nephews track too-neer his trace;
And therefore Shallum doth vn-horse his race:
The murd'rer Shallum (after one Months Raign)
By Manahem as murdrously is slain:
The traitor Manahem's wicked-walking Son
By traiterous Pekah vnto death is don:
And so on Pekah, for Pekaiah's death,
Hosheah's treason, treason quittanceth;
A proud, ingrate, perfidious, troublous King,
That to Confusion did Samaria bring.

Their Towns trans-villag'd, the Ten Tribes, transported
To a far Clime (whence never they reverted)
Soiourn in forrein soil, where Chobar's streams
Serve them for Iordan; Basan, Chison seems:
While Assur's scorn, and scum of Euphrates
Dance vp and down th'Isaacian Palaces,
Drink their best Nectars, anchor in their Ports,
And lodge profanely in their strongest Forts.

But, changing air, these change not minde (in Iury).
For, though fierce Lions homicidiall fury
Make them retire vndet th'Almighti's wing,
Their Country-gods with the true God they ming:
They mix his Service, plow with Ass and Ox;
Disguise his Church in suits of Flax and Flocks,
Cast (in one wedge) Iron and Gold together:
Iew-Gentiles, both at-once: but, both is neither.

Tale of the Batt.

There is a Tale, that once the Hoast of Birds,
And all the Legions of Grove-haunting Heards,
Before the Earth ambitiously did strive,
And counter-plead for the Prerogative:
Now, while the Iudge was giving audience,
And either side in their seem-Rights defence
Was hot and earnest at the noise-full Bar,
The neuter Bat stood fluttering still afar:
But shee no sooner hears the Sentence past
On the Beasts side; but, shuffling her in haste

501

Into their Troop, shee them accompanieth,
Showes her large forhead, her long ears, and teeth.

The Cause was (after) by Appeal remoov'd
To Nature's Court; who by her Doom approov'd
The others Plea: then flees the shame-less Bat
Among the Birds, and with her Chit-chit-chat
Shee seems to sing; and, proud of wings, shee plaies
With nimble turns, and flees a thousand waies.

Hence, beak-less Bird, hence, winged-Beast, they cride,
Hence, plume-less wings (thus, scorn her, either side)
Hence, Harlot, hence; this ever bee thy Dole;
Be still Day's Prisoner in thy shamefull hole:
May neuer Sun (vile Monster) shine on thee:
But th'hate of all, for ever, may'st thou be.

Such is this People: for, in plentious showrs

Application.

When God his blessings vpon Isaak powrs,
Then are they Isaak's Sons: but, if with thunder
Hee wrath-full tear the Hebrue Tree in sunder,
These Traytors rake the boughs, and take the Fruit;
And (Pagans then) the Iews they persecute.

And such are those, whose wily, waxen minde
Takes every Seal, and sails with every Winde;
Not out of Conscience, but of Carnall Motion,
Of Fear, or Favour, Profit, or Poomotion:
Those that, to ease their Purse, or please their Prince,
Pern their Profession, their Religion mince;
Prince-Protestants, Prince-Catholiks; Precise,
With Such a Prince; with other, otherwise:
Yea, oldest Gangræns of blinde-burning Zeal
(As the Kings Evill) a new King can heal.

And those Scœne-servers that so lowd have cride
'Gainst Prelats sweeping in their silken Pride,
Their wilfull Dumbness, forcing others dumb
(To Sion's grievous Loss, and gain of Rome)
Their Courting, Sporting, and Non-residence,
Their Avarice, their Sloth and Negligence:
Till som fat Morsels in their mouthes doo fall;
And then, as choakt, and sudden chang'd with-all,
Themselves exceed in all of these, much more
Than the Right-Reverend whom they taxt before.

And those Chamæleons that con-sort their Crew;
In Turky, Turks: among the Iews, a Iew:
In Spain, as Spain: as Luther, on the Rhine:
With Calvin heer: and there with Bellarmine:
Loose, with the Lewd: among the gracious, grave:
With Saints, a Saint: and among Knaves, a Knave.

But all such Neuters, neither hot nor cold,
Such double Halters between God and Gold,

502

Such Luke-warm Lovers will the Bride-groom spue
Out of his mouth: his mouth hath spoke it true.

O Israel, I pity much thy case:
This Sea of Mischiefs, which in every place
So over-flowes thee, and so domineers;
It drowns my soule in griefs, mine eyes in tears:
My heart's through-thrilled with your miseries
Already past; your Fathers Tragedies.
But (O!) I dy; when in the sacred stem
Of royall Ivda, in Ierusalem,
I see fell Discord, from her loathsom Cage,
To blowe her poison with ambitious rage;
Sion to swim in blood; and Achab's Daughter
Make David's House the Shambles of her Slaughter.

Athaliah.

Cursed Athaliah (shee was called so)
Knowing her Son, by Nimshi's Son, his fo
(For Ioram's sake) to bee dispacht; disloyall,
On th'holy Mount vsurps the Sceptre Royall:
And, fearing lest the Princes of the Blood
Would one-day rank her where of right shee should,
Shee cuts their throats, hangs, drowns, destroyes them all,
Not sparing any, either great or small;
No, not the infant in the Cradle, lying
Help-less (alas!) and lamentably crying
(As if bewailing of his wrongs vn-knowne);
No (O extream!) shee spareth not her owne.

Simile.

Like as a Lion, that hath tutter'd heer
A goodly Heifer, there a lusty Steer,
There a strong Bull (too-weak for him by half)
There a fair Cow, and there a tender Calf;
Strouts in his Rage, and wallows in his Prey,
And proudly doth his Victory survay;
The grass all goary, and the Heard-groom vp
Shivering for fear vpon a-Pine-Trees top:
So swelleth shee, so growes her proud Despight;
Nor Aw, nor Law, nor Faith shee reaks, nor Right.

Her Cities are so many Groves of Thieves:
Her Court a Stew, where not a chaste-one lives:
Her greatest Lords (given all, to all excess)
Instead of Prophets, in their Palaces
Have Lectures read of Lust and Surfeting,
Of Murder, Magik, and Impoisoning.

While thus shee builds her tottering Throne vpon
Her childrens bones, Iehosheba saves one,
One Royall Imp, yong Ioash, from the pile

Simile.

(As when a Fire hath fiercely rag'd awhile
In som fair House, the avaricious Dame
Saves som choice Casquet from the furious flame)

503

Hides him, provides him: and, when as the Sun

Iehoiada preserueth Ioash.

Six times about his larger Ring hath run,
Iehoiada, her husband, brings him forth
To the chief Captains and the Men of worth;
Saying: Behould, O Chiefs of Iuda, see,
See heer your Prince, great Davids Progeny,
Your rightfull King: if mee you credit light,
Beleeve this Face, his Fathers Picture right;
Beleeve these Priests, which saw him from the first,
Brought to my House, there bred, and fed, and nuç't.
In so iust Quarrell, holy Men-at-arms,
Imploy (I pray) your anger and your Arms:
Plant, in the Royall Plot, this Royall Bud:
Venge Obed's blood on strangers guilty blood:
Shake-off, with shouts, with Fire and Sword together,
This Womans Yoak, this Furie's Bondage, rather.

Then shout the People with a common cry,
Long live King Ioash; long, and happily:

Ioash.

God save the King: God save the noble seed
Of our true King and ay may They succeed.

This news now bruited in the wanton Court,
Quickly the Queen coms in a braving sort
Towards the Troop; and spying there anon
The sweet yong Prince set on a Royall Throne,
With Peers attending him on either hand,
And strongly guarded by a gallant Band;
Ah! Treason, Treason, then shee cries aloud:
False Ioyada, disloyall Priest, and proud,
Thou shalt abie it: O thou House profane!
I'll lay thee levell with the ground again:
And thou, yong Princox, Puppet as thou art,
Shalt play no longer thy proud Kingling's Part
Vpon so rich a stage: but, quickly stript,
With wyery Rods thou shalt to death bee whipt;
And so, go see thy Brethren, which in Hell
Will welcom thee, that badst not them Farwell.

But, suddenly the Guard laies hold on her,
And drags her forth, as't were a furious Cur,
Out of the sacred Temple; and, with scorn,
Her wretched corps is mangled, tugg'd and torn.

Th'High-Priest, inspired with a holy zeal,
In a new League authentikly doth seal
Th'obedient People to their bountious Prince;
And both, to God; by ioint Obedience.

Now, as a Bear-whelp, taken from the Dam,

Simile.

Is in a while made gentle, meek and tame
By witty vsage; but, if once it hap
Hee get som Grove, or thorny Mountains top,

504

Then plaies hee Rex; tears, kils, and all consumes,
And soon again his savage kinde assumes:
So Ioash, while good Ioyada survives,
For Piety with holy David strives;
But hee once dead, walking his Fathers waies,
(Ingrately-false) his Tutors

Zachariah.

son hee slaies.
Him therefore shortly his owne servants slay:
His Son, soon after, doth them like repay:
His People, him again: then, Amaziah
Vzziah fellows, Ioatham Vzziah.

Simile.

As one same ground indifferently doth breed
Both food-fit Wheat and dizzy Darnell seed;
Baen-baening

Artemisia.

Mug-wort, and cold Hemlock too;
The fragrant Rose, and the strong-senting Rue:
So, from the Noblest Houses oft there springs
Som monstrous Princes, and som vertuous Kings;
And all-fore-seeing God in the same Line
Doth oft the god-less with the godly twine,
The more to grace his Saints, and to disgrace
Tyrants the more, by their owne proper Race.

Ahaz, betwixt his Son and Ioathan
(Hee bad, they good) seems a swart Mauritan
Betwixt two Adons: Ezekiah, plaç't
Between his Father and his Son, is graç't
(Hee good they bad) as 'twixt two Thorns, a Rose;

Ezekiah.

Whereby his Vertue the more vertuous showes.
For, in this Prince, great David, the divine,
Devout, iust, valiant, seems again to shine.
And, as wee see from out the severall Seat

Simile.

Of th'Asian Princes, self-surnamed Great
(As the great Cham, great Turk, great Russian,
And if less Great, more glorious Persian)
Araxis, Chesel, Volga and many moe
Renowned Rivers, Brooks, and Floods, doo flowe,
Falling at once into the Caspian Lake,
With all their streams his streams so proud to make:

The true patern of an excellent Prince.

So, all the Vertues of the most and best
Of Patriarchs, meet in this Princes brest:
Pure in Religion, Wise in Counselling,
Stout in Exploiting, Iust in Governing;
Vn-puft in Sun-shine, vn-appall'd in Storms
(Not, as not feeling, but not fearing Harms)
And therefore bravely hee repels the rage
Of proudest Tyrants (living in his Age)
And (ay vn-danted) in his Gods behalf
Hazards at once his Scepter and himself.

For, though (for Neighbours) round about him raign
Idolaters (that would him gladly gain):

505

Though Godlings, heer of wood, and there of stone,
A Brazen heer, and there a Golden one,
With Lamps and Tapers, even as bright as Day,
On every side would draw his minde astray:
Though Assur's Prince had with his Legions fell
Forrag'd Samaria, and in Israel
Quencht the small Faith that was; and vtterly
Dragg'd the Ten Tribes into Captivity,
So far, that even the tallest Cedar-Tree
In Libanon they never since could see:
Yet, Ezechiah serues not Time; nor Fears

His Constancy in the seruice of God, & zealous Reformation of all Abuses in the same.

The Tyrants fury: nether roars with Bears,
Nor howls with Wolues, nor ever turns away:
But, godly-wise, well-knowing, that Delay
Giues leave to Ill; and Danger still doth wait
On lingering, in Matters of such waight;
He first of all sets-vp th'Almightie's Throne:
And vnder that, then he erects his owne.
Th'establishing of Gods pure Law again,
Is as the Preface of his happy Raign:
The Temple purg'd, th'High-places down he pashes,
Fells th'hallowed Groves, burns th'Iol-gods to ashes,
Which his owne Father serv'd; and, Zeal-full, brake
The Brazen Serpent, Moses yerst did make.

For, though it were a very Type of Christ,
Though first it were by th'Holy-Gost devis'd,
And not by Man (whose bold blinde Fancie's pride
Deforms God's Service, strayes on either side,
Flatters it self in his Inventions vain,
Presumes to school the Sacred Spirit again,
Controules the Word, and (in a word) is hot
In his owne fashion to serue God, or not)
Though the Prescript of Ancient vse defend it,
Though Multitude, though Miracles commend it
(True Miracles, approved in conclusion,
Without all guile of Mens or Fiends illusion)
The King yet spares not to destroy the same,
When to occasion of Offence it came;
But, for th'Abuse of a fond Peoples will,
Takes that away which was not selfly ill:
Much less permits he (thorough all his Land)
One rag, one relique, or one signe to stand
Of Idolism, or idle superstition
Blindely brought-in, without the Word's Commission.

This zealous Hate of all Abhomination,
This royall Work of thorough-Reformation,
This worthy Action wants not Recompense:
God, who his grace by measure doth dispense,

506

Who honours them that truely honour him,
To Ezechiah not so much doth seem
His sure Defence, and his Confederate:
His Quarrel's His, He hates whom him do hate,
His Fame He bears about (both far and nigh)
On the wide wings of Immortality:
To Gath He guideth his victorious Troup,
He makes proud Gaza to his Standards stoup,
Strong Ascalon he razeth to the ground:
And punishing a People wholly drownd
In Idolism, and all rebellious Sins,
Adds to his Land the Land of Philistins.
Yea, furthermore, 'tis He that him withdraws
From out the bloudy and ambitious paws
Of a fell Tyrant, whose proud bounds extend
Past bounds for breadth, and for their length past end;
Whose swarms of Arms, insulting every-where,
Made All to quake (even at his name) for feare.

Already were the Cœlo-Syrian Towrs
All sackt, and seized by th'Assyrian Powrs:
And, of all Cities where th'Isasians raign'd,
Only the great Ierusalem remain'd;

Rayling Rabsakeh, in the name of his Master Zenacherib brauing & blaspheming against God and good king Ezekiah.

When Rabsakeh, with railing insolence,
Thus braues the Hebrewes and vpbraids their Prince
(Weening, them all with vaunt-full Threats to snib)
Thus saith th'almighty, great Zenacherib:
O Salem's Kingling, wherefore art thou shut
In these weake walls? is thine affiance put
In th'ayd of Egypt? O deceitfull prop!
O feeble stay! O hollow-grounded hope!
Egypt's a staff of Reed; which, broken soon,
Runs through the hand of him that leans ther-on.
Perhaps thou trustest in the Lord thy God:
What! whom so bold thou hast abus'd so broad,
Whom to his face thou daily hast defi'd,
Depriv'd of Altars, robd on euery side
Of his High Places, hallowed Groves, and all
(Where yerst thy Fathers wont on him to call)
Whom (to conclude) thou hast exiled quite
From every place, and with profane despight
(As if condemned to perpetuall dark)
Keepst him close-Prisoner in a certain Ark?
Will He (can He) take Sion's part and Thine;
And with his Foes will He vniustly ioyn?
No (wretched) knowe, I haue His Warrant too
(Express Commission) what I haue to doo:
I am the Scourge of God: 'tis vain to stand
Against the powr of my victorious hand:

507

I execute the counsails of the Lord:
I prosecute his Vengeance on th'abhorr'd
Profaners of his Temples: and, if He
Have any Powr, 'tis all conferr'd to me.
Yield therefore, Ezechia, yield; and waigh
Who I am; who Thou art: and by delay
Blowe not the Fire which shall consume thee quite,
And vtterly counfound the Israelite.

Alas! poor People, I lament your hap:
This lewd Impostor doth but puff you vp
With addle hope, and idle confidence
(In a delusion) of your God's Defence.
Which of the Gods, against my Powr could stand,
Or save their Citties from my mightier hand?
Where's Hamath's God? Where's Arpad's God becom?
Where Sephervaim's God? and where (in summ
Where are the Gods of Heva, and Ivah too?
Haue I not Conquer'd all? So will I doo
You and your God; and I will lead you all
Into Assyria, in perpetuall Thrall:
I'll haue your Manna, and your Aron's Rod,
I'll haue the Ark of your Almighty God,
All richly furnisht, and new furbisht o'r,
To hang among a hundred Tropheis more:
And your great God shall in the Roule be read
Among the Gods that I haue Conquered:
I'll haue it so, it must, it shall be thus,
And worse then so except you yeeld to vs.

Scarce had he done, when Ezechias, gor'd
With blasphemies so spewd against the Lord,
Hies to the Temple, tears his purple weed,
And fals to Prayer, as sure hold at need.

O King of All, but Ours, especially;
Ah! sleep'st thou Lord? What boots it, that thine ey

Prayer, The Refuge of the Godly:.

Pearceth to Hell, and even from Heaven beholds
The dumbest Thoughtes in our hearts in-most folds,
If thou percçeiv'st not this proud Chalenger.
Nor hearst the Barking of this foul-mouth'd Cur?
Not against vs so much his Threats are meant,
As against Thee: his Blasphemies are bent
Against Thy Greatnes; whom he (proudly-rude)
Yoaks with the Godlings which he hath subdew'd.
Tis true indeed hee is a mighty Prince,
Whose numbrous Arms, with furious insolence,
Haue ouer-born as many as with-stood,
Made many a Province even to swim in blood,
Burnt many a Temple; and (insatiate still)
Of neighbour Gods haue wholly had their will.

508

But, O! What Gods are those? Gods void of Beeing
(Saue, by their hands that serue them) Gods vn-seeing,
New, vp-start Gods, of yester-dayes device;
To Men indebted, for their Deities:
Gods made with hands, Gods without life, or breath;
Gods, which the Rust, Fire, Hammer conquereth.

But, thou art Lord, th'invincible alone,
Th'All-seeing God, the Everlasting One:
And, whoso dares him 'gainst thy Powr oppose,
Seems as a Puff which roaring Boreas blowes,
Weening to tear the Alps off at the Foot,
Or Clowds-prop Athos from his massie Root:
Who but mis-speaks of thee, he spets at Heav'n,
And his owne spettle in his face is driven.

Lord shew thee such: take on thee the Defence
Of thine owne glory, and our innocence:
Cleer thine owne name, of blame: let him not thus
Tryumph of Thee, in tryumphing of vs:
But, let ther (Lord) vnto thy Church appear
Iust Cause of Ioy, and to thy Foes of fear.

Miraculous slaughter of the Assyrianst.

God hears his Cry, and (from th'Empyreal Round)
He wrathfull sends a winged Champion down;
Who, richly arm'd in more than humane Arms,
Moawes in one night of Heathen men at Arms
Thrice-three-score thousand, and five thousand more,
Feld round about; beside, behinde, before.

Simile.

Heer, his two eyes, which Sun-like brightly turn,
Two armed Squadrons in a moment burn:
Not much vnlike vnto a fire in stubble,
Which, sodain spreading, still the flame doth double,
And with quick succour of som Southren blasts
Crick-crackling quickly all the Country wastes.

Heer the stiff Storm, that from his mouth he blowes,
Thousands of Souldiers each on other throwes:

Simile.

Even as a Winde, a Rock, a sodain Flood
Bears down the Trees in a side-hanging Wood;
Th'Yew over-turns the Pine, the Pine the Elm,
The Elm the Oak, th'Oak doth the Ash ore-whelm;
And from the top, down to the Vale belowe,
The Mount's dis-mantled and even shamed, so.

Heer, with a Sword (such as that sacred blade
For the bright Guard of Eden's entry made)
He hacks, he heaws; and somtimes with one blowe
A Regiment hee all at once doth mowe:

Simile.

And, as a Cannon's thundrie roaring Ball,
Battering one Turret shakes the next withall,
And oft in Armies (as by proof they finde)
Kils oldest Souldiers with his very winde:

509

The whiffing Flashes of this Sword so quick,
Strikes dead a many, which it did not strike.

Heer, with his hands he strangles all at-once
Legions of foes. O Arm that Kings dis-throans!
O Army-shaving Sword! Rock-razing Hands!
World-tossing Tempest! All-consuming Brands!
O, let som other (with more sacred fire,
Than I, inflam'd) into my Muse inspire
The wondrous manner of this Overthrowe,
The which (alas!) God knowes, I little knowe:
I but admire it in confused sort;
Conceiue I cannot; and, much less, report.

Come-on, Zenacherib: where's now thine Hoast?
Where are thy Champions? Thou didst lately boast,
Th'hadst in thy Camp as many Soldiers,
As Sea hath Fishes, or the Heav'ns haue Stars:
Now, th'art alone: and yet, not all alone;
Feare and Despaire, and Fury wait vpon
Thy shame-full Flight: but, bloody Butcher, stay:
Stay, noysom Plague, fly not so fast away,
Feare not Heav'ns Fauchin: that foul brest of thine
Shall not be honor'd with such wounds divine:
Nor shalt thou yet in timely bed decease;
No: Tyrants vse not to Depart in Peace:
As bloud they thirsted, they are drown'd in blood;
Their cruell Life a cruell Death makes good.

For (O iust Iudgement!) lo, thy Sons (yer-long)

Zenacherib slain by his owne sonnes.

At Nisroch's Shrine revenge the Hebrews wrong:
Yea, thine owne Sons (foul eggs of fouler Bird)
Kill their owne Father, sheath their either sword
In thine owne throat; and, heirs of all thy vices,
Mix thine owne blood among thy Sacrifices.

This Miracle is shortly seconded

Ezekiah's sicknesse.

By one as famous and as strange, indeed.
It pleas'd the Lord with heavy hand to smight
King Ezechiah; who in dolefull plight
Vpon his bed lies vexed grieuously,
Sick of an Vlcer past all remedy.
Art failes the Leach, and issue faileth Art,
Each of the Courtiers sadly wailes a-part
His losse and Lord: Death, in a mourn full sort,
Through euery Chamber daunteth all the Court;
And, in the City, seems in every Hall
T'haue light a Taper for his Funerall.

Then Amos

The Prophet Isaiah.

Son, his bed approaching, pours
From plentious lips these sweet and golden showrs;
But that I knowe, you knowe the Lawes Diuine,
But that your Faith so every-where doth shine,

510

But that your Courage so confirm'd I see;

A comfortable Visitation of the sicke.

I should, my Liege, I should not speake so free:
I would not tell you, that incontinent
You must prepare to make your Testament:
That your Disease shall haue the vpper hand:
And Death already at your Door doth stand.

What? fears my Lord? Knowe you not heer beneath
We alwayes sayl towards the Port of Death;
Where, who first anch'reth, first is glorified?
That 't is Decreed, confirm'd, and ratified,
That (of necessity) the fatall Cup,
Once, all of vs must (in our turn) drink vp?
That Death's no pain, but of all pains the end,
The Gate of Heav'n, and Ladder to ascend?
That Death's the death of all our storms and strife,
And sweet beginning of immortall Life?
For, by one death a thousand death's we slay:
There-by, we rise from body-Toomb of Clay.
There-by, our Soules feast with celestiall food,
There-by, we com to th'heav'nly Brother-hood,
There-by, w'are chang'd to Angels of the Light,
And, face to face, behould Gods beauties bright.

The Prophet ceast: and soon th'Isaacian Prince,
Deep apprehending Death's drad form and sense,
Vnto the Wall-ward turns his weeping eyes:
And, sorow-torn, thus (to himself) he cries:

A Prayer for a sick person, mutatis mutandis.

Lord, I appeal, Lord (as thine humble childe)
From thy iust Iustice to thy Mercy milde:
Why will thy strength destroy a silly-one,
Weakned and wasted even to skin and bone;
One that adores thee with sincere affection,
The wrack of Idols, and the Saints protection?
O! shall the Good thy servant had begun
For Sion, rest now by his death vndon?
O! shall a Pagan After-king restore
The Groues and Idols I haue raz'd before?
Shall I dye Childeless? Shall thine Heritage
In vain exspect that glorious golden Age
Vnder thy Christ? O! mercy, mercy, Lord:
O Father milde, to thy dear Childe accord
Som space of life: O! let not, Lord, the voice
Of Infidels at my poor death reioyce.

The Kings praier heard, and his life prolonged 15 years.

Then said the Seer; Be of geed cheer, my Liege:
Thy sighes and tears and prayers so besiege
The throne of Pitty, that, as pearç't with-all,
Thy smiling Health God yieldeth to re-call,
Wills, to his Temple (three dayes hence) thou mount,
Retracts his Sentence, and corrects his count,

511

Makes Death go back, for fifteen yeers: as lo,
This Dial's shadow shal heer back-ward go.

His Word's confirm'd with wonderfull Effect:

The Sun goes backe.

For, lo, the Dial, which doth houres direct
(Life's-guider, Daye's-divider, Sun's-Consorter,
Shadow's dull shifter, and Time's dumb Reporter)
Puts-vp-again his passed Hours (perforce)
And back-ward goes against his wonted course.
'Tis Noon at Mid-night; and a triple Morn
Seems that long day to brandish and adorn:
Sol goes, and coms; and, yer that in the Deep
Of Atlas shade he lay him down to sleep,
His bright, Light-winged, Gold-shod wheels do cut
Three times together in the self-same rut.

Lord! what are We! or, what is our deseruing!
That, to confirm our Faith (so prone to swarving)
Thou daign'st to shake Heav'ns solid Orbs so bright;
Th'Order of Nature to dis-order quight?
To make the Sun's Teem with a swift slowe pase,
Back, back to trot; and not their wonted Race?
That, to dispell the Night so blindely-black,
Which siels our Soules, thou mak'st the shade go back
On Ahaz Dial? And, as Self-vn-stable,
Seem'st to revoke thine Acts irrevocable,
Raze thine owne Dooms (tost in vn-steddy storm)
And, to reforme vs, thine owne speech reform;
To giue thy Self the Ly: and (in a Word)
As Self-blam'd, softly to put-vp thy Sword?

Thrice-glorious God! thrice great! thrice-gratious!
Heer-in (O Lord) thou seem'st to deal with vs,

Simile.

As a wise Father, who with tender hand
Severely shaking the correcting Wand,
With voice and gesture seems his Son to threat:
Whom yet indeed he doth not mean to beat;
But, by this curb of fained Rigor, aims
To aw his Son: and so him oft reclaims.

This Prince no sooner home to Heav'n returns,
But Israël back to his vomit turns;
Him re-bemires: and, like a head-strong Colt,
Runs headlong down into a strange Revolt.
And, though Iosias, Heav'n-deer Prince (who yong
Coms wisely-olde, to liue the older long)
Had re-aduanc't the sacred Lawes divine,
Propt Sion's Wall (all ready to decline)
With his owne back; and, in his happy Raign,
The Truth re-flowr'n, as in her Prime again:
Yet Iacob's Heirs striue to resemble still
A stiff-throw'n Bowl, which running down a Hill,

Simile.

512

Meets in the way som stub, for rub, that stops
The speed a space; but instantly it hops,
It ouer-iumps; and stayes not, though it stumble,
Till to the bottom vp-side-down it tumble.

Nebuchadnezzar besiegeth Ierusalem.

With puissant Hoast proud Nebuchadnezzar
Now threatned Iuda with the worst of War:
His Camp coms marching to Ierusalem,
And her olde Walls in a new Wall doth hem.
The busie Builders of this newer Fold,
In one hand, Swords, in th'other Trowels hold,
Nor selder strikes with blades than hammers there;
With firmer foot the Sieged's shock to beare,
Who seem a swarm of Hornets buzzing out
Among their Foes, and humming round about
To spet their spight against their Enemies,
With poysorsie Darts, in noses, brows and eyes.

Cold Capricorn hath pav'd all Iuda twice
With brittle plates of crystal-crusted Ice,
Twice glased Iordan; and the Sappy-blood
Of Trees hath twice re-perriwigd the Wood,
Since the first Siege: What? sayd the yonger sort,
Shall we growe old, about a feeble Fort?
Shall we (not Martial, but more Maçon-skild)
Shall we not batter Towrs, but rather build?
And while the Hebrew in his sumptuous Chamber
Disports himself, perfum'd with Nard and Amber,
Shall We, swelting for Heat, shivering for Cold,
Heer, far from home, lie in a stinking Hold?
Shall time destroy vs? shall our proper sloath
Annoy vs more than th'Hebrews valour doth?
No, no, my Lord: let not our Fervour fault,
Through length of Siege; but let vs to th'Assault.
Let's win 't and wear it: tut (Sir) nothing is
Impossible to Chaldean courages.

Contented, said the King: braue Blouds away,
Goe seek Renown, 'mid wounds and death, to-day.

Now, in their breasts, braue Honor's Thirst began:

Nabuzaradan.

Me thinks, I see stout Nabuzaradan
Already trooping the most resolute
Of every Band, this plot to prosecute.
Each hath his Ladder; and, the Town to take,
Bears to the Wall his Way vpon his back:
But, the braue Prince cleaves quicker then the rest
His slender Firr-poles, as more prowes-full prest.

Alike they mount, affronting Death together;
But, not alike in face, nor fortune neither:

A Scalado.

This Ladder, slippery plaç't, doth slide from vnder:
That, over-sloap, snaps in the midst asunder;

513

And soldiers, falling, one another kill
(As with his weight, a hollow Rocky-Hill,

Simile.

Torn with some Torrent, or Tempestuous windes,
Shivers it self on stones it vnder-grindes):
Som, rashly climb'd (not wont to climb so high)
With giddy brains, swim headlong down the Sky:
Som, over-whelmd vnder a Mill-stone-storm,
Lose, with their life, their living bodies form.

Yet mounts the Captain, and his spacious Targe
Bears-off a Mountain and a Forest large
Of Stones and Darts, that fly about his ears;
His teeth do gnash, he threats, he sweats, and swears:
As steady there, as on the ground, he goes;
And there, though weary, he affronts his Foes,
Alone; and halfly-hanging in the ayr,
Against whole Squadrons standing firmly fair:
Vpright he rears him, and his Helmet braue
(Where, not a Plume, but a huge Tree doth wave)
Reflecting bright, above the Paripet,
Affrights th'whole Citty with the shade of it.
Then as half Victor, and about to venter
Over the Wall, and ready even to enter;
With his bright Gantlet's scaly fingers bent
Grasping the coping of the battlement,
His hold doth fail, the stones, vn-fastned, fall
Down in the Ditch, and (headlong) he with-all:
Yet, he escapes, and getts again to shoar;
Thanks to his strength: but, to his courage more.

Now heer (me thinks) I hear proud Nergal raue:

Nergal.

In War (quoth he) Master or Match to haue,
By Mars I scorn; ye, Mars himself in Arms;
And all the Gods, with all their brauing Storms.
O wrathfull Heav'ns, roar, lighten, thunder threat;
Gods, do your worst; with all your batteries beat:
If I begin, in spight of all your powrs
I'll scale your Walls, I'll take your Crystall Towrs.
Thus spewd the Curr; and (as he spake withal
Climbs-vp the steepest of a dreadfull Wall,
With his bare-feet on roughest places sprawling,
With hook-crookt hands vpon the smoothest crawling.

As a fell Serpent, which som Shepheard-lad

Simile.

On a steep Rock incounters gladly-sad,
Turning and winding nimbly to and fro,
With wriggling pase doth still approach his Foe,
And with a Hiss, a Frisk, and flashing ey,
Makes sodainly his faint Assailer fly:
Even so the Duke, with his fierce countenance,
His thundring-voice, his helms bright radiance,

514

Drives Pashur from the Walls and Iucal too
(A iolly Prater, but a Iade to doo;
Brauer in Counsail then in Combat, far)
With Sephatiah, tinder of this War;
And Malchy, he that doth in Prison keep
Vnder the ground (a hundred cubits deep)
Good Ieremie, an instrument, alone
Inspir'd with breath of th'ever-living One.

Let's fly, cries Pashur: fly this Infidell,
Rather this Fiend, the which no waight can fell.
What force can front, or who incounter can
An armed Faulcon, or a flying Man?

While Nergal speeds his Victory too-fast,
His hooks dis-pointed disappoint his haste;
Prevent him, not of praise, but of the Prize
Which (out of doubt) he did his owne surmize.
He swears end tears: (what should? what could he more)?
He cannot vp, nor will he down, therefore.
Vnfortunate! and vainly-valiant!

Simile.

He's fain to stand like the Funambulant
Who seems to tread the air, and fall he must,
Save his Self's waight him counter-poyseth iust;
And saue the Lead, that in each hand he bears,
Doth make him light: the gaping Vulgar fears,
Amaz'd to see him; weening nothing stranger
Than Art to master Nature, lucre danger.
At last, though loath (full of despight and rage)
He slideth down into a horrid hedge,
Cursing and banning all the Gods; more mad
For the disgrace, than for the hurt he had.

Mines & Coūtermines.

Els-where the while (as imitating right
The Kinde-blinde Beast, in russet Velvet dight)
Covertly marching in the Dark by day,
Samgarnebo seeks vnder ground his way.
But Ebedmelech, warn'd of his Designes,
With-in the Town against him counter-mines
Courageously, and still proceedeth on,
Till (resolute) he bring both Works to one;
Till one strict Berrie, till one winding Cave
Becom the Fight-Field of two Armies brave.

As the selfe-swelling Badgerd, at the bay

Simile.

With boldest Hounds (inured to that Fray)
First at the entry of his Burrow fights,
Then in his Earth; and either other bites:
The eager Dogs are cheer'd with claps and cryes:
The angry Beast to his best chamber flies,
And (angled there) sits grimly inter-gerning;
And all the Earth rings with the Terryes yearning:

515

So fare these Miners; whom I pitty must,
That their bright Valour should so darkly ioust.

While hotly thus they skirmish in the Vault,
Quick Ebedmelech closely hither brought
A Dry-Fat, sheath'd in latton plates with-out,
With-in with Feathers fill'd, and round about
Bor'd full of holes (with hollow pipes of brass)
Save at one end, where nothing out should pass;
Which (having first his Iewish Troops retir'd;
Iust in the mouth of th'enter-Mine he fir'd:
The smoak whereof with odious stink doth make
The Pagans soon their hollow Fort forsake:
As from the Berries in the Winter's night
The Keeper drawes his Ferret (flesht to bite).

Simile.

Now Rabshakeh (as busie) other-where
A rowling Towr against the Town doth rear,
And on the top (or highest stage) of it
A flying Bridge, to reach the Courtin fit,
With pullies, poles; and planked Battlements
On every story, for his Men's defence.
On th'other side, the Towns-men are not slowe
With counter-plots to counter-push their Foe:
Now, at the wooden side, then at the front,
Then at the Engins of the Persian Mount,
With Brakes and Slings, and

Instruments of Warr wherin wild fire is put.

Phalariks they play,
To fire their Fortress and their Men to slay:
But yet, a Cord-Mat (stifly stretcht about)
Defends the Towr, and keeps their Tempests out.

While thus they deale; Sephtiah, desperat,
Him secretly out of the Citty gat,
And with a Pole of rozen-weeping Fir,
So furiously he doth himself bestir,
That with the same the walking Fort he fires:
The cruel flame so to the top aspires,
That (maugre Blood, shed from aboue in slaughter,
And, from belowe, continuall spouting Water)
It parts the Fray: stage after stage it catches,
And th'half-broyld Soldiers headlong down it fetches.

The King (still constant against all extreames)
To press them neerer yet, with mighty beams
Rears a new Plat-form, neerer to the Wall,
And couers it, with three-fold shelter, all;
The Timber (first) with Mud, the Mud with Hides,
The Hides with Woll-sacks (which all Shot derides).
As th'Aier exhaled by the fiery breath

Simile.

Of th'Heav'nly Lion, on an open Heath,
Or on the tresses of a tufted Plain,
Pours-down at-once both Fier and Hail and Rain:

516

So all at once the Isaacian Soldiers threw
Floods, Flames and Mountains on these Engines new:
But th'hungry Flames the Muddy-damp repels;
The Mounts, the Wooll; the drowning Floods, the Fels.

There-vnder (safe) the Ram with iron horn,
The brazen-headed clov'n-foot Capricorn,
The boisterous Trepane, and steel Pick-ax play
Their parts apace, not idle night nor day.
Heer, thorough-riv'n from top to toe, the Wall
On reeling props hangs ready ev'n to fall:
There, a vast-Engine thundereth vpside-down
The feeble Courtin of the sacred Town.

Simile.

If you haue been, where, you haue seen som-whiles,
How with the Ram they driue-in mighty Piles
In Dover Peer, to bridle with a Bay
The Sand-cast Current of the raging Sea;
Swift-ebbing streams bear to the Sea the sownd,
Eccho assisteth, and with shrill rebound
Fils all the Town, and (as at Heav'nly Thunder)
The Coast about trembles for fear and wonder;
Then haue you heard and seen the Engins beating
On Sion's Walls, and her foundations threatning.

In fine, the Chaldeis take Ierusalem,
And reave for ever Iuries Diadem.
The smoaky burning of her Turrets steep
Seems even to make the Sunn's bright ey to weep:
And wretched Salem, buried (as it were)
Vnder a heap of her owne Children dear,
For lack of Friends to keep her Obsequies,
Constraineth sighs (even) from her Enemies:
Her massie Ruins and her Cinders showe
Her Wealth and Greatnes yer her overthrowe.
A sodain horror seizeth every eye
That views the same: and every Passer-by
(Yea, were he Gete, or Turk, or Troglodite)
Must needs, for pitty of so sad a Sight,
Bestowe som tears, som swelling sighs, or grones
Vpon these batter'd sculs, these scatter'd stones.
In Palaces, where lately (gilded rich)
Sweet Lutes were heard, now luck-less Oules doo screech:
The sacred Temple, held (of late) alone
Wonder of Wonders, now a heap of stone:
The House of God (the Holiest-Holy-Place)
Is now the House of Vermin vile and base:
The Vessels, destin'd vnto sacred vse,
Are now profan'd in Riot and Abuse:
None scapeth wounds, if any scape with life:
The Father's reft of Son, the Man of Wife:

517

Iacob's exil'd, Iuda's no more in Iury,
But (wretched) sighes vnder the Caldean fury.

Their King in chains, with shame and sorrow thrill'd;

Hoshea.

Before his face sees all the fairest pill'd;
Yea, his owne Daughters, and his Wives (alas!)
(Rich Vines and Oliues of his lawfull Race)
Whose loue and beauty did his age delight,
Shar'd to the Souldiers, rauisht in his sight.

O, Father, Father, thus the Daughters cry
(About his neck still hanging tenderly)
Whither (alas!) O, whither hale they vs?
O, must we serue their base and beastly Lusts?
Shall they dissolue our Virgin-zones? Shall they
(Ignoble Grooms) gather our Mayden-May,
Our spot-less Flowr, so carefully preserv'd
For som great Prince, that mought haue vs deseru'd?
O Hony-dropping Hills we yerst frequented,
O Milk-full Vales, with hundred Brooks indented,
Delicious Gardens of deer Israel;
Hills, Gardens, Vales, we bid you all fare-well:
We (will-we-nill-we) hurried hence, as slaues,
Must now, for Cedron, sip of Tygris waues;
And (weaned from our natiue Earth and Air)
For Hackney-Iades be sould in every Fayr;
And (O hearts horror!) see the shame-less Foe
Forcing our Honours, triumph in our woe.

All-sundring Sword! and (O!) all-cindring Fire!
Which (mercy-less) do Sion's Wrack conspire,
Why spare you vs, more cruell (cry'd the Wives)
In leaving ours, then reaving other's lives?
Your Pitie's pity-less, your Pardon Torture:
For, quick dispatch had made our Sorrows shorter;
But your seem-Favour, that prolongs our breath,
Makes vs, aliue, to die a thousand Deaths.
For, O deer Husband, deerest Lord, can we,
Can we survive, absented quite from Thee,
And slaues to those whose Talk is nothing els
But thy Disgrace, thy Gyves, and Israels?
Can we (alas!) exchange thy Royall bed
(With cunning-cost rare-richly furnished)
For th'vgly Cabbin and the louzie Couch
Of som base Buffon, or som beastly Slouch?
Can we, alas! can wretched we (I say)
We, whose Commands whole Kingdoms did obay,
We, at whose beck even Princes knees did bend,
We, on whose Train there dayly did attend
Hundreds of Eunuchs, and of Maids of Honour
(Kneeling about vs in the humblest manner)

518

To dress vs neat, and duly every Morn
In Silk and Gold our Bodies to adorn;
Dress others now? work, on disgrace-full frame
(Weeping the while) our Sion's wo-full flame?
Dragging like Moyls? drudge in their Mills? and hold,
Brooms in our hands, for Sceptre-Rods of gold?

Com, Parrats, com, y'haue prated, now enough
(The Pagans cry in their insulting ruff)
On Chalde shoars you shal go sigh your fill,
You must with vs to Babel: there at will
You may bewail: there, this shall be your plight,
Our Mayds by day, our Bed-fellows by night.
And, as they spake, the shame-less lust-full crew
With furious force the tender Ladies drew
Even from between th'arms of the woefull King,
Them haling rough, and rudely hurrying;
And little lackt the act of most despight,
Ev'n in their Father's and their Husbands sight,
Who, his hard Fortune doth in vaine accuse,
In vain he raves, in vain he roars and rews:
Even as a Lion, prisoned in his grate,
Whose ready dinner is bereft of late,
Roars hideously; but his fell Fury-storm
May well breed horror, but it brings no harm.

The proud fell Pagans doo yet farther pass:
They kill, they tear, before the Father's face
(The more to gore: what Marble but would bleed?)
They massacre his miserable seed.

O! said the Prince, can you less pitious be
To these Self-yeelders (prostrate at your knee)
Than sternly-valiant to the stubborn-stout
That 'gainst your rage courageously stood-out?
Alas! what haue they don? what could they doo
To vrge reuenge and kindle wrath in you?
Poore silly Babes vnder the Nources wing,
Haue they conspir'd against the Chaldean King?
Haue these sweet Infants, that yet cannot speak,
Broak faith with you? Haue these, so yong and weak,
Yet in their Cradle, in their Clouts, bewayling
Their Woes to-com (to all Man-kinde, vnfayling)
Dis-ray'd your Ranks? Haue these that yet doo craul
Vpon all fowre, and cannot stand, at all,
With-stood your Fury, and repulst your Powrs,
Frust'red your Rams, fiered your flying Towrs?
And, bravely sallying in your face (almost)
Hew'n-out their passage thorough all your Hoast?

O! no Chaldeans, only I did all:
I did complot the King of Babels fall:

519

I foyld your Troups: I filld your sacred Flood
With Caldean bodies, dy'd it with your blood.
Turn therfore, turn your bloody Blades on-me;
O! let these harm-less Little-ones goe free;
And stain not with the Blood of Innocents
Th'immortall Tropheis of your high Attents.
So, ever may the Riphean Mountains quake
Vnder your feet: so ever may you make
South, East, and West your owne: on every Coast
So, ay victorious march your glorious Hoast:
So, to your Wiues be you thrice welcom home,
And so God bless your lawfull-loved womb
With Self-like Babes, your substance with increase,
Your selues (at home) with hoary haires in Peace.

But as a Rock, against which the Heav'ns do thunder,

Simile.

Th'Aire roars about, the Ocean rageth vnder,
Yields not a iot: no more this savage Crew;
But rather, muse to find-out Tortures new.
Heer, in (his sight) these cruell Lestrigons
Between them take the eldest of his Sons,
With keenest swords his trembling flesh they heaw,
One gobbet heer, another there they streaw.
And from the veins of dead-lyve limbs, alas!)
The spirit-full blood spins in his Fathers's face.
There, by the heels his second Son they take,
And dash his head against a Chimnies back;
The scull is pasht in peeces, like a Crock,
Or earthen Stean, against a stony Rock:
The scatterd batterd Brains about besmeard,
Som hang (O horror!) in the Fathers beard.
Last on himselfe their savage fury flyes,
And with sharp bodkins bore they out his eyes:
The Sun he loses, and an end-less night
Beclowds for euer his twin-balled sight:
He sees no more, but feels the woes he bears;
And now for crystall, weeps he crimsin tears,
For, so God would (and iustly too, no doubt)
That he which had in Iuda clean put-out
Th'immortall Lamp of all religious light,
Should have his eyes put-out, should lose his sight;
And that his body should be outward blinde,
As inwardly (in holy things) his minde.

O Butchers (said he) satiat your Thirst,
Swill, swill your fill of Blood, vntill you burst:
O! broach me not with bodkin, but with knife;
O! reaue me not my bodie's light, but life:
Giue me the sight not of the Earth, but Skies:
Pull-out my heart: O! poach not out mine eyes.

520

Why did you not this barbarous deed dispatch,
Yet I had seen me an vnsceptred Wretch,
My Citties sackt, my wealthy subiects pild,
My Daughters rauisht, and my Sonns all kild?
Or else, why stayd you not till I had seen
Your (Beast-like) Master grazing on the Green:
The Medes conspiring to supplant your Throne:
And Babel's glory vtter ouerthrowne?
Then had my soule with Fellow-Falls bin eas'd:
And then your pain, my pain had part appeas'd.

O ragefull Tyrants! moody Monsters, see,
See heer my Case; and see your selues in me.
Beware Contempt: tempt not the Heav'nly Powrs,
Who thunder-down the high-aspiring Towrs
(But mildely pardon, and permit secure
Poor Cottages that lie belowe obscure)
Who Pride abhor; who lift vs vp so high,
To let vs fall with greater infamy.
Th'Almighty sports him with our Crowns and vs;
Our glorie stands so fickle-founded thus
On slippery wheels, alreadie rowling down:
He gives vs not, but only shewes the Crown:
Our Wealth, our Pleasure, and our Honour too
(Whereat the Vulgar make so much a-doo)
Our Pomp, our State, our All that can be spoken,
Seems as a glass, bright-shining, but soon broken.

Thrice-happy He, whom with his sacred arm,
Th'Eternall props against all Haps of Harm;
Who hangs vpon his prouidence alone,
And more preferrs God's Kingdom than his owne.

So happy be great BRITANNE Kings (I pray)
Our Soueraigne Iames, and all his Seed for ay;
Our hope-full Henry, and a hundred me
Good, faithfull Stvarts (in successiue rowe)
Religious, righteous, learned, valiant, wise,
Sincere to Vertue, and seuere to Vice;
That not alone These dayes of Ours may shine
In Zeal-full Knowledge of the Trvth divine,
And We (illightned with her sacred rayes)
May walk directly in the Saving wayes
Of faith-full Seruice to the One true Deitie,
And mutuall Practice of all Christian Pietie;
But, that our Nephews, and their Nephews (till
Time be no more) may be conducted still
By the same Cloud by day, and Fire by night
(Through this vast Desart of the World's despight)
Towards their Home, the heav'nly Canaan,
Prepared for vs yer the World began:

521

That they with vs, and we (complete) with them,
May meet triumphant in Iervsalem;
With-in whose Pearly Gates and Iasper Walls
(Where, th'Holy Lamb keeps his high Nuptialls,
Where needs no shining of the Sunn or Moon;
For, God's owne face makes there perpetuall Noon:
Where shall no more be Waylings, Woes, nor Cryes;
For, God shall wipe all tears from weeping eyes)
Shall enter nothing filthy or vnclean;
No Hog, no Dog no Sodomit obscœne,
No Witch no Wanton, no Idolater,
No Theef, no Drunkeard, no Adulterer,
No Wicked-liuer, neither wilfull Lyer:
These are without, in Tophet's end-less Fier.

Yet such as these (or som of these, at least)
We all haue been: in som-what all haue mist
(And, had we broken but one Precept sole,
The Law reputes vs guilty of the whole):
But, we are washed, in the Sacred-Flood;
But, we are purged, with the Sprinkled-Blood;
But, by the Spirit, we now are sanctify'd;
And, through the Faith in Iesvs, iustify'd.
Therefore no more let vs our selues defile,
No more return vnto our Vomit vile,
No more profane vs with Concupiscence,
Nor spot the garment of our Innocence:
But, constant in our Hope, feruent in Love
(As even al-ready conuersant Aboue)
Proceed we cheerely in our Pilgrimage
Towards our happy promis'd Hæritage,
Towards That Citty of heart-bound-less Bliss
Which Christ hath purchast with his Blood, for His:
To whom, with Father, and the Spirit, therefore
Be Glory, Praise, and Thanks for-evermore.

Amen Amen Amen.

FINIS.

Pibrac. Quad. 5.

Say not, My hand This Work to END hath brought:
Nor, This my Vertue hath attayned to:
Say rather thus; This, GOD by me hath wrought:
GOD's Author of the little Good I doo.