KOSMOBREVIA[Greek], or the infancy of the world :: :: University of Virginia Library

KOSMOBREVIA[Greek], or the infancy of the world

With an Appendix of Gods resting day, Edon Garden; Mans Happiness before, Misery after, his Fall. Whereunto is added, The Praise of Nothing; Divine Ejaculations; The four Ages of the world; The Birth of Christ; Also a Century of Historical Applications; With a Taste of Poetical fictions. Written some years since by N. B.[i.e. Nicholas Billingsley] ... And now published at the request of his Friends

Billingsley, Nicholas (1633-1709)

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[dedication]

The Worlds Creation, sung by Mr. Nicholas Billingsly, at fifteen years of Age.

To my friend the Author of this Book cui Titulus est Κοσμοβρεφια

Εκ Διος αρχομεα προς γαρ Διος εσμεν απαντες Πταχοι ------

To my Son (in Law) upon his Poem.

To my deare Brother the Author of this Book called Κοσμοβρεφια.

To my good friend Mr. Nicholas Billingsly in Honor of this work, penned by him about the fifteenth yeare of his age.

To my friend the Author, on his Poem intituled Κοσμοβρεφια.

To his very loving friend, Mr. Nicholas Billingsly, on his acurate Poem.

In Amici sui meritisimi: Nicholas Billingsly amænam Κοσμοβθεφια Synopsin Carmen Encomiasticon, Januar. 16. 1657.

To the reverend, his much Honored Freind, Mr FRANCIS TAILOUR

The Praise of Nothing.

Divine Ejaculations.

The Birth of Christ.

A Hymne in Commemoration of the Gun-powder Treason.

GENETHLIACON,

The four Ages of the World.

Monumentum Exequiale

His Epitaph

In Equum quendam ætate consumptum haud veloci pede promoventem Hexasticon

[In Equum quendam ætate consumptum haud veloci pede promoventem Hexasticon]

An Acrostick Elegy upon the death of the late Reverend, and Famons Divine

On Ambition.

Annagramma FRANCIS ROVSE, Rise Car Of Svn.

A CENTURIE OF HISTORICAL APPLICATIONS, With a Taste of Poetical Fictions: Being the fruits of some spare Hours.

Collapse All | Expand All expand section

Basilius Seluciensis: Deus cùm res creatas in morem scalæ adaptaverit, per eas sui amantibus, ascensum ad se extruxit. Sermone primo.

Basilius Magnus: Deus fecit mundum: ut bonus, utilem: ut sapiens, pulcherimum: ut potens, maximum. Si hæc didicerimus, nos ipsos agnoscemus, Deum cognoscemus, conditorem adorabimus, Domino serviemus, patrem glorificabimus, nutricium diligemus, benefactorem reverebimur, authorem præsentis et futuræ v. tæ colere nunquam desinemus. In Hexametre.

Augustinus. Interrogavi molem mundi, dic mihi, esne tu deus meus? et respondit voce forti: Non sum Deus tuus, sed per ipsum ego sum: quem quæris in me, ipse fecit te et me, et cum quære supra te et supra me. In soliloquijs.

Pro. 16.4. The Lord hath made all things for himself.

Pro. 3. 19. The Lord by wisdome hath founded the Earth by understanding hath he established the Heavens.

Psal. 8, 1. O Lord our God, how excellent &c.

To the Right Honorable, Francis Rous, Esq; Provost of Eaton Coll. and one of the Council to his Highness the Lord Protector: N. B. wisheth encrease of grace, and peace, in Christ here; and everlasting glory hereafter.

The Worlds Creation, sung by Mr. Nicholas Billingsly, at fifteen years of Age.

Peace to Du Bartas Ghost: no murthers here,
Or should we touch our deare dead Sylvester
Would vocal bloud out murther murther cry,
With witnesses in gules, 'gainst Billingsly?
No, no great souls, your weeks all yeares out-run,
And like your world wait on Conflagration.
At first divinest love with brooding wings
Made warme the worlds great egg, in which all things
Like Atomes slept untill th'Eternal one
Old nothing wakened to perfection.
Since when some wits at Moses bush took light,
Enough to blind the dim eyd Stagyrite:
And by their numbers taught Philosophy;
How, when began the worlds Epiphanie.
Amongst the rest our friend not past fifteen,
Who from his girdle upward's, epicene;
Apollo-like, without a beard, nor can
His doubtful chin betray him to be man.
This Cockrel-muse betimes in his owne morn,
Hath clap'd his wings, and sung the World is born.

WP: Iacob. Φιλιατρος

To my friend the Author of this Book cui Titulus est Κοσμοβρεφια

Non sat erat legisse semel, bis terque libellum,
Ipse quater legi, lectus & usque iuvat.

Dull Panigericks are not worth a rush,
Good wine will sell without an Ivy bush;
A well compacted Poem will invite
Each Readers pallate, whet the appetite:
A comely feature needs no paint, and where
Bright Sol doth shine, we need no Tapers there.
Then take this Nothing naked as it is,
A Metaphisick, Hymne, or Genesis:
Du Bartus first, (let Bartas have his due)
Imparted to us what Sylvester knew.
My learned friend well mounted, ergo bolder,
Vpon Du Bartas and Sylvester's shoulder,
Did (Janus like) look backward and before
And saw as much as all the rest, or more:
Nay pregnant he, before his glass had run
Full fifteen winters, was the Muses Son;
Of nothing, he could something then indite,
To non-plus him that was the Stagyrite.
O cursed Heriticks! who dare to tell
A race of men, before the first man fell:
Read but this Book thou wilt beleeve as soon,
Phantastick world's created in the Moon.

Edvardus Browne Cantuar. Reg. Scho. Archi-didasc.

Januar. 1 5656.

Εκ Διος αρχομεα προς γαρ Διος εσμεν απαντες Πταχοι ------

God , the most great and mighty Architect,
Did all of nought, but his owne love, erect;
And by the pleasure of hir free goodwill,
With wonderous works the heaven and earth did fill
And on each creature in this Universe,
Did strange and sundry natural gifts disperse:
His boundless power, the dead from ground can raise
And out of Sucklings mouths doth perfect praise:
VVisedome he gives to men of elder yeares,
And it in very young ones oft appears:
VVitness the Author of this worthy Book,
VVho at his age of fifteen undertook
This his industrious and painful task,
Gods wonders great in nature to unmasque:
VVherein the reader may his soul delight
Of God himself in haveing some sweet sight:
VVhich should the heart to be set on him move,
For his great goodness, wisdome, power and love.

By R. Cr. Reg. Scho. Cantuar. Hipo didasc.

To my Son (in Law) upon his Poem.

A silly Ass for some disaster,
Reprov'd the madness of his Master:
And shall not I speak now in season,
Who am a man endued with reason;
Especially when God appears
So merciful to tender years;
In that he would his praise be sung
By one that was exceeding young;
To teach us how to bless his name,
Who all-things did of nothing frame:
My prayers shall still to God be sent,
To bless his little instrument.

Iohn Stodder.

To my deare Brother the Author of this Book called Κοσμοβρεφια.

VVhat write so well as this, and but fifteen?
How ripe art thou in wit? in years how green?
In the Aurora of thine age, betimes,
How expert art thou in composing Rhimes?
My Muse (alas!) scarce ever could aspire
To make a verse; Apollo and his Lyre
Are strangers to me; on the forked hill
I never slumbred; never bath'd my Quill
In Hipocrene: but haveing read thy Book
Of the Worlds birth, my Pen in hand I took,
And went to write, indeed, I could not chuse
But make a verse, inspired by thy Muse.
I well remember what a deal a doe
I made to fumble out a verse or two.
VVhen on Apollo, and the triple Trine,
I only did reply for Discipline;
VVorth's in thy Book, and what care I who know it,
Love wings my Muse; 'tis love makes me a Poet.

John Billingsly.

To my good friend Mr. Nicholas Billingsly in Honor of this work, penned by him about the fifteenth yeare of his age.

God that did all things out of Nothing raise,
And hath from mouths of Babes ordain'd his praises
When thou wast nothing but a suckling Muse.
The Chaos of a man, he did infuse
His grace so in thy heart, that thou in verse
Didst portray out his glorious universe:
To sing his praises, he did make thy Pen
Distil celesteal Nectar: yea, and when
Thou wert a stripling he did then adorne
Thy fruitful head with th'Amalthean horn.
Thou like another Grand-seir, to each creature
Hast given a name according to its Nature:
Of Trees, Plants, Stones, their secret mysteries
Of Beasts, and Birds thou writest plaine Histories:
Whiles others of thine Age mispent their times
In toys and pastimes, thou in sacred Rhimes
Applid'st thy self to celebrate the praise
Of God that first hath lent unto thee days:
And if such fruit thy tender buds bring forth,
In riper age admir'd shall be thy worth.

Jo: Swan. Cleric.

Ian: 20. 1656.

To my friend the Author, on his Poem intituled Κοσμοβρεφια.

When I survey thy well-composed piece
I stand amaz'd at thy rare Artifice
Thy curious Pencil guided by a hand
More skilful then Apelles could command,
Hath, to the greatest Artists emulation,
A stately Landskip of the Worlds Creation,
Drawn to the life: my friend each polish'd line
Is guilded o're with eloquence divine:
VVhich feeds with loftier Ayers, juditious ears
Then those causd by the motion of the Spheres.
I'le only add, by way of approbation,
Thy serious work's an heavenly Recreation,

Francis Taylor.

Cant. Jan. 1. 1656.

To his very loving friend, Mr. Nicholas Billingsly, on his acurate Poem.

Atomes , say some, by chance together thrown
The world was made of: sure had they but known
Of this its nobler birth, not one would dare
To say that chance could make it half so fair.
Here Epicurus who is Picture drew,
In lines like his opinion seldome true,
In this composed piece, might at one sight
Have seen to set both verse and judgment right
Thus Sir, takeing the blot from Poetrie,
In this you make both it and truth agree.

D. R. Col. Mert

In Amici sui meritisimi: Nicholas Billingsly amænam Κοσμοβθεφια Synopsin Carmen Encomiasticon, Januar. 16. 1657.

On the same

Those various Species which thine eye may look
Vpon i'th' Volumne of the worlds great Book,
Six days was Midwife too; and then God ceas'd
From working, yet from working doth not rest:
For he it is supporteth all things still,
By the Eternal purpose of his will.
My friend (kind Reader) sends thee nothing less
Then all-things pressing, from the sweating Press:
A worke, some years agoe by him compil'd,
At fifteen years of age, a very child:
The Muses nurst him on Parnassus tops,
And fil'd his Quill with Heleconian drops;
Which if thou mind, I make no question of it
But thou wilt find pleasure co-chaind with profit.

Tho. Carter. Cleric.

Deo Ter Opt. Max.

Oh from thy Radient Throne above
Look down on me, Great God of love:
With sacred Light my Soul infuse,
And wing, for flight, mine unfledg'd Muse,
That she may like the morning Lark
Mount up and sing: Lord I'me a spark;
But if thy Bellows please to blow
Me up, Oh then I needs must glow.
My God to me a Being gave,
To use those little gifts I have;
Oh may I then to after days
Make known my All-Creators praise;
As by instinct the Loadstone draws
The iron, as the Amber straws;
So let thy grace mine heart attract,
Dear Lord! O make me have respect
To all thy righteous Laws, begin
To purge out all my dross: my Tinn
Remove far from me; Oh inflame
My frozen Spirit, to praise thy Name.

Let Heaven fill me to the brim
Above the world, Oh may I swim.
And (as it were) my soul divorce
From Transient joys: Oh steer my course
According to thy compass: Guid
My reeling Pinace, make the Tide
Tranquil, and let the milder gale
Of thy sweet Spirit, stuff my Sail,
Until I safely am arriven
At the desired Haven, Heaven;
Where I shall see the God of nature,
And always praise the worlds Creator.

The Worlds Infancy.

Sect. 1.

The Argument.

God begins the Worlds Creation,
Light from out of darkness brings.
Giving wondrous Operation,
To Wells, Rivers, Fountains, Springs.

God, when besides himself there nothing was,
But a rude Chaos, a confused Mass,
Of things disordered; all together hurl'd,
Did by his providence ordaine the world.
And first his, power, and cœlestial might,
Cleare light extracted, from the shades of night.
Then did he spread a glorious Curtain out,
Spangled with Starrs, and glory round about,
Embost with pearl, embroydered with gold,
With Chrysolits, and Carbuncles enrould.

O work to be admir'd; what pen? what story!
Can point can blazon the Almighties glory.
I wanting Eagles eyes, am over-daz'd,
With too great light and winking stand amaz'd,
Thus, thus, heav'ns Architect by's word of power,
Edificated the ætherial Tower,
The Mass he dissipating, drew from thence,
The Center of the vast Circumference,
The solid substance altogether clung,
And by g'ometrical proportion hung,
In figure of a Sphær; this naked globe
He circumvested in a sea greene robe,
The Elements, Earth, Water, Ayer, and Fire,
Took each their station, Vulcan did aspire
To the sublimest Orb, Jove next in power
Predominates: next him, the watry Bower,
Of curl'd hair Neptune stands and last of all
Doth drossie Vesta to the bottome fall:
Vesta's inthron'd, Vesta that doth adorne,
Her breasts with flowers, and her lap with corne,
Vesta sinks down beneath her brothers sway
Being of more solidity then they.
The dry, and humid, heavy, and the light,
Soft, hard, b'ing opposites doe disunite.
Wet things with wet, cold things cōmix with cold,
Hot things with hot, do correspondence hold.

From the Seas raging Tyranny, the Land
Is kept (Oh pow'r) with slipp'ry walls of sand.
Had the Sea leave to rage beyond its bound
Earth's Fabrick would (undoubtedly) be drown'd;
But the Almighties force of arms asswage
Th'impetuous threats of her imperious rage:
The Sea (now mild) engirds the earth about,
And like a Snake goes wriggling in and out:
The Marine Empress lib'rally bestows
Her store, and into divers Channels flows.
A River in the late world brought to light
Runs all the day, and resteth all the night.
Conspicuous silver-waved Euphrates,
Payes tribute to the domineering seas,
The streams of Tanais, transparent Po
And clear Erid'nus, from the Ocean go.
The river Erax, and the swift Meander,
Whose winding Mazes in and out doe wander,
(Much like the Lab'rinth of faire Rosamond
Or that Dædalian frame which did abscond
The monstrous Minotaur, in former dayes
So intricate for their retorted wayes)
Niphates bringing Tigers up and Phæsis
Fall on and Court with amorous embraces
The fair Queen Glauce; nimble-footed Rhene
Whose earth-dividing course both run between

The Belgians, and the Germans, hath its motion
From Phorbas, Phorbas Kingling of the Ocean.
The Amazonian Thermodontin brooks,
And Oax also to the Ocean looks.
The river Jordan is a stream compounded
Of Jor and Dan, by curs'd Asphaltis bounded.
Gold-sanded Tagus, and the bow-string Tybur,
Yellow Pactolus, and Cantabrian Iber,
Take from the Seas their rise, the flowing Ganges,
With wandring current through the orient ranges
Septemfluous Nilus, and Armenian Tigris,
Libanian Jordan, Aquitanian Ligris,
Arcadian Ladon, and the Thuscian Arne,
The Thracian Stroymon, the Campanian Sarne,
Rhone, Incest, Lifter, and the Marsyan tydes,
Flow from, and to, the swelling Oceans sides:
Caucasian Indus, which receiveth plenty
Of pleasant rivers wanting one of twenty.
And what doth Simois? and what Matrona,
But waite and tend upon the Queen Diona?
All rivers in the world, or smal or mighty
Derive their lineage, from great Amphitrite,
Hence comes our British Severn, Wye, Lugg, Umber
And thousands too innumerous for number.

But stay my Muse thou hadst almost forgot
The Kentish Medway one of greatest note

Next to that famous navigable Thames
Whose breasts are silv'red with compounded streams
Which bear up floating houses, what a train
Of lusty watermen doth Thames maintaine?
Who though with rapid force they'r backwards hurl'd
Yet are they often forwards in the world.
Great London is the Bow, the Thames the string
The Boats are arrows which about do spring
The Streams Sabbatical do rest and stay.
In observation of the Sabbath day.

Add here the German Savenire Pouhont,
And med'cinable Spa in great account
For its effecting strange unheard of things,
Unparalel'd by none unless the springs
Of Tunbridg famous in our Kentish county,
For casting up their subterraneous bounty,
Which relishing of Iron, and sulph'ry veines
Cures well nigh all infirmities and paines,
Nay lengthens life causing the fates t'unspin
Lifes drawn out thred, hath any got the spleen?
The dropsie? the vertigo? or the stone?
These waters will yield remedy alone.
Suppose th'art Lunatick, or Planet struck,
Hear's that will help thee, if thou hast the luck
To come and take it, is it thine endeavour
To be rid of the Collick or the feavour,

Or the Obstructions of the Mesentery,
Reines, Melt, and liver? wouldest thou fain be merry
And freed from Melancholy? if you please
To use these waters, doubtless, you'l have ease;
Gouts Ischyatica's, the French-mans pox,
And what flows from Pandora's opened box
These Springs resist, and for your comfort here
Green sickness, Maids, a remedy is neere.
And you, disheartned Sarahs, do but come
And drink, and you'l have an enlarged wombe.
In brief, to cure all maladies, there dwells
A Soveraign vertue in these Tunbridge Wells.

Nor must I leave those Bristoll Baths which are
For their effects so wonderful, so rare.
All Aches Cramps, Convulsions (and what not?)
Dy in those waters naturaly hot.
Well, I cou'd wish those Authors of disorders
Too much encreased in those B istoll borders
I mean that frantick self-afflicting crew
Of trembling Quakers, with their Captain too
Tongue-bored Nailor, branded in the forehead
With B for blasphemy, were in those torrid
And scalding Currents forc'd to stand awhile
My Genius tells me they'd at last recoyle
Their fond conceits, and soon be a forsaking
Their censuring others; and give over Quaking.

The ub'rous fountains and each conduit brings
Its store of water from their bubbling springs,
Of Neptune's stock Acidalus came down,
Yielding her store, to the Bæotian Town.
So Aganippe is a sacred fountaine,
Us'd by the Ladies of the by-fork'd mountaine,
And Arethusa, whose mellifluous wombe
Is sweet, nay sweeter then the hony-combe.
What should I speak of th'Hippocrenian Well?
And what shall I of the Clitorian tell?
The first wherof the Muses haunt a brook
The hoofe of winged Pegasus hath strook
The other Fount, (it seems to me divine,)
Can make men sober when ore took with wine,
The Well Telpissa, is so cold so chill
That it Tyresia, (as they say) did kill,
Th'Ammonian Fount, is cold and hot by turns
Cold in the day, and in the night it burns.
'Tis said the sportfull Eleusinian spring,
Will dance when shepherds are disposed to sing,
Clarean a Well (for it there needs no strife,)
Doth lengthen eloquence, but shortens life,
Sweet Helicon's a consecrated Well,
To th'Muses, in it do the Muses dwell.
Phineus, a Well, is wholsome in the day
To drink, but hurtful in the night (men say)

The fount Cabura yields a fragrant smell,
The well Halcyon, danceth very well,
Cilician Cydnus, cures the gout the spring
Leucoges eye sight to the blinde doth bring,
Cyzices quencheth hot Idalian fire,
A draught of Lycus causeth life t'expire.
All things doe in the gulf of Sylla sink.
The Stream Anyger, casts a loathsom stink:
Azanium is a Well which doth incline,
Bacchus his Genial Friends to loath all wine.
Athamas water setteth wood on fire
Making the kindled flames for to aspire.
There are a number more which he that looks
Shall find set down in Learned Authors Books,
My Muse hath touch'd the chiefest she hath read,
And tir'd with search, discretion calls to bed.

Sect. 2.

The Argument.

God doth in a lib'ral measure,
Furnish these inferiour Bowers
With a large unsumm'd up treasure,
Of Trees, and Fruits, Plants and Flowers.

As soon as Gods all pow'rful hand had laid
The worlds foundation, to the earth he said,
Lay by thy mournful weeds, unite thy powers,
And make a garland of the choysest flowers,
Embost with Gems, and Diamonds; then crowne
Thy front, and put on an Embroider'd gown,
Nay and the more thy glory for to grace,
With liveliest colours beautifie thy face.
Put one thy Periwig, all fruits, plums, pears,
Shall hang like Iewels, dangling in thine ears.
With that arose this new proclaimed Queen,
Her Ebon mantle turn'd a galant green,
Befring'd with flowers; the Gorget that she wore
Was lac'd with Flora's pride, bestarched ore
With Deaws, and rory mists, her hand did hold
A royal Scepter made of burnish'd gold.

Rich Gems, rare Iewels, pretious stones are set
Up charily in her wombs Cabinet.
This stately Empress don's her dangling Tresses,
And makes no more ado but tricks and dresses
Her wanton bosome with delightful flowers,
'Gainst Ioves descending in his silver showers.
The heav'ns as braclets, her pure hands bedeck
The stars are Beads which goe about her neck,
Her lilly neck so that fair Uenus seeks
Her heav'n-stol'n beauty in her earthly cheeks,

Wild Ash trees from earths swelling matrice spring
The river Sallowes fens forth Alders bring
The Mirtle loves the shore, Vines doe enfold
Their arms on hils, the Yew tree haunts the cold,
The fruitfull Almond from earths wombe doth come
The sweet-scent Aromatick Balsamum;
The box-tree ever green, the tow'ring Cedar,
The stately Pine, which doth in height succeed her
The lovely Chery-trees sanguineous sap,
Is nourished in Demegorgon's lap,
The warr us'd Cornell, and the Mast-ful Beach,
The fun'ral Cypress, and the velvet Peach,
The Ambrosiack Cinamon, the Figg,
The Pompkin and the aged Oke (so big)
The Iuniper which yields a fragrant smell,
And Sea green Willows on the earth do dwell.

The Daphnean Lawrel tree, which doth not dread
The thund'rets voyce, whose hair-abounding head
Is never bald; but doth for ever flourish,
Springs from the earth, it is the earth doth norish
The never fading Palms; the beautious Firre
Streight as an arrow; and the red'lent Myrrhe,
The broad branch'd Plane-tree, with his spacious leaves
The wanton Jvy which adhers and cleavs
To other Arbors, groweth ev'ry where,
The downy Poplar, The Piram'dal Peare,
The Melt-tree, Weapons Needles Thred, affords
Clothes Honey, Sugar, Balm, Wine, Parchment, Cords
The Vine suporting Elm, the pearly Plum,
The balefull Pitch-tree, sweating forth its gum.
The fulsome Bullace, and the prickly Holly,
The furr'd coat Chestnut, and the shrub Trifolly,
The golden Orange, and the plush-coate Quince,
Which ord'red well yields Marm'let for a Prince,
The shadie Linden, Goosberries and Wardens,
The Mulb'ry, Raspb'ry, Strawb'ry, grow in gardens

All these and many more come from the earth
Earth gives them nutriment as well as birth,
The earth, mother of all things; suckles all
Her vegetative ofsprings, great and small.

At Gods command Dame Tellus deck'd her bowers
With verdent hearbs, and Odorif'rous Flowers,

Of sundry vertues, and of sundry hew,
Some green, some red, some yellow, white, some blew.
Here doth the Cardu's-Benedictus grow,
Both to the plague and stone a deadly foe:
Here jaundis-cureing, Horehound, which is good
Against the Asthma; heer is Southern-wood
Good against Feavours; here the Worm-wood eases
All Surfeits, drunk'ness, Cholerick Diseases.
Cough-chasing, Rocket, Rue-expelling vapors,
Which dim the sight; the pallat-pleasing Capers
Helping the Spleen; sweet-scenting Marjoram
Is here; and there the Bawm of Abraham;
Here grows the Beet; yonder the Daffadill;
And there the fragrant spreading Cammomill;
Here is Mint, Centory, and Columbine,
And there the Cowslip and the Eglantine;
See here is Ey-bright, Annis, Cummin, Carry,
Dittander there, behold the hearb Cost-mary,
Here is Germander, Melilot also,
And Harts-tongue, Harts-horn, Harts-ease, there do grow
Roots white and red, and chockly, Artycocks,
Here maidens hair is, alias, Venus locks,
Here thriveth Hyssop, Lavender, and Sorrel,
Yonder the Night-shade, called Pety-morel,
Here Palma-Christi doth it self expand,
There Peneroyal, royaly doth stand.

Here groweth Parsly, yonder sprouteth Tansy;
And here the Lovage, yon' the Lovers Pansy.
Her's drowsie Popy, there are Dasies blowing,
And sweet Angelica is yonder growing:
Here Cic'ry springs, there Fumitory thrives,
Staves-aker lives here, that the Lowse unlives.
Here's sovr'aine Rhubarb, yonder is sweet Basil,
There Fullers hearb, known by the name of Thasil,
Yonder spread Mandrakes, the neglected Nettle,
There doth its foot in Tellus bosom settle.
Here's Sav'ry, Savery, and Helebore,
(Of which they say Anticyras hath store)
Parsnips, and Turneps, and Potatoes too,
Coleworts, and Cabbage, and the Radish doe
Rise from the ground; Elicampane, the Rape,
And all plants els have from the earth their shape
All sorts of grain Wheat, Barley, Oates, and Poder
Whose sap-less stalks the stall-fed Ox do fodder.
Burrage, and Bugloss, Fennel, Water-cresses,
Dame Tellus with all these her bosom dresses,
Now walk we (Reader) into Flora's Bowers,
For recreation; here are curious flowers,
To make fine Posies with; here here behold
The purple Violet, and Marigold.
Seest how these variegated beds do show
As many coulors as the Rainy Bow?

Here's choyce of Pinks, & banks of Damask Roses
Their sight doth pleas our eys, their smel, our noses
The cleer fac'd Lilly smiles, so here great store
Of Gil'flowers, Tulips, and—but what need more
In vaine alas! in vaine I goe about
To reckon all the branches which doe sprout
From out Methymna; the Hyblean Bees,
And yellow sands, neere the Pactolian Seas,
Are not so numerous, the starrs give place
(If numbred) to the Demegorgon's race,
'Tis night, and Titan his refulgent beams
Doth hide their glory in the Western streams
The third day left a universal shade,
And heaven was pleased with the works he made.

Sect. 3.

The Argument.

God doth the Canopy of heaven,
With sparkling glittering Gems inlay.
The twelve signes, and planets seaven.
Strange effects, the Milky way.

The morrow after, when the light be purl'd
The yearly mantle of the new-made world;
Heav'ns hand, still nilling to be idle, gilded
The earths fair seeling, he before had builded.
Starrs are heav'ns Scutchions, thick as Argus eyes
They hang, and twinckle in the marble skies
Of great or lesser magnitudes, each one
Shine like the Iacynth and the Iasper stone.
But farr more glorious, yea they go beyond
The fy'ry Carbuncle, the Diamond,
And golden Crisolit, their beauty shines
So bright, nay brighter, then the wealthy Mines
Of hot Arabia, or Pactolean Seas,
The tailes of Peacocks, are but toys to these,

The purple Amethist, the Hesphesite,
And costly Opall's nothing neere so bright;
Earths rarest Iewells, mayn't with them compare,
The costliest Gems are not so rich as they're:
These pearls which garnish the ætherial story,
Are lively emblems of their makers glory.

These glittring Sphæres, about the axle roul
Which joyns to th'Arctick and Antarctick Pole:
This part cold Boreas, and the North starr sees:
Hot Auster, vieweth the Antipodes.
The Ursa Major, and the Minor too,
Their backs turn'd to it, round the North Pole go:
The Dragon, which did keepe through watchfulness
The golden Apples of th'Hesperides
Much like the windings of a river flowes,
His widened mouth like a Charybdis showes.
Herc'les beneath him kneels, next whom the Crown
Of Ariadne, on the earth shines down.
Here Snake-engirted Serpentarius stands,
Squeezing the bending Snake in's griping hands,
Under him Scorpio exporrected lies:
There Libra's beame, turnes in the Azure skies.
Arctophylax here drives his waine; in's groyne
The radiant lustre of a lamp doth shine;
He treads on Virgo who a sheafe doth beare,
Next whom appeareth Berenices haire,

The great Bears hind feet, on the Lion tread,
Cancer and Gemini with his double head
Are next, and neere to Leda's egg hatch'd twins
Auriga holds strong wine; close by him shines
The rainy starr of the Olenian Goate;
Iove's nurses next Aïx and Ælice note.
Here prostrate on the floor, behold a Bull,
Whose sublime horns with Starrs are beautifull:
The brood-hen or the rainy Hyades
See there, (some call them the Atlantides)
The taile of Cynosure the little Beare
Points at the widened Arms of Cepheus there,
Whose sad wife Cassiopea next complains
For her Andromeda, bound fast in chaines.
Next winged Pegasus on high doth mount
Whose hoof struck whilom th'Heliconian Fount;

And just before the Dwarf in fetters bound
[OMITTED] or Triangulus is found.
Two fishes, linked by their tailes ly forth,
One Southward, and the other tow'rds the North,
A sword in Perseus right hand out is spread,
In's left the snaky haird Medusa'es head.
He sits among the Pleiad's, his wing'd shoes.
Most sweetly there the Lyre of Merc'ry goes.
The Armiger of Iove, spreads here her wings,
And there the Swan that her owne El'gy sings.

See where swift Pegasus his mouth is plac'd,
There Joves Cup-bearer Ganimede is grac'd;
Beneath whom doth arise the Capricorn,
There Sagitarius doth the Heav'ns adorn,
His winged dart flies from his boysterous string
Betwixt the Eagles. and the Vulters wing.
The Dolphin last of all swims in the North,
Which sav'd Arion, in the Sea cast forth.
(Sweet Jesu! beare me to the Port of Sion,
Be thou my Dolphin I'le be thy Arion.
Orion mounteth nigh the Southerne Pole,
With golden belt begyrt; his left-foot sole:
He gently dippeth in the silver streams
Of swift Erid'nus; next the Dog-starr gleams,
Whose yelping frights the Hare; there swims the Whale.
Pegasian Argo next is under saile,
Which bore the Argonauts, and Peers of Greece,
Together with the Colchian golden fleece.
The Southern Garland, called Ixion's wheele,
Lies under horned Sagittarius heele.
Yonder is the Thuribulum divine;
There doth the Kid; and here the Centaur shine.
In folds, the truc'lent Hydra lies, enrould,
On whome stands Corvus, and a cup of gold
The Crater of the Powers: in the skies
By th'egg hatch'd breth'ren, litle Procyon lies.

See there the embroyred Bauldrick, and the starrs
Thereon engrav'd, Supine Astronomers.
The Ram, Bull, Twins, Crab, Lion, Virgo, Scale,
Scorp. Archer, Capri. Aquar. Pisces, call:
The Ram, the Bull, the Twins, shew in the Spring
Crab, Leo, Virgo, doe the Sumer bring.
Scale, Scorpion, Archer, gather corne together,
Goate Gan'med, Pisces, rise in winters weather.
Six Springs, and Harvests Æquinoctials share,
Summer and winter's Solstice six declare.
Seav'n wandring Planets, you may here see soon,
Saturne, Iove, Mars, Sol, Uenus, Merc'ry, Moon.
From these alone, from these ætherial flames
The Seav'n days of the weeke derive their nam's,
God placed in the Firmament of heaven
These pilgrim-planets, all in number Seaven
They and the golden Bauldricks thrice four powers,
Have influence in these bodies of ours:
They rule the Head, Neck, Arms, & Brest compleat,
Back, Bely, Reins, Secrets, Thighs, Knees, Legs, Feet,
Ther's many thousand nameless glittring globe,
Here inter-woven in this spangled Robe.
And in Earth's Tester, all with starrs set round
The Lactea via of Jehova's found:
This way doth lead to the Tribunal Throne
Of thund'ring Iove, this is the way alone

Conducts to bliss, if thou wilt enter in
Thy milk-white conscience must be free from sin:
The way doth ly direct, thou canst not miss:
A pure white conscience is the way to bliss,

Sect. 4.

The Argument.

The Creation of the Sun
And the Moon in full Carier,
They alternately doe run
Unto either Hemisphere.

When heavens great builder had about enrould
This Marble Gallery, with studs of gold;
He made the greater, and the lesser light
Alternately to rule the Day and Night;
Illustrious Phæbus his refulgent face,
The upper and the lower world doth grace,
With equal splendor; his irradient beams
Refresheth all things; his ignivomous teams
Run restless races; his all-quickning power
Gives life and breath to every plant and flower;
Unto our sight it ev'dently appears,
His revolution makes up days and years:
He circulates in twice twelve howers time
The Universe, spends half in this our clime,

And when his Chariots rapid wheels are whirl'd
Into the Climates of th'inferiour world;
He on the lower Hemisphere displayes
His Rosy light and bright refulgent rayes,
Then pale-fac'd Phæbe riseth to fulfill
Her nightly course, ascending up the hill
Of the renoun'd Olympus, joys to spred
The glittring glory of her new-made head,
Silv'ring the world in her nocturnal race,
She reigns as Empress in her brothers place
And emulates his rayes, (although more dim)
What light she hath is all deriv'd from him;
She ev'ry month doth wax and wane and shew
Now Semicircled like a half bent bow:
But when Sol doth against her full face shine,
Earth interpoz'd in the Eccliptick line;
Her round cheeks are Ecclips'd, her masked face
Admits the glory of its borrowed grace,
She wears a Cypress hood and overshrouds
Her shamfac'd count'nance, in the gloomy clouds.
This Nights fair Lady, by her influence brings
Admir'd effects to sublunary things.
O sacred purdence, ev'ry day nay houer
Sets forth the greatness of th'Almighties power,
His pow'r fils all things, if I tow'r the skies
I do behold it in those twinkling eyes.

Doe not I see it in the burnish'd Sun,
And Moon, which round about their Circle run?
And if from heav'n I to the earth descend,
Are not his wonders there without an end
Nay saile I out into the boundless Seas
Gods goodness meets me; goe I where I please
His mercies find me; if I take the wings
Of fair Aurora, if I search the springs
Of his abundant grace; and if I roul
Even from the Arctick to th'Antarctick Pole.
His favours doe prevent me; Sea and Land
Enrich'd are by the All creators hand.
Dive I to the sulphureous pitt of hell,
There, there th'eternall doth in Iustice dwell
Look here, look there, nay turne I where I will
I see Gods greatness and his goodness still.
No Gods with him may equalized be;
Where is there such another God as he?
I stand amaz'd, on his stupendious name,
O with what words may I express the same!
And now the Major-General of day,
(Whose eye doth all things in the world survay)
Hastens his Chariot to th'Hesperian streams,
Un-yokes his horses hides his blewing beams
In Thetis bosom; by the western Seas
He setting, riseth to th'Antipodes.

The sable Curtains of thick darkness spread
To give us notice Sol is gone to bed:

Night harnisseth her Stallions, and doth crown
Her head with popy; in a mourning gown
She widdow-like appears; a leaden mace
Her sleepy hand engrasps, her steps deface
The Chrystal-brow of day, and out she spreads
The spangled Orb of heaven, about the beds
Of ev'ry thing that draweth breath she closes
All eyes and leavs them to their sweet reposes:
All things doe sleep, the Lady of the night
Entring her brothers place, borrows his light;
Pale Luna rising from the Orient streams
Of Thetis brandisheth her trembling beams:
Th'Olimphick Tow'r sh' ambitiously aspires
Concomitated with her sister fires.
The perfect colours of all earthly things
Are hid with dim-ey'd darkness sable wings:
The fourth day left a universal shade,
And heaven was pleased with the works he made.

Sect. 5.

The Argument.

God replenisheth the waters
With innumberd living creatures,
Giving to them divers natures,
Properties, and several features.

When rosy-fac'd Aurora did unfold
Her dappled Curtains, fring'd with burnish'd gold,
And rudie Titan from his saffron bed
Rowzed the glory of his early head:
God spake the word, and fishes small and mighty
Furnish'd the Courts of Sea-green Amphitrite;
The family of Neptune soon amounted
To a great number more then can be counted.
Some of these wat'ry Citizens doe love,
Salt habitations; others fresh approve.
Nature hath given to these new formed creatures,
Diversities of natures, names, and features.
The Sturgeon loves to swim against the stream;
These live in ponds, the Perch, the Roch, & Bream,

The retrograding, Crab the Canther chast,
The Cephalus find in the Sea repast,
He hides his head then thinks himself secure,
The crafty Barble first unhooks the Lure.
“Great Neptune's Sea Clark cal'd the Calamary,
“About him doth his Pen and Penknife carry.
The lowzy Arica feeds upon flesh,
The Lamp'ry, Salmon live in waters fresh.
The tongueless Carp, doth in the fish pond dwell
The eyeless Cockle walketh from his shel.
The Musick charmed Dolphin, feried ore
Sea coast Arion to the wish'd for shore.
The fish Plagusia swimeth one her sides,
The Remora resisteth winds and tides.
Large Oars stul'd sails, and cleaving to a ship
Strongly and straingly stops it, if you rip
Thorn'd-foot Echinus, and him water give,
He'l reunite his parts dis-joyn'd and live.
The wide-mouth'd Labrax ever loves to yawn:
She Pearl-fish, alwayes leagueth with the Prawne.
Are you a hungry go and catch a Conger
What fish is larger then the Whale or longer?
His monstrous bulk doth like an Island seem,
Around enclosed in a watery stream.
The gilden Spirlings in cold winters weather,
Ly round (to keep them warm) in bals together.

The wing'd Voligo 'bove the water flies;
His head between his feet and belly lyes,
The Wolf-fishc aught, ploughs with his taile the sand,
And hiding there, escapes the fishers hand.
From Margarus our Margerites doe come:
The Meryx [Cow like] chews the cud say some.
When the Milvago 'bove the waves doth fly,
Tempests and stormes give o're immediatly.
The Musculus (making his fins his Oars)
Ushers the Whale from rockie shelves & shores.
Ears to the belly of the Oysters joyne;
The Oxyringus eyes most brightly shine.
The Muscle and the speckled Leopard:
The Peacock swimmeth like the heaven bestarr'd
Pediculus the Dolphins parasite,
Doth in the food, the Dolphin gets, delight.
The bleating Sea calfe, hath an hairy hide.
The fraud'lent Manifeet loves paciride.
Th'adultrous Sargus, the Sea grunting-hog,
The Turbet the Cærulian speckled frog.
The Scarus much delights to ruminate
The Scolopender swal'wing hook and baite
Vomits his bowels? having los'd the hook
It slips them in againe and is not took.
The Stockfish is a fish that wil not boyl
Unless you beat it with a stick a while

The bane-tooth'd Cuttle nigh destructions brink
Absconds her body with effused ink,
Which while it dazleth the poore fishers eyes
From the surprizer then escapes the prize.
The water's scale-backt golden-coated Ape,
Is like the earths in colour and in shape.
The Star-fish, by a natural instinct
Burneth what e're it toucheth; would you think't?
Tis said the Cramp fish will benum the hands
Of him that fisheth, and a distance stands.
The Lampreys life within her taile doth ly:
From Purple-fishes comes our purple dy.
Nature doth the Amphibious Sea-calfe give,
By water and by land full leave to live,
She breeds upon the land and by degrees
Her young sh' accustoms to the briny Seas.
A thousand colours (if't be true) 'tis strange
(As in Hyena's) in her eyes doe range.
The Sea grape squezed in the Vintage press,
Of Wine will take away the irksomeness.
The skin of Pompilous makes many a thong
Of a great value ever-during strong.
Th'Adult'rous Sargus changing mates behorns
The pates of Hee-Goats which before had horns.
Th'Vranoscop, alwayes his eyes round balls
Bands (as it were) against th'ætherial walls.

Lexus a fish is enemy to man,
And man to him, both are each others bane.
And thou Thymalus, left almost behind,
What fish more precious then thy noble kind?
Can any thing in sweetness thee excell?
Yields any odour a more fragrant smell?
Above all fishes thou deserv'st the Palme,
In that thou breathest like Arabian balme.
The wry-mouth'd Plais, the Whiting, & the Mackrel:
The slippry Eel, the Lobster, and the Cackrel
Making the eater laxative; the Trout,
The Herring King of fish, the Flownder, Pout,
The Wraith, the Gudgeon, and the boneless Seal,
And more there are, whose names I must conceal;
A world of Paper, and a Sea of Ink,
Would scarce suffice to hold them all I think.
But ah! what do we? we must hast to th'shore
The winds do rise, the waves begin to roar:
Let's tack about, and strive the land to gain,
Enough of roaming on the foaming main.
Hark! Cliô hark! behold the warbling Quire,
Call thee to play upon thine Iv'ry Lyre.

Sect. 5.

The Argument.

Heer there is a winged nation
Wandring in the feilds and groves,
All of one kind keep, their fashion,
God his fifth days work approves.

Now on the feather'd fowls bestow thine eyes,
(Kind reader) and observe their properties.
Mark how they fly and cut the flitting ayer,
These clap their wings, and those do quite contrair
Some run upon the ground, and some alway
Do leap from bough to bough from spray to spray,
These are delighted in the shadie grove;
Whilst others in the open champion rove.
Some chuse to fly on high, and some as low,
And some do fly as swift as others go.
These hop about, while others love to sing
The praises of their everlasting King:
Some desarts haunt, some take a pride to shew
Their 'pinions colour'd like the rainy bow.

The silvan Choristers in various notes.
Send out sweet Carrols from their mus'call throats
The warbling Philomel her Sonnets sings,
So shril that at the sound each forrest rings.
The milk-white Swan the river swims along,
Dying, sings sweetest, her Elegious song,
The pretty Linnet, and the whistling Thrush,
And Mavis chaunt in ev'ry thorny bush
Eare charming Ditties, and in ample story
Devulge the greatness of their makers glory.
Nature to speak the Cisla doth inveigle
'Tis strange to think how the Majestick Eagle
The Armiger of Iove, with percing eye
Dares to confront the Sun's coruscancy.
Amongst these aiery Cittizens we find
The Cipphos tost with ev'ry gust of wind
The gaggling-Goose, the Gosling, & the Gander;
The brood-hen clucking, to and fro do wander:
Th'indulgent Stork most gratefuly doth feed
His aged parents, in their time of need:
He broods and carries them; the kissing Dove
Always lives single, having lost her love:
Th'Hedg Sparrow norisheth the Cucko's eggs.
The bird Apodes useth not his leggs.
Hast thou the Iaundice? Icterus but eye
And thou'lt recover but the bird will dy.

The stately Cock, with his elated Crest
Comes stalking on, new rowzed from his rest,
His taile advanc'd, with a clear voyce he crows,
He daunts the Lion and the light foreshowes,
Fair weather followes when the Cranes soar high
Fowl weather followes when apace they fly.
The greedy Corm'rant seeing storms before,
With clam'rous noise doth hasten to the shore.
The Cat fac'd melancholy Owl doth hollow
The swift wing'd lofty winding garr'lous swallow
Sings as she flyes; this Herauld of the spring,
From frozen winter flyes with speedy wing.
The great Bee backward flyes, the Black-Bird loves
To lead a solitary life in groves.
The Chough's fair body is about enroul'd
With plumes of silver, mixt with plums of gold.
The gnat-devouriug Bat suckles her brood,
And shreds (for she hath teeth) her gotten food.
The prattling Parrot with his opned beak
In human language takes a pride to speak.
The Pel'can tares her breast her young ones slayn;
And with her blood reviveth them againe.
The chat'ring Py foretelling guests are neere.
The chirping Sparrowes under house eves are.
The scent-strong Vulter in his flight most slow,
Loves Carrion touching not what mortals sow;

Five hundred miles doth putred Carrion smell
(If all be true Historians do tell)
The inauspicious Crow, th'unluckie Kite.
The witless Woodcock, and the simple Snite:
The long-neck'd hern, the wadling duck, & widgeon
The gold-finch, bull-finch, chaffinch & the pidgeon
The Lapwing, Wagtail, Feildfare, and the Stare.
The pleasant Phesant and the Partridg rare.
The Kestrel, Martin, Puet and the Plover,
The Rook, the Titmouse, up and down do hover.
The Robin-red-breast flyeth too and fro,
The Red-shank, Red-start and the Red-tail too.
The rav'nous Raven and the pratling Iay,
Proud of his borrowed plums, his plums so gay.
The Iron eating Corp'lent Estrich runs
As swift as doth a horse, Spinturus shuns
No sacred place, for she a burning cole
Hath from the Alters very often stole.
The envious Peacock hideth out of spight
His med'cinable dung from humane sight:
Treads softly like a theif, but from his throat
Yels out a horible Tartarian note;
A pride he takes in flinging up his head,
And doth abroad his starie spangles spread.
The Bee with laden thighs doth whom return
With prudent art doth tare the hony-comb

With flowry Tyhme (oh admirable thing!)
So loud a humming voyce, so stiff a sting.
Plant-wasting Locusts which without wings fly,
The Moth, the Horner, Butterfly, and Fly?
The golden coloured Cantharides
Are stiled insects; I may add to these
Th'industrious Silk-worme which of Thisbian rine
And leaves; for nobles silken-sleeves doth twine.
Next in my way the Indian Griffin flyes,
With's snow-white wings; his fierce and fiery eyes
Ev'n dazle mine; four feet he doth not lack
A purple belly and a cole black back;
His hindmost part is fashion'd like a Lion,
His unked talents tare what he doth fly on.
And lastly, although last of all, not least
Th'Arabian Phenix passeth all the rest:
The rarest bird that under heaven flyes,
Glory's enthroned in her sparkling eyes.
A golden collar goeth round her neck:
A Purple colour doth her body deck;
A goodly taile she bears: a plumy crown
Upon her head appears; a scarlet down
Adornes her back: search throughout ev'ry clime
You'l find one only living at one time.
Six hundred years she lives then being old
Builds her a nest, a nest she doth infold

With fragrant Cassia, Cinamon, and Myrrh,
And such like Aromatick sprigs, t'interr
Her self therin; she makes hir selfe an Urn
And fi'ry Titan with his rayes doth burne
(His rags reflecting on her lab'ring wings)
The crazy Phenix; from whose ashes springs
A little worme crawling in fun'ral spices,
And from that worme another Phenix rises.
When God created had all winged creatures
Divers for natures, discrepant in features,
And gave them power with their nimble wings
To soar alof, above terestrial things:

The fifth day left a universal shade,
And heav'n was pleased with the works he made.

Sect. 7.

The Argument.

God creats beasts great and small,
And appoints their habitation,
On the earth, earth feeds them all
All affords us admiration.

Now radient Sol his morning beams displaies
Gilding the mountaines with his pregnant raies.
Th'Almighty God, he, who alone is able
T'accomplish all things; furnisheth the Table
Of earths fair parlour, with a sumptuous feast,
Against the coming of some Lordly guest.
The earth, the dam-of all things, forth doth bring
Millions of creatures, ev'ry creeping thing
The earth doth suckle, 'tis the earth doth breed
A world of hungry animals to feed
On her provisions, ev'ry kind of beast
Draws life (as well the greatest as the least)
From her exub'rant breast; seest how the Fawns
Do skip and frisk about the lovely Lawns.

The keen-tusk'd salvage Macedonian Bore:
The greedy Wolf (t'whom Lambs are an ey-sore)
The yoke-fit heifer, and the ubr'ous Cow,
The horse, true drudg, to the laborious plough
The slow pac'd burden-bearing long-ear'd Ass
And bastard Mules do crop the tender grass.
The gen'rous Spaniel, and the faithfull Dog,
The belly-grunting mire-delighting hog.
The Leopard famous for his speckled coat,
The tim'rous Coney and the browsing Goat.
The stinking Pole-Cat, and the mouzing Cat,
Which sees as well by night as day the Rat
That corn-devouring creature, and the Mouse.
That haunts the corners of the statliest house,
The Beaver much esteemed for his skin
Must needs among the traine be railed in.
The Armadilio besieged round
With shells like armour, undermines the ground.
Alternately his sex Hyæna changes,
His eyes assume all colours which as strange is;
Such Dogs as on his shadow light grow dumb:
His feet stick fast whoever sees him come;
Calling the shepherds from their thatched bowers,
He slayes them, and their slautered Corps devours.
The shagie Bear doth fashion out her yong,
By licking them all over with her tongue.

The quick-eyed Linx, his back bespeckled all
Can with his sight impeiree the thickest wall.
The suck-egg Weasil, and the harkning Hare,
(Which litters ev'ry month through out the yeare,)
The hounds deceiveth by her winding flight,
Rests all day (if not rais'd) and tun's all night,
In peacefull warrens, here are fleecy flocks
Of bleating sheep, there lurks the subtil Fox
Loathsome for smell. the little eyeless Moles,
And theevish Pict's lie hid in secret holes.
The bob-taild Squirrel doth a storme foresee,
Seeming to be as weather-wise as we;
The buff whose firm impenetrable skin
Made into sheilds no shafts can enter in.
The truc'lent Panther, and the direfull Tiger,
Devour their captives with undaunted vigor,
The by-corn'd Girass doth the desarts like,
His neck's as long as is a martial Pike.
The Salamander liveth in the flame,
It's extream coldness putteth out the same,
Th'egg-hatcht Chamelion by the ayer is fed
And turne t'all colours except white and red.
The rough Baboone, and Etheopian Ape,
Imitate man are most like men in shape.
'Tis fabled that the Naiades do make
With their loud roarings ev'n th'earth to qkuae.

The thorn-arm'd hedg-hog; for his various amell,
The Ortus famous; and the bunch-backt Camel.
Slow pac'd Ignatus unto these I'le put
It sings six notes fa, sol, la, mi, re, ut.
The scaly Dragon, and the furr'd-coat Ermin,
Locusts, and Catterpilers, such like vermin.
The double-headed Amphisbena, and
Innum'rous insects creep upon the land,
The ven'mous Viper doth her brood devour,
Again the brood, inclosed in the bower
Of their dams wombe; impatient of delay
Break through their sides and so their dams do slay.
The hoarse-resounding Grashoppers in thickets
Do sing abroad; as doth at home the Crickets
Earth breeds all reptils ev'ry kinde of forme
The Glow, the Palmer, and the Canker-worme,
The Toad, (the earths unprofitable clog.)
The hissing Serpent and the croaking Frog.
The saffron-hating Crocodile will run
On those that fly. but the pursuers shun.
The dreadful Basilisk baneful eye doth slay
Whom e're it looks upon, his breath (they say)
His poysnous breath, will taint, nay more, unlock
The firmest Marble, and obdurest rock.
The horny-nos'd Rhinoceros will whet
His horne e're on the Elephant he set.

The Lion next upon the stage I'le bring,
Of men the terror, of all beasts the king.
He cometh ramping, with his eyes bright shining,
Most bravely minded, yet to preys inclining:
The Crowing Cock, the rattling Carr, and fire,
Do terrifie this beast, this beast so dire,
This formidable beast is mild to those
Who doe submit, but cruel to his foes:
Gratefull to those his benefactors are;
Humble to those that humbleness declare.

The Elephant next claimeth excellence,
This beast comes nearest unto humane sense;
He knows his country speech, he's us'd in warrs,
He worshipeth the Sun, the Moon, the Starrs.
The greatest of all beasts the earth doth hold,
He's proud of trappings wrought with burnish'd gold
Adores the King, his most ambitious spirit
Aspires to glory, glory to inherit.

But oh! who can sufficiently declare
Gods works, the which so full of wonder are!
And now for to conclude earth doth produce
All beasts, and ev'ry creeping thing for use;
After their sev'rall kinds on earth they trade
And God was pleased with the works he made.

Sect. 8.

The Argument.

God a living soul sublime
Breath's in man compos'd of slime,
Of a rib he framing woman,
Gives her for a help unto man.

God having made the world, and all therin,
To frame a little world did now begin;
This little world is man, he formed last,
Of the four elements the Proto-plast.
The great, almighty, everlasting God
Created Adam of a ruddy clod.
God, was the true Prometheus, did inspire
His earthly-nostrils with cœlestial fire.
Man like himself he made in sacred feature,
And under his command brought ev'ry creature.
This little world is in the great world plac'd,
And with the title of a King is grac'd.
This Micro-cosm instal'd by God alone
Of the great world obtaines the royal throne,

The King of Kings gave to his regal hand
The jurisdiction both of Sea and Land.
What things soever any eye can see
Within the furnish'd world his subjects be:
What birds soever in the ayer have motion,
What fish soever glidea along the Ocean,
What beasts soever on the hills do feed,
What e're the melancholy desarts breed,
What fruits soever on the eorth remaine,
Are tributary to mans Lordly reigne.
Man is the emblem of a divine nature,
And lively picture of his live creator.
All creatures pore on earth mans sublime face
Behold's his maker, he is fil'd with grace
And divine beauty, their terrestrial mind
Mind earthly things man, only man's, enclin'd
To heav'nly wisdome, his infused spirit
Is most ambitious glory to inherit.
Mans understanding and heroick sense
Above all other hath preheminence.
A nat'ral sense, beasts have as well as we,
They touch, they tast, they feele, they heare, they see,

Man's head is term'd the understanding's thrown,
The intelectual pow'rs meet there in one.
There madam Reason is enthron'd, her grace
Reignes like an Empress in the highest place.

My lady Will, resideth in the brain;
The Judgment there, there doth Minerva raigne,
Light of the Micro-cosm our eyes are, wee
The glory of the Lord by them doe see.
Three humours do belong unto our eyn,
The White, the Viteral, and the Christaline,
Six Coates, as many Musckles arteries,
Tendons, and Nerves attend upon our eyes,
May not our eyes bee very well defin'd
The Looking-glass of Nature, and the minde.
Our eyes are twinckling Lamps, what is our sight?
But Cristall-Casements for to let in light,
The Optick sinews, or the Optick strings,
Draw in the sight of sublunary things.
The eyes, our anger, and our love, do shew,
Strike fire in hatred, and in love they glow,
One while they sparkle with Idalian fire,
One while they glance; another while admire!
They bolt in boldness, and in reverence sinke,
They smile in laughter, and in greise they winke:
In love they flatter, and in wrath seeme froward,
They shew the glad, the sad, the bold, the coward,
They well can put a difference betweene
Such objects as are either foule or clean.
Our cy-lids like Appentices prevent
A world of dangers, which are incident

Unto our eyes, our eyes bright shining balls
Are Bull-wark'd round about with fleshly walls.

Man's nose is like a sink by which the braine
Doth purge it self of phlegm, the nose doth drain
All slimy Excrements, and doth convay
Them (never to returne again) away.
By it we breath and smel; 'tis that doth grace
The man, and wonderously become the face.
The ay'r doth in the nose the smelling stop
Which else from out the nose would forthwith drop
Our ears the minds informers do go round
With winding mazes, evr'y kind of sound
They can distinguish, at the shril, the flat,
The acute, the gentle, and the aspirate.
The ear's the dainty'st sence, it doth descry
Base jarring Musick, from pure harmony:
By these we move the brain, the brain by these
Is rid of chol'rick superfluities.
It is by these we (as it were) discern
And let in knowledg, 'tis by these we learn
All kinds of noise we'r taught to know th'rough these
Mechanick Arts, and learned Siences.
God gave one mouth, two ears, two eyes, that we
Might little speak, though much we hear, and see,
The mouth, the stomack's portal is, and by it
We unto nature let in nat'ral diet.

Two folding doores of corral do convene
Lest in the teeth deform'ty should be seen
Our Iv'ry Teeth the feeling sence have got,
Can tell you what is cold, and what is hot,
They are the bull-warks of the tongue (to tame
Th'unruly member), tis by them we frame
And fashion out our words; foreteeth, and hind
We use; they shred our food, and these do grind:
Our teeth are busie Cooks (which without question)
Makes our food ready for the first digestion.
Our tongue and pallat by their tasting power
Distinguish ev'ry relish sweet from soure.
It is our tongue that's vocal, on our tongue
The Lutes and Vials of our speech are hung:
What thing soe graceful to a man as hair?
How sliek! how comly does it show! how faire!
The pillar of our head's, the neck; neere kin
Unto the nether lip's, the dimpling chin.
The greatest strength that man enjoys, consists
Most in his shoulders, in his arms, and fists;
How necessary are our hands, our hands
Are handmaids to the body; man commands
All kind of things by them, nature imparts
Unto our hands, the Mastership of arts.
With pliant joynts our fingers are upheav'd
Apt to receive and keep the things receiv'd.

The servants of the mind they are, and do
What is her pleasure to command them to:
The left hand (unexperienc'd) stands and serves
The right hand b'ing a skilfull artist carves:
Nerves joine our bones, our bones do represent
The timber of our fleshly Tennement.
The main-spporting pillar of the frame
Is cal'd the chine, the chine doth prop the same
Our thighs are plac'd beneath our hips and flank
Next Hams, the Calfs, below the knees the, shank,
And in the Lesk, but just below the groine,
(O shame to name!) our privities do joyne.
Our feet are useful dangers for to baulk,
One while to stand another while to walk.
They are the bodies moving ground-work, all
The fabrick (were it not for them) would fall.
Mans outward parts are shown, I'le now begin
To rip him up, and see what is within.
His lungs, like bellows, are they which receive
Contracted ayer, and the same regives;
They puff up, at their taking air in,
And shrink when they do let it out again,
The pory lungs doth with it's spungie fan
Refrigerate the heart: The heart of man
Is made Triangular, the heart doth give
Life to each part, without it none can live.

Th'hearts motion doth our bodies motion breed,
The vital spirits from the heart proceed;
She, she the conduit of our blood convays
Her Crimson bounty thorough cleare blew-wayes.
She mitigates the coldness of the spleen,
And in the bodie regulates as Queen;
If not by her, whence do our pulses beat,
From her we do derive our nat'ral heat.
She is the center of the bodie, whence
All creatures draw their lives circumference.
This pearle absconded in a Casket lies,
Is the first living, and the last that dies.
Man's stomack is a pot, wherein the meat
Is reconcocted, he before did eat.
The Mesaraick veins suck and deliver
The Chile of what we eat through pipes, to th'liver.
The belly is a buttery, wherein
(Within the cupbord of the bowels skin)
The grosser offals, that the stomack leaues
Of its digestion adhers and cleaves.
Where they remaine, until dame-nature please
For to exonerate such filthy lees.

When God had framed man with wondrous art,
He after made his soul the nobler part;
He did his dross with sacred fire refine
And breath'd in him a soul, a soul divine.

A soul immortal; death with all its power,
Nor Satans fiery darts can't it devour.
God to the soul eternal essence gave,
It had beginning, but no end shall have.
Wit, Understanding, Memory, and Will,
The pallace of the soul inhabit still:
How circular, how speedy is hir motion?
She roundeth in a trice the Heav'n, Earth, Ocean:
She scales heav'ns tower with her Eagles wings;
Finds out th'obstruce Originals of things;
As raine, hail, snow, ice, winds, nor doth she wonder
At flash of lightning, nor at claps of thunder.

When thus his Image, man, the Lord had made
Each way compleat, within himself he said
It is not good, nor doth it please me well
That man alone without an ayd doth dwell:
I'le therefore make him one, his joy, his chear,
His Dove, his solace, his beloved dear.

With that the Lord, whose actions are so deep
Past finding out, cast Adam fast a sleep;
Seal'd up his eyes, and from his fruitless side
Took out a rib, and of that rib a Bride
He fashion'd out; and did so neatly dearn
The clift, that none the opening might discerne.
The woman made, God gave her unto man,
And he (awoke out of his sleep) began

T'express his joy unparalelled favour;
I have an helper, the Almighty gave her
To be my wife; Lo two, are made of one,
Flesh of my flesh, and of my bone the bone.
And since the Lord from out my sides did frame her
She shall be woman, woman will I name her.
(Nor is't a wonder why he call'd her so;
For unto Man at last, she prov'd a Wor.)
For this cause shall a man his parents leave,
And to his wife, his deare, adhere, and cleave.

So they were naked seeking no redress,
Nor did they blush, at this their nakedness.

The sixth day left a universal shade,
And heav'n was pleased with the works he made.

An Appendix

Of God's resting day.

Of Eden garden.

Of Man's happiness before his fall.

Of Man's misery after his fall.

Sect. 9.

The Argument

Six dayes expir'd, the seaventh day
God rests, and doth his works survay.
Eden is planted, man in Eden
May tast all fruits, but one forbiden,

When the great Architect had furnish'd all
The upper Regions; and the lower Ball,
He ceased from his works, and sanctifi'd
Unto himself, for ever to abide.
The seaventh day his glory it invested,
And from his workes, his workes so great, he rested.

The Lord of sabboths, hath this sabboth blest,
As a true Type of that eternal rest.
Kept in hav'ns blisfull Kingdome, to the praise
Of him that is the ancientest of dayes.
By his examples, he would have us doe
The like, and rest from wordly l'bour too.
This day of rest, our Saviour will come in
Unto our souls, if we let out our sin.
He sets wide ope, the portals, of his ears;
To entertaine, (a guests,) our praise, our prayers.
This day is Gods, oh let us then adore him,
And in his reverence, fall downe before him;
That so we may here after be posses'd
Of that true Sabboth, that eternal rest,
Prepar'd for saints, and joyfull Requiems sing,
Before our great, and everlasting King.
Six dayes are freely ours, but one, in seaven,
Is chaleng'd as a holy-day, by heaven;
And yet how little of that day we spend
Upon the service of so great a freind!
Alas! alas! how apt are we to think
That God beholds not, and his eyes do wink
At our neglects; but patience abus'd
Turnes fury: ah! can, can we be excus'd,
That thus transgress? no we have cause to feare,
This leeden sect, Gods iron hands are neare.

Within the radient borders of the East,
Where early Titan as a welcome guest
Findes entertainment, God a garden planted
For Man's sole use, wherin there nothing wanted
To make it truly glorious, in it, he
The worlds abrig'd Epitomie might see;
Unfathom'd love spontaneously bestowing
A paradise with milk and honey flowing:
Upon a man, an animated Clod
Must needs advance the goodness of our God.
Here is the true Elizium indeed,
Whose choyce variety of objects seed
The greedy eye; seest here a divers hieu,
Crimson, Carnation, Green, and joyfull blew.
This soyle bears fruit, all seasons in the yeare,
You cannot name the thing, but what is there.
See here coole Arbors, mark how bubbling Brooks
Do gently glide along in winding nooks:
Here's speckled ammel beautifies the ground:
And heav'n sent Manna, ev'ry morn is found.
The pretty birds (by nature taught) doe sing
Melodious notes, to their mellifluous King.
How fragrantly life-breathing Ziphyr blowes
His sweet-heart Flora, gen'rously bestrowes
The smiling Earth, with oderiferous flowers,
'Gainst Adam's wedding; pearly-dropping showers

Enrich the grass; without the help of ploughs
Tellus partutiates; on the laden boughs
The mellow fruits do dangle, and do stand
Ambitious (as it were) to kiss the hand.
O what a lovely lustre doth adorn
The balmy air! the Amalthean horn
Is giv'n to Adam (not to Hercules)
Gemifluous Phiton, golden Euphrates
Silver-wav'd Hiddekel, Christal-ey'd Gibon,
Water this heav'nly earth, this earthly Sion.
Cloath'd are the Trees in green; the stately Pine,
And tow'ring Cedar, lovingly combine,
A Bow'r with bending arches to compose:
The shame fac'd Lilly, and the red-cheek'd Rose,
Strive for priority: how all things smile
And e'ne luxuriate! Oh delightful soile!

Amongst the trees wherewith th'Eternal grac'd
This prime plantation, in the midst he plac'd
Two speciall trees (both inordain'd for food,
But seals the one of life, of knowledg good
And evil was the second; to th'intent
That Adam's life should not be idly spent
Trine-une Jehovah did his steps direct
To this blest Bow'r, and spake to this effect.

Of all the trees that in the Orchard be
I set them for thy use, one only tree

Shall be my rent; that tree thou shalt not tast,
Which in the center of the garden's plac'd
The rest are freely thine, by my permission,
Rent-free: but yet on an imply'd condition:
What I injoyne be studious to fulfill,
Touch not the tree of knowledg, good, and ill;
For by my sacred majesty, I vow,
And by my venerable name, if thou
Break but thy Lease, “thy very lips that shall
“Let in this fruit, shall let in death withal.
But if thou please me well, this tree shal be
A sacred pledg between thy God, and thee.
My Vice-Roy shalt thou be, thy seed I'le bless,
Thy seed for ever shal the land possess.
Be thou obsequious thou shalt finde me mild,
I'le be thy father, thou shalt be my child.
He said no more: Adam did then express
His loyal duty, and his thankfulness.
Glorious, and great, who hast instal'd me King
Of this vast Orb, and Lord of ev'ry thing
Within its larg dementions: Gratious Lord
Thou gav'st me all, nay of thine owne accord.
Ah Lord! what merrit? what desarts in me
(To claime such high-bred favours couldst thou see)
O bounteous love! oh love that is extended
Beyond al bounds! O love uncomprehanded!

Ah! shall thy mercyes overflow my banks?
And shall I ebb, in the returnes of thanks?
Thou giv'st me life, and rare enjoyments too,
To tell them out is more then I can do.
And shall I not acknowledg thee? ah! sure
No senseless stone can e're be so obdure.
Take partial thanks, for as for to express
Love to the life I cannot, I confess:
Accept my mite, to praise I will persever
Thine holy name, for ever, and for ever
Ah! far be it from me to countermind
What thou prohibit'st: shall thy lib'ral hand
Heap blessings on me? thou afford'st me all,
Thy selfe reserv'st but one, and shall I fail
To keep from thee thy right? shall my transgression
Displease the Land-lord of my free possession.
O no, I will obey, one onley Tree
Shall put no varience 'twixt my God and me.
Should I attempt so foul a fact, I were not
Worthy to live; might then Gods justice spare not
To vulnerate my soul, Oh might I feele
Th'imprinted strakes of his revengeful steele.
Great God! Oh may I rather cease to be,
Then live t'offend, so good a God as thee?
The Sun shall sooner cease, for to display
On tender plants, his bright enlivning Ray:

Sooner shall sun-burnt India grow cold,
And Icy Zealand hot, and heav'ns grow old.
E're I from my first principles retreat,
And disobey my God, so good, so great.

Thus Adam liv'd in favour with the Lord,
Enjoying all the joyes earth could afford.
On while he walks along the bordred Alleys,
Now up the hillocks, down anon, the valleys,
And now by whisp'ring Brooks, takes sweet reposes
On beds of Lillies, and anon on Roses.

Sect. ult.

The Argument.

The Devill in the Serpent's forme
Tempteth to sin the woman first:
She man; so done, the Lord doth storme,
The Serpent, Eve, and Adam's cur'st.

Proud Lucifer, through vain ambition strove
To equalize himselfe with God above:
But of his pow'r Angelical bereaven,
He tumbled head-long down the courts of heaven:
From a bright Pallace to a sulph'ry Cell,
Made Monarch of (the land of darkness) Hell.
Thus strip'd of all his quondam pleasures, he
Greatly envieth man's felicity:
Man is his eye-sore, man's supernal state
The Object is of his infernal hate:
He finding opertunity, began
Slily to worke, the overthrow of man:
His guiles and wiles he palliates, and is
Turn'd int' a snake, strange Metamorphosis!

His toyles he spreads, and covertly he waits
To catch poore Adam, by his golden baits:
And's plot the better to acomplish, he
Goes wriggling up on the forbiden tree:
Assaults the woman, with his baited gin,
And thus he drawes the sily woman in.

Serpent.
Great Empress of the world: I humbly sue
To be resolved of a doubt, which you
Can satisfie me in: have you indeede
Your apetite restrain'd? what many't you feed
One evr'y pleasant fruit? why so? doth God
Limit your pow'r? if so, 'tis very odd.

Eve.
Of all the trees that scited are in Eden,
There is but one, no more than one forbiden.
The tree thou seest, there in the middle plac'd,
We must on paine of death, not touch, nor tast.
That God reserv's unto himselfe, for what
I know not, but 'tis death to tast of that.

Serpent.
Pish, Pish you shall not dye, deaths bended Bow
Shall never harme you; you shal never know

What doth belong to death; death cannot slay you,
You are immortal; feare not death I pray you;
Touch, take, and tast, (beleive me) and your eyes
Shall straight be op'ned; you will be as wise
As he that made you; be but rul'd, and ye
As Gods, both knowing good and ill shall be.
Feare not, (faire Lady) eat, I as a freind
Advise you not for any Private end,
Or self-respect; you shall be deifi'd:
Ambitious Jove, no equals can abide.
Coy woman tast, behold their beautiful,
And cherry cheeks, coy woman doe but pull.
Cannot those mellow-delicates, invite
Your wat'ring palate, to an appetite?
Methinkes they should, taste, and you shall have skil,
To know the diference 'twixt good, and ill.
Why draw'st thou back? To the possessed Snake,
The cred'lous woman this reply did make.

Eve.
Wisest of beasts, all that you speak is true,
You counsel for the best, all thanks be due,
For your great love your love which doth transcend
All merrit of mine, thanks to my loyal freind:
My life's to small to hazard for your ease,
Freind I could give't, your speeches doe so please.

This fruit is marv'lous pleasing to the eye;
And questionless, 'tis to the tast: I'le try.
And eat thereof and give my husband Adam.

Serpent.
They bow to serve you, at your pleasure, Madam.

Eve.
Ah! how delitious is this fruit, how sweet!
A finer Apple I did never eat.
Husband, my love, come sit thee down by me,
And taste the vertue of this sov'raigne Tree.
Say, say my love, did e're thine eye behold
A Tree so fair, so rare as this; be bold,
As was thy Eve; and venter on't; for why?
Come what come will, thou'lt fare no worse then I.
Ah! hadst thou knowne my dearest what a bliss
Attends the eating, thou hadst eat e're this.
What? frownes my Adam? wilt thou not draw nearer,
And taste my love, then whom my life's not dearer
For Eves sake eat, and know both good and ill.

Adam:
Seeing thou invit'st me eat, my joy, I will.
Ah! wee have sin'd in medling with this Tree,
This cursed Tree; Oh whither shall we flee?

Undone! undone! we know not what to do,
What course to take, Oh whither shall we goe?
Lo we are naked, and we must confess
Asham'd we are, of this our nakedness,
And blush to think on't, were not we of late
All cloth'd in glory? but where's now our state?
What have we got by our presumptious pride?
But shame, which if we could, faine would we hide.
Strange change! we have exchang'd, sad thing to tel,
God for an apple, and a heav'n for hell.
My conscience tells me what a gracious God
We have offended; now methinks his rod
He shakes in fury, now methinks his ire
Threatens to burn us, with consuming fire:
What thinkest thou, may not these leaves hard by
Make aprons wife, for naked thee, and I:
Quick, let's these broad Fig-leaves together sew,
And hide the shame, we are asham'd to shew.
Experience tels us that the things which tend
To greater bliss, prove dang'rous in the end.
The fruit that's pleasing, is not alwayes sound;
Untoothsome Clerus is in hony found.
That man-betraying Scorpion, did bring
Hony in's mouth, but in his tail a sting.
The fruit that seemed best, prov'd worst of all:
Sweet in the mouth, but in digestion gall.

Eve.
Hark! hark! methinks I hear (too true I feare)
A thundring voyce come rounding in mine eare.
I' me sure I hear't. I prithee Adam cease
Thy querulous complaints, peace, husband peace.
Ah me! vile wretch, 'tis God, undon! undon!
We have transgress'd, 'tis therfore time to run;
Let's hide us in the Woods I feare, I feare,
That he will catch us, naked, as wee are.
A poor defence God-wot, what brazen Tower
Can keep us safe from his all-bat'ring power.
Such as doe strive, by hiding of their sin,
To shut God out, do let the Devil in.
The case is ours: the more we would conceale
Our sins, alas! the more we them reveal.
What place can us secure? where can we lie
Absconded from his all-beholding eye?
Dye, dye wee must, no wayes of our contriving
Can save us harmeless? can wee gaine by striving?
Are our bones Brazil, orour flesh of Steel?
Can wee imagine that we shal not feele,
The worst of his displeasure? dare we stand
In opposition to th'Almighties hand?
Or rather shal we with submissive tears
Beg hard for pardon, w'have a Wolfe by th'ears.

The bellows, of our sins, have blowne the coales
Of flaming vengeance to devour our souls.

Adam.
Peace, peace, I heare him too; he thunders now,
Where art thou Adam, tell me, where art thou.

Adam.
Great God! thy voyce, thy dreadful voyce, I heard
Rush in the garden, and I was affray'd:
It was my shameful nakedness, did move
Me to seek shelter in this shadie grove.

God.
Naked? who told thee thou wer't naked? hast
Thou eat the fruit, forbidden thee to taste.
Gods mercyes Adam having thus abus'd,
Accus'd the woman, but himself excus'd.

Adam.
All-glorious Lord, shee whom thou gav'st me, gave
The fruit unto me, and I eaten have.

God.
Nefandious woman, ah! what hast thou done,
That thus my awful presence thou dost shun?

Eve.
Lord, I confess that my offence is great;
The Serpent tempted me, and I did eat;
The Rhet'rick of his tongue did so delight
Mine eares, that I obey'd mine appetite.
Thus did his Oratorious delusion
Lead me along, unto my sad confusion.

The Serpent's curse.
Because thou hast fallitiously deceiv'd
The silly woman; thou shalt be bereav'd
Of future happiness; thou, thou, the worst
Of all the beasts: shalt not be least acurs'd,
Dust shalt thou eat, and since thou hast done so,
For ever shalt thou on thy belly go,
Abhor'd of all; moreover I'le disperse
Debate, and variance 'twixt thy seed, and hers.
Her seed shall bruise thy head: And poysnous thine
Shall bruise her heele, and round her heele entwine.

Eves curse.
And thou, nefarious bride, who hast betray'd
Thy husbands trust, and wickedly obey'd
The Serpents words; I will inflict on thee
As bad a curse, as any curse can be.

In paine bring forth thou shalt; greifs shall encumber
Thy tortur'd soul; thy torments shal out number
The minutes of thy life; ten thousand woes
Shall plague thy spirit; and thrice as many throes
Shall rack thy body, this disast'rous chance
Shall cling to thee till thy deliverance.
With all submission: thou, vile creature, thou,
Thy servile neck, shalt to thine husband bow:
He, shall rule over thee, and thou shalt stand
As loyable, to his severer hand.

Adam's Curse.
Apostatized wretch, because thou hast
Giv'n audience to thy wife, to boldly taste
The bitter sweets of this reserved Tree,
From which (on paine of death,) I warned thee.
Curs'd be the earth, and all her smiling pleasures,
Her gratefull plenty and exub'rant Treasures:
Curs'd for thy sake, b' earth's amiable face,
Let thorns, and thistles, grow in ev'ry place.
And thou, for this abominable deed,
Shalt feed on hearbs; I'le make thee get thy bread,
With a laborious hand: thy sweetned meat
Must now have sower sauce: thy toylsome sweat
Shall stand in surrowes, on thy bubling brow,
Earning thy living at the painefull plough.

Thus shalt thou live; till death the thred divide
Of thy fraile life, thy sorrowes shall abide.
A number of diseases shall attend
Thy loathed life; sins off-spring, death, shall send
His Harbingers abroad, which shall anoy thee,
And never leave thee, till they quite destroy thee.
The never missing dart of death shall slay
The brittle Casket of thy soul, and lay
Thy earth-ta'ne body in an earthly urne;
For dust thou art and shalt to dust returne.
Be gone; base Caitiffe, from this garden, flee,
Such rare enjoyments sha'nt belong to thee.
Be gone: be gone: no longer shalt thou please
Thy del'cate palate with such cares as these:
Worse fare shall serve thy turne: with ploughs goe wound
Thy native soile goe dig, and delve the ground.

1 Tim, 1, 17. Αφθαρτω βασιλει (παντοτε) δοξα Θεω.

To the reverend, his much Honored Freind, Mr FRANCIS TAILOUR

Anagr. Al Vain For C(h)rist.

With Paul All Vaine For C(h)rist you doe account.
So shall you to the heigth of glory mount.

Honored SIR,

The Series of your favours did invite
Mine unfleg'd Muse, to take a sudaine flight,
On Peg'sus wings, 'twas that which did infuse
A quickning life into my dying Muse.
Can Helicon want lucid streames! can I
Be dry of matter, you Mecenas by?
I hate to be ungratefull, if I should
Not make a verse the Rocks and Mountains would:
The sequestration of two hours time
From serious Studies, I imploy'd in Rhime.
Yet Nothing went about, with what I drew
From Nothing, Nothing, I present to you.

Dress'd in a rude, yet in a sober, stile,
Hoping you will at my endeavours smile.
You hate (as wel as I) these dang'rous times,
To cast your eyes on vaine and wanton Rhimes.
And I could gladly spend my flitting dayes
In penning Sonnets to my makers praise.

To your protecting wings I therefore fly
For shelter: ah! but when my serious eye
Darts on your worth, and on my selfe looks down,
I feare the wrath of a condemning frown.
Juditious Sir, if that you please t'affect
These embrio-lines 'tis more then I expect.
But yet, I know your candour wil excuse,
Since 'tis an ev'ning, not a morning muse.
I crave not praise, but pardon. I have got
Mountaines of praise if you disdaine me not.

O may you live unto grand Nestor's day
With silver age, and honor cown'd: so prayes
Your humble servant, whose unbound desire
Is Phenix like, to burne in duties fire:
Whose life's too smal to hazard for your ease,
Sir, I am yours, command me when you please.

N B.

Wickham-brooks June 5, 1657.

The Praise of Nothing.

The prince of Poets, wrot of Frogs, and Mice:
Uirgil of Gnats: and Henisius of Lice:
Witty Erasmus, Folly's praise did write
And Drayton, did upon Madge-Owle endite.
On Hazle-Nuts smooth Ovid versifies:
And some do treat of Maggots, and of flies.
One hath such stateliness t' a bald-pate given,
That there is scarce an haire 'twixt it and heav'n.
This lauds brave Bag-Puddings: whilst he composes
The admirable honour of Red-Noses,
And such poore petty things, and shall no story
Be penn'd in honour of great Nothings glory
Shal shee, from whence all things a being have,
Lye dead, and buried, in oblivions grave?
My muse shall praise her, though she can't compile
Fine silken words, nor in ornated stile
Blazon great Nothing, for shee seemes to be
A Theam, more fit for Homer, then for me.
I mar'l to her, men did not Temples frame,
Like that at Ephesus, to Dianas name.
Had I a world of eloquence I know
Twere scarce enough all nothings worth to show

I stand astun'd, (not knowing what does ail me)
Mine eyes doe dazle, and my thoughts e'ne faile me.
For to conceive her seenless parts, and Name,
My words are wanting to express the same.
I'le summon her t'appeare in her owne praise;
(Though tongueless) yet imagine that she saies
Upon a stage, amidst a gazing throng
Of glad Spectators, this triumphall song.
Kinde auditors, be pleased to encline
Your willing ears, to this poore speech of mine.

Although that All-things in my place doe stan[illeg.]
Mine age (as right) may claime the upper hand.
Is't fit the Daughter, should her duty smother,
And yeild no rev'rence t'her decripit Mother?
Does it become her well? ought shee to owe
No more respect? is this a seemly shew?
Where is her storgie ' what, doth she not minde
The empty wombe that bare her? oh unkinde!
Nay had it been a freind, that should deceive me
An ordinary freind, it ne're had greev'd me:
But that my childe, mine owne deare childe, should seem
To own me not is more then most extream.
Had I a mother, I should judge all honor,
And love, too little to bestow upon her.
She's grown so burlie, and I am so small,
That I can hardly be discern'd at all.

The black spot on a beane, a Flea, a Fly,
An Ant, a Nitt is not so small as I.
All little things are pretty, and the taller
Are more deform'd, then me ther's nothing smaller.
Small as I am, yet of my shapeless feature
God fram'd the world; and what (but God) is greater.
No father had I, neither did I come
From out the Closet of a mothers wombe.
I was, and was not, substance have I none,
No flesh, no blood, no sinewes, nerves, nor bone.
Nor can I justly stiled be trub-hody,
For I have neither hinder parts nor body.
I'me cloath'd in emptiness, transparent cloathing
As thin as Aire; I doe repast on Nothing,
Chamelion like; and as a vestal Nun
So chast am I, all company I shun.
I lead a solitary life, for where
The least thing is, be sure I am not there.
Could you but try me, you would lighter finde.
Then Ce phus tost with ev'ry gust of winde.
I liv'd (though dead) from all eternity,
What was there (can you tell) but God and I?
Out of meere love hath not th'Eternal fram'd
All things of me that are, unnam'd, are nam'd?
Goe ask the starrie gal'ries if they be
Deriv'd of any but of God and me,

By us those Squtchions, thick as Argus eyes
Hang out and twinckle in the Marble Skies.
Even as bright Phebe's borrow'd raies do shine
By Titan, Titan does by Gods, and mine.
Ask but the earth, if she did ever crown
Her front, and put on an embroidred gown,
'Bout her grose waste, if ever she did ware
Such fruits, like pendant-Iewells in her eares?
If the blew heav'ns like braclets did her deck,
Or starrs, like beads, encompassed her neck
Before I was: ask her and if her Globe
Was circumvested, with a Sea-green Robe.
Ask her all this, and if that she denies
Apparent truth; in flat and plaine, shee lies.
Tell her from me, from me arise her Bowers:
I fill'd her lapp, with oderiferous flowers.
The warr-us'd Cornel, and the Mast-full Beach,
The fun'ral Cypress, and the velvet Peach,
The downy Poplar, the piramidal Pear
The tow'ring Cedar and tall Pine did rear
Their heads from me: from me, a golden tindge
Ceres receiv'd: a Jasper colour'd frindge
Embellished the Meddows, Pastures, Land,
All diapar'd with spangled Dazies stand.
All Birds, Beasts, Fishes, rarest gems rich mines,
From out my fruitful loynes, derive their lines.

I'me Alpha, and Omega; from me springs
Both the begining, and the end, of things.
When the rebellious world, for sin was drown'd
Then only Noah's Arke and I was found.
When flashing fire, and stifeling Brimstone, rain'd
On Sodom, and Gomorah, I remaind.
Rome's Capitol, and Troy's Palladium,
Carthag, and Athens, are to nothing come.
Where's Thebs brag, of her hundred gates but lately?
The Tow'rs of Babilon? where be the stately
Long Obelisks? the Piramid's? where's now
Mausolus Tombe? can any tell me how
The Temple builded to Diana's shrine
Doth stand? did they not all to me resigne.
Say where is Pharo's Tow'r? can you behold
Jove's simelachre, rich for burnish'd gold?
Gold-pav'd Jerus'lem is, alas! bereft
Of all her pompe, and she hath nothing left?
Nothing is left, that is for some thing good;
Grass growes where brave Dædalian buildings stood
Nay heavens shall melt, the universall frame
Return to nothing, from the whence it came;
Is Hercules alive; can he be glorious
Suddu'd by me? Think you that the victorious
Undaunted Cæsar, and great Pompey too,
Two thunder-bolts of War, exploits can do?

Now they are dead? could the great Alexander
Who weep'd, in that he could not be commander
Of many worlds? could his brave acts and glory
Keep him from being Nothing? could the hoary
Age of grand Nestor save him from the Urne,
When dust he was, and must to dust returne.
Blind Homer, solid Virgil, none sets eye on
Wise Cato's gone, the Dolphin caryd Arion;
Stout Hector, am'rous Paris, Troy-bane Hellen,
Subtile Ulisses, are to Nothing fell in.
Where is Amphion, at whose Musicks sound
The Theban walls were raised from the ground?
The eared Oakes, shall never any more
Dance after Orpheus pipes as heretofore.
Caonean Doves, in the Dodonian grove,
Shall ever cease more Oracles to move.
Who wil beleeve that William once againe
Can conquer Saxons? he and all his men
Alas! where are they? are they not return'd
From whence they came, and into nothing spurn'd?
Where's bloody Mary, and Elizabeth,
Of blessed memory, but kil'd by death.
Where's now pacif'cal Iames, misguided Charles?
How many worthies, Nobles, Barons, Earles,
Lords, Knights & Gentle-men were there, that have
Took full possession of the gaping grave.

What are the rich but dust, as well as they
That beg? Death is a debt which all must pay.
Can Essex lead an Army, when to Leed
His body is confin'd; Vantrump is dead,
And the Armodo sunk, and its designe
Was cross'd in eighty eight, and thirty nyne.
All things of nothing made, to nothing tend,
And what hath a beginning must have end.
In time of dearth, there's nothing to be found
But sapless stalks, upon the fruitless ground,
Nothing but singults, mixt with hearty tears
Can scale the fortress, of th'Almighties eares.
Nothing so mercifull as God, he moans
Repentant sinners, when he hear's their gaoans.
Nothing but grace, conducteth unto glory,
Then which there's nothing more untransitory.

More could I say, but the descending Sun
Takes off my Pen, with Nothing I have done.

I am de sine tibia versus.

Divine Ejaculations.

1

My God which art a brazen wall,
A Bul-warke of consuming fire,
Guard me and let my foe-men fall,
Who; causleslly my fall conspire.
Oh let thy favour be my sheild,
So shall my soul maintaine the field.

2

Oh thou which giv'st thine Angels charge,
To guide thy servants in their warrs,
Do thou protect me, and enlarge
My streightned heart, to sound thy praise,
If with thy favour, thou surround me,
No hell-borne mallice shall confound me.

3

Thou which thy children from the fire,
And Daniel from the Lions Den,
Hast freed? Oh free me from the ire
Of bloody and malitious men.
Thy grace can chase an hoast of evils,
And Legions of infernal Devils.

4

When dang'rous waves on me did roul,
By thy right hand, I sav'd have been:
Thou heard'st the pantings of my soul.
And when I knock'd did'st let me in.
Thy court of mercy; nay thine ears,
Were prone to heare my silent tears:

5

Although the tot'ring heav'ns quiver,
And earth her loosned limbs doe shake,
Yet hast thou promis'd to deliver,
Who, thee their hope, and Anchor, make.
And thou to thine a gratious God,
Abscond'st them from thy flaming rod.

6

Thou from the chambers of the earth,
From gates of hell, and shades of death,
Hast power to save, and givest birth.
Unto a body-bannish'd breath.
O let thy quickning grace shine in
My breethless soul, when dead to sin.

7

When as the clouds of thy displeasure
(Portending stormes) together gather,
Oh let thy fury know a measure,
Remember th'art a loving Father.
Though I'me a disobedient child,
Make me as good as thou art milde.

8

In wisdome thou chastizest thine,
And in the furnace of affliction,
Their drossie souls thou dost refine;
And by thy Judgments, stamp conviction.
If thy corrections thou dost lengthen,
Accordingly be pleas'd to strengthen.

9

Will he persist in wrath? and never
Admit of thoughts of mercy? can
The Lord abandon his for ever?
Oh no, for he is God, not man.
He vows, (and will his vows performe)
His fury shall not alwayes storme.

10

O happy he whom God corrects,
Therefore his chastening doe not shun;
The Lord afflicts whom he affects,
As doth a father, his lov'd Son.
Nor doth he alwayes fury like,
For he doth stroke, as well as strike.

11

Who would not willingly endure
A minutes time a, little paine;
If after that he might be sure
Ten thousand years of ease to gaine?
Afflictions light, and transitory,
Yeild an eternal weight of glory.

12

Cleanse me from soul infecting sin,
And purely purg away my dross,
O do thou take from me my Tin;
(And make me joy in such a loss,)
O Lord my crooked wayes reforme,
And be my pilot in a storme.

13

If thou affliction please to send
To try my frailties, and weak graces;
Make me look up, and learne to mend,
That thou mayest hugg me with embraces.
“The Law is rough, the Gospell calm,
“Be that the Launce, and this the Balm.

14

Whither thy favour thou display,
Or dost with flaming fury glow;
O let me with the faithfull say,
I doe by good experience know,
All things shall worke for good to those
Who God affect, whome God hath chose:

15

As my affliction Lord abounds
So let my consolation,
Pour Balsam in my bleeding wounds,
And hide m' in thy pavilion.
Although I fall yet I shall stand
Supported by thy helping hand.

16

Great God! though my offences urge
Thy heavie hand, yet Lord refraine,
My Saviour's blood hath power to purge
My scarlet sins, though dy'd in graine.
One drop can scour, and make them full
As bright as snow, as white as wooll.

17

Thy frowning Justice stormes doe bring,
But thy cleare mercyes them doe stop:
I'le be content with a wet spring,
So I may have a joyfull crop.
Comforts will troops of greif destroy,
Who sow in teares shall reap in joy

18

My God, my Rock, my Sheild, my Tower,
My health, my strength, deliver me,
From those three foes, that would devour,
Ah! I shall fall unheld by thee.
Thou only hast the power to quell
Pernitious foes, Sin, Death, and Hell.

19

Thou Lord wilt lay no more on me
When my weak back can bear no longer
Either my burthen light shall be,
Or else my feeble faith grow stronger.
O let my well-prepared breast
With what thou send'st contented rest.

20

The judgments of the Lord are just;
Why should his judgments then dismay me?
I in my God will put my trust,
Although my God should please to slay me.
O Lord before thee do I stand,
At clay within the porters hand.

21

In time of want, grant I may live
By faith, and on thy promise feed;
Thou, Lord more ready art to give,
Then I to ask, when I do need.
O heav'nly Father, make it still
My meat, and drink, to do thy will.

22

O may I first thy Kingdome seek,
And righteousness which flowes from thee,
(So shall I be confirm'd though weak.)
And other things shall added be.
Ah Lord! shall I presume to trust
Thee for a Kingdome, not a crust.

23

In poverty be thou my wealth
May I fear thee, and of the will,
It shall be to my [illeg.] health,
And my dry bones with marrow fill
In thee it lies for to refreshe
The fainting spirit, and trembling flesh.

24

O Lord, uphold me in my walk,
For ah! my feet are apt to stumble;
Chain thou my tongue from sinful talk,
In all conditions make me humble[illeg.]
O give me grace to trust in thee,
So shall, it then goe well with me.

The Birth of Christ.

To be prepitious to him, while he sings,
The mean'st of Poets oraves the best of Kings.

Great God of lights, be pleased to infuse
Celestial light, into mine infant Muse.
Be thou to me an unseal'd fountaine, whence
I may suck joyfull streames; transport my sense,
Above this Mole-hill earth, doe thou distill
Into the concave of my trembling Quill,
Those lucid drops of divine Oratory,
From thy full Lembick, to set out the story
Of thy Son's condiscention. I shall stray,
If thou assist not, O be thou my way.
Lord I am weak at best, direct my youth,
That I may nothing write, but what is truth.
O teach thou me though tender, and unripe,
To play upon this slender Oaten pipe:
Soe tune it Lord that I may breath upon it
And sound thy praises, in a lasting Sonnet.
I care not for (so thou but guid my Quill)
Swet Helecon, nor yet Parnasus hill.
Make me an instrument to sing thy praise
I crave a crowne of glory, not of Bayes.

It was the time when in the morning ruddy
The thrice three sisters flock'd into my study,
And having play'd upon their Ivr'y Lyre
Such Rapsodies as Phebus did inspire.
One of the nine (the other held their tongue)
Caliope stood up and thus she sung.
(The rest gave audience, by my desk I sit,
And what she spake in Characters I writ.)

All you whose teare-bedewed eyes espy
The ill shap'd visage of your sins, draw nigh,
Mark! and consider what the Lord hath done,
To save lost sinners he hath sent his Son.
And you whose eyes could never yet let fall
A teare in earnest for your sins; come all,
Come, and in heart-proceeding tears behave you,
And doe not doubt, a Christ is borne to save you.
“How can your frozen gutters chuse but run,
“That feel the warmth of such a glorious Sun.

Now Rosy-fac'd Aurora does unfold
Her purple Curtains, all befring'd with gold.
And from the pillow of his saffron bed,
Don-Phebus rouzeth his refulgent head.
He newly leaving th'Oriental streames
Of Thetis, brandisheth her trembling beams,
Lo now bright Phospher doth abroad display
His early fulgor. ush'ring in the day

Of welcome joy: Now is the golden morn,
Wherein the Saviour of the world is born.
Borne, and of whom? a virgin, what is stranger?
Where, in a Stable? and in what, a manger?
O wond'rous meekness I he that might be born
In a rich pallace, thought it not a scorn
To rest upon a Cratch, and lay him down
On locks of straw, and not on beds of down
This child of glory (with his locks of Amber)
Grac'd a poore stable, not a princely chamber.
His Mother in her travail had of Lawn
No sheets; no vallents, nor no curtains drawn.
Nor could she there (as she deserv'd) behold
Brave Tapstry-hangings, all enrich'd with gold?
No Scarlet blankets did enwrap her child,
Unspotted, holy, harmless, undefil'd;
O object of delight! how amiable
Are thy rare vertues! and how vile the stable
In which they are inclos'd! there art thou lain,
Thou whom the heav'n of heav'ns cannot contain.
O groundless depths of thy humilitie!
What? room for swearers, and no room for thee
For to be entertain'd? ah I had'st thou bin
As bad as they, thou might'st have had an Inn.
Foxes have holes, and ev'ry bird their nest,
But Christ had not whereon his head might rest.

Bles't Son if God, oh! how hast thou debas'd
Thy glorious self, ah! why would'st thou be plac'd
In such a homely bow'r; was't not that we
Might by thy pattern learn humility?
Art thou advanc'd unto the highest pitch
Of fortune? be not proud, Christ was not rich.
Art thou involv'd in gulfs of Povertie?
Remember Christ was poore as well as thee.
He's poore without, but all enrich'd within,
Like other men in all things, saving sin.
Our mediator, and our advocate,
Is born but meanly, not in regal state.
And all for sinners, oh! th'abounding love
Of a sweet Saviour! he that was above
Angels in glory; and might still inherit
Investest honor, bears an humble spirit,
And to b' as low, as low can be, hath chose;
The inundation of his love o're flowes,
Our thoughts conceptions thou dost expand
Pure love; ah! what deserve we at thy hand
But fire and brimstone? ah! what moves thee thus
Dear Lord! what goodness dost thou find in us?
Lord! what is man, that thou should'st mindfull be
To save from torment, such a wretch as he.
Towards froward sinners he his favour turnes;
Oh! how our God in his affection burnes,

O love unparalel'd! uncomprehended!
Great God! ah! whither is thy love extended!
Cheare up poor sin-sick soul; art thou opprest,
And heavy laden, Christ will give thee rest?
Rouz thee from sinfull sleep, ere break of day,
Mark what the Angel did to th'Shepards say?
He saies to thee fear not; lo now I bring
Tidings of joy; for unto you a King
A Saviour is born, is borne to day,
Where princely David did the scepter sway:
The wise-men see, conducted by a star
A Sun-shine, brighter then the Sun by farr.
O may we all unanimously run
To view the rising of so clear a Sun.
Lord let us not with Herod and the Jews,
Hearing thy birth be troubled at the news.
But joy in that thou comest to restore
And save us sinners, who were lost before.
This, this is he concerning whome 'twas said
The womans seed shall break the Serpents head.
This, this is he, whose raies cast such a fire,
As should enflame our amorous desire.
Who can behold so sweet a babe as this is,
And not embrace him whith a thousand kisses!
Before his sight, the purest Lamp seems dim,
And light is darkness, if compar'd to him.

If he but shew the Sun-shine of his eye
We doe revive, if he withdraw we dye.
We by the splendour of his rayes, have bin
Freed from the darksome dungeon of sin.
Lord how inscrutable! oh how profound
Are thy wayes! oh! how deeply are we bound
To praise, and please thee, and to be enclin'd
To love thee with our souls, our strength, & mind!
Shine Sun of glory, let thy beams divine
Revive our spirits, Shine, Sun of glory shine.

Life of our souls, more glorious to behold
Then fruitfull Ophir's best refined gold;
Do thou me in thy lovely armes embrace,
And help me varnish thy atracting grace,
With sacred Rhetorick; if on my tongue
The Lutes, and Vials of the Angels, hung,
Those Sonnets I could sound in endless dayes,
Would not be correspondent to thy praise.
O let thy lips, in a diviner story
Declare thy graces, and divulge thy glory
As Angels did, glory be to thee still,
Peace on the earth, and unto men, good will.
Be glad my soul whilst all the world records,
With one cosent: Salvation is the Lord's.
Th'eternal God, hath sent his onely Son
To dye for us; we by his loss are won.

To Ela's note let us our voyces raise,
And touch our Organs on their lowder keyes,
To us, is born, to us, is sent from heaven,
The Lord of life; to us, a Son is given.
To us, that are far lesser then the least
Of mercier this great mercy is exprest.

With that Calliope spreads out her wings,
And quick (as did the rest) away she springs;
Then for the present, raptures left my head,
Invention vanish'd, and my fancy fled.

A Hymne in Commemoration of the Gun-powder Treason.

Now the grisly God of Hell,
With his monsters, fierce and fell,
Which in pitchy Ceverns dwell
Enter into consultation:
And the Devil's Impe the [Pope,]
And the Catholicks which grope
In the darke, doe greatly hope
For to see our desolation.

E're our Queen Elizabeth
Had resign'd her latest breath
Men and Devils underneath
Met to hatch a horrid treason.
Garnet moves the King of Spaine
To invade: King James his reigne
New begun makes him refrain
That designe b'ing rul'd by reason.

Seditious Catesby he recites
To Winter, what he had as lights,
From Parsons and the Jesuites,
On which the Powder-plot was grounded.
These Ca[illeg.]almes with their complices
(Foes to vertue, freinds to vices)
Swear to hide the enterprizes
Which shall be to them propounded.

Powder-Barrels thirty six;
(Billet-wood and faggot sticks
For to colour it) they fix,
In a Cellar that was voyd.
This conspir'd to overthrow
King and Kingdome at a blow,
What to do they saine would know,
Faux a villaine they employ'd.

A letter sent to th'Lord Mounteagle,
To discontent did him inveigle,
The King, like a Mejestick Eagle,
Saw with his judgments peircing eye;
And when the councel of the land
(Though they the words had wisely scan'd)
The meaning could not understand,
The letters sense he did discry.

The King commands, they search about,
For to remove suspitious doubt;
At last they find the traytor ont,
With a dark lanthorn in his hind.
The plot's reveal'd, and al their aims
His gratious goodness God proclaimes,
In saving thus our soveraine James
And all the Nobles of the land,

Oh what for us the Lord hath wrought;
He, he hath rescu'd us, and brought
All our foes fond atempts to nought?
Bloody mindes have bloody ends.
In the secret-hidden snare,
Which for us they did prepare,
They themselves intangled are;
Powder plotters powder rends.

They that did our deaths conspire,
And did very much desire
We might dance in shets of fire,
Their plots found out, they fled our coasts.

Some of them did a halter stretch,
Guy Faux, a brazen-faced wretch,
Had's head erected on a cratch:
Glory be to the Lord of Hoasts.

Thrice blessed be this day, may not
The unaccomplish'd Powder-plot,
By any Christians be forgot.
O joyfull joyfull holy day!
Let Bells in ev'ry Steeple ring,
And ev'ry sort of people sing,
And boyes their squibs and crackers fling,
And bone-fires beamy light display.

Let all of us with one accord
Extoll and magnifie the Lord;
Who to this Island did afford
So great, so straing deliverance!
O sing we allwaies to his prayse,
Sweet Sonnets Hymnes and Lirick-Layes,
Who doth preserve his Church alwaies,
Praise God my soul, his praise advance.

GENETHLIACON,

OR A Birth-song, in honor of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ his coming into the World.

1

From the skies Night slideth down;
Cloathed in a sable gown;
And her drowsie head doth crown,
With a Poppy Coronet:
Muffling up her scar-crow face;
Holding forth a Leeden Mace;
Thus she o're the world doth trace;
With bright Sentinells beset.

2

Now the Magi from a farr
From the Eastern borders are
Lead by th'lustre of a Starr,
To the place where Jesus lay:
They, soon e're they him behold,
Present presents manifold,
Myrrhe and frankincense, and gold,
And in praises spend the day.

3

And it hapned thus, that near
Unto Bethlehem, there were
Faithfull Shepherds, who with care
Tended on their fleecy fold:
Least that their flock-leading Rams,
And the pretty baing Lambs,
Should be whoried with their dams,
For the Foxes were too bold.

4

Suddenly, a glorious light,
Chas'd away the purblinde night;
And from Heav'n an Angel bright
To the Shepheards did appear;
While their fleecy people graz'd,
At this prodigy they gaz'd,
And no little were amaz'd,
For their hearts did shake with fear.

5

From the bosom of a cloud,
Heavens Herald did unshroud,
This Embassy out aloud,
Fear nor shepheards; Lo this morn,

100

The glad tidings which I bring,
Shall give you just cause to sing,
For to you, to you, a King,
And a blessed Saviour's born:

6

There, where princly David sway'd
He which the worlds ground-work laid,
Born is of a Mother-Maid,
And involv'd in swad'ling clouts:
Ever after shall all nations,
In succeeding generations,
Fill the heav'ns with acclamations,
And the earth with joyfull shouts.

7

He which is inestemable,
And to doe all things is able,
Is inclos'd within a stable,
Cradled in a silly manger:
Where the stalled Ox hath fed,
There your Saviour lays his head,
And a lock of straw's his bed,
Go Swains, entertain the st rang[illeg.]

101

8

When the Angel held his tongue,
An heav'nly Hoast of Angels sung,
(That the valted Regions rung)
For they warb'led out most shrill,
This harmonious mellody:
Glory be to God on high,
Peace unto the earth be nigh,
And unto mankind good will.

9

Praised be Gods holy name,
Let the world his praise proclaime,
Happy time, wherein we came
For to tend upon our fold:
We are now redeem'd from hell,
We that from our maker sell,
We, curs'd we, that did rebell,
Was there better news e're told.

10

Pretious Balm from Gilead springs,
Unto us a Saviour brings,
Healing in his balmy wings;
Unto us a Son is given.

102

We will carol songs of praise,
Eucharists, and Roud-delaies,
On her Ho-boies all our daies.
To the Emperour of heaven.

11

What we with our ears have heard,
Hath unto our eyes appear'd,
And shall be abroad declar'd,
By our mouths. O blessed birth!
O! what God for us hath done,
He hath sent his only Son,
By whose loss we shall be won!
Here is cause indeed of mirth.

12

Glory be to thee the Lord,
Who according to thy word,
Such rich mercy dost afford,
As is treasured up in Jesus,
O how doth our joy abound,
May't in ev'ry corner sound,
We are lost, but shall be found,
We are pain'd, but Christ will ease us!

103

Soul.

A Saviour is born;
And is he born for me?
Me; what? for me forlorn?
O love beyond degree!

Christ.

These sides shall feel the spear;
Blood shall my sides run down:
Soul, I the cross will bear;
And thou shalt wear the crown.

Soul.

Though the dull earth aspire,
And sprightly flames descend:
Yet shall my heart my Lyre,
Praise thee without An End

104

The four Ages of the World.

1 The Golden Age.

Time was (and pitty that it flew away)
When peacefull Saturn did the Septer sway
Of heaven and earth, there was no need of Laws,
Nor jangling Lawyers. to prologue a cause;
The riggld Plough, earths bowels need not tear,
The earth untill'd spontaneously did bear
Fecundious witnesses: no Lab'rours toil
Need dress the Vineyards, or manure the soile,
Plump Baccus to full bowls of sparkling Nectar
Invites each passenger; fair Flora deck'd her
With her embroidred Robes, sets open wide
Her flower-furnishd shop; with painted pride
Makes every month to swell, her golden trammels
Hold each beholding eye, she richly enamels
The smiling meads, Zephyrus ever calm
Bathes her in kisses of Arabian balm.
On lovely-check'd Pomana's curled Tresses,
Hang lovely ornaments; Bright Ceres dresses

105

The naked a'er with her locks, which shorn
Like Hidra sprout againe; the ripned corn
Prick up their golden ears, listning unto
Soft wisp'ring Zephyrus his language, who
Tenders his humble service, and doth stand
Ambitious to defend them, and command
Blastings to come not neer; their thanks so shew
Their humble heads, the gratefull corn-feilds bow.
All things were plenty: Terminus no bound
As yet assign'd, unto the common ground:
The world was but one field; each man content
Enjoy'd those lauish gifts dame Nature sent.
The yoke was stranger to the idle Bull:
The sheep went cloathed in her naturall wooll,
The Taratant'ra Trump, nor rumbling Drum.
Nor Sword nor Helmite in the world was come.
Mars had no Sons, tway-faced Jannus kept
His temple barr'd while ev'ry motion slept
On slumb'ring feather beds of peace and quiet:
Green hearbs, and accorns was their cheifest dyet
Rivers of Nector flow'd in liquid gold,
Hyblean Honey-merchants were enroul'd.
'Twas alwaies spring, O what hirmonious notes
The Birds did warble from their mus'call throates:
Rocking the windes asleep, their charming Song
Entic'd the silver streams to dance along.

106

Men rude and voyd of Arts no Cityes build,
Contented with such houses woods did yeild.
The hollow of the hands were cups at first,
Water was Nectar, to allay their thirst. &c.

2 The Silver Age.

Saturn b'ing banish'd his supposed throne,
(Seldom comes better when the old one's gone)
Dayes Halcionian ceas'd, the Silver Age
With beardless Jove, came mounting on the stage.
Jove did contract the pleasures of the Spring,
And the year into four Quarters bring.
Gray Winter shiv'ring comes, and sheets of Snow
Upon this universal Bed doth strow.
The waies are chain'd, Glaz'd are the silver floods;
White Periwigs adorn the bald-pate woods.
Extreamity of weather now compells
Men to build houses, and procure them cells:
Thick shrubs and barks of Trees they joyn together
And make some briero's against wind weather.
The earth displeas'd at this mutation, breeds
The downie Thistle, and such usless weeds.
No Wheat is reaped, nor no Barley mown,
But what by the industrious hand is sown.

107

The yoaked Oxen groane, the lab' ours brows
Rain sweaty showers down: the boyst'rous ploughs
Because until'd, earth would no longer bear
For very madness do her bowels tear.

3 The Brazen Age.

The golden and the silver age is gone,
Next by succession, comes a brazen one.
Man's nature now is grown more fierce, and cruel,
The fire of warr, is nourish'd by the fuell
Of quarelsome debate, and such like crimes
As Titan ne're beheld. Reciduous times!

4 The Iron Age.

The last, and worst of all, the Iron Age,
Acts its last part; who with unbridled rage.
Sly fraud, hid witchery, hostile deceit,
Heart-gnawing envy, and pestif'rous hate;
Claw-back detraction, clutch-fist Avarice,
Loathed Oppression, and what ever vice
Can well be thought on; gather to a head,
And through the hospitable world doe spread.

108

Monumentum Exequiale

OR Lasting sorrow for the death of the Reverend, Pious, and Eminently-learned, Mr Tho Horn, late School-master of Eaton Colledg.

Oh I am drown'd in grief, a Borean blast
Hath torn my tackling, tumbled down my mast
My Anchor's lost, my Cable is undone,
And I, poore I, upon the quick-sands run:
Could I command the gold in India shines,
Arabian Mountaines, and American Mines,
What e're breaths from Panchaia's spicy woods,
What costly Gems enrich Idaspes floods:
All would I give to him that could impart
The least of ease to my corroded heart.
Stormes have their calmes, flowings their ebs, but I
Am the Charybdis of perpiexity

109

Ah me! ah me! Melpomene lament
This common loss, till all thy tears be spent.
Lock not thy thoughts in silence: cloath thy mind
In aiery garments: while the blust'ring wind
Of greif, doth agitate thy yeilding breast,
Oh how canst thou expect a minuts rest!
Groan thunder then: salute the deafned skies
With integrated sobs: let thy swoln eyes
Be Islands, circled with a Sea of tears:
And in thy Readers hospitable ears
Lodge thy lamenting sounds: that they may flow
As well as thee: and empty out their woe.

What strange confused fragot's this proclaimes
That Helicon's disturb'd? the Thespian dames
Send to the groaning air, their hideous shreiks,
Contunde their brests, and lacerate their cheeks
With Adamantine palms, like Beldams tear
Their Amber-locks, the Musick that I heare
Are Bag-pipe sighs and loud O ganick moanes
Mov'd by the weights of grief, see, see the stones
Ev'n melt away in tears: the Chappel's hung
In mourning vestments: ev'ry eye and tongue
Rings, rings, elegious Sonnets out, the Pewes
Are drench'd in briny puddles. ah! what dewes
Fall from the glazed pictures how the Leed
Doth seem to run abroad now he is dead!

110

Greif, Aqua-fortis like, corrodes the barrs,
And in his ashes rakes up glitt'ring stars:
The earth is proud (O honorable thing!)
To wear so rich a jewel in her Ring,
And we, sad we, his Pupils, run about
His Tombe, and weep untill our eyes be out:
Why weep we so? alas! our pearly tears
Can only deck his Herse, not in his ears
Drop an enliv'ning power; let's then condole
Our folly in lamenting him, whose soul
Calcined soul, quitting this earth is flown
Into the bosom of the Trine in One:
Where we will leave him, still to be possess'st
Of heav'nly glory, and eternal rest.

Vivit post funera virtus.

111

His Epitaph

Tender hearts bedew your eyes,
Here, beneath this Marble lies
One was spir'tually discerned,
Meek, wise, pious, vertuous, learned;
And whose understanding parts
Stor'd up all the lib'rall Arts.

He distilled wholsome truths,
On your hearts, Etonian youths;
Rouze your Muses to his praise,
Never dying pillars raise.

104

In Equum quendam ætate consumptum haud veloci pede promoventem Hexasticon

Englished thus

I am no Trojan Horse, nor fruitless stock,
To tell the truth I'me a grave-walking block.
Any, that will, may ride me for their pleasure,
Two thousand stripes may make me go by leasure:
I mind mine own, and Masters health, lo! Stars
My sides reflect: I brood the God of warrs.

[In Equum quendam ætate consumptum haud veloci pede promoventem Hexasticon]

Or thus

I am no Art-made Horse, nor wood that's waste,
But a staid foot-pace, making no great hast.
For recreation sake thou mayest (why not?)
Com ride me: blowes enough may make me trot.
Well fare my self, and rider, in these sides
Starrs shine: Oh! in my lap Gradivus hides.

124

An Acrostick Elegy upon the death of the late Reverend, and Famons Divine

Mr.

Is he then dead? hoVV soon pays he his dEbt?
Oh were it not (If God saw good) As yet;
Surely this sa-Cred man, is gone to Take
Eternity by th'hand; hE means t-O make
Perpetual hap-Piness his Couch, oN which
He may secu-Rely lye, in glory riCh.
Sound were his wOrds, his life & conversatiOn
Yeilded a fragrant fVme; his contempLation
Most heav'nly was; On earth (unparaLel'd
Others in gift-S and graces he excEll'd:
Now grieving for This loss, poor Eton Dyes,
Discharging volleys Of sad Ele-Gies;
Saies she, alas! For me he spent his brEath,
He dies, yet lives; Virtue surviveth death,

124

On Ambition.

Ambition is a Gyant, which aspires
No higher then the heavens; it desires
Reach at priority, she scorns to be
O'retop'd, nay more, she will not, no not she:
Honor's her aime, 'tis honor is the thing
That mounts her thoughts imp'd to an Eagles wing
She climbs on Pelion, if that will not doe,
On Pelion's back, she'll through mount Ossa too:
Why not? sayes she, why may not I inherit
What others have, since my transcending merrit
Eclipses theirs? what e're it cost me, I
By right, or wrong, will get priority.
I am no mungrel brat, but freely born
To no mean fortunes, slavery I scorn:
Be he a King, or whatsoe're he be
I have as much right to be rich as he.
I'le rout out all the black-coats, if I can,
The greatest Clerk is not the wisest man:
Of such new light my spirit hath discerning,
As they cannot attaine for all their learning.
My fingers itch to pull the Clergy down,
And strike the Sarrs with my advanced crown.

125

A wise forecast! but what if men doe wonder
At youg designes? know there's a God of thunder,
Can crush your Giant-like assaults; his power
Weakens the proud; remember Babels Tower.
Ambious Phaeton his fond desire
Ruin'd himselfe, and set the world on fire.
Icarus flyes, but Icarus his wings
Are cing'd, and cold, and head-long ruin brings.
Aspiring Pharo perished through pride.
And Bellisarius beg'd before he dy'd.
Nebucadnezar striving to be full
Of honor is become a belowing Bull.
VVhile the Philosopher his eyes did pitch
Vp to the Starrs, he fell into a dich.
Claudius would be a God, yet doth he dread
The voyce of thunder underneath his bed,
Strange kind of Diety! his head he hides,
Vanting Sosostrates in's Chariot rides,
Drawn by those Kings he to subjection brought.
So highly of himself King Hero thought,
He would be brother to the Sun and King
Of Kings: proud Sappho learn'd the Birds to sing,
The great god Sappho for to rule alone
Constantine drave his mother from her throne.
Brave blades! but what, save Monuments of shame,
Left they behind? our Levellers which claim

128

An interest in other mens estates.
Shall, notwithstanding their projecting pates,
Be crushed in the shell; and their intrusion
Upon themselves, not others bring confusion:
And though at goverment they lowdly baul,
Both civil, and Eclesiasticall;
Blow Pauls down at a breath they may as soon
As work their overthrough: Dogs at the Moon
May bark, but cannot bite; The curstest Cow
Hath shortest horns; Their stouter hearts shall bow
Our upstart Zealots, and aspiring Elves,
Striking at learning, shall strike down themselves.

130

Annagramma FRANCIS ROVSE, Rise Car Of Svn.

Rise Car Of Svn, convey thy purer light
Into our souls, so shall they know no Night.

Is Nestor then reviv'd? was ever Realm
So blest as this, had ever any Helme
So wise a Steersman? dost thou ask what Bee
Drew Honey from the Fathers? this is he.
Here's David's spirit iust, each Psalme, each line
Seemes no Translation, but genuine.
My soul take this Sybilla's golden branch
To clear thy way so shalt thou safely lanch
Through troublous Seas. Grave Sir (in whose rare mind
The Sept'agint resides) when you refin'd
The drossie English Psalms, upon your tongue
The Angels sacred Lutes and Vials hung.
I see a Phenix; whensoe're I look
Vpon your rare inesteemeable book;
If mercy by a golden chaine e're drew
His hearers by the ears, w'are drawn by you.
Your Colledg-crowning gifts, content us more
Then richest Jewels on the Indian shore.

131

Will the Majestick Eagle stoop so low
As look upon poor sily flyes? although
The Eagle will not, yet you shine upon us.
Bestowing Hony-droping favours on us.
Your flouds, we see doe overflow the banks
Of our deserts, and can we ebb in thanks?
Scarce Atlas back is big enough to bear
Your goodness firmament: supose there were
No Sun to gild out Hemispher, wee quite
Should not be blind, thy psalm book is our light.
Why gild I gold? The more I doe endeavour
T'aproach your worth, I'm further of then ever,
Go on blest Sir, your Honorable name
Shall alwaies stretch, the vocal cheeks of fame.

133

A CENTURIE OF HISTORICAL APPLICATIONS, With a Taste of Poetical Fictions: Being the fruits of some spare Hours.

135

To his Honored Uncle, Mr Iohn Wooton one of the Commissioners for the County of Hereford.

139

Historicall Applications

1.

Tis pretty sport to see the Cobtines stride
Vpon a Hobby-horses back, and ride.
Insipid Ideots! O prepostrous deeds!
Steeds doe not carry them, they carry Steeds.
Pleasures are Reeds, which yeild us infant play;
Reader, we ride on Reeds as well as they.

2.

The Alc'ran sayes, (which who will may beleeve)
The Moon descended into Mahomet's sleeve:
'Tis strange! yet God doth his loves lamp impart
T'a more coarcted room, what's that? the heart.
O may the lustre of those rayes divine
Be alwaies sparkling in this heart of mine!
That I, inlightned by thy light may see,
Great God! more clearly to discover thee.

3.

The Tib[illeg.]ren's affix unto the Cross
Those they love best; triumphing in their loss.

138

But we to part with darling sins are sorry:
Though we may gaine thereby a crown of glory.

4.

Th'Arabians instead of worser wood
Feed Corm'rant Vulcans jawes with fragrant spices
But ah! we chuse what's bad, refuse what's good,
Offend the Lord of life with loathsome vices.
My soul when zeal to kindle prayer begins,
Cast out the filthy rubish of thy sins.

5.

Chimerians think there is no Sun,
Because it is debar'd their sight:
The dark'ned soul doth groping run,
If God absent his glorious light,
Lord turne, with thy corruscant rayes,
My darksom nights to lightsome dayes.

6.

At the Cape of good hope the rib-made Sex
With chaines of greasie tripes adorne their necks.
Ev'n so those sins which in our eyes seem faire,
In Gods, which are most pure, deformed are.
What God abhors that mostly doth arride us,
Disgrace we grace, and in our shame we pride us.

139

7.

Amongst the Series (O had we less store)
Is neither Theif, nor Murtherer, nor Whore.

8.

If glass-wall'd Baumgar be a Court for Cats,
Small entertainment's there for Mice, or Rats,
Those noted theeves; 'tis dang'rous for a Mouse
To seek for shelter in a Mouzer's house.
Forewarn'd (they say) sore-arm'd, if that I were
A Mouse, I'le warrant you I'de ne're come there.

9.

Pheniceans slay their only sons t'asswage
And mitigate their angry Demon's rage;
They their Dirceto's do fall down before.
Such love Gods well who sensless ones adore.

10.

The Pegusi, to stave off further evill,
Throw meat behind their backs to feed the Divel
And think such puppy-dogs as come and eat
Are the Devil's Caterers to bring him mear,
Lord! when I offer up to thee my prayers,
Let me behind my back cast mundane cares

140

Fill thou my soul with grace and on mine ill
The Devil may feed and surfeit if he will.

11.

Uulcan they say is lame, and reason good;
For fire cannot go forward without wood.

12.

The Turks rewards to their tormentors bring.
Esteem the whip, O 'tis a pious thing.
Lord when thou scourgest let not me repine,
But kiss the Rod, because the Rod is thine.
Give me to know that my offences urge,
That so with patience I may bear thy scorge:
And if thou please to stroke, or please to strike,
O may I love both equaly alike.

13.

In Turky the Adulterers head is drest
With the full paunch of a new slaught'red beast;
And so, in pomp, is carried up and down,
Through the throng'd streets of the admiring town.
As wholsome laws with us are instituted,
But ah! so strictly are not executed.
Why mayn't an A for the Adulterers laud,
Be a front-mark, as well as B for Baud?

141

Would all our Letchers, and each light-skirt Trull
Were ship'd for Turkey, or the great Mogull.
Or else wayes vsed heer theire lusts to tame
So as to make them be asham'd of shame.

14.

Men-eating Lestrigons all men will blame
But ah! Oppressors do the very same:
They grind the faces of the poor, and put
In bags the chinck squeez'd from the hungry gut:
They rob the Spittle, lab'ring most of all
To raise themselves by their untimely fall.
But let such know goods so unjustly got
Shall prove a curse, and in their purse shall rot.

15.

Midas his wish obtaines, his touch behold
A fruitfull Alchimy turne all to gold.
In tract of time that man may have, which bears
Midas his wealth, Midas his Asses ears.
How fond are our desires! we wish t'enjoy
The things which do within a moment cloy.
Rash Midas wish'd, but Midas did not think
T'except from Generals his meat and drinke.
Midas may say experiencedly,
More hard to fill the belly then the eye.

142

Gold buyeth all things, but were all things gold,
Food would be wanting, and our comfort cold.
Art thou a muck-worme? go take Midas store;
Midas was but an Ass and thou no more.

16.

Least they pollute pure water in Batenter,
To wash their hands the people wont t'adventure:
Lord I am worse then they; my soul forbears
To purge her foulness with repentant tears.

17.

The wound-restoring Balm is said to grow
Within the fruitfull vale of Jericho:
Nor will it set its foot on ev'ry ground:
Ev'n so in ev'ry heart grace is not found.
That Balm for sin-sick souls, the Lord doth plant it
In humble vales, when lofty Mountaines want it.
Lord plant thy grace in my hearts bord'red ally
To bear such fruits make me a lowly vally:
Let Gileads Balm my sin-sick soul recover,
And over me thy Balmy pinions hover:
The grace of true repentance pour thou in
Into my soul, and that will eat out sin.

137

18.

The mouth-less Attomes by the aier do alive,
And scent of odors; Lord be pleas'd to give
Thy quickning spirit and loves fragrancie,
Unto my soul that I may live to thee.

19.

Best in the night the Owl-ey'd Albans see;
And in the day of grace how blind are we!

20.

Our love to God is cold and hot by turns,
Now cole as Alps, anon like Etna burns.

21.

A wonder Epimenides hath bin
To many, who have longer slept in sin.

22.

Cyrus knew, by their names, his Souldiers all;
To mind his owne, Corvinus could not call;
Thy names in all thine attributes make known,
To me, dear Lord, though I forget mine owne.

138

23.

Dice, Balls, and Chess, first to the Indians came in;
Occasion'd by a body-pining famine:
Th'Inhabitants finding no other way
Lay open to redress, did fall to play
Their empty bellys to beguil; for easing
Our saturated bodies, games are pleasing.

24.

None, can in all felicity abound,
Vntoothsom Clerus is in hony found.

25.

Th'Esseni, neither lust nor money know,
I'me sure, with us, theres none can say, tis so.
Heathens are chaft, content where are you come,
You'l find it otherwise in Christendome.

26.

The Persians affect a temp'rate Diet,
Hate what the Parthians love, excess, and Ryot
Though bodies meanly fare, let the full bowls.
Of thy Nectarean word fill full our soules.

139

27.

In Turky, fools, and Lunaticks are deemd
The onely saints and who so much esteemed?
And here in England, som account for holy.
Fanatick Quakers, and the sons of Folly:

28.

The Barb'rous Issedon's, their dead devo'ur
Their drinking bouls are skulls all gilded o're.
So are our natures most inclind unto.
The things which left they should delight to do.

29.

Closs sinners, their offences cloke with night.
And like the Blattæ hate the till-tale Light.

30.

Gods favoure shins on us but we ('tis pitty)
Are like the blind-eyd Chalcedonian citty
We take no notice, what our God hath done,
But shut our eyes, and say there is no Sun.

31.

An Ape resembles man, some men and Apes
In gesture are alike as well as shapes.

140

Nay our Pragmaticks many a task do set,
Unfollowd by the busy marmoset.

32.

Christ is our Esculapius, when to sin.
We liveless are he quickens us agin.

33.

Lord grant this boon (what e're thou else denyst)
I may have faith to build my self in Christ.
So shall the lofty structrues I shall raise
Get more then Cresiphon or Philon's, Praise.
Dianas fane, and Athens Arsenall.
Are slep'd in ruin, mine shall over fall.

34.

Christ's the true Atlas, his vnshrinking shoulders
Are our offences Firmaments vpholders.

35.

Sweet Jesus land me at the banks of Sion.
Be thou my Dolphin I will be Arion,
To sound thy praises on my warbling Lyer
In emulation of that heavenly Quire.
And Caroll sonnets, sonnets at whose sound
The Hills may eccho, and the Dales rebound.

141

36.

Gainst Satans grand assaults, Lord make my brest
Impenetrable as the Halcyons nest.
And when the Arrows of Temptation fly.
Against me, Oh! be pleas'd to put them by;
O may it not be said his fi'ry dart
Hath got the better of my yeilding heart.
When he malliciously takes aim to throw
His venom'd shafts from his lowd sownding Bow;
Ah me! O may they (falling on the ground)
Make no Impression, nor no ragged wound.

37.

Not long before great Julius Cesar's death,
A sheep (having no heart) was found drew breath.
But Hipocrites, and those that flatter do,
Have, like the Pamphlagonian Partridg, two.

38.

We wisely can avoyd Bosphorean shelvs
While on the Rocks of sin we split our selves.

39.

Lord grant that I a Dedalus may be,
To build a stately edifice to thee:

142

The height of my Ambition is to frame
Within my heart a mon'ment of thy name.

40.

Like the Saguntian Child from th'earth we come,
And shall return into our mothers womb.
Our fleshly walls, and bony Timber must
Turn out their Tenant, then return to dust
Our breath is Gods, if he but take away
The breath he lent us what are we but clay?
Clay at the best, our matter and their forms
When dead, are thorough fares for crawling worms

41.

What was't a clock, Pompilius would know,
And dyes, with me why may it not be so?
Before thy grim-fac'd messeger thou send,
O make me wise to know my latter end.
Death stays for none, may I be ready still
Prepared, and then come he when he will.

42.

With poysnous sins, let us not haste our fate,
Lost we, Domitius-like, repent too late.

143

43.

Many have dy'd with grief, but overjoy
Did Sophocles and Panacrete destroy,
Dangers enwrapd in every sudden passion;
It often puts the senses out of fashion
Then moderate thy joy, and when grief wounds
Thy soul, be sure to limit in with bounds
Observe a mean, and let thy footsteps be
In the mid-road, avoyd Obliquitie.

44.

Iove's bird to th'Wren will not be reconcil'd,
Because he's Regulus, a Kingling stild:
Let Soveraignty be kep'd, then ther's no odds,
There must be no pluralitie of Gods.
Our God comands it so, nay jealous he
Will have no rivalls, to the fourth degree
He'le soundly punish, the successive race
Of Polytheists who bow to Idolls base:
But as for thousands, that observe his ways,
Mercy shall them encompass all their days.

45.

All the day long Gymnosophists will stand
(Admired patience!) in the scalding Sand,

144

On their alternate legs, and glare upon
With eys, vnapt to wink, the scorching Sun.
O Sun of God teach us t'apply this story,
And make vs constant to behold thy glory.

46.

Lord tune my heart turn griefs to songs of praise
And troublous Nights to Halcyonian dayes.

47.

If thou my sins Shouldst number by my hair
Lord make my head (like the Myconian's) bare.

48.

The swallowing down an hair? how poor a thing!
And yet to prove an instrument to bring.
Death to the Roman Fabius, may not wee,
Depart as soon, who are as frail as he?
Dangers Vnsent for oftentimes do skip.
Betwixt the sparkling cup, and vpper lip.

49.

Lord grant that as the Heliotrop Apollo.
My heart the Sun of rightiousness may follow.

50.

Lord raise up holy fear in me to flee
From sin as creatures do the Linden-tree.

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51.

The Heathen Brachmens do contemn and scorn
The fear of death, with hopes to be reborn.
Small is that Christians faith who dreads to dye,
When life is promis'd; and eternity!
Happy that soul which dyeth unto sin,
And unto righteousness is born agin.
This death's a pregnant wombe, regeneration
First-born to life, aud heir unto salvation.
Death is the Turn-key, for to let thee in
The gate of life if thou be dead to sin.
So live to dye, that thou maiest dye to live;
And wear the crown God shall the faithfull give.

52.

God angles, Souls unwilling to be took,
Glanis like, bite the bait, leave bare the hook.

53.

The Ch{a}nois dreaming that they shall be born
To heav'n up by their locks, will not be shorn:
Is hea'vens hand short'ned? can th'almighty save not
If he your length'ned hair to hold by have not?
Rebellious Abs'lom wore the like, yet he
Was not caught up to heaven, but to a Tree.

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Although vpon the ground you traile your haire,
Heav'ns high; short may you come, of coming there,
God cant' a Glorious throne advance thy soul
Although th'hast not an hair upon thy poul
If to the eyes of God my heart seem faire,
What care I for such excrements as hair

54.

The Nabatheans so neglect their dead
That their Kings are in dunghils buried
Lord make me faithfull to the death, that I,
May weare a crown of life if that I dye;
To live to thee I would not wish to have
A fair inscription, on a gawdy grave
If so my soul unto her maker fly
It makes no matter where my body ly.

55.

At Bemavis sick people like to dy
All night, before an idle Idoll ly:
Fond people! think you that that sensless stones
Can ease your sorrows, or regard your mones?
My soul, when sick, acqaint the grand physitan
Of heav'n and earth, with thy deplor'd condition
Beg hard for mercy at the thron of grace.
And he'le give audience, and and at length embrace

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Thee in his circling arms. Oh who'd not craue
Vpon such easy terms, but ask and have
Nay, he is readier to giue by farr.
Then thou to ask, Oh his indulgent care!
Ask but in faith besure thou shalt reciue,
Thou canst not crave the thing he can not give
Fear not if God but undertake the cure,
Soon done, as said, of health thou shalt be sure
Can heav'n be false? hath he not promised rest
Unto the heavy laden, and opprest?
Mans help is vain, God is a Help indeed,
I wish no better help in time of need.

56.

The Hirpian witches, with uncindged soles
On mount Soracte walk on burning coals;
So those that in security excell,
Walk as it were amidest the flames of hell

57.

Ther's difference in climes, Decembers thunder
Is not to the Italian a wonder.
Lord when so'ere thy thundring judgments rattle,
About mine eares let me prepare t'embattle
Against my sins, not count thy voice a crime.
Nor sent in an unseasonable time.

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58.

The Marsian Bears do fashion out their young,
By licking them all over with their tongue,
And we with Bears in this one thing agree,
We put a gloss on our deformitie.

59.

Æschyl was killed by a Tortise-shell,
Which from the tallons of an Eagle fell;
His fate foretold, into the open ay'r
He gets; Gods judgments find us ev'ry where.

60.

I read man only laughs, and sheddeth tears,
And wanteth power alone to shake his ears:
But sure I am, when discontent is bred,
He needs must shake his ears that shakes his head.

61.

Dame Martia was her infants living Tombe,
When lightning killed it within her wombe
Before sins come into their birth 'twere well
If God would crush the Hydra in the shell.

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62.

Great Judah's Lion is as mild to those
Who do submit, as furious to his foes.
Sampson, that knockt so many to the ground,
Within the carkase of a Lion found
Sweet combs of Honey: the tender Spouse doth see
In Christ, the fruits of the mellifluous Bee.
His love is very pleasing to her taste,
He, he alone is his deare-hearts repaste.
He is the Bee, the Honey, and the Hive,
To active souls; the Drones away must drive.

63.

If wisdome lies in beards, a Goate would be
Plato, full out as wise, as grave, as thee.

64.

Th'Antæi into woolves transformed were,
And Ants turn'd men, at Æneus his prayer.
If so, no mar'l they'r bloudily enclind,
And these laborious. Cat after kinde.

65.

Lampido was both daughter, wife, and mother,
Unto a King; Queen Anne was such another.

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Is not the Church the daughter of the High'st?
Is not the Church the tender spouse of Christ?
Is not the Church the Mother of us all?
None dare deny't, I hope nor never shall.
But are we kings? God and his Son I know
Are Kings, and great ones to, the Kings below.
Are mean too them and but subordinate.
But wher's our crown? we reign with Christ in state
Thus then to God, to Christ to Saints (no other)
The Church a Daughter is, a wife, a mother.

66.

Kissing at first came in, that men might know
If their wives drank Temetum wine or no
To find her out, the jealous husband sips
The reaking sent from the good womans lips
Thus 'tis with us for sinister intents
We vse a cloake of courtly compliments

67.

Diomedean birds, have teeth to bite
Yet fawning looks, such is a parasite.
Friend me no friends, for if thou go bout
To bite at me would all thy teeth were out.

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68.

The Gymeco-cratumeni, are borne
The Object of imperious womens scorne
Obeying husbands and comanding wiues
Both equally do lead vnnat'rall lives.
I doubt not but ther's many could afford
To wear the breeches would you say the word;
Wet't not for shame, Ile lay a brace of groats
More breeches would be worn, and fewer coats
Give shrowes the reines, if men will be such fools,
How purely will they scold, they need no schools,
To Learn them, or to traine them vp there so.
No that (God knows) they naturally can do
Their tongues run glib, and clutter out as thick
As any hops their divelish Rhetorick.
Such as will not believe this sex can prate
Go vex the Oyster wiues as Billing's gate

69

No males belong unto the modest Chainy,
Some females are so Chast that they love many
They hate and love you in a triee, the while
They'l frown upon you in their hearts they smile
And when their tongues do bid you not come neer
You may conclude your presence than doth cheer

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O how they love to work contrary still,
Thrust off, pull on, unwill the things they will;
Now hard, anon, as pliable as wax;
A faire Encomium for th'unconstant sex.

70.

Great men are multipli'd, but good men are
As is the Drephanis exceeding rare;
Were there as many men as good as great
Virtue would more advance, and vice retreat.

71.

The gagling of a goose, how poor a thing?
And yet so strange deliverance to bring
The Roman Capitol: oft great events
Are brought about by weakest instruements.
In Sampson's hand the Jaw-bone of an Ass
Did slaughter thousands; purp'ling o're the grass.
The Rock yeilds water smot with Moses rod;
The smalest means prevails, if blest by God.

72.

The Shrimp only for food waits one the Nacre,
So we to serve our turnes do serve our maker.
How servile are we? we affection bear
To God not so much out of love as feare.

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73.

Like Quails, and Roe-bucks we love poyson, that
Which most we should avoyd doth make us fat.
Sin is a cut-throat, yet it is our will.
To count him friendliest, when he means to kill.

74.

I would not wish, so I be fair within,
For Chios earth to beautifie my skin.
While ceruss'd faces unto sin allure,
May my chast soul b'unseperably pure:
I care not how the world esteem of mee,
So I be lovely onely vnto thee,
Nothing can make me fine I must confess.
O Saviour but thy robes of righteousness.

75.

Our hearts all vice, as Amphitane gold draws,
The Load-stone iron, as the Amber strawes.

76.

A chillis-like god which inflicts the wound.
In justice, can in mercy make it sound.
The law is as a lance to cut the bile,
The gosple pours in balme an healing oile.

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O may that make me sensible of sin.
And this revive, when I to sink begin.

78.

I Tortoise-like, wish neither Teeth nor Tonge.
Rather then haue them instruments of wrong.
Abusive language may I alwayes shun,
By their lewd bab'lings many are undone.
Silence is laudable; my judgment's such,
Better to have no tongue, then one too much.

79.

We like Laertes, and Augeas, Kings,
Who dung'd their grounds, minde only earthly things.
We pore still downwards, and are groveling still
Below, like muke-wormes, ne're looke up the hill,
The pleasant Sion; let the things of heaven.
Or sink, or swim, they'r left at six and seaven.
May I, who Christianity profess,
Minde God and heaven more, and trifles less.

80.

To three M's the Philosopher assignes
Th'earths riches, Mettals, Minerals, and Mines.

155

81.

Poor Cincimatus, he which held the plough
So lately, is become dictator now.
Fortune on Peasants sometimes casts renown,
Raises the humble, kicks the lofty down.
Joy is the consequent of dull-brow'd sorrow,
A subject now, may be a King to morrow.
The active spirits of our age do climbe
By gradual steps to dignities sublime:
I speak in rev'rence to his Highness, who
By Martial Valour hath attain'd unto
The pow'r now in his hands, whom God doth bless
With matchless and unparralel'd success:
The Honorable title of a King,
How modestly refus'd he? under's wing
We are protected from the boyling rage
Of home-bred foes in this rebellious Age
Blessed be God, that under our own vine,
We have the liberty to sup, and dine.

82.

Support my faith with thy confirming hand,
So shall it firme, like unmov'd Milo, stand.
If thou withdraw and leave me but an hour
Unto my selfe, how feeble is my power.

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But by thy sinewy arme, great God upheld,
The day is mine, my foe-men needs must yeild.

83.

Christ's our Nepenthe, enemy to sadness
Dispersing sorrow; and reversing gladness.
Art thou, my soul, at any time cast down?
O think on him; and thou wilt smile, not frown;
Drink in, by faith, the Julips of his bloud,
Oh that's a Cordial, thou wilt say 'tis good,
O what can more resocilate the soul,
Then streaming merits in a lib'ral boul.

84.

The Prognean swallow, the cold country leaves,
Hasts to a warmer one: a false friend cleaves,
Fast in the Summer of prosperity.
Let adverse Winter come, then farewell he.

85.

God's word, like to Sybilla's golden branch
Can make us through all difficulties lance.
Soul take it with thee, when thou wouldst oppose
The storming fury of thy spiritual foes,
As sin, and death: nay it hath power to quell
The Divel, and drive him to the gates of hell.

157

86.

On the pure Elements, four things live sole,
Chamelion, Herring, Salamander, Mole.
Tobacconists, Pot-Leaches, Lechers, Misers,
Of Ayr, and Water, Fire, and Earth are prizers.
The first makes the Tobacco pipe his dugg,
And sucks the smoak of the burnt Indian drugg.
The second, he, for his part, cannot live
Without full flaggons: And the third doth grieve
If any step between and stop the flame
Of his lust towards an alluring Dame;
Whores are his hackneys, he is alwaies dull,
But when he's sporting with his pamp'red Trull.
As for the fourth, the Miser to be sure,
Were't not for gold he could not long endure.
So then this one, and that another likes;
Wedded to that their own opinion strikes.

87.

The Indian women, in a foolish spite,
Will black their teeth because that dogs be white:
As for the sparkish gallants of our Nation,
They'r French-mens Apes in each fantastik fashion.

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88.

Wouldst thou repair thy memory? I think
Thou may'st, if thou'lt look Mneme fount, then drink.

89.

Zisca commands his skin be made a drum,
That the Bohemians still might overcome.
Who, while he lives, is over sin victorious,
After his death he shall not be in-glorious.

90.

Malice inflicts on men more dang'rous wounds
Then Porc'pines quills on the pursuing hounds.
How sedulous are some to purchase woe
For other men, what will not malice doe?

91.

The ebbs and flows of, Egipts plowman, Nile,
Do make a barren, or a fruitfull soile:
Grace is this river, and the more it flows
The more good fruit; if less, the lesser grows.

92.

Panthers have crabbed looks though speckled skins,
And fairest out-sides joyne to fowlest sins.

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93.

Anaxarete, whilst on the Rack he hung,
Did in the Tyrants face spit out his tongue.
To have no tongue it is the lesser evill,
Then to recant by't, and so please the Divel.

94.

Soul, though the flames should for a while subdue thee
Like the Pyrrhean grove, God can renew thee.

95.

Lest I be like the Hirecinyan wood,
Lord lop my sins, and in the roome graft good.
Since the Creation that was never lop'd,
Till renovation we do stand untop'd.
Lord if thou hew us, hew us not in ire,
Nor make us bundles for eternal fire
To feed upon: our names are in thy rouls,
And wilt thou cast out our immortal souls.

96.

Taprobans, (not respecting persons) fling
To merc'less Tygers their offending King.
How happy were we if we could command
Our head-sins, go, to the Arch-Tyrants land.

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97.

The B udmes fight unarm'd, the Sword, the Spear,
They are the only weapons that they bear:
Right Combatants of Mars they scorn to throw
Cowardly Arrowes from the springing Bow.
My life a warfare is, Lord, let thy word
Thy dreadful word, be as a two-edgd Sword
To wound mine en'mies, O be thou my Spear,
And if an Hoast besiege me I'le not fear.

98.

Hold water in their mouths, forceing their wives
The men of Burami lead quiet lives.
A better way then this there may be found
For both their ease, as this I shall propound.
It argues wisdome when the wise doth scold,
And clap her fists, the prudent husband hold
His passion in, and when the husband chides,
A wise wife her unruly member hides
'Twixt double doors: this well observ'd infrindges
No Nuptial love, but keps them on their hindges.

99.

Ignatius Leiola, the first Jesuite
As ever I did read of, did delight

161

In giggling laughter, and why did he so?
His teeth (it may be yellow) for to shew:
A Jesuite I would not wish to be,
Unless mine actions with my name agree:
Laughter is Cousen-Germane unto folly,
Better is the extream of Malencholly:
To too much Mirth it is not safe to leane;
Nor too much Grief: There is a golden mean.
O grant, dear Lord, I may be alwayes glad
In thee, my God, or make me alwaies sad:
If I must needs be proud, permit not me
To pride in any thing, great God, but thee;
Unfold my lips, for to agnize my sin;
Let me be foul without, so, fair within.

100.

The Alc'ran tels us ther's a Bird nam'd Ziz,
(I think more fabulous then true it is)
So large, that when his wings abroad are hurl'd
They hide the Sun and darken all the world,
Though litle credit unto this be due
Yet shall it's application be true.
Sin is this monstrous bird, which doth obscure
God's Sun-like face: 'tis sin that doth immure
Our souls from faith, 'tis sin that puts a skreen
And walls of seperation between

162

God and the soul; 'tis sin that hath the power
To cloath, in shades, this Micro-cosm of our:
Thou which from darkness didst deduce the day,
Banish such mists, let thy coruscant ray
Break through the clouds of my opposing sin;
That so thou maiest enlighten me within.

163

Poetical Fictions.

1. On Jupiter.

In Creta, Jupiter was born, of Ops;
And Saturn nourished on Ida's tops,
By the self-gelding Corribants, who plaid
So loudly on their brazen drums, and made
Such tinkling sounds, and such obsteperous noise,
That Saturn might not heare his infants voyce:
The cheated god (thinks to secure his throne)
Instead of Jupiter, devours a stone,
Who was, no sooner grown to mans estate,
But seeing how his father did await
To drink his bloud, tumbles him headlong down,
And he himself usurps the Regal Crown:
The conquered god in Latium hides for shame,
The land of Latium hence derives her name.

2 On Apollo.

Latona 's son in floating Delos born,
Vast Cyclops slew, his god-head lost, forlorn

164

Wanting employment sits him down to keep
Thessalian Admetus fleecy sheep;
Mercury gave to him his Harp; the Speare,
Lyre, Buckler, on his Image painted were.
The Muses father, Poets chiefest power,
Author of Musick in the upper Bower;
Sol was he call'd, Bacchus in earth, in hell
Known by the name Apollo, he could tell
Things long before they were, he first did know
The Art of Phisick, from his radiant bow
His golden-footed messengers doth send
Whose rapid force sing to their journeys end;
In love with Hiacynth, and Daphne, he
Turnes him into a Flower, her a Tree.
The Lawrell, Olive, and the Juniper,
Unto Apollo consecrated were;
The Princely Cock, the Herauld of the day,
The griping Goshauk, greedy of his prey,
The silver Swan, and Crow, which can divine,
Is off'red up unto Apollo's shrine.

4 On Bacchus.

Jove 's thigh-borne, Ivy crowned Bacchus nurst
By Juno and the Nymphs, invented first

165

The use of wine, and over all the world
He rides, fell Tigers and fierce Linces whirld
His Chariots rapid wheels, he did subdue
Innumerable Nations, and embrew
His hands in tawny Indians bloud, he taught
The Art to buy and sell, the first that sought
Triumphall honour, he his Temples bound
With Regal Diadems, and triumphs sound.
The browsing Goat, and slugish Ass are proud
For to be stiled his, see what a crowd
Of wanton Satyrs, and Sileni, comes,
Rending the ayer with their Kettle-drums;
Loud bellowing sounds, the Menedes his Priests
His Orgis, and his Bacchanalian feasts,
With such vociferations celebrate,
As would tire Fabius for to relate
Their mad confused fragors: seem to mix
The burning Axle with the frigid Styx.

5 On Mercury.

Great Atlas Nephew, Jove and Maias son,
Th'embassador of heavenly powers puts on
His Stag-like feet, and golden head, his wings,
Quits the bright Court: with him along he brings

166

His snake-ingirted-soporiferous Rod,
Because that men should know he is a god,
Addicted much to exercise and motion
Swims swiftly thorough the aerial Ocean:
No sennuy force could weapons swifter fling
From Scythian bows, or Balearick string,
Then he doth scud along: Merchants to trade
Instructeth how, tells Theeves for to evade
As he (a theevish god) by slight of Art
Was wont, when he did steale Apollo's dart;
He quickly took (and was as quickly gone)
Neptune's Mace, Uulcan's tongs, & golden Zone
Of rose-cheek'd Uenus, king Admetus drove
And would have rob'd the bolts from thund'ring Jove
VVhat e're he saw he made, what could there be
Secur'd from his light-finger'd Dietie?
This active nimble god from heaven came,
VVas Author, first, of the Palestrick game;
The use of the shrill sounding Lute out sound,
And on mount Caucasus, Prometheus bound,
Hundred-eyd Argus in a conflict slew,
Freed captive Mars, and on a golden clue
Let downe by pulleys, from his fluent tongue,
The eares of his atentive hearers hung.
Cylenius, in Egypt worship'd is,
In the shape of Dog-headed Anubis;

167

Of him and Venus, an Hermaphrodite
Of either sex was born, then from the sight
Of the prodigious Gyants, having fled,
He in t'a Stork was Metamorphosed.

6 On Mars.

The war-like god, great Jove, and the Juno's son
Caused the seed of discontent to run
Throughout the hospitable world, fierce anger
With flaming eyes, a strange confused clangor,
Deafning the heav'ns, mad fury, pallid fear,
Rageing oppression, jarring discord were
His sad concomitants; with bloudy rod,
Bellona waits upon this impious god,
Vnto this all-devouring Diety:
In Lemnoe men were sacrifiz'd, the Py
That cheating bird, the watchful Dog, & brood—
—Destroying Vulture, the stout Cock, and bloud—
—Carowsing Wolfe, (true combatants of Mars)
Were dedicated to the god of warrs.
The Romans brag that they derive their line
From him, make him their patron, and assigne
To him his Salij, and do dedicate
The years first Month, oh what invet'rate hate

168

Beares he to Pallas? for his missile darts
At Iove-born wisdome fly, and lib'ral Arts
Him Vulcan with his spouse a bed espies,
And (angry) in a net doth them surprize:
Keeps them close pris'ner from captivitie.
Till Neptune by intreaties set them free.

7 On Uulcan.

The sooty god of Iove and Iuno sprung,
For his deformity from heaven flung,
Fell down into the Island Lemnos, with
The fall grew lame; made of the gods the Smith:
There sets up trade. On sulphry Ætnae's top,
And Lipara sometimes he sets up shop;
Where, with the one-eyd monstrous Cyclopes,
Broontes, Pyrachmon and huge Steropes,
Iove's thunder armour for the gods he made
Against those Gyants which would heaven invade:
To him the Lion, tetri lest of beasts
Was consecrated; in his honor feasts,
And sacrifices, celebrated were
Called Protervia, what meat they spare
They burne: Gentiles with blazing torches run
And when the wick is spent their race is done.

196

At Juno's suit he made Ænea's shield,
At Thetis did Pelides armour yeild,
The potent Queen of riches and the air
He chaineth fast unto a golden chaire;
His wife and Msrs he in adultry found,
And them in Adamantine fetters bound.

8 On Cibele.

Cibele , mother of the Gods call'd Ops,
From helpful wealth, and Vesta fair with crops
Of golden eared-labour-crowning crown,
She cloaths the fields; and doth her lap adorn
With verdent grass, choice hearbs, green trees, sweet flowrs
Wife was she to the antient'st of all powers:
This antique Matron weares a branched gown,
And beares, upon her head, a Tower-like crown;
Her right hand holds a Mace, her left a Key;
To her, as Emblems of fertilitie,
The teeming Sow is sacrific'd, then comes
(Beating their brazen hollow-sounding drums)
A traine of self-dissected Coribants,
And round about the street for money dance,
To please their great Cybele, she that found
Out rural pipes, and first did Cymbals sound.

170

9 On Juno.

The sceptred Queen of heaven, to thundring love
Sister, and wife of marriage doth approve
Goddess of riches, ever counted mild
And helpful unto woman great with child;
Saturne, and Ops, her parents; she was bred
Up by the Flowrs, and by the Sea-Nymphs fed.
Faire Iris, Ledeas twins, and Nymphs twice seaven
Fidelious service, to the Queen of heaven,
Duly performe, and dayly waite upon her,
Respecting her according to her honour;
In a rich Charriot, stately to behold,
Of beaten silver and of burnish'd gold,
A yoke of yellow Lyons draw her round
Her vast dominions; spangled star pav'd ground.
The taile-proud Peacock, and the vigilant Goose,
And ravenous Raven's sacred to her use:
Her parties, to be married, off'rings bring,
And do the gall behind the Alters fling:
Her Temple open-roofed was, to enter
Therein, no whore by Numa's law might venture.
Her coadjutor, who is wont to tye men
To females, known is by the name of Hymen.

171

This hand a Torch, and that a red vaile holds,
Therewith she modest blushing Brides enfolds;
Iuno did shed her milke, rather then she
A nurse unto feirce Herculee would be:
Thence Lillius had their Alablaster look,
From thence the milkie way its whiteness took:
This hand holds a Pomgranate, there doth stand
A Cuckow on her other sceptered hand.

10. On Uenus.

Loves Goddess, thrice more radient then the morne
Of Cetus testicles, and Sea froth born,
With Rosy Chaplets her fair Temple's boun'd,
And sometimes with the peaceful Mirtle crown'd;
Light Torches bears, and needle-pointed Arrows,
Prodromes of love, a yoke of lecherous Sparrows
Sometimes do draw her Charriots, now she loves
To couple silver Swans, then spotless Doves;
Facundious Merc'ry, and the bounteous Graces,
Perswasive Pytho, in their several places,
Write on her honour; who was said to saile
To flow'ry Paphos, in a shell, a vaile
Of sorrow-boading Cyperus she wore,
When she Bore-kil'd Adonis did deplore.

172

Sometimes a wanton Goate she rides upon,
And doth house-carrying tongueless snails tread on,
Mars into Seas of wantonness did steere her,
And reeling Bacchus was her Armour-bearer.
Paris assign'd unto the Queen of love,
The golden Apple which fell from above:
Iuno prevails not though she proffers treasure,
Pallas her gifts are slighted, it is pleasure
Load-stone to vice, attracts the wanton eye
Of injuditious Paris, wit may lie
And starve, for him rich Iuno is neglected;
And Venus, who but Venus, is respected?
Hellen is rap'd, he Hellen doth enjoy,
A ten years warr ends in the fall of Troy:
O dire effects of love! by Vulcan's jaws
Troy was devour'd, but Hellen was the cause.

11 On Minerva.

Jove 's brain-bred girle, the president of warr
Princess of peace drawn in a fiery Carr,
To her the Owl (To shew her clear discerning
Of obstruse secrets) sacred was of learning,
Of Arts of wisdome, she invent'ress was;
Her Target (Egis call'd) though smooth as glass,

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Did beare a Snake-hair'd Gorgon's head, thereon
Who ever look'd was turn'd into a stone;
She on a Dragon treads, gripes in her hand
A Crow a Cock doth on her Helmet stand;
A long Cloake (Peplum cal'd) she us'd to wear,
And in the air wave her glit'ring Spear;
Terrour and feare her waiting maids stood by her,
Tutor'd by her, Prometheus stole fire,
From Titan's burning Chariot, by which thing,
He many Arts did to perfection bring:
Her heav'n-sent Image, the Paladium
Was by the vestal Virgins kept at Rome:
The Trojans loosing, this their City, lost,
Which in a Sea of stormy warrs was tos'd?
Olives to her were sacred, for she found
The use of Oyl, her the Athenians crown'd
With decent Chaplets, made of Olive leavs;
Her new-sound use of wooll, she spins and weaves,
A golden lamp to her was dedicated,
At her March leasts the Mistresses awaited
Upon their serving Maids, as Masters tended
Upon their Men, till the Saturnal's ended.
Jove's thunder she could use, and had the power
To raise a storme, and qualifie a shower.
Her heavenly seat is next to Jupiter,
She went up into Diomedes Carr,

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In Oreus pitchy Helmet hid (so sly)
That she was undiscern'd, by Mars his eye:
Palas, Arachne turn'd into a Spider,
Ambition loves no equals live beside her.

12 On Diana.

Apollo 's sister daughter unto Jove,
And fair Latona, loves in woods to rove;
And on the swelling hills: from her sure bow
Her Arrows (messengers of death) doth throw,
At swift-foot Dears, and tim'rous Hares, which hast
For life, but meet with death; Diana chast
Goddess of dancing, unto virgins mild
Propitious unto women great with child:
An eye of watchfulness, this Goddess sets,
Over the Fishers and the Hunters nets.
The dancing Satyrs. Sylvan Dryades,
Nymphs, Hamadryades, and Orades,
Do in her sight delight; in Heaven, Earth, Hell,
Luna, Diana, Proserpine, do dwell;
One and the same, Triform'd, and Trivia nam'd,
Because, where three wales met there she was fam'd
This winged Goddess easily restrains
Fierce Lions force, and speck'led Leopards reines:

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The all-united force of milk-white Stags,
Through Marble plains her silver Chariot drags;
Because, with hornes, she looketh beautifull,
Men sacrifized unto her a Bull;
Nay more (while they Diana did invoke)
With humane flesh her frequent Altars smoke.

13 On Ceres and Proserpine,

Corne crowned Ceres Saturne and faire Ops
Faire Off-spring smiles upon her golden crops
Holds wealthy Plutus, who at her command
Scatters his bounty with a liberal hand.
Plenty and Hony-mouthed peace remaine
Linck'd fast together by a silken chaine
None to her sacrifice at any time
Could ent'rance find, if conscious of a crime
Faire Venus, Iuno and Minerua to;
Did on a certaine time a Maying goe,
Proserpine bare them company, who while
Shee gathered Popy, with a pleasing toil
Tricking her bosome, with delightfull flowres
Grim Pluto whirld her to his pitchy Bowres
For his Tartarian Chariots, Cerb'rous sings
And fell Erynnis Scorpions have nor stings,

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Ixions wheele stood still, Promtheus heart
Feeles no corroding Vipers, Flouds impart
Theire liquor unto thirsty Tantalus,
The stone affordeth rest to Sisyphus:
The lab'ring Belides have leave to play
And solemnize this ioyfull marrage day
Now Ceres mother takes a flaming Pine
And sorrowing seeketh for her Proserpine
And kindly entertained by Celeus
Taught them how to sow corne; Triptolemus
His Son by day, with milk, by night with fire,
She nonrished; while Celius did enquire
Too curiously in this, him Ceres slew.
Triptol'mus Chariot winged Dragons drew,
Circling the world Triptolemus to men
First taught the use of Corn; from Dis, his den
Proserpine could not redelivered be
Because she, of a fare Pomgranate tree
(Which did in Pluto's Orchard grow) did taste;
Yet she obtain'd such favour, at the last,
As to continue (after she was found)
Six months above, as many under ground;
Halfe a yeare here, as long assign'd to dwell
Black Pluto's Queen, in the low Countries, Hell:
Witches to Hecate, their Goddess, come;
Unto her offred are the Hecatombe.

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To shew th'unconstancy of wealth and store,
Halfe moones upon their shoes the Romans wore.

14 On Pluto.

Saturne 's three sons shar'd his estate, heav'n fell
To Iove, to Neptune Sea; to Pluto Hell.
And all earth's golden entrails appertains,
His triple-headed Ceberus bound in chains
Of Adamant, holding a bunch of keys,
Before the pitchy Pallace kennel'd lies;
Horrible for his snakey hares, keeps cent'ry
To guard hell's Monarch; Sybil in this entry
(Which with a vig'lant eye he us'd to keep)
Did by her wisdome, lul him fast asleep;
Thence Herc'les drag'd him, light doth make him spue,
And of his foame the poys'nous Wolf-bane grew;
The raiging Futies, the life-measuring Fates,
Rapacious Harpies, waite within the gates
Of grisly Dis, with Fun'rall Cypres crown'd,
Who, galloping on his black Steeds, is found
By fraud'lent Cheaters, cursed Perjurers,
Oppressors, Lyars, and Extortioners:
But very slowly halteth from his den,
To honest, godly, conscionable men.

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He cometh creeping when he wealth doth bring,
Departing, flieteth with an Eagles wing.
Who e're put on Pluto his Helmet, he,
Became invisible, and from danger free:
With this same Helmet coverd, Wisdomes Queen
Fought against Troy, and was, by Mars unseen.
How Pluto ravished his Proserpine,
I lately told and shall not tel't agin.

15 On Charon.

The squalid son of Erebus and Night
Old, but not weak, most terrible for sight;
Vigorous, furious, coveteous, and sad,
With greasy, sordid, ragged garments clad:
In his old rotten, feeble, brittle wherry,
Mens souls to the Elizium he doth ferry,
Over the scalding Lakes of Phlegethon:
Mournful Cocytus, joyless Acheron,
Hateful Styx, (by which the Gods did sweare)
Oblivion; causing Lethe, for his fare,
Each passenger a half-penny must carry
In his shut mouth, or else for passage tarry:
None but the dead t'his boat admitted be,
Yet was Eneas, for his pietie,

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Took in alive; Hercules entrance found,
Theseus by strength, Orpheus by's musicke sound;
Alive, and with no faces these Champions come,
Into the pitchy Realms of Baratbrum.

16 On Minos, Eacus, Rhadamanthus,

Iust Minos, husband to the beautiful
Pasiphas, who intirely lov'd a Bull:
Into a wooden Cow, which he did frame.
Her, Ded'lus puts, the Minotaur thence came.
No sooner was this known to Minos, but
He Dedalus and his Son Icarus shut
With that same Man-Bull Monster fed with men)
Within his self-made Labyrinth, and then
Haveing obtain'd the favour of a clue
Of threed, they made evasion, and flew
From Cretae's Isle, with Artificial plumes,
While unadvised Icarus presumes
Too high a flight, his waxen wings did melt,
And straightway fail'd, when they no sooner felt
The scorching force of Titan's fiery beames
He fell and christned the Icarian streames.
Theseus the man-destroying Monster slew,
And scap'd, help'd out by Ariadne's clue.

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Jove his three Sons to be hell's judges sent,
Who in their way (by him directed) went
Thorough a flow'ry Meadow, which was thought
The field of truth, poor naked souls were brought
To these impartial Judges, who were strict
In dealing righteous judgment, and t'inflict
Deserved punishment upon offenders,
Furies, and evill Genii, their atenders,
With thund'ring whips of steell are ready still,
To execute these righteous Judges will,
On conscious souls; as bloudy murtherers,
Adulterers, hollow-hearted flaterers,
Claw-bac'd detractors, glozing Sycophants,
He which hath store of guilt no torment wants.
Æacus, Rhadamonthus, sit by one
Another lovingly, Minos alone.
When as Ægina was unpeopl'd then
At Eacus prayers, Iove turn'd the Ants to men;
His timely Orizons deliver'd Greece,
From the devouring plague, which did encrease,
And feast it self on flesh, carowsing bowls
Of the infected bloud of dying souls.

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17 Eumenides.

The snake-hair'd furies, born of Night and Dis,
Eumen'des nam'd by an Antiphrasis;
In heaven Diræ and in earth they be
Call'd Harpiæ, and in hell the Furiæ,
She Stygian Dogs of Pluto; Alecto
With bloudy-burning Pine, runs too and fro;
Envious Megæra riseth from her chair,
And with her poysnous breath infects the air;
The furnace of her mouth (beseig'd with fire)
Contagious vapors casts her whip of wire
Mad drunk with bloud, makes such a dreadful sound
As though the heauen, & earth, it would confound
Spightful Tesipeone with Scorpions stings
Offenders, and her horrour-boding wings
She stearnly shakes, and makes the guilty seal
Th'imprinted strokes of her revengful steel.
These sisters, dredful for their brazen feet;
Snake-hairs, loud-sounding scourges have their seat
With Apollo's sacred Temple porch,
Dismaly tining their infestuous Torch;
Worship'd they were, that they no hurt might doe,
Who into their Achaian Temple goe,

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Guilty of murther, incest, theft, or acted.
Much like enormities, did grow distracted

18 On the Harpies, Stryges, and Lamiæ.

Ællo , Celeno, and Ocypete,
The names of the rapacious Harpies be;
Who did, them eat upon blind Pheneus table
Pollute, and then devour (as runs the Fable)
Their flat'ring countenance, and maiden face,
Do seem to promise and portend embraces;
Their Dragons tails, and tallons of an Eagle,
Threat ruine unto those whom they inveagle.
When as tra'lucent Phebe doth appear,
The Striges and the Lamie domineere,
Suck childrens bloud, with Hecatean charmes,
Hurt Cattle, therefore from such noxious harmes
They C[illeg.] to protect them doe invoke,
And with their sacrifices Altars smoke.

19 On Chimera.

Three shap'd Chimera, that much hurt had done,
At last was killed by Belerophon,

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A Lions head he had; his gulf-like throate
Breaths fire, the belly of a wanton goate
Nor wanting was to him, and least he saile
Of spight, he had the poys'nous Dragons taile.

20 On the Fates.

Th' inexorable Parce, borne of Hell,
And night, three Sisters were assign'd to dwell
Within a pitchy cavern; nature bindes
Their souls in peacefull union: Clothe windes
Flax on the Distaste, and the thred of life
Is spun by Lachesis, the fatal knife
Of Atropos divideth it in twain,
Which done it cannot be conjoyn'd againe.
The Series of things, Jupiter's scribes
Will not divert, no, for a world of bribes:
Cresus his store, the wealth that Midas treasur'd,
Cannot prorogue the life that they have measur'd:
Th'intreats of virtue, nor the threats of vice,
Melts them to mercy; neither prayer nor price
Wring out compassion, no fire can thaw
Their frozen hearts, nor can affliction draw
Their thoughts to pitty, they regard no m nes,
Nor thunder of ingemenated groanes.

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Noe stormy sighs, nor silent-pleading tears,
Can force the rocky portals of their ears;
They'r cloath'd in white, haveing their temples crown'd
An Adamantine distaffe held, which round
The spacious orb encircled, their extent
And solid stableness, thereby was meant.
By these three Fates is understood, by some,
Time past, time present, and the time to come.

FINIS.