Poems on Affairs of State

God hath a Controversy with our Land,
And in an evil plight Affairs do stand:
And tho we always smart for doing ill,
Yet God's Almighty Hand afflicts us still;
And many see it not, for many be
So wilful that his Hand they will not see.

109

Some plainly view the same, but nothing care.
Some at the sight thereof amazed are,
Like Belteshazzar have a trembling Heart,
But will not from their Wickedness depart.
Some dream that all things do by Chance succeed,
And that I prate more of them than I need.
But Heaven and Earth to witness I invoke,
That nothing causelesly I here have spoke.

If this, O sickly Island! thou believe,
And for thy great Infirmities shalt grieve,
And knowing of thy Follies, make Confessions,
And then bewail thine infinite Transgressions,
And then amend those Errors; God shall then
Thy manifold Distempers cure again,
Make all thy Scarlet Sins as white as Snow,
And cast thy threatned Judgment on thy Foe.
But if thou, fondly thinking thou art well,
Shalt slight this Message which my Muse doth tell,
And scorn her Counsel; if thou shalt not rue
Thy former ways, but frowardly pursue
Thy wilful Course, then hark what I am bold
(In spite of all thy Madness) to unfold:
For I will tell thy Fortune, which when they
That are unborn shall read another day,
They shall believe God's Mercy did infuse
Thy Poet's Breast with a Prophetick Muse;
And know that he this Author did prefer,
To be, from him, this Isle's Remembrancer.
—This Land shall breed a nasty Generation,
Unworthy either of the Reputation
Or Name of Men; for they, as Lice, shall feed
E'en on the Body whence they did proceed.
There shall moreover Swarms of divers Flies
Engendred be in thy Prosperities,
To be a Plague, and still are humming so,
As if they meant some weighty Work to do;
Whereas upon the common Stock they spend,
And nought perform of what they do pretend.

110

Then shall a Darkness follow, far more black
Than when the Light Corporeal thou dost lack.
For grossest Ignorance, o'ershadowing all,
Shall in so thick a Darkness thee enthral,
That thou a blockish People shalt be made,
Still wandring on in a deceiving Shade;
Mistrusting those that safest Paths are shewing,
Most trusting them who counsel thy undoing;
And aye tormented be with Doubts and Fears,
As one who Outcries in dark places hears.

Nor shall the Hand of God from thee return,
Till he hath also smote thine Eldest Born;
That is, till he hath taken from thee quite
Ev'n that whereon thou sett'st thy whole delight;
And filled every House throughout the Nation,
With Deaths unlooked for, and Lamentation.

So great shall be thy Ruin and thy Shame,
That when thy Neighbouring Kingdoms hear the same,
Their Ears shall tingle; and when that Day comes,
In which thy Follies must receive their Dooms;
A day of Clouds, a day of Gloominess,
A day of black Despair and Heaviness
It will appear; and then thy Vanities,
Thy Gold and Silver, thy Confederacies,
And all those Reeds on which thou hast depended,
Will fail thy Trust, and leave thee unbefriended.

Thy King, thy Priests, and Prophets then shall mourn,
And peradventure feignedly return,
To beg of God to succour them; but they
Who will not hearken to his Voice to day,
Shall cry unheeded, and he will despise
Their Vows, their Prayers, and their Sacrifice.

A Sea of Troubles all thy Hopes shall swallow;
As Wave on Wave, so Plague on Plague shall follow
And every thing that was a Blessing to thee,
Shall turn to be a Curse to help undo thee.

111

And when thy Sin is fully ripe in thee,
Thy Prince and People then alike shall be;
Thou shalt have Babes to be thy Kings, or worse,
Those Tyrants who by Cruelty and Force
Shall take away the antient Charters quite
From all their Subjects, yea, themselves delight
In their Vexation; and all those that are
Made Slaves thereby shall murmur, yet not dare
To stir against them. By degrees they shall
Deprive thee of thy Patrimonials all;
Compel thee, as in other Lands this day,
For thine own Meat and thine own Drink to pay;
And at the last begin to exercise
Upon thy Sons all Heathenish Tyrannies,
As just Prerogatives: To these Intents
Thy Nobles shall become their Instruments.
For they who had their Births from noble Races,
Shall some and some be brought into Disgraces;
From Offices they shall excluded stand,
And all their virtuous Offspring from the Land
Shall quite be worn: Instead of whom shall rise
A Brood advanced by Impieties,
That seek how they more great and strong may grow,
By compassing the Publick Overthrow.
These shall abuse thy Kings with Tales and Lies,
With seeming Love and servile Flatteries;
They shall persuade them, they have Power to make
Their Wills their Law, and as they please to take
Their Peoples Goods, their Children and their Lives,
Ev'n by their just and due Prerogatives.
When thus much they have made them to believe,
Then they shall teach them Practices to grieve
Their Subjects by, and Instruments become
To help the screwing up by some and some
Of Monarchies to Tyrannies: They shall
Abuse Religion, Honesty and all;
To compass their Designs they shall devise
Strange Projects, and with Impudence and Lies

112

Proceed in setling them; they shall forget
Those reverend Usages which do befit
The Majesty of State, and rail and storm,
When they pretend Disorders to reform
In their High Councils; and where Men should have
Kind Admonitions, and Reprovings grave;
When they offend they shall be threatned there,
And scoft and taunted, tho no Cause appear.

Whatever from thy People they can tear,
Or borrow, they shall keep, as if it were
A Prize which had been taken from the Foe,
And they shall make no Conscience what they do
To prejudice Posterity; for they,
To gain their Lusts but for the present day,
Shall with such Love unto themselves endeavour,
That tho they know it will undo for ever
Their own Posterity, it shall not make
These Monsters any better Course to take.
Nay God shall give them up, for their Offences,
To such uncomely reprobated Senses,
And blind them so, that when the Ax they see
E'en hewing at the Root of their own Tree,
By their own handy Strokes, they shall not grieve
For their approaching Fall; no, nor believe
Their Fall approacheth, nor assume that heed
Which might prevent it, till they fall indeed.

Mark well, O Britain! what I now shall say,
And do not slightly pass these Words away;
But be assured, that when God begins
To bring this Vengeance on thee for thy Sins,
Which hazard will thy total Overthrow,
Thy Prophets and thy Priests shall slily sow
The Seeds of that Dissension and Sedition,
Which Time will ripen for thy sad Perdition;
But not unless the Priests thereto consent:
For in those days shall few Men innocent
Be griev'd through any Quarter of the Land,
In which thy Clergy shall not have some hand.

113

Thy Cities and thy Palaces, wherein
Most Neatness and Magnificence hath been,
Shall heaps of Rubbish be.—
Instead of Lions Tyrants thou shalt breed,
Who nor of Law nor Conscience shall take heed;
But on the weak Man's Portion lay their Paw,
And make their Pleasures to become their Law.
Thy Judges wilfully shall wrest the Laws,
And, to the Ruin of the common Cause,
Shall misinterpret them, in hope of Grace
From those who might despoil them of their Place.
Yea, that whereto they are obliged both
By Conscience, by their Calling, and their Oath,
To put in Execution they shall fear,
And leave them helpless who oppressed are.

Popery.

University of Virginia Library

Another Copy of Verses by the same Author, written in 1628.