University of Virginia Library

At first relation of the foresaid News,
I stept aside, to counsel with my Muse,
That, as I often do, I might thereby
My heart against assailings fortifie:
For, (my infirmities, I'll not dissemble)
My flesh as prone is to look pale and tremble

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As other mens, if I neglect the cures
That must be took for such distemperatures
As are begot, by sudden informations
Of accidents beyond our expectations.
To which end, if I did not oft retire
To seek by musings, what, GOD, will inspire,
And thus preserve them in my slighted Rimes,
I could not bear the burdens which these times
Impose on me, or mine, and upon those
Who first made head against our common foes
By their encouragement, who had the pow'r,
Which might have sav'd those whom they did devour,
And have as well brought scorn and outward shame
On those who acted with them, without blame,
As on themselves; and, when GOD did restore
Their Pow'r twice lost, still acted, as before.