The honest ghost or a voice from the vault [by Richard Brathwait] |
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For Colonell Robert Waters, Upon his Yorkshire Summons. |
 | The honest ghost |  |
314
For Colonell Robert Waters, Upon his Yorkshire Summons.
“These late Inquisitions have So my Senses Confouunded,
“I am now in a Strait, as if I had never Compounded.
“I am now in a Strait, as if I had never Compounded.
The
Laity ought to pay their Tenths; 'tis true;
But they of old were to the Altar due.
If th' Altar be supprest, the Offering dies,
For where no Altar, there no Sacrifice.
Yet though Delinquents Fatlings be exhaust,
Their poore Remains must be the Holocaust:
And tho in them small fat be left to fry,
Some must be Squiezed forth untill they dy.
So as Jobs Maxim will admit no doubt,
“Nak't came they in, and nak't must they goe out:
And stript of State, well were't if they from sin,
Might go as naked forth as they came in:
But Cæsar with his Power can ne're impose
More outward Mulcts, then they have inward foes:
Which They by temp'rate dyet may represse,
And this Assesse will keepe them from Excesse.
Thus Sinnue-shrunk all rising Statists shun us,
“Our Crosse oth' Doore cryes—Lord have mercy on us.
But should all th'Elements combine to faile me,
There's One at Cundale, sure I am would baile me.
But they of old were to the Altar due.
If th' Altar be supprest, the Offering dies,
For where no Altar, there no Sacrifice.
Yet though Delinquents Fatlings be exhaust,
Their poore Remains must be the Holocaust:
And tho in them small fat be left to fry,
Some must be Squiezed forth untill they dy.
So as Jobs Maxim will admit no doubt,
“Nak't came they in, and nak't must they goe out:
And stript of State, well were't if they from sin,
Might go as naked forth as they came in:
But Cæsar with his Power can ne're impose
More outward Mulcts, then they have inward foes:
Which They by temp'rate dyet may represse,
And this Assesse will keepe them from Excesse.
315
“Our Crosse oth' Doore cryes—Lord have mercy on us.
But should all th'Elements combine to faile me,
There's One at Cundale, sure I am would baile me.
Excuse me, Sir, I am not ev'ry where,
My Person 's One, and that One Summond here;
Nor doe I feare, though I with Others Share,
So just's my Judge, but I shall carry faire.
For my increase is not in Coine but cares,
Aches, Reumes, Tisicks, Children, and Gray-haires:
Wherein, if th' State take Tithes in ev'ry part,
I wish them th'Tenths of these with all my hart.
My Person 's One, and that One Summond here;
Nor doe I feare, though I with Others Share,
So just's my Judge, but I shall carry faire.
For my increase is not in Coine but cares,
Aches, Reumes, Tisicks, Children, and Gray-haires:
Wherein, if th' State take Tithes in ev'ry part,
I wish them th'Tenths of these with all my hart.
From him, who In Storms, Winds, and Showres, Subscribes him truly yours. December 28. 1655.
| The honest ghost | |