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Du Bartas

His Divine Weekes And Workes with A Compleate Collectio[n] of all the other most delight-full Workes: Translated and written by yt famous Philomusus: Iosvah Sylvester

Sylvester, Josuah (1563-1618)

[section]

Anagammata Regia: Regi.

Iacobvs Stvart: Iusta Scrutabo.

CORONA DEDICATORIA.

[These laureat Temples which the Laurel grace]

EPIGRAM. To M. Iosuah Sylvester.

In praise of the Translator.

To M. Iosvah Sylvester, of his Bartas Metaphrased.

To my good friend, M. Sylvester, in honour of this sacred Work.

To M. Iosvah Sylvester. A SONNET.

Flexanimo Salustij du Bartus interpreti, Ios. Sylvesteri, carmen Encomiasticon.

In Commendation of du Bartas, and his Translator, M. Iosvah Sylvester. A Sonnet.

In Commendation of this worthie Worke.

An Acrostick Sonnet, to his friend M. Iosva Sylvester.

To the Same.

Du BARTAS His FIRST WEEK, OR BIRTH OF THE WORLD:

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

[dedication]

1. Sonnet.

2. Sonnet.

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

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

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

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

TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE, the Earle of Pembroke.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TO THE SAME MOST Honourable Gentleman, Master Anthony Bacone.

ABRAHAM.

TO MY EVER-MOST HONOVRED MISTRESS, Mris Essex, wife to the right worthy, William Essex of Lamborn, Esquier; and eldest Daughter of the right valiant, and Nobly-descended, Sir Walter Harecourt of Stanton-Hare-court, Knight Baron of Ellen-Hall.

TO VERTVES PATTERNE, AND BEAVTIES Paragon, Mris Ione Essex: now wife to the right worthy, William Anderson Esquier (second Son of the late Lord Anderson) and only Sister of the Honorably-descended William Essex of Lamborn, Esquire.

VRANIA. OR The Heauenly Muse.

THE TRIVMPH OF FAITH

TETRASTICHA. OR THE QVADRAINS OF GVY DE FAVR, Lord of Pibrac.

SONNETS Vpon THE LATE MIRACVLOVS PEACE IN FRANCE.

A DIALOGVE VPON THE TROVBLES PAST:

AN ODE OF THE LOVE AND BEAVTIES OF ASTRÆA.

EPIGRAMS & EPITAPHES vpon Warre and Peace.

THE PROFIT OF IMPRISONMENT.

LITTLE BARTAS:

Micro-cosmo-graphia: THE LITTLE-WORLDES DESCRIPTION; OR THE MAP OF MAN

CERTAIN EPIGRAMS of the same Mr. H. S.

THE MAIDENS BLVSH:

THE PARLIAMENT OF VERTVES ROYALL:

A DIVINE & TRVE TRAGI-COMEDY; IOB TRIVMPHANT in his Triall:

BETHVLIANS RESCVE.

A HYMN OF ALMS: OR THE BEGGERS BELL; heard, from beyond THE CHARTER-HOVSE,

MEMORIALS OF MORTALITIE.

St. LEWIS; THE KING:

HENRIE THE GREAT (The Fourth of that Name) LATE King of France and Navarr: HIS Tropheis and Tragedie. Written in French By Piere Mathiev.

THE BATTAIL OF YVRY:

SIMILE NON EST IDEM: Seeming is not the Same.

A GLIMSE OF HEAVENLY IOYES:

AVTO-MACHIA: OR The Self-Conflict of a Christian.

TOBACCO BATTERED;

LACRYMÆ LACRYMARVM:

AN ELEGIAC-EPISTLE Consolatorie.

HONOR'S FARVVEL To Her Honorable Friends: Or The Ladie Hay's Last Will

A FVNERAL ELEGIE

To Gods Glory. IN PIOVS MEMORY OF the nobly vertuous and religious Matrone, Margarite, Wife of Robert Hill, Dr. of Divinity, and Pastor of this Parish.

Vxor Felix. Loquitur post funera virtus.

A HOLY PREPARATION to a ioifull Resurrection.

THE MYSTERIE OF MYSTERIES.

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303

ABRAHAM.

THE THIRD DAY OF THE SECOND WEEK.

CONTAINING

I. The Vocation,
II. The Fathers,
III. The Lawe,
IV. The Captains

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1. The Vocation.

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

The Argvment.

Abram from Chaldè is Divinely Call'd:
How Blest abroad: His (parted) Nephew Thrall'd
(In Sodom's aid) to Chedorlaomer;
Rescu'd by Him: Type of that bloudy War:
Melchisedec His Hap congratulates:
Ismael great; but God confederates
With (promis'd) Isaak, and his (Christ-kin) Seed,
Which shall in number even the Stars exceed:
Lot harbors Angels; sav'd from Sodom's Fire;
His Wife Transform'd: His Daughters foul Desire.

Vntill this Day (deer Muse) on every side
Within straight lists thou hast been boundifi'd,
Pend in a Path so narrow every-where,
Thou couldst not manage: only heer and there
(Reaching thine arms over the Rails that close
Thy bounded Race) thou caught'st from fragrant Rose,
Som Iuly-flowr, or som sweet Sops-in-Wine,
To make a Chaplet, thy chaste brows to binde.

But now, behold th'art in the open Plain,

Simile.

Where thou maist liuely, like the Horse of Spain
(That having burst his halter and his holde
Flings through the field, where list him, vncontrol'd)
Corvet, and turn, run, prance, advance, and pride-thee,
As sacred fury of thy Zeal shall guide-thee.

Th'whole World is thine: henceforth thy Sythe may mowe
The fairest Crop that in Fame's fields doth growe;

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And, on the Sea of richest Histories
Hulling at large, a hundred Victories,
A hundred Rowts, a hundred Wonders new
Com huddling in, in heaps before thy view:
So that I fear, lest (train'd with various sent)
Thou be at fault in this vast Argument;
And lest the best choice in so bound-less Store
Pain thee no less now, than did Want before.

But worst thou what, my Muse (my dear delight,
My care, my comfort)? we will follow right

Simile.

The modest hand of a fair Shepherdling,
Who doth not rudely spoil the flowry Spring
Of all her painted beauties; nor deface
All in one day a pleasant Gardens grace;
But mannerly amid the Quarters seeks
Such rarest flowrs as best her fancy likes:
And heer a blew one, there a red she pulls,
A yellow heer, and there a white she culls,
Then bindes them with her hair, and blessed over
With a chaste kiss, she sends them to her Lover:
We'l over-run the Annals of all Ages;
And, choosing-out the chiefest Personages,
And Prodigies amid the Hebrew Story,
We'l offer them on th'Altar of Gods glory.

For He (I hope) who, no less good then wise,
First stirr'd vs vp to this great Enterprise,
And gave vs heart to take the same in hand,
For Level, Compass, Rule and Squire will stand;
Will change the Pebbles of our puddly thought
To Orient Pearls, most bright and bravely wrought;
And will not suffer in this pretious Frame
Ought that a skilfull Builders ey may blame:
Or, if he suffer ought, 't shall be som trace
But of that blindnes common to our Race;
T'abate my glory, and to give me proof,
That (mortall) I build but with mortall stuff.

Iames, richest Gem of Scots, and Scotlands Praise,

Dedication to the Kings Maiesty.

Who, with the same hand that the Scepter swaies,
On Heav'n-faln paper, in a golden stile,
Doost happily immortall lines compile;
And (new Apollo) vnder Others names
Singst in thy Childehood thine Own future Fames:
To whom but Thee should I these Verses vow?
Who through the World hast made me famous now,
And with a liberall learned hand indu'd
My Muse with lustre of a Royall Sute;
Before, so ragged, that she blusht wel-neer
That her chaste Sisters should so homely see-her,

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The scorn of Art, of Helicon the shame,
Vsurping (wrong) Vrania's sacred Name.

Through thee she's Heav'nly. O wise, worthy Prince,
Maist thou surmount all those in Excellence,
Which have (before thee) Rul'd th'hard-ruled Scots,
And ruder Picts (painted with Martiall spots)
That, first Fergusius (glory of his daies)
Ev'nus and Donald may envy thy Praise;
And even the Scott'sh (or rather th'Hebrew) David
(Iesses great Son, so holily behaved)
Give place to thy Renown, and therwithall
Give thee his Zeal and Heart heroïcall,
And all his best (which doth thee best belong)
As he hath giv'n thee his sweet Harp and Song.

Thovgh profane service of Idolatry
Had drown'd the whole Earth vniversally:
Though shame-less sin (born with the Colonies
Through all the world) through all did Tyrannize:
Yet in Chaldea was their chiefest Seat,
Their strength in Shinaar; and that City great,
Built on the slimy strand of Euphrates,
Was the proud Palace where they held their Feasts.
So that, even Sem's and Heber's sacred Line
(Where God his grace yet seemed to confine)
Sucking the Sin-bane of Assyrian air,
Did (like the Heathen) every day impair;
Forgot the true God, followed (rashly-rude)
The gross grand Error of the multitude;
Degeneriz'd, decaid and withered quight:

Simile.

Like som rare Fruit-Tree over-topt with spight
Of Briers and Bushes which it sore oppress,
With the sowr shadow of their thorny tress,
Till choakt withall, it dies as they do growe,
And beareth nought but Moss and Misseltoe.

The calling of Abraham.

But God, desirous (more for vs, then him)
In som one stock to save Faith's sacred stem
(Like as before from the All-drowning Flood
He sav'd the worlds seed in an Ark of wood)
Marks Abram for his own: and from false Rites
To Men, to Beasts, to Stocks, to Stones, to Sprites,
Him gratiously to his own Service drawes;
Not by meer Conduct of exteriour cause,
As by contempling th'Artship richly-rare
Which gilds the Seeling of this Globe so fair;
Earths fruitfull powr, producing (goodly-green)
From so small seeds so huge and mighty Treen,
Flowrs fragrant air, so fresh and divers-died;
Seas foaming Course, whose ever-Tilting Tide

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(Ebbing or flowing) is confin'd to Season,
Bounded with lists, guided with reans of Reason:
But, by the motion of his Spirit, which seals
In our hearts Centre what his word reveals,
And prudently in his fit time and place
(Dispensing frankly his free gifts of Grace)
Doth inwardly bear-witnes, and aver-it
Vnder our Spirits that 't is Gods Holy Spirit.

The sacred Faith of Abram languisht not

The fruits of a true faith & the effect therof.

In idleness, but alwaies waakt and wrought,
And ever lively, brought forth Patience,
Humility, Hope, Bounty, Innocence,
Loue, feruent Zeal, Repentance, Temperance,
Sincerity, and true Perseuerance;
Fruits that (like Load-stones) haue a vertue giuen
(Through Faith) to draw their Father-Tree to Heav'n,
And guide the soules to God (the spring of life)
Of's kins-man Lot, and Sara his deer Wife;
Who with him following the Almighti's call,
Wend to the strand where Iordans course doth craul,
Their owne deer Country willingly forsake,
And (true-religious) less account do make
Of goods and lands, and quiet-lifes content,
Than of an end-less, friendless Banishment.

O sacred ground of Vertue's sole perfection!
O shield of Martyrs! Prophets sure direction!
Soule's remedy! O contrite heart's Restorer!
Tears-wiping tame-grief! Hopes guide, hunting horror,
Path of Saluation! Pledge of Immortality!
O liuely Faith! through thy admired quality,
How many wonders dost thou work at once,
When from Sin's slumbers thou hast waakt vs once,
And made vs inly in our spirits conceiue
Beauties that neuer outward eyes perceiue!

Alas! said Abram, must I needs forgoe
These happy fields where Euphrates doth flowe?

Natural considerations to haue stopt the Journey of Abraham.

Heer, first I drew this vitall air, and (pleas'd
With my births news) my Mothers throes I eas'd:
Heer, from her tender brest (as soft as silk)
My tender gums suckt my first drop of milk:
Heer, with the pleasure of mine infant-smile
Her Cares and Cumbers I did oft beguile:
Heer, my chaste Sisters, Vncles, Aunts and Kin,
My pritty prattling have delighted in:
Heer, many a time I wantonly have clung,
And on my fathers wrinkled neck have hung:
Heer, I have past my Lad-age fair and good:
Heer, first the soft Down on my chin did bud:

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Heer, I have learn'd Heav'ns Motions, and the nature
And various force of Fire, Air, Earth and Water:
Heer, I haue show'n the noblest tokens forth
Both of my Mindes and of my Bodies worth:
Heer, I have spent the best part of mine age:
Heer, I possess a plentious Heritage:
Heer, I have got me many friends and fame,
And by my Deeds attain'd a glorious Name:
And must I hence, and leaue this certain state,
To roam vncertain (like a Runagate)
O're fearfull Hils, and thorough foaming Torrents
That rush-down Mountains with their roaring Currents,
In dreadfull Desarts, where Heav'ns hottest beam
Shall burn without; within vs, Thirst extream:
And gloomy Forrests full of ghastly fear
Of yelling Monsters that are dwelling there?
To seek a Country (God knowes where, and whither)
Whose vnknowen name hath yet scarce sounded hither?
With staff in hand, and wallet at our back,
From Town to Town to beg for all we lack?
To guise our selves (like counterfaiting Ape)
To th'guise of Men that are but Men in shape?
T'have (briefly) nothing properly our own
In all the World; no, not our Grave-place knowen?

Is 't possible, I should endure to see
The sighs and tears my friends will shed for me?
O! can I thus my Native soil forsake?
O! with what words shall I my Farewell take?
Farewell Chaldea: dear delights, adieu:
Friends, Brothers, Sisters, farewell all of you,
Farewell for ever: Can I thus (alas!)
Rudely vnwinde me from the kinde embrace
Of their dear arms, that will me faster hould

2. Comparisons.

Than trembling Ivie doth the Oakenfould;
Or than the Vine doth with her crawling spray
The boughs of Elm, her limber limbs to stay?

Can I expose (with perill of my life)
Th'vn-vulgar beauties of my vertuous wife,
To the none-sparing lust of that loose Nation
That brutely burns in all abomination?

Besides, what rigour? nay, what paricide?
To hale from Tigris shoar to Iordans side
A weak old-man? a man so weak and ould,
He scarce can creep without our help and hould.

His resolution aboue all discourse of reason.

Yet, 't must be so: for so the Lord commands.
A carnall man on carnall reason stands:
But, for all Reasons, Faith suffizeth me.
Who lodge with God can never House-less be.

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Then cheerly marcht he on, and though the age
And death of Terah slow'd his pilgrimage;
The rest of His he doth conduct (in fine)
To Canaan (since called Palæstine):
Where God pours down such flouds of goods vpon them,

The great blessing of God on his obedience.

And bountiously bestowes such blessings on them,
That their abundance shortly seems t'exceed
Gods Promises, and their desires indeed.
Their fruitfull Heards, that hill and dale do haunt,
Resemble not the breed of th'Elephant,

Simile.

Which (slowe in coupling, and in calving more,
Pining her Master so long time before
With lingring hope) brings-forth, with painfull groans,
But once in twelve yeers, but one Calf at once.
All's white with their wool: all their Cattell proves,
Still, still increasing like to Stares and Doves.
Their Wealth so growes, that, wantoniz'd withall,

Iarre begun between his Seruants, and the Seruants of Lot.

Their envious Shepheards broach a civil Brawl.
But, lest this Mischief, by the Grooms begun,
Between their Masters might vnkindly run,
The grave-milde Grand-sire of the Faithfull (there)
And Ammoa's Father, to cut-off the fear
Of farther strife, and to establish rather
Their Mindes, then Bodies, in a league together;
Divided duly with a deep foresight
Their Flocks and Heards in number infinite.

Then pleas'd and parted; both go live a-part:

Abram & Lot to shun centention, part company.

The Vncle kept the Mountain for his part;
For,'s Nephew chose the fat and flowry Plain,
And even to Sodom stretcht his Tent and Train;
And, dwelling there, becam a Citizen
Among those monstrous, Nature-forcing Men.

O Lot (alas!) what lot hast thou elect?

Lot dwels at Sodom.

Th'eternall verdure, and the trim prospect,
The plentious Pastures, and the purling Springs,
Whose fibrous silver thousand Tributes brings
To wealthy Iordan, watering so the soil
(Like Gods own Garden) doth thy sense beguile,
Blindeth thy iudgement, makes thee (miserable)
To seat thee with a People execrable,
Whose War-thrall'd woes, and odious villanies
To springs of tears shall turn thy tender eyes.

Elam's proud King, great Chedor-Laomer

The battaile of Siddim fought by the king of Elam, with his confederates, against the Kings of Sodom and Gommorrha with heirs.

(Leagued with Arioch King of Ellazar,
The Soverain of the Nations, Thadael,
And with the King of Shynaar, Amraphel)
Made war against the Kings of Sodoma,
Gomorrha, Zeboim, Zoar, Adamah;

310

Who, subiect to him for twelve yeers before,
Rebelled now, and cast the yoak they bore.

Both Camps approach, their bloudy rage doth rise,
And even the face of Cowards terriblize;
New Martiall heat inflames their mindes with ire,
Their bloud is moov'd, their heart is all on fire.
Their cheerfull limbs (seeming to march too slowe)
Longing to meet, the fatall drums out-go;
And even already in their gesture fight:
Th'iron-footed Coursers, lusty, fresh and light,
Marrying their Masters cause and courage both,
Snowe all the field with a white foaming froth,
And prancing with their load (as proud withall)
With loud-proud neighings for the Combat call.

Now both the Hoasts march forward furiously,
The Plain between soon shrinketh equally:
First in the Air begins a fight of dust,
Then on the Earth both Armies bravely ioust.

Brave yet it was: for yet one might behould
Bright swords and shields, and plumed helms of gould
Vn-goard with bloud; no Cask had lost his head,
No Horse his load, no scattered Corps lay dead.
But, on our Corn-fields towards harvest-time

Comparison.

(For punishment of som ingratefull crime)
Th'incensed hand of Heav'ns Almighty King
Never more thick doth slippery Ice-pearls fling,
Than heer the Arrows showr on euery side:
An iron Cloud Heav'ns angry face doth hide
From Souldiers sight; and flying weapons then
For lack of ground fall vpon horse or men:
Ther's not a shaft but hath a man for White,
Nor stone but lightly in warm bloud doth light:
Or, if that any fail their foes to hit
In fall; in flight themselves they enter-split:
The wounds com all from Heav'n: the bravest Hee
Kils and is kild of him he doth not see:
Without an aim the Dart-man darts his spear,
And Chance performs th'effect of Valour there.

Simile.

As two stout Rams, both Ieloux-phrenzy-sick,
Afront two flocks, spurd on with anger's prick,
Rush-on each other with tempestuous shock,
And, butting boisterous, horns and heads do knock:
So, these two Armies enterchanged blowes;
And doubling steps and strokes vpon their Foes,
First flesh their Lances and their Pikes embrew,
Then with their swords about them keenly heaw,
Then stab with daggers; standing bravely to-'t,
Till Foe to Foe they charge them foot to foot;

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So neer, that oft ones Targets pike doth pearce
Anothers Shield, and sends him to his Herse.
And gawdy plumes of Foes (be-Cedered brave)
Oft on their Foes (vn-plumed) crests do wave.

Of all their stroaks scarce any stroak is vain;
Yet stand they firm, and still the fight maintain:
Still fronting Death, they face to face abide,
None turn their backs; no, neither shrink aside;
Of their own blood, as of their Foe's, as frank.

But, too-too tired, som at last dis-rank:
Then, Threats and Cries, and Plaints, redoubled ay,
And so pel-mel rage-blinded Mars doth play,
That now no more their Colours they discern;
But, knowing none, to all are strangely stern.
The Palestine fights vnder Elams Standard,
The Shinarite with Sodoms Ensignes wander'd:
Even as two swarms of busie Buzzers, mounting

Simile.

Amid the Air, and mutually affronting,
Mingle their Troops; one goes, another coms,
At other turns; a cloud of Moatlings hums
Above our heads, who with their cipres wings
Decide the Quarell of their little Kings:
Either of which a hundred times a minute
Doth lose a Souldier, and as oft re-win-it.

But, may one hope in Champions of the Chamber,

A martial brave of an olde Captain against the effeminate softnes and delicacy of Carpet-Knights.

Soft Carpet-Knights, all senting Musk and Amber
(Whose chief delight is to be over-com)
Vn-danted hearts that dare not Over-com?
In Woman-Men a manly Constancy?
In wanton Arms vn-wearied Valiancy?
No, no (Gomorrah) this is not the place
For quav'ring Lutes a warbling Voice to grace:
No (filthy Sodom) 't is not heer the game
To play with Males in spight of Natures name:
No (Zeboim) heer are no Looking-Glasses
For Para-Nymphs to gaze their painted faces:
To starch Mustachoes, and to prank in print,
And curl the Lock (with fauours braided in 't):
No (Adamah) we spend not heer the day
In Dancing, Courting, Banquetting and Play:
Nor lastly (Zoar) is it heer the guise
Of silken Mock-Mars (for a Mistress-Prize)
With Reed-like Lance, and with a blunted Blade,
To Championize vnder a Tented shade,
As at your Tourneys. Therefore to your Mew:
Lay down your weapons, heer's no Work for you.
'Tis heer the Fashion (and the pride of Wars)
To paint the face with sweat, dust, blood and scars:

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Our Glass is heer a bright and glist'ring shield:
Our Satten, steel: the Musick of the Field
Doth rattle like the Thunders dreadfull roar:
Death tilteth heer: the Mistress we adore,
Is Victory (true Soverain of our hearts)
Who without danger graceth no Deserts:
Dead carcasses perfume our dainty Nose:
Our Banquets heer, be Banquets for the Crowes:
Flee therefore (Cowards) flee and turn your backs,
(As you were wont in your thought-shaming acts)
But with our swords and Lances (in your haste)
Through-thrilled (Villains) this shall be your last,
Said Amraphel: and charg'd them in such sort,
That 't seems a sudden Whirl-winde doth transport

Defeature of the Sodomites.

Their fainting Troops. Som (best-advised) fly
To tops of Mountains that do neighbour by;
Som, through the Plain: but, neither (in the chace)
Dares once look back (no, not with half a face)
Their fear had no restraint, and much less Art:
This throwes away his shield, and that his dart;
Swords, Morrions, Pouldrons, Vaunt-brace, Pikes & Lances,
Are no defence, but rather hinderances:
They with their hearts, have also lost their sight,
And recking less a glorious end, in Fight,
Than thousand base deaths, desperatly they ran
Into the flood that fats rich Canaan.

Then, Iordan arms him 'gainst these infidels,
With rapid course, and like a sea he swels;
Lakes vnder ground into his chanel range,
And shallowest Foords to ground-less gulfs do change:
He fumes, he foams; and, swiftly whirling round,
Seems, in his rage, these bitter words to sound:

Dy (Villains) dy: O more then infamous
Foul Monsters! drench your damned soules in vs.
Sa, sa, my Floods: with your cold moisture quench
The lust-full flame of their self burning stench.
Drown, drown the Hel-hounds, and revenge the wrong
Which they have don our Mother Nature long.

The River, swiftly whirling-in the slaves,
Above with Boaws, beneath with Bodies paves:
The gaudy Plume, yet floating light and soft,
Keeps for awhile the hollow helm aloft;
But yet (at length) even those that swim the best,
Down to the bottom sink among the rest,
Striving and struggling (topsi-turuy tost).
While fain they would, but cannot, yield the ghost,
Because the flood (vnwilling to defile
His purest waves with spirits so foul and vile)

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Re-spews them still into themselues, and there
Smoothers, and choaks, and rams them, as it were:
Then both at once (Bodies and Soules) at last
To the main Sea, or his own shoar doth cast.

The Kings of Sodom and Gomorrah then,

Their own Ambush serues against themselues.

Hoping to train the King of Elams men,
Among the Clay-pits which themselues before
(T'intrap the Foe) with boughs had covered o're,
Ran thither-ward: but their confused flight,
In their owne ambush made their owne to light:
Wherein they lost the flowr of all their rest,
Sooner of death, then of deaths fear possest.

One, as he flies with trembling steps the dart
Which (from behinde) nigh pearst him to the heart,
Tangling his foot with twyning tendrels tho
Of a wilde Vine that neer a pit did growe,
Stumbles, and tumbles in, hung by the heels
Vp to the wast in water: where he feels
A three-fold Fate: for there (O strange!) he found
Three deaths in one; at once slain, hangd and drownd.

Another, weening o'r a Well to skip,
From the wet brim his hap-less foot doth slip,
And in he fals: but instantly (past hope)
He catcheth holde vpon a dangling rope,
And so at length with shifting hands gets-vp
By little and litle to the fountains top.
Which Thadael spying, to him straight he hies,
And thus alowd vnto the wretch he cries;
Varlet, is this, is this the means you make,
Your wonted yoak of Elam off to shake?
Is this your Skirmish? and are these your blowes,
Wher-with t'incounter so courageous Foes?
Sir, leaue your ladder; this shall serue as well,
This sword shall be your ladder down to Hell:
Go pay to Pluto (Prince of Acheron)
The Tribute heer deny'd vnto your own:
Heer-with he draws his Fauchin bright and keen,
And at a blowe heaws both his arms off clean:
His trickling hands held fast, down fell his Trunk,
His blood did swim, his body quickly sunk.

Another (roughly pushed by the Foe)
Fals headlong down into a Bog belowe:
Where, on his head deep planted in the mud
With his heels vp-ward, like a tree he stood;
Still to and fro, wauing his legs and arms,

Simile.

As Trees are wont to waue in windy storms.

Another heer (on hors-back) posting over
A broad, deep clay-pit that green boughs do cover,

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Sinks instantly; and in his sudden Fate
Seems the bave Horse doubly vnfortunate:
For, his own neck he breaks, and bruzing in
(With the keen scales of his bright Brigandin)
His Masters bowels, serves (alas!) for Tomb
To him that yerst so many times did comb
His crispy Crest, and him so frankly fed

Simile.

In 's hollow Shield with oats and beans and bread:
Even so somtimes, the loving Vine and Elm
(With double domage) ioyntly over-whelm;
She wails the wrack of her deer Husbands glade;
He moanes his Spouses feeble arms and shade:
But most it grieves him with his Trunk to crush
The precious Clusters of her pleasing Bush;
And press to death vnkindly with his waight
Her that for loue embraceth him so straight.

Lots valour.

Yet Lot alone (with a small troup assisted)
The Martiall brunt with Manly breast resisted,
And thirsting Fame, stands firmly looking for
The furious hoste of Chedorlaomer:
But as a narrow and thin-planted Cops
Of tender saplings with their slender tops,
Is fell'd almost as soon as vnder-taken
By Multitudes of Peasants Winter-shaken:
Lot's little Number so environ'd round,
Hemm'd with so many swords, is soon hew'n down.

His vndanted resolution.

Then left alone, yet still all one he fares;
And the more danger, still the more he dares:

Simile.

Like a strange Mastiff fiercely set vpon
By mongrell Curs, in number ten to one:
Who tyr'd with running (growen more cunning) gets
Into som corner, where vpright he sits
Vpon his stern, and sternly to his foes
His rage-full, foaming, grinning teeth he showes,
And snarles, and snaps; and this and that doth bite,
And stoutly still maintains th'vnequall fight
With equall fury, till (disdaining Death)
His Enemies be beaten out of breath.

Arioch, admiring, and (even) fearing too
What Lot had done, and what he yet might doo;
Him princely meets, and mildly greets him thus:
Cease (valiant youth) cease, cease t'incounter vs.
Wilt thou (alas!) wilt thou (poor soule) expose
And hazard thus thy life and Fame to lose,
In such a Quarrell, for the cause of such?
Alas, I pitty thy misfortune much.
For, well I see, thy habit and thy tongue
Thine Arms (but most) thy courage (yet so yong)

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Shewe that in Sodom's wanton wals accurst
Thou wert not born, nor in Gomorrha nurst.
O chief of Chivalry, reserue thy worth
For better wars: yeeld thee: and think hence-forth
I highly prize thy powrs; and, by my sword,
For thousand kingdoms will not false my word.

Past hope of Conquest (as past fear of death)

Lot taken prisoner.

Lot yeelds him then vpon the Princes Faith;
And, from his Camell quick-dismounting, hies
His Royall hand to kiss in humble wise:
And th'Army, laden with the richest spoyl,
Triumphantly to th'Eastward marcht the while.

No sooner noyse of these sad novels cam
Vnto the ears of faithfull Abraham,

Abraham with his family of 300. goes to rescue Lot.

But instantly he arms to rescue Lot,
And that rich prey the heathen Kings had got.
Three hundred servants of his house he brings
(But lightly arm'd with staves and darts, and slings
Aided by Mamre (in whose Plain he wons)
Ascol and Aner (Amor's valiant sons)
So at the heels he hunts the fear-less Foe,
Yet waits advantage yer he offer blowe)
Favour'd by streightness of the wayes they took,
And cover'd close with nights deceitfull cloak.

In Groon-land fields is found a dungeon,

A liuely description of Sleep, with his Cell, Seruants, furniture and company.

A thousand-fold more dark then Acheron,
It hath no door, lest as it turns about
On rusty hooks, it creak too lowdly out,
But Silence serves for Port and Porter there,
A gagged Vsher that doth never wear
Stif-rustling silks, nor rattling chamlet sutes,
Nor gingling spurs, nor creaking spanish boots;
But, that he make no noyse (when ere he sturs)
His high-day sutes are of the softest Furs,
At other times (less-stately-service-full)
Hee's only clad in cotton, shod in wool:
His left fore-finger ore his lips he locks;
With th'other beckens to the early Cocks,
The rushing streams, and roaring Eölus,
Seeming (though dumb) to whisper softly thus:
Sleep silver Torrents; cease, sweet Chante-cleer,
To bid Good-morrow to the Morning heer:
Be still, ye Windes, keep in your native nest;
Let not your storms disturb this house of Rest.

In midst of all this Caue so dark and deep,
On a still-rocking couch lies blear-ey'd Sleep,
Snorting alowd, and with his panting breath
Blowes a black fume, that all envapoureth:

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Obliuion lies hard-by her drowzie brother,
Who readily knowes not her selfe, nor other:
Then solitary Morpheus gently rockt:
And nasty Sloath self-pyn'd, and poorly frockt,
Irresolute, vnhandsom, comfortless,
Rubbing her eyes with Poppy, and doth press
The yellow Night-shade, and blew Gladiols iuyce,
Wher-with her sleep-swoln heauy lids she glews.
Confusedly about the silent Bed
Fantastick swarms of Dreams there hovered,
Green, red, and yellow, tawny, black, and blew:
Som sacred, som profane; som false, som true;
Som short, som long; som divelish, som divine;
Som sad, som glad; but monstrous all (in fine):

Simile.

They make no noyse, but right resemble may
Th'vnnumbred Moats which in the Sun do play,
When (at som Cranny) with his piercing ey
He peepeth in, som darker place to spy.

Thither th'Almighty (with a iust intent
To plague those tyrants pride) his Angel sent.
No sooner entred, but the radiant shine
Of's glistring wings, and of his glorious eyn,
As light as Noon, makes the dark House of Night.
The gawdy swarm of Dreams is put to slight:
And opening wide the sable Canapey
The winged Herald summon'd Sleep away.

Silence dislodg'd at the first word he spake:
But deaf dead Sleep could not so soon awake.
Hee's call'd a hundred times, and tugg'd and touz'd,
And by the Angel often rubb'd and rouz'd:
At length he stirs, and stretching lazily
His legs and arms, and opening halfe an ey,
Foure or fiue times he yawns; and leaning-on
His (Lob-like) elbowe, hears This Message don.

Great Spirits-restorer, Cares-charm, Chacing-grief,
Night-short'ning Sire, Man's-Rest, and Mind's Relief,
Vp, vp (said he) dispatch thee hence in poste,
And with thy Poppy drench the conquering Hoste
Of those prowd Kings, that (richly charg'd with Prey)
On Canaan Mountains lodge in dis-aray.

Th'Angel, in th'instant back to Heav'n-ward gon,
Sleep slowely harnest his dull Bears anon;
And, in a noys-less Coach all darkly dight,
Takes with him Silence, Drowsiness and Night:
Th'ayr thickning where he goes, doth nod the head,
The Woolf in Woods lies down, th'Ox in the Mead,
Th'Orque vnder Water; and on Beds of Down
Men stretch their limbs, and lay them softly down.

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The Nightingale, pearcht on the tender spring
Of sweetest Haw-thorn, hangs her drowsie wing,
The Swallow's silent, and the loudest Humber,
Leaning vpon the Earth, now seems to slumber:
Th'Yeugh mooues no more, the Asp doth cease to shake,
Pines bow their heads, seeming som rest to take.

So soon as Sleep's black wings had over-spread
The Pagan Hoast; the Souldiers haste to bed:
For, instantly begin they all to wink,
To hang their heads, and let their weapons sink:
Their words half-spoke, are lost between their lips,
Through all their veins Sleep's charming humor slips,
Which to a deep and death-like Letharge brings
Both Heathen Souldiers, and their Heathen Kings.

Abram perceiving now the Army neer,

Abrams oration to his little Troupe.

By their owne Fires; gan thus his Troups to cheer:
Souldiers (said he) behold, this happy Night
Shall make amends for that dis-astrous Fight
Was fought in Siddim, and acquittance cry,
For Sodom's shame, and Lot's captivity:
Me thinks, already Victory (adorn'd
With Bowes, and Blades, and Casks, and Crowns) return'd
From th'Enemy, on our triumphant spears
Erecteth Tropheis far more rich then theirs:
Methinks, already on our glistering Crests,
The glorious Garland of the Conquest rests;
Our way to vertue lyes so smooth and plain,
With pain-less Honour, and vn-vent'red Gain.
This Hoast you see, is not the valiant Troup
That stript Gomorrha, and made Segor stoop;
That Iordan, Inde, and Euphrates admire;
But a foul heard of Swine wall'wing in mire:
Regard them as they are, not as they were:
See but their sloath, do not their number fear:
He that's asleep is dead and he that's dead
Bites not (they say): What haue we then to dread?
Why stay we, Lads? already down they are,
Their throats be naked, and their bosoms bare,
Their lives lie prostrate heer at our command;
And Fortune cals but for your helping hand.

Com, follow me; rather, the Lord of Hoasts
(Terror of Tyrants) who through all the Coasts
Of all the Earth confoundeth (with a thought)
All worldly powr, and brings mens plots to nought:
Com (happy Troop) follow with one accord
Th'invincible brave Standard of the Lord.

This sayd; eft-soons I wot not what a grace,
What divine beam reflected on his face:

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Simile.

For as in March, the Serpent, having cast
His olde foul skin, crawls from his hole full fast,
Hisses, and stings, and stares vs in the face,
And (gold-like) glistering, glides along the grass:
So Heav'n inspires fresh vigour in each part,
His blood renews, his heart doth take new heart,
A martiall fury in his breast there boyls,
His stature seems much taller then yer-whiles,
Youth paints his cheeks with Rose and Lilly Dies,
A lovely Lightning sparkles in his eyes;
So that his gallant Port and gracefull voyce
Confirms the faintest, makes the sad reioyce.

Abraham sets vpon the Camp of Chedorlaomer.

Then, on the Camp he sets, where round about
Lie mingled Carrs, and Horse, and Men that rout:
Rest seizeth all; and (wanting what it fed)
The fire it selfe slept in his ashy bed.

Th'Hebrews the-while laid-on on back, or brest,
Or arm, or side, according as their Rest
To th'ground had bound them; and those liues bereft
The which Death's Image in an Image reft.

Heer, one beheaded on a Trunk of Pine,
Pours-out at once his gore, his ghost, and Wine;
The full Helm hops, and with a voyce confused,
Murmurs, as if it his fell Fate accused.
Another, taken by inchanting sleep,
Mid Pots and Cups, and Flagons, quaffing deep,
Doth at a wound, given in his rattling gorge,
The Wine again in his owne Cup dis-gorge.
Another, while ingeniously he plays
Vpon his Lute som passing-pleasing Lays,
Sleep sieles his eyes vp with a gloomy clowd;
And yet his hand still quavers light and lowd:
But, at the last it sinks; and, offring fair
To strike the Base, strikes but the empty ayr:
His soule, descending to th'Infernall Coasts,
Goes to conclude his Song vnto the Ghosts:
Dolefull it was, not for the Argument
(For't was of Loue) but for the sad event.
Another, wak'ned with those lowd alarms,
Starts-vp, and groapeth round about for arms;
Which, ah too soon he findeth, for his part:
For a keen poignard stabs him to the heart.

Simile.

Like as a Tigress, having with the gore
Of Buls and Heifers made her spots the more,
And pav'd a Plain with Creatures mangled lims,
Views on each side her valiant stratagems,
Treads on the vanquisht, and is prowdly-sad,
That no more Foes, nor no more Maw she had:

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So th'Hebrew stalking round-about the slain,
Braves (but it boots not) and would very fain
That those dead bodies might their ghosts re-gather,
Or that those Mountains would produce him (rather)
Som Foes more wakefull, that more manfully
In blood-drown'd Valleis might his valour try.

Amor's three sons did no less slaughter make;
Abram for zeale, they but for Furies sake:
This, nayls a Souldier with his sword to th'ground;
That, at a blowe, th'heads of two Heads dis-crown'd.
This, vnderneath a Chariot kils the driver:
That, lops off legs and arms, and heads doth shiver.

The Tents already all in blood do swim,
Gushing from sundry Corps, from severall lim.
In brief, so many ravening Woolues they seem,
Within whose breast, fierce Famine biteth keen,
Who softly stealing to som fold of sheep
(While both the Shepheard and his Curr doth sleep)
Furbush their hungry teeth, tear, kill, and prey
Vpon the best, to eat and bear-away.

Yet, at the length, the vanquished awake,
And (re-aray'd) the Victors vnder-take;
Putting the three prowd Amorites, to flight,
Who but for Abram, had bin routed quite.

Sleep, sleep (poor Pagans) sith you needs must die,
Go sleep again, and so die easily,
Die yer you think on death, and in your Dreams
Gasp-out your soules; Let not your dazled beams
Behold the havock and the horror too
Of th'Execution, that our swords shall doo,
Hacking your bodies to heaw-out your breaths,
Yer Death, to fright you with a thousand deaths,
Said Abraham: and pointing every word
With the keen point of his quick-whirled sword
(As swift in doing, as in saying so)
More fiercely chargeth the insulting Foe,
Than ever storm-full cloud, which fed with Water's

Comparison.

Thin moist-full fumes (the snowie Mountains daughters)
Showr'd heaps of hail-shot, or pour'd floods of rain,
On slender stems of the new tender Grain:
Through blood, and blades, through danger, dust and death,
Through mangled Corps and carrs he traverseth;
And partly in the shock, part with the blowes,
He breaketh in through thickest of his Foes,
And by his travail topsi-turneth then
The live and dead, and half-dead horse and men:
His bright-keen Fauchin never threats, but hits;
Nor hits, but hurts; nor hurts, but that it splits

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Som priuy postern, whence to Hell (in Post)
Som groaning Pagan may gasp out his ghost:
He all assayls, and him so brave bestowes,
That in his Fight he deals more deaths than blowes.

Simile.

As the North-winde, re-cleering-vp the front
Of clowdy Heav'ns, towards the South doth hunt
The showrs that Austers spungie thirst exhales
Out of those seas that circle Orans wals:
So where-so-e're our Hebrew Champion wield
His war-like weapon and his glistring Shield

Elamites ouerthrown by Abraham.

(Whose glorious splendor darts a dreadfull light)
All turn their backs, and all be-take to flight:
Forgetting Fame, Shame, Vertue, Hope, and all,
Their hearts are don, and down their weapons fall:
Or, if that any be so strangely-stout
As not to faint, but bravely yet hould out,
Alas! it boots not, for it cannot stop
The victory, but haste his owne mishap.

God giveth victory.

But in what Fence-schoole, of what master, say,
Brave pearl of Souldiers, learnd thy hands to play
So at so sundry weapons, such passados,
Such thrusts, such foyns, stramazos, and stoccados?
Even of that mighty God, whose sacred might
Made Heav'n and Earth (and them so braue bedight)
Of meerly nothing: of that God of Powr
Who swore to be thy Target and thy Towr:
Of that high God, who fortifies the weak,
Who teacheth his, even steely bowes to break,
Who doth his Childrens zealous hearts inflame;
But daunts the prowd, and doth their courage tame.

Abraham follows the execution.

Thy sword abates th'armed, the strong, the stout;
Thou cleav'st, thou kill'st: The faint dis-armed rout,
The lightning of thine eyes, thy voyces thunder,
And thy stern dreadfull port confounds with wonder:
Death and Despair, Horror and Fury fight
Vnder thine Ensignes in the dismall Night:
Thou slayest this, and that thou threat'st as much:
This thou pursu'st, that thou disdaign'st to touch:
In brief (thou blest Knight brave) thou quelst at once
Valiant and vile, arm'd and vnarmed ones.

Heer, thine even hand (even in a twinkling trice)
In equall halves a pagans head doth slyce:
Down on each shoulder looketh either half,
To gaze vpon his gastly Epitaph,
In lines of blood writ round about him fair,
Vnder the curtain of his parted hair.
Heer, through a Ierkin (more then Musket-proof)
Made twelue-fold double of East-country Buff,

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Clean through and through thy deadly shaft doth thrill
A Gyants bulk; the wounded hulk doth reel:
The head behinde appears; before, the feathers:
And th'Ethnick soule flies both-waies out togethers:
Heer thou do'st cleaue, with thy keen Fauchins force,
The Bards and Breast-plate of a furious Horse,
No sooner hurt, but he recoyleth back,
Writing his Fortune in a bloody track:
Thy Barbed dart, heer at a Chaldee flies,
And in an instant lardeth both his thighes,
While he (blaspheming his hard stars and state)
Hops (like a Pie) in stead of wonted gate.

Now Lot (the while) escap't from Elams hands,

Lot rescued reuengeth brauely his captiuity.

Free from the burthen of his yron bands;
With iust revenge retorts his taken wrong,
His feet growe swift, his sinnews waxen strong,
His heart reviues; and his revived heart
Supplies new spirits to all and every part.
And as a wilde and wanton Colt, got out
Of some great Stable, staring scuds about,

Simile.

Shakes his proud head and crest, yerks out his heels,
Butts at the ayr, beats on the humble fields,
His flying shadow now pursues amain,
Anon (amaz'd) flies it as fast again,
Again beholds it with self-proud delight,
Looks on his legs, sets his stiff tayl vpright,
And neighs so loud to Mares beyond the Mound,
That with the noyse the neighbour hils resound:
So, one while Lot sets on a Troup of Horse,
A Band of Sling-men he anon doth force,
Anon he pusheth through a Stand of Pikes,
A Wing of Archers off anon he strikes,
Anon he stalks about a steepfull Rock,
Where som, to shun Death's (never shunned) stroak,
Had clambred-vp; at length a path he spies,
Where vp he mounts, and doth their Mount surprise:
Whence, stones he heaves, so heauy and so huge,
That in our Age, three men could hardly bouge;
Vnder whose waight his flying Foes he dashes:
And in their flesh, bones, stones, and steel he pashes:
Somtimes he shoots, somtimes he shakes a Pike,
Which death to many, dread to all doth strike.
Som in the breast he wounds, som in the backs,
Som on the hanch, som on the head he hacks,
He heaws down all; and maketh where he stood
A Mount of bodies in a Moat of blood.

At length the Pagans wholly left the place.

The Pagans wholly put to flight.

Then both sides ran; these chased, those do chase:

322

These only vse their heels; those heels and hands:
Those wish but a fair way; these that the sands
Would quickly gape, and swallow quick to Hell
Themselues that fled, and them that chaç't so fell:
These render nought but blowes; those nought but blood:
Both sides have broak their Ranks: pel-mel they scud;
Choakt-vp with dust, disordered, dis-aray'd;
Neither, Command, Threat, nor Intreat obay'd.

Thou that (late) bragdst, that thy White Wormly braue
Could dry-foot run vpon the liquid Waue,
And on the sand leaving no print behinde
Out-swifted Arrows, and out-went the Winde,
With a steel Dart, by Abrah'm stifly sent,
Art 'twixt thy Cuirace and thy Saddle slent:
And thou that thrice, neer Tigris silver source,
Hadst won the Bell, as best in every Course,
Art caught by Lot, and (thrild from side to side)
Loosest thy speed-praise, and thy life beside.

It seems no Fight, but (rather as befals)
An execution of sad criminals:
Who-so escapes the sword, escapes not so
His sad destruction; or, if any tho
Escap't at all, they were but few (at least)
To rue the fatall ruine of the rest:
For th'Vncle and the Nephew never lin,
Till out of Canaan they haue chac't them clean:

Simile.

Like to a Cast of Falcons that pursue
A flight of Pidgeons through the welkin blew;
Stooping at this and that, that to their Louver,
(To saue their liues) they hardly can recover.

The Kings of Canaan receiued Abraham and his cōpany with great ioy & the gratefull offer of their homage vnto him.

At his return from Fight, the Kings and Lords
Of Palestine, with glad and humble words,
Do welcom Abram, and refresh his Troop;
To 's knees their heads, to 's feet their knees they stoop:
O valiant Victor! for thy high deserts,
Accept the homage of our humble hearts.
Accept our gratefull zeal: or, if ought more
(As well thou mayst) thou dost expect therefore,
Accept (said they) our Lands, our goods, our golde,
Our wiues, our liues, and what we deerest holde:
Take all we haue; for all we haue is thine:
No wrong to vs, to take thy Valours Fine.

Melchisedech blesseth Abraham.

Melchisedec, Gods sacred Minister,
And King of Salem, coms to greet him there,
Blessing his bliss, and thus with zealous cry
Devoutly pearç't Heav'ns starfull Canopey.
Blest be the Lord, that with his hand doth roule
The radiant Orbs that turn about the Pole;

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And rules the Actions of all Humane-kinde
With full command; and with one blast of winde
Razes the Rocks, and rends the proudest Hils,
Dries-vp the Ocean, and the Empty fils:
Blest be the great God of great Abraham:
From Age to Age extolled be his Name:
Let every Place vnto him Altars build,
And every Altar with his Praise be fill'd,
And every Praise above the Welkin ring
As loud or louder then the Angels sing:
Blessed be He that by an Arm-less crew
Of Art-less Shepheards did so quick subdue
And tame the Tamers of Great Syria so;
And to the servants of an exil'd Foe
Hath given the Riches and the royall store
(Both of their Booty and their Owne before)
Of such an Hoast of Nations that first see
Sol's early rising from Aurora's knee.

But Abraham, to prove that not for Prey,

Abraham distributes the booty, reseruing only a portion for the Amorites that were his cōfederates.

He put-on arms,, divides the Spoyls away:
The Tythe's the Priests: the Rest of all the things
(Yerst lost in field) he renders to the Kings,
Save but the Portion He participates
To th'Amorites, his stout Confederates:
Shewing himselfe a Prince as Politicke
Prudent and iust, as stout and Souldier-like,
That with his Prowess Policy can mel,
And Conquering, can vse his Conquest well,
Magnanimous in deeds, in words as meek,
That scorning Riches, true Renown doth seek.

So, from the Sea, even to th'Euphratean-source,

He is famous far and neer.

And even from Dan, to Nilus crystall course,
Rings his renown: Of him is all the speech,
At home, abroad; among the poor and rich,
In war and peace: the Fame of his high deeds
Confirms the Faithfull in their fainting Creeds;
And terrifies the Tyrant Infidels,
Shaking the sides of their proud Citadels,
That with their fronts the seat of Iove do scorn,
And with their feet at Pluto's crown do spurn.

Voice, Harp, and Timbrel sound his praise together,
Hee's held a Prophet or an Angel rather,
They say that God talks with him face to face,
Hoasts at his house, and to his happy Race
Gives in Fee-simple all that goodly Land
Even from the Sea, as far as Tigris strand.

And it is certain, the Thrice-sacred-One,

God appears vnto him, and maketh covenant with him.

The King of Kings, by Dream or Vision,

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Speaks with him oft; and cals him thus by name:
Faint not my servant, fear not Abraham;
I am no fiend that with a fained lip
Seek guilefully thy simpleness to trip,
Nor to intice thee (with a baen-full breath)
To bite (like Adam) a new fruit of death:
'Tis I, that brought thee from thy Natiue Var,
From night to day, from death to life (thus far)
I brought thee hither, I haue blest thee heer,
I with thy flocks haue covered far and neer
Canaan's fat Hils; I haue preserv'd thy Wife
From strangers lust, and thee from Tyrants knife,
When thy faint heart, and thy false tongue, affray'd
To tell the Truth, her and thy selfe betray'd:
'Tis I, that haue so oft from Heathens powr
Preserv'd thy person; and (as Conquerour)
Now made thee Triumph over th'Eastern Kings
(Whereof so far thy famous Valour rings):
I am (in briefe) I am the Lord thy God,
Thy help at home, thy Guide and Guard abroad.
Keep thou my Covenant: and (to signifie,
That to the World thou dy'st, to liue to Mee)

Circumcision instituted.

Go Circumcise forth-with thy Selfe and Thine,
Lead holy Life, walke in my Wayes divine
With vpright-foot: so shall my favour hant
Thy House and thee, and thou shalt nothing want:
No, I will make thee Lord of all the Land

Canaan promised to Abraham.

Which Canaans Children haue with mighty hand
So long possest; a happy Land that flowes
With milk and hony: a rich Land where growes
(Even of it selfe) all kinde of Fruit and Corn,
Where smiling Heav'ns pour-down their Plenties-horn:
I'l heap thee there with Honour, Wealth, and Powr,
I will be thy Reward, thy Shield, and Towr.

O Lord (said Abram) though into my lap
In showrs of Gold ev'n all the Heav'ns should drop,
What booted all, to me that am alone?
Alas! my Lord, I haue enough, for one
That hath no issue after to inherit,
But my good servant Eleazar's merit.

Not so, my Son (replies th'Omnipotent)
Mistake not so my bountifull intent;
I'l not disparage to a Servants Fee
The rich estate, and royall Dignity
That in my People shall hereafter shine:
No, no (mine Abram) even a stock of thine,
Thine own deer Nephews, even thy proper Seed
Shall be thine Heirs, and in thy state succeed.

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Yea, thine own Son's immortal-mortall Race
Shall holde in gage the treasures of my Grace.

The Patriarch, then rapt with sudden Ioy,
Made answer thus: Lives then my wandring Boy?
Lives Ismael? is Ismael alive?
O happy news! (Lord let him ever thrive)
And shall his Seed succeed so eminent?
Ah! let me die then: then I die content.

Ismael indeed doth live (the Lord replies)
And lives, to father mighty Progenies:
For, from the Day when first his Mother (flying
Thy iealous Sara's curst and threatfull crying)
To the dry Desarts sandy horror hy'd,
I have for both been carefull to provide;
Their extream Thirst due-timely to refresh,
Conducting them vnto a Fountain fresh,
In liquid Crystall of whose Mayden spowt
Bird never dipt her bill, nor Beast his snowt.
And if I err not (but, I cannot err:
For, what is hid from Hearts-Artificer?
What can the sight of the Sight-maker dim)?
Another Exile yet attendeth him,
Wher-in he shall (in season) feel and finde,
How much to him I will be good and kinde.
He shall growe Great, yet shall his rest be small;
All shall make war on him, and He on all:
Through Corslets, Rivets, Iacks, and Shirts of Mail,

Ismaels mightinesse.

His shaft shall thrill the Foes that him assail:
A swift Hart's heart he shall (even running) hit:
A Sparrows head he shall (even flying) split:
And in the ayr shall make the Swallow cease
His sweet-sweet note, and slicing nimbleness.

Yea (O Saints-Firstling) onely for thy sake,
Twelue mighty Princes will I shortly make
Spring from his Loigns, whose fruitfull seed shall sway
Even vnto Sur from golden Havila.

Yet, 'tis not He, with whom I mean to knit
Mine inward Covenant; th'outward seal of it
Ismael may bear, but not the efficace
(Thy Son, but after flesh, not after Grace).
But to declare that vnder Heav'ns Frame,
I holde nought deerer then mine Abraham,
I'l open Sara's dry and barren womb,
From whence thine Isaac (Earths delight) shall com,

Isaac promised.

To glad the World; a Son that shall (like thee)
Support the Faith, and prop her Family.

Com from thy Tent, com forth and heer contemple
The golden Wonders of my Throne and Temple,

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Number the Stars, measure their bigness bright,
With fixed ey gaze on their twinkling Light,
Exactly mark their ordered Courses, driven
In radiant Coaches through the Lists of Heav'n:
Then may'st thou also number thine own Seed,
And comprehend their Faith, and plainly reade
Their noble acts, and of their Publike-State
Draw an Idea in thine own conceit.

In him the Couenant ratified.

This, This is He, to and with whom I grant
Th'eternall Charter of my Covenant.
Which if he truly keep, vpon his Race
I'l pour an Ocean of my plentious Grace:
I'l not alone giue him the Fields heer seen,
But even from India all that flowreth green
To th'vtmost Ocean's vtmost sand and shelfe;
I'l giue him Heav'n, I'l giue him even my Selfe.

Of his ligne shall come Christ the Redeemer.

Hence, hence, the High and mighty Prince shall spring,
Sin's, Death's, and Hell's eternall taming King,
The sacred Founder of Man's soveraign Bliss,
World's peace, world's ransom, and World's righteousness.

Th'Eternall seem'd then towards Heav'n to hie,
Th'olde-man to follow him with a greedy eye,
The sudden dis-appearing of the Lord,
Seem'd like to Powder fired on a boord,
When smokingly it mounts in sudden slash,
With little flame, giving a little clash.

Prosperity pIungeth the Sodomites in all manner of abhominations.

Plenty and Pleasure had o'r-whelm'd the while
Sodom and Gomor in all Vices vile:
So that, already the most ruth-less Rape
Of tender Virgins of the rarest shape,
Th'Adulterous kiss (which Wedlocks bands vnbindes)
Th'Incestuous Bed, confounding Kindreds kindes
(Where Father wooes the Daughter, Sister Brother,
Th'Vncle the Niece, and even the Son the Mother)
They did not hate, nor (as they ought) abhor,
But rather scorn'd, as sports they car'd not for.

Forbear (deer Younglings) pray a-while forbear,
Stand farther from me, or else stop your ear,
At th'obscœne sound of th'vnbeseeming words
Which to my Muse this odious place affords:
Or, if it's horror cannot drive you hence,
Hearing their Sin, pray hear their Punishments.

These beastly Men (rather these man-like Beasts)
Could not be fill'd with Venvs vulgar Feasts;
Fair Nature could not furnish their Desire;

Their most execrable sin.

Som monstrous mess these Monsters did require:
An execrable flame inflam'd their harts,
Prodigiously they play'd the Womens parts:

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Male hunted Male; and acted, openly,
Their furious Lusts in fruitless Venery.

Therefore, to purge Vlcers so pestilent,
Two heav'nly Scowts the Lord to Sodom sent;

2. Angels sentdown, receiued and guested by Lot.

Whom (deeming Mortals) Lot importunates
To take his Lodging and to taste his Cates.
For, Angels, being meer Intelligences,
Haue (properly) no Bodies nor no senses:
But (sacred Legats of the Holy-One)

Of the nature and essence of Angels.

To treat with vs, they put our Nature on;
And take a body fit to exercise
The Charge they have, which runs, and feeds, and flies;
Dures during their Commission; and, that past,
Turns t'Elements whence first it was amasst.
A simple Spirit (the glittering Childe of Light)
Vnto a bodie doth not so vnite,
As to the Matter Form incorporates:
But, for a season it accomodates,
As to his Tool the quaint Artificer,
(That at his pleasure makes the same to stir)
Yet in such sort that th'instrument (we see)
Holdes much of him that moves it actively.

But alwaies in som place are Angels: though
Not as all filling (God alone is so,
The spirit which all good spirits in spirit adore,
In all, on all, with-out all, evermore):
Nor as inviron'd (That alone agrees
To bodies bounded with extreamities
Of the next substance; and whose superfice
Vnto their place proportionable is):
But rather, as sole selfly limited,
And ioyn'd to place, yet not as quantiti'd;
But by the touch of their liue efficace,
Containing Bodies which they seeem t'embrace:
So, visibly those bodies move, and oft
By word of Mouth bring arrands from aloft,
And eat with vs; but, not for sustentation,
Nor naturally, but by meer dispensation.

Such were the sacred Guests of this good Prince:
Such, curteous Abraham feasted in his Tents,
When, seeing three, he did adore but one,
Which, comming down from the celestiall Throne,
Fore-told the sad and sudden Tragedy,
Of these loose Cities, for their Luxury.

You that your Purse do shut, and doors do bar

Exhortation to Hospitality.

Against the colde, faint, hungry Passenger,
You little think that all our life and Age
Is but an Exile and a Pilgrimage:

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And that in earth whoso hath never given
Harbour to Strangers, shall have none in Heaven,
Where solemn Nuptials of the Lamb are held;
Where Angels bright and Soules that haue exceld,
All clad in white, sing th'Epithalamie,
Carowsing Nectar of Eternitie.

The Iust-full Sodomites, inflamed with the beauty of the Angels, mutiny against Lot for harboring them.

Sans Hospitality, the Pilgrim poor
For Bed-fellow might haue a Woolf or Boar:
What e'r is given the Strange and Needy one,
Is not a gift (indeed) but 't is a Loan,
A Loan to God, who payes with interest;
And (even in this life) guerdons even the least.
For, alms (like levain) make our goods to rise,
And God his owne with blessings plentifies.

O Hosts, what knowe you, whether (charitable)
When you suppose to feast men at your Table,
You guest Gods Angels in Mens habit hid,
(Heav'n-Citizens) as this good Hebrew did?
Who supped them: and when the time grew meet
To go to bed, he heard amid the street
A wrangling iangling, and a murmur rude,
Which great, grew greater through Nights solitude.

For, those that first these two bright Stars survay'd,
Wilde Stalion-like, after their beauties naigh'd;
But, seeing them by the chaste Stranger sav'd,
Shame-less and sense-less vp and down they rav'd,
From House to House knocking at every dore,
And beastly-brute, thus, thus they rail and rore;

Brethren, shall we endure this Fugitive,
This Stranger Lot, our pleasures to deprive?
O Cowardise! to suffer in our sights
An exile heer t'vsurp our choise delights,
T'embrace a brace of Youths so beautious
(Rather two Gods com-down from Heaven to vs)?
Shall it be said that such an olde colde stock
Such rare yong Minions in his bed should mock:
While wretched we, vnto our selves make mone,
And (Widow-like) wear out our sheets alone?
Let's rather break his doors, and make him knowe,
Such dainty morsels hang not for his Mowe.

Simile.

Even as at Bathe, down from the neighbour hils,
After a Snowe, the melting Crystall trils
Into the Avon (when the Pythian Knights
Strips those steep Mountains of their shirts so white)
Through hundred Valleis gushing Brooks and Torrents,
Striving for swiftness in their sundry Currents,
Cutting deep Chanels where they chance to run,
And never rest till all do meet in one:

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So, at their cry, from every corner throng
Vnto Lot's house, Men, Children; olde, and yong.
For, common was this execrable sin:
With blear-ey'd Age, as nusled long therein;
With Youth, through rage of lust; with Infancy,
Example-led: all through Impunity.
And thus, they all cry out; Ope, ope the dore,
Com, open quickly, and delay no more:
Let-forth that lovely Payr, that they may prove
With vs the pleasures of Male-mingled love.

Lot lowely then replies: Brethren and Friends,

Lot speaks thē fair, & intreats them earnestly for the safety of his guests.

By all the names that amity commends,
By Nature's Rules, and Rights of Hospitality,
By sacred Laws and lessons of Morality,
By all respects of our com-Burgership
(Which should our mindes in mutuall kindness keep)
I do adiure you all, that you refrain
The honour of my harm-less guests to stain,
Nor in your hearts to harbour such a thought
Whereby their Vertues may be wrongd in ought.

Base busie Stranger, com'st thou hither, thus

Their insolent reply.

(Controller-like) to prate and preach to Vs?
No (Puritan) thou shalt not heer do so:
Therefore dispatch and let thy darlings go;
Let-forth that lovely Payr, that they may prove
With vs the pleasures of Male-mingled love.

The horror of this sin, their stubborn rage,
His sacred promise given his Guests for gage,
Th'olde Hebrew's minde so trouble and dismay,
That well he wots not what to do nor say.
For, though we ought not (if Gods Word be true)
Do any evill that good may ensue:
To shun one ill, another ill he suffers,
He prostitutes his Issue; and he offers,

He offers them his own daughters to rescue his Guests.

Lambs to the guard of Wolues: and thus he cries,
I have (with that, the tears ran-down his eyes)
I have two daughters that be Virgins both;
Go, take them to you (yet alas full loth)
Go, crop the first-fruits to their Bride-grooms due
(O! death to think it): But let none of you
Abuse my chaste Guests with such villany
As merits Fire from Heav'n immediately;
A Sin so odious, that the Name alone
Good men abhor, yea even to think vpon.

Tush: we are glutted with all granted loves,

Their monstrous impudencie.

And common Pleasures nought our pleasure moves:
Lot, our delights (ty'd to no law's conformity)
Consist not in the pleasure, but th'enormity,

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Which fools abhor: and, saying so they rush,
Som vpon Lot, som at his gates do push.

O cursed City! where the aged Sire,
Vn-able thus to doe, doth thus desire;
And Younglings, yet scarce weaned from their Nurse,
Strive with their Elders whether shall be worse;
Full is the measure of thy monstrous sin:
Thy Canker now o'r all thy bulk hath bin.

Impudence in sinning, doubles the guilt of sin.

God hates all sin: but, extream Impudence
Is even a greater sin than the Offence:
The sweet kinde Kisses of chaste Man and Wife
Although they seem by God and Nature (rife)
Rather commanded then allow'd, and graç't
In their sweet fruits (their issue choicely-chaste)
With Law's large priviledge; yet evermore
(As Modestie and Honestie implore)
Ought to be private, and (as things forbidden
Vnto the sight) with Night's black curten hidden.

Yet, these foul Monsters, in the open street
Where altogether all the Town might see't,
Most impudent, dare perpetrate a sin
Which Hell it selfe before had never seen;
A sin so odious, that the fame of it
Will fright the damned in the darksom Pit.

Before their fearfull destruction, the Angels bring Lot and his family safe out of the Citie.

But now, the Angels, their celestiall kinde
Vn-able longer to conceal, strook blinde
Those beastly Letchers, and brought safe away
Lot and his houshold by the break of day.
But, O prodigious! never rose the Sun
More beautifull, nor brighter shin'd-vpon
All other places (for he rose betimes
To see such Execution on such Crimes):
And yet, it lowrs, it lightens, and it thunders,
It rores, it rains (O most vnwonted wonders!)
Vpon this Land, which 'gainst th'Omnipotent
Had warr'd so long with sins so insolent:
And 'gainst the pride of those detested livers,
Heav'n seems to empty all his wrathfull Quivers.
From Acheron, even all the Furies hie,
And all their Monsters them accompany,
With all their tortures and their dismall terrors,
And all their Chaos of confused Horrors;
All on the the guilty strand of Iordan storm,
And with their Fire-brands all to Sodom swarm,
As thick as Crowes in hungry shoals do light

Simile.

On new-sowen lands; where stalking bold vpright,
As black as Iet they iet about, and feed
On Wheat, or Rye, or other kinde of seed;

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Kaaking so loud, that hardly can the Steer
The whistling Goad-man's guiding language hear.

It rain'd indeed; but, not such fertile rain
As makes the Corn in Sommer sprout amain;

The manner of their punishmēt by fire & brimstone from Heauen, & the reason thereof.

And all things freshed with a pleasant ayr,
To thrive, and prove more lively, strong and fair:
But in this sink of Sin, this stinking Hell,
A rain of Salt, of Fire and Brimston, fell.
Salt did consume the pleasant fruitfulness,
Which serv'd for fewell to their Wantonness:
Fire punished their beastly Fire within:
And Brimstone's stink the stench of their foul Sin.
So, as their Sin was singular (of right)
Their Punishment was also exquisite:
Heer, open Flames, and there yet hidden Fires
Burn all to ashes, sparing neither Spires
Of Brick nor Stone, nor Columns, Gates, nor Arches,
Nor Bowrs, nor Towrs, nor even their neighbour-Marches.

In vain the-while the People weep and cry,

The same most liuely represented.

To see their wrack and know no remedy:
For, now the Flame in richest Roofs begun,
From molten gutters scalding Lead doth run,
The Slats and Tyles about their ears do split,
The burning Rafters Pitch and Rosin spet:
The whirling Fire re-mounteth to the Skie,
About the fields ten thousand sparks do flie;
Half-burned houses fall with hideous fray,
And Vvlcan makes Mid-night as bright as Day:
Heaven flings down nought but flashing Thunder-shot,
Th'Air's all a-fire, Earth's exhalations hot
Are spewing Ætna's that to Heaven aspire:
All th'Elements (in briefe) are turn'd to fire.

Heer, one perceiving the next Chamber burning,
With sudden leap towards the window turning,
Thinks to cry Fire: but instantly the smoke
And Flame with-out, his with-in Voyce do choke,
Another sooner feels then sees the Fire.
For, while (O horror!) in the stinking mire
Of his foul Lust he lies, a Lightning flash
Him and his Love at-once to dust doth dash:
Th'abhorred Bed is burnt; and they, aswell
Coupled in Plague as Sin, are sent to Hell.
Another yet on tops of Houses crawls:
But, his foot slips, and down at last he fals.
Another feeling all his cloathes a-fire,
Thinking to quench them yer it should com nigher,
Leaps in a Lake: but all the Lake began
To boyl and bubble like a seething Pan,

Simile.

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Or like a Chaldron that top-full of Oyl,
Environ'd round with fume and flame doth boyl,
To boyl to death som cunning counterfait
That with falfe stamp som Princes Coyn hath beat.
Another, seeing the Citie all in Cinders,
Himselfe for safety to the fields he renders:
But flakes of fire, from Heav'n distilling thick,
There th'horror of a thousand Deaths do strike.

Through Adamah's and Gomor's goodly Plains,
Sodom and Seboim not a soule remains:
Horse, Sheep, and Oxen, Cows and Kids partake
In this revenge, for their vile Masters sake.

Thus hath the hand of the Omnipotent
Inroll'd the Deed of their drad Punishment,
With Diamantin Pen, on Plates of Brass,
With such an Ink as nothing can deface:
The moulten Marble of these cindred Hils,
Asphaltis Lake, and these poor mock-fruit Fields
Keep the Record; and cry through every Age,
How God detesteth such detested rage.

O chastisement most dradly-wonderfull!
Th'Heav'n-cindred Cities a broad standing Pool
O'r-flowes (yet flowes not) whose infectious breath
Corrupts the Ayr, and Earth dis-fertileth:
A Lake, whose back, whose belly, and whose shoar,
Nor Bark, nor Fish, nor Fowl hath ever bore.
The pleasant Soyl that did (even) shame yer-while
The plentious beauties of the banks of Nile,
Now scarr'd, and collowed, with his face and head
Cover'd with ashes, is all dry'd and dead;
Voyd of all force, vitall, or vegetive;
Vpon whose brest nothing can live or thrive:
For, nought it bears save an abortive suit
Of seeming-fair, false, vain, and fained fruit,
A fruit that feeds the ey, and fils the hand,
But to the stomach in no steed doth stand;
For, even before it touch the tender lips
Or Ivory teeth, in empty smoak it slips,
So vanishing: onely the nose receives
A noysom savour, that (behinde) it leaves.

Exhortation to Trauailers that haue seen, & to others that shall reade or heare these fearfull monuments of Gods seuere Instice, to make right vse of this fearfull Example.

Heer, I adjure you vent'rous Trauailours,
That visit th'horror of these cursed shoars,
And taste the venom of these stinking streams,
And touch the vain fruit of these withered stems:
And also you that do beholde them thus
In these sad Verses portray'd heer by vs,
To tremble all, and with your pearly tears
To showr another Sea; and that your hairs

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Staring vpright on your affrighted head
Heave-vp your Hats; and, in your dismall dread,
To think, you hear like Sulph'ry Storms to strike
On our new Monsters for Offences like.

For, the Almighties drad all-danting arm
Not only strikes such as with Sodom swarm
In these foul Sins; but such as sigh or pity
Sodoms destruction, or so damn'd a Citie,
And cannot constant with dry eyes observe
God's iudgements iust on such as such deserve.

Lot hies to Segor: but his wife behinde

Lots wife Metamorphosed.

Lagged in body, but much more in minde:
She weeps and wails (O lamentable terror!
O impious Piety! O kinde-cruell error!)
The dire destruction of the smoking Cities,
Her Sons-in-Law (which should haue been) she pities,
Grieves so to leave her goods, and she laments
To lose her Iewels and habilliments:
And (contrary to th'Angels Words precise)
Towards the Town she turns her wofull eyes.

But instantly, turn'd to a whitely stone,
Her feet (alas!) fast to the ground be growne.
The more she stirs, she sticks the faster in:
As silly Bird caught in a subtill gin,
Set by som Shepheard neer the Copses side,

Simile.

The more it struggles is the faster ty'd.
And, as the venom of an eating Canker

Simile.

From flesh to flesh runs every day the ranker,
And never rests, vntill from foot to head
O'r all the Body his fell poyson spread:
This Ice creeps-vp, and ceaseth not to num,
Till even the marrow hard as bones becom,
The brain be like the scull, and blood convert
To Alablaster over every part;
Her Pulse doth cease to beat, and in the ayr
The windes no more can wave her scattered hayr:
Her belly is no belly, but a Quar
Of Cardon Rocks, and all her bowels are
A pretious Salt-Mine, supernaturall;
Such, as (but Salt) I wot not what to call;
A Salt, which (seeming to be fall'n from Heav'n)
To curious Spirits hath long this Lesson given,
Not to presume in Divine things to pry,
Which seav'n-times seal'd, vnder nine Locks do lie.
She weeps (alas!) and as she weeps, her tears
Turn in to Pearls fro'rn on her thinkling hairs;
Fain would she speak: but (forced to conceal)
In her cold throat her guilty words congeal;

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Her mouth yet open, and her arms a-cross,
Though dumb, declare both why and how she was
Thus Metamorphos'd: for, Heav'n did not change
Her last sad gestures in her sudden Change.

No gorgeous Mausole, grac't with flattering verse,
Eternizeth her Trunk, her House, and Herse;
But, to this Day (strange will it seem to som)
One and the same is both the Corps and Tomb.

Almighty Father! Gracious God and Iust!

Mans proneness to fall, without the support of Gods gracious fauour.

O! what hard heartedness, what brutish Lust,
Pursueth man, if thou but turn thy face,
And take but from vs thy preventing grace;
And, if provoked for our past offences,
Thou give vs vp to our Concupiscences?

O Harran's Nieces, you (Lots daughters) saw
Sodom consumed in that Sulphry flaw:
Their Hils and Forrests calcined (in fine)
Their liberall fields sowen with a burning brine,
Their stately houses like a coal-pit smoaking,
The Sun it selfe with their thick vapours choking:
So that within a yard for stinking smother
The Labourers could hardly knowe each other;
Their flowring Valley to a Fen exchang'd:
And your own Mother to a Salt-stone chang'd:
Yet all (alas!) these famous Monuments
Of the iust rigour of God's Punishments
Cannot deterr you: but even Sodom-like
Incestuously a holy-man you seek;
Even your owne Father, whom with wine you fill;
And then by turns intice him to your will:

Lot drawn by his Daughters, in drunkeness to commit Incest with both of them.

Conceiving so (O can heav'n suffer it!)
Even of that seed which did your selues beget:
Within your wombs you bear for nine months time
Th'vpbraiding burden of your shame-less Crime:
And troubling Kindred's names and Nature quight,
You both becom, even in one very Night,
Wiues to your Fathers, Sisters to your Sons,
And Mothers to your Brothers all at once;
All vnder colour, that thus living sole,
Sequestred thus in an vnhanted hole,
Heav'ns enuy should all Adam's race have reft,
And Lot alone should in the World be left.

Had't not been better, never to have bred,
Than t'have conceived in so foul a bed?
Had't not been better never t'have been Mothers,
Than by your Father, to have born your Brothers?
Had't not been better to the death to hate,
Then thus t'have lov'd him that you both begate?

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Him, so much yours, that yours he mought not be?
Sith of these Rocks God could immediatly
Have rais'd Lot Son-in-lawes; or, striking but
Th'Earths solid bosom with his brazen foot,
Out of the dust haue reared sudden swarms
Of People, stay'd in Peace, and stout in Arms.

FINIS.

336

2. The Fathers.

A PART OF THE II PART OF THE III. DAY OF THE II. WEEK.

The Argvment.

The famous Father of the Faithfull, heer
Limn'd to the life, in strife of Faith and Fear:
His Sonn's sweet nature, and his nurture such,
Endeer his Triall with a neerer Touch:
Keason's best Reasons are by Faith refell'd;
With God, th'Affection, for the Action held;
So, counter-manding His command (atchiev'd)
The Sire's approved, and the Son repriev'd.
Heer (had our Author liv'd, to end his Works)
Should have ensu'd the other Patriarchs.

O! 'Tis a Heav'nly and a happy turn,
Of godly Parents to be timely born:
To be brought-vp vnder the watchfull eyn
Of milde-sharp Masters awfull Discipline:
Chiefly, to be (even from the very first)
With the pure milk of true Religion nurst.

Such hap had Isaac: but his Inclination
Exceeds his Birth, excels his Education.
His Faith, his Wit, Knowledge, and Iudgement sage,
Out-stripping Time, anticipate his age.
For (yet a Childe) he fears th'Eternall Lord,
And wisely waits all on his Fathers word;
Whose steady steps so duly he observes,
That every look, him for a lesson serves:
And every gesture, every wink and beck,
For a command, a warning and a check:

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So that, his toward Diligence out-went
His fathers hopes and holy document.

Now, though that Abram were a man discreet,
Sober and wise, well knowing what is meet;
Though his dear Son somtimes he seem to chide,
Yet hardly can he his affection hide:
For, evermore his love-betraying ey
On's darling Isaac glanceth tenderly:
Sweet Isaac's face seems as his Glass it were,
And Isaac's name is musick in his ear.

But God, perceiving this deep-settled Love,
Thence takes occasion Abrams Faith to prove;
And tempteth him: but not as doth the Divell
His Vassals tempt (or Man his Mate) to evill:
Satan still draws vs to Deaths dismall Path;
But God directs where Death no entry hath:
Ay Satan aims our constant Faith to foil;
But God doth seal it, never to recoil:
Satan suggesteth ill; God moves to grace:
The Divell seeks our Baptisme to deface;
But God, to make our burning Zeal to beam
The brighter ay in his Ierusalem.

A Prince, that means effectuall proof to make

Simile.

Of som Mans faith that he doth newly take,
Examins strictly, and with much a-doo,
His Words and Deeds, and every gesture too;
And, as without, within as well to spy-him,
Doth carefully by all means sift and try-him.

But God ne'r seeks by Triall of Temptation
To sound Mans heart and secret cogitation
(For, well he knowes Man, and his ey doth see
All thoughts of men yer they conceived be):
But this is still his high and holy drift,
When through temptation he his Saints doth sift,
To leave for pattern to his Churches seed
Their stedfast Faith, and never-daunted Creed.

Yet, out of season God doth never try
His new-converted Children, by and by:
Such novices would quickly faint and shrink:
Such ill-rigg'd ships would even in lanching sink:
Their Faiths light blossoms would with every blast
Be blown away, and bear no fruit at last:
Against so boistrous stroaks they want a shield:
Vnder such weight their feeble strength would yield.
But when his Words dear seed, that he hath sowen
Within their hearts, is rooted well and growen:
And when they have a broad thick Breast-plate on,
High peril-proof against affliction:

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Such as our Abram: Who, now waxen strong
Through exercise of many trials long,
Of faith, of love, of fortitude and right.
Who, by long weary wandrings day and night,
By often Terrors, Lots Imprisonment,
His Wifes twice taking, Ismaels banishment,
Being made invincible for all assaults
Of Heav'n and Earth, and the infernall Vaults;
Is tempted by the Voice which made all things,
Which sceptreth Shepheards, and vn-crowneth Kings.

Invocation.

Give me a voice, now, O Voice all divine!
With sacred fire inflame this breast of mine:
Ah! ravish me, make all this Vniverse
Admire thine Abram pourtraid in my Verse.

Mine Abram, said the Lord dear Abraham,
Thy God, thy King, thy Fee, thy Fence I am:
Hy straight to Salem, and there quickly kill
Thine own Son Isaac; on that sacred Hill
Heaw him in peeces, and commit the same
In sacrifice vnto the ragefull Flame.

Simile.

As he, that slumbering on his carefull Bed,
Seems to discern som Fancy full of dread,
Shrinks down himself, and fearfull hides his face,
And scant draws breath in half an howers space:
So Abraham at these sharp-sounding words
(Which wound him deeper than a thousand swords)
Seized at once with wonder, grief and fright,
Is well-nigh sunk in Deaths eternall night;
Death's ash-pale Image in his eyes doth swim,
A chilling Ice shivers through every lim,
Flat on the ground himself he groveling throwes,
A hundred times his colour coms and goes,
From all his body a cold deaw doth drop,
His speech doth fail, and every sense doth stop.

But, self-return'd, two sounding sobs he cast,
Then two deep sighes, then these sad words at last:
Cruell command, quoth He, that I should kill
A tender Infant, innocent of ill:
That in cold blood I (barbarously) should murder
My (fear-less, fault-less) faithfull Friend; nay (further)
Mine own dear Son: and what dear Son? Alas!
Mine onely Isaac (whose sweet vertues pass
The lovely sweetnes of his angel-face)
Isaac, sole Pattern of now-Vertue knowen;
Isaac, in yeers yong, but in wisdom growen;
Isaac, whom good men love, the rest envy:
Isaac, my hearts heart, my lifes life, must dy.
That I should stain an execrable Shrine
With Isaac's warm blood, issued out of mine.

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O! might mine serve, 't were tolerable loss,
'T were little hurt; nay, 't were a welcom cross.
I bear no longer fruit: the best of Mee
Is like a fruit-less, branch-less, sap-less Tree,
Or hollow Trunk, which onely serves for staies
To crawling Ivie's weak and winding spraies.
But, losing Isaac, I not onely leese
My life withall (which Heav'ns have linkt to his)
But (O!) more millions of Babes yet vn-bore,
Than there be sands vpon the Lybian shoar.

Canst thou, mine Arm? O! canst thou, cruell Arm;
In Isaac's breast thy bloody weapon warm?
Alas! I could not but even dy for grief,
Should I but yield mine Ages sweet relief
(My bliss, my comfort, and mine eys delight)
Into the hands of Hang-mens spare-less spight:
But, that mine own self (O extreamest Rigour!)
What my self formed, should, my self, dis-figure:
That I (alas!) with bloody hand and knife,
Should rip his bosom, rend his heart and life:
That (odious Author of a Precedent
So rarely ruth-less) I should once present,
Vpon a sacred Altar, an Oblation
So barbarous (O brute abomination!)
That I should broil his flesh, and in the flame
Behould his bowels crackling in the same;
'Tis horrible to think, and hellish too,
Cruell to wish, impossible to doo.

Doo't he that lists, and that delights in blood:
I neither will, nor can becom so wood,
T'obey in this: God, whom we take to be
Th'eternall Pillar of all verity,
And constant faith; will he be faith-less now?
Will he be false, and from his promise bow?
Will he (alas!) vndoo what he hath don,
Mar what he makes, and lose what he hath won?
Sail with each winde? and shall his promise, then,
Serve but for snares t'intrap sincerest men?

Somtimes, by his eternall self he swears,
That my Son Isaac's number-passing Heirs
Shall fill the Land, and that his fruitfull Race
Shall be the blessed levain of his Grace;
Now he commands me his dear life to spill,
And in the Cradle my health's Hope to kill,
To drown the whole World in the blood of him;
And at one stroak, vpon his fruitfull stem,
To strike-off all the heads of all the flock
That should heerafter his drad Name invoke,

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His sacred nostrils with sweet smels delight,
His ears with praises, with good deeds his sight.
Will God impugn himself? and will he so
By his command his Covenant overthrowe?
And shall my faith my faith's confounder be?
Then faith, or doubting, are both one to me.

Alas! what saist thou, Abram? pawse thou must.
He that revives the Phœnix from her dust,
And from dead Silk-worms Toombs (their shining Clews)
A living bird with painted wings renews;
Will he forget Isaac, the onely stock
Of his chaste Spouse (his Church and chosen Flock)?
Will he forget Isaac, the onely Light
Of all the World, for Vertues lustre bright?
Or, can he not (if't please him) even in death
Restore him life, and re-inspire him breath?

But mark, the while thou bringest for defence
The All-proof Towr of his Omnipotence,
Thou shak'st his Iustice. This is certain (too)
God can doo all, save that he will not doo.
He loves none ill: for, when the wreakfull Waves
Were all return'd into their wonted Caves;
When all the Meads, and every fruitfull Plain,
Began (with ioy) to see the Sun again;
So soon as Noah (with a gladsom heart)
Forth of his floating Prison did depart,
God did forbid Murder: and nothing more
Then Murder, doth his Maiesty abhor.

But (shallow man) sound not the vast Abyss
Of God's deep Iudgements, where no ground ther is:
Be sober-wise: so, bound thy frail desire:
And, what thou canst not comprehend, admire.
God our Lawmaker (iust and righteous)
Maketh his Laws, not for himself, but vs:
He frees himself; and flees with his Powrs wing,
No where, but where his holy will doth bring:
All that he doth is good: but not therefore
Must he needs doo it 'cause 't was good before:
But good is good, because it doth (indeed)
From him (the Root of perfect good) proceed:
From him, the Fountain of pure Righteousnes:
From him, whose goodnes nothing can express.

Ah, profane thoughts! O wretch! and think'st thou then
That God delights to drink the blood of men?
That he intends by such a strange impiety
To plant his service? You, you forged deity
Of Molech, Milchom, Camosh, Astaroth,
Your damned shrines with such dire Orgies blot:

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You Tyrants, you delight in Sacrifice
Of slaughtered Children: 't is your bloody guise
(You cruell Idols) with such Hecatombs
To glut the rage of your outrageous dooms:
You hould no sent so sweet, no gift so good,
As streaming Rivers of our luke-warm blood:
Not Abram's God (ay gracious, holy, kinde)
Who made the World but onely for Mankinde:
Who hates the bloody hands; his Creatures loves;
And contrite hearts for sacrifice approves.
You, you, disguiz'd (as angels of the light)
Would make my God Author of this despight,
Supplant my Faith on his sure promise built,
And stain his Altars with this bloody guilt.

No, no, my Ioy, my Boy thrice-happy born
(Yea, more then so, if furious I, forlorn,
Hurt not thy Hap) a Father shalt thou be
Of happy People that shall spring from thee.
Fear not (dear Childe) that I, vnnaturall,
Should in thy blood imbrue my hand at all:
Or by th'exploit of such detested deed
Commend my name to them that shall succeed.
I will, the Fame that of my name shall ring
In time to com, shall flee with fairer wing.

The lofty Pine, that's shaken to and fro

Simile.

With Counter-pufs of sundry windes that blowe,
Now, swaying South-wards, tears som root in twain,
Then, bending North-wards, doth another strain,
Reels vp and down, tost by two Tyrants fell,
Would fall, but cannot; neither yet can tell
(Inconstant Neuter, that to both doth yield)
Which of the two is like to win the Field:
So Abraham, on each side set-vpon
Betwixt his Faith and his Affection;
One while his Faith, anon Affection swaies:
Now wins Religion, anon Reason waighs:
Hee's now a fond, and then a faithfull, Father:
Now resolute, anon relenting rather.
One while the Flesh hath got the vpper hand:
Anon the Spirit the same doth countermand.
Hee's loth (alas!) his tender Son to kill;
But much more loth to break His Fathers will.
For thus (at last) He saith, now sure I knowe,
'T is God, 't is God; the God that loves me so,
Loves, keeps, sustains: whom I so oft haue seen:
Whose voice so often hath my comfort been.
Illuding Satan cannot shine so bright,
Though Angelliz'd: No, 't is my God of Might.

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Now feel I in my Soule (to strength and stir-it)
The sacred Motions of his sacred Spirit.
God, this sad Sacrifice requires of me;
Hap what hap may, I must obedient be.

The sable Night dis-lodg'd: and now began
Aurora's Vsher with his windy Fan
Gently to shake the Woods on every side,
While his fair Mistress (like a stately Bride)
With Flowrs, and Gems, and Indian Gold, doth spangle
Her lovely locks, her Lovers looks to tangle;
When, gliding through the Air in Mantle blew,
With silver fring'd, she drops the Pearly deaw.
With her goes Abram out; and the third day,
Arrives on Cedrons Margents greenly-gay,
Behoulds the sacred Hill, and with his Son
(Loaden with sacred wood) he mounts anon.

Anon, said Isaac; Father, heer I see
Knife, fire and faggot, ready instantly:
But wher's your Hoste? Oh! let vs mount, my Son,
Said Abram: God will soon provide vs one.
But, scant had Isaac turn'd his face from him
A little faster the steep Mount to climb,

Simile.

Yer Abram changed cheer; and, as new Wine,
Working a-new, in the new Cask (in fine)
For beeing stopt too-soon, and wanting vent,
Blowes-vp the Bung, or doth the vessell rent,
Spews out a purple stream, the ground doth stain
With Bacchus colour, where the Cask hath lain:
So, now the Tears (which manly fortitude
Did yerst as captive in the Brain include)
At the dear names of Father and of Son,
On his pale Cheeks in pearly drops did run:
His eyes full vessels now began to leak:
And thus th'old Hebrew muttering gan to speak
In submiss voice, that Isaac might not hear
His bitter grief, that he vnfoldeth heer.

Sad spectacle! O now my hap-less hand,
Thou whetst a sword, and thou doost teend a brand,
The brand shall burn my heart, the sword's keen blade
Shall my bloods blood, and my lifes life, invade:

And thou, poor Isaac, bearest on thy back
Wood that shall make thy tender flesh to crack;
And yeeld'st thee, (more for mine than thine amiss)
Both Priest and Beast of one same Sacrifice.
O hap-less Son! O more then hap-less Sire!
Most wicked wretch! O what mis-fortune dire
In-gulfs vs heer! where miserable I,
To be true godly, must Gods law deny:

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To be true faithfull, must my faith transgress:
To be Gods Son, I must be nothing less
Than Isaacs Sire: and Isaac (for my sake)
Must, Soil, and Sire, and Life, and all, forsake.

Yet on he goes, and soon surmounts the Mount;
And, steel'd by Faith, he cheers his mournfull Front:
(Much like the Delian Princess, when her Grace.
In Thetis Waves hath lately washt her face)
He builds his Altar, layes his wood ther-on,
And tenderly bindes his dear Son anon.

Father, said Isaac, Father, Father dear
(What? do you turn away, as loth to hear?)
O Father, tell me, tell me what you mean:
O cruelty vn-knowen! Is this the mean
Wherby my loins (as promised long since-is)
Shall make you Grand-sire of so many Princes?
And shall I (glorious) if I heer do dy,
Fill Earth with Kings, with shining Stars the Sky?

Back, Phœbus: blush, go hide thy golden head:
Retire thy Coach to Thetis watery Bed:
See not this savage sight. Shall Abraham's minde
Be milde to all, and to his Son vn-kinde!
And shall great Abram do the damned deed
That Lyons, Tigers, Boars, and Bears would dread!
See how (incenst) he stops his ear to me,
As dreaming still on's bloody Mystery.
Lord, how precise! see how the Paricide
Seems to make conscience in less sins to slide:
And he, that means to murder me (his Son)
Is scrupulous in smaller faults to run.

Yet (Father) hear me; not that I desire
With sugred words to quench your Angers fire:
In God's Name reap the Grain your self have sowen;
Com take my life, extracted from your owne,
Glut with my blood your blade, if you it please
That I must dy; welcom my death (mine ease):
But, tell me yet my fault (before I dy)
That hath deserv'd a punishment so high.
Say (Father) have I not conspir'd your death?
Or, with strong poyson sought to stop your breath?
Have I devis'd to short my Mother's life?
Or, with your Foes ta'en part in any strife?

O thou Æthereall Palace Crystalline
(Gods highest Court) If in this heart of mine
So damned thoughts had ever any place,
Shut-vp for ever all thy Gates of Grace
Against my Soule; and suffer not, that I
Among thy winged Messengers do fly.

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If none of these, Abram (for I no more
Dare call thee Father) tell me further-more
What rests besides, that damned I have don,
To make a Father Butcher of his Son?
In memory, that fault I fain would have,
That (after God's) I might your pardon crave
For such offence; and so, th'Attonement driven,
You live content, that I may dy forgiven.

My Son, said He, thou art not hither brought
By my fell fury, nor thine owne foul fault:
God (our God) calls thee, and He will not let
A Pagan sword in thy dear blood be wet;
Nor burning plague, nor any pining pain
With Languor turn thy flesh to dust againe:
But Sacrifiç'd to him (for sweet perfume)
Will have thee heer within this fire consume.
What? Fears my Love, my Life, my Gem, my Ioy?
What God commands, his servants must obey,
Without consulting with frail Flesh and Blood,
How he his promise will in time make good:
How he will make so many Scepters spring
From thy dead dust: How He (All-wise) will bring,
In his due season, from thy sense-less Thighs,
The glorious Son of righteousnes to rise,
Who shall the Mountains bruise with yron Mace,
Rule Heav'n and Earth, and the Infernall place.
For he that (past the course of Natures kinde)
First gave thee birth, can with his sacred Winde
Raise thee again out of the lowest dust.
Ten-thousand means he hath to save the Iust:
His glorious wisdom guides the worlds society
With equall Reans of Power and of Piety.

Mine own sweet Isaac, dearest of my seed
(Too-sweet, alas! the more my grief doth bleed,
The more my loss; the more, with ease-less anguish,
My vexed Bowels for thy lack shall languish)
Adieu, dear Son (no longer mine, but His
Who calls thee hence) let this vnhappy kiss
Be the sad seal of a more sad Fare-well
Then wit can paint, or words have powr to tell.

Sith God commands, and (Father) you require
To have it so, com Death (no longer dire,
But glorious now) com gentle death, dispatch:
The Heav'ns are open, God his arms doth reach
T'imbrace my Soule: O! let me bravely fly
To meet my Lord, and Deaths proud darts defie.

What, Father? weep you now? Ah! cease those showrs:
Weep not for me; for I no more am yours:

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I was the Lords yer I was born, you knowe;
And he but lent me for a while to you:
Will you recoil, and (Coward) lose the Crown
So neer your head, to heap you with renown?
Shall we so dare to dally with the Lord?
To cast his yoak, and to contemn his Word?
Where shall we fly his hand? Heav'n is his Throne:
The Earth his foot-stool: and dark Acheron
(The Dungeon where the damned soules be shut)
Is of his anger evermore the But.
On him alone all our good hap depends:
And he alone from dangers vs defends.

Ah! weep no more: This sacred Turf doth crave
More blood then tears: let's so our selves behave,
That, ioyn'd in zeal, we yeeld vs willingly
To make a vertue of necessity.
Let's testifie, we have a time abod;
I, in your School; you, in the School of God:
Where we have learned, that his sacred Word
(Which made of Nothing all that ever stirr'd;
Which all sustains, and all directeth still)
To divers ends conducts the good and ill.

Who loves not God more then all Kinn's respect,
Deserves no place among his dear Elect:
And who doth once God's Tillage vnder-take,
Must not look back, neither his Plough forsake.

Heer-with, th'old Hebrew cheerfuller becam,
And (to himself) cries, Courage Abraham:
The World, the Flesh, Adam, are dead in thee:
God, Spirit, and Faith, alone subsisting be.
Lord, by thy Spirit vnto my spirit annex
So lively Faith, that still mine eyes may fix
On thy true Isaac, whose sharp (sin-less) Suffering
Shall purge from Sin me and my sinfull offering.

Scarce had he drawn his sword (in resolution)
With heaved hand for instant execution,
When instantly the thundring Voice of God
Staid heart and hand, and thus the Fact forbod;
Abram, enough: hould, hould thy hand (said he)
Put-vp thy sword; thine Isaac shall not dy:
Now, of thy Faith I have had perfect proof;
Thy Will for Deed I do accept: Enough.

Glad Abram, then, to God gives thanks and praise,
Vnbindes his Son, and in his room he laies
A Lamb (there strangely hampered by the head)
And that, to God, devoutly offered.

Renowned Abraham, Thy noble Acts
Excell the Fictions of Heroïk Facts:

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And, that pure Law a Son of thine should write,
Shall nothing-else but thy brave deeds recite.
Extoll who list thy wisdoms excellence,
Victorious Valour, frank Beneficence,
And Iustice too (which even the Gentiles honor):
Ill dares my Muse take such a task vpon-her.
Onely thy Faith (not all, with all th'effects)
Onely one fruit of thousand she selects,
For glorious subiect: which (to say the right)
I rather love to wonder-at, then write.

Go Pagans, turn, turn-over every Book:
Through all Memorials of your Martyrs look:
Collect a Scroule of all the Children slain
On th'Altars of your gods: dig-vp again
Your lying Legends: Run through every Temple:
Among your Offerings choose the best example
(Among your Offerings which your Fathers past
Have made, to make their names eternall last)
Among them all (fondlings) you shall not finde
Such an example, where (vnkindely-kinde)
Father and Son so mutually agree
To shewe themselves, Father nor Son to be:
Where man's deep zeal, and God's dear fauour, strove
For Counter-conquest in officious love.

One, by constraint his Son doth sacrifice:
Another means his Name t'immortalize
By such a Fact: Another hopes to shun
Som dismall Plague, or dire Affliction:
Another, onely that he may conform
To (Tyrant) Custom's, aw-less, law-less Form,
Which blears our eys, and blurs our senses so,
That Lady Reason must her seat forgo:
Yea, blindes the iudgement of the World so far,
That Vertue's oft arraign'd at Vice's Bar.

But, vn-constrain'd, our Abram, all alone,
Vpon a Mountain, to the guise of none
(For, it was odious to the Iews to doo)
And in a time of Peace and Plenty too,
Fights against Nature (prickt with wondrous zeal)
And, slaying Isaac, wars against his Weal.

O sacred Muse! that, on the double Mount,
With withering Baies bind'st not thy Singers Front;
But, on Mount Sion in the Angels Quire,
With Crowns of glory doost their brows attire;
Tell (for, thou know'st) what sacred Mystery
Vnder this shadow doth in secret ly?

O Death, Sin, Satan, tremble ye not all,
For hate and horror of your dreadfull Fall

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So lively figur'd? To behold Gods Bowe
So ready bent to cleave your heart in two?
To see yong Isaac, Pattern of that Prince
Who shall, Sin Satan, Death and Hell, convince?

Both onely Sons, both sacred Potentates,
Both holy Founders of two mighty States,
Both sanctified, both Saints Progenitors,
Both bear their Cross, both Lamb-like Sufferers,
Both bound, both blame-less, both without reply,
Both by their Fathers are ordain'd to dy
Vpon Mount Sion: which high glorious Mount
Serves vs for Ladder to the Heav'ns to mount,
Restores vs Edens key (the key of Eden,
Lost through the eating of the fruit forbidden,
By wretched Adam, and his weaker Wife)
And blessed bears the holy Tree of life.

Christ dies indeed: but Isaac is repriv'd
(Because Heav'ns Councell otherwise contriv'd)
For, Isaac's blood was no sufficient price
To ransom soules from Hell to Paradise:
The Leprosie of our contagious sin
More powr-full Rivers must be purged in.

FINIS.

348

3. The Lavve.

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

The Argvment.

Envy, in Pharao, seeks to stop the Cause
Of Iews increase: Moses escapes his claws;
Out of a Burning (vnburnt) Bush, a Voice
For Iacob's Rescue doth of Him make choice;
Sends him (with Aaron) to th'Egyptian King:
His Hardning, Plagving, finall Ruining
In the Red Sea. Israel ingrate for all:
Christ-Typing Manna, Quails, Rock-waters fall:
The glorious Lavve: the golden Calf: strange Fire:
Core in-gulft: Moses prepar'd t'expire.

Arm-arming Trumpets, lofty Clarions,
Rock-batt'ring Bumbards, Valour-murdering Guns,
Think you to drown with horror of your Noise
The choice sweet accents of my sacred Voice?
Blowe (till you burst) roar, rend the Earth in sunder;
Fill all with Fury, Tempest, War and Thunder,
Dire Instruments of Death, in vain yee toil:
For, the loud Cornet of my long-breath'd stile
Out-shrills yee still; and my Stentorian Song,
With warbled Ecchoes of a silver tongue,
Shall brim be heard from India even to Spain,
And then from thence even to the Artik Wain.

Yet, 't is not I, not I in any sort;
My side's too-weak, alas! my breath's too-short
It is the spirit-inspiring Spirit, which yerst
On th'eldest Waters mildely moved first,

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That furnishes and fills with sacred winde
The weak, dull Organs of my Muse and minde.

So, still, good Lord, in these tumultuous times,
Giue Peace vnto my Soule, soule to my Rimes:
Let me not faint amid so faire a course:
Let the World's end be th'end of my Discourse:
And, while in France fell Mars doth all devour,
In lofty stile (Lord) let me sing thy Powr.

All-Changing Time had cancell'd and supprest
Ioseph's Deserts: his Master was deceast,
His Sons were dead; when currish Envie's strife
Lays each-where ambush for poor Israel's life:
Who, notwithstanding, doth far faster spread

Comparison.

And thicker spring, than, in a fruitfull Mead
Moted with Brooks, the many-leaved locks
Of thriving Charvel; which the bleating Flocks
Can with their daily hunger hardly mowe
So much as daily doth still newly growe.

This Monster wuns not in the Cel she wont,

Description of the Palace of Envy.

Sh' hath rear'd her Palace on the steepest Mount,
Whose snowy shoulders with their stony pride
Eternally do Spain from France divide:
It hath a thousand loop-holes every-way;
Yet never enters there one sunny ray:
Or if that any chance so far to pass,
'Tis quickly quenched by her cloudy face:
At euery Loop, the Work-man wittily
Hath plaç't a long, wide, hollow Trunk, wher-by
Prattling Renowne and Fame with painted wing,
News from all corners of the World do bring,
Buzzing there-in: as, in a Sommer Even,

Simile.

From clefts of Medows that the Heat hath riven,
The Grass-hoppers, seeming to fain the voyces
Of little Birds, chirp-out ten thousand noyses.

It frotun'd now that a swift-flying Fame,

To whom Fame reports Israels prosperity.

Which (lately but) from stately Memphis came,
Sweating, and dusty, and nigh breath-less, fills
With this Report one of her listening Quills:
O curious Nymph (lives there a Wit with vs,
Acute and quick, that is not curious?)
Most wakefull Goddess, Queen of mortall hearts,
Consort of Honor, Wealth, and High-Deserts,
Doo'st thou not knowe, that happy Israel
(Which promiseth, the Conqueror of Hell,
That twice-borne King, here-after to bring-forth,
Who dead shall liue again; and by his Worth
Wipe-out Man's Forfait, and God's Law fulfill,
And on his Cross th'envy of Envy kill)

350

Doth (even in sight) abundantly increase?
That Heav'n and Earth conspire his happiness?
That seaventy Exiles, with vn-hallowed Frie
Couer the face of all the World well-nigh?
And, drunk with wealth, waigh not thy force a iot?
Envie, thou seest it, but fore-seest it not.

Envy incenseth Pharaoh to oppress them.

Swolne like a Toad, between her bleeding iaws
Her hissing Serpents wriggling tails she chaws:
And, hasting hence, in ISIS form she iets;
A golden vessell in one hand she gets,
In th'other a sweet Instrument; her hood
Was Peacocks feathers mixt with Southernwood;
A siluer crescent on her front she set,
And in her bosom many a fostering teat:
And, thus disguis'd, with pride and impudence
She presses-in to the Bubastik Prince;
Who, slumbring then on his vn-quiet Couch,
With Israel's greatness was disturbed much:
Then she (the while, squinting vpon the lustre
Of the rich Rings which on his fingers glister;
And, snuffing with a wrythed nose the Amber,
The Musk and Civet that perfum'd the Chamber)
'Gan thus to greet him: Sleep'st thou? sleep'st thou, son?
And see'st thou not thy self and thine vn-don;
While cruell Snakes, which thy kinde brest did warm,
Sting thee to death, with their vngratefull swarm?
These Fugitiues, these out-casts do conspire.
Against rich Egypt, and (ingrate) aspire
With odious Yoak of bondage to debase
The noble Pharaoh's, God's immortall Race.

With these last words, into his brest she blowes
A banefull ayr whose strength vnfeltly flowes
Through all his veins; and, having gain'd his heart,
Makes Reason stoop to Sense in every part:

Simile.

So th'Aspick pale (with too-right aim) doth spet
On his bare face, that coms too neer to it,
The froth that in her teeth to bane she turns;
A drowzy bane, that inly creeps, and burns
So secretly, that without sense of pain,
Scar, wound, or swelling, soon the Partie's slain.
What shall I farther say? This Sorrow's-Forge,
This Rack of Kings, Care's fountain, Courtier's scourge,

Envies two Twins.

Besides her sable poyson, doth inspire
With Hate and Fear the Princes fell desire.

Hence-forth therefore, poor Israel hath no peace,
Not one good day, no quiet nap, no ease;
Still, still opprest, Tax vpon Tax arose,
After Thefts, Threats, and after Threats com blowes.

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The silly wretches are compell'd som-while

Slauery of the Israelites.

To cut new chanels for the course of Nile:
Somtimes som Cities ruins to repair
Somtimes to build huge Castles in the air:
Somtimes to mount the Parian Mountains higher
In those proud Towrs that after-worlds admire;
Those Towrs, whose tops the Heav'ns have terrified:
Those Towrs, that scuse th'audacious Titan's pride
(Those Towrs, vain Tokens of a vast expense;
Tropheis of Wealth, Ambition's Monuments)
To make with their owne sweat and blood their morter:
To be at-once Brick-maker, Mason, Porter.
They labour hard, eat little, sleeping less,
No sooner layd, but thus their Task-lords press;
Villains, to work: what? are ye growne so sloth?
Wee'll make yee yeeld vs wax and hony both.

In breefe, this Tyrant, with such servitude,

Pharao his vain policy.

Thought soone to waste the sacred multitude;
Or, at the least, that overlayd with woe,
Weakned with watching, worn with toyling so,
They would in time becom less service-able
In Venvs Battails, and for breed less able
(Their spirits disperst, their bodies over-drid,
And Cypris sap vn-duly qualified):
But, when he saw this not succeed so well,
But that the Lord still prosper'd Israel;
Inhumane, he commands (on bloudy Pain)

His cruell Edict against the male children.

That all their male babes in their birth be slain:
And that (because that charge had don no good)
They should be cast, in Cairo's siluer Food.

O Barbarisme, learned in Hel belowe!
Those, that (alas!) nor steel nor stream do knowe,
Must die of steel or stream: cruell Edicts!
That, with the Infant's blood, the Mother's mix;
That, Childe and Mother both at once cut-off;
Him with the stroke, her with the griefe therof:
With two-fould tears Iews greet their Native Heav'n:
The day that brings them life their life hath reav'n.

But, Iochebed would fain (if she had durst)
Her deer son Moses secretly haue nourç't:
Yet thinking better, her sweet Babe forgo,
Than Childe and Parents both to hazard so,
At length she layes it forth, in Rush-boat weaves-it,
And to God's Mercy and the Flood's she leaves-it.

Though Rudder-less, nor Pilot-less, this Boat
Among the Reeds by the Floods side did float,
And saues from wrack the future Legislator,
Lighting in hands of the Kings gracious Daughter:

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His Daughter finding Moses exposed, causeth him to be princely brought vp.

Who opening it, findes (which with ruth did strike-her)
A lovely Babe (or little Angel liker)
Which with a smile seem'd to implore the ayd
And gentle pity of the Royall Mayd.
Love, and the Graces, State and Maiesty,
Seem round about the Infants facc to fly,
And on his head seem'd (as it were) to shine
Presagefull rayes of som-what more diuine.

She takes him vp, and rears him royal-like;
And, his quick Spirit, train'd in good Arts, is like

2 Similes.

A wel breath'd Body, nimble, sound, and strong,
That in the Dance-schoole needs not teaching long:
Or a good Tree set in as good a soyl,
Which growes a-pace, without the Husband's toyl.

In time, he puts in Practice what he knowes;
With curteous Mildeness, manly Courage showes:
H'hath nothing vulgar: with great happiness,
In choice discourse he doth his mind express;
And as his Soul's-type his sweet tongue affoords,
His gracefull Works confirm his gracious Words:
His Vertues make him even the Empire's heir:
So means the Prince; such is the peoples prayer.

Gods prouidence in his preseruation.

Thus 'while o're-whelmed with the rapid course
Of Mischief's Torrent (and still fearing worse)
Israel seems help-less and even hope-less too
Of any help that Mortall hand can doo:
And, while the then-Time's hideous face and form
Boads them (alas!) nothing but wrack and storm,
Their Castor shines, their Saviour's sav'd: and Hee
That with high hand shall them from bondage free,
Scourging with Plagues, scarring with endless shame
Th'Egyptian Court, is raised by the same.

For, though him there they as a God adore,

Moses affection & duty toward his Parents and care of his Brethren.

He scorns not yet his friends and kinred poor:
He feels their Yoak, their mournings he laments:
His word and sword are prest in their defence;
And, as ordain'd for their Deliverance,
And sent express by Heav'ns pre-ordinance,
Seeing a Pagan (a proud Infidell,
A Patagon, that tasted nought so well
As Israel's blood) to ill-intreat a Iew,
Him bold incounters, and him bravely slew.

He flies out of Egypt.

But, fearing then lest his inhumane Prince
Should hear of it, young Moses flyes from thence:
And, hard by Horeb, keeping Iethro's sheep,
He Fasts and Prayes; with Meditations deep
His vertuous zeal he kindles more and more,
And prudently he lays-vp long-before

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Within his Soule (his spirituall Armory)
All sacred Weapons of Sobriety,
Where-with t'incounter, conquer, and suppress
All Insurections of Voluptuousness.
Also, not seldom some deep Dream or Transe

God talketh to him in the Wilderness.

Him suddainly doth even to Heav'n advance:
And Hee, that whilom could not finde the Lord
On plentious shoars of the Pelusian Foord,
In walled Cities with their Towred Ports,
In learned Colledges, nor sumptuous Courts;
In Desart meets him; greets him face to face,
And on his brows bears tokens of his Grace.

For, while he past his sacred Prentiship

Moses vision of the flaming bush.

(In Wilderness) of th'Hebrews Shepheardship;
In driving forth to kiss-cloud Sina's foot
His fleecy Flock, and there attending too't,
He suddain sees a Bush to flame and fume,
And all a-fire, yet not at all consume;
It flames and burns not, cracks and breaks not in,
Kisses, but bites not, no not even the skin:
True figure of the Church, and speaking Signe
Which seemeth thus to, of it selfe, define:
What (Amram's son) Doth Iacob's bitter Teen
Dismay thee so? Behould, this Haw-thorn green
Is even an Image of thine Israel,
Who in the Fire of his Afflictions fell
Still flourishes, on each side hedged round.
With prickly Thorns, his hatefull Foes to wound:
This Fire doth seem the Spirit Omnipotent,
Which burns the wicked, tries the Innocent:
Who also addeth to the sacred Signe,
The more to move him, his owne Word Divine.

I AM I that I am, in me, for me, by me:

The voice of the Lord speaking out of the Bush.

All Beings else Be not (or else vn-selfly be)
But, from my Beeing, all their Beeing gather;
Prince of the World, and of my Church the Father:
Onely Beginning, Midst, and End of all;
Yet sans Beginning, Midst, and End at all:
All in my selfe compris'd, and all comprising
That in the World was, is, or shall be rising:
Base of this Vniverse: th'vniting Chain
Of th'Elements: the Wisedom Soveraign:
Each-where, in Essence, Powr and Providence;
But in the Heav'ns, in my Magnificence:
Fountain of Goodness: ever-shining Light:
Perfectly Blest: the One, the Good, the Bright:
Self-simple Act, working in frailest matter:
Framer of Forms: of Substances Creator:

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And (to speak plainer) even that God I AM
Whom so long since religious Abraham,
Isaac, and Iacob, and their Progenies
Haue worshipped and prays'd in humble wise.

God hath pity on his People afflicted in Egypt.

My sacred ears are tyred with the noyse
Of thy poor Brethren's iust-complayning voyce:
I haue beheld my Peoples burdens there;
Moses, no more I will, nor can, forbear:
Th'haue groan'd (alas!) and panted all too-long
Vnder that Tyrants vn-relenting wrong.

He ordaineth Moses for their Deliverer, & giues him commission to goe to Pharao.

Now, their Deliuerer I authorize thee,
And make thee Captain of their Colony;
A sacred Colony, to whom (as mine);
I haue so oft bequeath'd rich Palestine.
Therefore from me command thou Pharao
That presently he let my People go
Into the Dry-Arabian Wilderness,
Where far from sight of all profane excess
On a new Altar they may sacrifice
To Me the Lord, in whom their succour lies:
Haste, haste (I say)) and make me no excuse
On thy Tongue's rudenes (for the want of vse)
Nor on thy weaknes, nor vnworthiness
To vnder-go so great a Business.
What? cannot He, that made the lips and tongue,
Prompt Eloquence and Art (as doth belong)
Vnto his Legat? and, who every thing
Of Nothing made, and All to nought shall bring;
Th'Omnipotent, who doth confound (for His)
By weak the strong; by what is not, what is,
(That in his wondrous Iudgements, men may more
The Work-man then the Instruments adore)
Will he forsake, or leave him vn-assisted,
That in his seruice duly hath insisted?
Sith faithfull Servant, to do-well affected,
Can by his Master never be reiected.

Moses (accompanied with his brother Aaron) sets forward in his high Embassage.

No sooner this, the Divine Voice had ended,
And vp to Heav'n the Bushy Flame ascended,
But Moses, with (his fellow in Commission)
His Brother Aaron, wends with expedition
First to his People, and to Pharao then,
The King of Egypt (cruellest of Men):
And inly filled with a zealous flame,
Thus, thus he greets him, in th'Almighties name;
Great Nilvs Lord, thus saith the Lord of Hoasts,
Let go my People out of all the Coasts,
Mine Israel (Pharao) forth-with release,
Let them depart to Horeb's Wildernes;

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That vnto me, without offence or fear,
Their Hearts and Heifers they may offer there.

Base Fugitive, proud slaue (that art return'd

Pharaos proud answere.

Not to be whipt, but rather hangd, or burn'd)
What Lord, said Pharao? ha! what Soveraign?
O seaven-horn'd Nile! O hundred-pointed Plain!
O City of the Sun! O Thebes! and Thou
Renowned Pharos, do ye all not bow
To vs alone? Are ye not onely Ours?
Ours at a beck? Then, to what other Powrs
Owes your great Pharao homage or respect?
Or by what Lord to be controul'd and checkt?

I see the Drift. These off-scums all at once
Too idlely pampred, plot Rebellions:
Sloth marrs the slaves; and vnder fair pretence
Of new Religion (Traytours to their Prince)
They Would Revolt. O Kings! how fond are we
To think by Favours and by Clemency,
To keep men in their duty! To be milde,
Makes them be mad, proud, insolent and wilde:
Too-much of Grace, our Scepters doth dis-grace,
And smooths the path to Treason's plots a-pace.
The dull Asse, numbers with his stripes his steps:
Th'Ox, over-fat, too-strong, and resty, leaps
About the Lands, casteth his yoak, and strikes;
And waxen wilde, even at his Keeper kicks.

The true Anatomy of a Tyrant.

Well: to enioy a People, through their skin
With scourges slyç't, must their bare bones be seen:
We must still keep them short, and clip their wings,
Pare neer their nails and pull out all their stings;
Loade them with Tribute, and new Towle, and Tax,
And Subsidies vntill we break their backs;
Tire them with trauel, flay-them, pole-them, pil-them,
Suck bloud and fat, then eat their flesh, and kil-them.
'Tis good for Princes to haue all things fat,
Except their Subiects: but, beware of that.
Ha, Miscreants! ha, rascal excrements,
That lift your heel against your gracious Prince;
Hence-forth you get of wood or straw no more,
To burn your Bricks as you haue had before:
Your selues shall seek it out; yet shall you still
The number of your wonted task fulfill.

I haue Commission from the King of Kings,

Moses reply.

Maker, Preseruer, Ruler, of all things,
Replies the Hebrew that (to knowe the Lord)
Thou feel his hand, vnless thou fear his word.

In th'instant, Aaron on the slippery sand

Aaron casteth down his Rod: which immediately turns into a Serpent.

Casts down his Rod; and boldly thus began:

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So shall thy golden Scepter down be cast,
So shall the Iudgements of the Lord at last
(Now deemed dead) reviue, to daunt thy powr:
So Israel shall Egypts wealth devour,
If thou confess not God to be the Lord:
If thou attend not, nor obserue his Word:
And if his People thou do not release,
To goe and serue him in the Wilderness.

Before that Aaron this Discourse had done,
A green-gold-azure had his Rod put-on,
It glistered bright: and in a fashion strange,
Into a Serpent it did wholly change;
Crawling before the King, and all along
Spetting and hissing with his forked tongue.

The Magicians of Egypt counterfet that miracle, and bewitch the eyes of the King.

The Memphian Sages then, and subtill Priests,
T'vphold the Kingdom of their Osiris,
Vpbraid them thus: Alas! is this the most
Your God can do, of whom so much you boast?
Are these his Wonders? Go, base Monte-banks,
Go shew else-where your sleights and iuggling pranks.
Such tricks may blear som vulgar innocents,
But cannot blinde the Councell of a Prince;
Who, by the gods instructed, doth contain
All Arts perfection in his sacred brain.
And, as they spake, out of their cursed hands
They all let-fall their strange-inchanted Wands;
Which instantly turn into Serpents too,
Hissing and spetting, crawling to and fro.
The King too much admires their cunning Charms:
The place with Aspicks, Snakes and Serpents, swarms;
Creeping about: as an ill-Huswife sees
The Maggots creeping in a rotten Cheese.

Simile.

You, you are Iugglers, th'Hebrew then repli'd:
You change not Nature, but the bare out-side;
And your Enchantments onely doo transform
The face of things, not the essentiall form.
You, Sorcerers, so mock the Princes ey,
And his Imagination damnifie,
That common Sense to his externall, brings
(By re-percussion) a false shape of things.
My Rod's indeed a Serpent, not in showe,
As heer in sight your selves by proof shall knowe.
Immediately his Dragon rear'd his head,
Rowl'd on his brest; his body wriggelled
Somtimes aloft in length; somtimes it sunk
Into it self, and altogether shrunk:
It slides, it sups the air, it hisses fell,
In steed of eyes two sparkling Rubies swell:

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And all his deadly baens, intrenched strong
Within his trine Teeth and his triple Tongue,
Call for the Combat: and (as greedy) set

Moses rod-Serpent deuoureth the Serpents of the Egyptians.

With sodain rage vpon those Counterfet,
Those seeming-Serpents, and them all devour:
Even as a Sturgeon, or a Pike, doth scour
The Creeks and Pills in Rivers where they lie,
Of smaller Fishes and their feeble Fry.

But, at high Noon, the Tyrant wilfull-blind,

Pharao and his people hardned: Therefore God plagued Egypt.

And deafe to his owne good, is more inclin'd
To Satans tools: the people, like the Prince,
Prefer the Night before Light's excellence.
Wherefore the Lord, such proud contempts to pay,
Ten sundry plagues vpon their Land doth lay:
Redoubling so his dread-full strokes, that there,
Who would not love him milde, him rough should fear.

Smiting the Waves with his Snake-wanded wood,

1. By turning their Waters into blood.

Aaron anon converts the Nile to blood;
So that the stream, from fruitfull Meroe,
Runs red and bitter even vnto the Sea.
The Court re-courst to Lakes, to Springs, and Brooks;
Brooks, Springs, and Lakes had the like taste and looks:
Then to the Ditches; but, even to the brink
There flow'd (alas!) in steed of Water, Ink:
Then, to the likeliest of such weeping ground
Where, with the Rush, pipe-opening Fern is found:
And there they dig for Water: but (alas!)
The wounded soyl spets blood into their face.
O iust-iust Iudgement! Those proud Tyrants fell,
Those bloudy Foes of mourning Israel;
Those that delighted, and had made their game
In shedding blood, are forç't to drink the same:
And those, that ruth-less had made Nile the slaughter
Of th'Hebrew Babes, now die for want of Water.

Anon, their Fields, Streets, Halls and Courts he loads

2. Covering their Land with Frogs.

With foul great Frogs, and vgly croking Toads;
Which to the tops of highest Towrs do clamber
Even to the Presence, yea the priuy Chamber;
As starry Lezards in the Sommer time
Vpon the walls of broken houses clime.
Yea; even the King meets them in every dish
Of Privy-diet, be it Flesh or Fish:
As at his Boord, so on his royall Bed;
With stinking Frogs the silken quilts be spred.

The Priests of Pharao seem to do the same:

The Magicians counterfait the same, but their deceits are vain.

Aaron alone in the Almighties Name,
By Faith almighty: They for instruments
Vse the black Legions of the Stygian Prince:

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He by his Wonders labours to make knowen
The true Gods glory; onely they their owne:
He seeks to teach; they to seduce awry:
He studies to build vp; they to destroy:
He, striking Strangers, doth His people spare;
They spoile their own, but cannot hurt a hair
Of the least Hebrew: they can onely wound;
He hurts, and heals: He breaks, and maketh sound:
And so, when Pharao doth him humbly pray,
Re-cleers the Floods, and sends the Frogs away.

The King eased of his punishmēt is again hardned.

But (as in Heau'n there did no Iustice raign)
The Kings repentance endeth with his pain.
He is re-hardned: like a stubborn Boy
That plies his Lesson (Hypocritely-coy)
While in his hand his Master shakes the Rod;
But, if he turn his back, doth flowt and nod.
Therefore the Lord, this Day, with loathsom Lice

Therefore 3. Aegypt is plagued with Lyce.

Plagues poor and rich, the nastie and the nice,
Both Man and beast; For, Aaron with his wand
Turns into Lice the dust of all the Land.
The morrow after, with huge swarms of Flies,

4. With Flies &c..

Hornets and Wasps, he hunts their Families
From place to place, through Medows, Fens and Floods,
Hills, Dales, and Desarts, hollow Caves and Woods.

Tremble therfore (O Tyrants) tremble ay,
Poor worms of Earth, proud Ashes, Dust and Clay:
For, how (alas!) how will you make defence
'Gainst the tri-pointed wrathfull violence
Of the drad dare, that flaming in his hand,
Shall path to powder all that him withstand?
And 'gainst the rage of flames eternal-frying,
Where damned soules ly euer-neuer-dying:
Sith the least Flies, and Lice, and Vermine too
Out-braue your braues, and triumph ouer you.

Man caānot hide him from the hand of God, nor auoid his vengeance.

Gallop to Anian, sail to Iucatan,
Visit Botongas, diue beyond the Dane.
Well may you fly, but not escape him there:
Wretches, your halters still about, you bear.
Th'Almighties hand is long, and busie still;
Hauing escap't this Rod, his Sword you feel:
He seems somtimes to sleep and suffer all;
But calls at last for Vse and Principall:
With hundred sorts of Shafts his Quiuer's full,
Som passing keen, som som-what sharp, som dull,
Som killing dead, som wounding deep, som light;
But all of them do alwaies hit the White,
Each after other. Now th'Omnipotence
At Egypt shoots his shafts of Pestilence:

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Th'Ox falls-down in his yoak, Lambs bleating dy,

5. With the Plague of Pestilence.

The Bullocks as they feed, Birds as they fly.

Anon he couers Man and Beast with cores
Of angry Biles, Botches, and Scabs, and Sores;

6. With Vlcers and grieuous Scabs or Murrain.

Whose vlcerous venoms, all inflaming spread
O're all the body from the foot to head.

Then, Rain, and Hail, and flaming Fire among
Spoyl all their fields: their Cattell great with young

7. With haile & fire from heauen.

All brain'd with hail-stones: Trees with tempest cleft,
Robd of their boughs, their boughes of leaues berest.
And, from Heav'ns rage, all, to seek shelter, glad;
The Face of Egypt is now dradly-sad:
The Söan Virgins tear their Beauties honour;

Egyptians amazed at the extraordinary scourge.

Not for the waste, so much, as for the manner.

For, in that Country neuer see they Clowd,
With waight of Snowes their trees are neuer bow'd,
They know no Ice: and though they haue (as we)
The Yeare intire, their Seasons are but three:
They neither Rain-bowe, nor fat Deaws expect,
Which from else-where Sol's thirsty rayes erect:
Rain-less, their soyl is wet, and Clowd-less, fat;

The naturall fruitfulness & prosperity of Egypt in its selfe maruellous.

Itself's moist bosom brings in this and that:
For, while else-where the Riuer's roaring pride
Is dryed-vp; and while that far and wide
The Palestine seeks (for his thirsty Flock)
Iordan in Iordan, Iabboc in Iabboc;
Their floud o'reflowes, and parched Misraim
A season seems in a rich Sea to swim,
Niles billows beat on the high-dangling Date;
And Boats do slide, where Ploughs did slice of late.

Steep snowy Mounts, bright Stars Etesian gales,
You cause it not: no, those are Dreams and Tales:
Th'Eternall-Trine who made all compassly,
Makes th'vnder waues, the vppers want supply;
And, Egypts Womb to fill with fruits and Flowrs,
Gives swelling Nile th'office of heauenly Showrs.

Then the Thrice-Sacred with a sable Clowd
Of horned Locusts doth the Sun be-clowd,
And swarmeth down on the rebellious Coast
The Grass-hoppers lean, dam-deuouring Hoast,

8 The are vexed with Grasshoppers.

Which gleans what Hail had left, and (greedy) crops
Both night and Day the Husband's whole-year's hopes.

Then, gross thick Darkness over all he dight,
And three fair Dayes turns to one fearfull Night:

9 Wih palpable darkness.

With Ink-like Rheum the dull Mists drouzy vapours
Quench their home Fires, and Temple-sacred Tapers.
If hunger driue the Pagans from their dens,
Ones 'gainst a settle breaketh both his shins;

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Another, groping vp and down for bread,
Falls down the stayrs, and there he lies for dead.

But, though these works surmount all Natures might,
Though his owne Sages them of guile acquight,
Though th'are not casuall (sith the holy-man

The Israelites in all these plagues vntoucht, yet Pharao still hardned.

Fore-tels perfixtly What, and Where and When)
And though that (liuing in the midst of His)
The Israelites be free from all of This,
Th'incensed Tyrant (strangely obstinate)
Retracts the Leave he granted them of late.

For, th'Ever-One, who with a mighty hand
Would bring his people to the plentious Land
Of Palestine: Who prouidently-great,
Before the eyes of all the World would set
A Tragedy, where wicked Potentates
Might see a Mirror of their owne estates:
And, who (most-iust) must haue meet Arguments,
To showe the height of his Omnipotence;
Hardens the King, and blinding him (selfe-blinde)
Leaues him to Lusts of his owne vicious minde.
For, God doth neuer (euer purely bent)
Came sin, as sin; but, as Sin's Punishment.

10. Therefore all the first borne of Egypt are slain in one night by the Angell.

For, the last Charge, an Angell in one night,
All the first born through all the Land doth smite;
So that from Sues Port to Birdene Plain,
Ther's not a House, but hath som body slain,
Saue th'Israelites, whose doors were markt before,
With sacred Pass-Lamb's sacramentall gore.
And therfore euer-since on that same day,
Yeerly, the Iewes a Yearling Lamb must stay;
A token of that Passage, and a Type
Of th'Holy-Lamb, which should (in season ripe)
By powring-forth the pure and plentious Flood
Of his most precious Water-mixed Blood,
Preserue his People from the drad Destroyer,
That fries the wicked in eternall fier.

Through all the Land, all in one instant cry,
All for one cause, though yet all know not why.
Night heaps their horrors: and the morning showes
Their priuat griefs, and makes them publike woes.

After so many grieuous plagues the Egyptians cry out vpon their King to let the Israelites goe.

Scarce did the glorious Gouernour of Day
O're Menphis yet his golden tress display,
When from all parts, the Maydens and the Mothers,
Wiues, Husbands, Sons, and Sires, Sisters, and Brothers,
Flock to the Court, where with one common voice
They all cry-out, and make this mournfull noyse:

O stubborn stomach! (cause of all our sadnes)
Dull Constancy! or rather, desperat Madnes!

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A Flood of Mischiefs all the Land doth fill:
The Heav'ns still thunder; th'Air doth threaten still:
Death, ghastly death, triumpheth every-where,
In every house; and yet, without all fear,
Without all feeling, we despise the Rod,
And scorn the Iudgements of the mighty God.
Great King, no more bay with thy wilfullings
His Wrath's dread Torrent. He is King of kings;
And in his fight, the Greatest of you all
Are but as Moats that in the Sun doo fall:
Yeeld, yeeld (alas!) stoop to his powrfull threat;
He's warn'd enough that hath been ten-times beat.

Go, get you gon: hence, hence, vn-lucky Race;

They hasten and importune them to be gon.

Your eyes bewitch our eyes, your feet this Place,
Your breath this air: Why haste you not away?
Hebrews, what lets you? wherfore do you stay?
Step to our houses (if that ought you lack)
Choose what you like, and what you like go take,
Gould, Plate, or Iewels, Ear-rings, Chains, or Ouches,
Our Girdles, Bracelets, Carkanets, or Brouches,
Bear them vnto your gods, not in the sands
Where the Heav'n-kissing Cloud-brow'd Sina stands;
But much, much farther; and so far, that heer
We never more your odious news may hear:
Go, Hebrews, go, in God's Name thrive amain;
By losing you, we shall sufficient gain.

With the Kings leave, then th'Hebrews Prince collects

After their departure Pharao immediately pursves them.

His Legions all, and to the Sea directs.
Scarce were they gon, when Pharaoh doth retract,
And arms all Egypt to go fetch them back;
And, camping neer them, execrably-rude,
Threatens them Death, or end-less Servitude.

Even as a Duck, that nigh som crystall brook

Simile.

Hath twice or thrice by the same Hawk been strook,
Hearing aloft her gingling silver bells,
Quivers for fear, and looks for nothing else
But when the Falcon (stooping thunder-like)
With sudden souse her to the ground shall strike;
And with the stroak, make on the sense-less ground
The gut-less Quar, once, twice, or thrice, rebound:
So Israel, fearing again to feel
Pharaoh's fell hands, who hunts them at the heel,
Quivers and shivers for despair and dread;
And spets his gall against his godly Head.

O base ambition! This false Politick,

The Israelites fear, and murmur against Moses.

Plotting to Great himself, our deaths doth seek:
He mocks vs all, and makes vs (fortune-less)
Change a rich Soil for a dry Wilderness;

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Allur'd with lustre of Religious showes,
Poor soules, He sels vs to our hatefull Foes:
For, O! what strength? alas! what stratagem?
Or how (good God) shall we encounter them?
Or who is it? or what is it shall save-vs
From their fell hands that seek to slay, or slave-vs?
Shall we, disarmed, with an Army fight?
Can we (like Birds) with still-steep-rising flight
Surmount these Mountains? have we Ships at hand
To pass the Sea (this half a Sea, half sand)?
Or, had we Ships, and Sails, and Owers, and Cable;
Who knowes these Waters to be navigable?
Alas! som of vs shall with Scithes be slasht;
Som, with their Horse-feet all to peeces pasht;
Som, thrill'd with Swords, or Shafts, through hundred holes
Shall ghastly gasp out our vntimely soules.
Sith die we must, then die we voluntary:
Let's run, our selves, where others would vs carry;
Com, Israelites, com, let vs dy together,
Both men and women: so we shall (in either)
Prevent their rage, content their avarice,
And yeeld (perhaps) to Moses even his Wish.

Moses instruction to enourage them, with assured confidence in God.

Why, brethren? knowe ye not (their Ruler saith)
That in his hand God holdeth life and death?
That he turns Hils to Dales, and Seas to Sands?
That he hath (prest) a thousand winged Bands
T'assist his Children, and his Foes t'assail?
And that he helps not, but when all helps fail?
See you this mighty Hoast, this dreadfull Camp,
Which dareth Heav'n, and seems the Earth to damp;
And all inrag'd, already chargeth ours,

Simile.

As thick, or thicker then the Welkin pours
His candi'd drops vpon the ears of Corn,
Before that Ceres yellow locks be shorn?
It all shall vanish, and of all this Crew
(Which thinks already to have swallow'd you)
Of all this Army, that (in Armour bright)
Seems to out-shine the Sun, or shame his light;
There shall to-morrow not a man remain:
Therfore be still; God shall your side sustain.

Calling vpō God he parts the Red Sea so that the people passe through as on dry land.

Then (zealous) calling on th'immortall God,
He smote the Sea with his dead-living Rod:
The Sea obay'd, as bay'd: the Waves, controul'd,
Each vpon other vp to Heav'n do fould:
Between both sides a broad deep Trench is cast,
Dri'd to the bottom with an instant blast:
Or rather, 't is a Valley paved (else)
With golden sands, with Pearl, and Nacre-shels,

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And on each side is flanked all along
With wals of crystall, beautifull and strong.
This flood-less Foord the Faithfull Legions pass,
And all the way their shoo scarce moisted was.
Dream we, said they? or is it true we try?
The Sea start at a stick? The Water dry?
The Deep a Path? Th'Ocean in th'Air suspending?
Bulwarks of Billows, and no drop descending?
Two Wals of Glass, built with a word alone?
Afrik and Asia to conioyn in one?
Th'all-seeing Sun new bottoms to behould?
Children to run where Tunnies lately roul'd?

Th'Egyptian Troops pursue them by the track;

The Egyptians following them are swallowed in the Sea.

Yet waits the patient Sea, and still stands back;
Till all the Hoast be marching in their ranks
Within the lane between his crystall banks.
But, as a wall, weakned with mining-vnder,

Simile.

The Piles consum'd fall suddenly asunder,
O'r-whelmeth all that stand too neer the breach,
And with his Ruines fills-vp all the ditch:
Even so God's finger, which these Waters bay'd;
Beeing with-drawn, the Ocean swell'd and sway'd;
And, re-conioyning his congealed Flood,
Swallows in th'instant all those Tyrants wood.

Heer, one by swimming thinks himself to save:
But, with his scarf tangled about a Nave,
He's strangled straight; and, to the bottom sinking,
Dies; not of too-much drink, but for not drinking;
While that (in vain) another with lowd lashes
Scours his prowd Coursers through the scarlet Washes:
The streams (whereon more Deaths then Waves do swim)
Bury his Chariot; and his Chariot, him:
Another, swallowed in a Whirl-Whales womb,
Is laid a-live within a living Toomb:
Another, seeing his Twin-brother drowning;
Out of his Coach, his hand (to help him) downing;
With both his hands grasping that hand, his Twin
Vnto the bottom hales him head-long in;
And instantly the water covers either:
Right Twins indeed; born, bred and dead, together.

Nile's stubborn Monarch, stately drawn vpon

Pharao profanely blaspheming & proudly braving Moses and the Sea, is notwithstanding drowned with the rest.

A curious Chariot, 'chaç't with pearl and stone,
By two proud Coursers, passing snowe for colour;
For strength, the Elephants; Lions, for valour;
Curseth the Heav'ns, the Air, the Windes and Waves;
And, marching vp-ward, still blaspheams and braves:
Heer, a huge Billow on his Targe doth split;
Then coms a bigger, and a bigger yet,

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To second those: The Sea growes ghastly great;
Yet stoutly still he thus doth dare and threat:
Base roaguing Iuggler, think'st thou with thy Charms
Thou shalt preuail against our puissant arms?
Think'st thou, poor shifter, with thy Hel-spels thus
To cross our Counsels, and discomfit Vs?
And, O proud Sea! false, traiterous Sea, dar'st thou,
Dar'st thou conspire 'gainst thine own Neptune now?
Dar'st thou presume 'gainst Vs to rise and roar?
I charge thee cease: be still, I say: no more:
Or, I shall clip thine arms in Marble stocks,
And yoak thy shoulders with a Bridge of Rocks;
Or banish thee from Etham far, for ay,
Through som new Chanell to go seek thy way.

Heer-at the Ocean, more than ever, frets,
All topsie-turvy vp-side-down it sets;
And a black billow, that aloft doth float
With salt and sand; stops his blaspheamous throat.
What now betides the Tyrant? Waters now
Have reft his neck, his chin, cheeks, eyes and brow,
His front, his fore-top: now ther's nothing seen
But his proud arm, shaking his Fauchin keen:
Wherewith he seems, in spite of Heav'n and Hell,
To fight with Death, and menace Israel.
At last he sinks all vnder water quite,
Spurning the sand: again he springs vpright;
But, from so deep a bottom to the top,
So clogg'd with arms, can cleave no passage vp:

Simile.

As the poor Partridge, cover'd with the net,
In vain doth strive, struggle, and bate, and beat;
For, the close meshes, and the Fowler's craft,
Suffer the same no more to whurre aloft.

I to your selves leave to conceive the ioy
Of Iacob's heirs thus rescu'd from annoy;
Seeing the Sea to take their cause in hand,
And their dead Foes shuffled vpon the sand;
Their shields, and staves, and chariots (all-to-tore)
Floating about, and flung vpon the shoar:
When thus th'Almighty (glorious God most high)
For them without them, got the Victory,
They skip and dance; and, marrying all their voices
To Timbrels, Hawboys, and loud Cornets noises,
Make all the shoars resound, and all the coasts,

2. Part of this Tract: where is discoursed of the estate of the people of Israel in the Wlderness, vntill the death of Moses.

With the shrill Praises of the Lord of Hoasts.

Eternall issue of eternall Sire,
Deep Wisdom of the Father, now inspire
And shew the sequell that from hence befell,
And how he dealt with his dear Israel,

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Amid the Desart, in their Pilgrimage
Towards the Promis'd plentious Heritage:
Tell, for (I knowe) thou know'st: for, compast ay
With Fire by Night, and with a Cloud by Day,
Thou (my soule's hope) wert their sole Guide and Guard,
Their Meat and Drink in all their Iourney hard.

Marching amid the Desart, nought they lack:
Heav'n still distils an Ocean (for their sake)
Of end-less good: and every Morn doth send
Sufficient food for all the day to spend.
When the Sun riseth, and doth haste his Race
(Half ours, half theirs that vnderneath vs pase)
To re-behould the beauty, number, order,
And prudent Rule (preventing all mis-order)
Of th'awfull Hoast lodg'd in the Wilderness,
So favour'd by the Sun of Righteousnes;
Each coms but forth his Tent, and at his dore
Findes his bread ready (without seeking more):
A pleasant bread, which from his plentious clowd,
Like little Hail, Heav'ns wakefull Steward strow'd.
The yellow sands of Elim's ample Plain

God gives them Manna.

Were heaped all with a white sugred grain,
Sweet Corianders; Iunkets, not to feed
This Hoast alone, but even a World (for need).
Each hath his part, and every one is fed
With the sweet morsels of an vn-bought bread.
It never rains for a whole yeer at-once,

It is given from day to day.

But daily for a day's provisions:
To th'end, so great an Hoast, so curbed straight,
Still on the Lord's wide open hand should wait,
And every Dawning have due cause to call
On him their Founder, and the Fount of all:
Each, for his portion hath an Omer-full;
The sur-plus rots, mould, knead it how they will.
The Holy-One (iust Arbitrer of wrong)
Allows no less vnto the weak, than strong:
On Sabbath's Eve, he lets sufficient fall
To serve for that day, and the next withall;
That on his Rest, the sacred Folk may gather,
Not Bodie's meat, but spirituall Manna rather.

Thou, that from Heav'n thy daily White-bread hast,
Thou, for whom Harvest all the yeer doth last,
That in poor Desarts rich aboundance heap'st,
That sweat-less eat'st, and without sowing reap'st,
That hast the Air for farm, and Heav'n for field
(Which, sagred Mel, or melled sugar yeeld)
That, for taste changing doost not change thy cheer,
God's Pensioner, and Angel's Table-peer:

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It is a liuely figure of Christ the true bread of life.

O Israel! see in this Table-pure,
In this fair glass, thy Saviour's pourtraiture,
The Son of God, Messias promised,
The sacred seed, to bruize the Serpents head:
The glorious Prince, whose Scepter ever shines,
Whose Kingdom's scope the Heav'n of Heav'ns confines;
And, when He shall (to light thy sin-full load)
Put Man-hood on, dis-knowe him not for God.

The same demonstrated by particular conscience.

This Grain is small, but full of substance though:
Christ strong in working, though but weak in showe.
Manna is sweet: Christ as the Hony-Comb.
Manna from high: and Christ from Heav'n doth come.
With that, there falls a pleasant pearly deaw:
Christ coming down doth all the Earth be-streaw
With spiritual gifts. That, vnto great and small,
Tastes to their tastes: and Christ is all to all:
(Food to the hungry, to the needy wealth,
Ioy to th'afflicted, to the sickly health,
Pardon to those Repent, Prop to the bow'd,
Life's sauour to the Meek, Death's to the Prowd).
That's common good: and Christ communicate.
That's purely white: and Christ immaculate.
That gluts the wanton Hebrews (at the last)
Christ and his Word the World doth soon distaste.
Of that, they eat no less that have one measure,
Than who have hundred: and in Christ his treasure
Of Divine Grace, the faith-full Proselyte
Hath no less part, than Doctors (deep of sight).
That's round: Christ simple, and sincerely-round.
That in the Ark: Christ in his Church is found.
That doth (with certain) stinking worms becom:
Christ th'Ever-Word) is scandall vnto som.
That raineth not, but on the sacred Race:
Christ to his Chosen doth confine his Grace.
That's broken, every Grain: Christ (Lamb of God)
Vpon his Cross-press is so torn and trod,
That of his Blood the pretious Flood hath purl'd
Down from Mount Sion over all the World.

The people lust for flesh.

Yet glutted now with this ambrosiall Food,
This Heav'nly bread, so holy and so good,
Th'Hebrews do lust for flesh: a fresh South-winde
Brings shoals of Fowls to satisfie their minde;

God sends them Quails.

A cloud of Quails on all the Camp is sent,
And every one may take to his content:
For, in the Hoast, and all the Country by,
For a day's-iourney, Cubit-thick they ly.

But, though their Commons be thus delicate,
Although their eyes can scarce look out for fat,

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Although their Bellies strout with too-much meat,
Though (Epicures) they vomit as they eat,
Yet still they howl for hunger; and they long

They long for the Garlick & Onions of Egypt.

For Memphian hotch-potch, Leeks, and Garlick strong:
As Childe-great Women, or green Maids (that miss

Simile.

Their Terms appointed for their florishes)
Pine at a Princely feast, preferring far,
Red-Herrings, Rashers, and (som) sops in Tar;
Yea, coals, and clowts, sticks, stalks, and dirt, before
Quail, Pheasant, Partridge, and a hundred more:
So, their fantastick wearisom disease
Distastes their tastes, and makes them strange to please.

But, when the Bull, that lately tost his horn
In wanton Pride, hangs down his head, forlorn
For lack of Water, and the Souldier bleak
Growes (without Arms) for his own waight too-weak:
When fiery Thirst through all their veins so fierce
Consumes their blood, into their bones doth pearce,
Sups-vp their vitall humour, and doth dry
Their whilom-beauties to Anatomy;
They weep and wail, and but their voice (alas!)
Is choakt already that it cannot pass
Through the rough Straights of heir dry throats; they would

They murmur for want of water, with grieuous imputation to their good Guide.

Roar-out their grief, that all men hear them should.
O Duke! (no Hebrew, but an Ethnick rather)
Is this (alas!) the guerdon that we gather
For all the service thou hast had of vs?
What have we don, that thou betray'st vs thus?
For our obedience, shall we evermore
With Fear and Want be hanted at our door?
O windy words! O periur'd promises!
O gloze, to gull our honest simpleness!
Escap't from Hunger, Thirst doth cut our throat:
Past the Red-Sea, heer vp and down we float
On firm-less sands of this vast Desart heer,
Where, to and fro we wander many a yeer:
Looking for Liberty, we finde not Life;
No, neither Death (the welcom end of strife)
Envy not vs, dear Babes: we envy you,
You happy ones, whom Egypt's Tyrant slue;
Your Birth and Death cam hand in hand together,
Your end was quick nay't was an Entry rather
To end-less Life: We wretches, with our age
Increase our Woes in this long Pilgrimage:
We hope no Harbour where we may take breath:
And Life to vs is a continuall Death.
You blessed live, and see th'Almighties face:
Our Daies begin in tears, in toils they pass,

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And end in dolours (this is all we doo):
But Death concludes tears, toils, and dolours too.

Moses reproues them, & smites the Rock, from whence issues plenty of water.

Stiff-necked People, stubborn Generation,
Egypt doth witnes (in a wondrous fashion)
God's goodnes (to thee): all the Elements
Expound vnto thee his Omnipotence:
And doost thou murmur still? and dar'st thou yet
Blaspheam his promise, and discredit it?
Said Moses then; and gave a sudden knock
With his dear Scepter on a mighty Rock:
From top to toe it shakes, and splits with-all,
And wel-nigh half vnto the ground doth fall,
As smit with Lightning: then, with rapid rush,
Out of the stone a plentious stream doth gush,
Which murmurs through the Plain; proud, that his glass,
Gliding so swift, so soon re-yongs the grass;
And, to be gaz'd-on by the wanton Sun,
And through new paths so brave a course to run.

Simile.

Who hath not seen (far vp within the Land)
A shoal of Geese on the dry-Sommer sand
In their hoarse language (somtimes lowely-lowd)
Suing for succour to som moist-full clowd;
How, when the Rain descends, their wings they beat,
(With the first drops to cool their swelting heat)
Bib with their Bill, bouz with their throats, and suck,
And twenty-times vnto the bottom duck?
Such th'Hebrews glee: one, stooping down, doth sup
The clear quick stream; another takes it vp
In his bare hand; another in his hat;
This, in his buskin; in a bucket, that
(Well fresht himself) bears fom vnto his Flock;
This fils his pitcher-full; and that, his Crock:
And other-som (whose Thirst is more extream)
Like Frogs ly paddling in the crystall stream.

They march toward Mount Sina, where god deliuereth them his LAW.

From Rephidim, along the Desart Coast,
Now to Mount Sina marcheth all the Hoast;
Where, th'everlasting God, in glorious wonder,
With dreadfull voice his fearfull Lavv doth thunder;
To showe, that His rev'rend, Divine Decrees
(Wherto all hearts should bow, and bend all knees)
Proceed not from a Politick Pretence,
A wretched Kingling, or a petty Prince
(Nymph-prompted Nvma, or the Spartans Lord,
Or him that did Cecropian strifes accord)
Nor from the mouth of any mortall man;
But from that King, who at his pleasure can
Shake Heav'n, and Earth, and Air, and all therin:
That Israel shall finde him (if they sin)

369

As terrible with Vengeance in his hand,
As dreadfull now in giving the Command:
And, that the Text of that drad Testament,
Grav'n in two Tables for vs impotent,
Hath in the same a sadder load compriz'd,
And heavier yoak, then is the yoak of Christ.
That, that doth showe vs Sin, threats, wounds and kils:
This offers Grace, Balm in our sores distils.

Redoubled Lightnings dazle th'Hebrews eies;

With what dreadfull Majesty it was delivered.

Cloud-sund'ring Thunder roars through Earth and Skies,
Louder and louder in careers and cracks,
And stately Sina's massie centre shakes,
And turneth round, and on his sacred top
A whirling flame round like a Ball doth wrap:
Vnder his rocky ribs, in Coombs belowe,
Rough-blust'ring Boreas, nurst with Riphean snowe,
And blub-cheekt Avster, puft with fumes before,
Met in the midst, iustling for room, do roar:
A cloak of clouds, all thorough-lin'd with Thunder,
Muffles the Mountain both aloft and vnder:
On Pharan now no shining Pharvs showes.
A Heav'nly Trump, a shrill Tantara blowes,
The winged Windes, the Lightning's nimble flash,
The smoaking storms, the whirl-fire's crackling clash,
And deafning Thunders, with the same do sing
(O wondrous consort!) th'everlasting King
His glorious Wisdom, who doth give the Law
To th'Heav'nly Troops, and keeps them all in aw.
But, as in Battell we can hear no more

Simile.

Small Pistol-shot, when once the Canons roar:
And as a Cornet soundeth cleer and rife

Simile.

Above the warbling of an Alman Fife;
A dradder voice (yet a distincter voice)
Whose sound doth drown all th'other former noise,
Roars in the Vale, and on the sacred Hill,
Which thrills the ears, but more the heart doth thrill
Of trembling Iacob: who, all pale for fear,
From God's own mouth these sacred words doth hear;

Hark, Israel: O Iacob, hear my Law:
Hear it, to keep it (and thy self in aw).
I am IEHOVA, I (with mighty hand)
Brought thee from bondage out of Egypt Land:
Adore Me only for thy God and Lord,

The Decalogue.

With all thy heart, in every Deed and Word.
Make thee none Image (not of any sort)
To thy own Works My Glory to transport.
Vse not my Name without respect and fear,
Never Blaspheam, neither thy self for-swear.

370

Six days vvork for thy food: but then (as I)
Rest on the Seaventh, and to my Temple hy.
To those that gave thee life, due Reverence give,
If thou desire long in the Land to live.
Imbrve thou not thy hand in hvmane blood.
Stain not anothers bed. Steal no mans good.
Bear no false vvitnes. Covet not to have
Thy Neighbours Wife, his Oxe, his Asse, his Slave,
His House, his Land, his Cattell, or his Coin,
His Place, his Grace, or ought that is not Thine.

The excellency of the Law of God.

Eternall Tutor, O Rule truely right
Of our frail life! our foot-steps Lanthorn bright:
O Soule's sweet Rest! O biting curb of Sin!
Which Bad despise, the Good take pleasure in:
Reverend Edicts vpon Mount Sina given,
How-much-fould sense is in few words contriven!
How wonder-full, and how exceeding far!
How plain, how sacred, how profound you are!
All Nations else, a thousand times (for cause)
Have writ, and raç't, and chopt, and chang'd their Laws;
Except the Iews: but they, although their State
With every Moon almost did innovate
(As somtimes having Kings, and somtimes none)
In all their changes kept their Law still One.

The inconstancy and vanity of Humane Lawes.

What resteth at this day of Salaminian,
Laconian Lavvs, or of the Carthaginian?
Yea Rome, that made even all the World one City,
So strong in Arms, and in States-Art so witty;
Hath, in the Ruines of her Prides rich Babels,
Left but a Relique of her Twice-Six-Tables.

Stability and authority of the Law of God.

But, since in Horeb the High-Thundring ONE
Pronounç't This Law, three-thousand times the Sun
Hath gallopt round Heav'ns golden Bandeleer,
Imbost with Beasts, studded with stars so cleer:
And yet one title hath not Time bereft;
Although the People vnto whom 'twas left,
Be now no People, but (expulst from home)
Through all the corners of the World do roam:
And though their State, through euerie Age almost,
On a rough Sea of Mischiefs hath been tost.

A Butt, a Brook, a Torrent doth confine
All other Lawes: Megarian Discipline
Hath nought of th'Attick: nor the Coronan
Of Theban Rites: nor Thebes of Cadmean:
But, this set Lavv, given Iacob's Generations,
Is the true Law of Nature and of Nations,
Which (sacred) sounds where-ever (to descry)
Th'all-searching Sun doth cast his flaming ey.

371

The Turks imbrace, the Christians honour it,
And Iews with Fear do euen adore it yet.

I only, I (Great God) thy Lavvs do spurn

How all men transgresse the same at euery part.

With my foul feet, I do thy Statutes scorn:
Puft in my Soule with extream Pride, before,
Nay in thy stead, I do my self Adore.
I Serue no wooden gods, nor Kneel to Stones;
But Couetous, I worship Golden ones.
I Name thee not, but in vain Blasphemy,
Or (Achab-like) in sad Hypocrisie.
I Rest the Sabbath: yet I break thy Lavv,
Seruing (for thee) mine idle Mouth and Maw.
I Reuerence Superiors, but in showe;
Not out of Loue, but as compelled so.
I Murder none: yet doth my Tongue too-rife
VVound others Fame, and my Hearts-hate their life.
I Ciuilize, left that I seem Obscœne:
But Lord (Thou know'st) I am Vnchast, vnclean.
I seem no Theef: yet tempted with my Want,
I take too oft the Fruit I did not plant.
I speak not much: yet in my little Talk,
Much Vanity, and many Lies do walk.
I Wish too-earnest, and too-oft (in fine)
For others Fortunes, male-content with mine.

Heer lie I naked: lo th'Anatomie

Remedy for all our sinnes.

Of my foul Heart, O Humane-Deity!
O Christ! th'Almightie's like All-mighty Word,
O put-me-on Thy Robe! as whilom (Lord)
Thou putst-on Mine: me in Thy Blood be-lave;
And in my Soule thy sacred Lawes ingraue.

While with the Duke, th'Eternall did deuise,
And to his inward sight did modulize
His Tabernacle's admirable Form,
And prudently him (faithfull) did inform
In a new Rubrick of the Rytes Diuine,
To th'end the Heirs of promis'd Palestin
After their fancy should not worship him,
Nor (Idol-prone) example leading them,
Into his sacred TEMPLE introduce
The Sacrifices that the Heathen vse;
But, by their Rytes to guide their spirituall eye
To Christ, the Rock on whom their hopes should lie;
Beholde (alas!) frail Aaron, Deputied

In Moses absence Aaron makes the golden Calfe.

During his absence, all the Flock to guide,
Dumb coward Curr, barks not against their ill;
But giuing way to the mad Peoples will,
Casteth a Goulden Calf, and sets it vp,
For them to worship, and vnto it stoop:

372

Gold, Rings and Iewels, which the Lord of Heav'n
Had (as Love-tokens) lately to them given,
Are cast into a Mould; and (which is worse)
Iacob, to wed a Calf, doth God divorce.
Those Feet, that dry-shod past the Crimsin Gulf,
Now dance (alas!) before a Molten Calf:
That Voice, which late on Etham sands had rung
Th'Almightie's glory, now to Satan sung.

Moses sharply reproves Aaron, breaks the Idol, and punisheth the idolaters.

The zealous Prophet, with iust fury moov'd,
'Fore all the Hoast, his Brother sharp reproov'd:
And pulveriz'd their Idol; and eft soons,
Flankt by olde Levie's most religious Sons,
Throngs through the Camp, and each wher strowes his way
With blood and slaughter, horror and dismay:

Simile.

As half a score of Reapers nimbly-neat,
With cheerfull ey choosing a plot of Wheat,
Reap it at pleasure, and of Ceres locks
Make hand-fulls sheaves, and of their sheaves makes shocks;
And through the Field from end to end do run,
Working a-vie, till all be down and don.

Simile.

Or, as so many Canons shot at-once
A front a Camp; th'Earth with the Thunder grones,
Heer flees a broken arm, and breaks another;
There stands th'one half of a halv'd body, th'other
Falls-down a furlong thence: heer flees a shield;
And deep-wide windows make they in the field.

Aaron & Mary (or Miriam) murmur against Moses.

All these sure signes of God's dear estimate
Cannot confirm the Hebrew Magistrate
In his Authority: euen Aaron spites-it,
And Miriam (his Sister) too back-bites-it.
But suddainly, on her in his Defence,
Foul Leprosie did punish this Offence.

Nadab and Abihu for offring of strange Fire, are kild by Fire from Heaven.

His Nephews, scorning his Command, aspire
Before the Lord to offer forrain Fire:
But on them soon a heav'nly Flame down-falling
(As in the Sommer som hot-dry Exhaling,
Or Blazing-Star with suddain flash doth fall
At Palmers feet, and him affright with-all:)
Fires instantly their beards and oyled hair,
And all the sacred vestiments they wear;
Exhales their blood, their Bodies burns to ashes,
Their Censers melts with heat of Lightning flashes,
Their coals are quenched all, and sacred Flame
Th'vnhallow'd Fire devour'd and over-came.

Core, Dathan and Abiram, their conspiracy.

His Kins-man Core then (with Dathan ioyn'd,
And with Abiram) murmur'd and repin'd:
O see, saith he, how many a subtil gin
The Tyrant sets to snare our Freedomins!

373

How we, abus'd with Oracles most vain,
(Which Moses and his brother Aaron fain)
For idle hopes of promis'd Signories,
Do simply lose our sweetest Liberties!
See, how they do ingross between them two,
Into one House, Scepter and Ephod too:
See, how they dally, and with much delay
Prolong their Iorney to prolong their Sway:
And (to conclude) see how sly Course they take,
To build their Greatness on our grievous wrack.
Hear'st thou me (Moses) if thou chiefly ioy
To see thy Brethren's torments and annoy,
'Twer good to walk vs yet for ten years more
About these Mountains in these Desarts poor:
Keep vs still Exiles; Let vs (our Desire)
Languish, wax-olde, and in these Sands expire,
Where cruell Serpents haunt vs still at hand,
A Fruit-less, Flood-less, yea a Land-less Land.
If, rear'd from Youth in Honour, thine Ambition
Cannot com down to priuat mens condition,
Be Captain, Duke and King: for, God approves-thee,
Thy Vertues guard, the Peop'e fears and loves-thee.
But as for Aaron, What is his desert?
What High exploit, what Excellence, what Art
Gain'd him th'High-Priesthood? O good God, what shame?
Alas! hath he for any thing got fame
But Horebs Horn-God? for despising thee,
And thy Commands; and for Conspiracie?

The morrow next, before the Sacred Tent
This Mutiner with sacred Censer went
Adorn'd, selfe-gazing, with a lofty ey,
His faction present; Aaron also by.

Lord shield thy Cause, approve thee veritable,
Let not thy Name be to the Lewd a Fable:
Oint thine Anointed publikely: by Miracle,
Showe whom thou hast selected for thine Oracle,
Said Moses then; and even as yet he spake,
The groaning Earth began to reel and shake,
A horrid Thunder in her bowels rumbles,
And in her bosom vp and down it tumbles,

Their dreadfull punishment.

Tearing her Rocks, Vntill she Yawn a way
To let it out, and to let-in the Day:
Heav'n sees to Hell, and Hell beholdeth Heav'n,
And Divels dazled with the glistring leav'n
Of th'ancient Sun, yet lower fain would diue;
But chain'd to th'Centre all in vain they striue.
Core, round compast with his Rebel friends,
Offers to Belzebvb and to the Fiends:

374

His bodie's batter'd with Rocks falling down,
And arms of Trees there planted vp-side-down:
He goes with Noyse down to the Silent Coast,
Intoombd alive, without all Art or cost.
And all the rest that his proud side assum'd,
Scaping the Gulf, with Lightning are consum'd.

Aarons charge is confirmed by miracle.

And Aaron's Office is confirm'd by God,
With wondrous Signes of his oft-quickned Rod,
Which dead, re-buds, re-blooms, and Almonds bears;
When all his Fellows have no life in theirs.

Sundry victories of the Israelites, vnder the conduct and direction of Moses.

Now, shall I sing, through Moses prudent Sway,
How Israel doth Amalec dismay,
Arad and Og (that of huge Giants springs)
Proud Hesebon, and the fiue Madian Kings,
With the false Prelat, who profanely made
Of Prophets-gifts a sacrilegious trade;
Who false, sayes true; who striving (past all shame)
To force the Spirit, is forced by the same:
Who, snaring th'Hebrews with frail Beauties graces,
Defiles their bodies, more their soules defaces?
Doubt-less his Deeds are such, as would I sing
But halfe of them, I vnder-take a thing
As hard almost, as in the Gangic Seas
To count the Waues, or Sands in Euphrates;
And, of so much, should I a little say,
It were to wrong him, and his Praise betray.

Reseruing the Wars for another Discourse, our Poet hasteth to the death of Moses.

His Noble Acts we therefore heer suspend,
And skip vnto his sweet and happy End:
Sith, th'End is it whereby we iudge the best
(For either Life) how Man is Curst or Blest.

Feeling his vigour by degrees to waste,
And, one Fire quencht, another kindling fast,
Which doth his Spirit re-found, his Soule refine,
And raise to Heav'n, whence it was sent divine;

By his example Men are warned not to defer to make their Will til it be too late to be troubled with the business of this World.

He doth not (Now) study to make his Will,
T'Entail his Land to his Male-Issue still:
Wisely and iustly to divide his Good,
To Sons and Daughters, and his neerest Blood:
T'assigne his Wife a Dowry fair and fit,
A hundred times to adde, and alter it:
To quittance Friendships, with frank Legacies:
To guerdon Service with Annuities,
To make Executors, to Cancel som,
T'appoint himselfe a Palace for a Tomb.
I praise a care to settle our estate:
But, when Death threats vs, then it is too-late.
A seemly Buriall is a sacred Rite:
But let the living take that charge of right.

375

He (lifting higher his last thoughts) besides
The Common-Weale's care, for the Church prouides,
And grauing his discourse with voyce devout,
Bids thus Farwell to all that stand about:

O Iacob's seed (I might say, my deer sons)

He pronounceth the blessing and the curses written in Leuit. 26. & Deutero. 28. where vnto the people say Amen.

Y'are sense-less more then metalls stocks or stones,
If y'haue forgot the many-many Miracles
Wher-with the Lord hath seal'd my sacred Oracles;
And all the Favours (in this sauage Place)
In forty yeers receiued of his grace.
Therefore (O Israel) walk thou in his fear,
And in thy hearts-hart (not in Marble) beare
His ever-lasting Lavv: before him stand,
And to his Service consecrate thy hand.

If this thou do, thy Heav'n-blest fleecie Flocks

Blessings on those that obey.

Shall bound about thy Pastures, Downs and Rocks,
As thick as skip in Sommer, in a Mead,
The Grass-hoppers, that all with Deaw are fed:
Thy fruitfull Eaws, fat Twins shall bring thee euer
And of their Milk shall make a plentious Riuer:
Th'olde Tyrant loads not with so-many loans,
Toules, Taxes, Succours, Impositions,
The panting Vassalls to him Tributary,
As thy rich Fields shall pay thee voluntary:
Thy children and thy children's children, set
About thy Table side by side at meat,
Shall flourish like a long and goodly rowe
Of pale-green Olives that vprightly growe
About a ground, and (full of Fruit) presage
Plenty of Oyl vnto their Master sage:
Sons of thy sons shall serue thy reuerend Eld:
Thou shalt die quiet, thou shalt liue vnqueld:
Blessed at home, and blessed in the Plain:
The blessed God shall send thee timely Rain,
And holsom windes, and with his keyes of grace
Open Heav'ns store-house to thy happy Race:
Thy proud fell Foes with Troops of armed men
Shall charge thee one way, but shall flie thee ten;
The Peace-Plant Olive, or Triumphant Bay
Shall shade thy gates: Thy valour shall dismay
And daunt the Earth: and with his sacred aw
Thy Sauiour-King shall giue the World the Law.

If other-wise; the Megrim, Gowt, and Stone,

Curses on the Disobedient.

Shall plague thee fell with thousand pangs in one
Thy numbry Flocks in part shall barren be,
In part shall bring abortives vnto thee:
Accurst at home, accursed in the Plain,
Thy labour boot-less, and thy care in vain:

376

Thy Field shall be of steel, thy Heav'n of brass,
Thy Fountains dry: and God displeas'd (alas!)
In steed of holsom showrs, shall send down flashes
Of Lightning, Fire, Hail, Sulphur, Salt, and ashes:
Thou shalt reap little where thou much hast shed,
And with that little shall thy Foe be fed;
He shall the fattest of thy Heard devour
Before thy face, and yet thou must not lowr:
Thou shalt build fair, another haue thy Place:
Thou wed a wife, another 'fore thy face
Shall lose her Bride-belt: God with rage shall smite
Thy stubborn heart, with blindness and affright;
So that a wagging leaf, a puff, a crack,
Yea, the least creak shall make thee turn thy back:
Thou never shalt thine adverse Hoast survay,
But to be beaten, or to run away.
A People stout, for strength and number ample,
Which th'Eagle hath for Ensigne and Example,
With a new Wall thine ancient Wall shall dam,
And make thee (Famisht) thy voyd bowels cram
With thine owne bowels, and for want of meat
Thine owne deer Children's trembling flesh to eat.
And then, thy Remnant (far disperst from home)
O'r all the Corners of the Earth shall roam:
To shew their Curse, they shall no Countrey ow'ne,
And (which is worse) they shall not be their Owne.

AMEN, said all the Hoast. Then (like the Swan)
This dying Song, the Man of GOD began:

The Song Of Moses.

Sith Israel (O wil-full!) will not hear;
Hearken O Heavens, and O thou Earth giue ear
Vnto my voyce, and Witness (on my part)
Before the Lord, my zeal and their hard hart.

O Heav'n and Earth attend vnto my Song,
Hear my discourse, which sweetly slides along;
As silver showrs on the dry Meads do trill,
And hony deaws, on tender grass distill.

God grant (I pray) that in their hearts my Verse
(As water on the withered Lawns) may pearce:
And that the hony dropping from my tongue
May serue the olde for rain, for deaw the young.

I sing th'Eternall: O let Heav'n and Earth
Com praise him with me, sound his glory forth,
Extoll his powr, his perfect Works record,
Truth, Goodnes, Greatnes, Iustice of the Lord.

377

But, though for ever He haue showen him such;
His children yet (no Children, rather much
A Bastard Race) full of malicious sin,
All kinde of vice haue foully wallowed in.

O foolish People! doost thou thus requite
His Father-care, who fenç't thee day and night,
As with a Shield? Who chose thee as his heir?
Who made thee, of so foul a mass, so fair?

Vn-winde the bottom of olde Times again,
Of Ages past vn-reel the snarled skain:
Ask of thy Parents and they shall declare;
Thine Elders, and they'l tell thee Wonders rare.

They'l tell thee, how, when first the Lord had spred
Men on the Earth, and iustly levelled
His strait long Measure, th'All-Ball to divide,
He did for thee a plentious Land provide:

For his deer Iacob, whom his fauour then
Seem'd t'haue sequestred from the rest of men,
To th'end his Blessed Seed (in future age)
Should be his care, Loue, Lot and Heritage.

They'l tell thee too, how through the sandy horror
Of a vast Desart, Den of ghastly Terror,
Of Thirst and Hunger, and of Serpents fell,
He by the hand conducted Israel:

Yea (of his goodnes) to direct him still,
By Word and Writ show'd him his sacred Will;
Vnder his wings shade hid him tenderly,
And held him deer, as apple of his ey.

As is the royall Eagle's sacred wont,
When she would teach her tender Birds to mount,
To flie and cry about her Nest, to cheer-them;
And when they faint, on her wingd back to bear-them:

God (without aid of other Gods or Graces)
Safe guide, hath made him mount the highest Places,
Such Oyl and Hony from the Rocks distilling,
In plentious Land with pleasant Fruits him filling.

He gaue him Milk and Butter for his meat,
Kid, Lamb, and Mutton, with the flowr of Wheat;
And for his Drink, a most delicious Wine
(The sprightfull blood of the broad-spreading Vine).

378

But, waxen fat, he lifts his wanton heel
Against his God (to whom his soule should kneel:
Forsakes his Maker, and contemns the Same
That saved him from danger, death, and shame.

Then, he inflam'd the fury of the Lord,
With profane bowing to false Gods abhord:
With serving Idols, and with Sacrificing
To Fiends, and Phansies of his own devising.

For vain false gods, gods vn-renown'd, and new,
Gods that his Fathers nor he never knew,
He hath forgot the true eternall Beeing,
The God of whom he holdes his bliss and being.

God saw it well, and Iealously a-fire,
Against his Children thus he threats his ire:
No; I will hide the brightness of my face,
I'll take from them the treasures of my grace,

Then let vs see what will of them becom:
But, what but mischiefe can vnto them com,
That so perverse with every puff let fly
Their Faith, sole constant in inconstancy?

Th'have made me ieloux of a god, no god:
I'll make them ieloux, I will Wed (abroad)
A People (yet) no People: And their brest
Shall split, for spight, to see the Nations blest.

Devouring Fire, that from my heart doth fume,
Shall fiercely burn and in my wrath consume
The deep of Deeps, the middle Downs, and Fields,
And strong foundations of the steepest Hils.

I'll spend on them my store of punishments,
And all mine Arrows; Famine, Pestilence,
Wilde Beasts, and Worms that basely crawling are,
Without remorse shall make them end-less War.

Abroad, the Sword their strong men shall devour,
At home, through Fear, the Virgin in her flowr,
The fresh young Youth, the sucking Children small,
And hoary head, dead to the ground shall fall.

Yea, even already would I quite deface
And clean destroy them, I would Iacob race,
Raze his memoriall from the Earth for ay,
But that I fear the Heathen thus would say:

379

We haue prevail'd, we by our strength alone
Have quell'd this People, and them over-throwen:
'Twas not their God that did it for their Sins;
No, He himselfe is vanquisht with his Friends.

Ha! sottish blocks, void of all sense and sight:
Could one man put a thousand men to flight;
And two, ten thousand, if the God of Arms
Had not even sould their Troops and bourd their arms?

For God, our God, doth all their gods surpass:
They knowe it well: but, their Wine springs (alas!)
From Sodom's Vine, and grew in Gomor's fields,
Which Gall for Grapes, for Raysins Poyson yeelds.

It is no Wine: no, the black bane it is,
The killing vomit of the Cockatrice;
'Tis bitter venom, 'tis the same that coms
From the fell Aspik's foul infecting gums.

Do not I know it? keep not I account
(In mine Exchequer) how their sins do mount?
Vengeance is mine: I will (in fine) repay
In my due time: I will not long delay.

Their Ruin posteth: then, th'Omnipotent
Shall Iudge for Iacob: then will I repent
To quite destroy mine owne beloved People,
Seeing their strength all fail'd and wholly feeble.

'Twill then be said, Where are their gods becom
(Their deaf, dull Idols, sent-less, sight-less, dumb)
To whom they lift their hearts, and hands, and eyes,
And (as their Guards) so oft did sacrifice?

Now let those trim Protectors them protect;
Let them rise quickly and defend their Sect,
Their Fires and Altars; and com stand before,
To shield the Fondlings that their Fanes adore.

Know therefore, Mortals, I th'Immortal am:
There's none like Me, in or aboue this Frame:
I wound, I heal; I kill, I fetch from Graue,
And from my hands none can the Sinner saue.

I'll lift my hand toward th'arched Heav'ns on high,
And swear with-all by mine Eternity
(Which only Beeing, giues to all to Been)
That if I whet my Sword of Vengeance keen:

380

I force (I say) as soverain King alone,
I sit me down on my high iustice Throne,
I'll venge me roughly on mine Enemies,
And guerdon iustly their iniquities:

My heart-thrill Darts I will make drunk with blood,
I'll glut my sword with slaughter; all the brood
Of rebell Nations I will face (in fine)
To recompense the blood and death of Mine.

O Gentiles, then his People praise and fear,
Sith to the Lord it is so choisely deer:
Sith hee'l avenge his Cause; and, beating down
His enemies, will mildly cheer his Own.

FINIS.

381

4. The Captaines.

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

The Argvment.

Iust Duked Iosvah cheers the Abramides
To Canaan's Conquest: Iordan self-divides:
Re-Circumcision, what, and where, and why:
Sackt Iericho: Hai won (so Achan die):
Gabaonites guile: strange Hail: the Sun stands still:
Nature repines. Iews (Guide-less) prone to ill.
Adoni-Bezec. Sangar, Debora,
Barac and Iahel conquer Sisara.
Samuel succeeds: Iews craue a King: a vie
Of People-Sway; States-Rule: and Monarchy.

Hail holy Iordan, and you blessed Torrents
Of the pure Waters, of whose crystall Currents

Canaan saluted.

So many Saints haue sipt: O Walls, that rest
Fair Monuments of many a famous Guest:
O Hills, O Dales, O Fields so flowry sweet,
Where Angels oft haue set their sacred feet:
And thou O sacred Place, which wert the Cradle
Of th'only Man-God, and his happy Swadle:
And thou O Soil, (which drank'st the crimsin Showr
That (for our health) out of his veins did pour:
And you fat Hillocks (which I take as given
For a firme pledge of the full ioyes of Heav'n)
Where milk and Hony flowe; I see you all,
Vnder the conduct of my Generall,
Nvn's valiant Son: and vnder Gedeon's Sway,
Sangar, and Samson, Barac, Debora.

382

Argument of this Tract.

For, heer (braue Heroes) your high Feats I sing;
Thrice sacred Spirit, thy speedie succour bring:
O Spirit, which wert their Guide, Guard, strength and stay,
Let not my Verse their Vertue's praise betray.

Iosvah, by Favour nor by Bribes, obtains

Iosua his iust authority, over the People of Israell.

A higher Rank then Royall Soverains
(Who buies in gross, he by retail must sell:
And who gives Favour, Favour asks as well):
He gets it not by Fortune (she is sight-less):
Neither by Force (for, whoso enters (Right-less)
By Force, is forced to go out with shame):
Nor sodain climbs he (raw) vnto the same
(For, to high Place, who mounts not step by step,
He coms not down, but head-long down doth leap):

Simile.

But, even as that grave-gracefull Magistrate,
Which (now) with Conscience, Law doth Moderate,
Was first a Student (vnder others aw)
Then Barister, then Counseller at-Law,
Then Queens Solicitor, then Roules-Arbitrer,
And then Lord-keeper, now Lord Chanceler;
He coms to 't by degrees: and hauing first
Show'n Himselfe wise in spying Canaan yerst,
Faith-full to Moses in his Ministrings,
And Stout in Fight against the Heathen Kings,
God makes him Captain, and the sacred Priests
Pronounce him so, the People pleased is.

His first Oration to the People.

But in his State yer he be stall'd (almost)
Set in the midst of God's beloved Hoast,
He thus dilates: O happy Legions deer,
Which sacred Arms vnder Heav'ns Ensignes beare,
Fear not that I, yet forty years, again
Your wandring Troops in these vast sands should train
'Twixt Hope and Fear: th'vn-hallowed Offerings,
The proud revolts, blasphemous Murmurings
Of your stiff Fathers, have with-holden rather
Then whole with-draw'n th'aid of your heauenly Father:
God tenders it in time, and (pacifi'd)
Nills the set Term without effect should slide.
Serve him therfore, now take him at his word,
And now to Canaan march with one accord,
And bravely shewe that th'Hoast of Israel,
In Valour, far doth his drad Fame excell.

Courageous Iacob, Arad's stoutest hearts
And strongest Holdes have prov'd thy Pikes and Darts,
The Madianites have thine Arms thunder knowen,
Th'hast razed Bazan, ransackt Hezebon,
Scap't scaly Serpents (in these Desarts vast)
Crost the Red-Sea; and Heav'n-prop Sina past,

383

And sent to Hell thy draddest Foes: Lo, now
God offers thee the Crown, accept it thou.

Then turning him to Rvben and to Gad,

He vrgeth particularly Ruben, Gad, and Manasses to take part with their Brethren, in prosecuting the Conquest of Canaan.

And to Manasses, who their Portion had
By Moses grant on Iordan's Eastern verge;
War-eloquent, he thus proceeds to vrge:
Can you (my Harts) finde in your hearts to leaue
Your Ranks, and vs thus of your aids bereaue?
Will you lie wrapped in soft beds a-sleep,
While in colde Trenches your poor Brethren keep?
Will you sit washing (when your Feasts be don)
In sweet Rose-water, while that Orion
His cloudy store in storm-full fury pours,
And drowns your Brethren with continuall showrs?
Will you go dance and dally to and fro,
While in the Field they march to charge the Foe?
Will you expect a part with them in gain,
While they the blowes and all the brunt sustain?
God shield, you should dishonour so your Blood:
Nay rather (leaving on this side the Flood
Your Wiues and Children, and (vnfit for Battell)
Your aged Parents, and your Heards of Cattell)
Com arm your selues, t'advance our Victories,
And share with vs in Perill, as in Prize.

O noble Prince (then all the Hoast reply'd)

The general and ioyfull answer of the people.

March-on a Gods name; and good Hap betide:
Were Canaan turn'd another Wilderness,
Were there before vs yet more crimsin Seas,
Were Horeb, Carmel, and Mount Seir set
Each vpon other (vp to Heav'n to get)
We'l follow thee through all; and only th'end
Of our owne liues shall our brave Iourney end.

After the Ark, then march they in aray
Direct to Iordan, praising all the way
That living God, whose match-less mighty hand
Parted the Sea, that they might pass by Land.

Hoar-headed Iordan neatly lodged was

A poeticall and pleasant description of the Riuer Iordan.

In a large Caue, built all of beaten Glass;
Whose waved Seeling, with exceeding cost,
The Nymphs (his Daughters) rarely had imbost
With Pearls and Rubies, and in-lay'd the rest
With Nacre checks, and Corall of the best:
A thousand Streamlings that n'er saw the Sun,
With tribute silver to his service run:
There, Iris, Avster, and Clowds blewly black
Continually their liquor leaue and take:
There, th'aged Flood lay'd on his mossie bed,
And pensiue leaning his flag-shaggie head

384

Vpon a Tuft, where th'eating waues incroach,
Did gladly wait for Israels approach:
Each haire he hath is a quick-flowing stream,
His sweat the gushing of a storm extream,
Each sigh a Billow, and each sob he sounds
A swelling Sea that over-flowes his bounds:
His weak gray eyes are alwaies seen to weep,
About his loyns a rush-Belt wears he deep,
A Willow Wreath about his wrinkled brows;
His Father Nerevs his complexion showes.

So soon as He their welcom rumour heard
His frosty head aboue the Waues he rear'd,
With both his hands strook back behinde his ears
The waving Tresses of his weeping hairs:
And then perceiving Iacob's Army stay'd
By his prowd streams, he chid them thus, and said:

Prosopopœia.

Presumptuous Brook, dar'st thou (ingratefull Torrent)
Lift-vp thy horn, lash-out thy swelling Current
Against the Lord, and over-flowe thy bound
To stop his passage? Shall the Floods profound
Of the prowd Ocean to his Hoast give-way?
Shall Egypt's honour, shall that Gulf (I say)
That long large Sea, which with his plentious waves
A third or fourth part of the World be-laves;
Shall That yeeld humbly at his Servant's beck?
And thou, poor Rill, or gutter (in respect)
Resist himselfe (his glorious selfe) that Inns
Heer in his Ark, between the Cherubins?
And saying so, he on his shoulder flung
His deep wide Crock, that on his hip had hung,
And down his back pours back-ward all his course.
The stream returns towards his double source;
And, leaving dry a large deep lane betwixt,
The fearfull waves in heaped Hils were fixt,
To give God place, and passage to his hoast,
Towards their Promis'd and appointed coast.

The Israelites passe dry-shod through Iordan.

So, dry they pass (after the sacred Oracle)
And leaue Memorials of that famous Miracle
Vpon Mount Gilgal: and their flesh anon
They seal with Signe of their Adoption.
For, the All-guiding God, th'Almighty Prince,
To giue to His som speciall difference,

Circumcision.

Will'd that all Males of Abram's Progenies
With sacred Rasor should them Circumcise;
And ever-more, that Isaac's blessed Race
Should in their Fore-skin bear his gage of Grace.

A curious Question, why it was appointed in such a place.

But, why (sayst thou) should ancient Israel,
In such a secret place Record and Seal

385

Th'Act of the Covenant: and with bloody smart
Ingrave their glory in a shamefull part?

Who blushes at it, is a grace-less Beast:

A sharp and sober answer.

Who shames to see the Signe of Grace imprest
In shamefull part, he is asham'd of Christ.
Born of that Race, and selfly Circumcis'd.

A hundred subtill Reasons from the Writs
Of Rabbins could I bring: but, sober Wits
Rest satisfied, conceiving that th'incision
Of th'obscœne Fore-skin, signifies th'abscission,

The right application and vse thereof.

Or sacred cutting-off of foul Affects,
Beseeming those whom God for His elects:
That God the Fruits of Flesh and Blood doth hate:
And that through Christ we must regenerate.

Now, th'Hebrews kept their Pass-over; and go

The Passeover.

(By Heav'ns address) to mighty Iericho,
Besieging so the City round about,
That fear got in, but nothing could get out.

Souldiers (said then th'vndaunted Generall)

The siege of Iericho after a strange manner.

Prepare no Mattocks, Ladders, nor Rams at all,
To mine, or scale, or batter-down these Tows:
The great, the high, the mighty God of Powrs
Will fight himself alone: and then he bod
(As first himself had been inform'd by God)
That daily once they all should march the Round
About the City with horn-Trumpets sound;
Bearing about, for only Banneret,
The light-full Ark, GOD's sacred Cabinet:

The Citizens deride it.

Their swords vn-drawn, not making any noise,
Threat-less their brows, and without braves their voice,
No shaft to shoot, no signe of War, no glance,
And even their March doth rather seem a Dance.

What Childre-spell? what May-game have we heer?
What? dare you (Gallants) dare you com no neer?
Is this your brave Assault? is this your Fight?
Ween you with Scar-crowes vs (like birds) to fright?
(Said the besieged) get you som where else
(Poor sots) to shewe your Bug-bears and your spels:
Cease your hoarse musick, leave the stage alone:
Fools, draw the Curten, now your Play is done.

Six dayes together had the Hebrews thus't

On the 7 day, their wals of themselves fall down.

About the Town, seaven-times the Seventh they must;
When sacred Levits sound more lowd and high
Their horny Trumps: then all the people cry,
Com, com (great God) com, batter, batter down
These odious walls, this Idol wedded Town.

It cracks in th'instant, the foundation shrinks,
The mortar crumbles from the yawning chinks,

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Each stone is loose, and all the wall doth quiver,
And all at once vnto the ground doth shiuer
With hideous noyse; and th'Heathen Guarison
Is but immur'd with Clowds of dust alone:

Simile.

So shall you see a Clowd-crown'd Hill somtime,
Torn from a greater by the waste of Time,
Dreadly to shake, and boundling down to hop;
And roaring, heer it roules tall Cedars vp,
There aged Oaks; it turns, it spurns, it hales
The lower Rocks into th'affrighted Vales,
There sadly sinks, or suddain stops the way
Of som swift Torrent hasting to the Sea.

Boast you, O Bombards, that you Thunder drown:
And vaunt you, Mines, that you turn vp side-down
Rampires and Towrs, and Walls the massie-most:
Yet, your exploits require both time and cost;
You make but a small breach, but a rough way,
And (by mischance) oft your own side betray,
But, th'Hebrews with a suddain showt and cry,
A whole great Town dis-mantle instantly,
And (vnresisted) entring every-where,
They exercise all hostile vengeance there.

Simile.

And, as a sort of lusty Bil-men, set
In Wood-sale time to fell a Cops, by great;
Be-stir them so, that soon with sweating pain,
They turn an Oak-groue to a field of grain:

Iericho sackt and consumed with fire, and all her inhabitants put to the sword without respect of State, Sexe or Age.

So th'Hebrew Hoast, without remorse or pitty,
Through all sad corners of the open City,
Burn, break, destroy, bathe them in blood, and toyl
To lay all leuell with the trampled soyl:
The Idol's Temples, and the delicat
Prince-Palaces are quickly beaten flat:
The Fire lowd-crackling with the Clowds doth meet,
A bloody Torrent runs through euery street,
Their venge-full sword spares neither great nor small;
Neither the Childe that on his hands doth crawl,
Nor him that wears snowe on his shaking head,
Ice in his heart; not the least Peast they bred.
A deed (indeed) more worthy th'Heseline,
Than th'holy Hebrews; had the voice Divine
Not charg'd them so, and choicely armed them
'Gainst Iericho, with his owne

Curse.

Anathem;
Reseruing only for his Sacred Place,
The Gold and Siluer, th'Iron and the Brass.

Acham's Sacriledge.

Yet sacrilegious Achan dar'd to hoord
Som precious Pillage: which incenst the Lord
Against the Camp, so that he let, them fly
(For this Offence) before their Enemy.

387

For, when three thousand chosen Israelites
Were sent to Hai t'assault the Cananites,

Hai summoned the Townes men sally & put the Israelites to flight.

The Town all armes: their Prince the forwardest
(No less-brave Souldier then proud Athëist)
Arms the broad Mountain of his hairy breast;
With horrid scales of Nilus greedy beast;
His brawny arms and shoulders, with the skin
Of the dart-darting wily Porcupin:
He wears for Helm a Dragon ghastly head,
Wher-on for Plume a huge Horse-tail doth spread;
Not much vnlike a Birch-tree bare belowe,

The antik armour of the King. His insolent and blasphemous Oration.

Which at the top in a thick tuft doth growe,
Waving with euery winde, and made to kiss
Th'Earth, now on that side, and anon on this:
In Quyver made of Lezard's skins he wears
His poysoned Arrows; and the Bowe he bears,
Is of a mighty Tree, strung with a Cable,
His Shaft a Lever, whose keen head is able
To pearce all proof, stone, steel, and Diamant.
Thus furnished, the Tyrant thus doth vaunt:
Sirs, shall we suffer this ignoble Race,
Thus shamefully vs from our Owne to chase?
Shall they be Victors yet they overcom?
Shall our Possessions and our Plenty com
Among these Mongrels? Tush: let Children quake
At dreams of Abram: let faint Women shake
At their drad God, at their Sea-drying Lord;
I know no Gods aboue my glittering Sword.
This sayd, he sallies and assaults the Foe
With furious skirmish; and doth charge them so,
As stormy billows rush against a Rock:

3. Simile.

As boystrous windes (that haue their prison broak)
Roar on a Forrest: as Heav'ns sulph'ry Flash
Against proud Mountains surly brows doth dash.

The sacred Troops (to conquer alwayes wont)
Could not sustain his first tempestuous brunt,
But turn their backs: and, as they fly amain,
Foure less than fourty of their band were slain.

Iosuah and the Prince of Israel humbled before the Lord in Prayer.

The son of Nvn then (with th'Isacian Peers)
Before the Ark in prostrate wise appeares.
Sack on his back, dust on his head, his eyes
Even great with teares, thus to the Lord he cries:
O! what alas? what haue we don, O Lord?
The People, destin'd to thy Peoples sword,
Conquers thy people; and the Cananites
(Against thy Promise) chase the Israelites.
O Lord, why did not Iordans rapid Tyde
Still stay our Hoast vpon the other side?

388

Sith heer, in hope to get the Promis'd more,
We hazzard all that we had won before.
Regard and guard vs; nay, regard thy Name:
O! suffer not the seed of Abraham
(Almighty Father, O thou God most high!)
To be expos'd to Heathen's Tyranny!
Much less thy sacred Ark, for them to burn:
And least of all, thy glorious Self, to scorn.

Iosvah (sayd God) let th'Hoast be sanctifi'd,
And let the Church-thief die, that dar'd to hide
Th'vn-lawfull Pillage of that cursed Town
(The Mayden Conquest, prime of thy Renown):
Then shalt thou vanquish, and the lofty Towrs
Of Hai shal fall vnder thy war-like powrs.

The morrow next, after the great Assise,

Achan executed.

Achan (conuicted, not by bare surmize,
But by God's Spirit, which vndermines our mindes,
And cleerly sees our secretest designes;
To whom, Chance is no Chance, and Lot no Lot,
To whom the Die vncertain rouleth not)
Is brought without the Hoast, with all hee hath,
And sacrifiç'd vnto th'Almighties wrath.

Now, between Bethel and Hai's western wall,
There lies a valley close inuiron'd all
Between the forking of a Hill so high,
That it is hidden from all passers-by:
Whose horned clifts, below are hollowed,
And with two Forrests arbour'd ouer-head:
'Tis long and narrow; and a rapid Torrent,
Bounding from Rock to Rock with roaring Current,
Deaffens the Shepheards: so that it should seem
Nature fore-cast it for som stratagem.

An ambush.

Thither the Duke (soon after mid-night) guides
His choycest Bands, and them there war'ly hides:
Ech keeps his place, none speaks, none spets, none coughs;
But all as still, as if they march on moss:

Simile.

So fallow Wolues, when they intend to set
On fearfull flocks that in their Folds do bleat,
Through silent dardness secret ways do groap;
Their feet are feathered with the wings of hope,
They hold their breath, and so still vn-discri'd,
They pass hard by the watchfull Mastie's side.

Mean-while the howrs opened the doors of Day,
To let out Titan that must needs away:
Whose radiant tresses, but with trailing on,
Began to gild the top of Libanon;
When, with the rest of all his Hoast, the

Signifieth but an Earle: but here it is vsurped for the chiefe Captain Iosuah.

Grave
Marcheth amain to giue the Town a braue,

389

They straight re-charge him: as in season warm
The hony-makers busie-buzzing swarm,
With humming threats throngs from the little gates

Simile.

Of their round Towr, and with their little hates
Fiercely assayl, and wound the naked skins
Of such as come to rob their curious Inns.

Why (Cowards) dare you com again for blowes?
Or, do you long your wretched liues to lose?
Com, we are for you; wee'l dispatch you soon:
And for the many wrongs that you haue don
Vnto ourselues, our Neighbours, and our Friends,
This day our swords shall make vs full amends
(Cry th'Amorites): and th'Hebrew Captain then

A stratagem.

Flies, as affraid, and with him all his men
Disorderly retire; still faining so,
Till (politik) he hath in-trayn'd the Foe
Right to his Ambush: then the Souldiers there,
Hid in the Vale hearing their noise so neer,
Would fain be at them, were they not with-held
By threatning gestures of Commanding Eld:
So haue I seen on Lamborn's pleasant Douns,

Simile.

When yelping Begles or som deeper Hounds
Haue start a Hare, how milk-white Minks and Lun
(Gray-bitches both, the best that euer run)
Held in one leash, haue leapt and strain'd, and whin'd
To be restrain'd, till (to their masters minde)
They might be slipt, to purpose; that (for sport)
Watt might haue law, neither too-long nor short.

But, when the Heathen had the ambush past,
The Duke thus cheers his sacred Troops as fast,
Sa, sa, my Hearts; turn, turn again vpon-them,
They are your own; now charge, and cheerly on-them.
His ready Souldiers at a beck obay,
And on their Foes courageous load they lay:
They shoot, they shock, they strike, they stab, they kill

Hai, conquered.

Th'vnhallowed Currs, that yet resisted still;
Vntill behind them a new storm arose
With horrid noise, which daunts not only those,
But with the fury of it's force doth make
The Hills and Forrests, and euen Hell to quake.

Pagans, what will you do? If heer you fly,
You fall on Caleb, where y'are sure to dy:
If there, on Iosuah: O vnfortunate!
Your help-less gods in vain you invocate.
Y'are (O forlorn!) like Rabbets round beset
With wily Hunters, Dogs, and deadly Net:
With shrill Sa-haw, heer-heer-ho, heer-again,

Simile.

The Warren rings; th'amazed Game amain

390

Runs heer and there: but, if they scape away
From Hounds, staues kill them; if from staues, the Hay.
Yeeld, yeeld, and dy then, strive not to retire:
For, even in death behould your Town a-fire.

Then Gabaon, a mighty City neer,
That these Exploits of Heav'ns drad hand did hear,
Sent subtilly, to League with Israel.
No: y'are deceiv'd (said then th'Arch-Colonel)
The Cananites are destin'd long ago
To Fire, and Sword, and vtter Over-throwe;
From Heav'ns high Iudge the Sentence doth proceed:
Man may not alter what God hath decreed.

The Gibeonites' cunning policy, to make league with Israel.

Alas! my Lord (reply'd th'Embassadors)
You may perceive, we are no Borderers
Vpon these Countries: For, our suits, our slops,
Our hose and shoos, were new out of the shops
When we set forth from home; and even that day
This Bread was baked when we came away;
But the long Iourney, we have gon, hath wore
Our cloaths to rags, and turn'd our victuals hoar.
W'adiure you therefore in the sacred Name
Of that drad GOD to whom your vows you frame,
By the sweet air of this delightfull Coast,
By the good Angell that conducts your Hoast,
By dear Embraces of your dearer Wives,
And by your Babes (even) dearer then your lives;
By each of these, and all of these together,
And by your Arms, whose Fame hath drawn vs hither,
T'have pity on vs, and to swear vnto-vs,
To save our lives, and not so to vndo-vs,
As these neer Nations. Israel accords,
And with an Oath confirms the solemn words.

A sacred application of their profane example.

So, I (good Lord) perceiving all the Seed
Of Sin-full Adam vnto Death decreed,
Doom'd to the Vengeance of thy Fury fell,
And damn'd for ever to the deepest Hell;
Would fain be free: but, if I should (alas!)
Com, as I am, before thy glorious face,
Thou (righteous God) wilt turn thine eyes away;
For, Flesh and Blood possess not Heav'n, for ay;
And, the strict Rigour of thy Iustice pure
Cannot (O Lord) the least of sins endure.
Oh then! what shall I doo? I'll similize
These Gabaonites: I will my self disguize
To gull thee, Lord (for, even a holy Guile
Findes with thee grace and fauour often-while):
I'll put-on (crafty) not the cloak of Pride
(For, that was it wherby our Grand-sires di'd;

391

And Lucifer, with his associates, fell
From Ioys of Heav'n, into the Pains of Hell);
But th'humble Fleece of that sweet sacred Lamb
Which (for our sakes) vpon the Cross becam
So torn and tatter'd; which the most refuse:
Scorn of the Gentiles, Scandal of the Iewes.
And, as a piece of Silver, Tin, or Lead,

Simile.

By cunning hands with Gold is covered;
I, that am all but Lead (or dross, more base)
In fervent Crusible of thy free Grace,
I'll gild me all with his pure Beautie's Gould;
Born a new man (by Faith) I'll kill mine ould:
In Spirit and Life, Christ shall be mine example,
His Spirit shall be my spirit, and I his Temple.

I beeing thus in Christ, and Christ in me,
O! wilt thou, canst thou, drive Vs far from thee?
Deprive, from promis'd new-Ierusalem,
Christ thine owne Likenes; and me, like to him?
Banish from Heav'n (whose Bliss shall never vade)
Thy Christ, by whom; and me, for whom 't was made?

But, O Presumption! O too rash Designe!
Alas! to Will it onely, is not mine:
And, though I Would, my flesh (too-Winter-chill)
My spirit's small sparkles doth extinguish still.

O! therefore thou, thou that canst all alone;
All-sacred Father's like all-sacred Son,
Through thy deep Mercy daign thou to transform
Into thy Self, me sin-full silly worm;
That so, I may be welcom to my God,
And live in Peace, not where the Iewes abode,
But in Heav'n-Sion: and that thou maist be
Th'vniting glew between my God and me.
Now, Eglon's, Hebron's, Iarmuth's, Salem's Lords,
And Lachis Kingling (after these Accords)
Wroth, that their Neighbours had betrayed so
Their common Country to their common Foe,
Had made so great a breach, and by the hand
Led (as it were) th'Hebrews into their Land;
Set-vpon Gabaon: but th'Isaacian Prince,
As iust as valiant, hastes to hunt them thence;
And, resolute to rescue his Allies,
He straight bids Battell to their enemies.

The Fight growes fierce; and winged Victory,

The Battell of the five Kings.

Shaking her Laurels, rusht confusedly
Into the midst; she goes, and coms, and goes,
And now she leans to these, and now to those.
Auster the while from neighbour Mountains arms
A hundred Winters, and a hundred storms

392

With huge great Hail-shot, driving fiercely-fell
In the stearn visage of the Infidel:

Extraordinary Volleys of Hail-shot frō Heauen vpon the Infidels.

The roaring Tempest violently retorts
Vpon themselues the Pagans whirling darts,
And in their owne breasts, their owne Launces bore,
Wher-with they threatned th'Hoast of God before:
And (euen) as if it enuied the Renown
Of valiant Iosuah (now by Ganges knowen)
With furious shock, the formost Ranks it whirr'd
Vpon the next, the second on the third:

Simile.

Even as a Bridge of Cards, which Play-full Childe
Doth in an euening on a Carpet build,
When som Wag by, vpon his Work doth blowe;
If one Arch fall, the rest fall all arowe
Each vpon other, and the Childe he cries
For his lost labour, and again he tries.

If any, resting on his knotty Spear,
'Gainst Arms and storms, yet stand out stifly there,
Th'Hail, which the Winde full in his face doth yerk,
Smarter than Racquets in a Court re-ierk
Balls 'gainst the Walls of the black-boorded house,
Beats out his eyes, batters his nose, and brows.
Then turn the Pagans, but without a vail:
For, instantly the stony storm of Hail
Which flew direct a-front, direct now falls
Plumb on their heads, and cleaues their sculs and cauls:
And euer, as they waver to and fro,
Ouer their Hoast the Haily Clowd doth go:
And neuer hits one Hebrue, though between,
But a sword's length (or not so much) be seen:
A buckler one, another a bright helm
Over his threatned or sick head doth whelm;
But, the shield broken, and helm beaten in,
Th'Hail makes the hurt bite on the bloody green.

Those, that escape, betake them to their heels;
Iosuah pursues: and though his sweat distills
From every part, he wounds, he kills, he cleaues.
Neither the Fight imperfect so he leaues:
But, full of faithfull zeal and zealous faith,
Thus (O strange language!) thus alowd he saith;

At the commād of Iosuah the Sun standeth still.

Beam of th'Eternall, daies bright Champion,
Spiall of Nature, O all-seeing Sun,
Stay, stand thou still, stand still in Gabaon;
And thou, O Moon i' th'vale of Aialon,
That th'Ammorites now by their hare-like flight
Scape not my hands vnder all-hiding Night.

As a Caroche, draw'n by foure lusty steeds,
In a smooth way whirling with all their speeds,

393

Stops suddainly, if't slip into a slough,
Or if it cross som Log or massie bough;
The Day-reducing Chariot of the Sun,
Which now began, towards his West to run,
Stops instantly, and giues the Hebrewes space
To rid the Pagans that they haue in chase.

Nature, amaz'd, for very anger shakes:

Description of Nature, who offended thereat, makes her complaint to God.

And to th'Almighty her complaint she makes:
Seemly she marches with a measur'd pase,
Choler puts colour in her lovely face,
From either nipple of her bosom-Twins
A liuely spring of pleasant milke there spins,
Vpon her shoulders (Atlas-like) she bears
The frame of All, down by her side shee wears
A golden Key, where-with shee letteth-forth,
And locketh-vp the Treasures of the Earth:
A sumptuous Mantle to her heels hangs down,
Where-in the Heauens, the Earth, and Sea is showen;
The Sea in Siluer woven, the Earth in Green,
The Heav'ns in Azure, with gold threds between:
All-quickning Loue, fresh Beauty, smiling Youth,
And Fruitfulness, each for her fauour su'th:
Grace still attends ready to do her honour,
Riches and Plenty alwaies waite vpon her.

Accoutred thus, and thus accompani'd,
With thousand sighs thus to the Lord she cri'd:

Prosopopœia.

Shall it be sayd, a Man doth Heav'n command?
Wilt thou permit a brauing Souldiers hand
To wrong thine eldest Daughter? Ah! shall I
Haue the bare Name, and He th'authority
To govern all, and all controul (O Lord)
With the bare winde of his ambitious word?
Shall I (the World's Law) then, receiue the Law
At others hands? of others stand in aw?
If't be thy pleasure, or thou think it fit,
To haue it so, or so to suffer it,
(Pardon me, Father, that I am so free)
I heer surrender thy Lieutenancy:
Bestow't on him, put all into his hand:
Who Heav'n commands, He well may Earth command.

Why (daughter) know'st thou not (God answers her)
That many times my Mercy doth transfer
Into my Children mine owne power, wher-by
They work (not seldom) mine owne Wonders high?
That th'are my sacred Vice-Royes? and that Hee,
Who (stript of Flesh) by Faith is ioyn'd to me,

The power of a stedfast Faith.

May remove Mountains, may dry-vp the Seas,
May make an Ocean of a Wilderness?

394

Th'hast seen it, Daughter: therfore, but thou pine
In Ielousie of this drad arm of mine,
Grudge not at theirs: for they can nothing do,
But what my Spirit inables them vnto.

IOSVAH his victories.

O happy Prince; I wonder not at all,
If at thy feet the stout Anachian fall,
If th'Amorrhite, Hevite, and Cananite,
The Pheresite, Hethite, and Iebusite,
And huge Basanian, by thy daunt-less Hoast
Were over-throwne: and if as swift (almost)
As my slowe Muse thy sacred Conquest sings,
Thou Cam'st, Saw'st, Conquer'dst more then thirty Kings;
Subduing Syria, and dividing it
Vnto twelue Kindreds in twelue portions fit;
Sith (O grand Vicar of th'Almighty Lord)
With onely summons of thy mighty Word,
Thou makest Riuers the most deafly-deep
To lobstarize (back to their source to creep);
Walls giue thee way: after thy Trumpets charge,
Rock-rushing Tempests do retreat, or charge:
Sol's at thy seruice: and the starry Pole
Is proud to pass vnder thy Muster-Roule.

Simile.

As a blind man, forsaken of his Guide
In some thick Forest, sad and self-beside,
Takes now a broad, anon a narrow path,
His groaping hand his (late) eys office hath,
Heer at a stub he stumbles, there the bushes
Rake-off his Cloak, heer on a Tree he rushes,
Strayes in and out, turns, this and that way tries,
And at the last falls in a Pit, and dies:

After his death Israel hauing lost his guide, fals from his God.

Euen so (alas!) hauing their Captain lost,
So blindely wanders Iacob's wilfull Hoast,
Contemns the Fountain of God's sacred Law,
From Idoll-Puddles poysoning drink to draw;
Forsakes th'old true God, and new fals-gods fains,
And with the Heathen friendship entertains.

God therefore forsakes him.

Th'Almighty saw it (for, what sees he not?)
And sodainly his fury wexed hot;
And on their neck, for his sweet yoak, he layd
The Strangers yoak that hard and heauie waigh'd.

Simile.

But, as an Infant which the Nurce lets go
To go alone, waves weakly to and fro,
Feels his feet fail, cries out, and but (alas!)
For her quick hand, would fall and break his face:
So Iacob, iustly made afflictions thrall,
Is neuer ready in the Pit to fall
Of pale Despair, but (if he cry, and craue him)
God still extends his gracious hand to saue him;

395

Raising som Worthy that may break in sunder

Vpon his Repentance God againe receives him to favour.

The Gyves and Fetters that he labours vnder.

So then, assisted by th'immortall hand,
Brave Israel brings vnder his Command
Iervsalem, Lvs, Bethel, Accaron,
Sesai, and Tholmai, Gaza, and Ascalon,
And Bezec too: whose bloudy Tyrant, fled,
Is caught again, and payd with Cake for Bread:
To self-taught Torture he himself is put,

The Tyrant Adoni-Bezec taken & intreated as he had handled others.

His sacrilegious Thumbs and Toes be cut.
Whereby, more inly prickt, then outly payn'd,
God's Vengeance iust he thus confest, and playn'd;

O hand, late Scepter-graç't! O hand, that late
Egypt did dread, and Edom tremble at!

His complaint.

O hand, that (armed) durst euen Mars defie,
And could'st haue pull'd proud Ivpiter from high!
Now, where-to serv'st thou, but t'augment my moan?
Thou canst not now buckle mine Armour on;
Nor wield my mighty Lance with brazen head:
Ah! no (alas!) thou canst not cut my bread.
O feet (late) winged to pursue the slight
Of hundred Armies that I foyl'd in fight,
Now you haue lost your office, now (alas!)
You cannot march, but limp about this place.

But, 'tis the iust God, the iust hard of Heav'n

His confession.

In mine owne Coin hath me my paiment giuen:
For, seventy Kings, thus maim'd of Toes and Thumbs,
I, insolent, haue made to lick the crums
Vnder my boord (like Dogs) and drawen perforce
To serue for blocks when I should mount my horse.

Therefore (O Kings!) by mine example learn

His caueat to all Tyrants and cruell minded men.

To bound your rage, limit you fury stream:
O Conquerers! be warned all by me;
Be to your Thralls, as God to you shall be:
Men, pitty Man, wretched and ouer-throwen;
And think his case may one-day be your owne;
For, chance doth change: and none aliue can say,
He happy is, vntill his dying day:
The Foe that after Victorie survives,
Not for himself but for your glorie liues:
Th'Oliue's aboue the Palm: and th'happiest King
His greatest Triumph, is Self-triumphing.

But Israel, wallowing in his myre again,

Israel again & againe relapseth.

Soon lost the glory former Arms did gain;
And goods and bodies easie booties bin.
To Aram Moab and the Philistin.
What help (O Iacob)? th'hast nor arms, nor head:
Thy Fields with bones of thine owne bands be spread,

Again humble.

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And th'onely name of thy profaner Foe
Congeals thy bloud, and chils thy heart for Wo.

Flee, flee, and hy thee quickly to recover
The all-proof Target of thine ancient Lover,
Thy gracious God, the glorious Tyrant-tamer,
Terror of terrors, Heathen's dreadfull hammer.

Again & again releeued.

Ah! see already how he rescues thee
From th'odious yoak of Pagan Tyranny;
Breaking the Fetters of thy bondage fel,
By Ahod, Barac, and Othoniel,

Sangar a plow-swam: a famous Champion of Israel.

And Goad-man Sangar, whose industrious hand
With Ox-teem tills his tributary Land.
When Philistins, with Sword and fiery Fury,
Slaughter the Iews, and over-run all Iury,
Deflowr the Virgins, and with lust-full spight
Ravish chaste Matrons in their Husbands sight,
He leaves his Plough, he calls vpon his God;
And, onely armed with his slender Goad,
Alone he sets on all the Heathen Camp.
A Pagan Captain weens him thus to damp;
What means this Fool (saith he)? go, silly Clown,
Get thee to Plough, go home, and till thy ground,
Go prick thy Bullocks; leave the Works of Mars
To my long-train'd, still-conquering souldiers.

First learn thou Dog (replies the Israelite)
To knowe my strength (rather th'Almighties might):
And on his head he laies him on such load
With two quick vennies of his knotty Goad,
And with the third thrusts him between the eies,
That down he falls, shaking his heels, and dies.

Then steps another forth more stout and grim,
Shaking his Pike, and fierce lets flee at him:
But Sangar shuns the blowe; and, with his stroak,
The Pagan leg short-off in sunder broak;
On th'other yet, a while he stands and fights:
But th'Hebrew Champion such a back-blowe smites,
That flat he layes him; then, with fury born,
Forward he leaps; and, in a Martiall scorn,
Vpon his panch sets his victorious foot,
And treads, and tramples, and so stamps into 't,
That blood and bowels (mingled with the bruise)
Half at his mouth, half at his sides, he spews:
As on Wine-hurdles those that dance (for meed)

Simile.

Make with sweet Nectar every wound to bleed,
Each grape to weep, and crimsin streams to spin
Into the Vate, set to receive them in.

Thence thirty steps, a chief Commander prest,
And proudly wags his feather-clouded Crest,

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And cries, Com hither (Cow-heard) come thou hither,
Com, let vs cope, but I and thou together;
I'll teach thee (peasant) and that quickly too,
Thou hast not with thy fellow swains to doe,
That on Mount Carmel's stormy top do feed.
No, heer (poor sot) thou other fence shalt need.

Sangar runs at him: and he runs so fierce,
That on his staf, him six steps back he beares;
Beares down another with him, and another,
That but with gesture stood directing other:
As, when 'tis dark, when 't rains, and blusters rough,

Simile.

A thund'ring tempest with a sulphury puff
Breaks down a mighty Gate, and that another,
And that a third, each opposite to other:
Smoak, dust, and door-falls, with storms roaring din,
Dismay the stoutest that command within;
The common sort (beside their little wits)
Scar'd from their beds, dare not abide the streets:
But, in their shirts over the walls they run,
And so their Town, yet it be ta'en, is wun;
The suddain Storm so inly-deep dismaies-them,
That fear of Taking to despair betrays them.

Amid their Hoast, then brauely rushes Sangar,
His sinnewy arm answers his sacred Anger:
Who flies, or follows, he alike besteads:
On scattered heape of slaughtered Foes he treads.
This with his elbow heer he over-turns,
That with his brow; this, with his foot he spurns;
Heer, with his staff he makes in shivers fly
Both cask and scull, and there he breaks a thigh,
An arm, a leg, a rib, a chin, a cheek;
And th'hungry Shepheard hardly beats so thick
Nuts from a Tree, as Sangar Foes beats down:
With swords, and shields, and shafts, the Field is sowen:

Comparison.

Alone he foils a Camp: and on the Plain
There six hundred of the Heatben slain.

Almightie God, how thou to thine art good!
Thy peoples Foes are not alone subdu'd
By a rude Clown, whose hard-wrought hands, before
Nothing but soades, coulters and bills had bore:
But, by a silly Woman, to whose hand
Thou for a time committest the Command
Of Israel: for, of no other Head,
Nor Law, nor Lord they for a time are sped,
But prudent Debora: vnto whose Throne
Fly those whose heads with age are hoary growen,

DEBORA.

And those great Rabbies that do grauely sit,
Revolving volumes of the highest Writ,

398

And He that in the Tabernacle serues,
Her sacred voyce as Oracles obserues:
None from her presence ever coms confus'd.
And gotten skill, giues place to skill infus'd.

O Iacob's Lanthorn Load-star pure, which lights
On these rough Seas the rest of Abramites
(Said then the People) what shall vs befall?
Iabin's fell yoak our weary necks doth gall:
We are the Butts vnto all Pagan darts,
And colde Despair knocks at our doors (our hearts).

Israel, saith shee, be of good cheer; for now
God wars vpon your Foes, and leagues with you:
Therefore to Field now let your youth aduance,
And in their rests couch the revenging Lance:

Barac.

This said, on Barac she a Shield bestowes,
Indented on the brims, which plain fore-showes

His shield giuen by Debora.

In curious Boss-work (that doth neatly swell)
The (won and lost) Battails of Israel,
As an abbridgement, where to life appear
The noblest Acts of eight or nine score year.

Lo, heer an army, stooping by the side

Gedeon.

Of a deep River (with their Thirst half dry'd)
Sups, licks, and laps the Stream; of all which rour,
The Captain chuses but three hundred out;
And arming each but with a Trump and Torch,
About a mighty Pagan Hoast doth march,
Making the same, through their drad sodain found,
With their owne Arms themselues to inter-wound:
A hellish rage of mutuall fury swels
The bloudy hearts of barbarous Infidels,
So that the friends that in one Couch did sleep,
Each others blade in eithers brest do steep:
And all the Camp with head-less dead is sowen,
Cut-off by Cozen-swords, kill'd by their owne.

Iephthe.

Lo there, another valiant Champion,
Who having late triumphant Laurels won;
His heed-less Vow (in-humane) to ful-fill,
His onely Daughter doth vnkindly kill:
The frantik Mother, all vnbraç't (alas!)
With silver locks vnkemb'd about her face;
Arming her rage with nails, with teeth, and tongue,
Runs-in, and rushes through the thickest throng:
And, she will saue, and she will haue (she sayes)
Her Deer, her Daughter; and then hold she layes
Vpon the Maid: and tearing-off her Coat,
Away she runs, thinking she her had got.

The Priest dissolues in tears, th'Offring is chearfull;
The Murdred's valiant, and the Murderer fearfull;

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The Father leads with slowe and feeble pase,
The Daughter seems to run to death a-pace;
As if the Chaplet that her temples ties,
Were Hymen's Flowrs, not Flowrs for Sacrifice:
Her grace and beauties still augment; (in fine)
Whoso beholds her sweet, loue-darting Eyn,
Her Cheeks, Lips, Brow's; fresh Lillies, Coral, Iet,
He sees, or seems to see) a Sun to set.
And (to conclude) the Graver, Maul, and Mould;
Haue given such life to th'Iron, Brass, and Gold,
That heer wants nothing but the Mothers screech,
The Father's sigh, and the sweet Daughter's speech.

Loe heer, another shakes his vnshav'n tresses,
Triumphing on a Lion torn in peeces:

Samson.

O match-less Champion! Pearl of men-at-arms,
That emptiest not an Arcenal of Arms,
Nor needest shops of Lemnian Armourers,
To furnish weapons for thy glorious Wars:
An Asse's Iaw bone is the Club wher-with
Thy mighty arm, brains, beats, and battereth
Th'vncircumcised Camp: all quickly scud;
And th'Hoast that flew in dust, now flowes in bloud.
Heer, th'Iron Gates, whose hugeness wont to shake
The massie Towrs of Gaza, thou doost take
On thy broad shoulders: there (in seeming iest)
Crushing their Palace-pillars (at a feast)
Thou over-whelm'st the House, and with the fall
The Philistims blaspheming Princes all.
Heer, from ones head, which two huge coins do crush,
(As whay from Cheese) the battred brains do gush:
Heer lies another in a deadly swoune;
Nail'd with a broken rafter to the ground:
Another, heer pasht with a paine of wall,
Hath lost his soule, and bodies shape withall:
Ano her, heer o're-taken as he fled,
Lies (Tortois-like) all hidden but the head:
Another, covered with a heap of lome,
Seems with his mooving to re-moue his Toomb:
Even as the soft, blinde, Mine-inventing Moule,

Simile.

In velvet Robes vnder the Earth doth roule,
Refusing light, and little ayr receives,
And hunting worms her mooving hillockes heaves.

Lo, lower heer, a beastly Multitude

The Leuites wife.

On one poor Woman all their lusts intrude;
Whose Spouse (displeas'd with th'execrable Fact)
Into twelues Peeces her dead Body hackt;
And, to twelve Parts of Israel them transfers,
As twelue quick tinders of intestin Wars.

400

The Arke taken by the Philistines.

And lower yet behold (with hatefull scorn)
The Ark of God to Dagon's Temple born;
But, th'Idol yeelds to God, and Dagon falls
Before the Ark, which Heathen's pride appalls.

The Battaile betweene the Israelites and Assyrians with their tron Chariots.

Barac thus arm'd, th'Asorians sets-vpon,
That bright in brass, steel gold, and silver shone:
But, his young Soldiers were much daunted tho,
To see the fearfull Engins of the Foe;
Nine hundred chariots, whirling swift and light,
Whose glistering irons dazle even their sight;
Whose barbed Steeds bear in their heads a Blade
Of the right temper of Damascvs made
(As proud of it as Vnicorns are wont
Of their rich Weapon that adornes their Front)
Amidst their Pettral stands another Pike:
On either-side, long grapples (Sickle-like)
The like at either Nave: so that (in Wars)
'Tis present death t'approach these broaching Cars.

Debora comforteth and incourageth the Israelites.

But Debora, her Troops encouraging,
Bestirs her quick, and steps from wing to wing:
Courage (sayth she) brave Souldiers, sacred Knights,
Strike, and strike home, lay on with all your mights:
Stand, fear them not (O Champions of the Faith)
God drives your Foes into the snares of Death.
Doubtless, they are your owne: their armed Charrets
They are but Buggs to daunt deiected spirits.
No, no (my Hearts) not Arms, nor Engines glorious,
But 'tis the heart that makes a Camp victorious:
Or rather, 'tis God's Thunder-throwing hand,
Which onely doth all Warr's success command:
And, Victorie's his Daughter whom he now
(For his owne sake) frankly bestowes on you.

Simile.

Even as a sort of Shepheards, having spi'd
A Wolf com stealing down a Mountains side,
Cry shrill, Now-now, vp-hill, a Wolf, a Wolfe;
Now, now (sayes Eccho) vp-hill, a Wolf, a Wolf;
And such a noyse between the Vales doth rise,
That th'hungry Thief thence without hunting flies:
So th'Hebrews, heartned with her brave Discourse,
Gave such a showt, that th'armed Carrs and Horse
Turn suddain back, their Drivers Art deceiue;
And, changing side, through their owne Army cleave.

Gods enemies ouerthrowen by their owne Engines.

Som, with the blades in every Coursers brow,
Were (as with Launces) bored through and through:
Som torn in peeces with the whirling wheels:
Som trod to death vnder the Horses heels:
As (in som Countries) when in Season hot,
Vnder Horse feet (made with a whip to trot)

401

They vse to thresh the sheaves of Winter-Corn,

Simile.

The grain spurts-out, the straw is bruis'd and torn.
Som (not direct before the Horse, nor vnder)
Were with the Scithes mow'n in the midst a-sunder:

Simile.

As in a Mead the Grass, yet in the flowr,
Falls at the foot of the wide-straddling Mower,
That with a stooping back, and stretched arm,
Cuts-cross the swathes to winter-feed his Farm.

If there rest any resolute and loth
To lose so soon their Arms and honors both
At first assault, but rather brauely bent
To see so fierce and bloudy Fight's event;
Both Debora and Barac thither pli'd:
But (as 'tis writ of the milde Amramide,
And Nvn's great Son, that Heav'n-deer Mars-like man,

Debora prayes while Barac fights.

Who did transplant the Tribes to Canaan)
She (in the zeale of her religious spirit)
Lifts-vp her hands to pray, and he to fight.
He charges fierce, he wounds, he slaughters all

The Infidels vtterly ouerthrown, and Sisara their Captaine slain by Iahel.

But Sisara, their Captain generall;
Who flies to Iahel, and by her is slain
Driving a nail into his sleeping brain.

At last, the Helm of head-strong Israel
Coms to the hand of famous Samvel;
One rarely-wise, who weds his Policy,
To divine gifts of sacred Prophecie:

Samuel, Iudge.

But, his two greedy Sons, digressing quite
From his good steps, dis-taste the Israelite
Of th'ancient Rvle of th'Heav'nly Potentate:
So that all seek a suddaine Change of State.

Israel askes a KING.

Assembled then in sacred Parliament,
Vp starts a Fellow of a mean Descent
(But of great spirit, well-spoken, full of wit,
And courage too, aspiring high to sit)
And having gain'd attention, thus he sayes:

1. A Declamatiō of a Plebeian or Democracie or People Sway.

Divine Designe! O Purpose worthy-prayse,
To now-Reform the State, and soundly heal
With holsom Lawes th'hurts of the Common weal:
But (prudent Israel) take now heed or never);
Change not an Ague for a burning Fever;
In shaking-off confused Anarchie,
To be intiç't t'imbrace a Monarchie,
Admir'd of Fools, ador'd of Flatterers,
Of Softlings, Wantons, Braves, and Loyterers:
The Freedom and Defence of the base Rabble;
But, to brave mindes a Yoak intolerable.

For, who can brook millions of men to measure
Breath, Life, and Mooving, all at One man's pleasure?

402

One, to keep all in aw? One at a beck
A whole great Kingdom to controule and check?

Is't not a goodly sight, to see a Prince,
Void of all Vertue, full of insolence,
To play with Noble States, as with a straw?
A Fool, to give so many Wise the Law?
A Beast, to govern Men? An infant, Eld?
A Hare to lead fierce Lions to the Field?

The corruption & licentiousnes of most Prosces Courts.

Who is't but knowes, that such a Court as this,
Is th'open Shop of selling Offices?
Th'harbour of Riot, stews of Ribaldry,
Th'haunt of Profusion, th'Hell of Tyranny:
That no-where shines the Regal Diadem,
But (Comet-like) it boads all vice extreme?
That not a King among ten thousand Kings,
But to his Lust his Law in bondage brings?
But (shame-less) triumphs in the shame of Wives?
But bad, prefers the bad, and good deprives?
But gildeth those that glorifie his Folly;
That sooth and smooth, and call his Hell-ness holy
But with the Torrent of continuall Taxes
(Pour'd every-where) his meanest Subiects vexes

Simile.

As an ill-stated Body doth distill
On's feeblest parts his cold-raw humors stil.

That Form of Rvle is a right Common weal,
Where all the People haue an Enter-deal:
Where (with-out aw or law) the Tyrants sword
Is not made drunk with bloud, for a Miss-word:
Where, Each (by turn) doth Bid and doth Obey;
Where, still the Commons (hauing Soverain-sway)
Share equally both Rigour and Reward
To each-man's merit: giving no regard
To ill-got Wealth, nor mouldy Monuments
From great-great-Grand-sires scutcheon'd in Descents
Where, Learned men, vn-soule-clogd (as it were)
With servile giues of Kings imperious Fear,
Fly euen to Heav'n; and by their Pens inspire
Posterity with Vertue's glorious Fire:
Where, Honour's honest Combat never ceasses,
Nor Vertue languishes, nor Valour leeses
His sprightfull nerves, through th'Enuy of a Prince,
That cannot brook another's excellence;
Or, Pride of those, who (from great Elders sprung)
Haue nothing but Their glory on their tongue;
And deeming Others Worth, enough for them,
Vertue and Valour, and all Arts contemn:
Or, base Despair, in those of meaner Calling,
Who on the ground still (woorm-like) basely crawling,

403

Dare not attempt (nor scarcely think, precise)
Any great Act or glorious Enterprise;
Because Ambition, Custom, and the Law,
From high Estate hath bounded them with aw:
Where, He that neuer rightly learn'd t'obay
Commandeth not, with heavy Sword of Sway:
Where, each i'th'Publik having equall part,
All to save all, will hazard life and hart:
Where, Liberty (as deer as life and breath)
Born with vs first, consorts vs to our death.

Shall savage Beasts like-better Nuts and Mast

Simile.

In a free Forrest, than our choise Repast
In iron Cages? and shall we (poor Sots)
Whom Nature Masters of our selues allots,
And Lords of All besides; shall we go draw
On our owne necks an ease-less Yoak of Aw?
Rather (O Iacob) chuse we all to die,
Than to betray our Native Libertie;
Than to becom the sporting Tennis-ball
Of a proud Monarch; or to yeeld vs thrall
To serve or honor any other King
Than that drad Lavv which did from Sina ring.

Another then, whom Age made venerable,

2. Another, of a reverend Senator for Aristocracy or the rule of a chosen Synode of the best men.

Knowledge admir'd, and Office honorable,
Stands-vp, and speaks (maiestically-milde)
On other Piles the Common-Weal to build.

Doubt-less (said he) with waste of Time and Soap,
Y'have labour'd long to wash an Æthiope:
Y'have drawn vs heer a goodly form of State
(And well we have had proof of it of late):
Shall we again the Sword of Ivstice put
In mad mens hands, soon their owne throats to cut?
What Tiger is more fierce? what Bear mor fel?

Comparison.

What Chaff more light? What Sea more apt to swel
Than is th'vnbridled Vulgar, passion-toss't;
In calms elated, in foul-weather lost?
What boot deep Proiects, if to th'eyes of all
They must be publisht in the common Hall?
Sith knowen Designes are dangerous to act:
And, th'vn-close Chief did never noble fact.

Democracy is as a tossed Ship,

Simile.

Void both of Pole and Pilot in the deep:
A Senate fram'd of thousand Kinglings slight;
Where, voices pass by number, not by waight;
Where, wise men do propound, and Fools dispose:
A Fair, where all things they to sale expose:

Simile.

A Sink of Filth, where ay th'infamousest,

Simile.

Most bold and busie, are esteemed best:

404

Simile.

A Park of savage Beasts, that each-man dreads:
A Head-less Monster with a thousand heads.

What shall we then do? shall we by and by
In Tyrants paws deiect vs servilely?
Nay, rather, shunning the extremities,
Let vs make choise of men vpright and wise;
Of such whose Vertue doth the Land adorn,
Of such whom Fortune hath made Noble-born,
Of such as Wealth hath rais'd above the pitch
Of th'obiect Vulgar; and to th'hands of such
(Such as for Wisdom, Wealth, and Birth excell)
Let vs commit the Reans of Israel;
And ever from the sacred Helm exclude
The turbulent, base, moody Multitude.

Take away Choice, and where is Vertue's grace?
What? shall not Chance vnto Desert give place?

Simile.

And Lots, to Right? Shall not the blinde be led
By those whose eyes are perfect in their head?
Chiefly, amid such baulks, and blocks and Pits,
As in best State-paths the best States-man meets?

Comparison.

Who may be better trusted with the key
Of a great Chest of Gold and gems than they
That got the same? And who more firm and fit
At carefull Stern of Policie to sit,
Than such as in the Ship most venture bear:
Such as their owne wrack with the State's wrack fear:
Such as, Content, and hauing Much to lose,
Even Death it selfe, rather than Change, would choose?

3. The Oration of a Noble yong Prince for Monarchy or the sole Soveraintie of a KING.

While he discourst thus on a Theam so grave,
Vp-rose a Gallant, noble, young, and brave,
Fo to the Vulgar, one that hop't (perchance)
One-day t'attain a Scepters governance,
And thus he speaks: Your Rvle is yet too Free.
Y'have proin'd the leaves, not boughs of Publik-Tree:
Y'have qualifide, but not yet cur'd our Grief:
Y'have in our Field still left the tares of Strife,
Of Leagues, and Factions. For, plurality
Of Heads and Hands to sway an Emperie,
Is for the most part like vntamed Bulls:

Simile.

One, this way hales: another, that way pulls:
All every-way; hurried with Passion's windes
Whither their Lust-storms do transport their mindes;
At length-the strongest bears the weakest down,
And to himself wholly vsurps the Crown:
And so (in fine) your Aristocracie
He by degrees brings to a Monarchie.

In brief, the Scepter Aristocratike:
And People-sway, have

A passion following any sicknesse.

Symptomes both alike:

405

And neither of them can be permanent
For want of Vnion; which of Gouernment
Is both the Life-bloud, and Preservatiue,
Wherby a State, yong, strong, and long doth thrive.
But, Monarchy is as a goodly Station,
Built skilfully, vpon a sure Foundation:
A quiet House, wherin (as principall)
One Father is obey'd and serv'd of all:
A well-rigd Ship, where (when the danger's neer)
A many Masters strive not who shall steer.

The world hath but One God: Heav'n but One Sun:
Quails but One Chief: the Hony-birds but One
One Master-Bee: and Nature (natively)
Graves in our hearts the Rule of Monarchy.
At sound of whose Edicts, all ioynt-proceed:
Vnder whose Sway, Seditions never breed:
Who, while consulting with Colleagues he stands,
Lets not the Victory escape his hands:
And, that same Maiesty, which (as the Base
And Pedestal) supports the waight and grace,
Greatnes and glory of a well-Rul'd State,
Is not extinguisht nor extenuate,
By being parcelliz'd to a plurality
Of petty Kinglings, of a mean Equality:

Simile.

Like as a goodly River, deep and large,
Able to bear Ships of the greatest Charge,
If, through new Dikes, his trade-full Waters guided,
Be in a hundred little brooks divided;
No Bridge more fears, nor Sea more waighs the same:
But soon it loses both his trade and name.
And (to conclude) a wise and worthy Prince,
A KING, compleat in Royall excellence,
Is even the Peoples prop, their powrfull nerves,
And lively Law, that all intire preserves:
His Countrie's life, and soule, sight and fore-sight;
And even th'Almightie's sacred Picture right.

While yet he spake, the People loudly cri'd,
A KING, a KING; wee'll have a KING for Guide,
He shall command: He shall conduct our Hoasts,
And make vs Lords of th'Idvmean Coasts.

Ingrate, said Samvel will you then reiect
Th'Almighties Scepter? do you more affect
New Policy, than his olde Providence?
And change th'Immortall for a mortall Prince?

Well (Rebels) well, you shall, you shall have one:

A KINGS Prerogatiue.

But do ye knowe what follows there-vpon?
He, from your Ploughs shall take your Horses out,
To serve his Pomp, and draw his Train about

406

In gilden Coaches (a wilde wanton sort
Of Popiniayes and Peacocks of the Court):
He shall your choisest Sons and Daughters take
To be his Seruants (nay, his slaues to make):
You shall plant Vineyards, he the Wine shall sup:
You shall sowe Fields, and he shall reap the Crop:
You shall keep Flocks, and he shall take the Fleece:
And Pharao's Yoke shall seem but light to his.

Saul anointed King of Israell.

But, Israel doth wilfull perseuere,
And Samvel (prest and importun'd euer)
Anointeth Savl (the son of Cis) a Man
Whose cursed end marr'd what he well began.

You, too-too-light, busie, ambitious wits,
That Heav'n and Earth confound with furious fits:

A cheeck to busie, seditious Malcontents in any State.

Fantastik Frantiks, that would innovate,
And every moment change your form of State:
That weening high to fly, fall lower still:
That though you change your bed change not your Ill:
See, See how much th'Almighty (the most High)
Heer-in abhors your fond inconstancy.

The authority of every kinde of Gouernment is from God.

The People-State, the Aristocracy,
And sacred KINGDOM, took authority
A-like from Heav'n: and these three Scepter-forms
Flourish a-vie, as well in Arts and Arms,
As prudent Laws. Therefore, you stout Helvetians,
Grisons, Genevians, Ragusins, Venetians,

Tharefore every People to persist in the State established.

Maintain your Liberties, and change not now
Your sacred Laws rooted so deep with you.
On th'other side, we that are borne and bred
Vnder KINGS Aw, vnder one Supreame Head,
Let vs still honor their drad Maiesties,
Obey their Laws, and pay them Subsidies.
Let's read, let's hear no more these factious Teachers,
These shame-less Tribunes, these seditious Preachers,
That in all places alwaies belch and bark
Aloud abroad, or whisper in the dark,
Railing at Princes (whether good or bad)
The true Lieutenants of Almighty God.
And let not vs, before a KING, prefer
A Senate-sway, nor Scepter Popular.

'Tis better bear the Youth-slips of a KING,
I'th' Law som fault, i'th' State som blemishing,
Than to fill all with Blood-flouds of Debate;
While, to Reform, you would Deform a State.

One cannot (with-out danger) stir a stone
In a great Building's olde foundation:
And, a good Leach seeks rather to support,
With ordered dyet, in a gentle sort,

407

A feeble Body (though in-sickly plight)
Than with strong Med'cines to destroy it quight.

And therefore, Cursed, ever Cursed be
Our

A just Execration of the Popish Powder-Plot on the fifth of Nouember 1605.

Hell-spurr'd Percie's fel Conspiracy;
And every head, and every hand and hart,
That did Conceiue or but Consent his part:
Pope-prompted Atheists, faining Superstition,
To cover Cruelty, and cloak Ambition:
Incarnat Divels Enemies of Man,
Dam Murdering Vipers, Monsters in-humane,
Dis-natur'd Nero's, impious Erostrates,
That with one Puff would blowe-vp all Estates;
Princes and Peer's and Peoples Government
(For all Three consists our Parliament.)
Religion, Order, Honesty, and all,
And more then all that Fear can fear to fall.

And therefore, Blessed, ever Blessed be
Our glorious GOD's immortall Maiesty;
England's Great Watch-man he that Israel keeps,
Who neuer slumbers and who neuer sleeps:
Our gratious Father, whose still-firm affection
Defends vs still with wings of his Protection:
Our louing Sauiour, that thus Saues vs still
(Vs so vnworthy, vs so prone to ill):
Our sacred Comforter (the Spirit of Light)
Who steers vs still in the True Faith aright)
The Trinitie, th'Eternall Three in One,
Who by his Powr and Prouidence alone,
Hath from the Furnace of their Fiery Zeal
Preserv'd our Prince, our Peers, our Pvblike-Weal,

Therefore, O Prince (our nostrils deerest breath)
Thou true Defender of true Christian Faith,
O! let the Zeal of God's House eat thee vp:
Fill Babylon her measure in her Cup:
Maim the King maiming Kinglings of Bezec:
Pittie not Agag spare not Amalech:
Hunt, hunt those Fox's that would vnder-mine
Root, Body, Branches of the Sacred Vine:
O! spare them not. To spare Them is to spoil
Thy Self thy Seed thy Subiects, and thy Soil.

Therfore, O Peers, Prince-loyall Paladines,
True-noble Nobles, lay-by by-Designes:
And in God's quarrel and your Countries, bring
Counsail and Courage to assist your KING
To counter-mine against the Mines of Rome;
To conquer Hydra, and to ouer-com
And clean cut-off his Horns, and Heads, and all
Whose hearts do Vow, or knees do Bow to Baal:

408

Be Zealous for the Lord, and Faith-full now,
And honor Him, and He will honour you.

Fathers, and Brethren, Ministers of Christ,
Cease civill Warrs: war all on Anti-Christ;
Whose subtle Agents, while you strive for shels,
Poyson the kernel with Erronious Spels:
Whose Envious Seed-men, while you Silent Sleep,
Sowe Tares of Treason, which take root too deep.
Watch; watch your Fold: Feed, feed your Lambs at home:
Muzzle these Sheep-clad bloudy Wolves of Rome.

Therfore, O People, let vs Praise and Pray
Th'Almighty-most (whose Mercy lasts for ay)
To giue vs grace, to euer-keep in minde
This Miracle of his Protection kinde:
To true-Repent vs of our hainous Sin
(Pride, Lust, and Looseness) we haue wallowed in:
To stand still constant in the pure Profession
Of true Religion (with a due discretion
To try the Spirits, and by peculiar choice
To knowe our Shepheards from th'Hyæna's voice):
And, ever loyall to our Prince, t'expose
Goods, Lands, and Liues, against his hate-full Foes:
Among whom (Lord) if (yet) of Thine be found,
Conuert them quickly; and the rest Confound.

And (to Conclude) Prince, Peers, and People too,
Praise all at once, and selfly each of you,
His Holy Hand, that (like as long-agoe,
His Sidrach, Misach and Abednego)
From the hot Furnace of Pope-Powder'd Zeal
Hath Sav'd our Prince, our Peers, our Pvblik-weal.

The end of the Third Daie of the Second VVeek.