University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
Distressed Sion Relieved

Or, The Garment of Praise for the Spirit of Heaviness. Wherein are Discovered the Grand Causes of the Churches Trouble and Misery under the late Dismal Dispensation. With a Compleat History of, and Lamentation for those Renowned Worthies that fell in England by Popish Rage and Cruelty, from the Year 1680 to 1688. Together with an Account of the late Admirable and Stupendious Providence which hath wrought such a sudden and Wonderful Deliverance for this Nation, and Gods Sion therein. Humbly Dedicated to their Present Majesties. By Benjamin Keach

expand section

What dismal vapour in so black a form
‘Is this which seems Harbinger to a Storm
‘What pitchy Cloud invades our starry Sky,
‘To stop the beamings of the Worlds great Eye

3

‘What spreading Sables of Egyptian Night
‘Would rob the Earth of its illustrious Light?
‘What interposing Fog obscures our Sun?
‘What dire Eclipse benights our Horizon?
‘Is England's Great and Royal Bridegroom fled?
‘Is its Aurora newly gone to Bed,
‘That scattered Clouds make such prodigious haste,
‘Combine in one, and re-unite so fast?
‘Clouds that so lately dissipated were,
‘Do now conspire to make a darker Air.
‘I mourn unpitied, groan without relief;
‘No bounds nor measures terminate my grief,
‘The Sluces of mine Eyes are too too narrow
‘To vent the Streams of my increasing sorrow.