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On Christs Passion, a Descant
Darknesse had now clos'd up the worlds bright eye,And drawne a Maske of vapours o're the skie;
And all the beamy tapers of the night
In sable clouds had muffled up their light.
Twas Pietie called in their beames, th'ad been
Found Accessarie else to such a sin,
They ne're could have affoill'd, though from their sphear,
They should themselves have drop'd i'th shape of tears:
They had lent light and influence to betray
Him, from whose light they borrow'd every ray.
When with her pitchy Exhalation
Night had thus vail'd the lustre of the sun,
A Cataract of armed men did powre
Themselves into that Garden, where each flowre
By th' Incense of those Prayers that Christ expir'd
A balmy stocke of fresh Perfumes acquir'd:
And being now broake in, did forthwith run
With glimmering torches, to find out the Sun;
Yet could not this thick cloud of men benight
This glorious Lamp, the Fountaine of all light,
Till th' interposing of false Iudas lips
Obscur'd his beams, and caus'd a black Eclipse:
Yet when he snatcht his treacherous lips away,
He straight shot forth such a refulgent Ray,
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Th' Excellencie o'th Object struck them blind:
But as a dying Tapour, when it streames
Its fainting light forth in contracted beams,
Musters together all its sickly rayes,
VVith those to stock and furnish out one blaze;
Our Saviour, so to intimate, that He
Still held a League with his Divinitie,
Cited together such a stock of Light,
That He astonisht the dull gazers sight,
And by a sudden damp ev'n struck them blind
That were made so before i'th eye o'th mind,
Scattering them all to th' Earth, when they were even
About to captivate the King of Heaven;
But when he summon'd in his beames to be
Again wrapt up in his humanitie,
And he appear'd to them in's old array,
Cloath'd in a garment woven out of clay,
Not spangled o're with those Majestick Rayes,
Which did at once enlighten and amaze,
They straight invade him; and his guiltlesse hands
Twisted in one with wreaths of cords, (whose bands
Loos'd them) then guard him to the Judgement-hall,
Who had for guard the Quire Angelicall.
And now th' high Priest is brought to be accus'd
Before the high Priest, who scoft at, and traduc'd
Him, unto whom he his own Priesthood ow'd,
And from which Spring all other Priesthood flow'd:
And then transmitted him, (who once shall come
To doom all Mankind) to receive his doom
From Pilates mouth, who though there did arise
Thick Exhalation from those Calumnies
The black-mouth Jewes belch'd forth, could clearly see,
Through those dark vapours Christs Integritie;
And did his Innocence so much resent,
That he decreed to wave his punishment,
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Their Altar, for his expiation:
But they to their first purposes did cleave
VVith so much malice, they their King did leave,
And chose an abject Thiefe, unhappy they,
To let Barabbas steale their hearts away:
Which when he saw, and that they still went on
T'exact of him Christs Crucifixion,
He left them to their rage, and from his blood
VVasht his pale hands, who with a crimson flood
VVasht off our sins, so that for this black deed
VVater it selfe did expiation need.
VVhen thus the Jewes their Saviour had surpris'd
(VVho for their sins was to be sacrific'd)
They to a feeble Pillar straight did chaine
The Pillar that did Natures Frame sustaine,
And with rude stripes to plough his back begin,
Whose stripes doe heale the wounds impos'd by sin:
The souldiers next with supple knees do bring
A faigned Haile unto their reall King,
And with a Crowne of thornes his head empound,
VVho with a Crowne of Glorie could surround
Their wretched heads, then spit at, and dispise
Him, that with spittle gave the blind man eyes:
(Strange Prodigie, the King of Kings has none
But spittle for his holy Vnction)
And with those hands he gave them does embase
VVith scarres the sacred impresse of his face:
His bodie with a scarlet Robe they dresse,
VVho clothes the naked with his Righteousnesse;
And for an awfull Scepter in his hand,
They place a Reed, whose Scepter does command
The spacious Bulk of Nature, and controules
That massiie Globe that hangs between the Poles.
VVhen they had thus a cloud of hatred shed
In showers of scoffs upon his guiltlesse head,
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Was to wind up his direfull Tragedie;
And by the way enforc'd himselfe to beare
His Crosse, which was reciprocally there
To beare up him, where being arriv'd, he's laid
Vpon the Crosse, his Altar to be made,
The publike Sacrifice, and expiate
The guilt of Sin, and crush the power of Fate:
And now made ragged with his wounds, and rent
With inward torture, being embost, and spent
With this last agonie, he did addresse
Himselfe t'implore some julip, to suppresse
The flames of thirst; the Jewes did straight prefer
A spunge, which was bedew'd with vinegar,
To calme his scorching thirst, who did unlock
The stony Casquet of the barren Rock,
And thaw'd its liquid treasures, to redresse
That thirst, which Israel scorcht i'th wildernesse:
Yet though he cleft that Rock, he could not part
The rock contracted in each Jewish heart.
When Christ had tasted this sowre Opiate,
And saw the Prophesies had spun their Fate,
His breath exhaled to purge the aire, and he
Resign'd his tir'd and wearied Soule, to be
Transported, on the downy wings of Blisse,
Vp to the spangled vault of Paradise;
And with it flew the good Theefes soule, who even
Stole life at death, and made a theft of Heaven:
But lest that Christ, with such neglect should fall,
He might want Rites to grace his Funerall,
The Sun call'd in his light, to specifie,
That men durst do that which he durst not see;
Day put on Night, lest she should seeme to lack,
For to great losse, her Ceremonious Black;
The palsied Earth so shook, as if her womb,
She meant to open, and become his Tomb;
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Him, that o're Death could claime a victorie:
So that it seemes, ev'n Nature here did turne
A Mourner too, t'attend him to his Vrne:
And now, being dead, a Speare was through his side,
By a rude hand dismist, which wound may hide
Our numerous sins, or if there be not roome,
We may inter them all within his Tomb:
The Souldiers too, in lots their fortunes drew,
To see to whom Christs garments would accrue,
As a just Prize, they dreaded to dissect
His seamelesse Coat, yet that we daily act,
Which by these barbarous Souldiers ne're was done,
We part his Coat by our division.
Whilst thus Christs vestments were in Lotterie,
Expos'd a prey to Fortune, Joseph, he
Pilate (with eyes thaw'd into teares) implor'd
Christs body torne with wounds might be restor'd:
Thrice happie man, the Body he obtaines,
And his owne soule too by that purchase gaines;
And having now his lawfull Boon fulfill'd,
He gather'd all those Balmes that were distill'd
From weeping Trees, and took those unctious teares,
That Myrrha in a Tree imprison'd weares,
And made this confluence of Balsoms meet
All in Christs wounds, that they might make it sweet;
Then in white Linnen did his Corps enshrine,
Whose innocence did cloath his sins as fine:
And next, this sacred Relique did inter
In the dark climate of a Sepulcher,
Hewen in a Rock: Oh! who'ld not breathe a grone?
The Rock it selfe is laid beneath a Stone.
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