Divine emblems Embellished with etchings on copper, after the fashion of Master Francis Quarles. Designed and written by, Johann Abricht [i.e. Jonathan Birch |
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| XI. | EMBLEM XI. |
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 | Divine emblems |  |
EMBLEM XI.
[In vain thou striv'st, the Power that made, can rule]
I.
In vain thou striv'st, the Power that made, can rule,Can move, can fix—can delegate—resume—
The malign influence of thyself, and fool,
No more shall mar the world or thought entomb—
Behold! religion, peace, and science fair,
Now reign where ignorance and superstition,
Avarice and folly had a share
Of sway—and hurried to perdition.
Thou fail'st to move—yet hop'st to bear away
The wanton World—and once more so regain
Thy power to work—if only for a day—
I tell thee Mammon! that thy hope is vain!
The hold thou hast—too slight to bear—will break,
And greater purchase thou'rt forbid to take.
II.
Dost thou not marvel that thy dainty master,Satan! unheeds thy call—nor sends a devil
To help thee stem and strive in thy disaster?
To use his favourite thus is far from civil.
Perchance! he's ill-at-ease and cannot come,
Or paying visits to his debtors?
Or is arrived the dread Millennium?
And he got fast in mighty fetters:
Where for a thousand years, Hell's Majesty
In moody melancholy may solus sit;
Or rave and curse, or contemplate and sigh,
Within the confines of the groundless pit!
'Tis even so!—some work is left for thee—
But all thy power to tempt shall harmless be:
Thou still the thousand years shalt play a part,
But lack the sway thou once hadst o'er the heart.
By how much nearer Satan perceiveth the World to be at an end, by so much the more fiercely he troubleth it with persecution; that knowing himself to be damned he may get company in his damnation.
Then shall Christ's kingdom be manifest, for it is written that Satan shall be bound for a thousand years, which is called the Millennium; and then after a time shall Christ reign.
All vices wax old by age: covetousness alone groweth young.
And I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the Dragon, that old serpent which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit.
And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it.
EPIG.
[The motto “mutatur non mutari”]
The motto “mutatur non mutari”Seems to have put Mammon in a quandary;
As the writing of old, displayed on the wall
Staggered Belshazzar before his fall—
Old tempter to evil, thou may'st fret, fume, and fuss,
For thy doom, likes the doom, of old Sisyphus!
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