Divinity and Morality in Robes of Poetry Composed for the Recreations of the Courteous and Ingenious. By the Author Tho. Jordan |
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The Politician in Person.
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 | Divinity and Morality in Robes of Poetry |  |
The Politician in Person.
Greatnesse
is summum bonum; to be high
Tempted the Angels in their Clarity
(Creatures to whom the Sun is but a Shade
Before that Sin had Birth, or Man was made)
Nor could this lust of optimacy misse
Innocent Adam in his Genesis;
Then though our bloud to Thrones cannot advance,
We have Ambition by inheritance:
If to be Great be the best thing we know,
No Actions are amiss that make us so;
Since to be High is that all men intend,
No matter by what steps we do ascend.
That Man that hates a rising States-man, would
O're-top his highest Neighbours if he could,
And cares not if vast Families do fade
By him with Suits of Law and tricks in Trade:
He will seize Houses though he can't take Townes,
'Tis the same Crime for Compters as for Crownes:
A Princes Throne is chain'd as much to chance,
As is the meanest Man's inheritance.
Nature it selfe, our most indulgent Mother,
Doth ruine one thing to erect another;
Observe the flux and reflux of the Ocean,
Progresse and regresse are the soule of motion:
Can it be ill to climbe the highest seat,
Since Men are Good, on purpose to be Great?
Why should those Causes merit our neglect
Whose subtile series reach to the effect?
Or if our fortunes would not have us high,
Why then doe all Concurrences comply?
If it be not the destiny's intents
To make us Great, why have we great Events?
Councils, and Armes, in strange Meanders flow,
Yet meet, sure Providence would have it so:
Though Mariners can Ship and Tackling finde
Fit to set Saile, they cannot raise a Winde:
The Gamester boldly doth his hand advance
To throw the Die, but cannot guide the Chance:
This (well promised) what is done, must be
By an inevitable Destinie;
The wisest man that ever was writes thus
In his sublime Ecclesiasticus:
Tempted the Angels in their Clarity
(Creatures to whom the Sun is but a Shade
Before that Sin had Birth, or Man was made)
Nor could this lust of optimacy misse
Innocent Adam in his Genesis;
Then though our bloud to Thrones cannot advance,
We have Ambition by inheritance:
If to be Great be the best thing we know,
No Actions are amiss that make us so;
Since to be High is that all men intend,
No matter by what steps we do ascend.
O're-top his highest Neighbours if he could,
And cares not if vast Families do fade
By him with Suits of Law and tricks in Trade:
He will seize Houses though he can't take Townes,
'Tis the same Crime for Compters as for Crownes:
A Princes Throne is chain'd as much to chance,
As is the meanest Man's inheritance.
Nature it selfe, our most indulgent Mother,
Doth ruine one thing to erect another;
Observe the flux and reflux of the Ocean,
Progresse and regresse are the soule of motion:
Can it be ill to climbe the highest seat,
Since Men are Good, on purpose to be Great?
Why should those Causes merit our neglect
Whose subtile series reach to the effect?
Or if our fortunes would not have us high,
Why then doe all Concurrences comply?
If it be not the destiny's intents
To make us Great, why have we great Events?
Councils, and Armes, in strange Meanders flow,
Yet meet, sure Providence would have it so:
Though Mariners can Ship and Tackling finde
Fit to set Saile, they cannot raise a Winde:
The Gamester boldly doth his hand advance
To throw the Die, but cannot guide the Chance:
This (well promised) what is done, must be
By an inevitable Destinie;
In his sublime Ecclesiasticus:
Ecclus. 1.5.
How many Kings have on the ground sat down,And one ne're thought upon hath worn the Crowne?
How comes it then to be a lineall Function,
By right of Bloud made consecrate with Unction?
This trick was hatch'd by some great Monarch's Minion
To blind the world, but I am of opinion
None doth more fitly fill a Chaire of State,
Than he that is anoynted by his Fate.
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