Divine poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

Even as a member, whose corrupted sore
Infests, and rankles, eating more and more,
Threatning the bodies losse (if not prevented)
The wise chirurgion (all faire meanes attented)
Cuts off, and with advised skil doth choose,
To lose a part, then all the body lose;
Even so the feeble Sailors (that addresse
Their idle armes, where heaven denyes successe)
Forbeare their thrivelesse labours, and devise
To roote that Evill, from whence their harms arise:
Treason is in their thoughts, and in their eares
Danger revives the old, and addes new feares;
Their hearts grow fierce, and every soule applies
T'abandon mercy from his tender eyes:
They cease t'attempt what heaven so long withstood,
And bent to kill, their thoughts are all on blood:
They whisper oft, each word is Deaths Alarme;
They hoyst him up; Each lends a busie arme,

And with united powers they entombe
His out-cast body in Thetis angry wombe:
Whereat grim Neptune wip't his somy mouth,
Held his tridented Mace upon the South;
The windes were whist, the billows danc't no more,
The storme allay'd, the heavens left off to rore,
The waves (obedient to their pilgrimage)
Gave ready passage, and surceast their rage,
The skie grew cleare, and now the welcome light
Begins to put the gloomy clouds to flight:
Thus all on sudden was the Sea tranquill,
The Heav'ns were quiet, and the Waves were still,
As when a friendly Creditor (to get
A long forborne, and much concerning debt)
Still plies his willing debter with entreats,
Importunes daily, daily thumps, and beates
The batter'd Portals of his tyred eares,
Bedeasing him with what he knowes, and heares;
The weary debter, to avoid the sight
He loathes, shifts here, and there, and ev'ry night
Seekes out Protection of another bed,
Yet ne'rethelesse (pursu'd and followed)
His eares are still laid at with lowder volley
Of harder Dialect; He melancholy,
Sits downe, and sighs, and after long foreslowing,
(T'avoid his presence) payes him what is owing;
The thankfull Creditor is now appeas'd,
Takes leave, and goes away content, and pleas'd.
Even so these angry waves, with restlesse rage,
Accosted Ionas in his pilgrimage,
And thundred Iudgement in his fearefull eare,
Presenting Hubbubs to his guilty feare:
The waves rose discontent, the Surges beat,
And every moments death, the billowes threat,

The weather-beaten Ship did every minuit
Await destruction, while hee was in it:
But when his (long expected) corps they threw
Into the deepe, (a debt, through trespasse, due)
The Sea grew kinde, and all her frownes abated,
Her face was smooth to all that navigated.
'Twas sinfull Ionah made her storme and rage,
'Twas sinfull Ionah did her storme asswage.

With that the Mariners astonisht were,
And fear'd Iehovah with a mighty feare,
Offring up Sacrifice with one accord,
And vowing solemne vowes unto the Lord.
But he whose word can make the earth's foundatiō
Tremble, and with his Word can make cessation,
Whose wrath doth moūt the waves, & toss the Seas,
And make thē calme & smooth, whē e're he please:
This God, (whose mercy runs on endlesse wheele,
And puls (like Iacob) Iustice by the heele)
Prepar'd a Fish, prepar'd a mighty Whale,
Whose belly was both prison-house, and baile,
For retchlesse Ionah. As the two leaf'd doore
Opens, to welcome home the fruitfull store,
Wherewith the harvest quits the Plowmans hope,
Even so the great Leviathan set ope
His beame-like Iawes, (prepar'd for such a boone)
And at a morsell, swallow'd Jonah downe,
'Till dewy-check't Aurora's purple dye
Thrice dappell'd had the ruddy morning skie,
And thrice had spred the Curtaines of the morne,
To let in Titan, when the day was borne,
Ionah was Tenant to this living Grave,
Embowel'd deepe in this stupendious Cave.