Brachy-Martyrologia Or, A Brewery of all the greatest Persecutions Which have befallen the Saints and People of God From the Creation to our present Times: Paraphras'd, By Nicholas Billingsly |
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SECT. I. The Persecution of the Church in the first Ages of the World, and so forward till Christ's Incarnation.
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 | Brachy-Martyrologia |  |
SECT. I. The Persecution of the Church in the first Ages of the World, and so forward till Christ's Incarnation.
Adam
being left unto his own free-will,
Satan the Primo-genitor of ill,
Maligning his so prosperous estate,
Did exercise his Diabolick hate,
Under the hood of friendship, to o'rethrow
Both root, and branch at one pestiferous blow.
VVith large-pretending promises, his suit
He varnish'd thus; if the forbidden fruit
But kiss their lips, they should more clearly see,
And full as wise as their Creator be.
Thus Satan's Engines play'd, till in conclusion
He took the Fort, by his so smooth delusion.
Poor man made shipwrack of his Innocence,
Thwarting his God-requir'd Obedience:
Thus Adam fell, and by his hapless fall,
Hath lost his happiness, his God and all,
For ever; Ah! he cannot any more
Enjoy those blessings he enjoy'd before
In his first state; and all that he can win,
Is death, Death is the VVages due to sin.
But what of that? yet hath it pleas'd the High'st
To give eternal life through Jesus Christ
Our blessed Lord: whoever do believe
In him alone, are certain to receive
A glorious Crown: O see what God hath done,
To save poor sinners, he hath sent his Son,
His onely Son, who willingly came down,
To bear the cross, that we might wear the Crown.
Strange condescention! the great God above
Is pleas'd t'embrace us in the armes of love.
O groundless depths! O love beyond degree!
The guiltless dies, to set the guilty free!
Satan the Primo-genitor of ill,
Maligning his so prosperous estate,
Did exercise his Diabolick hate,
Under the hood of friendship, to o'rethrow
Both root, and branch at one pestiferous blow.
VVith large-pretending promises, his suit
He varnish'd thus; if the forbidden fruit
But kiss their lips, they should more clearly see,
And full as wise as their Creator be.
Thus Satan's Engines play'd, till in conclusion
He took the Fort, by his so smooth delusion.
2
Thwarting his God-requir'd Obedience:
Thus Adam fell, and by his hapless fall,
Hath lost his happiness, his God and all,
For ever; Ah! he cannot any more
Enjoy those blessings he enjoy'd before
In his first state; and all that he can win,
Is death, Death is the VVages due to sin.
But what of that? yet hath it pleas'd the High'st
To give eternal life through Jesus Christ
Our blessed Lord: whoever do believe
In him alone, are certain to receive
A glorious Crown: O see what God hath done,
To save poor sinners, he hath sent his Son,
His onely Son, who willingly came down,
To bear the cross, that we might wear the Crown.
Strange condescention! the great God above
Is pleas'd t'embrace us in the armes of love.
O groundless depths! O love beyond degree!
The guiltless dies, to set the guilty free!
Nor ceas'd the malice of the black-brow'd Prince
Of the Low-Countries, hell; for ever since
Mans forfeiture of his heav'n-granted lease,
He hath been active to molest the Peace
Of Christ-confiding Saints, and like a Lyon
Hath seiz'd on those who bear good will to Sion:
Amongst the wheat, he sows seditious tares;
And setteth men together by the ears.
Nay more unnatural then that, one brother
He instigates to persecute another:
VVitness nefandous Cain, whose brothers bloud
To heaven for vengeance cry'd, and cry'd aloud:
Did not curs'd Ham his naked Father mock,
(A graceless branch, sprung from a righteous stock.)
Did not the Sodomites deride Just Lot?
And spurious Ishm'el Isaac, did he not?
Jacob rough Esau hates; young Joseph's sold
To Ishma'itish Merchants; and behold
Oppressed Isr'el, how their shoulder grones
Beneath their massy loads, hard hearted ones!
And must the new-born Males be stifled by
The Mid-wives? O unheard-of cruelty!
And if these fail, may they not live a while?
No; drown'd they must be in septemfluous Nile.
Breast-hardned Phar'oh, what did Moses do
VVorthy thy wrath? and may not Isr'el go
From thy enslaving hands, but bear the print
Thy scourges leave? O heart wall'd round with flint!
Years not a few the Isra'lites were drudges
Unto th' Idolatrous and self-law'd Judges;
Compel'd to leave their homes, and hide themselves
In dens and caves, from persecuting Elves:
And when Gods bounty fertiliz'd their land,
All was destroyed by the Midian band:
The Philistins thirty four thousand slay
Of them, and carryed Gods Ark away;
A Smith in Israel could not be found
To fit their instruments to till the ground,
The land was so enslav'd; they rather chose,
Then starve, to be beholding to their foes.
VVith his keen javelin, spirit-haunted Saul
Assay'd to stick up David 'gainst the wall.
Prophetick David, with a patient ear,
Did Shimei's railing accusations bear.
Egyptian Shishak prov'd Jerus'lems rod,
And took the treasures from the house of God.
And (which is strange) good Asa's spirit risen
Against Gods Prophet, casts him into prison.
Ahab hates Micah. In Jehosaphat
His reign, the Church of God was stormed at.
Elijah, was despis'd by Jezabel,
By whom so many holy Prophets fell.
Elisha suffers; in Jehorams reign
Judah's oppress'd. Good Zechariah's slain
By Joash, for's reproof. Israel's King
Thousands of Judah slew, did thousands bring
Into captivity. Poor Judah pines
By th' Edomites, Assyrians, Philistines.
The Prophet Esay by Manasses Law,
Was sawn in sunder with a wooden saw.
And Jeremiah after slandrous mocks,
VVas beaten sore, and put into the stocks.
Then was he (liberty deny'd him) flung
Into the myry dungeon, where he clung;
At last drag'd thence, into th' Egyptian land
He needs must go, the Captains him command:
And his Thren-odes those pious Elegies,
Lament the falling Churches miseries.
Nebuchadnezzar in a rage doth throw
Shadrach, and Meshech, and Abednego
Into the furnace hot: By wicked men
Daniel is cast into the Lyons Den.
Proud Haman persecutes poor Mordecay,
And a decree procures, that in one day
Gods people should be killed murth'rously.
The Jews returning from captivity,
Judah's disturb'd and opposition's found
When they would raise Gods Temple from the ground:
Build it they do: though men and devils conjoyne
They'r Powers, they cannot frustrate Gods designe.
Of the Low-Countries, hell; for ever since
Mans forfeiture of his heav'n-granted lease,
He hath been active to molest the Peace
Of Christ-confiding Saints, and like a Lyon
Hath seiz'd on those who bear good will to Sion:
Amongst the wheat, he sows seditious tares;
And setteth men together by the ears.
Nay more unnatural then that, one brother
He instigates to persecute another:
VVitness nefandous Cain, whose brothers bloud
To heaven for vengeance cry'd, and cry'd aloud:
Did not curs'd Ham his naked Father mock,
(A graceless branch, sprung from a righteous stock.)
3
And spurious Ishm'el Isaac, did he not?
Jacob rough Esau hates; young Joseph's sold
To Ishma'itish Merchants; and behold
Oppressed Isr'el, how their shoulder grones
Beneath their massy loads, hard hearted ones!
And must the new-born Males be stifled by
The Mid-wives? O unheard-of cruelty!
And if these fail, may they not live a while?
No; drown'd they must be in septemfluous Nile.
Breast-hardned Phar'oh, what did Moses do
VVorthy thy wrath? and may not Isr'el go
From thy enslaving hands, but bear the print
Thy scourges leave? O heart wall'd round with flint!
Years not a few the Isra'lites were drudges
Unto th' Idolatrous and self-law'd Judges;
Compel'd to leave their homes, and hide themselves
In dens and caves, from persecuting Elves:
And when Gods bounty fertiliz'd their land,
All was destroyed by the Midian band:
The Philistins thirty four thousand slay
Of them, and carryed Gods Ark away;
A Smith in Israel could not be found
To fit their instruments to till the ground,
The land was so enslav'd; they rather chose,
Then starve, to be beholding to their foes.
VVith his keen javelin, spirit-haunted Saul
Assay'd to stick up David 'gainst the wall.
Prophetick David, with a patient ear,
Did Shimei's railing accusations bear.
Egyptian Shishak prov'd Jerus'lems rod,
And took the treasures from the house of God.
And (which is strange) good Asa's spirit risen
Against Gods Prophet, casts him into prison.
4
His reign, the Church of God was stormed at.
Elijah, was despis'd by Jezabel,
By whom so many holy Prophets fell.
Elisha suffers; in Jehorams reign
Judah's oppress'd. Good Zechariah's slain
By Joash, for's reproof. Israel's King
Thousands of Judah slew, did thousands bring
Into captivity. Poor Judah pines
By th' Edomites, Assyrians, Philistines.
The Prophet Esay by Manasses Law,
Was sawn in sunder with a wooden saw.
And Jeremiah after slandrous mocks,
VVas beaten sore, and put into the stocks.
Then was he (liberty deny'd him) flung
Into the myry dungeon, where he clung;
At last drag'd thence, into th' Egyptian land
He needs must go, the Captains him command:
And his Thren-odes those pious Elegies,
Lament the falling Churches miseries.
Nebuchadnezzar in a rage doth throw
Shadrach, and Meshech, and Abednego
Into the furnace hot: By wicked men
Daniel is cast into the Lyons Den.
Proud Haman persecutes poor Mordecay,
And a decree procures, that in one day
Gods people should be killed murth'rously.
The Jews returning from captivity,
Judah's disturb'd and opposition's found
When they would raise Gods Temple from the ground:
Build it they do: though men and devils conjoyne
They'r Powers, they cannot frustrate Gods designe.
| Brachy-Martyrologia | |