who have sacrific'd your King CHORVS Either deceiv'd by the ambiguous Day Or troops of mourners to my eyes display A perfect Sorrow Women with their bare And bleeding brests drown'd cheeks dissheveld haire The Souldiers slowly march with knees that bend Beneath their feares and Pilats staires ascend CHORVS OF ROMANE SOVLDIERS O Thou who on thy flaming Charriot rid'st And with perpetuall Motion Time divid'st Great King of Day from whose farre-darting Eye Night-wandring Stars with fainting Splendor flie Whither thus intercepted dost thou stray Through what an unknown darknesse lies thy way In Heaven what new-born Night the Day invades The Mariner that sails by Tyrian Gades As yet sees not thy panting Horses steepe Their fiery fet-locks in th' Hesperian Deep No pitchy storme wrapt up in swelling Clouds By Earth exhal'd thy golden Tresses shrouds Nor thy pale Sister in her wandring Race With interposed wheeles obscures thy Face But now farre-off retires with her stolne Light Till in a silver Orbe her hornes unite Hath some Thessalian Witch with Charms unknown Surpriz'd and bound thee What new Phaëton With feeble hands to guide thy Charriot strives And farre from the deserted Zodiack drives What horrid fact before th' approach of Night Deservedly deprives the World of Light As when stern Atreus to his Brother gave His Childrens flesh who made his owne their grave Or when the Vestall Ilia's God-like Sun Who our unbounded Monarchie begun Was in a hundred pieces cut by theft At once of Life and Funerals bereft Or hath that Day wherein the Gods were borne Finish'd the Course of Heaven in its returne And now the aged Stars refuse to run Beyond that place from whence they first begun Nature what plagues dost thou to thine intend Whither shrinks this huge Masse what fatall end If now the Generall Floud againe retire If the World perish by licentious Fire What shall of those devouring Seas become Where shall those funerall Ashes finde a Tomb What ever innovates the Course of Things To men alone nor Nations ruine brings Either the groaning Worlds disordered Frame Now suffers or that Power which guides the same Doe proud Titanians with their impious War Again provoke th' Olympian Thunderer Is there a mischiefe extant greater then Dire Python or the Snake of Lerna's Fen That poysons the pure Heavens with Viperous breath What God from Gods deriv'd opprest by Death Is now in his own Heaven bewail'd Divine Lyeus gave to man lesse precious Wine Not Hercules so many Monsters flew Vnshorne Apollo lesse in Physick knew Sure we with darknesse are invelloped Because that innocent bloud by Envy shed So deare unto the Gods this place defam'd VVhich shook the Earth and made the Day asham'd Great Father of us all whose Influence Informes the World thou mad'st though Sin incense Thy just displeasure easie to forgive Those who confesse and for their Vices grieve Now to the desperate Sons of men who stray In sinnes dark Labyrinth restore the Day One Sacrifice seek we to expiate All our Offences and appease his hate VVhich the Religion of the Samian Nor Thracian Harpe wild beasts instructing can Nor that Prophetick Boy the Gleabs swart son VVho taught the Thuscans Divination The Bloud which from that mangled body bled Must purge our sins which we unjustly shed O smooth thy brows Receive the innocence Of one for all and with our guilt dispence For sin what greater Ransome can we pay VVhat worthier Offering on thy Altar lay THE FIFTH ACT. JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA NICODEMVS SEe Citizens we Pilats bounty beare With-out a suite men cannot man interre The Romane Progeny nor freely will Doe what is good nor unrewarded ill Nothing is now in use but barbarous Vice They sell our bloud on graves they set a price NICODEMVS O Joseph these vaine extasies refraine But if it seeme so pleasant to Complaine Let Rome alone and seek a neerer guilt His bloud not Romulus sons but Abrahams spilt VVho so the purer sense sincerely draws From those celestiall Oracles and Lawes By God above himselfe inspir'd will say None led to Eternitie a straighter way VVhat 's that to Pilat fell the Innocent by A Romane Oath was 't through the subtilty Of Senators or Priests The Doome display'd They Caesar lesse then Caiaphas obay'd Let us transferre the fact the impious Jew VVith heart with tongue and eyes first Jesus slew The Romans onely acted their Offence How well the Heavens with Hebrew hands dispence For this the Jew th' Italians Crime envi'd And wish'd himselfe the bloody Homicide Doe we as yet our servitude lament VVhen such a murder meets no punishment This doe they this command JOSEPH The Progeny Of Romane Ilia and of Sara I VVith equall detestation execrate O may they perish by a fearefull Fate Just Heaven why sleepes thy Lightning in a Showre Of pitch descend Let stenching Seas deuour This cursed City Sodome thou art cleare Compar'd to ours No more will I a teare Shed for my Countrey Let the Great in War VVorse then the Babylonian Conquerar Enter her Breaches like a violent Floud Vntill the bloudy City swim in bloud Is this too little Let Diseases sow Their fruitfull Seed and in destruction grow Famine in their dry entrailes take thy seat VVhat Nature most abhors inforce to eat Let th' Infant tremble at his Fathers knife The Babe re-enter her who gave it Life VVhile yet the eager Foe invests the wall VVithin may they by their own weapons fall The Temple wrapt in flames Let th' Enemy Decide their Civill Discord and destroy VVith fire and sword ungratefull Solyma The reliques of their slaughter drive away Nor seventy yeers dissolve their servill bands Despis'd and wretched wander through all Lands Abolish'd be their Law all forme of State No Day see their returne Let sudden Fate Succeed my curses This infected Soyle No more shall feed me What unusuall toyle Shall my old feet refuse so they no more Tread on this Earth though to that unknown shore VVhich lyes beneath the slow Bootes VVaine Dasht by th' unconstant billows of that Maine That Countrey shall be mine where Justice swayes And bold Integrity the Truth obayes NICODEMVS This Error with a secret poyson feeds The minds Disease VVho censures his own deeds VVho not anothers These accusing Times Rather the men condemne then taxe their Crimes Such is the Tyranny of Judgement prone To sentence all Offences but our owne Because of late we cry'd not Crucifie Nor falsely doom'd the Innocent to die Our selves we please as it a Vertue were And Great one if from great Offences cleare Confesse what Orator would plead his Cause To vindicate his truth who urg'd the Laws Or once accus'd their bloudy suffrages By Envy sign'd VVho durst those Lords displease So Piety suffer'd while by speaking they And we by silence did the Just betray VVhen women openly their zeale durst show VVe in acknowledging our Master slow Vnder the shady coverture of Night Secur'd our feares which would not brook the Light Joseph
destinated end No Orisons nor Sacrifice can bend Why stay I with triumphant feet to tread Vpon th' infernall Serpents poysnous Head And break th' old Dragons jaws The sin of our First Parents must be cleansed with a showre Of bloud rain'd from my wounds my death appease And cure the venome of that dire Disease All you who live rejoyce all you who die You sacred ashes of the just which lie In peacefull Vrnes rejoyce in this my fall I for the living liv'd but die for all My sufferings are not lost To Earth I owe These promis'd ills bonds whips and thorns to grow About out bleeding brows the Crosse the scorn Of a proud People to destruction born O let my Fathers wrath through singed aire On me in thunder dart so mine it spare Lest the World should I perish and must beare The punishments of all that ever were You who inhabit where the Sunne displaies His earely light or neer his setting Raies Who suffer by his perpendicular Aspect or frieze beneath the Northerne star Affect this ready Sacrifice who am A greater offering then the Paschall Lamb My precious bloud alone the vertue hath To purge your sins and quench my Fathers wrath Now the full Moone succeeds that Vernal light Which equally divides the Day and Night Sacred to Feasts The next Sunne shall survay One brighter then himselfe and lose his Day False Traitor through thy guilt so timerous growne Although thou lead'st an army against One Shrouded in Night I am not taken by Thy guile but know thy' fraud and hast to die But you my chosen friends who yet preserve Your faith intire nor from your duty swerve Your Festivall our washings past reherse Your Makers excellence in sacred Verse While I to those frequented Shades repaire Where the trees answer to the sighing Aire Learn as we walke along unto what place I shortly shall return what heavenly Grace Is to descend upon you from above What are the laws of Charity and Love While my last prayers solicit Heaven to Sleep Give no accesse this Night my Vigil keep CHORVS OF JEWISH WOMEN THe rapid Motion of the Spheres Old Night from our Horizon bears And now declining shades give way To the return of chearefull Day But Phosphorus who leads the Starres And Day 's illustrious Path prepares Who last of all the Hoast retires Not yet with-draws those radiant Fires Nor have our Trumpets summoned The Morning from her dewy Bed As yet her Roses are unblown Nor by her purple Mantle known All night we in the Temple keep Not yeelding to the charmes of Sleep That so we might with zealous praier Our thoughts and cleansed hearts prepare To celebrate th' insuing Light When Phoebe shall her hornes unite This annuall Feast to Memory Is sacred nor with us must die Thus by that dreadfull Exul taught When God his plagues on Aegypt brought Those Cities these our Rites bereave Of Citizens and widdows leave Where Jordan from two bubling Heads His oft-returning waters leads Till they their narrow bounds forsake And grow a Sea-resembling Lake Those Woods of Palme producing Dates Of fragrant Balsamum which hates The touch of Steele where once the sound Of trumpets level'd with the ground Vnbatter'd Wals that Mount which shrouds His aiëry head in hanging Clouds Where Death clos'd our lost Prophets eies Admire to see their Colonies Ascend the hills of Solyma In celebration of this Day Cephaeans whose strong Wals with-stood The ruines of the Generall Flood To solemnize this Day forsake Ador'd Dercetis and her Lake Hither the Palestines from strong Azotus both the Jamnes throng Not Lydda could her Own restraine Nor Caparorsa's wals containe Her Edomites Damascus could Not hers though she ten Nations ruld Nor yet Sabaste long the Nurse Of impious Sons sprung from our Surse Phoenicians who did first produce To Mortals letters with their use Where Tyrus full of Luxury With Mother Sidon front the Sky Hither with hasty zeale repaire Among the Syrians those who dare Feed on forbidden fish nor more The Deitie of a Dove adore From Belus whose slow waters passe On glittering sands which turn to glasse From Arnons banks those Borderars The subject of our ancient wars Whose sulphurous Bitumen take From salt Asphaltis deadly lake No Tempest on that Sea provailes No ship upon her bosome sailes Vnmov'd with oares what over-flies Struck by her breath fals down and dies Hates all that lives in her Profound None are receiv'd but flore undrownd No Seas by slymie fhores imbras't So pestilent a vapor cast This blasts the corne before it bears And poysons the declining Ears Sad Autumns fruits to cinders turn And all the fields in ashes mourn Lest time should waste the memory Of those revengefull flames the sky On Earth in melting sulphur showr'd Which that accursed Race devour'd When she who did commiserate With impious griefe her Cities fate Grew in the moment of her fault A Statue of congealed Salt Hither devout Esseans fly Who without issue multiply And Vertue onely propagate All sensuall loves all lucre hate And equall Povertie imbrace Thrice happy of a noble Race Who slight your own particular Transported with a publique care He flies a pitch above our woes Or crimes who gladly undergoes Their toile and want nor would possesse VVhat others miscall Happinesse VVhat numbers from the Suns up-rise From where he leaves the mourning Skies Of our dispersed Abrahamites This Vesper to their Homes invites Yet we in yeerly triumph still A Lamb for our deliverance kill Since Libertie our Confines fled Given with the first unleaven'd Bread She never would return though bought With wounds and in destruction sought Some stray to Lybia's scorched Sands Where horned Hammons Temple stands To Nilus some where Philips Son VVho all the rifled Orient won Built his proud City others gon To their old Prison Babylon A part to freezing Taurus fled And Tiber now the Oceans Head Our Ruines all the world have fill'd But you by use in sufferings skill'd Forgetting in remoter Climes Our vanisht Glory nor those Times Those happy Times compare with these Your burdens may support with ease More justly we of Fate complaine VVho Servitude at home sustaine VVe to perpetuall woes design'd In our owne Countrey Aegypt find THE SECOND ACT. PETER YOu Of-spring of bloud-thirsty Romulus Foes to sweet Peace to our great God and us And you prophaner Sacrificers who VVith subtil mischiefe guiltlesse bloud pursue Since you would not refuse to binde the hands Of Innocence on me impose your bands Seize on the guilty he who hath refus'd His Lord and Master by himselfe accus'd The ills yet suffer'd I deserve to beare For looking on what follows for my feare You need no torches to subdue the Night's Dark Shades to finde me no sterne Satellites Drawn from the Temple nor with Romanes joyne To act one Sin nor spend your sacred Coine In salary to such a Guide as may VVith a perfidious kisse his Lord betray This Head I give
sacred Life O most immaculate More then my Masters to your deadly Hate Have I betrai'd discharge my hands I may Although not of the Guilt yet of the Prey Receive the gift you gave a treachery Second to mine you may of others buy CAIAPHAS If thou accuse thy selfe of such a Sin Deservedly thou hast a Court with-in That will condemne thee Thy offences be No Crimes of ours our consciences are free Nor shall the sacred Treasury receive The price of bloud Thee to thy Fate we leave JVDAS Is this the doctrine of your piety To approve the Crime yet hate the Hire O fly Fly wretch unto the Altar and pollute The Temple with thy Sins accursed fruite Nor will I for my selfe with hopelesse praier Solicit Heaven lost in my owne despaire But Gods sterne Justice urge that we who were Joyn'd in the guilt may equall vengeance beare Nor shall I in my punishment proove slow Behold your Leader will before you go 'T is fit you follow to those silent Deepes Those horrid Shades where Sorrow never sleepes Thou great Director of the rouling Starres Vnlesse thou idlely lookst on mens affaires And vainely we thy brutish Thunder feare Why should thy land so dire a Monster beare Or the Sun not retire and yet behold If those thy fearefull punishments of old Require beliefe in one unite them all Let Seas in Cataracts from Meteors fall Afford no shore but swallow in their Brine That so the Worlds first ruine may prove mine Let melting Stars their sulphrous surfet shed And all the Heavenly Fires fall on my Head And thou O injur'd Earth thy jawes extend That I may to th' infernall Shades descend Lesse cause had thy revenge when she the five Inrag'd Conspirators devour'd alive Those evils which amaz'd the former-times Thy fury hath consum'd on smaller Crimes O slow revenger of his injuries And he thy Son some fearefull death devize Vnknowne and horrid Or shall I pursue My owne offence and act what thou shouldst doe You Legions of Heavens Exuls you who take Revenge on Mortals for the crimes you make Why troope you thus about me Or what need These terrors Is my punishment decree'd In Hell already Furies now I come In your darke dungeons what more horrid Rome Shall now devoure me Must I to that Place Where the curs'd Father of a wicked Race Your scourges feeles who when the world was new And but possest by foure his brother slew Or where that faithlesse Prince blasphemes then all His Host more eminent who lest his fall Should honour to his enemies afford Made way for hated Life with his own sword He most affects me who his fathers Chaire Vsurp'd when caught by his revenging Haire He lost the Earth and Life the way he led T'avoided Death my willing feet shall tread Master I fly to anticipate the event Of my foule crime with equall punishment PONTIVS PILAT THE JEWS HOrror distracts my sense irresolute Whether I should break silence or sit mute Envy th' accus'd condemnes whom Justice cleares I must confesse perswaded by my Feares Lest I this State and People should insence I wisht they could have prov'd that great Offence Yet whatsoever they inforc'd of late No fault of his reveal'd but their own hate His silence was a vanquishing reply Who for detecting their false piety Whose supercilious looks with fasting pale Close avarice and proud ambition vaile Is by their Arts made guilty One that slights The God they adore and violates his Rites From hence those many-nam'd Offences spring And his aspiring to become their King Can those poore Fishers of that In-land Sea And women following him from Galile So great a Spirit in their Leader raise That Rome should feare whom all the World obayes Yet he avers his Kingdome is unknown Nor of this World and bows to Caesars Throne Prov'd by th' event for when the Vulgar bound His yeelding hands they no resistance found But his endowments zealous in defence Of clouded Truth their mortall hate incense Follow'd by few who like affections beare And with beliefe their Masters doctrine heare If true he may speak freely nor must dye For Ostentation though he broach a lye But if distracted that 's a punishment Even to it selfe and Justice doth prevent He whom this Annual Solemnity Hath now invited to the Temple by His Father built whose Kingdome borders on The land innobled by Agenor's Throne Of these stupendious acts by Rumour spred Could fixe no faith though in his City bred To laughter doom'd his Rivall Herod scorned And sent him back in purple robes adorn'd Th' implacable now far more fiercely bent To prosecute the twice-found innocent Perhaps afraid lest they their owne should loose Vnlesse they him of forged guilt accuse But when Revenge doth once the Minde ingage O how it raves lost to all sense but rage No Lionesse late of her whelps bereft With wilder fury prosecutes the Theft O Shame I through feare I sought to shield the Right VVith honest Fraud and Justice steale by slight As when the labouring Bark too weak to stem The boysterous Tide obliquely cuts the stream They have an ancient Custome if we may Believe the Jews derived from that Day When the delivered Sons of Israel Fled from those banks whose flouds in summer swel That ever when the Vernall Moone shall joyne Her silver Orb and in full lustre shine They should some one release to gratifie The People by their Law condemn'd to die Now hoping to have free'd the Innocent The violent Priests my Clemency prevent Who urge the heady Vulgar to demand One Barrabas a Thiefe who had a hand In every murther hot with humane blood How little it avails us to be good Preposterous Favour through the hate they heare His guiltlesse Soule their Votes the guilty cleare And now my Wifes not idle dreames perplex My strugling thoughts which all this night did vex Her troubled slumbers who conjures me by All that is holy all the Gods that I Should not the laws of Justice violate To gratifie so undeserv'd a hate For this shall I the Hebrew Fathers slight Th' indeavours of a Nation so unite Committed to my charge Shall I for One Poore Abject forfeit all the good I have done These pester'd Wals all Jewry now infold The Houses hardly can their Strangers hold Sent from all parts to this great Festivall What if the Vulgar to their weapons fall Who knows the end if once the Storme begin Sure I their Judge egregious praise should win By troubling of the publique Peace Shall I Then render him to death Impiety For what offence Is his offence not great Whose innovation may a warre beget Lest Empire suffer they who scepters beare Oft make a Crime and punish what they feare One hope remaines Our Souldiers the Free-borne And yet by our command with whips have torne A sight so full of pitty may asswage The swiftly-spreading fire of popular Rage Look on this Spectacle his armes all o're With lashes
jaws of Hell thy guilt extend This death we owe to our impiety But what are his misdeeds why should he die Then looking on his face with dropping eyes Forgive me O forgive a wretch he cries And O my Lord my King when thou shalt be Restor'd to thy own Heaven remember me He mildly gives consent and from the barres Of that sad Crosse thus rais'd him to the Starres With me a happy Guest thou shalt injoy Those sacred Orchards where no frosts destroy The eternall Spring before the Morne display The purple Ensigne of th' ensuing Day CHORVS What 's this the Centre pants with sudden throwes And trembling Earth a sad distemper showes The Sun affrighted hides his golden Head From hence by an unknown Ecliptick fled Irregular Heavens abortive shades display And Night usurpes the empty Throne of Day What threats do these dire Prodigies portend To our offending Race Those ills transcend All that can be imagin'd which inforce Disturbed Nature to forget her Course I heare approaching feet What ere thou art Whom darknesse from our sight conceales impart All that thou know'st to our prepared eares Accomplish or dissolve our pressing feares II NVNCIVS Fury from which if loose the Earth had fled And fatall Starres have their event He 's dead CHORVS O Heaven we pardon now Dayes hasty flight Nor will complain since they have quencht this light Yet tell how he dispos'd of his last breath The passages and order of his death II NVNCIVS As the declining Sun the shades increast Reflecting on the more removed East His blazing haire grew black no clouds obscures His vanisht Light this his own Orb immures The Dayes fourth part as yet invests the Pole Were this a Day when from the afflicted Soule This voice was clearely heard not like the breath Of those who labour between life and death My God O why dost thou thy own forsake VVhich purposely the Multitude mistake But to prolong their cruel mirth who said He on the Thesbian Prophet calls for aid Now to return and draw from Heaven again Devouring Showres of Fire or Flouds of Rain VVith silence this he indures His body rent His bloud exhausted and his Spirits spent He cry'd I Thirst As servants to his will The greedy hollowes of a spunge they fill VVith vineger which Hyssops sprigs combine And on a reed exalt the deadly Wine This scarcely tasted his pale lips once more He opens and now lowder then before Cry'd All is finisht here my labours end To thee O heavenly Father I commend My parting Soul This said hung down his head And with his words his mixed Spirits fled Leaving his body which again must bleed Now senselesse of the Crosse From prison freed Those happy seats he injoyes by God assign'd To injur'd Vertue and th' etheriall Minde But Terrours which with Nature war affright Our peacelesse Souls The World hath lost its Light Heaven and the Deeps below our Guilt pursue Pale troops of wandring Ghosts now hurrie through The holy Citie whom from her unknown And secret Wombe the trembling Earth hath thrown The cleaving Rocks their horrid jawes display And yawning Tombes afford the dead a way To those that live Heaven is the generall And undistinguisht Sepulcher to all Old Chaos now returnes Ambitious Night Impatient of alternate Rule or Right Such as before the Dayes etheriall birth With her own shady People fills the Earth CHORVS How did the many-minded People look At these Portents with what affection strook II. NVNCIVS The Lamentations mixed with the cries Of weeping Women in low'd Vollies rise Those who had known him who his followers were While yet he liv'd and did in death adhere In that new Night sighs from their sorrowes send And to those Heavens they could not see extend Their pious hands complaining that the Sun Would then appeare when this was to be done The safety of their lives the Vulgar dread Some for themselves lament some for the dead Others the ruine of the world bewaile Their Courages the cruel Romanes faile Those hands which knew no peace now lazie grew And conquering Feare to earth their weapons threw Th' amaz'd Centurion with our thoughts compli'd And swore the Heros most unjustly dy'd Whose punishment the Earth could hardly brook But groaning with a horrid motion shook Confirmed by the Dayes prodigious flight To be a beame of the celestiall Light And so the mourning Heavens inverted face Showes to the Vnder world his Heavenly Race CHORVS Why flock the People to the Temple thus No cause excepting piety in us Can want belief Hope they to satisfie With Sacrifice the Wrath of the most High II. NVNCIVS New prodigies as horrid thither hale Th' astonisht Multitude The Temples Vale That hung on guilded Beames in purple dy'd Asunder rent and fell on either side The trust of what was sacred is betray'd And all the Hebrew Mysteries display'd That fatall Ark so terrible of old To our pale foes which Cherubins of Gold Veil'd with their hovering wings whose closure held Those two-leav'd Tables wherein God reveal'd His sacred Lawes That Food which by a new Example fell from Heaven in fruitfull Dew About our Tents and tacidly exprest By intermitted showres the seventh Dayes rest The Rod with never dying blossoms spread Which with a Miter honour Aarons Head These with th' old Temple perisht Th' eye could reach No object in this rupture but the Breach What was from former Ages hid is shown Which struck so great a reverence when unknown The Temple shines with flames and to the sight That fear'd Recesse disclos'd with its own Light Either Religion from their fury flies Leaving it naked to profaner eyes Or God doth this abhorred Seat reject And will his Temple in the Minde erect CHORVS Shall Punishment in Death yet finde an end Shall his cold Corps to earth in peace descend Or naked hang and with so dire a sight Profane the Vefper of the sacred Night II. NVNCIVS Too late Religion warmes their savage brests Lest that neare Houre which harbengers their Feast Should take them unprepar'd to Pilat they Repaire intreat him that the Souldier may From bloudy crosses take their bodies down Before their Festivalls the Morning crown That no uncleannesse might from thence arise In memory of th' Aegyptian Sacrifice The leggs of the two Thieves they brake whose breath Yet groan'd between the bounds of life and death The crashing bones report a dreadfull sound While both their souls at once a passage found Nor had the Cohort lesse to Jesus done Who now the Course prescrib'd by Fate had runne But dead deep in his side his trembling speare A Souldier strake his entrails bare appeare And from that wide-mouth'd Orifice a floud Of water gusht mixt with a stream of bloud The Crosses now discharged of their fraught The People fled not with one look or thought Part sad and part amaz'd Spent Fury dies Whither so fast run you to sacrifice A silly Lambe too mean an Offering Is this for you