whose right hand doth plant The rut'lant starres amidst the Firmament Who pav'st the Ocean with thy orient gem Plant in my soule thy Artimesian stem And like the lotos in Euphrates bosome Be thou the Sun that still re-clears my blossome But ay me what is this I now doe heare Thee say to Mary Mary come not neare And touch me not Art thou that fi'ry bush Which made old Moses stand afar no tush The flames and threats of Sinay now are gone And thou art made our very flesh and bone Yea thou hast bid us touch and taste and feele How good thou art to Isr'els Common-weale And yet as if thou wouldst some distance try Thou stopp'st our wonted famil'arity It is not long since thou endur'dst a touch Which justly tearmed might have been Non-such A Traitor kissed thee a Rascall knave Did with his buffet and his spit out-brave Thy glorious face thy head was crown'd with thorns Thy hands and feet were pierc'd and with proud scorns Of thy unlook'd for death a speare did part The water and the blood from out thy heart Those touches thou endur'dst but ay me now Thou call'st for distance but I know not how It can subsist with thy unchanged love To change a sweet imbracet'a sad remove But pardon me my God for now I finde That too much love hath made her judgment blinde For since she saw thee put in porta mortis Her eyes have still been drown'd in aqua fortis And in her rapture whil'st she cryes Rabboni She turnes her Benjamini to Benoni For though thou still be what thou wast before True God and Man yet art thou now some more Then man and mortall but immortall now Kodesh laihova is writ on thy brow The Vrim and the Thummim on thy breast Tels Aaron's dead and Melchisedeck â—s Priest And since true life hath triumph over death Now must we live no more by sense but faith And by the spirit not the flesh must we Now seek our God and his felicitie Some eight dayes hence Christs Disciples meet And in a private chamber closely sit The doores being shut Christ Jesus commeth in And greets them with his 〈◊〉 then doth begin To rouz their 〈…〉 Soulles from â—eare to â—aith Which oâ— salvaâ—ion 〈…〉 promise hath To waken Thomas from his misbeliefe For lack of faith ' mongst many sins is chiefe Thomas saith he thou hast of late deny'd To trust my Resurrection till my side My hands my feet and all my wounds doe give Thee by thy touch true reason to believe I pitty this thy weaknes for I know The sourse and fountain whence this stream doth flow Is not proud malice but infirmitie The sp'rit speaks faith flesh infidelitie T is true that when those wounds I did receive And from my Crosse was carried to my grave Thou didst not see me for thou rann'st away When Judas by his kisse did me betray But now thou art return'd and so am I Thou from thy fears I from mortality And since I see upon thy fingers end Thy faith and resolution doth depend Come come thy touch not only shall be fed But al 's ' thy other senses satisfied Come come I say behold those wounds of mine And let not misbeliefe ' gainst faith repine Reach here thy fingers boldly touch my hands Touch those my feet see how my side yet stands Wide open with those wounds which did of late My harmlesse body cru'ly penetrate And be not thou a faith lesse Did'mus more But make true faith ov'rflow thy hard hearts shore Thomas no sooner doth stretch out his fingers To touch Christs side when loe from off her hingers Christ pulls his heart which then was hard as stone And with the touch of true contrition Makes him bewaile his infidel'ty more Then he was bent to harden it before O now I finde saith he and cryes aloud Thou art the Christ my very Lord my God O happy Thomas what a happy change Is this which now doth in thy bosome range Of late thou saidst Unlesse I surely see The stamps of death in his mortalitie I will not trust what ever can be sed That he from death can be recovered But now behold what nature could not see Faith doth perceive behold that Mustard tree Of faith in thee hath been most shrewdly shaken Yet from the root it hath not quite been taken O what a forcelesse force of heav'ns high thought This alteration in thy brest hath wrought For one thing thou didst see believe another And this made Faith and Nature joyn together One thing thy eyes did see that he was Man Thy heart believes him God 't is more than can By natures rules or documents of art Couch in thy conscience or confirm thy heart But ô the power of the Almighty who Unto the weak joyns grace and nature so That what weak nature cannot work for want Of strength grace there doth furnish supplement And though that faith doth build her house on that Which to the nat'rall eye 's unseen yet what May help weak nature and procure her strength She doth amasse together and at length From both their Magazens draws forth that store Of grace which Sathan can deface no more Thrice happy Thomas who didst thus believe Because thou saw'st but if that God shall give The grace to such as never saw to trust Thrice happy they their faith shall make them just For when they by the heav'ns great power shall Arise to make their last Judiciall Account their unseen faith shall make them see Death hath no sting Grave hath no vietorie Thus standeth Thomas to the faith converted From him a hard heart by a touch is parted Christ to the rest of those his brethren saith Brethren these times require much strength of faith Harken therefore to what I to you say 'T is long since I first said I goe my way And you were heavy that I so should speak For then your faith was wav'ring faint and weak But now your eares have heard youe eyes have seen What I have suffred yet my wounds be green Gird up your loynes therefore henceforth be strong For he who wrongeth you to me doth wrong And whoso harmeth you he harmeth me I love you as the apple of mine eye Yet must not I alwayes on earth remain I to my Father must return again And to your Father to my God I goe And to your holy one and God also My God is your God and my Father 's yours The gates of hell and all their darkned powr's Shall not be able ' gainst you to prevaile My Scepter and my Rod their strength shall quaile Full forty times brave Titan now hath run About the world and stay'd where he begun Full forty dayes hath he yea each day once Saluted and adieu'd both Horizons Full forty times hath Pha'ton's Chariots wheel Bid Flora both good morrow and farewell Now now 't is time that Jesus should goe hence T' enjoy the throne of his magnificence Not
Serve gainst the Philistims for sword and rod When Jabin's yoak the wearied necks did gall Of Jacob's seed and gloried in their fall How did brave Deborah by the conqu'ring hand Of Barak Jabin's boasting troops withstand And made their Generall Siserah in the tent Of Jael try Ambitions just event How did brave Gideon's barly-cake and lamp Couch'd in an earthen-pitcher daunt the Camp Of Midian that so their night-bred dreame Prov'd but a presage to their mornings Scaene How did bold Sampson peerless-pearle of Arms Burst Gazae's gate-bars and unlock the charmes Of Dalilah and make an Asse jaw-bone Drunke with the blood of Gath and Askelon In end what Nymrod or what Anak stern Could ev'r their fame or honor so etern As hath the Son of Jesse who at first Did kill a Lyon and a wilde Boare burst Then by a peeble which hee lately took From the sweet verge of a pure glyding brook Did so subdue th'heathen Goliah's rage Who did blaspheme th'Eternal's-heritage That now wee see nor bragging breaths nor boasts Can save or kill as doth the Lord of hosts All those like stars in dark Cymerian night Adorn'd their Orb with some small gleams of light But being obfuscat by a cleerer ray Have been the Prodroms of this better day Our never setting Sun is now arisen And by his rayes irradiats our Horizon In such a sort that those glow wormes may goe And spend their luster and their per'shing show Amongst the purblind wofull ignorants Of Mexica or Magallanae's Tents Our way 's made known why walk we not therein Our Truth 's declar'd why live we then to sin Our life 's proclam'd why are we then dismai'd Of death or hell why should we bee afraid Hath not our Goell our great kinsman come To pay our morgage and redeem our sum And that upon our blood-shedder he may The stroke of Justice awfully repay Loe to the desert now he hies him there In all our suff'rings as copartiner That David like he may that Gyant foyl Who in th'Eternalls hoast hath wrought such spoyl And ever blessed be his glorious Name Who comming up from Jordans chrystall stream No sooner from his foot doth wipe the water When to th' Arabians desert wilde Theater He 's led by that same spirit which like a Dove Did from the heav'ns proclaim him our soules Love That in our flesh as he our seale did take So in it he might tryumph for our sake For no such mediator we must have As scornes our griefes infirmities or grave But such a one as being exempt from sin In all things else must run the race we run Thrice three ten yeers hath my Redeemer now Liv'd in the world and yet for ought I know Sathan untill this time durst ne'er be bold ' Gainst him to set a snare his foot t' enfold His privat life 't may be procur'd his ease His publike charge must taste of trecheries Like Jacob who with Laban whil'st he stayes Had Peace and rest and amorous quirks and playes But being call'd by God to get him home False hearted Laban after him can come And search his stuffe prepar'd to doe him wrong Unlesse the mighty God of strongs the strong Had curb'd him in his night bred Visions so That maugre envy he must let him goe Whil'st Moses stayes in Aegypt Pharo's daughter Preserves him safe from Pharoh's threatned slaughter But when he comes for Israels reliefe He ' mongst the sonnes of persecution's chiefe Whil'st David kept his fathers Ewes in peace To God he warbled Hymns and Odes of grace But call'd to Court and to the stage of fame Wrath rancour envy plyes his Diadem So whil'st my Saviour both by Incarnation And by the highest heav'ns Inauguration Stands as the very sonne of God and Man Anoynted our Redeeming Soveraign Loe neither can the seale nor gift of grace Exempt him from hels envy'n any case For grace cannot prevent it may repell The stratagems of Perdue Centiuell But still the more the Lord with grace decores us The stronger fetters Sathan sett's before us O God therefore since thy Sonne is not free But grace it self must taste of enmitie What carefull watchings should we wormlings take ' Gainst this perfidious spirituall Amaleck Who daring to assail the head shall sure The heels destruction if he can procure Since then I see it is that glorious Spirit Which he from all etern'ty did inherit Ev'n that great spirit of th' Almighty God Whose word comforts us under whose sharpe rod The very hell doth tremble whose high hand None of thy creatures could e're yet withstand Who rideth on the blustring windes swift wings Who makes the Clouds his messengers who brings Or penury or plenty by his rain Who walketh dry-foot on the Ocean Why should we in tentations deepest jarre Feare Chance or Fortunes lying Kalendar For all the pow'rs of darknesse and of hell Cannot make one haire of our head to fall Till he whose pow'r and pleasure plac'd them there Bids either Justice smite or Mercy spare For he it is who leads us to our fight And sends us blowes according to our might And wheresoe're we fight he goes along Both to encourage us and make us strong And when w'have fought our fight gives us reward As his deep wisedome hath for us prepar'd I magnifie my Saviour then who here Doth boldly in Tentations lists appeare And by his rare example tells us how To keep our posture and our foes subdue The Philistims by Sampson smarting sore And often did his Dalilah implore She would by all meanes possible but try Wherein his strength and sinewy force did lye That knowing that they might him so dis-arm As never after they might feare his harm Then O how carefull should we be to learn And in our halcyon dayes and times discern The traps the snares and the bewitching tricks That 's put before us by the Prince of Styx That so foreseeing his Engines we may Or burst his snares or safely flie away Loe how Colossus like in Horebs plain He stands thence skips to Neboes top again From thence to Sions pinacle he flies Like lightnings flashes darting through the skies Never did Proteus with more change of shape Beguile the world than doth this trickling Ape With change of colours feature form and all My Masters fixed sense sense seek to enthrall Three deeply poyson'd darts are in his hand Which flesh and blood alone could ne're withstand The lust of heart is one Lifes pride another The lust of th' eye is third their first-born brother And he who from all those can keep him free Hath more than flesh and bloods excellency For he who in the Van doth play his part May in the Main battalion shrink and smart And who hath fought them both may in the Reer Prove worthy nothing but a sod Cashiere The first daâ—t then about his head he shakes And'gainst our Master this assault he makes If it be true that heav'n hath spoke saith he If thou be
tear-drown'd eye Weeps out his soules sad sorrowes but for what They neither know nor can prognosticat Is this the grave saith he where Laz'rus lyeth Is this the Tomb which his dead corps implyeth It is say they then roll away this stone Which holds him in his dusty mansion No no saith Martha now the time is past This is the fourth day since we made it fast Corruption e're now hath made him stench His putrifaction no perfume can quench What Martha saith he have not I e're now Told thee that if by faith thou shouldst subdue Thy soule thou shouldst behold the pow'r of God Change Moses serpent to an usefull rod They roll away the stone to heav'n doth he Lift up his heart his hand and weeping eye And with a loud voyce he doth thus encall His Fathers hearing O great All of all O dread Creator and ô loving Father From whom all creatures doe their essence gather I thank thee that thou now hast heard me nay I know that thou dost heare me every way But that this people may believe that thou Who in thy selfe art very truth and true Hast sent me thy right hands great strength to prove And to the sonnes of men make known thy love To thee I cry'd and yet to thee doe cry That thou wouldst their hard hearts once mollifie This said he straight on Lazarus doth call Come forth come forth stay no more there at all I have the keyes of life and death therefore To thee my quickning spirit I restore No sooner hath he spoke these words then he Who lay in death and graves captivitie Comes forth bound hand and foot with those poor ties Which laugh to scorn lifes superfluities Now loose him saith he loose him let him goe For God is Lord of life and death also O what a world of miracles doe here In coacervat troops of pow'r appeare He weeps and spends his teares this tells he 's Man His word awakes the dead God only can He makes the bound to walk and blind to see All this t' expresse his sacred Deity Yet will not loose the bonds nor move the stone Himselfe but gives to men direction To act that part that by this Riddle he May teach the sonnes of men a mysterie That he who without man did man first make Will not man but by man save or forsake Qui fecit te sine te non servat te sine te For though God works his work mirac'lously Yet t'ordinary meanes he doth man ty And now in end to shew how Christ of late The deafe and dumb did both re-consolate How for the payment of a Tributes penny A Dolphine from the deep affords him money How graciously th' Adulteresse is freed And both from sinne and shame stands purifi'd How that poor man who from the wombe was blinde By clay and spittle doth his eye-sight finde How Jairus daughter and the widdows sonne Of Naine were reviv'd how he alone Did feed five thousand with five barly loaves How dry-foot on the Seas proud waves he roaves I dare not longer undertake to tell Lest under such a weight my spirits faile Let this suffice those few which here be shown Make both his Godhead and his Manhead known The Proselyt's CANTO 5o. AS when a grave and sage Gymnosophist Minding to put his Scholler to the list Of publick dispute whence he hopes to gaine The honour of his long turmoyling paine Prescribes him first some disputable Theam To be contested in the Acadeam Which being toss'd in Dialectique manner By quircks and Sophismes of a subtill strainer Gives correspondent hopes or fears of what The publick The'ter can emarginat So Nicodemus having oft times heard Of that rich glory and that rich reward Which Christ had promis'd to all such as should By his directions be govern'd and rul'd Goes privily by night to him to try Who was the stronger Christ or th' Pharisie Master saith he I see thou art a man Come out from God for certainly none can Or speake or doe as thou hast spoke and done Without some divine inspiration Is' t so saith Christ brave Nicodemus now I needs must tell thee what thou dost not know Except a man be born again 't is sure He shall not enter in at Glories doore Be born again saith he what 's this I heare VVhat man can make this paradox appeare Can he that 's old return to 's mothers wombe And thence being born again a childe become This Maxim seemeth very strange to me It over-tops my weak capacity VVhat dost thou think this strange doth Christ then say That man must needs be born again Nay nay Unlesse a man be born again by water And by the Spirits inward hid lavacre He cannot enter in Gods kingdome for What 's born of flesh is flesh and what is more What is born of the Spirit 's likewise Spirit VVithout this birth no man can heav'n inherit The winde blows where it lists thou hear'st the sound Thereof but canst not tell where 't may be found From whence it comes or whither it doth goe So hidden are his waves who makes it blow Come come saith Necodemus tell me where Thou canst be bold this Doctrine to averre Thou speak'st to me of being born again But of a new birth I conceive no strain Thou prat'st to me of heav'ns great Kingdome but Of that Monarchick state I see no jot Make me then see a reason and a cause Of what thou speak'st else hold thy peace and pause VVell Nicodemus now of truth I see That Nature is to Grace an Enemie And what the nat'rall man thinks wisdome that Doth God as folly excommunicat And what the Lord counts wisdome that doth Nature Abhorre as voyd of her perfections feature VVhat if I should be bold but to demand Of thee this question what strong pow'r and hand Did frame thee in thy mothers womb when yet In darknesse as a Non-ens thou didst sit Whose fingers there condens'd thy bones what power Did fill thy veines with Bozra's crimson shower VVho made thy nerves and artyrs so to tie Thy bodies compact and societie Who fram'd thy braines great Chaos liver spleen Thy boyling choller or thy moyst'ning phleagm VVho made thy eyes so watchfull Centinels VVho made thy nose Judge of so various smels VVho made thy tongue to speak or eares to hear VVho made thy knees to bow or back to bear And last of all whence hadst thou that poor breath Whose presence lends thee life whose absence death Whose influence warms thee with celestiall fire And whose unmoved motion doth aspire In a poor minute to run round about Earths drossie globe and Seas green glassie spout Then in an eyes poor twinkle strives to know The treasures of the windes hail rain and snow Thence falling down doth view that woefull deep Wherein the Vessels of Gods wrath doe weep Thence scaling all the heav'ns doth scan the course Of all the Stars in their imperiall sourse Thence soaring higher
date I for my last and glorious change shall waite For He who was dead is alive and shall To me be Alpha and Omega All. The Trophee CANTO 7o. CHrist had not come from heav'n to earth but that He might our dying soules re-animat He had not liv'd on earth so long to try Cares watches griefes reproaches misery Had he not meant to write us an example In patience upon their necks to trample Nor had he took our flesh if not to die That by his suff'rings he might satisfie The wrath of God due unto mans offence And reconcile that sin-bred difference Nor had he dy'd were 't not to rise again And reunite us to our Soveraigne Nor did he rise but that he might ascend And so bring our Redemptions to an end Thus was he born thus did he live and thus He hath both dy'd and rose againe for us That our new birth new life and new death may By him be turn'd to an eternall day Now if that any ask who shall perswade VVeake man that he such mighty power had The trembling earth the darkned sunne the grave The quickned dead the rent vaile and that slave VVhich in earths centers dwels can all declare The Virgins sonne and eke th' Almighties heire True God and Man earths Monarch heav'ns great King Did those stupendious works t' effect forth bring But if sublunar things subject to errour Can neither work our joy nor strike with terrour Our hardned hearts let glorious Angels then Serve to extirpate misbeliefe from men For they did by their presence shake those fooles VVho by their spears and staves and murth'ring tools Sought to detaine the Lord of Life i' th' grave Let all such guardians such reward still have Then to some weaker women whose true care And love to life had quickly brought them there They furnish matter of true consolation Declaring his true life whose death and passion Had but of late their soule so pierc'd with woe That naturall comfort could not cure their blow Such as our conscience is or good or bad Accordingly we are rejoyc'd or sad When God to us his countenance doth show Or in a cheerfull smile or frowning aw The righteous Man is like the Lyon bold The wicked shrink for feare within their hold And one day when their joyes away shall fly Then shall they shrink and feare eternally One woman there was of a speciall note The Magdalen of late known by her spot But now by penitentiall tears made clean She greater grace and favour doth obtain For he whodwelleth in the heav'ns doth weigh The hearts of men in scales of Veritie And looks not on our outward carnall things But on that treasure which the heart forth brings To this poore woman then they first doe talk And with her in the way of comfort walk That she who sometime was a sinner might To after-sinners shew the wondrous hight The depth the length and breadth of mercy that Unto the penitent's accumulat For God doth not take heed to what we were But unto what we by adoption are For still his mercies supr'abound and more Where sinnes abundant plenty dwelt before If he can see our tears our cheeks distaine And bubble up from true repentance vaine Some eight dayes hence this Nymph began to weep And make her tears bedew her Masters feet Her eyes as yet have not shut up their sluces So deep 's the memoyr of her youths abuses And eke so fresh the relish of his smart Who spent his blood to purge her sinfull heart That she cannot her throbbing sighs restrain Nor from her restlesse seas of teares refraine But when sh'ath weep'd enough she still weeps more And ' gainst her sorrowes cannot shut the doore VVhil'st thus she weeps she turnes unto her stay And bowing down beholds where Jesus lay And loe two Angels there doe sit the one VVhere Jesus head did lye and rest anon Another she espies there where his feet Had their impression in the hard rock set They see the woman weep and thus enquire VVoman why weep'st thou what dost thou desire She answers Sure I weep not without cause For here of late in deaths devouring jawes My Lord did lye but now alas he 's gone And none can tell me whither no not one They thus reply what foole art thou to seek The living ' mongst the dead did he not speak And preach to you last day in Galile The sonne of man must suffer and third day Rise up again he is not here goe goe Tell his Disciples that he 's rise But loe VVhil'st thus they parley Jesus comes and still Rebukes her for her mis-informed will VVoman saith he woman what dost thou mean VVhat wilt thou never from thy teares abstain She takes him for the Gardner and saith Sir If you have took him hence pray let me heare VVhere you have layd him and be sure from thence I will re-bring him at what-ere expence To those fond words my Saviour saith But Mary She answers him Rabboni Without tary Falls down before his feet to kisse them but He to that fond affection yeeldeth not O doe not touch me Mary saith he for I am not yet ascended but what 's more Expedient for the world goe quickly tell My weak Disciples that the gates of hell Which gap'd against me now have no more pow'r To hedge me in for I have broke their door And to my members doe propine Lifes cup That they may dine with me I with them sup O what a masse or magazen is here Of pretious comfort by a Gardiner Breath'd to a woman O what large extent Of pardon 's sealed to a Penitenâ—â— For whil'st I see her thus so sadly weep And him comfort her ' gainst her griefs I keep In minde that Program which of late he told Blessed are they who mourn for loe behold They shall reap comfort and thrice blessed they Who ask seek knock for verily I say They shall receive and finde and enter for To such my Father doth not shut his door Next this whil'st I behold the great mistake Wherein her true affection although weake Made her believe a Gardner she had seen I doe impute it to her tear-drown'd eyn I cannot choose but make my soule to smile At this so happy fraud and sweet beguile For never man did to my weak esteem Give him a fitter stile or truer name For where did ever garden in the stower Of stormy rage produce so sweet a flower Or where did ever Gardner plant or frame So rich an imp in such a withring stem Did he not first in Paradise re-plant The promis'd Primrose of the Covenant In Baal-haman graft'd he not that Vine About the which the Saints their armes doe twine Is not he Sharons Rose the Valleyes Lilly Engeddies Camphire Bethleems Daffadilly Gethsemans Gilly-flow'r and Golgaths Rheu And Arimathea's Turn-sol ever true It is not then a great mistake to call Him Gardner who makes those to rise and fall O glorious Gardner
Immanuel OR THE MISTERY Of GOD Manifested in the FLESH Sung in the severall CANTOES Of URANIA ASTRAEA MELPOMENE By WILL. WISHARTT B. D. Scoto-Britan and Preacher in both Kingdoms LONDON Printed by R. Hodgkinsonne for Philip Nevill dwelling in Ivie Lane 1642. TO THE HIGH AND MIGHTY MONARCH Charles Of Great Britain France and Ireland c. ANAGRAMMATA REGIA Carolus Steuartus Solus sacra tuetur Charles Steuart Th' Altars Rescue Charles Steuart L'-tres haut Cesar TO thee great Britains France Irelands King To thee great Faith 's defending Soveraign To thee great Patron of Parnassus spring To thee great Neptune of our Northern Main To thee great Owner of th' Hesperian Plain To thee great Patron both of Armes and Arts To thee great Mover of great Albion's wain To thee great Monarch both of hands and hearts To thee great Sun who to our soyle imparts Light vegetation life and influence To thee great Pan who break'st Bellona's darts To thee great Mirrour of Magnificence My pure Urania sacres those poor drops She suck'd from Pindus and Parnassus tops 'T is true to thee she can no good impart Yet shall she sing Thy servant's WILL. WISHARTT To the Reader WHat wise Jedidjah did not understand What Jakehs Son could never yet conceive Apelles pencill in Apollo's hand On those succeeding tables shall engrave What way a young man with a maid can have What way a Serpent strayeth on a stone What way a Ship doth slope the Oceans wave What way an Eagle scales the welkins Zone How glory commeth from confusion How meat com'th from the eater sweet from soure How life doth spring from deaths pavilion And how a Lambe doth curb the Lions powre Stand all indented on that cursed Tree Where ink and blood have writ J. N. R. J. The Contents of the severall Chapters or Cantoes contained in the 3 ensuing Weeks-Works or Books expressed under the Titles of URANIA ASTRAEA MELPOMENE viz. In URANIA or the first Week Cant. 1o. The Rogation or the Authors Prayer fol. 1 Cant. 2o. The Prodrome or Fore-runner fol. 5 Cant. 3o. The Annunciation or Salutation fol. 17 Cant. 4o. Immanuel or the Birth of Christ fol. 27 Cant. 5o. The Advent or Circumcision fol. 39 Cant. 6o. The Epiphany or the Sages fol. 51 Cant. 7o. The Massacre or murther of the children fol. 59 In ASTRAEA or the second Week Cant. 1o. The Vnction or Baptisme fol. 69 Cant. 2o. The Duell or Temptation fol. 79 Cant. 3o. The Doctor or the Law interpreted fol. 91 Cant. 4o. The Powers or Miracles fol. 102 Cant. 5o. The Proselytes or Converts fol. 117 Cant. 6o. The Metamorphose or Transfiguration fol. 126 Cant. 7o. The Hosanna or riding to the Temple fol. 136 In MELPOMENE or the third Week Cant. 1o. The Conspiracy or betraying of Christ fol. 147 Cant. 2o. The Agonie in Gethsemen fol. 158 Cant. 3o. The Surprize or Apprehension fol. 168 Cant. 4o. The Assize or Tryall fol. 178 Cant. 5o. The Crosse or Death fol. 189 Cant. 6o. The Triumph or Resurrection fol. 200 Cant. 7o. The Trophec or Ascension fol. 211 URANIA Here doth a worm-ling to his wondrous maker His Soules best service and affections sacre A Lyon to a Lamb prepares the Way The Angel Gabriel greets great Bethleem's May The chast Parthenia bringeth forth her Son Immanuel's seal'd by Circumcision A blazing Star makes Sages seek their King In Ramah Rachel weeps and scornes to sing The Rogation CANTO 1o. THE very Heav'ns are in thy sight impure O thou dread Soveraign of all Creature Thy Wisdom's such and eke thy pow'r so large That thou layst folly to the Angells charge O then how idly foolish and how vain A thing is man ev'n in his choycest strain Whose habitation is in dust and clay Where Vanity beares such imperiall sway As makâ— his strength but weaknes wisdom folly Thoughts fond and actions ev'ry way unholy How canst thou then thou sacred strong of strongs To whom untainted Majesty belongs Once sip the runnals of that source whence gall Springs up from Worm-woods poysond Minerall Or heare the cryes which wretched hee poures out Whose best apparell is a men struous clout No sure I am it cannot bee but thou Who in thy self art still unchang'd and true Must on some rarer object fix thine eyes E'r thou dispense with our impieties Yea sure I am it is that Lamb alone Who joynd with thee in triple-union Whose intercession and sweet warbling ayrs Makes thee attend the tenour of our Prayers Look therfore great GOD on that Lamb whose cry Speaks better things then Abel's butchery Look on that blood which spred on Israel's doores Saves from that Plague which Pharaoh's sons devoures Look on that thred which being tied about Zarah's right hand inspr'd him to come out Holding his brothers heel in 's grapling fist To testify hee strugled to bee blest And finally look on that scarlet Lace Which ti'd to Rachab's window gave her Peace Amidst that foyl and death-denouncing wound Which Jericho's vain-glory did confound Look on all those and through all those on me In him whom those did all presignifie And by thy Spirit enrich this spirit of mine With learned Judgement and with Art divine That whilst I undertake this task to tell The World how her dread Lord Immanuel Thy eternal Word yea thy eternal Son Was made in Time our very flesh and bone I may dilate that story in such guise As may enforce the learnd the sage the wise To leade the Squadrons of their carnall-sense All captivate to thy obedience And to this end rowse thou my minde on high Teach thou my hands to touch and eys to see The secrets of thy sweet-coelestiall-Court Which may my Soule above the Pole transport In such a sort that whilst the Poetasters Of brain-sick passions and of fond disasters Doe ravish worldly minds and muddy brains With forged sighs false teares and feined strains Of wanton Love lascivious shews and songs Vain Madrigals dissembling woes and wrongs My Muse quit-claming the Castalian Font Where the Pyerian maids of old were wont To sip their Nectar And those swelling tops Of Pindus and Parnassus whose sweet drops Ravish'd great Homer by their sacred kisses To sing Achilles and the wise Vlysses Made Maro from his Mantua to descry The sighs of Dido and the sack of Troy And taught Love's pander in a ravish'd trance To vent his fabulous Metamorphos'd dance I may with sacred measures notes and numbers Which on sublunar-themes nor sleeps nor slumbers The grave sweet honors and th' eternall praises Of my Redeemer rouse from errors mazes So whilst that some their pens and pains inure To limb the Gnydian Idols pourtrature And in the vains of their lascivious rime Make Cupid prince and Genius of the time Whilst others subjects are but fictions dreams Imaginations and conceited theames Cloath'd up in such a charming phrase that vice Robs virtue of her chaire shee looks so nice My care may bee t' unfold that boundles Ocean
sinner from his sinnes convert He shall the father to the son rejoyn The son gainst father shall no more repine Each lofty Mountain and declining vally Through which our bubling brooks doe crawl and dally Shall change their state for those shall be made low And these exalted to an eminent show Things rough shall be made smooth things crooked streight And on rous things shall lose their pondrous weight And all the sucklings sleeps in natures lap Shall see the lightning of his thunder-clap That all the world may learn t' adore and kis Immanuel whose harbenger he is O how can 't bee saies Zachary that I Whose loynes are fruitles juceles barren dry Or that my wife Elizabeth whose raines Have stopt the fruitfull current of their vains Should recollect recover and rebring A living Runnal from a wither'd Spring No Zachary saith the Angell know that hee Whose glory wisdom pow'r and Majesty Turns heav'ns bright Sphears about earths drossy ball Shall make thy tragick-Theatre comicall And lest that like a bull rush beaten reed Thy faith should faint or hope should lose her Creed Recall the memoyr's of the daies of old How Nature hath been by his pow'r control'd And thou shalt see that to the supreme powrs VVee stand subjected and what ere is our For let mee ask whence comes these Nectar'd drops Which like pure Balme doe drench Pomonaes tops Who makes the Oceans mutinous waves reflote Or who enamels Vestaes petticote VVho doth the fields refresh or flowrs re-flowr Who Bride-like busks Apolloes Paramour Who leads brave Titan captive through the sky Or who decks Cynthia with a silver dy Who brings old Boreas from his frozen Cave Who makes his furie all the world out-brave Who can command the light in darknes Camp To checker portraits in a dornick Champ Or who can shut again Lights glistring ey To snort in midst of darknes Canopy All these like antient Hieroglyphicks may God's wondrous power to the world display But since thou by a faithles feare wilt try His might goe mannage thy security By Sarahs loynes the faithfull Abraham's wife Whose barren belly is a well of life Behold Rebecca and the barren Anna Mother to Samuel wife to Elkana And by the histoyr ' of their strange exchange Command thy reason and thy sense t'estrange Their course from Nature and repose alone Thy faith and hope ev'n against hope upon His never failing word whose power can frame From senslesse stones a seed to Abraham 'T is true that Nature since the world began Strugleth ' gainst Faith within the naturall man And like a mutinous Hagar strives to steal The lot from Isaack to her Ishmael And he who hath not learned to deny Himselfe his reason wit and industry And with the welcome of affections kisse Submit himselfe to God and all that 's his May well expect but never shall embrace The dignities of Glory or of Grace And now since by a further doubting thou Hast call'd his word in doubt who 's only true Loe I who stand before his glorious eyes Who though unseen himselfe yet all things sees Must tell thee that till these things come to passe Which he hath spoke who shall be is and was This just deserved Rod on thee shall fall That thou shalt neither heare nor speake at all But shalt be dumb till with thine eyes thou see Th' accomplishment of this my Heraldrie Thus having with dread Majestie engraven In Zacharies heart this sowre-sweet-newes from heaven Like lightning when it darts alongst the skies His wings support him and away he flies The Annunciation CANTO 3o. STay stay your course you christall heav'ns and you Swift rolling Sphears whose vaulted Arches bow An azur'd brave Pavilion o're Ear ths bail Stay stay your motions sweetly musicall Arrest your course likewise you twinckling starrs Who dallying in your gold rich ammel'd Carrs Doe like brave Torches and still burning Tapers Light natures Chappell at her ev'ning Vespers And Amphitrite thou where Syrens dwells And celebrate their Nymph-like festivalls Braule thou no more in that tumultuous guize That sacks the Merchant 's far fetch'd Indian prize But like a Bride who knows her Bride-groom's diet Greet thou thy Neptune with a sacred quiet And whilst thy waiting hand maids-cristall brooks Desert their Fountains and their floury crooks To bring a Consort of their watry Calls To gratulate thy Nymph-like Nuptialls Then clasp them in thine arms with joyfull heast And bid them welcome to thy Virgin feast Till reconvey'd with Tritons for their trayne Thou sendst them to their bubling sourse againe Empamper'd Vesta on whose embroider'd kirtle Hangs Alloes Cassia Spicknard Balme and Mirtle Carowse that Nectar which the Heav'ns doe weep To all those sucklings in thy lap doe sleep That they may dance amidst thy pearlelike shower A Masquedrade before thy Paramour Thus like a bold-fac'd Herald I proclame To Nature and her Universall frame Ev'n from Boötes in his whirling Carre To pale Orion's tempest boding Starre A sacred quiet and a sweet cessation From all their influence course and operation Till he whose Royall and Imperiall Throne Transcends our azur'd skies and heav'ns each one Doe from the Senate of his own good pleasure Send Man the Message of his Soules rich treasure Sixe times hath now faire Phaebe cut a caper In opposition to her brothers Taper And six times couch'd againe within his armes Sh' hath glut her selfe with his delightfull charmes Since earst a heav'n-born Legat hath declar'd To Zachary That for his faiths reward From out his wife Eliz'beths barren wombe The great Messiahs Prodrome John should come Now now Time big with fulnesse doth require That he who first did blow our Soules bright fire Should contribute truth life and light unto Those shady Tipes which did his Sonne foreshow That so the gracelesse World by him might plant Within their hearts his gracious Covenant Time then being full Night in a sad Sea-green Or pitchy-purpled mantle like Deaths Queen Had tane her Brother Morpheus Mace in hand And sent a drowsie rest over all the Land The ever-sacred ever Virgin-mother Whose glory neither heav'n nor earth can smother Great Arimathea's joy and Bethels Crowne And Palestina's dread sweet rich Renowne Still ruminating heav'ns unshun'd decree How from a Virgins belly there should flee A Soule dread Monarch and Celestiall Prince Whose blood should purge our leprous foule offence Prevent the rosie mornings warbling train And hyes her to a neighboring Grove amain That there in darknesse shady lap she might In divine contemplations spend the night Yet stay my Muse stay but a little while And view this grove which Eden-like doth smile That by the survey of so sweet a shade My muse may some way make my Reader glad Neare to that place whence hoary Jordane slides From Hermons hill and makes his twin-born Tides To meet in Marons lap in view doth lye The ever fruitfull pleasant Galily Whose right hand 's dipt in those tumultuous waves Which by Tiberius
But hee that to the Gospels folly shall Subdue his heart and its affections all 1 Cor. 1.21 And finally as for the Jews I have To Circumcision made my self a slave So now by Baptism for the Gentiles I Must undergoe this Jordan's watry dy That Jew and Gentile bond and free and all VVho for Salvation hunger thirst and call By mee may have a reconciling Peace And in mee access to the throne of Grace No deeper blush hath golden Phoebus when He hides his head in Peru's Ocean Then deth o're-shade the Baptiist's face while as His weakness is display'd in wisdom's glass Submitting then himself his thoughts and all To the injunctions of his Generall They both goe straight to Jordan that therein Christ may bee seal'd a surety for our sin No sooner hath this milde sweet-coupled pair Trod on the frisled locks of Jordan's hair When loe the Sun forsaking th'opal morn Doth his meridian-poynt with pompe adorne And like a Prince set in his royall throne He calls his neighb'ring tapers one by one Who by their intermixed torches seven VVith matchless-splendor cleer the cope of heav'n Those steep proud hills whose lofty swelling tops Drink for their mornings-draught Aurora's drops Such as the Law-grac'd Sinay Carmell old VVhere Seraphims God's Prophet did enfold Horab and Nebo whose soft arms doe keep Moses and Aaron in their dusty sleep Jegar-sha-duthae and mount Pisgah whence Moses view'd Jacob's fair inheritance The balm-rich Gilead and mount Moriah where The faith of Abram made him mercies heire Link'd all together clasp'd their hands to hand And on their stately tip-toes trip and stand To see him baptiz'd whose fierce indignation Subverts the Sinewy props of their foundation Jordan himself like Nereus eldest son VVrap'd in a roab of pearle and Nacre's stone No sooner sees his sweet approach when loe Hee curbs his streames from their accustom'd flowe Who whilst they turn their back upon the deep To see their maker seem'd for joy to weep Straight way there com'th that dainty swelling stream That fatt'h and lean'th proud Misraims Diadem The faire Euphrates and Hydaspes who Through Media's channell joynes with gentle Po Chesel Araxis Volga and that rill That waits on new-born Titan's hests and will Rhine Ister Danube Tanais Tagus Iber Meander Xanthus Tygris Po and Tiber Peneus Orontes and each Runnall else Which either softly slides or proudly swells Doe all to Jrodans flowry bank repaire And of their intertexed locks and haire Compose a sumptuous Arrasse richly sweet To wipe the water off their Masters feet In this enpamper'd crew great Jordan stands Bending his knees and heaving up his hands And to his Maker in a pearle-like teare Breaths this Congratulation in his eare Eternall Issue of th' Eternall Sire Deep wisdome of that God whom th'heav'ns admire Almighty Lord all-seeing God all 's Maker Here at thy foot-stoole we doe humbly sacre Our selves our service and our dearest love As vassals to obey thy dread behove VVhil'st Nature thus and all her tender broods Hills valleyes deserts silver brooks and floods Intranc'd with joy conspire to solemnize This masque before their glorious Makers eyes Behold our Shiloe glad to undergoe That state wherein he should our sinnes o'rethrow Steps down to Jordans silver streames and there By John's enstall'd Copartner of our Care And now no sooner doth he step from out The liquid Current and the chrystall Spout Of Jordan when to all the peoples eye Heav'ns act their part in this Festivitie And by their rich applause confirm and seale The Covenant of Mercies Common-weale For loe heav'ns azur'd Arch is slop'd in twain And from Jehovah's throne comes down amain A silver-feather'd Dove who rests upon him And hugs his head as being enamour'd on him With all from heav'ns high Senate comes a voyce Inviting all the world thus to rejoyce Rejoyce O heav'ns be glad O earth and all That in the world doe creep or breath or crawl For here 's my welbeloved Sonne in whom My wrath 's appeas'd ' gainst sinners Come O come Today if you will save your soules draw neer him And whil'st he opes his mouth in wisdome heare him Now now I see that harmlesse Dove un-stay'n Who being sent out returned home again Holding within her bill an olive branch To shew that Neptune then his wrath did quench Was but a Type sent to presignifie The rest the peace the joy we have in thee O how thou' rt faire exceeding faire my Dove Thy eyes have made my Soule ev'n sick with love Thy neck is Ivory Raven-black thy locks Thy dwelling's in the top of Shenirs rocks Faire Sharons Rose Engeddyes sweet Camphire The dew of Hermon Gileads dainty Mirrhe The Balm the Alloes and the Spice also Which Abanah and Parphars valleyes show Yeeld not so sweet a smell as doe thy lips Whil'st thou on Bethers tops mak'st known thy trips Stay then my Darling goe not hence away The shady night can no more wrong the day Whil'st with a sable furre she lops his eye To snort in midnights velvet Cannopy Then thou shalt wound me to the death if ever Thou shalt thy Rayes from my pale Moon dissever Stay then my deare and by that Spirit of thine Repaire renew reform this soule of mine That like the harmlesse Dove who without gall Still loves and knowes not how to hate at all My Soule may by the radiance of thy love Still wed her selfe to thee who from above Hast brought the sacred Olive of our Peace T' establish mercy where fierce wrath had place The Duell CANTO 2o. OFt have mine eares been filld and eyes been fed With Raptures of that highly honored Alâ—mena's sonne whose high and conqu'ring hand By victories obtain'd by Sea and Land Hath made the trophies of his praise appear In all the stamps of Titan's bandilier Oft have I wondred at the martiall acts Heroick exploits and same-famishing facts Of Hector and Achilles and that crew Of Greekes and Trojans whose memorials grew To such a height that Homer's golden pen Could never fully point them forth but when He shut his eyes lest by their active glory He should betray the tenor of their story Oft have I stumbled to behold the great Distemper o' th' puissant Roman state By Shylla and by Marius set on fire For satisfaction of their fond desire Yet never quench'd or yet blown out again For all the armes or arts of France and Spain Till Pompey and great Caesar by the streames Of Rubicone drench'd these Aetnaean flames But wherefore doe I gaze this heathen stage Did not th' Almighty in that selfe same age Raise up a Theater of brave Heroes farre More eminent in Peace more bold in warre Then any heathen who did e're make bold Or Mars his helm or Mercur's pipe to hold Great Joshuah how didst thou stay the Sun In Gibeah and in Ajalon the Moon Till Jacobs wormlings to the ground down brings The pride of five combin'd Canaans Kings Shamgar how did thy oxen-taming goad
The walled Cities and rich stored shops The honny combs and those Elixar'd drops Of balm myrhe incense Nard and sweet perfume That serves to deck the bride and the bridegroom The warriour the master of the schoole The young the old the wise and eke the foole The Counsell tables and the Courts of Kings And all the treasures that the earth forth brings Are onely his he giveth them and when He thinks it fitting takes them back again Those thou hast set before me yet dost hide The hidden moaths that frets their inner side As if I did not know what weal and woe Daunce in a circle wheresoe're they goe What can our wealth or want my minde betray Can peace bewitch me or can warre affray My fixed thoughts thy eyes are cloid with gravell And so thou losest both thy toyle and travell Can sicknesse health life death vain glory shame Or any other worldly anatheme Make me forget my Father or forgot One jot of that true worship which I owe Unto him No go get thee gone avoid Proud Sathan for thou knowst not things of God But things of men from this I will not swerve That 's writ The Lord thy God alone goe serve And worship yea beside him worship none For that shall turn to thy confusion The Doctor CANTO 3o. AS when the Sunne obliqu'ly looking on A roride cloud frames a Parelion But looking with a streight oppos'd aspect On Phoebe makes herhis full rayes reflect So when from Jordans streams our great Messiah Went to the desert our late born Eliah Although the bridegrooms friend yet seem'd to weep For fear a hyreling should disperse his sheep But seeing him victoriously return This joy-bred fire doth in 's bosome burn O how my Soule doth now rejoyce sayth he To see the Sonne of Man march valiantly Returning from the desert Sathans den Cloth'd with the spoyle of sinne for sinfull men Loe where he commeth full of grace and truth No man in such abundance opes his mouth He was before me though he now doth follow Eternity his Majesty doth hollow From out his fulnesse we doe all receive Grace upon grace and what good else we have The Law was giv'n by Moses but by him Comes grace and truth and peace wherein we swim No man at any time hath seen the Father Save this his sonne from whose hid hands we gather That hidden Manna and those Quailes by which Our soules are fed and we to life made rich He commeth to the world for it he made Yet in it hath no place to rest his head He commeth to his own yet they refuse him He commeth to the builders they abuse him But unto all that doe receive him he Shall give this glory and prime dignity That they the sonnes of God shall all be call'd And as true heires of heaven be there enstall'd Even unto such as in his name believe To whom nor Nature flesh nor blood can give The new-births note but onely that great God Who in our flesh hath made his full abode And that it may be known that this is he Goe you my sonnes goe get you up draw nigh Unto him clasp him in your soules soft armes For he 's the Antidote for all your harmes At these fore-warnings John and Andrew goe And greet him thus Great Rabbi let us know Where thou dost dwell so shall we joy to see The mansion of thy true felicity Where I doe dwell saith he let him that would My dwelling know look on the foxes hold And sparrows nests for they have rooms wherein Their young ones nestle and their doune begin O but the Sonne of man hath no place where To rest his head save only this poore ayre That every creature breaths and this is all He counteth his and this at last shall fall If you will therefore follow me quit-clame What ever in this world doth sumptuous seem Take up your crosse and follow me and so You shall my dwelling and my riches know For who so shall reject my Crosse and blame't Of him in glory I shall be asham'd But who so shall my Crosse with patience bear He shall with me in glory rest coheire No sooner hath he spoke these words when loe As swift as arrow shot from Indian bow Andrew doth to his brother Symon run And with these tydings of Salvation Accosts him Brother I have found the great Messith whom the world expect'd of late The Saviour Christ the holy and th'annoynted Great Peace-maker by Prophets all forth pointed Come come I pray th' let our hearts draw near him And while 't is call'd to day ô let us heare him Symon ariseth and with Andrew go'th To see the miracle of Time and Truth But ere he can within true distance come Christ cals him by his name Thou' rt welcome home Thou sonne of Jonah saith he this thy name Of Symon hence I change with better fame Thou shalt be call'd Cephas that is a Stone For thou shalt help to lay a foundation ' Gainst which the Devill and the gates of hell May freely push but never shall prevaile A little after this in Galile As Jesus walked he did Philip see And bids him follow him he straight obeyeth But by the way Nathaniel he espyeth Nathaniel saith he come we have sound The man of whom the Scriptures doe abound Whom Moses and the Prophets have fore-told According to the promises of old Nathaniel gladly girdeth up his loynes And with his fellow Philip journey joynes But e're Nathaniel can come neere unto him Christ spies him and with these sweet words doth woe him Come come Nathaniel come thou voyd of guile The Sun on such another doth not smile In all Judaea's Coasts What 's this I heare Saith just Nathaniel e're I can come neere One cals me by my name whence dost thou know me For in the face till now I never saw thee Nathaniel saith Christ that 's nothing for E're Philip call'd thee I thee knew before When under the fig-tree thou naked stood Copartiner with Adam in his blood O now my God Nathaniel saith I see Thou art the very Sonne of the most High And promis'd King of Israel who should give Life to all such as in thee doe believe The night now come Christ to the mountain goeth Where all the while he to the heav'n upthroweth His supplications with strong cries and tears And graciously is heard in what he fears Next morning to his service he doth call Matthew and Thomas Barthol mew and all The rest of those Disciples whom he meant To make the Preachers of his Covenant O happy blessed blessed happy Call It doth no sooner touch their ears at all When straight it doth their starving soules renew And their affections to his will subdew Speak alwaies so my God and by thy grace Say to my fainting Soule seek thou my face And my poore Soule shall answer as appear'th Speak what thou wilt ô Lord thy servant heareth When thou at first did'st lay
the worlds foundation Thou did'st but speake and all this all 's creation Did to thy great Imperiall word obey Loe here shin'd light their shady darknes lay Here Hill's proud tops did on their tiptoes stand There did the Ocean roare against the sand Here on the floury bottoms fragrant mead The nibling troups securely prank and feed There in the bosome of the glassie deep The scaly nations softly swim and creep The ayrie legions scud along the skies As if they meant the Welkin to surprise And every thing that hath or life or sense To thy command'ment gave obedience And whil'st thou com'st an old world new to make No other toole nor mattock thou wilt take But that same word of thine that thou mai'st still By thy great Word thy glorious Will fulfill Since by thy Word then which is only wise Thou dostillighten thy Disciples eyes O let me heare thee in great Moses chaire Confound those Rabbins whom the world admire That by thy Doctrine I may learn that wit Which never nat'rall man could teach as yet To Nazareth he goeth and entring there Unto their Synagogue he doth repaire And reads in Esayes volume this sweet text Esay 61.1 Jehovahs Sp'rit is me let all vex'd With sinne afflicted hearts come heare my word For I am the annoynted of the Lord Whom he hath sent his Gospell to proclame To free the Captives and restore the lame Give sight unto the blinde binde up the bruised And give them grace who doe not quite refuse it This day saith he this Text is now fulfil'd This day is grace down from the heav'ns distill'd And happy he who heareth and believeth In him who this Salvation freely giveth But veng'ance shall his portion be who stops His ears against my heav'n elixer'd drops Doe not you call to minde how that of old From Ebals threatning tops it was foretold A thousand curses should fall down upon A sinfull froward generation But who so should their soules enclinet obey The sacred Sanctions of the mount Siney Ten thousand blessings from Gerizims store Should on their heads be multiplied and more Now is the time and here am I the man From out whose mouth or curse or blessings can Receive effect or force to save or kill They heare my word and they obey my will Blessed is he therefore whose heart is pure For of my heav'nly kingdome he is sure Blessed are they who hunger for my grace They shall be fill'd and satisfied with peace Blessed are they who doe in secret mourn Their sorrows to their solace shall return Blessed be you when men for my name sake Shall of your life and goods proud havock make Blessed be you when ' gainst you men speak evill And call you sonnes of Beliall and the Devill For what they derogat from your regard They adde against their will to your reward Yea bless'd and more then blessed shall you be When you be thrust from their societie Thrust from their Synagogu's excommunicate Rebuk'd blaspheam'd and all disconsolate Be not dismaid but rather be you glad The Prophets old no better service had The Sonne of man himselfe shall so be us'd Contemn'd reproach'd disdain'd and fouly brus'd And sure I am that when the master hath No softer shelter and no surer path The servant should not grudge nor yet disdaine If with his master he shall share like paine But wo to such whose riches shall abound Whose heart and hands are in their store house sound I tell you truly they have their reward No after pleasure is for them prepar'd Woe woe to those who laugh and never weep Destruction to their soules doth softly creep Woe woe to such as vainly cry peace peace Thinking the mountaine cannot change his place For sorrow griefe and plagues shall on them come Like travell on a womans burth'ned wombe Stoln bread and water sweet are to the taste But gall and worm-wood's easier to digest Blesse you therefore such as doe curse you for If you shall blesse your friends and doe no more What honour can you crave of God by them Who live estrang'd from God they doe the same Doe good to those who harm you pray for those Who persecute your Soules with griefes and woes Give to all such as aske you freely len And look for no requitall back agen So shall you show your selves th' Almighty's sonnes When you be cloath'd with his perfections You are this worlds chief salt while you have savour Your work with God and Men shall finde true favour But if you lose your savour then your taste Shall all your service to the dunghill cast You are a Citty set upon a hill Which to the worlds proud gaze stands object still Dream not you can be hid all eyes are on you And all mens motions doe depend upon you If whil'st they wander in an oblique Car Your course prove constant like a fixed Star If whil'st they stumble in Cymerian night You walk in Goshen like the sonnes of light Whil'st muddy cares doe their best joyes controle If your affections rest above the Pole If whil'st their runnalls Marah like prove tart Your springs drink sweet and so rejoyce the heart If whil'st they hold in hand a fruitlesse goad You bud ripe Almonds like to Arons rod If whil'st a stranger cals you you repine And know no shepheards voice but only mine In all your wayes if you shall still intend Your masters glory and no other end Then ô how happy happy thrice you be Life is your lot your term eternitie Then feare not man whose hand can doe no more But kill the body feare God rather for When he hath kil'd the body yet he can Powre out destruction on the soule of man And send both soule and body down to hell In chains of darknesse and of death to dwell 'T is true those precepts which I now doe Preach Exceed the narrow bounds of humane reach Yet though the flesh be weak the Spirit 's strong And grace can rectifie stern natures wrong Think not I come to put the law at under Or what the Lord hath joyn'd to cut asunder No no the Law and Gospell be two brothers The sonnes of one man though of severall mothers That Hagars brood who unto bondage beareth This Sarahs sonne who 's free and nothing feareth That 's Sinays suckling who with terrour shaketh This Syons nursling whom no feare awaketh That first this last that strong but this the stronger And so the elder must needs serve the younger The Law requireth works the Gospell Faith Both have one ayme though in a severall path For he who sweetly speaketh in them both Is but one God and one same sp'rit of truth Works without faith are like to fig-tree leaves Which seem to shelter but in end deceive's And faith unlesse good works doe crown her head May seem to live yet 's spirit'ally dead For as faith laying hold on th' Mediator Makes man stand just before the just Creator So works
though the Dev'll rook place Within his soule and made him seven times more The sonne of Sathow then he was before Let all such then as in Gods house appeare Eat of his bread and drink his wine with feare For as one house together cannot hold The God of Jacob and base Dagons mold So in mans secret soule or hidden heart God will have nothing if the Dev'll have part If Jerubbael serve the Lord above He must cut down his fathers heath'nish grove If Tarshish ships would safe sale home to shore A flying Jonas they must hug no more And if a Lawyer would goe safe to heaven He must forget or five or six or seaven For God is one and loveth no division A gracious Union is his best provision Were Achan living he would tell thee truth That poverty excells that wealth which doth Mans honour unto shame and sorrow sell And well-nigh makes his soule a slave to hell Rejected Saul who spared Am'lecks flock Were he alive would still hold Samuels cloak And never let him goe till he got grace By true repentance to redeem his race Bless'd is the man who since he naked come Into the world and naked must turn home Doth by the shelter of his quiet fire Make food and raiment curb his vast desire For Worlds Empires Courts Crowns Kings Are rich in cares when Rest hath better things But peace of Conscience makes the soule rejoyce More then the world and all her fading toyes The Agonie CANTO 2o. WHat man is he would truly know Christs Passion Then let him read that Lecture in this fashion First as a Story next a Gospell then A Pattern last a Benefit to men A story first it is where men may know That God in heav'n governs the world below A Gospell 't is which teacheth us how God Converts our serpents to an usefull rod A pattern 't is which doth in all our crosses Command that patience counterpoise our losses A benefit at last it brings to such As by true faith his garments hem doe touch O that we could first know aright then trust Then imitate then hold him as hee 's just So should we be learn'd Schollers faithfull Saints Obsequious Servants rich Participants But ah our wishes and our weak desires Cannot suffice to blow those zeal-bred fires Which on Jove's sacred altars still should burn And our oblations unto ashes turn Come therefore let us view that Paschall Lamb Whose blood disdain'd the cursed tents of Ham And drenching Goshens doors with wraths proud hand Did smite the first-born in all Misraims land But ay me where shall I begin to wonder At thee dread Monarch mighty sonne of thunder Eternities sole word and first-born sonne Heav'ns promis'd Earth accomplish'd Holy one Thy majesty the very heav'ns admire Thy power in the world doth still appeare Thy Justice all the damn'd in hell doe know Onely to man thou dost thy Mercy show Come then great thou mans preordain'd peace-maker Teach me the fittest way how I may sacre My pen r'expresle the fearfull agonie Thou suffer'dst for us in Gethsemanie Time place and person are the fittest square To make this building truly regular If any shall enquire the period when Thou didst begin to suffer for us men Scripture doth say it was a darkned houre While as the sonnes of darknesse had most power The place is known Gethsemans garden for 'T was meet that where Adam did fall before There thou the second should'st in bloody sweat Repaire the forfeit of our lost estate The person who sustains this weight of woe Is very God and very Man also God that his worth might Gods wrath sarisfie Man that in weaknes he might smart and dye O but this time and houre must yet be shown A little more sometimes 't is call'd thy own Sometime 't is theirs That we may know the right Disperse our cloudy doubt and give us light To speak the truth at first this houre was theirs Then thine then ours on these three paire of staires Time tripping up and down hath made the sourse Of our redemption to perfect her course Their time it was of sinne and sinfull wrath Such was the power both of sinne and death Thy houre it was of suffering and of smart For feare and anguish did oppresse thy heart Our houre it also was for then began The expiation of the sinnes of man Their houre of darknesse and thy houre of death Our houre of life and liberty from wrath When thou great master first at Cene's wedding Turn'd water into wine at Maries bidding I heard thee check her and in seeming wrath As if she had ev'n sinned to the death Say woman what have I to doe with thee My houre is not yet come get thee from me Of late when from a steep high mountain they Intend to throw thee down thou shrunk'st away And giving place unto their furious sume Thou told'st them that thy houre was not yet come Since then when high-Priests Pharisees and all Thy foes together did conspire thy fall Thou told'st them as a program of their doome They toyl'd in vain thy houre was not yet come How many houres of honor hast thou had How many times hast thou been worshipped When Sages from the East did presents bring And layd them at thy feet as Juries King VVhen in the desert Angels brought thee meat And by their service did proclaim thy State When on mount Tabor thy bright face did shine And heav'ns proclam'd thee heire of their divine Inheritance when Salems strders didring With loud Hosannaes to thee as their King Although those houres were all and alwayes great Yet did'st thou not account their pompe or state Worthy to have the note of thy great houre But when thou com'st to make our sweet thy sowre That houre thou tak'st and only counts it thine Because in it thy Father did propine That cup of wrath to thee men should have drunk If thou from his fierce wrath hadst fled or shrunk While thou with thy great Father and his Spirit Before all time did'st all times praise in herit All houres were thine all times and all times motion Did bow their knees to thee at thy devotion Yea when unto thy Image man was made And for his use the world was furnished Thou mad'st the Stars the Sun and Moon to shine And servefor poore mans use but not for thine Man had and hath all times at his command Sometime he sits and sometime he doth stand Sometime he laughts and sometime sadly weeps Sometime he watcheth some time sweetly sleeps Sometime he builds sometime he doth destroy Sometime he 's dumpish sometime rapt with joy All those doe stand subdu'd unto man's will At his direction their tides band fill But thou no time hast chosen save this one Poore houre of darknesse this thou call'st thine own Nor dost thou so for thine own sake but that Thou being a Lambe of God immaculat In this dark houre of suff ring thou
all wrath that did begin This wofull combat in thy soule for loe What we should suffer thou didst undergoe Hence were thy griefes thy bloody sweats and teares Hence were thy supplicavions and thy feares Hence were th' affrighting passions of thy soule As man alone thou could'st not them controle The spirit of man infirm'ty may sustaine But who can beare th' Almighties deep disdaine To see the Sonne of God sweat drops of blood 〈…〉 And yet no wonder though â— wond'rous cause Produce effect that reason quite dissâ—nowes If hell and death have pains in tollâ—â—able If flesh be weak and humane faith be feeble What wonder was it though with flesh aray'd Thou of th'Eternalls wrath wa st so dismay'd The wonder is how thou our true Phisition Knowing our sicknesse and our sad condition Cor Id'st by the drinking of our poyson'd Cap Refresh our soules and eke revive our hope O that in this thy wofull agonie We could but read our own perplexitie So should our sighs and teares in time prevent Th' eternall throbbings of deaths punishment But since we cannot as we would recall Our mispent time and so repaire our fall O teach us in our lives to follow thee That with thee we may finde conformitie Of comfort in our crosse so shall thy grace Once make us to enjoy thee face to face Yea let the path or way be what it will Let griefe and toile and tears and torment still Beat down our outward Man yet let us make Our inner man more strong by faith and take Example by thee both in life and death To seek Gods favour and to 〈◊〉 his wrath The Surpryse CANTO 3o. THrice hath the Sonne of righteousnes display'd The soure-sweet symptoms of a soule dismay'd And thrice hath zeale-bred pray'rs prevayling power Recleer'd th'eclypses of his darkned houre Thrice hath he bidden his Discyples pray Lest to tentation they should one the way But while he checks their watch they 're still asleep Droun'd in the bottome of secur'ties deep So frequent are our foyles our faith â— unsteady That flesh is ever weak though th'spirit's ready Yet once more will he rouze them from their rest And print this farewell Sermon in their breast My friends saith he oft have I bid you watch Lest Sathan in his snare your soules should catch But you havedroup'd you have been drouzy still Hence forth goe sleep and take your rest at will For th' houre is come The Sonne of Man 's betray'd The Traitounis at hand and for his avde An armed Legion com'th yet none can take My life from me but for my poore sheeps sake I lay it down and take it up againe And by my willing death you life retain Arise let us goe hence Scarse are they gone When loe the traitor and his legion Come all along and to my Saviour goe First to surprize him then work his ov'r throw And first comes Judus in a poore Lambs fleece Though inwardly a raying Wolfe be is Throwing his arms about his Masters neck Doth greet him with this foule dissembling check Haile Master to his word he joyns a kisse And by that signall tells the troupe who h 'is But ô my Saviour meekly doth enquire Friend wherefore com'st thou so dost thou desire By this thy kisse to kill the Sonne of Man The task is foule goe on doe what thou can Hadst thou but as a stranger been suborn'd Thus to betray me I could well have born 't Or hadst thou as a causlesse hatefull foe Conspir'd to work and perpetrate my woe I would not then have grudged But to see Him who did dip his hand i th' dish with me And him who in my bosome lately lay Lift up his heele against me and betray Me to the death 't is strange but Father what Thou hast begun continue consummat Fie on thee Judas Sathans first born sonne Hadst thou but kept one spark of grace within Thy hellish breast these words of friendly love Might have suffic'd thy treach'rous heart to move And pull'd thee down upon thy soules bow'd knees To beg the pardon of thy treacheries But ah as one poore bubbling drop alone Can hardly gutter flint or Porphire stone So hardly can one word though ne'er so â—â—ue An indur'd heart to sense of sinne subdue Whil'st thus he spâ—â—ks to Judas all the â—est Of that proud rable have themselves addrest To apprehend him straight way He but saith Whom seek you friends Jesus of Nar areth Say they he answers Surely I am he Which words import he 's God and Man trulie Iam did from the burning bush foretell The safe redemption of his Israel And this word He doth his human'ty show Who by his death should satisfie the Law For he 's the Man and truly onely He Who gives man life and imâ—ortalitie No sooner hath he spoke â—hose words I 'm he When by those words consounded back they flie And to the ground doe fall such was the power And piercing virtue of my Saviour He doth enquire againe Whom would you have Jesus say they the man of Naxareth I surely am the man saith he the truth I have already told you from my mouth If me you seek then let those goe their way From you I shall not flie but with you stay For what is writ of me fulfill I must Let those goe safe lot me sustain the worst Not long agoe my Saviour hath foretold The times were comming in the which men should Of two coats sell the one and buy a sword Peter remembreth this Prophetione Word And seeing Matchas proudly lay his hand Upon his Master draweth forth his brand And ayminght proud Malchus head that blow Did crop his eare and cut it quite in two Surely the sword of Peter was but just Who stops his ear to God and man doth trust May justly lose his eare his eye his hand And all his body that doth God withstand But Peter here doth wrong could he but know 't He beats the stone and quts the hand did throw 't The blow on Judas should have been moresure Who th' Author was of this distemp'rature Malchus but acts false Judas falser plot 'T is pitty Judas had not Malchus lot Yet that poore Peter now may wisely know That good intention's not enough to show The actions good and that shows cannot hide The hidden frailty of a self-sick pride Christ bids him put his transhing sword againe Into his place for humane streng this vaine And he who by the sword his will doth cherish Shall sometime by the sword both fall and perish Dost thou not know saith he that what a cup My father doth propine I must drink up Thouh it were ne'er so bitter were 't not so This world should perish in an endlesse woe Or dost thou think that if I pleas'd t' escape I could not this earths drossie globe ov'rleap And riding on a thousand Cherubs wings Prepareany ineseue with the King of Kings Or think'st thou not but if I lov'd t'remove I
could command the wings o' th' morning dove And flying hence could ease my selfe and rest Or in the Opall morn or Amber west Cannot he who upon the winds doth ride And makes his clouds his messengers beside Cannot he who on th' Oceans waves doth trip And lets his foot-steps neither sink nor slip From out a wormlings paws himself our wring Like Davids pebble from his whirling sling Or thinkest thou that I am left alone No sure I and my Father both are one And for my rescue if I lov'd to fight And show my unresisted power and might No earthly Monarch can on earth command So many millions for his guard to stand As I have Angels ready at my call To beare me in their arms lest I should fall O weak Disciple thou hast had true zeale But lack of knowledge makes thy love to faile Thou canst not interrupt that great decree My Father hath propos'd from ' ternitie What shall my Fathers Justice alwaies smoak Or shall his indignations heavy ycak Still lye on Man shall never mercy peace And righteousnes poore Adams seed embrace No if poore mans falvation could be wrought Without my suffrings or his soule be brought Back from the gates of death without my blood Then surely this contest might have seem'd good But since no man on earth or Sp'rit in heaven Can finish that contract which ondewas driven 'Twixt God and Man in Paradise but I I see no reason or occasion why Thou should'st so good awork withstand unlesse Thou should'st in very pride of heart professe Thy wisdome can outreach th'Etemall story Of Mans salvation and my Fathers glory Thus having check'd poore Peter now at last The Ruffians seize upon him make him fast But ere he goes with them he doth repaire The wound that Peter made on Malchus eare For loe he doth but touch it with his hand And as the other it re-joyn'd doth stand Many great wonders hath he wrought ere while But such as this did never time beguile In all the rest he refcu'd still the poore And such as sought him for their bodies cure But here he is found of them that seek him not And heal'th the rascall would have cut his throat O great ô deep ô never matched love Which burning in th' Almighties breast above Hath not to strangers only his love shown But also to his en'mies made it known Even so it is and so hath alwayes been He makes his rain to fall and sun to shine Both on the wicked and the righteous that To God they both may sing Magnificat Now now me thinks I see poore Abel fall By Cain's hand without a cause at all And spotlesse Jo seph to a Midian sold Blasphem'd and cast in prisons deepest hold Now now the Arke of Jacobs God is taken And by a cursed â—hilistim is shaken Now now gainst Sampson Timnahs sonnes doe rage And now the vineyards hyrelings act their stage Against the owner and his sonne they 've vow'd In his best blood to have their hands embrew'd But he like to a Lambeled dumbe before His shearer opes his corrall lips no more But only this How often have I taught Both in your streets and Synagogues and nought You either did or spoke against me Now With swords and staves and spears I know not how You come to take me as I were a theefe And none hath pitty none shewes me reliefe How joyfull now be all that rascall rout Who have beleaguer'd the poore Lambe about How many Io Paeans doe they sing How doe their chimes and bels their praises ring How many wags and wantons now doe run To greet the Scean of this confusion But whither doe the Lyons drag their pray But to their den that it devoure they may And whither doe these mastives draw this Lamb But to the High Priests house from whence they came All his Disciples now are fled and gone Only doth Peter follow him alone That by experience he might search and try What should be th' issue of this tragedy Now Christ unto the High Priests house is fet And in a squallid corner bench is set Peter stands in the ponch but doth not enter For feare his life within should goe t'adventer But night is dark and Morpheâ—â— luls asleep The eyes of such as to his lap doe creep The ayre grow'th strange and Boâ—â—as from his hold Makes Flora's flock to shake his breath 's so cold A fire is therefore made of burning coals To warme their bodies whose enflamed souls Burn'd hotter with the flames of envies fire Then doth Vesuvius in his fiercest ire Here doe they warm here tauntingly they talke Concerning cold Gethsemans secret walke Peter comes in to warm himselfe a space And loe a handmaid flouts him to the face My friend sayes she or I am much deceiv'd Or you are one of those who lately brav'd Along our streets whil'st yonder fellow rode Upon his Asse like to a Demi-god What doe you mean saith Peter sure not I I doe not know the man or 's company Again the dam'sell hearing him fay so Veilard saith she I doe for certaine know Th' art one of those who with him still did live Thy very Sibbols doe this witnesse give Thou wrong'st me much saith Peter this is true That yonder man I never saw till now But last of all a man who stood nigh by Doth thus affront him Doe not thou deny His late acquaintance for it is not long Since in Gethseman thou didst Malchus wrong By this the Cock day's Herauld claps his wings And crowing doth proclaime the morning springs And not content with one poore small alarme He crowes againe and multiplies his charme Peter heares this and softly shrinks a way The secret cock that in his bosome lay Crowes louder to him a great deale then that Which lately did the day prognosticat And whil'st he softly steps aside to flye His Master looks upon him with his eye And by that gratious look doth now recall To Peters fainting soules memoriall How he had said Before the cock crow twice Peter shall sweare and eke deny me thrice By this rememb'rance he who late did sleepe Now wak'd goes out and bitterly doth weep O gratious Master ô ingrate Disciple How doe thy favours and thy frailties triple Their contrair combinations one t'another 'T is strange to see such contrairs dwell together Of old while Sinâ—y gave that thundring Law Which led all Israel to a trembling aw The heav'ns the earth and all that was therein Did seem to threaten Isr'el for her sinne For there the thundrings lightnings trumpets fires So thrill'd the eyes the ears and hid desires Of Jacobs seed that now for feare they cry Let Moses speak not God for else we dy But now by thee Mount Syon opes her doore Which since the worlds first birth was shut before And by thee as his sonne he doth declare Mercy to those who Judgements children were But Peter whil'st I doe behold thy fall From off that
top which thou didst lately saile What wonder is' t though stripling I be shaken And with a tempest trespasse be ov'rtaken But bless'd be God thy fall was not so soule But true repentance hath restor'd thy soule That all the world may know As sinne breeds death The promise of true life Repentanee hath Look how a well-rig'd Pinnace set to sea With blind and Maine and Misaens liberty Lacking a Pilot who by due regard Should sit at stern and point her treâ—bling card Whil'st Dolphin-like she skips against the skies As if she would Joves starry throne surprise And like a Triton in the glassie field Dives down again and being forc'd to yield To Neptunes rage she visits Pluto's cell As if she sought Euridice from hell But recomforted by sweet Zephyr's gailes Whose following favours fill her empty sailes In short time she attains her wished shore Where winters tempests threaten her no more So fareth it with the irres'lute brests Of Adams off-spring who doe build their rests On their own strength no sooner doe they scale The Barracad's of Fortunes slippry ball When either fainting feare be-leads their heels And so they sink Or else their Chariot wheels Drawn by presumptuous Palfries trot so fast That hardly can they shun a fall at last Unlesse some strong strong hand doe curb their rein And so their ruine and their shame restrain For whil'st th' impetuous fancies of fraile man Sets him to try the worlds vain Ocean Unlesse a steddier hand than is his own Doe guide his course he 's either quite orethrown Or dash'd in peeces ' gainst some sturdy rock So furious be the flames of Sathans shock Thrice happy he whom Jacobs God doth guide And in his secret tent doth alwayes hide Thrice happy he whose heart kept in Gods hand Doth neither faintly fall nor proudly stand But in a due contemp'rature of Grace 'Twixt faith and feare doth wisely run his race O surely such a one when windes doe blow When seas doe rage and earth no rest doth know Shall by the secret influence of heaven So steare his course and hold his ballance even That neither death nor life nor wealth nor want Nor weale nor woe can crush his Covenant But holding still the gripes of grace h' hath got Still eyes his Pole and so he finketh not The Assize CANTO 4o. OF late I heard the High Priests Cock crow day Of late I saw Aurora shrink away From Darknesse center to th' Eoan plain T'enamell Heav'ns and guild the Ocean But ay me scarcely could the pearly morn With opall light our earthly globe adorn When loe Ixyons dark condensat cloud Did Pha'ton Titans Coach-man so oreshroud That one should think two nights combin'd in ire Had met together to drown out Sols fire A presage sure that ere that Sun should set A brighter Sun should be exanimat Yet hopefull day hath over come that shade And Titans rayes reclear'd made Flora glad But all this while since yester-nights surprise Till now that Phaebus 'gins to deck the skies My Saviour hath been bound with twisted cords Beaten with blowes wrong'd by sarcastick words Fond Jews and foolish Souldiers tell me why You doe outbrave him with such cruelty Had he not by his own will more been ty'd Then by the Cart-ropes of your swelling pride He like to Sampson might have burst your flax And made your bonds to melt away like wax But now what eye can choose but weep to see Those hands which fram'd the heav'ns the earth the sea And by his dainty singers framed man More nearly fine then art or nature can Thus wrung and wrested with a cord or rope Even whil'st Arachne-like he spins our hope But ah me Mans hard heart 's indured so That he can no compassions strain allow On him who from the heav'ns vouchsafes to take Our nature for our Soules redemptions sake Now Annas High-Priest and his sonne in law Great Caiaphas unto a Councell draw The whole Sanhaedrin Pharisees and all Whose suffrage can or life or death empale To judge the just one by injustice He Submits himself to all their tyrannie But ô you fooles and hypocrites wherefore Serves all this tumult and this mut'nous stirre One blow in secret might have finished Your wrath against him such the Baptist had But now I see Envy and Malice both Concurre together to oppresse the Truth And under shew of truth and justice must Sentence be giv'n unjustly ' gainst the just And since the Scriptures be not yet fulfill'd His blood in secret must not now be spill'd The Bench is set the Judges are conveen'd The guiltlesse is accus'd and guilty deem'd False witnesse now are sought and many come The hall is full there is no empty room At last two sonnes of Bielal are brought They witnesse ' gainst him what he never thought Thou sayd'st deceiver say they Let this Temple Be quite destroy'd and in three dayes more ample I will re-build it Fourty years and six Were spent in squaring stones and carving sticks To build it first and now thou say'st in three Dayes space thou wilt repair 't more sumptuously What canst thou doe it But he holds his peace And answers not to that their forged case And wisely doth he so for bruise a fool Even in a morter yet his folly still Shall cleave unto him wrangling is a vice And to the truth brings often prejudice The High-Priest seeing this saith I adjure Thee by the living God to tell me sure If that thou be the Christ the sonne of God Say either yea or nay and there he stood Jesus replies Thou say'st it I am he This world another Saviour shall not see And that thou may'st my words the more believe I tell thee that hereafter God shall give The Sonne of Man this honour to sit down At his right hand in glory and renown And thou shalt see him come again from thence To judge this world by righteous recompence At those words Caiaphas his cloaths doth rend Ev'n from their top unto their lower end Although against the laws expresse commend Lev. 21. â—â— Which to the contrair tyes the High Priests handâ— O now I see there 's an appointed time And for each thing beneath the Sun a Prime A time to laugh and so a time to weep A time to travell and a time to sleep A time to build a time eke to destroy A time to sorrow and a time to joy A time to rest a time to run our race A time to speak a time to hold our peace Whil'st foolish Ruffians did their cavill spue He neither said that they were false or true But now whil'st he his Fathers name doth heare Setting aside of humane force all feare He boldly speaks the truth and doth display The hidden Godhead in his flesh did lie The High Priest hath his robe no sooner tore When thus he speaks What need we any more To cite a witnesse ' gainst him hath not he Blasphemed God before us impiously
shalt finde what 't is to shroud A bloody heart under thy wash'd hands cloud Water hath but a superficiall strain It cannot purge the heart nor make it clean No Davids hyssop water nor Jobs snow Though ne're so well dissolued in their thaw Nor Abanah nor Parphars gliding streams Nor hoary Jordan whose author'ry claims Preheminence above all rills because In her the Syrians leprosie did pause Shall not be able to dissolve that spot Which by this jurisdiction thou hast got And thrice unhaphy cruell-hearted Jews Had you the wit to prâ—câ—gnosce the news That this mans blood shall as a passing bell One day against your soules and bodies knell You neither should have wish'd his blood to fall On you nor on your seeds memoriall Hence is my Saviour from the bench forth sent That with a lashing whips sad chastisement His back and belly in a bloody gore Of forty stripes save one may feele the sore And reconvey'd to Pilats house again As if he had not suffred wrong nor pain He 's stripped naked Adam-like while as He blush'd for shame because he naked was But fig-tree leaves there cover'd Adams skin Here no fig-tree can lend a leafe wherein My Saviour can enwrap his bleeding wound Whose gutt'ring drops distains the very ground Pilat beholding this begins to hault Such was the rancour of his false hearts fault For sinne at first doth to the sense seem sweet But tart as gall in end saith th'hypocrite He labour'd therefore much to let him goe But neither heav'n nor earth will now say so But still the more that Pilat pleads him free The more they thirst the Christ to crucifie And that his royall dignities they may Though in a sarcasme to the world display They with a Crown of thorns doe deck his head His Royalty by this stands fignifi'd And he who in our flesh our head became In bloody letters writes our anagram Next this a scarlet robe they put upon him And in his hand a Rood then gazing on him VVith ecce homo they doe bend their knees And greet him with those incongrueties Haile Master say they haile thou Juries King Thy Crown and Scepter tels us thou must ring But ay me gratious Saviour whil'st they now Enact the Scean of thy dishonour how Doe heav'n and earth declare thy glorious worth And unto thee true Majesty bring forth Their Crown of thorns confesseth thou art King Their purpure robes our sinnes true covering The reed put in thy hand as Scepter showeth VVhat heav'n and earth and hell unto thee oweth And whil'st in scorne to thee they bend their knees They shew that all the worlds chiefe royalties Shall doe thee worship for the Lord once swore And it shall come to passe Each creature In heav'n and earth shall bow before thy rod And ev'ry tongue confesse thee to be God And their last ecce homo shall at last Through heav'n and earths whole fabrick so be cast That such as strip'd and scourg'd and pierc'd thee shall Before thy footstoole with great terrour fall And learn unto their griefe that thou art King VVhil'st all thy Saints shall Halelujahs sing To thee whose crosse whose cares whose pains whose shame Procures their light their life their Diadem The Crosse CANTO 5o. THrough many sad afflictions and at last Through gates of death the righteous man is cast Yet never man hath tasted of so many Sad tribulations nor was death by any So born as by my Saviour from whose birth Untill his sad return unto the earth He never found a place wherein to hide His head from malice envy wrath and pride And yet for all those suffrings which be gone He doth but now begin his Passion Pilat hath judged and condemn'd him too His heart still saying that his tongue 's untrue And now at last like Abel to the field Though innocent he must be led and killd The place wherein his Crosse is made to stand Is Golgotha a place infamous and All putrifi'd with dead mens skuls and bones And loathsome vapours of corruptions Yet here and no where else must he be made A sweet-smell'd savour both for quick and dead And if we to traditions may give trust Where the first Adam lay the second must By his dread suffring and his woes make full The hollow caverns of first Adam's skull That as in Adam's name 's four letters ly The hidden ridle of his Impery A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 D 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 M 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So by that self-same word and borrow'd name The Second must his Gospels bounds proclame The Jewish criminations though unjust Have made him now a vassall to their lust Not to the Altar but to Calvary Not to the Temple but the Cursed tree Not in the City but without the gate Not in a corner but in publique hate Not in a valley but upon a mountain His pretious blood must bubble from its fountain That to all corners of the Earth great he May offer mercies liberality When first his Parents to the Temple went And him unto the Lord did represent He in that morning morning-like was made A morning sacrifice for quick and dead Now in the ev'ning of his life must he An ev'ning offring and oblation be That by his quiet rest and ev'ning sleep He might us in perpetuall quiet keep Now is our Isaac on his way and beares Upon his back the symbole of our feares In such a patient way thâ—â— Nature might Have been asham'd to see so sad a sight If faintings watchings bloody swears and blowes If stripes and platted thorns and such like throwes Of inhuman'ty might ' gainst man prevaile It was no wonder though his sp'rits did faile Of old when Moses sent twelve men to try Canaans forces and fertility Two of those twelve from Eschol did re-bring As first fruits of faire Palestina's spring Some pomgranats some figs and grapes which ty'd Unto a pole and on their shoulders lay'd They to the Camp of Israel did show As pledges of that good Lands fruitfull flow The man who walk'd before did well resemble The sonnes of Sinay who by weakneâ— tremble Under th' imperiall Law 's ov'rburth ning yoak Which galls the necks of Isr'els fainting flock He who did walk behind is Sions child His burthen's light his yoak is undefil'd His foot nor faints nor shrinketh in his way Till in his Camp his burthen down he lay The burthen of rich grapes which 'twixt them hangs Is Jesus Christ from out whose cluster springs The Law and Gospell in a golden cup Making men drunk with faith with love with hope But here before our eyes is truly set A reall emblem and no counterfeit Proposed hieroglyphick of that case Which all the faithfull doe in Christ embrace My Saviour goes before and willingly Takes up his Crosse and bears it patiently Till fainting by the way he 's forc'd to lend Unto an alien his Crosse lightest end Doe not
interpretation is thus taken My God my God why hast thou me forsaken One saith he calls Eliah stand aside And let us see what Saint in heav'n can guide Him from this crosse surely if any come We will believe him we will make him roome Not onely doe those Burreaves him revile And ' gainst that holy one lift up their heel But also that proud mastive who did at His left hand suffer as he perpetrat Calls to him and in proud luâ—ibrious manner Commands him to display his pow'rfull banner And as he had sav'd others save him selfe And him likewise from splitting on this shelfe But Jesus holds his peace to make it plaine That he revil'd did not revile again Though Jesus hold his peace yet doth that mate Which on his right hand hung thus ope the gate To his just ire and rebukes his brother He can his fury now no longer smother Proud rayling rascall saith he we be here To suffer for our sinnes as doth appeare By all the Legends of our murd'ring ditty Justly doe men therefore withdraw their pitty From us but this just man what hath he done His innocence is cleare as middayes Sun Why dost not thou feare God and in this station Beg shelter from a deeper condemnation But what thou wilt not doe behold I will Lord look upon me in thy mercy still And when thou com'st unto thy kingdome then Remember me in mercy heale my pain Jesus beholding this his faith replies Man I doe tell thee that in Paradise This night thou shalt be with me and shalt taste The glorious Nectar of my Fathers feast Father once more all thing are finshed Which thy great law requires diminished Is nothing which her Sanctions did crave And now I 'm ready to be laid in grave I therefore come to thee Into thy hands I recommend my Sp'rit let not deaths bands Triumph ore me for it I vanquish'd have Yet I 'le subject my selfe unto the grave By this he bows his head and giveth up The Ghost and so hath drunken up his cup. One of those Souldiers who did him attend Hoping to gaine some honour in the end Takes up his Speare to try if Christ were dead And in his side doth thrust it over head Straight from the wound doth flow both blood and water Whose still dissever'd streams themselves so scatter As never Tigris and Euphrates did More th' one from th' other at their sourse divide When the first Adam snorted in his sleep Great Isr'els Watchman who poore man doth keep Took from his side a rib of which he made An helpe unto the man who was her head And now the second Adam on his Crosse Lacks not a bone but to repaire that losse From out his side whereon his bride now stands Sends forth pure water first to wash her hands And that clean hands may have as clean a heart He sends her blood to purge her better part His water purgeth and refresheth more Then that which from Rephidims rock did rore His blood speaks better things then Abels did When she in Vesta's lap her head did hide And truly such a water or such blood Nor Baalzephom shoare nor Ganges flood Did ever borrow from earths bubling vain While as they pard their tribute to the Main Loe how the sonne of God in human nature Loe how for Man poore creature the Creatour Loe for the guilty how the innocent Loe how the lowly for the insolent Suffers payes covers satisfies at once Death debt shame wrath for our exemptions Come wayward Gentile come rebellious Jew Come scoffing Atheist Semichristian thou Prodigious misbeliever natures slave Blasphemous mockers of the crosse and grave Come come I say and if you needs must scorn Those hands those feet this heart that crown of thorn From whence my Saviour in such sev'rall rills Celestiall Nectar to the world distills If nothing here on earth you see below Can your hard hearts to his obedience bow Look up above your head and see what strange Commotions through th' heav'nly regions range And from their troubles learn in time to tremble Least those their palsies prove your deaths preamble For whil'st his soule doth to the heav'ns ascend Which to his Father he did recommend Straight with his last gaspe earth's round globe doth shake As if her engines axle-tree should breake The broad enameld courtaine of the sky Obfuscat with dark clouds doth droup and dye And since he whose right hand first formed Nature Hath so much suffred for a sinfull creature The frame of Nature now hath sworn to show That natures God hath suffred here below Hence hoary Saturne turns his face awry And scorns to gaze so great a butchery The bounteous Jupiter now amazed stands And scorns with Amalthaea to shake hands Blood-thirsting Mars throws down his dart and cries What Phlegra 's this whose Typhon scales our skies The wanton now betakes her to her heels And puls her Pidgeons from Apollo's wheels The witty Merc'ry throws his pen aside He cannot see to write for nights black pride And Cynthia now beholding Titans Car Ecclipsed by a brighter morning star Runs from th' Eoan to th' Hesperian coast And grapleth Titan in her arms so fast That brave Latona's son nor can nor may But through her sad imbrace take leave of day Now is the Temples vaile rent quite in twaine And Jew and Gentile reconcil'd againe Now are the flint-hard rocks found cut asunder That mans hard heart might at it's hardnes wonder Now are the graves devouring gates cast up And long interred dust drinks new lives cup That heav'ns and earth and hell and all may see That power of th'Eternalls victorie Whereby he hath as both true God and Man For man subbu'd Deaths great Leviathan The Triumph CANTO 6o. ERE Cairo's Monarch would let Isr'el goe From out the fornace of affliction loe The holy one of Israel bigge with ire Is forc'd in wrath to blow so fierce a fire Against him that a Decad of stern woes Must fall upon him ere he melt his snowes So deeply were they froze amidst his heart That nothing but deep wrath can him convert Of all those plagues which did on Misraim fall Me thinks the last save one was worst of all For what are fields or fruits or brooks or trees In respect of mans gracious faculties And life it selfe is small being compar'd With utter darknesse wherein man ensnar'd By living death and dark Cimerian mist Of Goshens childe is made a Memphytist Such were the foggy mists that now doe stand For three houres space through all Judaea's land So that th' inhabitants doe gaze with wonder To see the sun obscured from his splendor But Titan once more doth reclear his eye And shuffling off his Sisters canopy Doth joy to see his eldest brothers bed With such triumphing trophees honored Now whil'st the stern Centurion sees the damp That Christ his death hath wrought in Natures camp He shrinks away for feare and doth professe Surely this man hath
are gone His foes are fill'd with feare amaze and wonder Like Latmos rent with heav'ns high ratling thunder Seraphick Spirits bow before his face Mortality to glory now gives place And all the Children of his wedding Chamber Whose lips are Corrall and whose locks are Amber Whose eyes Carbuncles are in dark of night Gladly doe now attend this mornings light And from the grave they role away that stone Which Caiaphas had fet his seale upon 'T were strange to see that was could make that sure That heav'ns had destin'd to distemp'tature But now the Scriptures are fulfill'd which say He gives his Angels charge 〈◊〉 thy way To keep thee lest thy foot should either slip Or'gainst a stone at any time should trip Yet was it neither Angels might nor power That did return life to my Saviour But that same Godhead which in him did dwell Restor'd his life and did his death expell For though his soule was from his body cut His Godhead from his Man hood was not shut For that great tye of Hypostatick union Shall never be dissolv'd or lose communion No no Mans nature which he did assume And unite to the Word i' th' Virgins wombe Shall in no after time or taste Confusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or by a stronger hand ' plain of Division Or by a change smell any Alteration Or by or death or life have Separation But shall for ay that union retaine Where three are one and one is three againe No sooner doth my Soules brave Sampson draw Gaza's gate-barrs asunder then his aw Maketh earths wieghty globe to reatch and reele About him like Ixyons giddy wheele The dead arise and to the Citty goe As witnesse of his great triumphing show The Lyons to their dens return apace Because great Judah's Lyon shakes his tresse And all the beasts of neighb'ring Forrests feare Whilst they this matchlesse Lyon's roaring heare The chirping birds whose sweet melodious notes Bring sweeter crotchets from their carr'ling throats Then all Apollo's nymphs can straine or sing Unto his Harps delicious fingering Betake themselves unto their wings to flie Rather then in an Earthquakes arms to die The nibling Lambs which graze on Vesta's kirtle And sips her hony suckles and her mirtle Leaving their breakfast bleat and cry and call Each one to gaze anothers festivall Great Neptune and his Thetye now sing dumbe Because the Soveraign of the Seas is come To put a hooke in their nostrills and draw Leucotheo from Achelous maw But above all the long-liv'd Phenix seems As freshly wak'd from her reviving flames To greet him with the rarest welcome that E're Lark or Finch or Linot modulat And at his foot her starry Spangled Crown As to the righteous owner she throws down For she reviv'd hath thousand years in store But he requickneth lives for evermore In end comes Titan dayes bright shining eye Who lately slept in darknesse Cannopy And from his Orient or Eoan wave Where Neptune doth his steps in pearle engrave Seeing a clearer Sun i' th' West arise To all his Naids and his Napaeis cries Look here and see the rare yea rarest wonder That ever Earth held up or Heav'ns kept under Two Suns arise at once and in one day Two Titans to the world their lights display The one wherof although he rise must fall The other knowes no Occident at all Thus is my Saviour up and mangre hell And all the pow'rs of darknesse there doe dwell A new light life and liberty is given To all that hunger for the light of Heaven 'T is true no article o' th' Christian faith More faithlesse or reluctant en'mies hath Then hath the Doctrine of the Resurrection Whil'st it stands canvass'd by humane direction Yea nature ne'er requir'd a better sport Then tosse this Ball within her Tennis-court For faith it selfe can hardly sound this deep How a scatter'd non ens to an ens can creep Although that Nature and the Scriptures both Have writ the hieroglyphicks of this truth The Phoenix spicie nest her Mistris burneth Yet she from out her fatall Urne returneth When length of time sun-staring Eagles spills They doe revive by casting off their bills Hearbs trees and plants which in the winter wither I' th' spring receive both sap and life together The Corn we sow doth first corrupt and die Yet from that death their grains doe multiply And if 't be true Medaea for the sake Of Jason made old Aesons youth t' awake But Scripture tells us that the first man hath By sinne subdu'd all mankinde unto death And that the second man doth yeeld more grace Requickning that which dy'd by our trespasse And unto Abram's seed the Lord hath said I am the livings God and not the dead Adde unto this that he who first did make All things of nothing can from something take With lesser pain this little world of Man Then when at first he from the dust it span Nor is it just that any coupled paire Who work together should not have like share Of glory after death who in their life ' Gainst Sin and Sathan kept a conjunct strife Why art thou then so sad my Soule and why Art thou cast down with such anxiety Dost not thou know that Christ is made thy head And thou by faith his living member made He is thy husband thou his wedded wife Whil'st he doth live how canst thou doubt of life He is the root and thou his ingraft-branch When thou art judg'd he sitteth on the bench He is our Main which by our faith 's hid pores Refreshing waters to our springs restores And till his never ebbing streams goe dry We need not fear to lack a new supply Naked from out our mothers wombe we come And thither naked must we once goe home Yet we believe earth shall not still enfold Us in her arms that were too base a hold For any in whose soule the sp'rit of grace Hath made his mansion or a dwelling place No sure suppose these putrid tents of clay Wherein we sojourn for a night or day Must be dissolved better buildings we In heav'n shall have For Immortalitie Shall this our Mortall swallow and devoure Our weaknes then shall be exchang'd to power Corruption shall to incorruption turne And shame shak'd off we shall no longer mourn For what by Nature we doe here inherit Shall there renew'd be by th'Eternals Sp'rit Though then the grave unto weak natures taste Relish no better then the hemlocks feast Yet from her arms we reap a richer store Then ever nature did possesse before For there the poore have peace from their oppression There earths horsleeches shrink from their possession There rich and poore the high the low and all To earthly tempest ly no more made thrall But waiting for the return of their Judge In secret for a while lye still and lodge Since then I know that my Redeemer liveth And that he shall perform what faith believeth In all the periods of my lifes poore