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
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
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
Of Peace of Mercy and of Lovesick-motion VVherewith the Man-God my Redeemer hath Releas'd my Darling both from Sin and Death But since my wit is weake my pen unable My judgment shallow and my hand unstable To give a true characterizing strain Unto thy Greatnes Goodnes Mercies-Main O grant that whilst thou openest thus my mouth T' unfold the Tenor of thy sacred Truth I bee not like those stones which by the way Unmov'd themselves the beaten rode display Nor like that Canall and that watry Spout VVhich from the fountaine to it's bubling snout Conveys pure streams of coole refreshing water For th' use of others whilst it self 's no better No first inform my mind then cleer mine eye That I may learn what depth of Deiry Thy VVisdome hath entrencht within the Vail Of flesh and made it there reside and dwell Then touch my lips and guide my babling pen That I may warble to the sons of men The sweet Hyblaean Nectar of thy Powre That brings us sweetnes from our bitter-sowre So shall I teach thy Saints thy waies aright Whilst thy all-seeing eye vouchsafes mee sight The Prodrome CANTO 2o. I Sing the wonders of that wondrous GOD Who being essentially one is Trin'ly od Not in that first born Word-begotten Mater Whose after-byrth was fire ayre earth and water From whom and to whom as their native sourse Time reconveys his childrings circled course Nor gaze I that re-colonizing Boat Wherein old Noah twelve months pent did float On steepe high Mountains and Ryphaean woods Like Neptune trampling on those swallowing floods Which from Heav'ns-sluces Earths hid vains and Seas Deep-channels did God's wrath anatomize Nor minde I now to lim that wondrous Love Which burning in Elohim's brest above Did Shem and Heber's sacred line re-bring From Shinar's soyl and fayre Euphrates spring T' attend the loadstar of th'Eternals call Amidst those plains where Jordan's course doth craule Nor shall my bubling pen those plagues expresse Which from the heav'ns in wraths enrag'd excesse On Zâ—an's field and Mizraim's flowry Tent Were as postilions of their wrath down sent Nor sing I those divine decrees and wonders VVhose voice contemper'd with a thousand thunders Breeds more respect in Israel's haughty heart VVho notwithstanding acts the truants part Then all those Lawes which Numa could afford Or yet the Spartane or Cecropian Lord L. S. No those already have in matchlesse Ore Traverst both Vestae's lap and Thetis shore And by the pencill of a glorious Gawl D. B. Have drawn the curtain of our azur'd All In such a sort that time shall never bring So sweet a draught from Hippocrene's spring Save that which Albian's Mercury Trismegist J. S. Hath quintessenc'd from Ampelonaes brest No no my care shall bee in heav'n-bred trance To gaze his more then wondrous excellence From whom all things as from their common father Doe all their essence and their being gather That true beginning midst and end of all VVho but beginning midst or end at all Is ground and top of that uncoupled chaine VVhich links poore sinners to their Soveraign The blessed Son I sing of God and Man VVho born in time yet was ere time began The Son of God th' eternall living rock And royall off-spring of great David's stock That blest Redeemer whom the Prophets old By heav'n-bred revelations oft foretold On whom their figures shadowes Types and Tropes Built all their truths moralities and hopes The God of Gods I sing and King of Kings From out whose mouth a two ed'd smyter-springs Dividing twixt the marrow and the bones And manifesting th' hearts hid motions VVhose words are misteries whose works are wonders VVhose eyes are lightnings and whose voice is thunders VVhose hayres are whiter then the new faln snow Whose sparkling eyes like flames of fire doe glow VVhose loynes are girt with gold of better fine Then Titan lusters in his mid-day shine VVhose foot 's of burning brasse and trampleth down The rage of Lethe Styx and Acharon Him him I sing Earth Earth attend my song That so the hony-suckles of my Tongue May like those showres which on the Meads doe trill Celestiall Nectar to the world distill For though my pen in peace should snort and ly The Rocks the Mountains and the Stones would cry Crant therfore ô my God Grant grant betimes Peace to my Soule and soule unto my Rhimes Yea quintessence my soule and eke advance My care-free spirit in some celestiall trance That purg'd from passion thy divine addresse May guide me through this desert wildernesse Of humane weaknesse that my Pen from thee And Lines may borrow such a dignity As may expresse in lofty quavering songs The lofty prayse which unto thee belongs But stay my Muse and lanch not to the Ocean VVhose never ebbing Tide and restles motion No Pilot yet could know aright or keep Himself from Naufrage in so vast a deep For this is sure That in this voyage stands Charybdis gulfe and Scilla 's shelf and sands 'Twixt which the whistlings of an easie gale Must guide thy Bark and not a blustrous sale Yet keep not alwaies peace my Muse for now 'T is time to cleere thy care-eclipsed brow And by the numbers of thy sacred fury To stray along th'enamel'd coasts of Jurie Goe then from Dan to Bethel thence anon To Aroer Keilah Adullam Ziff Maone To Shilo Gilgall Mizphe Ramah Nob And these sky-threatning towr's whose spires doe rob Their white from Pelops shoulder and their Ore From Peru Ganges and Hydaspes shore And while thou viewst those coasts and pleasant fields Which milk and hony in abundance yeelds Vaile vaile thy top-saile and in rev'rence greet That sacred Flamyn whose heav'n-ravish'd sp'rit Doth at Joves Altar with a zeale-bred fire Evaporat his Soules sincere desire Haile flowry Jordan then and you sweet torrents Of christall-water whose Meandring currents So many Saints have sip'd and O thou soyl Whose arms gave rest from that tumultuous toyl Wherein our Fathers forty yeers did stray And O you sacred-walls where eft-soon lay That mighty God and Man whose chrimson shower From out his side made him our Saviour Yea O you hills you dales and fields each one Where Earths-sole Phoenix Heav'ns-true Paragon Did from his Cradle to his Crosse endure Our sinnes-disease and griefs-distemp'rature Haile haile I cry you all a glad good morrow Let neither blustring winds nor rain-bred sorrow Your Meads unflowre or yet your woods disleave Or choak your torrents in their bubling grave No let nor haile nor snow nor frost nor Ice By their tumultuous violent prejudice Your brows enage or yet your Tresses scorne Till from your tops your golden fleece be shorn But rather let the heav'ns with smiling face Your Nayids and your Napa's so embrace That by the tincture of their milk-sweet raine Your floury virdure may still fresh remaine As long as Titan takes delight to post From Japan to the great Herculaean coast But above all Hail hail thou ghostly-Father
name the world out-braves And in her left hand for a nose-gay hath The Cedar sweetl'ore shaded Nazareth Here scarce a furlong from her Eastern gates VVhich on the new-born Titans rayes awaits Nature hath formed though with artlesse Art A Grove in whose each portion and each part There 's such a modell of her power inborn As matchd with this laughs all the world to scorn For here the clymat sweetly temper'd hot Hath thrust away the winters petticoat And like a Lover in a flourishing green Makes lusty May continually be seen Yet least the scorching blinks of Titan's ey Should parch or wither Florae's tapestry Sweet Zephyr sends a musky sighing breath To shelter Vesta from the Lyon's wrath Here long liv'd Oaks and noble Palm-trees sprayes With amorous Myrtles and immortall bayes Never disleav'd but still re-growing new Their clasped arms in thousand Arbors threw There still did dangle to the gazers eyn A thousand fruits some sweetly ripe some green Which in their colour taste and shape did mock The Lemon Orange and the Apricock Ayr 's daughter Eccho which the woods doth haunt From high rebabling Rocks doth here rechaunt The sweet contemper'd Notes and maryed layes Which Linots Larks and Nightingales displayes All which amidst their warblings flat and sharp Exceeds Arion's or the Thracian's harp And yeelds a descant sweeter far than that Which Linus or Amphyon modulat Anon along this grove in pompe doth slide A Runnell with a rofie broydered side Whose sand's pure gold whose peeble's pretious stones Whose chiding murmurs were majestick grones And whose least draught is sweeter then that drink That now in Creta decks Cerathus brink Here down she lies beside those streams whose gushing Makes sweeter musick with their gentle rushing Then Juball's hammers when they fram'd that sound Whence Syren-musick's Gam-Vt first was found And sadly sitting in this grove alone She lends her eare to that division Which from the murmuring brook's sad accent flows And thence unto a higher strain she throws Her contemplation yea from thence shee scales And censures heav'ns imperiall festivals Father says shee of light and learned Arts Great all of all who unto all imparts Some parcell of thy selfe that thou alone Maist still be all in all 's Communion Voutchsafe to heare thy hand-maids voice a space Who truly humbled here before thy face Doth lick the dust at thy imperiall feet To testifie that her poor heart's contrite Whence comth't that these poore drops of christall water Which Earth from out her hollow brests doth scatter Can yeeld so sweet bewitching notes and sound As turns the wanton's-myrth t'a-harts deep wound Or whence com'th't that those byrds whose artles bill With C-sol Fa-uth's notes the Spheeres doe fill Doe greet th' approach of lights advanc'd cariere With sweeter strains than Art instructs his quire What have those creatures force or pow'r at all Coutch'd in their bosoms that can eyther thrall The giddy minde to taste a sober quiet Or rouse th' afflicted from their dismall diet No no 't is thou and thou alone whose voyce Can make the Soule to feare or yet rejoyce For as thy hand hath form'd the heart in Man And as thy eyes from highest heav'ns doe scan Our hidden reynes so by thy pow'r thou guides Our Soules swift current in their severall tides For whilst thy iight and countenance doth shine With Sextile aspect Quadrat or with Tryne On our dark hearts O how they joy t' advance Their light before thy ' lightning countenance And whilst again Sins drossie globe doth stand Just interpos'd betwixt thy shining brand And our dark hearts O then Cymerian-night Succeeds in lieu of thy celestiall light Hence by that sweetnes which wee find in thee Wee loathe the blinks of natur's royaltie And find her treasures but a bubling sourse Which from thee for thee to thee bends its ' course Hence flow our griefs hence brookes and desert dales With seeming murmurs pittiously bewailes Thy absence and their mourning sables weare Till thou return and cleere their hemispheere Come therefore thou A lmighty-Spirit of spirits Great-Light of lights whose Majesty inherits That wondrous Light to which no flesh attains Which in this muddy vail of flesh remains Come come I say and by thy Spirit inspire This Spirit of mine with thy celestiall fire That in thy Light my Soule may cleerly see That great unsearched Deep of Majestie Which dwelling in thee doth exchange my story Of Death and Darknes to true Light and Glory Scarce hath she from the flames of zeale-bred fire Evaporat these accents of desire When loe from heav'ns high Senate there doth fly A Legat of Hierarkick Majesty Who with due reverence and obsequious Rites The blessed Virgin thus salutes and greets Hail sacred Nymph Haile Virgin-Bride and thou On whom the heav'ns dread Soveraign doth allow The favor of a freely-granted grace The Lord 's with thee rest therfore still in peace Blessed bee thou and blest beyond all those That ere from Grandam Evahs loyns arose Let Heav'ns thy blisse extend as farre inscorn Of Earths best hap as ev'r the pearly Morn The radiant Noon or rheumy Ev'n can see Or Neptunes brauls or Vestaes tapestrie For from thy wombe a Monarch-Prince shall spring Sinne death and hells eternall taming King The sacred Founder of mans Soveraign blisse The worlds rich Ransome Peace and Righteousnes He shall be called Great and Strong of strongs The most high Sonne to whom of due belongs The keyes of David Solomon's Ivory Throne And Jacob's Lot-divided-tents each one His shafts shall thrill the foes which him assaile His force shall all th' Infernall furies quaile Each knee in heav'n and earth shall to him bow And every tongue confesse him God most true For by his blood he re-unites again Earths wandring Subjects to their Soveraign Looke how one daz'led with the splendor bright Of Titan's rayes being lately brought to light From darknesse of a black Cymerian deep Where nev'r a Cranny suffer'd light to peep Being too too soon re-cleer'd stands gazing so As one disself'd and doubtfull where to goe Ev'n so the Maid at this unlook'd-for tale Halfe dead with terrour first growes ashy pale Then re-comforted with dejected eyes First views her Nuntio and then thus replyes O how can 't be that I within whose brest Lusts sparkling flames did never plead for rest Whose Virgin-modest chaste and tender eare Did nev'r infamous Ruffian bablings heare Yea I whose thoughts unsported nev'r was wed To th' wanton pleasures of a Mariage bed Should bud such blossoms or such fruits forth bring As makes the barren to rejoyce and sing Peace Mary saith the Angell peace and feare not The Holy Ghost ore-shaddowes thee then dare not With curious search of humane Reason's strength To limit him whose wayes for breadth and length For height and depth are all a boundlesse treasure Acknowledging no limit bound nor measure For willt thou look on his unsearched Spirit Invisible immortall infinit All Majesty all self-omnipotent Pure
at hand Yet 't is not he such transmigrations now Dare plead no place amidst a Christian crew For by th'Eternals uncontrol'd decree As dust we are so to the dust goe we And till the time that heav'ns shall be no more Our bodies are not what they were before Nor shall our soules or lifes true quickâ—ing spirit Their wonted dwelling houses re-inherit Who is it then Now I perceive 't is he Concerning whom the Prophet Malachy Hath by a divine wisedome thus foretold Wonder you fooles come come you wise Behold Before the comming of that dreadfull day Wherein the Lord his glory shall display Eliah first shall come and by his voyce The father in his children shall rejoyce The children to their fathers wiser Will Shall bow their necks and be obedient still Lest comming to them with a searching fan His vengeance finish what their finnes began Yea sure I am 't is he for now I finde The Scribes and Pharises whose judgement 's blinde I. â— Run to his Baptisme though in scorn that so They may th ' Eternals Counsell overthrow But all in vain he with a soaring eye Rips up their hidden deep hypocrisie And by his threatning duely milde and grave Their hid dissimulation doth outbrave O vip'rous brood ô froward generation O Serpent-Issue of a sinfull Nation Who hath fore-warn'd you to eschew the doome And scape the scorching wrath that is to come Bring forth therefore bring forth I charge you here Those fruits of new-birth which makes faith appeare And glory not that Abraham's sonnes you are For he who calls what 's not as though it were Can make those senssesse stones if he have need Bring forth to Abra'm a Religious seed No rather know that these be now the times Wherein the hand of Justice fannes our crimes And trenching axes laid unto the Root Cut down the wither'd sticks are void of fruit 'T is true indeed I baptize you with water But loe there 's one to come who what I scatter Shall recollect he reaps where none was sown And but advantage will not have his own He 's great indeed and mightier farre then I I am not worthy his shoo-straps t'untye With water I baptize you ô but he Shall baptize with a fire of Deitie For in his hand he holds that searching fan Wherewith he doth his barn-floores treasure scan If we be found true wheat his hand shall keep Our soules from falling in th' infernall deep But if like chaffe we prove his swallowing ire Shall thrust us headlong in a quenchlesse fire Stray then no more through those poor desert fields Which neither state nor pomp nor glory yeelds To gaze on me a Reed toss'd too and fro Where any whirl-windes puffe delights to blow But rather in a wise discretion learn Your gracious Visitation to discern For this is he that should be sent expect None other to relieve your soules defect Looke on his wayes and by his works goe try The true prognosticks of his Majesty By him the blinde have eyes the lame their hands The deafe their eares the dead are loos'd from bands The Leaper's cleans'd and what is more the poore Receive the Gospell and the Crosse endure And that your Judgements may lack all excuse Behold the stone you builders did refuse Shall be approv'd and on the Corners top Shall stand that there by faith by love by hope His children may a living house be made To hold him for foundation and for head Loe where he comes my soul doth sweetly know him Bow bow your haughty necks yeeld what you ow him For he 's that great immac'lat Lamb of God Who having layd aside his wraths sharp rod Doth by a love-sick Mercies bloody gore So purge our sinnes that sinne stands ours no more Ne're did the swallowing Nilus rapid waves Provok'd to anger by th' Aeolian slaves Hurle down his streames to the Asphaltick lake With greater force than doth the Baptist shake By those his roaring thunders the proud knees Of these dissembling Scribes and Pharisees Yet scarce hath he like that fore-running starre VVhich doth proclaim th'approach of Titan's carre Fore-warn'd the world of that Imperiall Sun Whose race in Truths eccliptick line is run When loe that spotlesse Lamb whose spotlesse love And suffrings weds us to the Lord above Comes straight unto him and in modest fashion Without or pomp or pride or ostentation Requires to be baptiz'd in Jordan's flood The typick Emblem of his saving blood But John remembring what he was replies O sacred thou whose throne transcends our skies Why dost thou crave to be baptiz'd of me Since I should rather be baptiz'd of thee The servants state is not above his Lord Nor can my weaknesse that true strain afford Of due obedience that belongs unto thee O get thee from me for thy eyes undoe me Peace saith Immanuel John thy flesh is weak Th'Eternals hidden Counsels to partake For ne're hath flesh his riddles truly view'd But he who with his Heifer first hath plough'd Wouldst thou then know wherefore I doe desire To be baptiz'd of thee who can with fire Rebaptize thee Know that my Charge is such As without Unction none usurps to touch I doe not run unsent my Father hath Before all time decreed That by my death The sting of death and of deaths Lords great power Should so be curb'd that they no more devoure That I may then obey my Fathers will Ambros in Luc. c. 3. And all the law of Righteousnesse fulfill VVhich may contemper Mercies milde sweet yoak To Justice proud though just revenging stroak And so become a righteous Mediator Betwixt the Creature and the dread Creator I must be baptiz'd first that so I may My heav'nly function to the world display Adde hereunto that in this flesh of mine Which from the earth is earth from heav'n divine I must the state of of every thing renew And to my Gospell Moses Law subdue Man must be new the old man now must perish And by a new-born faith his soule must cherish The heav'ns shall be renew'd th' old flie away The Earth renew'd shall smell like maiden-May The Law is old a new command I give That men henceforth by faith love hope must live And as the Covenant's chang'd so must the Seale Make room for Grace and bid the Law farewell And what is more That Man may see I love To make his mansion in the heav'ns above Loe here his badg and cognizance I take On mee not for my own but for his sake That when my father Man's great Seale shall see On my fore-head and man made one with me He may from man his furious wrath withdraw And make him Heyre by Grace not by the Law And that vain man may never scorn those rites By which as Canals of coelestiall sweets Th' Almighty pours his Grace upon their Soule Men may their haughty hearts and necks controule To bow unto his Ordinances for No soule shall enter in at mercies door
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
Gods true Sonne then let me see Some token of it that I may believe He hath a care of thee that thou mayst live Full forty dayes thou hast been here alone Wand'ring and wond'ring in this Mansion Earth yeelds no bread the brooks doe yeeld no water The Downes no Locust Combes no honney scatter Clouds yeeld no Manna Ravens take no care To feed thee with their flesh-pots late or ear Sarepta's widow doth not breake her Cake Which for her own last dinner she did bake Is this th' Almighties care is this his love Which he of late did unto thee improve As to his Sonne that thou should'st starve and dye By famine and extream necessity No get thee up exchange these stones to bread Eat freely then and be thou satisfi'd For skin to skin and all the worlds rich choise Man will renounce before his life he lose Full forty dayes I have been here proud Clown R. Replies my Saviour and have beaten down This flesh of mine with fasting all the while That in this Lent of mine I might beguile Thy pur-blinde eyes whose chiefest aime and straine Is but to crush my flesh because humane Moses my servant neere this place before Fasted as long whil'st Sinay's tops did rore And he who Baal's folly did proclame Full forty dayes did try the same extreame Yet neither th' one nor th' other sought to thee For help in their extream necessitie But by my Fathers strengthning power they Were without outward meanes maintain'd alway My Father without bread or water can Maintain that life which he hath giv'n to man The heav'ns on Israel did Manna powre Like Coriander in a snow-white showre To some he doth lifes meanes miraculously Beyond their expectation multiply That when they look'd t' have kept nothing in store Their nothing still increas'd and grew the more Then to distrust my Fathers providence T' abuse my power and under the pretence Of working miracles t' obey thy will Were base in me and a prodigious ill Indeed man lives by bread but that 's not all Each word which from my Fathers mouth doth fall Must either blesse the bread to man or then It shall not nourish him 't shall prove his bane Thus hath the venemous snake his first dart flung Yet hath it neither wounded hurt nor stung My Saviour for his still uncharmed eare Without impression that assault did heare A second dart therefore the Traitor tryes And that it may prevaile he proudly flies Unto the top of Salems Temple there To crush by pride what 's not crush'd by dispair The first tentation's ground was starving want Now doth presumptuous plenty charm in chant For where one poore extream can never doe it He hath another and he puts us to it Jerusalem is now the worlds chiefe glory The Temple is Jerus'lems highest story The Pinacle's the loftiest step of that There is my Saviour by the Tempter set I have desir'd thee to make bread of stones Saith the proud murth'rer but behold at once Thou didst reply Thy Fathers providence Would shelter thee from Natures indigence Come then come let us try thy Fathers power Cast thy selfe down from top of this high tower For well I know what 's writ in David's book And thou mayst learn it when thou list to look That he hath giv'n his Angels astrict charge To bear thee in their armes as in a Barge To keep thee safe and sound in flesh and bone Psal 81. Lest thou shouldst dash thy foot against a stone How long shall I now suffer thee damn d dogge R. Saith my Redeemer like a wallowing hogge Disturb my sacred Cisterns by such wiles The Sonnes of Adam alwaies thou beguiles It is no new thing to heare thee blaspheme This is the program of thy Academe Grace hath abounded man may sinne the more Elected and Redeem'd trip still therefore The spirit of bondage and of feare is gone Burst then the fetters of Adoption O how it wounds me thus to heare thee tare My sacred Oracles with poysoned aire As if in them there were not couch'd such truth As could both comfort age and confound youth I know 't is written but I know as well There 's something written there thou dost conceal And dar'st not utter for it would declare The snaky sophism of thy subtile snare In all thy wayes thou dost omit this stance Yet here 's the rule of Gods great providence If man would wish or hopefully expect The safe protection of the bless'd elect He must not wander in his fancies measure Or tread the wandring path of his own pleasure But in the path of that Saint-beaten rode That 's pointed out unto him by his God If so he walke he shall be safe and sure If otherwise his death he shall procure Art not thou now asham'd so treacherously To wrest th'Eternals truth impudently To cut asunder that which God conjoyns And with an endlesse falshood gird thy loyns Take then from out that sacred Scriptures fountain A stone cut without hands from out the mountain To split thy forehead from out David's sling And curb the poyson'd venome of thy sting Behold it 's written both to man and thee Tremble and feare doe not presume too high For who so wanders from this beaten rode Doth tempt the Lord and lift his heel ' gainst God Deut. 6.16 Yet once more must this murtherer goe fling His last and finall dart against our King The blast of fainting and of black dispaire Nor of presumptions fire-ball thrown i'th'aire Have not prevail'd yet will he not be quiet But ayming at his envies richer diet He sets my Saviour on a steep high mountain From which each river and each bubling fountain Each pearly mead and shady shelt'ring grove Where either Serpents hisse or Satyrs rove Each vinyard drunk with grapes or cloi'd with clusters And ev'ry place where pleasure makes her musters And ev'ry other sense-contenting thing Which to a carnall minde content can bring Are in an eyes short twinkling set before him And promis'd to him if he would adore him See'st thou not those sayes he all those be mine View take possesse them I will make them thine And with their title I will here endow thee If thou wilt once but bow thy knees unto mee Now now and ne'er till now did my Redeemer Waxe fierce with fury ' gainst this bold blasphemer R. What Bow to thee thou foul abortive slave Thou dust eater thou canker of the grave Thou down-faln star thou filthy proud glow-worm Whose fall yet fils both Earth and Seas with storm Proud begger slave thou saist the world is thine And yet it is the Lords and all therein The treasures of the winds the cloudes of Raine The wine press'd grapes and all the sheaves of graine The fishes of the Sea the fowls o' th' aire The beasts o' th' Earth that nibble here and there The floods the rivers watry ponds and lakes Which from the clouds or ocean welspring takes