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A66774
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A prophesie written long since for this yeare, 1641 wherein prelate-policie is proved to be folly : as also, many notable passages concerning the fall of some great church-men / written by a modern poet.
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Wither, George, 1588-1667.
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1641
(1641)
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Wing W3182A; ESTC R11664
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44,260
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90
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graces That by their lives and doctrines they may reare Those parts of Sion which decayed are Awake this People give them soules that may Beleeve thy Word and thy commands obey The Plagues deserv'd already save them from More watchfull make them in all times to come For blessings past let hearty thanks be given For present ones let sacrifice to heav'n Be daily offred up For what is needing Or may be usefull in the time succeeding Let faithfull prayers to thy throne be sent With hearts and hands upright and innocent And let all this the better furthred be Through these Remembrances now brought by me For which high favour and emboldning thus My spirit in a time so dangerous For chusing me that am so despicable To be employed in this honorable And great employment which I more esteeme Than to be crowned with a Diadem For thy enabling me in this Embassage For bringing to conclusion this my Message For sparing of my life when thousands dy'd Before behind me and on ev'ry side For saving of me many a time since then When I had forfeited my soule agen For all those griefes and poverties by which I am in better things made great and rich Then all that wealth and honour brings man to Wherewith the world doth keepe so much adoe For all which thou to me on earth hast given For all which doth concerne my hopes of heaven For these and those innumerable graces Vouchsafed me at sundry times and places Unthought upon unfained praise I render And for a living sacrifice I tender To thee oh God my body soule and all Which mine I may by thy donation call Accept it blessed Maker for his sake Who did this offring acceptable make By giving up himselfe Oh! looke thou not Upon those blemishes which I have got By naturall corruption or by those Polluted acts which from that ulcer flowes According to my skill I have enroll'd Thy Mercies and thy Justice I have told I have not hid thy workings in my brest But as I could their pow'r I have exprest Among our great assemblies to declare Thy will and pleasure loe I doe not feare And though by Princes I am checkt and blamed To speake the truth I am no whit ashamed Oh! shew thou Lord thy mercy so to me And let thy Love and Truth my guardians be Forgive me all the follies of my youth My faulty deeds the errors of my mouth The wandrings of my heart and ev'ry one Of those good workes that I have left undone Forgive me all wherein I did amisse Since thou employd'st me in performing this My doubtings of thy calling me unto it My feares which oft disheartned me to doe it My sloth my negligences my evasions And my deferring it on vaine occasions When I had vowed that no worke of mine Should take me up till I had finisht thine Lord pardon this and let no future sin Nor what already hath committed bin Prophane this Worke or cause the same to be The lesse effectuall to this Land or me But to my selfe oh Lord and others let it So moving be that we may ne're forget it Let not the evill nor the good effect It takes or puffe me up or me deject Or make me thinke that I the better am Because I tell how others are to blame But let it keepe me in a Christian feare Still humbly heedfull what my actions are Let all those observations I have had Of others errors be occasions made To mind me of mine owne And lest I erre Let ev'ry man be my Remembrancer With so much charity as I have sought To bring their duties more into our thought And if in any sin I linger long Without repentance Lord let ev'ry tongue That names me check me for it and to me Become what I to others faine would be Oh! let me not be like those busie broomes Which having clensed many nasty roomes Doe make themselves the fouler but sweet Father Let me be like the precious Diamond rather Which doth by polishing another stone The better shape and lustre set upon His owne rough body Let my life be such As that mans ought to be who knoweth much Of thy good pleasure And most awfull God Let none of those who spread of me abroad Unjust reports the Devills purpose gaine By making these my warnings prove in vaine To those that heare them but let such disgraces Reflect with shame upon their Authors faces Till they repent And let their scandall serve Within my heart true meeknesse to preserve And that humility which else perchance Vaine-glory or some naturall arrogance Might overthrow if I should think upon With carnall thoughts some good my lines have done Restraine moreover them who out of pride Or ignorance this Labour shall deride Make them perceive who shall prefer a story Composed for some temporall friends glory Before those Poems which thy works declare That vaine and witlesse their opinions are And if by thee I was appointed Lord Thy Judgements and thy Mercies to record As here I doe set thou thy mark on those Who shall despightfully the same oppose And let it publikely be seene of all Till of their malice they repent them shall As I my conscience have discharged here Without concealing ought for love or feare From furious men let me preserved be And from the scorne of fooles deliver me Vouchsafe at length some comforting reflection According to the yeares of my affliction On me for good some token please to show That they who see it may thy bounty know Rejoyce with fellow-feeling of the same And joyne with me in praising of thy Name And lest oh Lord some weake ones may despise My words because of such necessities As they have brought upon me by their spight Who to my Studies have beene opposite Oh! give me that which may sufficient be To make them know that I have served thee And that my labours are by thee regarded Although they seeme not outwardly rewarded Those Honors or that Wealth I doe not crave Which they affect who most endeavored have To please the World I onely aske to gaine But food and rayment Lord for all my paine And that the slaunders and the poverties Wherewith my patience thou shalt exercise Make not these Lines or me become a scorne Nor leave me to the world-ward quite forlorne Yet in preferring of this humble Suit I make not my request so absolute As that I will capitulate or tye To such conditions thy dread Majesty For if to honour but an earthly Prince My Muse had sung it had beene impudence To prompt his bounty or to doubt he might Forget to doe my honest Labours right Doe therefore as thou pleasest onely give Thy Servant grace contentedly to live And to be thankfull whatsoever shall In this my weary Pilgrimage befall Such things thou dost command me to require With earnest and an absolute desire With which I come beseeching I may finde Thy love continue though none else be kinde That blessednesse eternall I may get Though all I lose on earth to compasse it And that at last when my accompt is eaven My payment may be summon'd up in heaven Lord this will please me call me quickly thither And pay me there my wages all together Not that which mine by merit seemes to be But what by thy meere grace is due to me FINIS
some cunning hand Doth make the same againe in order stand Or as the Clock whose plummets are not weight Strikes sometimes one for three and fix for eight So fareth it with men and kingdomes all When once from their integrity they fall They may their motion hurry out of frame But have no pow'r to rectifie the same That curious hand which first those pieces wrought Must mend them still or they will still be nought To thee I therefore now my speech convert Thou famous Artist who Creator art Of heav'n and earth and of those goodly Spheâ—res That now have whirled many thousand yeares And shall untill thy pleasure gives it ending In their perpetuall motion without mending Oh! be thou pleased by thy pow'rfull hand To set in order this depraved Land Our whole foundation Lord is out of course And ev'ry thing still groweth worse and worse The way that leads quite from thee we have tooke Thy Covenant and all thy Lawes are broke In mischiefes and in folly is our pleasure Our crying sins have almost fill'd their measure Yet ev'ry day we adde a new transgression And still abuse thy favour and compassion Our Governour our Prelates and our Nobles Have by their sins encrease encreast our troubles Our Priests and all the People have misgone All kind of evill deeds we all have done We have not lived as those meanes of grace Require which thou hast granted to this place But rather worse than many who have had Lesse helpes than we of being better made No Nation under heav'n so lewd hath bin That had so many warnings for their sin And such perpetuall callings on as we To leave our wickednesse and turne to thee Yet we in stead of turning further went And when thy Mercies and thy Plagues were sent To pull us backe they seldome wrought our stay Or moved to repentance one whole day No blessing no affliction hath a pow'r To move compunction in us for one houre Unlesse thou worke it All that I can speake And all that I have spoken till thou breake And mollifie the heart will fruitlesse be Not onely in my hearers but in me If thou prepare not way for more esteeme All these Remembrances will foolish seeme Nay these in stead of moving to repent Will indignation move and discontent Which will mens hardned hearts obdurate more And make their fault much greater than before Unlesse thou give a blessing I may strive As well to make a marble stone alive As to effect my purpose yea all this Like wholesome counsell to a mad man is And I for my good meaning shall be torne In pieces or exposed be to scorne For they against thy word doe stop their eare And wilde in disobedience will not heare In this we all confesse our selves to blame And that we therefore have deserved shame Yea Lord we doe acknowledge that for this There nothing else to us pertaining is Respecting our owne worth but desolation And finall rooting out without compassion But gracious God though such our merit be Yet mercy still pertaineth unto thee To thee the act of pard'ning and forgiving As much belongs oh Father everliving As plagues to us and it were better far Our sinnes had lesse than their deservings are Then that thy Clemency should be outgone By all the wickednesse that can be done As well as theirs whose lives now left them have Thou canst command those bodies from the grave Who stink and putrifie and buried be In their corruption Such oh Lord are we Oh! call us from this grave and shew thy pow'r Upon this much polluted Land of our Which is not onely sick of works unholy But almost dead and buried in her folly Forgive us all our slips our negligences Our sins of knowledge and our ignorances Our daring wickednesse our bloudy crimes And all the faults of past and present times Permit not thy just wrath to burne forever In thy displeasure doe not still persever But call us from that pit of Death and Sin And from that path of Hell which we are in Remember that this Vineyard hath a Vine Which had her planting by that hand of thine Remember when from Egypt thou remov'dst it With what entire affection then thou lov'dst it How thou didst weed and dresse it heretofore How thou didst fence it from the Forrest Bore And thinke how sweet a vintage then it brought When thy first worke upon her thou hadst wrought Remember that without thy daily care The choicest plants sone wilde and fruitlesse are And that as long as thou dost prune and dresse The sowrest Vine shall bring a sweet encrease Remember also Lord how still that Foe Who first pursued us doth seek to sow His tares among thy wheat and to his pow'r Break downe thy fence and trample and devoure The seeds of grace as soone as they doe sprout And is too strong for us to keepe him out Oh! let not him prevaile such harme to doe us As he desires but Lord returne unto us Returne in mercy Though thou find us slack To come our selves fetch draw and pull us back From our owne courses by thy grace divine And set and keep us in each way of thine We from our foes have saved beene by thee And in thy love oh Lord triumphed we But now behold disgrac'd thou throw'st us by And we before our adversaries flye At us our neighb'ring Nations laugh and jeere And us they soome whom late we made to feare Oh God arise reject us not for aye No longer hide from us thy face away But come oh come with speed to give us aid And let us not be lost though we have straid Vouchsafe that every one in his degree The secret errors of his life may see And in his lawfull calling all his dayes Performe his Christian duty to thy praise Give peace this troublous age for perilous The times are growne and no man fights for us But thou oh God! nor doe we seek or crave That any other Champion we may have Nay give us troubles if thy will be so That we may have thy strength to beare them too And in affliction thee more glorifie Then heretofore in our prosperity For when thy countenance on us did shine Those Lands that boasted of their corne and wine Had not that joy which thou didst then inspire When we were boyld and fryde in bloud and fire Oh! give againe that joy although it cost us Our lives Restore thou what our sin hath lost us Thy Church in these Dominions Lord preserve In purity and teach us thee to serve In holinesse and righteousnesse untill We shall the number of our dayes fulfill Defend these Kingdomes from all overthrowes By forraigne enemies or home-bred foes Our King with ev'ry grace and vertue blesse Which may thine honour and his owne increase Inflame our Nobles with more love and zeale To thy true Spouse and to this Common-weale Inspire our Clergie in their severall places With knowledge and all sanctifying