Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A30828
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Time's out of tune, plaid upon however in XX satyres / by Thomas Bancroft.
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Bancroft, Thomas, fl. 1633-1658.
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1658
(1658)
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Wing B643; ESTC R3217
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79,397
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157
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invade His person presently at such alarms He 's ready Giant-like to take up arms Against great Heaven and sticks not to let fly Indignant speeches 'gainst the Deity Just as the Thracians when fierce thunder tears The Clouds shoot arrows at the Heavenly Spheres Such persons stand upon the slippery brink Of ruine and as ready are to sink Into deep mischief as was Xerxes when Attended with a numerous host of men He to high Athos bold defiance sent As scorning by this lowest element To be ore-topt he threatned to oppress Natures dominions with his mightiness To make the earth grone and the Ocean quake Yet straight with wings of fear his flight did take His troops being chaced by Leonidas As by a Lion Sylvane Herds or as Thick swarms of Gnats along the dampish shores Are by a storm disperst when Boreas rores O vain Presumption that Ixâ—on-like Dost grasp a Cloud and would'st with terrour strike Thine enemies mock'st others with deceits Yet art thy self took with delusive haits As thou threw'st Angels from Celestial state So men by thee rais'd dost thou ruinate And as thou humbledst Babel to the ground And didst the Language of the world confound So greatest works thy pride still overthrows And fills whole Kingdoms with confused woes Yet 't is our fate or folly to run on Still in high-wayes of bold presumption Without restraint We like poor Prisoners cast Into a Dungeon on this Globe are plac'd The stair-foot of the world and sediment Of Nature whither all her dregs are sent Excretions and impurities yet we Think the whole world maintains an harmony For our sole sakes and that the glorious frame Of Heaven at our content doth chiefly aim Yea we pretend to know the Stars so well As if we did i' th' Heavenly houses dwell Vain mortals have we stellifi'd have all Along with Antiques hung th' Olympian Hall And as Celestials did affect our sporâ—s Bull Bear Dog Lion beasts of other sorts And sundry Fowls have we advanced high And starr'd therewith the fore-head of the sky Some high-flown wits play upon wing and strive To know what plots forsooth the stars contrive Consult with them about all great affairs As of Religion Empire peace and warrs Presumeing that as in the Book of Fate They read in Heaven the change of every State They calculate nativities and show What Fortunes in the paths of life shall go Along with men and what at last befall If their starre-doctrine prove authentical But if all grand mutations they fore-know Why did they not with all their art fore-show That to th' Religion which we now embrace Both Jewish Ceremonies should give place And Heathenish rites They did indeed foretell Which their bold rules doth shamefully resell That our Religion honour'd with the Cross Should fail and feel an universal loss When once three hundred threescore years were gone After that dread world-shaking Passion But their words were as far from truth as even Their arms from fathoming the arch of Heaven For then did Christianisme so mainly spread As if th' officious winds had carried It on their wings O the proud dorages Of shallow-headed mortals that profess The knowledge of the things they nere can reach Such as th' Intelligences scarce can teach Man wanting wit t' account himself a fool Is by the very Insects set to School Yet looks on 's fellow-creatures with as much Disdain as if his haughty brow did touch The roof of Heaven and with such tyranny Ore-awes the rest of Natures family As if they serv'd not to adorn the main Frame of the world or did not appertain To the same Lord on whom such injury Reflects and strikes at 's aweful Majesty But why poor Earthling dost thou swell so high Dost thou not see that beasts sagacity Puzzles thy reason that exalts thee so And their instinctive powers thy wits out-go So that their operations though thine eyes Frequently meet them pass for rarities Besides whereas the changes they fore-show Of th' air and more then man do seem to know The mind of Heaven or with it to maintain Some intercourse it frees them from disdain And such contempt as commonly among Frothy discourses is upon them flung No less to their own kind are men unkind Whilst lifted up like feathers in the wind With fumes of pride and hatching in their brain Mis-shap'd opinions they would yet constrain Others t' embrace their brood and as decrees Or settled laws obtrude their novelties He that upon the Moon had spent his wit And found both Sea and Land enough in it To furnish a new world with what a bold Front did he broch th' opinion he did hold Striving on others judgments to put tricks And make them like himself all Lunaticks So he that to the Earth gave motion and Would have the Sun as the worlds Centre stand Taught Magisterially as onely he Had chew'd the Kernel of Philosophy Surely if we could learn of wandering birds T' use wings as we can teach them t' utter words Our curious pride would make a flight more high Then Icarus his pitch thâ—t it might pry Into those wonders which from mortal eyes Are set at distance in the aweful skyes We would try whether th' Elemental fire Have the same heat with ours and would aspire To be acquainted with the Selenites If any such there be and feed our sights Upon such objects as young Phaeton In his wild wand'rings fixt his eyes upon Such fumes of vanity dilate the brain Of man that he conceits it doth contain As much as Heav'ns circumf'rence though so lame And shrunk's his Knowledge that the narrow frame Of his own body he ignores much less Can pierce int' incorporeal essences You sons of Aesculapius tell me why You faulter in your judgments frequently If you can dive into each deep recess Of bodies and know all the offices Of Nature there and of a watch so great Can the distemper'd wheels in order set But boldly some give hot as others cold Receipts against diseases that do hold Men in an equal thraldome some again Apply moist things to dull the edge of pain Others commend exiccatives some sluce The bloud out others do prefer the use Of sweating 'gainst which others too inveigh Because bad humours do the good betray Thus like Sea-robbers fasten'd back to back They look aversly and poor Patients rack By their distractions But how should they know Right cures that know not whence diseases grow For one sayes that the cause thereof doth lye In atomes which into our bodies fly Another doth derive such maladies From bloud distemper'd in our arteries A third affirms our spirits faulty are A fourth accuseth our inspired air A fifth upbraids us with bad nutriment Others there are that from all these dissent Then whom can we believe that they can tell What our diseases are or where they dwell They make me sick with terms as Lawyers doe Their Clients yet I cannot but laugh too To hear our Emp'ricks