ensuing pain Why strive we here in pleasures to excell Or count distresse and sorrows here a hell Dives THrice wretched yea most wretched soule am I Wretched yea wretched drown'd in misery Drown'd yea and bound in that infernall pit Which hath no bottome yea more wretched yet Not only bound but bound in chaines a yoke Perpetuall too which never shall be broke Never what never without end or date Oh! this word never makes me desperate Desperate indeed no hope for me remaines I am in hell in everlasting chaines This purgatory I am in indeed Am in 't is true but out cannot be freed Hence to redeeme me men may be at cost But all in vaine and to no purpose lost Here intercessions dirges are too late Mans love is vaine where God above doth hate Lazarus THrice happy soule am I what happy thrice Yea infinitely in a Paradise Eternall in the heavens oh best of all And yet more happy where I cannot fall No Serpent here to tempt me to rebell I have a place from whence that Serpent fell No aple here whereby I can be try'd No choice offends where nothing is deny'd Nor can I now in my affections stray Corruption thence is purged clean away And with the Angels which have ever stood I freed from ill am now confirm'd in good I now indeed am from all danger free I cannot sin then cannot punish'd be I now am happy beyond end or weight And therefore happy beyond all conceit The Authors Epigram DIves in hell now suffers for that sin Which we on earth doe take our pleasure in Dives in soule is with his sin tormented We in the body are with sin contented Dives in soule contemplates his hard fate We in the body ponder not our state Dives in hell as desperate must indure We upon earth are desperately secure Lazarus in heaven contemnes all earthly toyes We upon earth regard not heavenly joyes Lazarus in soule now freed from earth hath rest We in the body thinke that thraldome best Lazarus in soule hath now in fault to mind We in the body nothing but offend Lazarus in heaven hath now no cure in â—ake We upon earth have our accounts to make Dives DIstressed soule my miseries indeed Are out of measure yet must more exceed Distressed soule what punished by art Thus fully tortur'd and yet but in part I in my soule am hellishly distrest While my corrupted carkasse is at rest But that and I ere long must meet againe Not to asswage but to increase my paine Unhappy soule was I indeed the first That did offend that I am punish'd worst I am in hell the body yet seems free Did I pollute the body or that me But this is sure both were created good And in that state wherein we might have stood The Apple was unto the eye presented But I unto the eating in consented Lazarus I Happy I who once was wretched heal'd Am now in soule in that Elysian field Mear heaven celestiall Paradise where I In boundlesse pleasures greater to discry I happy I have many years injoy'd What pleasures may be from the body void Which freedome might have justly been reputed A comfort when the body was polluted But when the body shall new formed be And made immortall from corruption free Shall to me by the hand of the Creator Be joyn'd againe my joy shall then be greater My present joyes are infinite yet some Of them in hope which hopes shall then become All hop'd for pleasures then shall be suppli'd The new form'd Bridegroome have his reform'd bride The Authors Epigram MOst happy Lazarus how art thou renown'd How are thy sad and patient sufferings crown'd With ample yea within 〈◊〉 victories And shalt have yet is greater weight of glories Thou in thy body were 〈◊〉 distrest Thou in thy soule art now in heaven at rest Thou in thy soule and body joyn'd againe With Saints made perfect shall triumphant reigne Vnhappy Dives thou hast done thy mirth Thou in the body hadst thy heaven on earth But now thy spirit from the body freed Doth finde its selfe in very hell indeed Thou in the body only but devis'd To make the body were impâ—rudis'd But on thy soule and time to come unheedfull The state in both is therefore now most â—readfull Dives MOst wretched I besides the woes I have Methinks I heare my bones within my graye As troubl'd with some fatall Trumpets sound Begin to shake and shiver in the ground Disquieted bones why rest you not as rotten Why are you not eternally forgotten What awfull power or dreadfull earthquake rather Is this which wakes and shakes you thus together But can the bones consumed into dust Restored be Yes wofull yes they must Both bones and flesh are but in earth refin'd They must together once againe be joyn'd Oh! how have I offended is not death Of body for the body condign wrath And hell sufficient for the soules reward No no there is a sentence yet more hard Lazarus MOst blessed I what joyes have I in store How out of measure can they yet be more Yes joyfull yes I yet more joyes shall finde When once my body to my soule be joyn'd When that long look'd for act is to be done How shall my flesh and bones together run And by the rising of that Lambe was slaine Have power infused to stand up again Then from the sad sepulchre of anoy How shall I but lift up my head with joy And in the body deeply ravish'd be Thus from that prison set for ever free Besides my body which now rests in peace Shall then from all corruption have release And like a Bridegroom ready trim'd to me The bride for ever shall new marri'd be The Authors Epigram OH Dives Dives thou on earth hadst store Hadst all things in abundance no man more But when thy sleep be slept dost understand Thou shalt awake with nothing in thy hand Oh! whither would thy soule then take her flight To keep out of the body if it might How would it rather forth the body dwell Then in the body feel another hell But Lazarus thou shalt then come forth with joy Thou in the world hadst nothing but annoy But when that day of restitution comes Thou shalt have plenty Dives not the crums Thy body which in rags was bound up here Shall then in most celestiall robes appear Thy soule therewith much ravish'd and delighted Shall in much pleasure be thereto united Dives T Is true indeed yea too to true alas As Scripture speaks which alwaies comes to passe It is decre'd for all men once to dye But were that all more happy then were I. But oh this sentence is not here confin'd The soule and body must againe be joyn'd The soul from hell the body from its tombe And after death must unto judgement come Confounded wretch how shall I then subsist Which if I might not I the more were blest But yet I must alas
never faile shall burne From whence we never never shall returne Lazarus HOw shall I prize those words to me exprest Oh! Come thou blessed enter thou my rest Sweet meditations heav'nly joyes in heart These thoughts indeed are very heav'n in part How shall I then who once was most debas'd Be with much glory on the right hand plac'd And sit with Angels and with Saints to see The bad condemned and the good set free How shall I thence ascend up far above When my Redeemer shall his Court remove When Saints shall sing and Angels shall rejoyce How shall we mount up with a merry noyse How justly then shall Jesus wear the crown He having put all adversaries down How lowd in heav'n shall I his prayses sing There grac'd to wait upon so great a King The Authors Epigram ONce silly Lazarus now a Saint at rest Ere long a judge at last a son most blest Who could have seen when thou wert upon earth That thou hadst in thee any signe of worth When Kings and great men shall be in despaire At the great Sessions holden in the ayre There thou shalt in Commission sit and thence Ascend far higher with the highest Prince But once rich Dives now poore Dives nam'd Ere long arraign'd at last for ever damn'd Who would have thought when thou wert in thy pride That robes of purple could such ruines hide When Saints which here thou mad'st to mourne shall sing At heavens Assises thou thy hands shalt wring And to the mountaines and the hils complaine To fall and hide thee but alas in vaine Dives TOrmented wretch might I remaine in hell Only in soule tormented it were well Well though in woes which cannot be exprest Yet to the woes which are to come a rest But oh my body which in earth now lying Is as but in a furnace purifying Till it be such when it is fully try'd As may for ever burning flames abide That must againe my wofull soule ingage Which burning prison shall my soule inrage The one unto the other adding fuell The angry divells evermore most cruell Oh! Adam Adam why fogot'st thou this When thou for ever might'st have liv'd in blisse When thou on earth in Paradise didst dwell Thou thought'st not then on a perpetuall hell Lazarus NOw happy yea now heavenly I and sure 'T is only that makes happinesse secure When once my body from the grave be freed How shall I then be comforted indeed When my blest soule and body both united Shall reigne in heaven how shall I be delighted How shall I here be fully satisfi'd Where pleasant streames of endlesse pleasure glide One joy doth here another joy begin Increase of joyes makes joy increase therein Here from one fountaine rivers do distill Where Saints and Angels ever drinke their fill Here are those riches which all wants supply Because they alwayes fully satisfie Here are those joyes which are for ever crown'd Here nothing else but joy is to be found The Authors Epigram LAzarus Thy soule shall downe ere long retire To give thy body motion to mount higher Most swiftly soaring on thy Eagle wings From earth to heaven unto the King of Kings How highly there shall heavenly Angels place thee How sweetly there shall fellow Saints imbrace thee How welcome there shall Christ thy Saviour make thee How pleasing there shall God the Father take thee But with thee Dives thus it shall not be The clean contrary shall be true in thee When thou in soule and body shalt be cast Into that gaping cave of hell at last How eager shall the divels then be on thee How gastly shall the damned gaze upon thee What outward tortours shalt thou feel within What endlesse torments shalt thou then begin Dives OH savage senses brutish appetites In sensuall pleasure was your choice delights Your rage was only ruler in my heart You did command my understanding part Yea in my little Microcosmus vaine Did like so many heathen Princes reigne The world and all things in the world at will Were yours and yet you unsufficed still Thus all that world could not suffice my lust The divells therefore in another must My appetites which there did so excell Shall here be gorg'd with infinites in hell Each several sense which could not there be cloy'd Shall here be fed till it would food avoid Only the difference that shall then appear There fed with pleasures but with torments here Lazarus THe outward senses which to some are those Where at they drink in rivers of repose Were unto me but Cunduit pipes of care To let in floods of misery and feare My senses and my appetites I grant Did often gape and hunger in my want But for the most part hunger'd in despaire Or fed on troubles and infected ayre But when my body here above shall reigne My senses shall not covet here in vaine Each severall sense and secret appetite Shall here be fed with fulnâ—sse of delight Here is that banquet which delight each taste Here is that oyle which drawne on doth not waste Here are those cases once figur'd in a sheet Here is that manna which is ever sweet The Authors Epigram THus purblinde we on earth may partly see What plagues in hell prepared be That seeing those we so may have a care To kill sin heer if be not punish'd there Thus sinfull we whose sinnes or soules must die Our sinnes heer or our soules eternally May labour heer to put our sinnes to death Our tender soules may scape eternall wrath And thus again when we have got like men Some manly conquest over beastly sin We may with comfort view those joyes on high Where men shall live that make their sinnes to die Thus we of all may rightly make good use Fore-sight of danger oft prevents abuse And where the prize is glorious to behold It makes the dullest enterpriser bold Dives MY sense of taste was upon earth that Cooke Within whose Kitchin I most pleasure tooke And when its sacrifice was on the fire I offer'd up my earnestest desire This sug'red sense or rather savage beast Which oft devour'd when I could not digest Which still cri'd kill let sacrifice be slaine And drunk down liquor as the earth doth raine This idoll sense shall one day have its fill When soule and body 's sacrific'd in hell Where fiery fiends are cooks for ever killing And Divels tapsters diligent in filling Which cookes with scorching shall my throat inflame Those tapsters powre down sulphur in the same My soule with torments tortur'd for my sin Shall curse blaspheme and roar and rave within Lazarus MY sense of taste or taste of sense indeed Because I was most sensible of need Requir'd on earth no cooke at all because Still griping hunger gave my meat a sawce Yea I full oft was glad if I had meat Yea glad of that which others scorn'd to eat Yea glad of crums yea often driven to fast And glad to smell the meat
DIves deny'd what Lazarus beg'd in want Dives now beg's what Lazarus must not grant Impartiall Justice dost thy hand so guide One drop of water may not fall beside Then why are we so in our hearing gul'd With the fond false enchantments of the world To stop our eares when poore men aske and know We must not beg if we will not bestow Dives in hell is now with horrour fill'd Lazarus hath musicke what the heav'ns can yield Dives hence forth shall never hear of joy Lazarus shall never hear the least annoy Let Dives then our daily warning be He once had musicke mirth as sweet as we And wisely working on examples given Let Lazarus now allure our eares to heaven Dives MY eyes which once as windowes did appear Through which the worlds polluted face seem'd cleer By which false view my most fond heart became To fall in love most deeply with the same The world indeed did so my wits surprise Its moale-hills seem'd huge mountaines in mine eies But to this casement sense of mine alas Heav'n seem'd a mote oh most deceitfull glasse But these same eyes shall so wide open'd be In hell that I shall heer be forc'd to see How they were once deluded and confesse Heav'n is the mountain earth a moale or lesse Besides my sight shall be tormented most In hell beholding hells infernall host Where I for ever one of them shall view How ugly fiends shall use that hidious crew Lazarus MY sense of sight which in me as the Sun Doth to the world did shew me what was done This sense most cleer when I on earth indur'd Was clouded most by stormes of tears obscur'd And how could I forbeare such showers to see The world in robes and none but rags for me The world in pleasure I in paine and griefe The world in plenty I without reliefe But this my sense or those my very eyes Restor'd my body when it shall arise Above all clouds shall from ecclipse be free'd All tears shall then be wip'd away indeed Then I shall in my body both behold My body more resplendent made then gold And ever view that heav'nly vision sweet Wherein conjoin'd all heav'nly joyes doe meet The Authors Epigram LAzarus on earth by earthly sorrowes driven To loath the earth did lift his eyes to heav'n We upon earth by earthly joyes inchanted Conceive no other heav'nly are not wanted Lazarus in heav'n doth now injoy that mirth Which unto heav'n he look'd for upon earth Our eyes asleep with earthly beauties lul'd Lose the Creator by the creature gul'd Dives on earth with earthly Saints in love Look'd not for objects fairer far above If we here living looke not having sight For heaven we dying shall not then have light But Dives now his cursed soule acquaints In hell with such as here he made his Saints If we hereafter better mates require We must looke here to get acquaintancâ— higher The Authors Petition to the Throne of Grace DIvinest powers thus by your aid inspir'd My restlesse muse with quenchlesse sparkles fir'd Dosts through the world each fragrant garden views And plucks those flowers she thinks most fit to use Thus safely mounted on her hovering wings I taste some sweetnesse of those higher springs Which from the pipes of sacred fountaines flow By oddes more pleasant then the streams below Thus whiles the doter upon earthy toyes Delights in trifles or more earthly joyes My thoughts are towring not downe stooping here I take my pleasure in a higher sphere Thus whiles the worldling night and day is tost To gain that wealth which must againe be lost I reap such gaine as theeves cannot betray Nor time nor fate nor tyrants take away Thus I of wealth in poverty may vant Of mentall wealth though otherwise in want But oh you Authors of divinest thrift Doe you inrich me with some further gift Thus leave me not but give me power to strive To reach a strain beyond contemplative Oh teach my heart doe that in temper bring To strike more fully on the practique string Thus give me power that I my selfe may tread Those active measures I my selfe have made That what I proffer to the publicke view May in my selfe be secretly found true Not thus with sweets fill others hands with posies And in my bosome cankers stead of Roses Not by my lines thus limit out a way For others steps and run my selfe astray But make my action such as in some part May give some life to my unpolish'd art That these my labours so may fruitfull be If not to others yet at least to me And others by that concord sweet invited Shall with the musicke be at least delighted THE PRODIGALL SONNE AND THE PITTIFVLL FATHER The second Booke The prodigall Son MY restles thoughts what move you thus to rome Why rest you not what would you doe from home What doth incite you have you found some prey Worth your adventure that you needs would stray Yes yes rich treasures are abroad no doubt My stragling thoughts have found some jewels out But I am tender travels rough and yet My skill but small for travells much unfit But wherefore should I thus restraine my will I have my portion that shall purchase skill Discreetest Fathers do not much deny We yonger Brothers should our fortunes try Besides my sailes thus fil'd with motion strong Most sweet companions do intice along With earnest proffers of an equall share In treasures pleasures and contentments rare The Pitifull Father MY Son my Son who art to me so neer And whom I tender as a child most dear What worme is crept into thy troubled head Or by what serpent art become misled Whither my child oh whither would'st thou go What is the reason thou would'st leave me so Dost thou suppose it is no griefe to me Thus of a Son to disregarded be Alas my Son thou art too yong indeed To make a venture will such danger breed What favour canst thou looke to find in lands Most strange to thee and at meere strangers hands Strange lands and people and from me as far As Egypt is or Sodoms people were Where thou shalt find thy hopes but mock'd vaine trust For freedome bondage and for fruit but dust The Authors Epigram MOst sinfull sons rebellious we below If that a son such disobedience shew A son too by the woman that is free How desperate must the feed of Hagar be Too venturous children from our Father stray To make our selves unto our fees a prey Our sin a monster but our grace a brat And yet we will be prodigall of that Our tender Father who best knows our frame Our weaknesse sees and warns us of the same We are so wilfull though most weak indeed That we will trust unto our strength that reed Our Father sees what snares abroad are laying And therefore seeks to keep t is in from straying We by the worlds alluring wiles mistooke Suck down the bait suspecting not
change additions given before Rich Lazarus now Rich Dives now no more Rich Lazarus now hath more then earth can grant Poore Dives now in miserable want Rich Lazarus now with Angels is delighted Poore Dives now with Divels is affrighted Lazarus in peace of conscience doth excell Dives in conscience hath a very hell Rich Lazarus mounts with Angels him attending Poore Dives now with Divels is dâ—scending Heaven hath for Lazarus long prepared â—in Hell gapes for Dives and he enters in Lazarus receiv'd with love delight and joy Dives with deadly horrour and annoy Lazarus to have his saved soule contented Dives to have his damned soule tormented Dives OH cursed cursed most accursed soule Where am I now what fiends are these that howl They seize upon me they torment me sore I shrike with anguish they in fury rore In earths deep centers darke and dreadfull cell Where only angry damned spirits dwell In grossest darknes yet my sight so clear Most hidious visions to the same appear In hell indeed where I endure that curse Which shall not cease but be heerafter worse In fire infernall out of measure hot Which ever burns and yet consumeth not I rave I curse and I accuse my fate As if such torments were unjust too great But conscience nips me with not so I trie To kill that worme but oh I it will not die Lazarus OH blessed blessed oh my soule most blest In Abrahams bosome yea in Angels rest A Heavenly mansion made by God most good Made mine by Jesus purchas'd by his blood In heav'n indeed where I behold no sight But only heav'nly objects of delight Nor heare I ought that doth offend but heere All prayses sing and Alleluj as heare No darknes heer I still have perfect day No sorrowes heere all tears are wip'd away No meannesse heere I match with Kings above No hatred here but I have perfect love Heere I have rest which never shall decrease Heere I have pleasures which shall never cease Heere I have riches which shall never rust Heere I injoy the portion of the just The Authors Epigram POore Dives now within that fiery lake In hell doth yell most piteous dolour make He sees the fire although it gives no light The divels too though in perpetuall night Rich Lazarus now hath rest which shall indure In heav'n where only harbour is secure Views Man in Christ and Christ in God which sight Is the most heav'nly object of delight Poore Dives now is desperate indeed His roaring conscience makes his soule to bleed The fiends againe do rage the faster why To make him silent no the lowder cry Rich Lazarus now it blest above measure Hath heav'n for glory happinesse for treasure Yea double happy he in heaven abides And in his conscience hath a heav'n besides Dives MOst cursed soule with Divels now in chaynes I feele not only hells infernall paines But also have a hell within my spirit For losse of heav'n which Saints above inherit Damn'd soule I curse but cannot God accuse He proffer'd grace but I did grace refuse He often touch'd my conscience with a nip Which still I smother'd or in vaine let slip He sent his servants yea his only Sonne Who still did wooe but I would not be woon He gave me riches to relieve the poore Whom I neglected or disdain'd the more But now I am for evermore rejected No meanes of mercy now to be expected But fiery fiends must pay me now my due Without remorse who would no mercy shew Lazarus MOst happy soule now from corruption free'd Which in my body was corrupt indeed I then yea I for now I doe subsist Within my soule was then with sin distrest My earthly body as a house of mire Or dirty clay polluted my desire Depraved Nature with corrupted sense Seduc'd my will abus'd intelligence Yea infinite allurements unto sin The world without the wicked one within All join'd in one a very host indeed To race my Towrs which were alas but Reed But God who still defendeth from above Did looke upon my weake estate in love And in his Sonne accepting what I wanted Where power I had not there he pardon granted The Authors Epigram IF Adams Seed be still the same by birth Or Dives yet hath brethren upon earth Here let them heare him in his soule complaine For losse of what they yet have time to gaine If men distrest remaine in sorrows striving Or saved Lazarus yet hath seed surviving Here let them in their sorrows overflown Behold his joy and in his joy their owne Dives as in an Ocean did abound In earthly joyes wherein he swimming drown'd Lazarus as in a channell with his oare Was crost and tost and yet got safe to shoare Dives had warnings of a future night But present joyes put future cares to flight Lazarus with present miseries opprest Was soon incited to insuing rest Dives COnfounded soule when I was found in earth I lost my selfe but most of all my worth Nay I could very hardly then discry That man had any such a thing as I. The curious cob-web of my body twin'd Wherein I out of sight was out of minde Was then the object that I counted dear Because in deed that only did appear That that I pamper'd with the choisest cates And deck'd with jewels of the highest rates And that so fully my affections sway'd That I who therein should have rul'd obey'd But now poore soule I see thee as thou art A power immortall once the better part I see the worth wherein thou were infus'd And to what end but all alas abus'd Lazarus MOst happy soule thus out of thraldome risen Thou in the body wert indeed in prison That house of clay wherein thou wert inclos'd Confin'd thy power and made thee ill dispos'd Thou in some motion to the better things Wouldst then have hover'd but that held thy wings Thou then didst see but then thy sight alas Prov'd much deceitfull looking through that glasse But now my soule thy nimble sight is clear Thou as thou art dost to thy selfe appear A jewell most inestimable such As doth in worth exceed the world by much Pure in thy selfe and pure in thy desire With Angels equall and shall yet be higher In present joy and art inspir'd with some Sweet speculations of more joyes to come The Authors Epigram DIves in hell confounded at his state Now sees his folly's when it is too late Confesseth too with most outragious cries What whiles he liv'd the world might not surmise Alas poore Dives heaven hath now deni'd thee The world which was thy joy doth now deride thee Vnhappy Dives how art thou undone Thy soule is lost and yet no world is won Thrice happy Lazarus who in sorrows tost Hast gain'd what Dives in his pleasures lost Hast heav'n where thou art ravished with mirth Dives hath neither joy in heav'n nor earth If sorrows here foretell such future gain Or present pleasures such
power to die The Scripture only on the soule reflects All earthly objects it as base rejects The soule a spirit therefore only fit To read those copies by the spirit writ This Writ from heaven then summons up thy soul To heaven that Court which issu'd forth this scroule Glew not thy soule then too neare earthly things Hang no such plumets on its sublime wings Againe the Scriptures only have the art To search into the secrets of the heart They only can discover sin and prove Upon the conscience they came from above They only a beginning doe relate No humane Treatise of so ancient date They only have preserved been and shall Though ever doubtlesse envy'd most of all And in them in the sacred Writ I meane As in a glasse is only to be seen That perfect image of supernall might Which can be viewed by no other light There is I grant it in each humane frame An eye by nature fixed in the same Which doth by nature beyond nature see A pow'r there supernaturall must bee Which power no doubt hath deified been From the beginning by the race of men Though most for want of power to understand Ascrib'd that power unto some other hand As some to creatures like themselves but clay Some to the Sun as former of the day Some to the Moon some to the Stars yea know Some to the prince of hell below Yet all to something thus the infidell Beleeves there is a power that doth excell But ignorant of what it is doth faine Or forge a God out of his idle braine Thus natures pen by reasons power no doubt Doth point at God but cannot point him out Doth shew a God but what he is or where That Scriptures only fully can declare Shall then a heathen a meere Infidell Who never heard of either heaven or hell Or dreames of soule alone by natures view Discern there is a God and homage due Which is apparant all the world abroad All nations worship something as a God And shalt thou Atheist dar'st thou all alone Be worst of all men and acknowledge none Thou hast besides the wisest heathens sight Much greater aide far cleerer beames of light Gods holy and eternall word by name Eternall in the nature of the same Where thou maist its eternall author find It only gives that sight unto the blind And this thou hast not so to make thee pos'd As pretious oyntment in a box inclos'd Not only in the hidden letter teaching But open'd by the pow'rfull hand of preaching Canst thou not row then in this calmed ocean Sit'st thou in darknesse in this heav'nly Goshen Dar'st thou deny that Deitie which here Doth in such perfect characters appeare Oh do not thou degenerate so far To be more sordid then the divels are The divels do much forced duty shew To holy Scriptures and do know them true Shall divels then unto the Scriptures bow Confesse and feare them and yet wilt not thou Deluded Atheist be reform'd herein Seeke no such shadowes so to hide thy sin Because the Scriptures render thee unjust Thou dost condemne them so to save thy lust Let not thy senses thus thy soule inthrall For lose the Scriptures and thou dost lose all Both soule and body heav'n and God yea soe Dost likewise purchase everlasting woe T is then no marvell that thou art so blind Or rather desp'rate in thy carnall mind That in thy fancy thou cast apprehend No soule no heav'n nor pow'r that doth transcend How canst thou view these when thou dost in spleen Reject the glasse where these are to be seen The Scriptures are Gods tapers set up here Extinguish those no God will then appeare God in times past aid oft appeare I know In visions and in shadowes here below But when the substance his eternall Son Once shin'd here all those lesser lights had done Bright Sun indeed well might the stars give way And hid themselves in such a heav'nly day A heav'nly day when heaven it selfe we find Burst through the clouds came down to earth and shin'd And yet we find this day at last did fade This glorious Sun at length began to wade And from these nether Regions to retire Ascended to the circles that are higher Well might the world then here beneath lament And put on sackcloath weeds of discontent Bewailing deeply that earth darking day Which from the earth tooke such a light away This heavenly Sun now in the heavens again Whose glory heavens cannot alone containe Did leave some rayes below and now and then Doth dart down more amongst the sonnes of men But all that light now of that heavenly taper Is set up in a lanthorne here of paper In holy Scripture all that light doth shine That is the lanthorne which gives light divine Then thou that first in such a sable night That of this nature thou canst see no light 'T is doubtlesse cause thou dost not duly look Into that lanthorn use that heavenly book Wouldst thou have wisdome have thy sight made cleer Thy heart made gentle and thy soule appear See hell beneath and heav'n that is most high Discern thy maker and eternity Then use the Scripture thy dim feeble sight Is apprehensive of no greater light God knowes such secrets do mans sight surpasse And therefore wisely shewes them through a glasse A glasse indeed the Scripture is most faire And more transparent then the purest aire Through which the perfect Images are view'd Of objects in the highest altitude Presumptuous earth because thou canst not see By carnall reason how these things can be Thou dost conclude they cannot be in fine As if there were no greater power then thine Thou art a peece but of the Potters clay What can the peece unto the Potter say Canst thou suppose the brickle vessell made As skilfull as its maker in his trade But were this granted which were too too grosse Yet thou art vainer at a greater losse All other creatures but the divells bee The same they were created but not we Thou art far weaker worser and hast lost Much of thy Makers workmanship and cost Thy reason is corrupt thy senses soyl'd Thy nature taynted and thy soule defil'd Indeed in the perfection of estate Wherein perfection did thee first create Thy sight was such thou stood'st not then in need Of glasses or of spectacles to read Thy apprehension was not then so weake But thou hadst power to heare thy Maker speake In his owne language and couldst understand Without the helpe of any second hand But long in Adam thou hast lost that art Like Lucifer in acting of his part He would have been although in heav'n yet higher Thou wouldst although in Paradise aspire He saw Gods face yet that would not suffice Thou knew'st his voice yet thou wouldst be more wise He clyming lost the hight he had before And thou thy knowledge by desiring more Canst thou suppose then that impaired light Yet in thy understanding part so bright As
wilt be still a heathen swine Yet know God will be knowne of thee infine If here thou wilt not know him by his works A sin abominated by the Turks If here thou wilt to know him by that spark Now rak'd up in thy conscience yet his marke Nor yet wilt know him by the eye of faith Beleeving what the holy Scripture saith But dost this cloud of witnesses repell Yet God will make thee know him though in hell Yea more then know for thou shalt feel him there And in that den his Deity declare When divells shall torment thee as their owne Because thou here wouldst have no God-head known Thus I have walk'd in an unwonted strain Which some it may be will account as vaine As if I heare by some what went about To bring a truth most manifest in doubt Who is so grosse may some perhaps reply To make a question of the Deity If there be none why should I now begin To make a doubt where none before hath bin Indeed with us where so much light doth shine As if directly underneath the line With us where God so perfectly appears And as it were hath dwelt so many years If there should harbour any here so blinde So dead in sense and stupifi'd in minde As once to harbour Atheisme in thought Therein most hideous treachery were wrought Yet sith we finde that Scripture doth impart Which only can anatomize the heart That such a thought in some hath harbour'd been Yea all men are by nature so unclean Each heart by nature is deceitfull still And every thought continually ill We doubtlesse may though to our shame conclude That Atheisme is in a multitude Especially if duly we propound How meerly naturall multitudes are found Againe besides our nature which hath stood Since Adams fall an enemy to good We have another enemy as great Who hinders good with a more deadly hate The divell that arch enemy indeed To God himselfe to Adam and his seed He seeks by his inscrutible an art To steal no lesse then God out of the heart And to that purpose night and day doth spend Suggesting doubts and questions to that end By which with man he doth too much prevaile Else why did David in that nature faile Who was a man most dear to God we finde And yet the divell trap'd him in that kinde When he did almost in his thoughts complain As if that he had wish'd his hands in vain From whence it must by consequence arise God for the time was taken from his eyes Then if such lofty cedars may be shaken How may the shrubs be in that nature taken Poore creatures who have neither care nor skill To frustrate Sathans working of his will Such fiery darts the divell dayly throwes And at our hearts he doth direct his blowes And I for my part cannot testifie That any living scape them as they fly Only as aged Jesses youngest son For safety did to sanctuary run Where he beheld the wound was hid before And eke got balme to heale his bleeding sore So when we doe the tempters dart discry We may like David to the Temple fly To reading hearing meditate and pray Such fumes as those will drive the fiend away Or as old Jacobs children in distresse When bit with serpents in the wildernesse By only looking on a serpents wing Expel'd the poyson of that bite or sting Even so when Sathan that old serpent stings We may have healing underneath those wings Which Jacobs children in figure view'd To us a Christ in their similitude Thus as the divell daily doth belay To steal our goods to steal our God away God that we should by no means let him go Hath left us means to circumvent that foe And hence proceeds that combate in our breasts The flesh consenting but the soule resists But when the soule submits to carnall sense The divell then gets the preheminence And thou within whose bosome no such strife Or combate hath incumbered thy life The divell sure hath favour'd thee therein Or thou too much infatuated bin But thou that feelst no want at all of aid Thou gavst him here a Paradise indeed But thou wilt give him heaven which doth exceed Yet doe not count this altogether vaine Ther 's no such drosse but may afford some graine The troubl'd soule counts no occasion slight That may assist when it is thus in fight What thou think'st bane may be anothers meat Then what thou like'st not let another eat Though these be hearbs nay weeds out of the wood Yet hearbs nay weeds for many things are good I trust no Colloquintida is here No danger if thy stomack then be clear Lord what is man that thou art so mindfull of him Psal. 8. vers. 4. Desires of Aid MOst Gracious God as then hast lent thy hand To move my heart and to direct my pen In some weake measure thus to understand And make thee understood of other men God only wise almighty pure eternall Without whose mercy man must be infernall So let thy hand Lord be outstretched still To stir my heart that most polluted spring That in that fountaine I may dip my quill And from that depth such secret matter bring As to my selfe may make my selfe appeare That I may seek to make that fountaine clear And as we all doe to our comfort finde That thou of man hast ever mindfull been So let my lines be moving in some kinde That we again may not forget thee then But may for ever as it is our parts Inthrone thee in the centre of our hearts LOrd what is man may well be ask'd of thee None but thine eye can that exactly see Thou gav'st him life when thou hadst given him fashion Thou only therefore canst resolve that question Man peradventure like a butcher may Unmake those walls which thou hast made of clay Rip up mans body open every part Take out his entrails looke into his heart Note every artrie conduit pipe and veine And pâ—y into the Chamber of the brain Tell all his sinewes crushes bones and finde How every member is to other joyn'd Let this be granted as perhaps it may In some imperfect superfices way Yet what can man in this description read Of what man in perfection was indeed Alas in this man doth indeed no more Then as it were unlock the little doore Of some rich cabinet which being done Doth finde it empty all its jewels gone Where being frustate of his Chiefe desire Finds nothing left but only to admire The curious art about that little frame With lively forms yet pictures on the same Even so mans body that same heav'ns device Wherein are lock'd up all our gemmes of price When cruell death once turnes his key about Unlocks the doore and lets those jewels out Mans body straight becomes a trunke bereft Of all its matchlesse treasure empty left And nothing to the searchers eye remains To satisfie his curious eye or pains But only to admire the
for sinfull men Besides great God if thou as God couldst dye Which thing we must for evermore deny Yet man from death could thereby not be free For man hath sin'd and man must punish'd be Oh I soule polluting deadly sinck of sin That mankind should be so defil'd therein That God himselfe and only God remain Might not forgive nor wash away the stain No way but suffering would make full supplies Offended justice claim'd a sacrifice Man had no offering that would serve the turn Thou mightst not but thy melting heart did yern Yern Lord indeed to see hells raging fire But sawst no Sacrifice to thy desire And yet that man for ever might not burn Thou didst prepare a body for the turn Because that man no sacrifice could find Nor could thy Godhead suffer in that kind Thou didst unite by everlasting ties Thy selfe to man to be a sacrifice Thy second person and thy only Son Begotten long before the world begun Who scorning shame through all the danger ran Tooke flesh upon him and was found a man A perfect man and perfect God likewise And so became a perfect sacrifice As man for man he dy'd and lay as slain As God he conquerd death and rose again A perfect man without defect by sin A perfect God he had for ever bin Hid God-head and his manhood both intire Yet joynd in one one person we admire By thy decree he put out nature on Our nature thus exceping sin alone And living guiltlesse for himselfe therein He dying free'd the guilt of other men But being guiltlesse death was not his due Indeed respecting of himselfe t is true But he be came man onely to that end As free to free men that by sin offend But could the death of one suffice for all Yes such a one as we may truly call Both God and man yea God whose sacrifice All men nay Angells cannot equallize If Adam but a creature could so fall To bring all creatures of the world in thrall Sure the creating God made man might free All mankind fallen in a more full degree A second Adam thus is truly found To save the world the first in sin had drownd That as by one man all men guilty stood Even so by one man all might be made good First Adam falling dy'd be cause he fell The second standing dy'd of his good will A free will offering thus he freely gave Which by his free will had a power to save A free will offering Lord we truly say For of thy selfe thou hadst no debt to pay Untill it pleas'd thee to assigne thy Son To pay mans debt whom sin had quite undon Dear God that thou shouldst bring thy selfe in debt The greatnesse of it too should be no let Should'st binde thy selfe by promising a seed When thou before wert absolutely freed Could not the greatnesse of the debt to pay Those flames of love within thy breast alay When thou consider'st in thy deep fore-cast That it would cost thy dearest blould at last Lord what is man we still may aske of thee That for his sake thou could'st thous moved be That he which in thy bosome did remaine Should be a Lambe from the beginning slaine These secrets sure were hid from Adams eyes Had he knowne these he would have been more wise But we poore wretched we that with him fell Dp know and yet we doe again rebell We know and doe acknowledge as we read All this fulfill'd which was before decree'd That this eternall Seed thy Son is come By thee begotten in the Virgins wombe And by a way beyond our reach became Both God and Man a Lion and a Lambe We know againe thy Scriptures testifie How like a Lambe he did both live and dye How sinlesse blamelesse harmlesse and demure He did the malice of the world indure Number'd with sinners and yet free from spot Smitten of sinners yet he threatned not Led as a sheep did to the slaughter come Yet opened not his mouth but was as dumbe Where like a Lambe most innocent and free To cleare the guilty must condemned be And to regaine our freedome by his losse He by our sins was nayl'd unto the crosse Where wounded with those soul deep wounding spears Instead of a distilling floods of tears Heaven was set open and its fountaines ran With streams of bloud to wash polluted man Where like a lamb once offer'd up for all He drank not only vinegar and gall But dranke that bitter cup which doth therein The vialls of thy vengeance due for sin By drinking which he did asslwage thine ire He quench'd the flames of everlasting fire And purchas'd heaven to â—â—â—â—â—ate gaping hell And all for mankind out of meere good will Oh! worke of wonder can our hearts not shake At this whereat the very earth did quake The stones did rend graves let out men that slept The heavens above put out thelt lights and wept We read again when he thus like a lamb Had finish'd that for which he hither came How like a Lion he began to wake Or how like Sampson he the cords did breake And did assume his sacred corps again As one returnd with conquest from the slain Who like a Lion joy full of his prey He having took the sting of death away And made the grave a bed of sweet repose He rould away the mightie stone and rose And came and preach'd by his new preaching birth Deliverance unto captive men on earth Yea in the earth his rising from the grave Of all mens rising testimony gave This Lion now of Iudas Tribe as man Having fulfild his Priest here began To take his Royall Scepter in his hand As King to rule as God to Kings command But Lord his body now was glorifi'd He might no longer now on earth abide His Kingdome was not of this wotld not here His seat so raigne was in a higher spheare He must to heav'n into the throne of grace The earth is but his foot-stoole and too base And having fully all thy Law fulfil'd Made death the divell hell and sin to yeeld He did ride up triumphant in renown After his conquest to receive his Crowne Where thou hast crownd him with a crown more worth Then all the richest Diadems on earth With heaven it selfe and earth besides with all Those higher circles and this nether ball And with this scepter in his hand as fit Hast at thy right hand him in glory set Where he remains exalted and as God Doth rule the wicked with an iron rod But as he yet is God and man we read As man he yet for man doth intercede To thee his Father shewing of the scars Which he received in his hloody warres And thus he hath a Priest-hood yet on high Though not to suffer yet to sanctifie All our oblations and his saving Name The Alter where thou wilt accept the same Together with his Person where is kept The forme of man into thy bosome crept Whose sacred body
I must appear But with what face alas I tremble here I in the body made of sin a sport I in the body then must answer for 't The Judge of all will justly then define Whether his wayes were equalest or mine Lazarus OH blessed body though a while in prison How will the soule take pleasure in thee risen And how againe will thy delights increase When as the soule returns to thee in peace How like the Turtle sent out of the Arke After the stood returning to that Barke With signes of joy shalt thou my soule my Dove Be in that day return'd with signes of love How shall my late dry scattered bones up stand When thou thus bringst a pardon in thy hand Yea with what comfort shall I be inspir'd When thus my corps is from the grave retir'd Nay with what courage shall I then appear What joy when my redemption draweth near What tongue on earth is able to expresse What joy in conscience I shall then possesse The Authors Epigram MOst fond yea most infatuated we Have ears and heare not eyes and will not see Or else how could we whiles we here remaine So blinded be in things which are so plain How could we else like men whom charms benum Be so unfeeling of the chance to come To not observe like men most sure to die What Dives lost what Lazarus gain'd thereby Here who but Dives had the cap and knee Here who came forth with greater pompe then he But lo hereafter dead and cold again Alas he comes forth trembling in a chain But blessed Lazarus who was here a scorn As out of time or most untimely born Shall when the dead are summon'd from the grave Come forth with comfort then most honour have Dives OH dreadfull dreadfull in what dreadfull terrours Am I in hell tormented with my errours By only meditating on that horrour My soule shall be in when the Judge sends for her But with what feare shall I be then possest The feare of which doth thus my soule molest When I at last shall feel the thing I feare Shall rise you dead and come to judgement here How like a prisoner in a chaine at last Shall I stand forth to heare my sentence past How like a most condemned wretch alas I am condemned ere the sentence passe My conscience which once counterfeited sleep Now in my soule a restlesse court doth keep And then shall make a Register come forth Worse then a thousand witnesses on earth Lazarus VVHat joyes are these which now so neer approch Divinest thoughts may you thereon incroach Incroach Oh! seise thereon be not deter'd They were for me before the world prepar'd For me what me who beg'd from door to door And in my selfe am to my selfe as poore Have neither birth nor worth in me whereby So mean a wretch should chalenge joyes so high Yet see and wonderd to these joyes divine I have such right that they by right are mine God did prepare Christ purchas'd I by faith Receive them due thus imputation saith But oh my sins are great but that 's no let In purchasing my joy Christ paid my debt But I must give account that 's yet to make But He that paid my debt my count must take The Authors Epigram OH happy Lazarus how maist thou stand sure How swimst thou in a sea of joyes secure Thy debt is paid which was so out of measure And paying that hath purchas'd thee a treasure What needst thou shake then at a judgement day Or of accounts who hast no debts to pay Or why shouldst feare the Judges face to see When as the Judge shall thy redeemer be But wretched Dives wretched sure indeed Thou hast a boundlesse fearfull bill to read Wherein thy debt is manifest and clear No crossing there no cancelling appear There was a time but now that time is lost Wherein thou might'st have got thy reckoning crost How wilt thou answer to the Judge of heaven Thou canst not pay nor canst thou be forgiven Dives MOst wofull I who now in wofull ruine In hell still muse of greater woes eusuing One woe doth another woe foreshew Woe endlesse woe my foresight is too true My woes againe are yet as to begin Wretch I have yet to answer for my sin Where my indictment must be found indeed Before a Judge too who will not be feed A Judge whose mercy I would not imbrace Where mercy moves not justice must take place A Judge who once cry'd gently come away But thou shalt to me goe you cursed say How will those Angells and those Saints abhor me Which I abus'd once seeking to doe for me How will those divells which I once obey'd Then cry my wages shall be duly paid Lazarus YEe Cherubins and Seraphins divine Come aid me with your tongues or teach you mine That in some measure I may so expresse My present joy in future happinesse My joy conceiv'd of my Redemption day When I shall meet my Saviour in the way Where I shall blesse the houre that I was borne When all the kind'reds of the earth shall mourn When earth and all the burden on the same Shall burne unto that nothing whence they came The skies shall melt the stars the sunne the moone Shall join to make perpetuall night at noone When out of heav'n the Judge of all most true Shall come downe riding on the clouds in view To bind the Divels and the damned down How sweetly shall He smile on me not frown The Authors Epigram MOst lambe like Lazarus thou shalt be set by Thy blood is not requir'd thou shalt not die When sacrifice for ever shall remaine In hell for sin the goats shall then be slaine Thou heer wert famish'd when the goats did feed Their hearts were cherish'd when thy heart did bleed But when they shall be sever'd from the sheep Thou shalt rejoice but they shall howle and weep But goat like Dives thou shalt pay full deer For eating up the sheep's allowance heer When they shall scape thy blood shall then be shed Thou wert but for a day of slaughter fed Fond thou who heer wouldst have the upper hand Must on the left at heav'ns tribunall stand And heare the Judge this sentence on thee passe Goe cursed goat my sheep must have the grasse Dives OH wretched I what shall of me become When wretched Goe ye cursed be my doome How shall my soule and body both affrighted Then curse the howr they were again united Then in what glory shall those Saints appeare At whom proud asse I once did slout and jeere How shall their blessing then increase my curse My conscience for abusing of them worse How shall the Divels then with fury driven Seaze me for hell thus sentenc'd out of heav'n And on me with much insultation rage As if my torments might their owne asswage Then with the hideous howling herd of hell I shall be thrown down to that dreadfull cell Where we in flames which
I might not taste But when I in my body shall be grac'd To sit in heaven where none but Saints are plac'd And at most sacred invitations given Shall taste the Supper of the Lambe in heaven My taste shall then in relishing be skil'd And with each sweet distinguished be fill'd Yea taste the sweetnesse of those streames of bloud Those heavenly Fountaines which on earth were shed The Authors Epigram DIves on earth with delicates was fil'd We taste all dainties that the earth can yeeld Dives did in excesse of liquor sin We tun down barrels drown our selves therein Dives thus drinking thought not on the poore We are so drunken we forget them more Dives in hell must therefore suffer need Yea hellish woes then how shall we be freed But once poore Lazarus who on earth distrest Was both with hunger and with thirst opprest Yet in his conscience then injoy'd that feast In which we famish or much fast at least He now in heaven already hath that store We never tasted and shall yet have more For which he sought to which we make no haste For which he long'd in which we feel no taste Dives MY sense of smelling which was once so nice Each stincke offended it but stincking vice I stopt my nostrils and I shut my doores To shut out Lazarus with his fest'red sores Which ayrie sense refresh'd my other powers By sweet perfumes and odoriferous flowers Extracting thence such savours of delight As fed that most attractive appetite This sense in the infecting fogs of hell Shall suck most deadly savours by the smell And stead of flowers and sweet perfuming shall Be fed with fumes of sulphur boild in gall Besides the loathsome savours in this den Of plagued poyson'd and tormented men The stincke of fiends and divells unto me Is now most grosse and shall more grievous be Lazarus MY smelling did on earth some comfort give When I was forc'd Camelian like to live But sweet perfumes and powders vainly spent Made me not proud to make the world a sent Barns styes and stables and full glad of those Were my persumed lodgings of repose My empty stomack of this sense annoy'd My stincking sores my empty stomack cloy'd But when my body shall exalted be To reigne in heaven from all corruption free Where all things are most sweet and purely try'd This sense shall then be sweetly satisfi'd This sense shall then have the preheminence Made of the five the most reviving sense If senses then such instruments shall prove By sucking in some living ayre above The Authors Epigram IF Dives now could but those dainties smell He tasted here he would give thanks in Hell We taste like dainties double if not thrice And yet ungratefull in a Paradise But Dives who here thought not at his board Of God hath now what Divels will afford We oft forget both God and eke our selves Then what hereafter can we looke for else If Lazarus were on earth againe no doubt He would but of our sweetest odoures flout We with our seeming sug'red sweets in love Are but in jest with sweetest joyes above Lazarus did wisely send up ere he went His suits as incense which now yeeld him sent We if we will not of the like despair Must send up first a savour sweet by prayer Dives MY sense of feeling which on earth was that I nurs'd most gently as a tender brat No care was lacking to preserve that sense From the sustaining of the least offence This sense forsooth might not endure the winde I little felt the smart in any kinde Of want of woe of sicknesse or of sin Within my selfe much lesse in other men But when my soule ascending on a chaine Shall fetch my body hither from the slaine I here in hell â—hall in that tender part Be most tormented feel the greatest smart My body here fast bound in fetters lying Shall tortur'd be in flames of sulphur frying My soule most fully then shall feel the sting Of sin that serpent in my conscience wring Lazarus FRe I was borne within my mothers wombe My sense of feeling suffer'd in that tombe And only sadly comming forth that cage I in that part did first salute earths stage And in that part I panted out my breath Till I was taken off that stage by death A wretched life insu'd a painfull birth Most wretched painfull Tragedy on earth But as my soule which was on earth distrest Is now in heaven return'd unto its rest So shall my body breaking ope its grave Ascend up hither from that silent cave Where it shall feel no hunger cold nor smart But heavenly fulnesse and content of heart My feeling sense to make its fulnesse measure Shall here be only sensible of pleasure The Authors Epigram LAzarus was here most patient in distresse We murmure yea seem often mad in lesse Lazarus was not here with his sin diquieted We feel not that or are with that delighted But Lazarus now doth feel his soule at rest Our soules alas not yet with sin distrest But would we finde what Lazarus now doth feel Our hearts must first be gentle here not steel Dives here might not feel the least annoy But Dives he had there for here his joy If here we feel not penitentiall griefe We shall feel desp'rate with the damned theefe But Dives in his feeling sense in hell Is now most plagu'd which plagues shall yet excell If we here make that tender sense our god It will in hell be our most torturing rod Dives MY sense of hearing which was once most nimble To heare each Syrens sugred tongue dissemble Each sound of pleasure musick sweet and worse Hells language people swear blaspeme and curse But when the cry of Lazarus full of care Did pierce the heavens it could not make me heare Nor could those voyces sent from heaven by preaching Repent repent awake me with their teaching This sense in hell instead of musicke sweet When all the damned shall together meet Shall be compell'd to heare me helpe to make A cry in hell would make the earth to shake We desp'rate creatures roaring in hells flame The damned divells raging in the same Gods voice of justice like most hideous thunder Above us with his vengeance boyling under Lazarus MY hearing sense I once did exercise With the sad ecchoes of my childrens cries My beating heart was in my bosome stung To heare those infants cry for food so young Besides the sad heart-breakings at the doore Of rich men rating of my children poore With churlish checks and threats of further griefe Instead of yeelding comfort or reliefe This sense in heaven shall no such language heare But come you blessed kindest welcomes there No churlish motions ever shall repell My suits there granted Dives is in hell This sense in heaven to musick shall attend Which earthly senses can not apprehend For ever ravish'd with those glorious Three To heare how sweetly they in one agree The Authors Epigram
not thou thy cost Though we be stray'd yet do not see us lost The prodigall Son FAther dear Father I would utter fain But feare doth that word Father dear restrain Father I faine would have my grievance shown But oh I am asham'd to make it known But it is fit I should confesse the same But thou canst take no pleasure in my shame Thy greatnesse doth in robes of glory shine Then canst thou looke upon such raggs as mine But why should I these troubled Seas propound I sayling in whose surges must be drownd Why feare I thus the fetters which inthrall me When thus my Father doth from prison call me Thy call deare Father cannot but suffice To shake off all my shackls bolts and tyes Then at thy call which thus doth call for speed I come to meet thee trusting to be freed The pitifull Father VVElcome my Son thrice welcome i' st not meet Thou shouldst bee welcom'd with imbraces sweet Thou who wert lost and now art found remain Thou who wert dead and art alive againe Long have I long'd for this thy safe return Whereat my bowells of compassion yern Why shak'st thou then why blushest being poore Thy feare is past thou shalt have raggs no more Revive my Son be cheerfull then my child And cease thy sorrowes I am reconcil'd Oh let those teares be taken from thine eyes They stir the Fountaine where compassion lyes Come tast my dainties I have choicest fare And sweetest musick to delight thy eare This is my pleasure I will have it done In spite of envy for thou art my Son The Authors Epigram THou Father of all fatherly respects Whose pittie this all parents thus directs What duty then for this thy kindnesse shown Is due to thee from children of thine own Most happy children happy we indeed Whose Fathers kindnes doth thus far exceed Who when our follies in our faces flying Returns us weeping scekes to still our crying Oh then how silly sensles I may say Are we if we from such a Father stray Can all the worth can in the world appear Make us set light a Fathers love so dear But then shall trifles shall meer painted toyes Shadowes of pleasures and but dreames of joyes Or ought detaine us that shall labour for it From such a Father let us Sons abhor it Let us not seeking lose our selves to gain Such husks abroad and may at home have graine An Epitome FAther I have offended but alas Shame stops my voice here will not let it passe Son cease thy sorrow let my joyes appease thee T is not thy teares but thy return that please me Father but canst thou thus be pleas'd with me Who have thus sin'd both against heav'n and thee Son this thy sin is vanish'd as lamented I take delight to pardon sin repented Father but such offenders are too base To raign as Sons grant me a servants place Son know my Servants are as sons to me So highly honour'd all my Saints shall be Father then let me be for ever bound To serve where service is such freedom found Son welcome Son no bondman thou shalt be But shalt inherit with my Sons made tree Free then indeed when the testator lives To make that freedome certain which he gives BREATHINGS After DIVINE AYRE The third Booke The foolish man hath said in his heart tush there is no God Psal. 14. 1. Desires of ayde MOst gracious God and yet a God most meeke Above the heav'ns yet stoup'st to earth below Beyond our reatch yet giv'st us leave to seek past our conceit yet wouldst have us to know To seeke and know thee as thou dost appeare But further knowledge is not granted here As then we ought not to presume to pry Into those secrets must be yet conceal'd So thou hast given us licence yea a tye To seeke and know thee as thou art reveal'd Oh let me read thee in thy copies then But stay my thoughts where thou hast stay'd thy pen Thy largest booke is in thy works indented Thy lesser copy in our soules ingraven Thy sacred volumes are the Scriptures printed Thy secret lines are sent by grace from heaven Which secret lines Lord center in my breast Those are the keyes to open all the rest I do confesse that I am much unfit To pry into thy Mysteries Divine Besides the starres will not of sparks admit To zoare into those circles where they shine Though thou the Sun from whence those starres have light Disdain'st not sparks but mak'st them burn more bright Oh then thou Sun yea light it selfe indeed Who dost not quench muchles disdainst the same The smoking flax nor break'st the brused reed Turn thou my spark into so pure a flame As may both warme my chilled soule within And burst out to the light of other men Thou dost confound things mightie by the weake Out of the mouths of babes ordainest praise Mak'st the unlearned yea the dumb to speake Rejectest none but who rejects thy waies That hate to be reform'd Lord helpe me here And in my weaknesse let thy strength appeare Breathings after Divine Ayre EArth stand amazed stand amaz'd and move And be you heav'ns astonished above A man and yet no maker hells abisse Yea tremble earth and heav'n and hell at this Superiour powers who fram'd this matchlesse frame This man and form'd your Image in the same What fretting time or what infernall powers Have rac'd or thus defac'd that worke of yours You made him holy he defiles his race You gave him honour he hath lost that grace You lent him knowledge he abus'd that light Yours by creation he denies you quite Unhappie chance unhappie change alas What brought this most unhappie change to passe Who turn'd this perfect good to perfect evill But he that turn'd from Angell to a divell That hatefull hurtfull enemy indeed Who whiles man slept cast tares amongst the seed Or rather only in that peece of clay Cast tares and stole the pretious seed away Presumptuous theefe and enemy to man Whose hidious theft in heav'n above began He there aspir'd to steale from the most high And there most justly rob'd himselfe thereby For this his fact thrown down from heav'n to hell He lost himselfe and maker as he fell And ever since his restlesse selfe hath tost To steale from man what he by stealing lost But silly man shall such a hatefull foe Rob thee of God prevaile upon thee so Shall hells black vapours so thy soule benight To put out of thee all celestiall light But sensles man or rather savage beast Canst thou thus at the God-head make a jeast The fiends in hell more fealtie declare For they confesse there is a God and feare Oh horid hellish blasphemy or worse The damn'd in hell deny not God though curse And such as here against him dare dispute Shall find hereafter hell will them confute But silly man or monster of that name In mind a monster though a man in frame Resolve this
question if thy wisdome can Is there no God how came there then a man But here I know thou wilt to nature fly All things thou saist by nature live and die And natures force doth all conclusions draw Nature shall therefore be thy only law I grant in all things that created be We may a power which is call'd nature see Which to such creatures is a law indeed Whose skill no other Dialect can read But thou who hast an understanding part And hast besides much benefit by art Sparks rak'd up in thy ashes of such light As death nor divell can extinguish quite Canst thou be grosser then the beast that dies Blind as the beast is yet hast better eyes Admit no maker but ingendring power As earth brings forth the herb the herb the flower But canst thou into natures secrets pry And canst not view a Deitie there by Earth may bring forth but not create fond head Can that give life which in it selfe is dead But here thou wilt out of thy wisdome say There is indeed both dead and living clay The dead brings forth the creature dull and base The living doth produce a living race The sensles earth we may with safety grant Brings forth the sensles grasse the hearb the plant That living morter which is man by name By generation doth produce the same Produce I say as instruments whereby Creating power continues a supply God first indeed mans God-head to convince Made man of dust but man so manking since Man then was made made not himselfe to live How can he then have any life to give Or if he hath we must subject it still Unto the force of the Creators will But be it so what can be granted thence That sensles earth or earth indu'd with sense Can out of their created substance frame An other substance or indeed the same This is but only to preserve t is plain That which before was made not make again Nor can the creature bring forth as is said Without the help of a creating ai'd Thou mad'st not then thy selfe nor yet thy Son Who did that work then which thou see'st is done Thou canst no just apologie invent Confesse there is a God then and repent Thy soule besides though now inclos'd in earth Yet pure in substance and of noble birth Cannot but at some time or other dart Some heavenly rayes into thy earthly heart Which doth convince thy knowledge of thy errour And strikes into thy conscience such a terrour As makes thee feele the power of the most high Which in thy heart thou dar'st thus to deny Were this too little at it is perchance To work upon thy wilfull ignorance Yet God hath further witnesses no doubt Thousands he hath not left himselfe without His word and works uncessantly declare him In such a voice that all the world may heare him His word reveales his truth his works his glory All creatures being do confirme the story But here againe thy wretched heart replies Those works of wonder which no mortall eyes Can see into their center something pose Thy desp'rate thoughts thou stand'st amaz'd at those But for Gods word though writ with his own pen Or from his mouth by heav'ns inspired men That suites not with thee sincks not in thy brain Tush words saist thou they are but wind or vaine Thou can'st those rules which we call Scripture read With no such trust to think them true indeed But mans invention so to keep in awe Men which by nature stand in need of Law But dust and ashes dar'st thou make a tush Which makes both Angels and the heav'ns to blush Racing besides those truths which are ingraven Upon thy soule by truth it selfe from heaven Prints of eternity upon thy soule Are stamp'd by heav'n canst thou then slight that roule Which to thee reades eternity in print Is heav'nly â—ire so hidden in thy flint Thy flint indeed but when this powerfull word Which is more sharpe then a two edged sword Strikes home upon thy flintie soule no doubt It doth force sparks of heavenly fire there out But lest these sparks should burst out into flame Thou seek'st by all meanes to put out the same Though making thus these heavenly sparks retire Thou keepst thy selfe unto eternall fire Againe this word besides the ghostly power That rests within that never raced tower The potent truth which hath so well been try'd With sweet consent and harmony supply'd That harbours in this heav'nly word is such As may convince thy marble heart asmuch The truth indeed that we may truly call One jot whereof did never faile nor shall And did thy sight not dazell at this Sun Thou there mightst cleerly read the same and run But oh thou wretched Atheist that dost find The seeing Organ of thy soule too blind To view the truths in sacred Scripture pend Or wilfull that thou wilt not apprehend O rest not under that Egyptian cloud Cast not away the meanes of light alow'd But read the Scripture to avoid that curse Disuse of reading makes thee read the worse Hadst thou a heart could truly understand Or eyes set ope by faith to read that hand Thou shouldst discerne such wonders in that glasse As nothing but a God can bring to passe The truth of this most perfectly appeares By the consent of past foure thousand yeares Each Promise tipe and Prophesie fulfil'd Do here of certain testimonies yeeld The seed to break the Serpents head was sown Three thousand yeares before the blade was grown All humane hopes might then have been casshierd And yet at length a glorious crop appear'd God once drown'd all the mountaines here below But then above in mercy set his bow To be a sign which hath been still made good That heav'ns no more should poure down such a flood Thus heav'ns by Scripture often times fore-shew What by experience men in time find true That men in Scripture so may learn to read Their Makers glory by his pen and dread Again besides the truth that Scriptures carry That in themselves they from themselves not varry Whereby they are with that perfection crown'd Which in no humane Author can be found The loftie stile that sacred Scriptures bare Their height of birth and majestie declare So powerfull so impartiall and sincere As partiall man could never yet come neere Men deeply learned and of highest wit Unlesse instructed by this holy writ Write at the fairest but with natures quill Dip'd in some fountaine on Pernassus hill Their wisdomes to no higher pitch can hover Then principalls of nature do discover Imploys that agent which we Reason call About no objects but meere naturall But sacred writ that hath a further reatch That is transcending flies a higher pitch That came from heav'n is spirituall and here Made by the spirit to us men appeare That conquers reason subdues natures Lawes As far unable to dispute the cause That is eternall therefore sent to try That part in man which hath no
to discern those objects as they are Which did exceed thy better sight so far Vaine man as thou thy heav'nly relish hast So vainly lost by a forbidden tast Even so thy sight when by a finit eye Thou fondly wouldst things infinite discry To stand and gaze upon the Sun although The Sun gives light yet dims our light we know And yet the beames which from the Sun do fly They dim not but give sight unto the eye So if thou look'st God as he is to see The more thou look'st the blinder thou shalt be His countenance doth such a lustre give No mortall eye may see the same and live Yet from his face as from a Sun doth shine Such radient beames and rayes of light divine As gives us light and so much as our vaine And silly Lamps can of a Sun contain Then let those rayes which in the Scripures shine Suffice thy soule that cleerest sight of thine Thou by his beames mayst view the Sun secure Thy sight can not the Sun it selfe indure Thinkst thou by power then of imperfect nature To take a perfect view of thy Creator Meere foole indeed thou mightst by reason find This cannot be were not thy reason blind But couldst thou reason never so refine Did brighter beams not with thy reason shine Thou couldst not see what once thou mightst have done Much lesse what was before the world begun Yet such like thoughts in this thy silly vaine And purblinde state doe now molest thy braine Thou but a drop which from the fountaines fell Wouldst to a fountaine in thy bubble swell Thou clim'st beyond the clouds and think'st it fit To be like God out of thy mother wit Yea beyond God and hast this thought accurst If God made all then who made God at first This being hyperbolicall to sense Thou trampl'st on inferiour consequence As Christ and heaven the soule and resurrection Because beyond thy sensible collection But thou whom night doth thus belet at noon What say'st thou to the Sun the Stars the Moon And Heavens above who made that glorious frame There is no procreation in the same They have as very heathen do declare Five thousand yeares remain'd the same they are Their like they in no likenesse have begot Like other creatures they ingender not Whence thou by sense maist evidently read They from themselves did never first proceed Yet made they be 't is manifest and cleer Those objects to thy very sense appear Then see the weaknesse of thy sense hereby And yet thy sense thy weaknesse doth discry Thou seest by sense the body of the Sunne But whence proceeding there thy sense hath done Thou seest by sense such bodies formed be But by themselves doth not with sense agree This to thy sense some others skill doth preach Thou find'st by sense that skill above thy reach Canst thou by sense and carnall reason then Thus prove a power beyond the power of men And cannot that same power of thee be thought A God observing what that power hath wrought Oh Sathans captive labour to resist That this worlds God who thus hath cast a mist Breake through those clouds and view a God above Thou dost by sense a deity approve View him thou maist in manifold respects Partly be sense in part by his effects And then observe what holy Scripture saith And view him further by the eye of faith For these are they and only these whereby That sun doth please to shine down from on high These are the casements set ope to our sight Of heavens most glorious treasury of light We men below have no such licence given Or pow'r to take a perfect view of heaven Our light so feeble and our hearts so brasing We can but only pry in through the glasing But here perhaps thou wilt this scruple move Admit saist thou there be a heaven above And in the same such glories as are said Though never yet to mortall eye displaid What though there be what canst thou gain thereby Since they are such as thou canst not discry Nor yet hast hope thou ever shalt do here Thou must goe further from them not more near Death must of all men living make an end And men by dying rise not but descend The grave at last shall be thy resting plot Where all things are concluded and forgot Why shouldst thou then disquiet thy selfe to gain Such knowledge as will but disquiet thy braine But carnall scholar who dost thus confute Thy very sense by sensuall dispute And as it were in malice go'st about To bring the very truth thou know'st in doubt Canst thou grosse Sadduce thus seduced be Be yet thus blinded yet hast eyes to see Art thou in honour and becom'st a beast O like the beast that perisheth at least Consider better labour to dispell Those fearfull â—â—â—â—â—s they are the fogs of hell And thither thou must sinke no means can save Beleev'st not thou the rising from the grave But thou shalt rise thou canst not that defend Though but to judgement and againe descend This thou might'st prove by Scripture most apparant Could'st thou give credence to that heav'nly warrant But howsoever thou dost under prise The powerfull truth in sacred Scripture lies Yet God disputing with the divell took His arguments out of that sacred Book He did by Scripture Sadduces confute He did by Scripture strike the divell mute He did by Scripture first reveale his will And doth by Scripture manifest it still And if thou only Scripture dost disdain Doubtlesse there doth no hope for thee remain God could have us'd some other weapon then To overthrow the divell and those men But yet he pleas'd to use no other sword Only to make us trust unto his word Shall God himself thus dignifie and grace it And shalt thou dust and ashes then deface it Oh trust it further and esteem it better The power of God is printed in that letter Againe besides the testimonies read In Scripture for the rising of the dead God doth convince thy error in this kinde By sundry means yea in thy very minde God hath imprinted in thy very breast Within thy soule which ever shall subsist An everlasting principall of right Which can by no meanes be extinguish'd quite This principall is naturally strong In aiding justice and suppressing wrong From whence it comes thou canst not act a sin Of doing wrong without a check within Hast thou done wrong then as who hath not here Get'st thou not pardon for the same 't is clear This principall when thou shalt come to dye Will leave thy corps and on thy conscience flye Where it for ever restlesse will abide Till justice shall be fully satisfi'd From whence there must some other place appeare To right such wrongs as are not righted here Besides thou couldst not sure account it vaine To be resolv'd the dead shall rise again Hadst thou but so much happinesse to see How reason here with nature doth agree Search then by reason
heavens must sure containe Till in his Body he shall come againe To judge the Nations at the judgement day Which judgement hastens though we men delay Where he will unbeleevers overthrow But on the faithfull he will heaven bestow Where they thence forward shall for ever stand With palmes of pleasure blooming in their hand Thus Lord in part thou giv'st us leave to read Not only what man is but what indeed Thou dost and wilt doe for thy creature Man Nay what thou didst before the world began In reading which although unto our shame Our hearts remaine unmelted by this flame Yet this thy love makes Angells to admire And sets besides the divells most on fire But gracious God to most ungracious we Thus good in a most infinite degree Do'st thou not dinde us to thy beck herein Look'st thou for nothing from the sons of men Shall we remaine as senslesse logs unmov'd Returning nothing who are so belov'd Yes doubtlesse yes we are most strongly bound The stronger too The more thy love is found To yeeld thce something for these gracious tyes Yea to doe something for our selves like wise As thou for us hast offer'd up thy Son For us so acting all that might be done So we are lincked by the selfe same chaine To offer up a sacrifice againe Our selves our soules and bodies whiles we live To thee who didst both soule and body give To serve to praise to worship feare and love thee As none made equall much lesse plac'd above thee Thy love to us should make our love divine Thy power should make us fear no power but thine Thou art our God and therefore unto thee All divine worship must directed by We are exalted it were then a shame Should we not magnifie thee for the same Thou hast made all things for the use of men Men for thy selfe shall we not serve thee then That were too grosse all creatures in their kinde Unto thy beck are readily inclin'd No creature like us are unto thee bound And shall we worst of all the rest be found Lord let thy grace prevent this foule defect The creatures else will witnesse our neglect But yet we owe thee one thing more then they Although in all things faile with them to pay And that is faith which is a pearle more worth Then all the pearles and jewels else on earth A jewell which surpasseth humane art A gem in which the Angells have no part We for our selves and for that boundlesse store Thou giv'st us here do owe our selves and more But for thy Son and for the joyes above We owe besides a faith which works by love Oh pretious faith a fountaine long time seal'd A hidden manna treasure unreveal'd Unto the world for many hundred years At least wise as it unto us appears Who do injoy the object of our faith Made manifest as holy Scripture saith Indeed our fathers saw this day 't is ture And what they saw they did rejoyce to view Yet only through thy promises whereby They did but as it were far off discry Or yet more darkly as behinde a vaile In types and shadowes which were things to fail Yet being faith though weak it did suffice Thou bearing with the weaknesse of their eyes Thou didst accept of that which made them glad Because the light was yet but dim they had For till thy Son came it I may so speak Faith was an infant and his sight but weak And heaven but as a shop shut up to men It's windowes were not halfe set open then Nay thou hadst very little knowledge given For many ages of the name of Heaven The resurrection and the world to come These secrets were but shadowed out to some These thou kept'st close as under lock and key Reserved mysteries clouded in on high Untill thy Son that day Star did draw nigh From whom some day did by degrees appear By sending of thy Prophets to bewray Like cocks by crowing a succeeding day Especially that Prophet who begun To crow immediatly before thy Son John Baptist who at breake of day was sent To give the world a warning to repent And in the mercy let men understand The Kingdome yea of heaven was then at hand Yea heaven it selfe was then set open wide And all those types and figures verifi'd Which were as vailes before thy highest frame Which shadowes vanish'd when that substance came That Angel of thy covenant of light Whose presence is a banishment of night Who comming in thy purest brightnesse down Our clouded orbes with heavenly rayes to crown He brought thy secret lanthorn in his hand The Gospel through which light we understand The very secrets in thy court above Yea in thy bosome in that seat of love And by this lanthorne which is so divine That in the same thy very face doth shine He plainly shew'd us all that boundlesse treasure That Well of life and streams of endlesse pleasure Which heaven hath stor'd up and to us made clear That he had bought them at a rate full dear And doth reserve them only to bestow Upon conditions upon us below But what conditions doth he then require For saving mankinde from eternall fire But what conditions doth he then enjoyne For purchasing a Kingdome so divine Sure had he ty'd us to remaine in hell A thousand yeares for this it had been well If we had then been crown'd with such a pay But see his love who doth but only say You sonnes of men beleeve in me and live Oh sonnes of men what lesser can we give The Law impos'd a heavy yoake on men And then said do the same and live therein But loe I thy selfe Lord who the Law didst give Sayst by thy Son now but beleeve and live Lord what is man now better then before That thou hast heap'd such mercies up in store For us poore creatures or to speak more true Dost mercies to us every age renue At first thou gav'st us all this world t is truth And when this world did flourish in its youth Thou now hast given us with the same thy Son Thy selfe and all that thou in heaven hast done All which by faith we claym our owne whiles here But what we shall be doth not yet appears Great God thy mercyes are thy selfe no doubt Most infinitly past all finding out To us poore silly wretched sinfull men Who are as bad as ever we have been But what is faith Lord which thou dost thus palce Between us and thy Covenant of grace As the condition whereupon doth rest All our assurance Lord of what thou hast Can our beleife most glorifie thy name Or wilt thou be best pleased in the same Sure that is it t is of thy meere good will Which thou extend'st unto us wretches still Thou by our faith canst not advantag'd be We by beleeving are inrich'd not thee Thou hast no need that Sacrifice be slaine But that the blood should wash away our stain Indeed by faith we set to