Selected quad for the lemma: land_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
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A41699
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Presbytery rough-drawn a satyr in contemplation of the late rebellion.
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Gould, Robert, d. 1709?
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1683
(1683)
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Wing G1433; ESTC R2720
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10,325
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38
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From whence thou showr'st eternal streams of Love Down on thy Church below what was it then Drew down this Plague that Sacrilegious Men Shou'd Plunder that and Rob the Land of more Than ever it was Bless'd with heretofore A King so Good so Mercifull and Just His chief delight was to pursue his Trust So far from thinking or creating Strife He bless'd that Hand that took away his Life But tell me ye ungodly treach'rous Crew Take 't to your Selves to whom 't is truly due For as things heavy to the Centre tend As Showres on Earth do fall or Flames ascend And in short all to their allotted place So Villany and ev'ry thing that 's base Flies to your Hearts as to its proper Sphere And finds an everlasting Centre there Oh! tell me where 's the Fame that does succeed That still deplor'd by me prodigious deed A deed so far beyond all flights of ill It can't be march'd in the Records of Hell A deed so damn'd as if design'd to vie Ev'n with the Iews boundless Impiety When they doom'd Christ unjustly to the Cross And frighted Nature trembled at the loss But this you 'll say was Mercy from above To shew th'extent of Heavens eternal Love Or else the Iews might here pretend some cause For his annulling their Mosaick Laws But ah what cause had you perfidious Brood To stain your hands in that illustrious Bloud Which never was employ'd but for your Good Or was it done because it was your will That potent Cause by which y' are govern'd still Oh curs'd effects of Arbitrary Zeal I know you 'll say 't was your design to be From servile Slav'ry and Oppression free But those that shoot at random in the Night When darkness rules may sooner hit the White They must be wrong who ne'er were in the right For when through all your treach'rous Paths y 'ad ran Adverse to all the Laws of God and Man Had you at last your expectations Crown'd Or was the Liberty you sought for found Indeed it were unjust to think it shou'd The way to Peace lies not through War and Bloud No no that Pop'lar Idol of your own That load of Beast which once defil'd the Throne That Deity which your own Hands had made And then with so much frantick Zeal obey'd Did all your Rights and Liberties invade Those Liberties ye had so long enjoy'd And could not be but by your selves destroy'd Those Rights which with an unexhausted spring For ever flow'd from your indulgent King Those Rights did an Usurping Conquerour Ravish and make you Slaves t' a lawless Pow'r For how could he Protect that did Devour Nay the base Sanhedrim whose lawless Pride Had to their King his Regal Dues deny'd With open Hands the Tyrant's Lust supply'd Which their proud Stores t'an Ebb as low did bring As they were full when they deny'd their King Thus by their Aid he did the War commence And made 'em wretched at their own expence A just reward for raising Civil-war And may no Traitours ever better fare A fond imagin'd freedom to restore When we had all our Hearts cou'd wish before 'T was justly lost then when we sought for more But lo the Scenes are shifted streight and lo His God's his King's and his own Countrie 's Foe Is in a moment faln 't was Death that gave The fatal Stroke and sent him to the Grave Where he no sooner enter'd but the slain Who in the Vales of horrour did remain With dismal Groans pierc'd all the neighbouring Air As if he 'd been deny'd an entrance there Nor were the dire fore-boding Omens vain The Grave cou'd not such Villany contain But from its Entralls spew'd him back again Thus he who while he liv'd no freedom gave Had not in death the freedom of a Slave The poor allowance of a six-foot Grave Like the proud Persian in the Air he hung Like him too the Reproach of ev'ry Tongue Ravens and all th' inferiour Fowls of Prey Which us'd to hover round where Carion lay Croak'd at the Tyrant croak'd and flew away And now of all his noisie Pomp and Fame Nothing survives but a reproachfull Name Thus Treach'ry though it may a while shine bright As Meteors at a blaze lose all their light And what they had from the dull Earth before When once it is dissolv'd is seen no more And now methinks I see the Sun appear Nor is it onely thought for lo he 's here With gentle Beams he first proclaims the Day Then drives at once th'unwholsome Damps away Ah welcome Sacred Sir welcome as Sight To those who from their births have groap'd in night And never hop'd to view the cheerfull light Welcome as Spring after a bitter Frost Welcome as Peace where Peace has long been lost What shall I say O what eternal spring Can furnish Words or set my Thoughts on wing To bless his Welcome and his Praises sing But hold my Muse in vain that pitch you 'd fly For Language there must yield as well as I Back then to thy own Task and scourge the times Revile their Follies and disclose their Crimes How canker'd Villains into corners run And blush'd at the vile deeds their Hands had done But deeds of darkness dare not view the Sun Too well they knew the Mischiefs that they wrought Were unreveng'd and trembl'd at the Thought As fearing what indeed they ought to fear That Vengeance for their Treach'ry now was near But God-like Kindness as in Man's first Fall Gave them an Act of Grace and cancell'd all An Act which Reason's at a loss to scan And proves the Giver something more than Man Whose Goodness we in vain wou'd comprehend For he forgives as fast as we offend So Mercifull there 's not a Thought Severe In all his Soul too Mercifull I fear For had that Hand of Justice once oppress'd That strook some Heads off but secur'd the rest The Hydra then might have been overcome But be'ng too mercifull and sparing some From the rank wounds more darling Monsters sprowt And ev'ry Neck a thousand Heads thrusts out Till the vast summ did soon amount to more And lewder Criminals than e'er before So Thieves from Gallows sav'd still Thieves will be And cut the Throats of those that set'em free But sure that King must needs be all divine When too much Mercy is his onely Crime Say then ye bold Fanaticks of the Times Ye that succeed those Monsters in their Crimes What makes you thus Seditiously exclaim Under the Blessings of a peacefull Reign What ye wou'd have I know not but I know Ye might be happy if ye wou'd be so Happy as Lovers on their Bridal Night But that 's a Happiness but vain and slight Where Pain and Trouble still succeed Delight But yours might be all one continu'd Scene Without an interval of Grief between Has not your God if any God ye own But I much rather think that ye have none For God from whom all true Obedience
sure but such as have abandon'd Sense Will stoop to an Usurper for a Prince And like the rough-cast Heathen's heretofore Rather than want a Patron-God t' adore Before some Stock or Stone will Homage pay Or to some uncouth Creature Kneel and Pray Dagon to those who did before him fall As the All-high to us was all in all But God forbid we shou'd their steps pursue Or for to serve the False Blaspheme the True Whose Laws though spurn'd at by Fanatick spight Instruct us to distinguish Wrong from Right Right when we do the true Succession own Wrong when a false Pretender mounts the Throne Right to obey those rightfull Sov'reign Pow'rs Who lose their own repose to procure ours But Wrong against such Goodness to declame Or with base Libels strive to wound his Fame But they that took away his Father's Life Defame the Royal Duke spare not his Wife Such Undertakers rightly understood Can mean their present Sov'reign little good Nor stops the Frenzy here when ev'ry Drone Inspir'd by foggy Ale 's a Statesman grown And takes upon him to dispose the Crown Drivels out spitefull Treason o'er his Pots With as much Zeal and Gravity as O Go to your Looms Cobble your Shoes and there We will allow y' are in your proper Sphere Those Paths by Beasts of Burthen may be trod But leave the Crown to the dispose of God Whose Voice to say you are were Blasphemy For there all Parts do with the Whole agree And with a Concord so Divinely sweet As never can with Contradictions meet Shou'd the almighty Voice With the Profane dull Crowds run Parallel 'T would turn ev'n Heav'n it self t' a kind of Hell 'T were better far to let the State alone And mind your little Common-wealths at home But if 't is needfull it shou'd now be known Who must or ought hereafter wear the Crown We need no other Guide than Reason's light Whose shou'd it be but whose it is by Right His Right alone which onely is withstood By such a sullen and contentious Brood Whose sure it is by all the Ties of Bloud Ye hate the King yet ye all Kings wou'd be Why do ye strive to Rule else more than he And while ye are contending who shou'd wear The Regal Crown the Regal Sceptre bear By fraud and Treach'ry marks by which y' are known Well as your Tub-men by their canting Tone Wou'd from his Brows transplant it to your own But finding that y' are baffl'd in your Will Run drudging on and will be Rebels still Yes Rebels what else can the meaning be Of Bellowing after Rights and Liberty When 't is impossible to be more free Of all the Nations that enclose you round Point me out one with half your Freedoms Crown'd Freedoms too great too much in 't to express Nor is each Man 's particularly less The Wild has liberty the World to roam To France to Spain Smyrna Iapan or Rome But ne'er will find a better place than Home Where Nature in her bloom for ever waits And ev'ry morning fresh delight creates Th' Old and Studious may enjoy their ease And this may plough the Land and that the Seas The Crowds too may almost doe what they please Oh that they might not 't is th' unhappy Cause From whence our Discord still more Discord draws For when the Conscience it s own way may go How boundless wild a Monster will it grow Pulpits are dwindled into Tubs and Kings Esteem'd unnecessary useless things All wholesom Doctrine's Banish'd with the Creed And Blockheads Preach who never learnt to Reade Kings to their Subjects must Obedience pay Nor is it strange the Flock shou'd go astray When they theirselves are in the wrong that guide 'T is best then when such Liberty's deny'd Does not your Land with Milk and Hony flow Canaan cou'd not such Crops of Plenty show Or Iordan's lov'd and unpolluted Streams Produce more Wonders than our fruitfull Thames Do not all things that feast the Eye and Ear The Tast and Smell for ever flourish here With an unbounded unexhausted Spring And to Crown all Are we not Crown'd with an indulgent King Having all this what wou'd ye more possess Having so much why wou'd ye make it less Why shou'd that pleasant tune of Concord cease Can e'er Rebellion be the way to Peace Why do ye your pernicious Doctrine sow And through the Land seditious Libells strow Spurn at the Vertuous vilifie the Just As if their Loyalty debauch'd their Trust Rail at the Law nay rail at one another And which is yet more base than all the other Stab the King's Reputation in his Brother O tell me to what end can this be done Unless you 'd like your Predecessors run And damn our Eighty two to Forty one For they like you mouth'd after Liberty And they like you too knew that they were free But found too soon Experience dearly bought Their seeking for 't destroy'd the thing they sought Yet though they got so little by 't before When their own Lust and Rapine rob'd the Poor In opposition to all sacred Laws Once more you wou'd revive the Good-Old-Cause Once more o'erthrow the Church the State and King And from bless'd Order make Confusion spring That wild Confusion which of late did rave And sent so many Thousands to the Grave But you may spare the Toil the Veil's pluck't off And ev'ry Soul that has but Sense enough To choose the Right from Wrong may plainly see What you have been and what you 'll ever be And as you are I fear you 'll such remain And shou'd I wish ye honest 't were in vain For they that spurn at Mercy cherish Ill And own no Pow'r above their Lawless Will Will certainly continue Ill Men still Too rank for Earth and onely fit to goe To murmur in their grand Caball below Y 'ad best be cautious then and have a care Ingratitude will find no favour there Although 't has miss'd the stroke of Justice here As yet I mean has miss'd of for I 've seen A Morning though it were at first serene As thought can form has in a trice been clogg'd With gloomy Clouds and almost choak'd with Fog The Sun himself as if oppress'd with Night Has shrunk his Glories in e're while so bright And had not pow'r to bless the World with Light Thus sullen signs approaching storms fore told And lo loud Thunder through the Air has rowl'd Mountains which one wou'd think stood firm as Fate Have reel'd as if they bent beneath their weight When of a sudden the all-seeing Sun Angry as 't were with what the Storm had done Through the thick Shades his pointed Beams has thrown And in a Moment chas'd 'em all away And with fresh Glories dress'd the new-born Day So in the wild disorders of the State When mighty Charles shall yield to mightier Fate Which may it first be long for Monarchs Breath Is frail like ours like ours must taste of Death What cou'd we wish shou'd that black hour arrive More than some glorious Hero to survive Prepar'd by Heav'n by Nature and by Right For all the Functions of the Royal Seat And fitted thus why not the Heir the Brother To fill that sacred Place before another Who guided by the same eternal Will Wou'd all the roaring Winds of Faction still For he who has so many Wonders wrought Crown'd with success in all the Fields he fought Whom Heav'n has sav'd from Rocks and Treach'rous Sand And the more treach'rous dangers of the Land War Envy Banishment Intestine strife Slaunder and all the Snares that catch at life He sure must be for some great End design'd Proportion'd to the greatness of his Mind For nothing less were fit to carry on What our good Monarch has so well begun In such a Cause bright as the Sun he 'd rise And dart his Glories through the sullow Skies Dissolve or drive the Factious Gloom away Unrip Caballs where Treasons brooding lay And show 'em all to the clear Eye of day And with a Justice splendid and sublime Wou'd punish Treach'ry equal to the Crime Then wou'd the Land a firm-wrought Peace enjoy Which wild Sedition wou'd not dare t' annoy Nor all the angry Storms of Fate destroy THE END