in which they go What ware they sell and some do strive by paint To make the ugly Devil seem a Saint Some have their faces with black Patches drest As thinking dapled Ladies will sell best Methinks it seems as if some Feind did place The print of Hell burnt fingers on their face Born with such spots should you your children see You 'd call 't no beauty but deformitie God now sends spots as he would theirs deride And note to all that theirs is plaguie Pride And now adays because within there rests So little Vertue in most womens brests Which of old won them Husbands that would give Dowries to get a vertuous Wife to live With them as helps most meet and comforts sure Friends in both fortunes till death to endure Naked they expose them to youthful eyes Hoping if not true Love yet Lust may rise At such a sight and seizing on the heart Betray it unto them and the fond smart Of Cupid's flames while these do now deny What they would fainest grant and only try By sprinkling water to increase the fire By their denyal to augment desire Thus hunt they for their dear and use some wile To bring the simple heart within their toil Vertue can only it a subject make Beauty a wandring heart may captive take And now our Ladies vanity and pride And their neglect of Huswifery beside Affright all sober men who fear to woo Lest they should court their woe in doing so Or with their wives will now some thousands have To keep them in the fashion fine and brave What a fine life our Gallants live and yet 'T were fine indeed if 't were the way to get To Heav'n and its immortal happiness But they 're beside the way I more than guess Whose days and years are always vainly spent In Dressing Mistressing and Complement Who rise and dress by noon come down and dine Then to a Play thence to the House of wine And so to bed it may be drunk before Perhaps all night embracing of an whore If these be Christians where 's their Masters badge The Cross and Self-denyal they can't fadge With these If such go hence to glory Hell and the Devil sure are but a story The way to Heav'n is broadest sure if they Who wander thus can thither find the way Pride doth usurp on God provoke him thus To plague us for 't that he might humble us And that proud City which lift up her hand Above the rest in pride full low is laid The parent nurse spring stage of pride and vain Fashions and tricks which our Religion stain And whose proud Dames out-vied in garishness Our modest Ladies in their Countrey dress To all these sins wherewith this sinful Land Before the Lord of Heav'n doth guilty stand May many aggravations urged be From Gospel light whereby men clearly see The evil of these evils yet do they The works of darkness in the brightest day From great Ingratitude so plainly shown When God miraculously poured down Incomparable mercies on us those Who late opprest under their cruel foes Could own their sins the cause of all their woes Now freed from these return again to those A King a Parliament a Church regain'd Peace Liberty Religion maintain'd Some desperate God-dammes do begin To war with Heav'n by their Gigantine sin The roaring blades aloud do quickly call For thundring Vengeance on their heads to fall When health and plenty joy and triumph crown'd Our Land our hainous sins apace abound Swearing Carowsing Cheating Briberie Oppression Sacriledge and Simonie Pride lust and all the rout of sins o're-run Our Countrey so our joy and triumph's done We first forsook the God of mercies and God makes his mercies to forsake our Land And now to mercy judgment doth succeed VVe surfeited and God doth make us bleed Abundance of corruption sickness brings And heat of lust hath fir'd our pleasant things Yet under all these Judgments are we still Incorrigible and perverse in ill God may say I have sent the Pestilence That I might bring you to an humble sense Of sin your young men with the Sword I slew Your City I as Sodom overthrew Yet have ye not returned unto me Therefore yet seven times more I 'le punish ye And thus of all our woes we see the cause Transgression is against Gods holy Laws A Gospel unbecoming Conversation Provoketh God thus to afflict our Nation And in the ripping up our sins to see The root and spring of all our miserie I would not have men think to any one Or sin or party I impute alone Our woes and judgments but to one and t'other To all and ev'ry one I would not smother My own or Friends but do desire that all Would think for their sins these things us befal And each apply the Plaister to his wound Which healing ev'ry one will make all sound Nor need we doubt to have a perfect Cure If all will but the Remedy endure Which now I shall consider of and try For all these woes to find a remedy The Cure ANd 't is half wrought already since we see The inward cause of our sad maladie Now to remove the cause is the most sure Way to effect a safe and speedy cure And had I but good Patients then I might Promise a cure and lose no credit by 't But I must first the Patients court to let The Physick be apply'd for they as yet How sick soever scorn our Ministry Who would the healing Remedies apply In bodily Diseases they will hie Them quickly to Physicians lest they die Send pray and pay take what 's prescrib'd endure All pains and tortures for a speedy cure But in their Soul distempers will not give An ear to sound advice nor seek to live And when we freely offer do disgust Our wholsom Physick such needs perish must Is Earth less worth than Heav'n or is the Soul Less to be valued than the Body soul No reason can you thus preposterous make We keep the Casket for the Jewels sake Or if this transitory life now is In more esteem than Heav'ns immortal bliss Yet take our counsel and our medicines seeing They 're for the welfare of your present being Receive apply and let them work they health Temporal and eternal peace and wealth Do bring And now these Remedies so rare Repentance Faith and true Obedience are Repentance takes away the cause of woe Faith reconciles us unto God and so Future Obedience will our bliss secure From age to age for ever to endure Go mourning and hold up your guilty hand Before Gods bar there self-condemned stand The way here to be sav'd is to confess Your sins cloak not excuse not nor make less But aggravate them all mercy implore From him who keepeth mercy still in store For penitent offenders ever will Exalt the humble and the mournful fill VVith Oyl of gladness never will despise But with delight accepts the Sacrifice Of broken-hearts and binds them up and
Where sometimes famous Christian Churches were Now Turkish Mosques do stand men adore The Imposture Mahomet where Christ before And those who yet retain a Christian name Have little else of Christ beside the same Their low estate allows no means to gain Such knowledge as is needful to retain Religion pure and perfect Besides must they To this great Turk the tenth child yearly pay The tenth is due O God! to thee alone And must an Infidel thy tribute owne This woe of all their woes is worst to see Their dearest children educated be In blinder Turcism made his Janizars Chief Souldiers against Christians in his Wars When cruel Herod mockt of the Wisemen slew So many Infants he did kindness shew Compared to this Turkish Tyranny For 't is a greater priviledge to die Innocent Martyrs and go hence to glory Than to be train'd up in the cosening story Of Mahomet Poor babes at once must you Be from Christs bosome and your Parents too By Tyrants-force thus miserably torn Better it were you never had been born Let us reflect and think did we now hear The approaching feet of Turkish Officer Entring to take away our darling child Oh what a plight should we be in how wild And quite beside themselves would surely be The tender Mothers of the Infantry Who that their senses have would not desire To see their tender Infants soul expire His brains dasht on the wall before his eyes And how the sprawling Corpse convulsing dies Rather than such should us of them bereave In thraldom and Idolatry to live But who do think on this with pity and Deplores not the sad state of Grecian Land Now then it were a noble enterprise If Christian Princes hearts and Arms would rise To pull down this proud Sultan and restore The Christian Faith where 't flourished before And free afflicted Greece once the Worlds eye From Turkish thraldom and Idolatry And all those Christian souls which yearly come Tribute and Captives from poor Christendome If th' English and Dutch Fleer would both combine T' assist the bold Venetian Worthy of Christian Valour they would make a designe The Vaunting Seigniour with his Gallies quake If throughout all Christendom were more Like those brave Knights of Malta who have swore Destruction to the Turks that would combine Quite to raze out the bloody Ottoman line Then Christendome might flourish and be free From Devastation and Captivitie God grant us Peace at home and send Us Victory abroad and end All Wars 'mong Christian men and cease The Plague his War with men In peace And health grant us to live that we Might still a happy Kingdom be But though the Lord in War on our side stood And gave us Victory for the price of blood Allaying this sore Judgment by success Which in the loss of lives makes grief go less Yet the Plague raging far and nigh destroyes With sweeping slaughter and doth damp our joys This casts my soul into a sad Reflection On the just Vengeance of such dire Infection REFLECTIONS ON THE PESTILENCE JER 9.9 Shall I not visit them for these things saith the Lord Shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this WHen the just God did visit London first Our danger less our fears were at the worst In every place men stood upon their guard And against Citizens kept Watch and Ward Had we done so against our sins before Less had our danger been our safety more But when this dire Destruction still doth last And round about us fearfully doth wast Harden'd by custom we do nothing fear Our dangers greater but who sheds a tear Our hearts are stone were they of marble kind 'T were well marble sometimes we weeping find On the great City of this sinful Land London with wealth and folk abounding and With sin the cause of woe too God first pour'd The brimful Vial of his wrath and showr'd His ireful Judgments There his Angel drew The Sword of Vengeance and that people slew At first by Tens which soon to Hundreds come Then Thousands weekly sent to their long-home The frighted Citizens begin to fly From House and Habitation lest they die They leave their livelyhood to save their life And where they come their coming makes a strife Lest they bring death with them Towns are in arms To keep out Citizens as mortal harms Waggons and Coaches still in every Road Are met with which they and their Goods do load Where they shall shelter find they scarce do know Yet durst not stay at home where e're they go Some who did thure in stately Houses dwell Now gladly creep into a Countrey-cell And others wandering up and down the Fields No Town or Village them admittance yields Thus from the Rod of God poor Sinners fly Not from their Crimes for which they smart die Alas what boots it from the Plague to start And bear with you a worse Plague in your heart Running will not secure you you 're undone Unless you know how from your selves to run Had you your selves forsaken when at home You need not thus about the Countrey roame Had you fled from your Sins before as fast You need not from the Plague have made such hast Had you been just and honest in your Trade To deal uprightly had a Conscience made False weights and measures and deceitful wares the snares False oaths equivocations lies For simple buyers had you never us'd Nor with great prizes Customers amus'd For which i' th' Countrey you a Proverb are You ask say they just like a Londoner Had not your Shops been Dens of such as theive And lie in wait cunningly to deceive Nay oftentimes your cosening with a shew Of honesty and goodness cloaked too No Plague had likely nigh your dwellings come You might securely still have staid at home Had you but kept your Conscience so you might Your Shops with comfort free from deadly fright But when you turn out Conscience first no doubt Gods Judgments after 't justly turn you out And if you e're get home again beware More Plagues in store for Sinners still there are But for a while here they resolve to be Till London shall be from Contagion free But there Contagion is from which I fear You 'le never find the sinful City clean But now le ts think on those who stay behind Distrest in Body and Estate and Mind Who know not where to sly and fear to stay But yet must bear the burthen of the day A wrathful day a dismal time wherein Thousands receive the wages of their sin Some have no Friends to go to nor yet Coin To make them any some the Laws enjoyn To stay and do their Office some presume And others trust no Plague shall them consume But it increases spreads destroyes doth make Such as remain for fear of death to quake Now might you see red Crosses there great store And Lord have mercy upon many a doore The Wardsman standing as if he were
As threaten to Earth up the Sea with men So that our Ships may for the future strand On shelves of bodies not on shelves of sand Methinks I see the swelling billows boil Heat by the fire doth from the Guns recoil The roaring Guns which pierce the parting air With terror we on Land far distant hear They shake the massie Earth and thunder like Houses and Windows into trembling strike And each broad side which strikes my ear I think Now a brave Ship with braver Men doth sink Enraged Mortals striving to out-vie Thunder and Lightning in the lofty skie Darken the air with smoak but fire gives light Or they at noon-day would scarce see to sight Blood from the reeking Decks into the Main Pours down like water in a showr of Rain Discolouring the Ocean by its fall As if 't would turn it to a Red-Sea all Fire-ships set all on flames and make a show As Subterranean fires were from below Broke through the waves and one would think no doubt Fire strove to drink up Sea Sea to quench out The fire and men by their contentious action Put all the Elements into distraction But themselves rue most while the bloody sight Gives blood to them who do in war delight Now on the Decks some shriek with painful And others sinking are in deadly swounds wounds Here a Commander falls th' Opponents hollow The Souldiers soon in death their Leader follow Here from torn shoulder flies an arm and there From shatter'd thigh a leg the bullets tear Here wags a head off this mans brains are dasht Full in the next mans face his bowels pasht On his next neighbour and a third is found Groaning his soul out at a wide-mouth'd wound Here Bullets force drives a heart out which dies To mortals rage a bloody Sacrifice There a head from the bloody neck is rent Mounting as if to hit the Sun it meant Thus the Dutch heads we well may wish to rise And be lift up above their Enemies But I had rather we and they in Peace Might live and War might from all Nations cease Had not Astraea left the Earth and rage Possest mens bosomes in this Iron age Had not sin first divided men from God Then from themselves scattering all abroad To seek new Countries all had still been one Language and People letting Warr alone Sin is the onely make-bate in the World That hath all things into Contention hurl'd But since the Prince of Peace his happy birth Who came to reconcile both things on Earth And things in Heaven methinks those who professe Themselves his Subjects from all wars should cease One faith should be of force hearts to unite In love as much as e're one language might The second Adam should all his restore To the same concord which they had before By nature in the first and not pursue Their Christian Brethren like a Turk or Jew But what a grief 't is to good hearts to see Christians among themselves thus disagree And those for whom Christ spilt his blood life To shed each others blood in lust and strife That those who when they go to sight doe pray To the same God that each may have the day And both doe hope alike in death to be Translated hence to Heavens felicitie Should one another with such fury kill And râ—uch rejoyce each others blood to spill Good Lord how will Heav'n quietly hold those Souls who just now were here such deadly foes If some of either side to Heav'n do come And both to Dutch and English be their home Could Heav'n admit repentance grief and sorrow Find a place there those souls would surely borrow Time from their heav'nly joys this to repent And their unchristian feuds below lament Lament now Christians and leave of your slaughter There 's no bewailing but in Hell hereafter Yet 't is to be bewail'd that such a slood By Christian hands is shed of Christian blood Thus we contend to blood but all the while The holy Spirit grieves and Devils smile All the good Angels too are grieved for 't But your Contention makes the Devils sport And the slain carkases of Christians drest In blood and wounds make Lucifer a Feast And at these broils the Infidels do laugh Christians should weep but yet the most do quaff Such direful deeds just God thou sufferest Sinners for their transgressions to infest In times when blood and wounds make such ado O that our hearts were rightly wounded too And with just grief could bleed as fast as those Poor hearts who have been pierced by their foes Slack Christians slack your fury and employ Your noble Valour for a Victory More worthy praise than any you can gain By numbers of your Christian Brethren slain You Souldiers by Profession are your life A warfare and you must here live in strife But 't is a strife more with your selves than others ' Gainst certain foes and not your Christian brothers The World the Flesh the Devil these are those You must still combate with as mortal foes To your immortal bliss and these will find Tough work enough for the most warlike mind But while with Christian men we do contest We cherish and serve these foes in our brest The World rejoyces Devil takes delight Lusts of the flesh are pleas'd when Christians sight Le ts turn our force then against them and shew What noble acts our Valour there can do The Lord of Hosts our Captain is and will With Armour furnish you courage and skill You need not doubt success at all for he Who fights Gods battails shall have Victorie One lust subdued will you more glory gain Than he whose single Arm an Host hath slain For 't is more honour to o're-come within Our selves our lusts than Cities wall'd to win Great Alexander who subdued all Nations Continued slave still to his lustful Passions Be of good courage then subdue your sin And an eternal Crown and Kingdom win Or if the Warriours spirit can't be laid But it will still in blood and slaughter trade Let Christians valiant and victorious arm Turn to do Turks and Infidels the harm Which now amongst our selves we daily feel And let the Heathen fall upon our Steel There might be rais'd another holy War More truly holy than the first by far Not to get Canaan a Land accurst As well for Jews as Canaanites at first But the insulting Sultan to restrain Who hath so many thousand Christians slain And with his Hundred Thousands oft doth come Pouring destruction into Christendome Forraging wasting all with Fire and Sword Defying and blaspheming Christ our Lord. Leading away such as the Sword doth spare Into a bondage worse than death by far O that all Christian Princes could agree To hamper this Leviathan and free From his outragious Inroades all those Borders Of Christendom where he commits his murders The Asiatick Churches when I think upon Mention'd in Saint John's Revelation Oh how it grieves my heart to think that there
sent Deaths Bayliffe to arrest the house for Rent And turn the dwellers out and sure I am But few could live long there after he came Now Knells of death continually do ring And that same doleful sound of Buryers bring Your dead out mortal Ears with terror pierce And now a Cart becomes the only Hearse To bear a heap of bodies to their Grave Which neither Obsequies nor Rites can have Of Christian burial the best of all Have now no Friends attend their Funeral No cost of Heirs no Mourners to be seen But driven in a Cart as they had been From hanging carry'd thrown into a pit No Priest to say Earth to Earth I commit Now might you see all faces blackness gather The Son lamenting for his dying Father The Wife for her deceased Husband crying And Parents mourning for their Children dying Now might you hear some from their windows cry Bread for the Lords sake or we starved die Groaning at once under two dismal woes The Plague and Famine both their deadly foes Now Friends and Neighbours keep at distance fear T' approach their nearest Kindred for life's dear The Father dreads to see his only Son The Son to see his Father too doth shun The Husband dreads his Wife whom he with dear Embraces us'd to hold durst not draw near The Wife 's afraid her Husband to behold Whom in kind Arms she used to infold Now such as yet do dwell in health and ease Know not how soon the Plague on them may seise Where lately by our Kings happy return All joy and triumph was and then to mourn It was piacular behold and see How sad now there and mournful all things be And now it were ridiculous to laugh Yet some bold sinners now game sing and quaffe Nay as 't is told some by dead Corps do play Away the remnant of their lives short day Poor London this thy sad condition is Yet who bemoans thee and who weeps for this Thou sit'st disconsolate of joys bereft In thy distress by friends and lovers left Such as to satisfie their Pride and Lust Spend here their wanton Summers yearly must When they have helpt to bring the Plague upon thee Now in thy woe and misery fly from thee But let them go if they mend not no doubt Gods Judgments in due time will find them out Though it begins with thee and you must bear The Almighty's wrath for that you sinful were A wrath so killing that your dead do come Unto nine Thousand in the Weekly sum And 't is reported though Bills speak no more Fourteen might be some weeks upon the score Hath God forgotten to be gracious Is His mercy gone for ever and your bliss O spare thy people Lord thy people spare Who with thy precious Bloud redeemed are Will God his anger evermore retain Will he still frown and never smile again No he is gracious and his mercies sure His pity doth from age to age endure Humble thy self and hope well London for God will not cast off his for ever nor Be always wrath slouds at the highest fall So now his over-flowing Judgments shall He will consult his bowels and have pity For mercy sake upon an humbled City And ere the year went round the Plague was so Abated folk a pace did thither go Theirs ended now began the Countrey 's woe And as provoking Sin its course hath run Avenging Judgment after that hath gone As London like the Fountain sent forth streams Of evil through the Land so now the gleams Of wrath dart thence the Plague abroad and thus Sent Death into the Countrey among us Colchester for two years her Thousands paid For tribute unto Death poor Braintry's made To give her Hundreds Chelmford scapes not free And Mousham long hath worn Deaths Liverie In Easterford Kelv'don upon the way Death took into an Inne and made some stay But blessed be the God of Heav'n slaughter Was here no dweller but a sojourner As once the year before he here was sent Into a Cottage but no further went But in most Market-Towns about us slays And by his terror puts down Market-days Whereby the Poor want work the Farmer vent For his Commodities his Landlord Rent And such whom God doth in their persons spare Deep in their Purses now afflicted are Money is dead as well as People Trade Is low yet Payments high must needs be made For Sickness and the War do both require Though things we sell are low our Rates be higher This is our woe this is our great distress The more 's our sorrow Is our sin the less 'T were well if so our loss would be our gain Nor would I doubt to see good days remain But this I cannot see and therefore fear No end of these but a third woe is near Gods knows what will be next but sure unless We better prove for these God will not cease To punish us he hath more Plagues in store And can for sin afflict us seven times more Since both the War and Sickness still endure And once to know the Cause is half the Cure Let us reflect on that and throughly try To search the Cause and find a Remedy For these Calamities which make so long Have mercy Lord the burthen of our Song Let 's see what hinders mercy and what sure Course we must take his mercy to procure But while I was about to think on this Another woe befell The City is All on a flame the Countrey in a fright Our thoughts distracted business put to flight All stand i' th' way to hear what news from thence As men astonisht even bereft of sense But when my Muse her self could recollect On this third Woe began she to reflect Resolv'd at last by light of th' Fire to see The cause of all these woes and remedie On the BVRNING OF LONDON JER 18.7 8. At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them c. THe War still slaughters the Plague destroys And England mournful sits berest of joys Abandoned to sorrow yet Gods Hand Is stretched out against this sinful Land And as the City London still hath been The Spring and Fountain of the Nations sin Another wrathful Vial God doth spill On them and thence the Land with terror fill Heav'n from the former with provoked ire Shed death among them but from this a Fire A wasting fire scarce had that Vial done Dropping down sickness ere this woe begun And all at once in flaming fury thrown On this great City quickly burnt it down God seem'd to slack his wrath the Pestilence Was in a manner quite removed thence And having swept the City thence did come And all about the Countrey strangely roame And those who hither fled for safety fly For danger hence and
like a Snake chang'd skin and hew Nor did it alwayes scape the fire before But in the Conquerours twentieth year it bore Such marks of wasting Flames as at this day The greatest part in ruines then did lay Saint Paul's which Ethelbert of Saxon men First Christian King did build was burnt down then This Erkenwald its Bishop had enlarg'd Adorn'd Enricht all which this fire discharg'd But the next year Mauritius piouslie Another Prelate of this Ancient See Laid the foundation of a far more fair Magnificent and stately Structure there Which in process of time by bounteous hand Of pious Benefactors late did stand This Nations glory others envy and Not to be paralel'd in Christian Land The boasted of fair Church of Nostre Dame In Paris might be Handmaid to this same When our St. Paul was in his pomp I trow Their Lady set by him would make no show Until the Steeples Heav'n assaulting Spire By Lightning sent from Heav'n was set on fire As if this seem'd to imitate the pride Of Babel builders whom God did deride This lofty Pyramis he burned down Which fire seis'd on Paul's roof sing'd his crown And with its smutty beams scorched his head Black't and defac't the whole Structure and made Paul look more like to such as did him mark An Ethiopian than an English Clark The marks of which he for a long time bore Nor could regain his beauty as before Till to the Land of God and his own praise The Reverend Archbishop Land did raise Paul's to its pristine glory till late times When Sacriledge Rebellion no crimes But Vertues were accounted Some mens zeal Could devour whole Cathedrals at a meal Christ's zeal for Gods House eat him up more odd Was this their zeal eat up the House of God The holy Tribe and service they cast out Brought Horses in the more beasts they no doubt Thus these Phanaticks O abominable Turned the House of God into a Stable And Reformation was there never stranger Where Altars stood to set up Rack and Manger Temple profaners must on the sacred sloore Your Horses dung What could the Turks do more The Jews indeed did less they to a Den Turned Gods Temple but it was of men Though thieves but these more brutish for the nonce Make it a den of thieves and beasts at once And by such usage Paul declin'd a pace The Souldiers gave him deep scars on his face His Walls lookt sadly and his Gates did mourn Until the late miraculous return Of King and Bishops who remov'd th' abuse And Paul's restor'd unto its pristine use And daily did re-edifie repair All parts about it which lately ruin'd were But by this raging fire which now befell The City sparing neither Church nor Cell Paul 'mong the rest into his Grave is thrown Whence we expect his Resurrection In King and Bishops to good works inclin'd We Ethelbert and Erkenwalds to find And generous Mauritus too do trust Who will redeem Paul's once more from its dust Nor do I doubt did we but lay to heart The causes of our woes by which we smart Or would this stubborn Nation but endure The means of their Recovery and Cure Th' Almighty would in mercy soon restore The City to its beauty or to more It should not long as now in ruines lie Nor noise of War our borders terrifie The killing Plague should in all places cease Our Land enjoy Prosperity and Peace Let us consider then of all our woe The Cause the Cure we shall the better know The Cause of our Calamities THE Cause of all in highest Heav'ns I seek And in our sinful bosomes which do reek With boiling lust whence sinful deeds do rise As vapours from the Earth above the Skies Ascend and make those clouds of Gods just ire Which thunder'd forth the War lightned the Fire And did on this provoking people pour Of mortal sickness a contagious showr Not for the causes meerly natural Of all these woes or means instrumental Search I but for the prime efficient And inward moving cause were our hearts rent With due contrition this we soon might spy Deep in our brests for that we must look high God is the Author and our Sins the Spring Which on us all these dreadful Plagues do bring How many Atheists in this Land do dwell Even Owles at Athens blind in Israel There is no God say some fools in their heart VVhom war nor Plague would from their Atheism start Sure by the light of the late dreadful fire They 'le see their folly and the light that 's higher How many with corporeal fancies serve That God who is all Spirit others swerve From his prescription after their own will Do worship him and are devoutly ill Many a swearing cursing miscreant As Devils upon Earth each place doth haunt And do blaspheme Gods sacred Name in spight Of all Plagues wish a Plague and take delight To tear Christs wounds afresh make him bleed Pray to be damn'd but sure they shall not need When neither war nor plague would these affright God fir'd their Houses 'bout their ears to light Them to Repentance and thus let them see An Embleme of the Worlds Catastrophe And an Epitome of that Hell Infernal In which the wicked after death must burn all How many do neglect contemn profane All holy times consecrate to God's Name And service now How is the zeal grown cold Which thronged Christian Churches so of old Scarce the tenth part will in some places come To Church but most do idley stay at home Or to Schismatical Assemblies run Or make an halt until the Pray'rs be done Of those who in our Churches do appear How few with reverence and godly fear Behave themselves some do in Taverns wast Those precious hours when here their souls should feast And one would think when such a Plague God sent All Christians now would fast pray and repent But on the Fasting days Good Lord how few Will come before thee and for mercy sue All Holy-days are mere Play-days now are made Or consecrate to drunken Baechus trade Church doors are open'd bells ring for fashion But th' Alehouse hath the greater Congregation Gods House indeed is styl'd the House of Pray'r But if no Preaching be few will come there They think 't not worth the while to call on God Even when they groan under his scourging Rod They hear and hear but never learn to do Those duties which all Preaching tendeth to Others whose lusts and sins the Word controuls Nauseate all Preaching Physick for their Souls And the seduced people whose blind eyes See not of Christ the saving mysteries Yet wholesome Chatechizing wont endure For their Souls blindness though the only cure Thus is Gods Service crucified between Two thieves like him and in his House is seen A den of thieves one sort rob of him of Pray'r The other rob their souls of his Word there And for the blessed Sacrament so full Of
sweetest consolation to the dull A quickning goad to weak a strong support Assurance to the fearful and a fort To tempted Christians to such as for sin cry An Handkerchief dipt in Christs blood to dry Their sorrow up a Cordial to the faint An heav'nly banquet to the humble Saint How few will sit themselves draw nigh and tast This soul refreshing mystical repast 'T was one effect of our late Reformation T' exile this Sacrament out of the Nation Almost some towns in twenty years had not Any Communion they had forgot Do this in remembrance of me and now They 've lost their stomacks by long fasting how To bring them to an appetite once more That the Lords Table may of guests have store We scarce do know they have been so affrighted From that wherewith their souls should be delighted Their Preachers sounding in their ears damnation To scare them from Communion profanation Which was indeed to rise 'mong some that durst Approach without due Preparation first But still forgetting equally to press Their duty to receive though in the dress Of Knowledge Faith Repentance Charitie That in contempt did as much peril lie The poor deluded people did believe The only danger was if they receive Fly from their Souls food as their certain bane To whom Christs Institution is in vain So strangely Gods Commandements were then Made void by the Traditions of these men Now this luke-warmness to Gods worship we May both in Countrey and in City see For such contempt of Christs Authoritie Might justly some be sick some weak some die Mens coldness kindled wrath that fire anon To make them fervent in Religion You would not come to Church a while ago No Churches now you have to come unto The Gates of Sion mourn'd ' cause few or none Would enter there but now you make your mone And mourn for Sions gates ' cause they are burn'd With fire and to a heap of ashes turn'd Sion before in silence did lament Because so few her solemn Feasts frequent Now you may mourn in silence sigh and fast For that the places of her Feasts be wast Thus want of zeal hath sir'd the House of God Neglect of Worship Temples hath destroy'd Nor could you look but that which burned down God's Houses thus must needs consume your own Thus justly may the War Plague Fire and all For our neglect to serve God on us fall How many disobedient are to all Their Parents civil spiritual natural How rife's Rebellion while the People strive With Prince and Priest neither due reverence give Their Princes Laws the people think not right The Priests their Prelates admonition slight Servants rebel against their Masters and Wives disobey their Husbands sit command Children their loving Parents honour not Obedience among all sorts is forgot What swarms have we of stubborn Sectaries Who all Dominion boldly do despise Nor are afraid to speak of Dignities All kind of evil though most grievous lies The Ark had but one Cham our Church many Who glad their Fathers nakedness to spy With most reproachful mocks and taunts discover And blazon it abroad the Nation over Nay rather than Fathers in Church or State Shall want the ruder peoples scorn and hate Such whet their tongues to tell the smoothest lies Which these to pop'lar scorn may sacrifice Rebellion though as sin of witchcraft reigns Among this headstrong people whom no reins Of Law will rule no Power curb or awe From following their will their will 's a law To them alone who without fear or shame Publickly their perversness do proclaim Saying if they were not commanded to These and these things they would them freely do O stubborn people shall there ever rest Spirits of Contradiction in your brest Hath God stampt his Authority upon Your Governours and do you think they 've none Hath he said they are Gods and will ye then Give less respect to them than other men Counsels of whispering Seducers how Prone to observe and promptly follow you Are but how backwards to obey we see Lawful Commands of just Authoritie And is the lawfulness and duty less Because enjoyn'd nay more your stubbornness To disobey God is contemned sure And such contempt from men will not endure Yet when for peoples sins he Plagues hath sent They oft impute them to the Government So the rebellious mutineers of old VVhen the Earth strangely swallowed up those bold Conspirators of Corah's faction cry'd Ye the Lords people kill'd Gods hand denied Moses and Aaron with that slaughter charg'd Till God by his just judgment them discharg'd By a sad Plague sweeping these murmurers thence Brought the whole Camp into another sense Now when the like sins among us are spread Shall we not say for these are many dead Gods Judgments are a great deep if we dive Too far we drown all Charity alive Preserve censoriousness believe I do All sorts have sin'd all sorts have suffer'd too Yet all may hear what some observe and dread Most factious places are most visited Have we not murmurers among us too Like to rebellious Corah and his crew VVill what is Moses and what Aaron say Are we not all holy as well as they To rule and sacrifice all would have pow'r Might not for this a fire from God devour The City which as eminent in sin Hath exemplary now in judgment been That whilome was rebellions spring and nurse And seem'd back-sliding to the former course Is now of England's woe and sorrow source Sin no more so lest you are plagued worse What murthers in this Land committed were For Civil Wars on one side murthers are And God doth know to whose charge shall be laid That blood which in our Civil Wars was shed Blood is a crying sin so much was spilt This Nation cannot but be deep in guilt Especially when Royal blood hath been Profanely shed no doubt a roaring sin And who doth know but the just God doth make Now Inquisition for that blood and take Due Vengeance on us for that barbarous fact The like whereto no Nation ere did act Unless those cursed Jews who crucified Their Saviour for which they still abide The wrath of God and shame of men as we For that through all the world reproached be Nor need we wonder judgment was delaid That this same Vengeance was no sooner paid If it should be for this For God is wont To call men to Repentance first he don't Suddenly punish but gives means and time That men may see and sorrow for their crime And so prevent the Plague now all the while Usurpers rul'd Our King was in exile None openly of this might speak a word Which to deluded people could afford Due Information of these hainous crimes Which past for Vertues in those cheating times But since the Throne and Pulpit too were free From Gulls Impostors and their knavery Since all men saw what ever such pretended In Self-advancement their Religion ended Since the Saints coat was pulled o're their
ears Who for a Cloak of Villany it wears Since that vile murther hath been quite disclaim'd By a free Parliament a Fast proclaim'd Wherein the Nation annually may Humble themselves before their God and pray The guilt hereof may not lie on their head To them nor their posterity be laid Since Orthodox Divines have soundly shown How sins of others may become our own And so how many ways men guilty stand Of Royal blood before Gods bar whose hand Or heart ne're toucht it not by commission Covnsel or by abetting the transgression Only or by allowing it for good But by our not resisting it to blood Or by not mourning for 't enough or by Those sins which did provoke the Deitie So far to suffer villany to reign For woe to us to kill our Sovereign Since means and opportunities have thus Of true Repentance been afforded us The only reason of Gods Patience Yet so few shew a hearty Penitence Even among those most deeply guilty were Who where the Fast is kept will not come there But have such seared Consciences that they Keep a Thanksgiving on that Fasting-day Dwell we not stil with those whose fine tongues are More soft than Oyl yet in their hearts have War Who smoother are than Butter in their words Yet in design and wish are drawing Swords Such as pretended ever to abhorre Charles the first death and seemed zealous for The Seconds Restauration missing what In Church or State they hoped for by that Seem in their discontent to lay the train Of th' old Rebellion venturing again A second Charles his ruine rather then Their will shall not be law and they the men Shall not God visit such a Generation And be avenged on a bloody Nation And since that sinful City cannot be Excus'd from guilt of blood which was too free In contributing to the war and killing And to the Royal bloods inhumane spilling Not to the shedding of their own resisting To that which came to this too much assisting The Bodkins which the City Dames did give Our Caesar of his life help't to deprive The tumults raised there were Prologue to This tragick Act which other hands did do Since they could see their King before his Doore Murther'd by miscreants and weep no more Since blood of loyal Subjects too was shed I' th' midst of them and they scarce shook their head Since they so long supported and maintained Usurping Powers who in Rebellion raigned Under the Kingly power unruly were Yet Tyrants force so long could tamely heauen Might not for this Gods Justice lately call For those Judgments did on the City fall In David's time a Plague on Israel For what Saul did to th' Gibeonites befel How with uncleanness of all sorts defil'd Is this our sinful Land the people wild In their unbridled lusts like Horses they Are ranck each for his neighbours wife do neigh Sodomy Incest Fornication and Adultery Nay of heart tongue and hand All kind of filthiness is sadly found To be too fruitful in our English ground In Court and Camp City and Countrey we This kind of sin grown impudent do see The Nation hath the forehead of an Whore Declares her sin as Sodom and doth more When such as should in others punish it The same themselves without shame do commit Sinners are bold and do not seek to hide Their shame but all reproof thereof deride We read by Plague did many thousands die When Israel did with Moab's Daughters lie How Sodom and Gomorrah when they burn'd In lustful heat God into ashes turn'd By fire from heav'n since first our guilt and blame Hath been well might our suff'ring be the same And that same filthy City which doth lie In ruines How full of Adulterie And all uncleaness was it and as some Observ'd the Plague did most in places come And rage where this sin reign'd yet health return'd To them afresh they in their old lusts burn'd In filthiness they drove on Sodom's trade And now by fire are like Gomorrah made Yet have a remnant scap't like little Zoar For shelter unto Lot let such beware More Plagues in store for sinners still there are Thou shalt not steal saith God but O my soul How doth our Peoples practice this controul Will they not rob Yes God himself they will In Tithes and Offerings they do it still In ev'ry Parish Vicar you may see A witness of the old Church robberie Nor can we yet forget the later time When Sacriledge accounted was no crime When from the Church her Rights Revenues Lands Were pluck't away by Sacrilegious hands When some mens zeal the very Bells did melt Bullets to make their Enemies to pelt When heat of Reformation our Church Plate Coin'd into current money for the State And some mens feud with Superstition rent Each peice of Brass from dustie monument When greedy Cormorants stood gaping still For gleab and tithes even to the Goose whose quill Thanks be to God is left us yet to write The shame of those who in such theft delight And was it not Commission of transgression Against this Law to Plunder by Commission Besides their Sequestration Decimation Was there not cunning stealing in this Nation Whatever some do reckon of their sin Far lesser theives I doubt have hanged bin Now when I Fraud and Cosenage think upon Extortion Bribery and Oppression I fear almost in ev'ry way and street Go where you will each man 's a theif you meet Some on the Bench are greater theives by far Than such as stand before them at the bar Too often Law and Livings too are sold For bribes and simony now very bold Such as do sell or lend to court must stay And some years hence for expedition pay In ev'ry shop a cheating thief doth stand To cosen with fine words while by the hand He friendly shakes you In each Market Fair Each buyer finds thieves are not very rare Each brother will supplant and falsely deal Each neighbour over-reach which is to steal And I believe even to the Countreys cost The King of all men now is cheated most Whom may we trust whose word now dare we take Why do we Bonds to one another make There are we see more thieves among us then House-breakers Cut-purses and High-way men Now may I be of Jeremiah's mind And wish some quiet lodging-place to find In solitary Wilderness that so I might from such a treach'rous people go Who bend their tongues as bows for cosening lies Deceitful men whom none will trust that tries Whose tongues are arrows shot out speak deceit Utt'ring fine words to cheat they lie in wait Of such God saith Behold I 'le melt and try them Reprobate silver then to be he 'l spy them Shall I not visit for these things saith he And on such people now avenged be And as the City hath notorious been For sins of this sort justly now 't is seen Low in the dust sunk under its own weight Of Cosenage and Oppression from