degrees A Clergie that shall more desire to fleece Then feede the flocke A Clergy it shall be Divided in it selfe and they shall thee Divide among them into sev'rall factions which rend thee will and fill thee with destructions They all in ourward seeming shall pretend Gods glory and to have one pious end But under colour of sincere devotion Their study shall be temporall promotion Which will among themselves strange quarrels make Wherein thy other children shall peâ—â—take As to the Persons or the Cause they stand Affected even quite throughout the Land One part of these will for preferment strive By liâ—ting up the King's prerogative Above it selfe They shall perswade him to Much more then Law or Conscience bids him do And say God warrants it His holy Lawâ—s They shall pervert to justifie their cause And impudently wrest to prove their ends What God to better purposes intends They shall not blush to say that ev'ry King May doe like Solomon in every thing As if they had his warrant and shall dare Ascribe to Monarches rights that proper are To none but Christ and mixt their flatteries With no lesse grosse and wicked blasphemies Then Heathens did yea make their Kings beleeve That whosoever they oppresse or greive It is no wrong nor fit for men oppressed To seeke by their owne Lawes to be redressed Such councell shall thy Princes then provoke To cast upon thee Rehoboams yoake And they not caring or not taking heed How ill that ill-advised King did speed Shall multiply thy causes of distraction For then will of thy Priests the other faction Bestir themselves They will in outward showes Those whom I last have mentioned oppose But in thy ruine they will both agree As in one Center though farre off they be In their Diameter With lowly zeale An envious pride they slâ—ly shall conceale And as the former to thy Kings will teach Meere Tyranny so shall these other preach Rebellion to the people and shall straine The word of God Sedition to maintaine They shall not feare to say that if thy King Become a Tyrant thou maist also fling Obedience off or from his Crowne divorce him Or by the terror of drawne swords enforce him Which false Divinity shall to the Devill Send many soules and bring on thee much evill Oh! be thou therefore watchfull and when e're These Lambs with Dragons voyces doe appeare Repent thy sinne or take it for a token That some great Bulwarke of thy peace is broken Which must be soone repaired or else all The greatnesse of thy glory downe will fall Take heede of those false prophets who will strive Betwixt thy Prince and people to contrive A disagreement And what ever come Thy due Allegeance never start thou from For their oppressions though we may withstand By pleading Lawes or Customes not a hand Must move against them save the hand of God Who makes a King a Bulwarke or a Rod As pleaseth him Oh! take ye therefore heed Yee People and ye Kings that shall succeed Of these Impostors Of the last beware Yee Subjects for their Doctrines hellish are And though they promise Liberty and Peace Your Thraldome and your Troubles they 'll increase Shun oh yee Kings the first for they advise What will your Crownes and honors prejudice When you doe thinke their Prophecies befriend you They doe but unto Râ—moth-Gilead send you Where you shall perish and poore Micahs word Though lesse esteem'd more safety will afford They will abuse your piety and all Your vertues For their wicked ends they shall Apply the Sacred Story or what ever May seeme to further their unjust endevor Ev'n what the son of Hannah told the Iewes Should be their scourge because they did refuse The sov'raignty of God and were so vaine To aske a King which over them might raigne As heathen Princes did that curse they shall Affirme to be a Law Monarchicall Which God himselfe established to stand Throughout all ages and in ev'ry land Which is as good Divinity as they Have also taught who doe not blush to say That Kings may have both Wives and Concubines And by that Rule whereby these great Divines Shall prove their Tenet I dare undertake If found it hold that I like proofe will make Of any Iâ—wish Custome and devise Authority for all absurdities But false it is For might all Kings at pleasure As by the right of royaltie make seasure Of any mans possessions why i pray Did Ahab grieve that Naboth said him nay Why made he not this answer thereunto If what the Prophet said some Kings would do Were justly to be done Thy vineyards mine And at my pleasure Naboth all that 's thine Assume I may like a Turky-chick Did he so foolishly grow sullen-sick And get possession by a wicked fact Of what might have beene his by royall act If such Divinity as this were true The Queene should not have needed to pursue Poore Naboth as she did or so contrive His death since by the Kings Prerogative She might have got his Vinyard Nor would God Have scourg'd that murther with so keene a rod On Ahab had he asked but his due For he did neither plot nor yet pursue The murther nor for ought that we can tell Had knowledge of the deed of Iezabel Till God reveal'd it by the Prophet to him Nor is it said that Naboth wrong did do him Or disrespect in that he did not yeeld To sell or give or to exchange his Field The Iewish Commonwealth did so instate That their possessions none could alienate But for a time who ever for his mony Or in exchange desir'd their patrimony And doubtlesse we offend who at this day Those fredomes give or lose or sell away Which were in common right possest of old By our Forefathers and continue should To all their after commers For altho We may dispose of what pertaines unto Our persons yet those dues which former ages have left unto us for our heritages And whereunto the child that borne must be Hath ev'ry whit as good a right as we Those dues we should preserve with all our might By pleading of our just and ancient rgiht In humble wise if so the Sov'raigne state Our freedome shall attempt to violate But when by peacefull meanes we cannot save it We to the pleasure of the King must leave it And unto God our Judge for all the pow'r In us consists in saying This is our A King is for a blessing or a curse And therefore though a Foole he were or worse A Tyrant or an Ethnick no man may So much as in their private closets pray Against his person though they moy petition Against the wickednesse of his condition Nor is this suffrance due to those alone Who subject are unto a Monarchs throne But from all those who either subjects are To mixed Government or popular For though irregularities appeare In ev'ry State because but men they are Whom Gods exalts to rule yet it is he By
A PROPHESIE VVRITTEN LONG SINCE FOR THIS YEARE 1641. VVherein Prelate-policie is proved to be folly AS ALSO Many notable Passages Concerning the fall of some great Church-men Written by a modern Poet LONDON Printed in the Yeare 1641. A PROPHESIE VVRITTEN LONG SINCE FOR THIS YEARE 1641. I Doe not wonder as I erst have done That when the Prophet Ionas should have gone To Niniveh Gods word he disobey'd And would himselfe to Tharsus have convey'd For I have now a sense how flesh and blood The motions of the Holy Ghost withstood And feele me thinks how many a likely doubt The Devill and his frailty found him out He was a man though he a Prophet were In whom no little weaknesse did appeare And thus he thought perchance What shall J doe A strange attempt my heart is urged to And there is somewhat earnestly incites That I should hasten to the Ninivites And preach that if they alter not their waies Their time of standing 〈◊〉 but forty dayes My soule perswadeth God injoynes me to it And sleepe in peace I cannot till I doe it But common Reason striveth to restraine This motion and perswadeth me t is vaine It saith I am a sinner and so fraile That many times my best endeavors faile To rectifie my selfe How shall I then Be hopefull of reclaiming other men To Isr'el J have threatned many yeares Gods judgements yet no fruit thereof appeares Although they have some knowledge of the Lord And are within his League they slight his word What hope then is there that a heathen Nation Will prove regardfull of my exhortation The stile of Prophet in this land I carry And such a Calling here is ordinary But in a forraigne State what warranty Have I to publish such a Prophesie How may the King and people take the same If I shall in the open streets defame So great ae City and condemne for sin A place wherin I never yet have bin If I shall say the Lord commanded me Then they phehaps will answer What is he For they professe him no◠Nay some suspition They may conceive that I to move sedition Am sent among them Or if otherwise They shall suppose how can they but despise My person and my counsell who shall from So farre a place so meere a stranger come That no man knowes or what or who I am Or from what Country or from whom I came Such thought belike delay'd and fear'd him so And so the Spirit urg'd him still to go For Niniveh that nor to goe nor stay Could he resolve but fled another way From which rebellious course God fetceth him back With such a vengeance that he did not lack Sufficient proofes how Reason did betray him And in his Calling causlesly affray him Yea marke heav'ns providence though Ionas went Another way it crost not God's intent But furthered it For doubtlesse e re he came To Ninveh the miracle and fame Of his Deliverance was sent before And made his preaching worke on them the more Now though I doe not arrogate nor dare My selfe except in frailties to compare With blessed Jonas yet I may behold To say our Causes a resemblance hold My heart and when that moves as one averres It more prevailes then many Counsellers My heart I say perswaded me e're while To reade a warning Lecture to this I le And in such manner moved that to say It came from God me thinks behold I may Yet my owne nat'rall frailty and the world Among my thoughts so many doubtings hurld That every step had rubs I levell'd some In my last Canto Yet I could not come To even ground till I had overtopt Some other Mountaines which my passage stopt Beware said Reason how thou undertake This hazardous adventure which to make Thou hast resolv'd For this wise age denies That God vouchsated any Prophesies Concerning them or that the application Of ought foretold pertaineth to this Nation She saith my Constancy is no true signe That God first moved this intent of mine Since Hereticks and Traytors oft are seene As bold in all their causes to have beene As Martyrs be And that for what they doe They can pretend the holy Spirit too And she perswades t is likely I shall passe At best for one that much deluded was She sayes moreover that if these times be Indeed so wicked as they seeme to me I shall in stead of moving to repent Nought else but stir their fury and be rent Perhaps in pieces by their hasty rage For what 's more likely in a wicked age When people in their sins grow hardned once She saies I may as well goe talke to stones As tell them ought For they are in the dark And what they see and heare they doe not marke She urged that the Prophets in old times Did speake in vaine against the peoples crimes And if in them their words begat no faith Much lesse will such as mine my Reaeson saith She tells me also that this I le hath store Of Prophets and of Preachers never more She sayes that though their calling none neglect Their paines appeare to take but small effect And if such men authorized as they Doe cast their words without successe away In vaine my Muse whose warrant most contemne Doth seeke to worke more piety in them A thousand things unto the like effect Yea all and more then any can object Who shall peruse this Book my Reason brought Before me and objected to my thought And as a Pilgrim who occasions hath To take some extraordinary path Arrivall making at a double way Is doubtfull whether to proceed or stay So fared I I was nigh tired quite Before I could be certaine of the right Yea twixt my doubtings and all those replies Which in my meditations did arise I so amazed grew I could not know Which way it best befitted me to goe But at the last God brought me thorow all My doubts and feares as though the Storme and Whale Once Jonas came That so all they who are Ordained for their good these lines to heare The more may profit when they think upon What straights I passed e're this work was done To that intent my frailties I have so Insisted on as in this book I do Yea I am hopefull also they that read These lines of mine and mark with how much heed And Christian awfulnesse my heart was won To censure and reprove as I have done Will plainely see these Numbers flow not from Fantastick rashnesse nor from enuy come Nor spring from faction neither were begot By their distracted zeale who knowing not What Spirit guides them often are beguiled With shewes of truth and madly have reviled Both good and ill and whose unsavory Rimes Defames mens persons more then check their crimes Dishonour Kings their sacred names blaspheme And having gain'd some notions in a dreame Or by report of what they know not well Desire their giddy thoughts abroad to tell In hope to merit as in deed they doe
their lives Ev'n by their just and due Prerogatives When thus much they have made them to beleeve Then they shall teach them practices to grieve Their subjects by and instruments become To helpe the screwing up by some and some Of Monarchies to Tyrannies They shall Abuse Religion Honestie and all To compasse their designes They shall devise Strange projects and with impudence and lyes Proceed in setling them They shall forget Those reverent usages which doe befit The majestie of State and raile and storme When they pretend disorders to reforme In their high Counsels and where men should have Kind admonitions and reprovings grave When they offend they shall be threatned there Or scoft or taunted though no cause appeare It is unseemly for a Judge to sit And exercise a jibing Schoole-boyes wit Vpon their trades or names who stand before Their judgement seats buâ— who doth not abhor To heare it when a Magistrate objects Birth poverty or personall defects In an upbraiding wise Or who with me Derides it not when in our Courts we see Those men whose bodies are both old and weake Forgetting grave and usefull things to speake Uent Giants words and bristle up as tho Their very breath could armies overthrow Whereas poore weaklings were there in their places No more authority then in their faces Their persons or their language all their chasing And threatning nothing would effect but laughing For unto me big looks and crying hoâ—â— As dreadfull seemes as when a child cryes boh To fright his Nurse yea such a bugbeare fashion Effâ—cteth nought but scornefull indignation But in those times which nearer are then somâ— Suppose perhaps such Rhetoricke will come To be in use and arguments of Reason And just proceeding will be out of season Their Wisedome shall be folly and goe nigh To bring conâ—empt on their Authority Their Councell Fable shall a snare be made And those 'gainst whom they no just matter had At first appearance shall be urg'd to say Some word or other e're they part away Which will betray their innocence to blame And bring upon them detriment and shame Yea many times as David hath of old Concerning such oppressors well foretold To humble crouchings and to fained showes Descend they shall to worke mens overthrowes And what their subtilty doth faile to gaine They shall by rigour and by force obtaine What ever from thy people they can teare Or borrow they shall keep as if it were A prize which had beene taken from the Foe And they shall make no conscience what they doe To prejudice Posterity For they To gaine their lust but for the present day Shall with such love unto themselves endeavor That though they knew it would undoe for ever Their owne posterity it shall not make Those Monsters any better course to take Nay God shall give them up for their offences To such uncomely reprobated senses And blinde them so that when the axe they see Ev'n hewing at the root of their owne tree By their owne handy strokes they shall not grieve For their approaching fall no nor beleeve Their fall approacheth nor assume that heed Which might prevent it till they fall indeed Thy Princes Brittaine in those dayes will be Like roaring Lyons making prey of thee God shall deliver thee into their hand And they shall act their pleasure in the Land As one his Prophet threatned to that Nation Which doth exemplifie thy Desolation Thy Kings as thou hast wallowed in excesse Shall take delight in drinke and wantonnesse And those who thou dost call thy Noble-ones Shall to the very marrow gnaw thy bones Thy Lawyers fulfully shall wrest thy Lawes And to the ruine of the common Cause Shall mis-interpret them in hope of grace From those who may dispoyle them of their place Yea that whereto they are obliged both By Conscience by their Calling and their Oath To put in execution they shall feare And leave them helpelesse who oppessed are Thy Prelates in the spoyle of thee shall share Thy Priests as light shall be as those that are The meanest persons All their Prophecies Or preachings shall be herisies and lies The word of truth in them shall not remaine Their lips no wholsome knowledge shall retaine And all his outward meanes of saving Grace Thy God shall carry to another place Marke well oh Britaine what I now shall say And doe not sleihhtly passe these words away But be assured that when God begins To bring that vengeance on thee for thy sinnes Which hazzard will with totall over-throw Thy Prophets and thy Priests shall sliely sow The seeds of that dissention and sedition Which time will ripen for thy sad perdition Ev'n they who formerly were of thy peace The happy instruments shall then increase Thy troubles most And ev'n as when the Iewes Gods truth-presaging Prophets did abuse He suffered those who preached in his Name Such falshoods as the chiefest cause became Of their destruction so if thou go on To make a scorne as thou hast often done Of them who seeke thy welfare he will send False Prophets that shall bring thee to thine end By saying all things thou wouldest have them say And lulling thee asleepe in thine owne way If any brain-sick Fellow whom the Devill Seduceth to inflict on thee some evill Shall coyne false Doctrines or perswade thee to Some foolish course that will at length undoe The Common-weale â—his counsell thou shalt follow Thou cover'd with his bait a hooke shalt swallow To rend thine entrailes and thine ignorance Shall also for that mischiefe him advance But if that any loveâ— of thy weale Inspir'd with truth and with an honest zeale Shall tell thee ought pertâ—ining to thy good His Messages shall stiffly be withstood That Seer shall be charged not to see His word shall sleighted as a potsherd be His lâ—fe shall be traduced to disgrace His Counsells or his errant to debase In stead of recompence he shall be sure Imprisonments or threatnings to procure And peradventure as those Prophets were Who did among the Iewish Peers declare Their States enormities his good intention May be so rong'd that he by some invention May loose his life with publike shame and hate As one that is a troubler of the State But not unlesse the Priest thereto consent For in those dayes shall few men innocent Be griev'd through any quarter of the Land In which thy Clergie shall not have some hand If ever in the Fields as God forbid The blood of thine owne children shall be shed By civill discord they shall blow the flame That will become thy ruine and thy shame And thus it shall be kindled When the times Are nigh at worst and thy increasing crimes Almost compleat the Devill shall begin To bring strange crotchets and opinons in Among thy Teachers which will breede disunion And interrupt the visible communion Of thy establisht Church And in the steed Of zealous Pastors who Gods flock did feed There shall arise within thee by
actions and the peoples cryes declare A fifth sure evidence that God among Thy ruines will entomb thy same e're long If thou repent not is ev'n this that thou Dost ev'ry day the more ungodly grow By how much more the blessed meanes of grace Doth multiply it selfe in ev'ry place God sends unto thee many learned Preachers Apostles Pastors and all kind of teachers His Visions and his Prophecies upon thee He multiplies And that he might have won thee To more sinceritie on all occasions By counsell by entreatie and perswasions He hath advis'd allured and befought thee With precept upon precept he hath taught thee By line on line by miracle by reason In ev'ry place in season out of season By little and by little and by much Sometime at once yet is thy nature such That still thou waxest worse and in the roome Of pleasant Grapes more Thistles daily come And thou that art so haughty and so proud For this shalt vanish like an empty cloud And as a Lion Leopard or a Beare Thy God for this shall thee in pieces teare If thou suppose my Muse did this devise Goe take it from Hosea's Prophesies The sixth undoubted signall when the last Good dayes of sinfull Realmes are almost past Is when the people neere to God shall draw In word to make profession of his Law And by their tongues his praises forth declare Yet in their hearts from him continue far To such a Land their destiny displayes Isaiah for even thus the Prophet sayes God will produce ae marvell in that state And doe a Worke that men shall wonder at The wisedome of their wisest Counsellor Shall perish and their prudent men shall erre On their deepe Counsels sorrow shall attend Their secret plots shall have a dismall end Their giddy projects which they have devised Shall as the Potters clay be quite despised Like Carmel Lebanon shall seeme and he Like Lebanon shall make mount Carmel be Their pleasant Fields like Desarts shall appeare And there shall Gardens be where Desarts are God keepe thou Brittish Ile this plague from thee For signes thereof upon thy Body be Thou of the purest worship mak'st profession Yet waxest more impure in thy condition Thou boastest of the knowledge of Gods word Yet thereunto in manners to accord Thou dost refuse Thou makest protestation Of pietie yet hatest reformation Yea when thy tongue doth sing of praise divine Thy heart doth plot some temporall designe And some of those who in this wise are holy Begin to shew their wisedome will be folly For when from sight their snares they deepest hide By God Almighties eyes they are espide The seventh Symptome of a dreadfull blow If not a perpetuall overthrow Is when a slumbring Spirit doth surprize A nation and hath closed up their eyes Or when the Prophets and the Seers are So clouded that plaine truths doe not appeare Or when the Visions evidently seene Are passed by as if they had not beene Or when to Nations who can reade God gives His Booke and thereof doth unseale the leaves And bids them reade the same which they to do Deny or pleade unablenesse thereto Blacke signes are these For if that Booke to them Still darke or as a Book unsealed seeme Or if they heede no more what here is said Then they that have the Books and cannot reade The Iudgements last repeated are the doome That shall on such a stupid Nation come This signe is come on us for loe unsealed Gods Booke is now amongst us and revealed Are all the Mysteries which doe concerne The children of this present age to learne So well hath he instructed this our land That we not onely reade but understand The secrets of his Word The prophecies Of his chiefe Seers are before our eyes Vnveiled true interpretations Are made and many proper applications Ev'n to ourselves yet is our heart so blind That what we know and see we doe not mind We heare and speake and much adoe we keepe But we as senselesse are as men asleepe What then we doe Yea while that we are talking What snares are in the way where we are walking We heed not what we say but passe along And many times are fast insnar'd among Those mischiefes and those faults we did condemne Before our tongues have left to mention them For our neglect of God in former times Or for some present unrepented crimes A slumbring Spirit so possesseth us That our estate is wondrous dangerous We see and heare and tell to one another Our perils yet we headlong haste together To wilfull ruine and are growne so mad That when our friends a better course perswade Or seek to stop us when they see we run That way in which we cannot ruine shun We persecute those men with all our soule That we may damn our selves without controule The eight plaine Signe by which I understand That some devouring mischiefe is at hand Is that maliciousnesse which I doe see Among Professors of one Faith to be We that have but one Father and one Mother Doe persecute and torture one another So hotly we oppose not Antichrist As we our fellow-brethren doe resist The Protestant the Protestant defies And we our selves our selves doe scandalize Our Church we have exposed to more scorne And her faire seamlesse Vestâ—ent rent and come By our owne fury more then by their spight Who are to us directly opposite To save an Apple we the Tree destroy And quarrels make for ev'ry needlesse toy From us if any brother differ shall But in a crochet we upon him fall As eagerly and with as bitter hate As if we knew him for a Reprobate And what ever all this doth signifie Saint Paul by way of caveat doth imply Take heed saith he lest while ye bite each other You of your selves consumed be together Another Signe which causeth me to feare That our confusion is approaching neere Are those Disunions which I have espide In Church and Common-wealth this present tide We cannot hide these rents for they doe gape So wide that some their Jawes can hardly scape Would God the way to close them up we knew Else what they threaten time will shortly shew For all men know a Citie or a Land Within it selfe divided cannot stand The last blacke Signe that here I will repeat Which doth to Kingdomes desolation threat Is when the hand of God Almighty brings The people into bondage to their Kings I say when their owne King shall take delight Those whom he should protect to rob and smite When they who fed the Sheep the Sheep shall kill And eate them and suppose they doe no ill When God gives up a Nation unto those That are their neighbours that they may as foes Devoure them When oh England thou shalt see This come to passe a signe it is to thee That God is angry and a certaine token That into pieces thou shalt quite be broken If not by forraine strength by force at home And that thy