Why shouldst then be at so much pains good Lord To kill a thing which of its own accord Will quickly dye a thing that by thy Wrath As yet deny'd the liberty of Death Doth only some small sparks of Life retain And like a Dying Creature breaths with pain One entire Ulcer a meer lump of Boyls A heap of Sores one loaden with the Spoiles Of all Diseases one so fully spent In Body and in Mind so discontent No pleasure which the World affords can hire My Soul to Live pray let me now expire Or else I fear that through impatience Of my afflictions I may give offence For when I say my Couch shall me relieve And in my Bed I shall some comfort have When I imagine I may find some ease In-sleep to cull the edge of my Disease When I suppose I may find Consolation I' th' pleasure of a few hours Meditation And whilst on Pillow I my Head do lay To sleep away the sorrows of the day Then dost thou put my Soul all in a fright With fearful Dreams and Visions of the night In a cold sweat I lye my Flesh and Bones My Joints and Sinews tremble all at once Strugling with pain upon my Bed I rowl Whilst horrid Objects do night-mare my Soul And to my troubled fancie represent What neither Tongue can speak or hard can paint Hells Terrors plainlie are to me reveal'd Whilst with amusing sleep my Eyes are sealâ—d On which reflecting when I do awake Fear damps my Soul and makes my Body shake Hence Drowning Smothering Strangling of the Breath Or any of the numerous kinds of Death My Soul to Life prefers my generous Soul Abhorrs to live in such a lurking hole As is this body such a vile Hog-sty A Brutish Soul would even disdain to ly Within its Walls a Cottage so unclean So Cob web-furnish'd so obscure and mean As none but one of Life that 's wearyed In such a villanous Cave would lay his bed What Soul so poor and mean exceeding but The small Dimensions of a Hazel nut Would stoop so low as condescend to dwell In such an ugly smelling nasty Cell As is this body which I do call mine So thin the Sun doth clearly through it shine Is this a Lodging for a Thing Divine A tottering Fabrick which the rotten Bones Not able to support down all at once Will quickly fall is this a dwelling place For any thing come of a Heavenly Race No no fly hence my Soul fly hence make haste Why dost not fly for such a Noble Guest There 's here no room no fit Accomodation This body can afford no Habitation For such as thee Dear Soul O let me dy then let me dy good Lord O let me dy Death surely will afford Such comfort as I here expect in vain Why should I live then in such grievous pain And as a mark to all sad torments stand When pitying Death doth offer help at hand In this condition I do do life abhorr I baâ—e it and shall never love it more What should I for a few hours breathing give For 't is impossible I can longer live O spare me then for some small time at least That these o re wearyed bones may have some rest And in this life I may find ease before I take my Journey hence and be no more E're I be wrapp'd up in Eternity For all my days are but meer vanity Then what is Man that thou shouldst look upon him This wretched thing that thou shouldst so much own him Thou dost thy heart too much upon him set Which makes the silly Toad it self forget Valuing it self so much on thy esteem As it hath purchas'd to its self a name Beyond the other Creatures of thy hand Whereas if it it self did understand 'T is but as dust that 'fore the Wind doth fly A passing thought th' abstract of vanity Since thou canst then Lord by one word destroy This Creature why shouldst so much time employ In Torturing of it thus once and again And not by one blow put me out of pain One blow of favour Lord I do implore Kill me and then I shall complain no more But still I cannot fancy why shouldst thou Before whom all in Heavens and Earth do bow Have this same Creature Man in such esteem This flying Shade this passage of a Dream A thing so mean not worth thy Observation Why should'st allow it so much Reputation That thou the great Creator every day Shouldst of this pismire make so strict survey How long Lord shall I in these Torments lye â— Ah is there no end of my Misery Some respite Lord I beg I do request Some breathing time even so long time at least Free from these pains as I may swallow down My Spittle Oh good God let me alone But for a Moment that I may but try Thy goodness once again before I Dye Lord I have sinn'd 't is true I do confess My Error and my black unrighteousness What shall I do how shall I answer find To thee the great preserver of Mankind As worst of sinners Lord thou dost me treat For as my Sins so are my Judgements great Th' hast set me gainst thee as a Mark or Butt At which thy pointed Arrows thou dost shoot With Torments hast me so o'reloadened That long ago of Life I 'm wearied Why should thy wrath continually burn 'Gainst a poor sinner O let Grace return Pardon my sins wash from iniquity The Soul thou gavst me Lord before I dye Let me of Mercy hear the joyful sound For in an instant I shall not be found I dye I dye my Passing Bell doth Toul Have Mercy Lord have Mercy on my Soul Cap. VIII THus have we seen how Job with grief opprest By night and day has in his Mind no rest In this sad case with great impatience Appears to quarrel even Providence For those his Friends of whom he did expect Some Comfort rather sharplie did him check For th' Errors of his Life and openly Reprov'd him for his gross Hypocrisie We 've seen with how much Art and Eloquence One of his friends has given evidence Against him now another undertakes Th' argument and thus he answer makes How long sayes he friend wilt thou thus exclaim Against that justice which the Heavens did frame To what do all thy imprecations tend What means this clamour shall there be no end Of this thy idle talking shall we be Oblig'd to hear what none but such as thee Would stammer out what one in sober case Would be asham'd to speak such words as these Which thou in foolish passion hast us'd Against our God would hardly be excus'd Out of a mad-mans mouth but when they flow From such as thee friend whom we all do know To be of more than ordinary Sense We must condemn thy gross impatience Dost ' think that God whose great and mighty Name All things Created dayly do
to dye Nor should I offer to expostulate ' And with my Maker enter in debate Is there an Umpire to oblige us both And tye us by Subscription and Oath To stand to his award for who is he Dares arbitrate betwixt my God and me But let him hold a little and at least For some small time forbear at my request To torture me let him withdraw his Rod And let th' hot Pincers of an angry God Piece-meal my Soul no more O let his wrath Be satisfied with a single death Then would I boldly speak and without fear Before him in my own defence appear Then would I argue with such Eloquence As in short time would clear my Innocence But 'cause at present I am not in case For speaking I think fit to hold my peace Cap. X. MY Soul 's cut off and though I seem to breath Yet am I coop'd up in the jaws of death My Soul is fled my days of life are gone And this poor widow'd Body left alone To be the subject of some country fable As in its ruines only memorable This fashion'd piece of Earth which formerly One would ha' thought would shift Mortality For many years a Body which of late In health and vigour fully animate With a most cheerful Soul seem'd to imply As if at least some small felicity Were to be found below the Heavens this point Of the Creation framed joint by joint Into a reasonable shape at last By griefs consuming fury quite defac't Has now no figure but doth every day Like Wax before the Candle melt away For as a stranded Vessel by no hands To be got off and sticking on the Sands Obnoxious to the rage of every Tide Whilst each rude Wave beats ribs out of its side In its dimensions every day decreases Until at length 't is shattered all to pieces And then what was a statelie Ship before In Planks and Boards is cast upon the Shore So this frail Body which in health and strength Look'd like a tall Ship in its Course at length Stranding upon the Shelves of foul diseases In its proportion every hour decreases And that it may be ruin'd with dispatch Each ulcerous Billow doth large Gobbets snatch Out of that vigorous Body which alace Is now in a most despicable case Hence what remains is that this shattered frame Void of all honour beautie shape and name Should like infected Goods by no man own'd In Skin and Bones be hurried under ground Then what is Life O let me but admire What idle expectation can hire Insipid man upon this Earth to dwell And love that thing which we call Life so well Life like the Mornings-dew upon the Grass Exhal'd e're Noon-tide Life a simple lease At will and pleasure of a homelie Farm For us to toile in where we 're hardly warm In the possession of it when anon Our Lease runs out and we must all be gone Life but the parcels of a few years breath Summ'd up at last i' th capital of death Times wast-book health and strengths extinguisher Heavens great derider Hells remembrancer The old mans profit and the young mans loss The rich mans Idol and the poor mans cross Sins active Pander for some little space Then to Repentancea sad looking glass Pleasures mean vassal times obedient â—alve And a most faithful servant to the Grave Death charges Time Time charges Life by Roll To make account of every living Soul The grand Collector by just calculation Himself discharges of each Generation In deaths exchequer then begins afresh T' exact the impost of all living flesh This is that we call Life this is the thing Of which poor Mortals make such reckoning As if the sum of all their happiness Lay in their breathing for some little space Alace that men of reason thus should lye Sick of an universal phrenesie And not rouz'd up at length perceive for shame What is this Life which they so much esteem This Life a thing so burdensome to me As how I hate it you do clearly see May I not then oppress 't with Life repine Since there 's no Life comparable to mine The dregs of Life that do with me remain Are but the meer fomenters of my pain For who extended night and day on rack Would not with all his heart Death welcome make O let me then to God make my address O let me to himself my woes express He is a God of mercy and will hear Th'oppress't and have regard to every tear That drops from pious eyes A sore complaint then on my self I 'l make And in the anguish of my Soul I 'l speak I 'l say to God condemn me not and why Wilt thou contend with such a thing as I An Eagle take the pains to kill a flee Contend with me a thing not to be nam'd A thing of which even Nature is asham'd A piece of Earth that serving for no use Is thrown out on the Dung-hill as refuse The dross of human frailâ—â—y the abstract Of all that 's mouldy low decay'd and crack't A thing now grating at the gates of death Retarded only by a gasping breath A thing so mean as is not worth thy wrath Then why good Lord dost thou take so much pleasure T' oppress so mean a thing beyond all measure What doth this to thy Glory contribute How doth such usage with thy Justice sute Alace I know not how the matter stands But thus t' undo the labour of thy hands Thus to destroy a Creaure thou didst frame And once didst think it worthy of a name Nay as thy Creature thou was 't pleas'd to own Thus to reject it with a sullen frown Me thinks is strange What may the Atheists say When thy own servants are oppress 't this way Why they will surely in their scoffing mode Blaspheme the ever glorious Name of God See here they 'l say a man who seriously Apply'd his mind to th' art of piety Who his great God above all things ador'd A most devoted Servant to his Lord. One who not pleas'd with what his neighbours us'd Despised their Religion and refus'd T' acknowledge any of their Deities But in a zealous phrensy did devise A Deitie to himself peculiar Out of an humour to be singular See now they 'l say see how his God doth treat him See how his Lord he so much lov'd doth hate him How he doth whip him how he takes delite To vex a man who us'd himself to write A most obedient Servant to his God See how he beats him with a heavie Rod. Let him complain weep pray do what he can Let him cry out yet still this pious man Finds none to comfort pity or deplore him And for his God ' has no compassion for him But on the contrair doth appear t' abhor him Sure this will be their language thus alace Those impious wretches will themselves express Yes this will be their Table-talk I fear O then forbear for thy own sake
visitations For certainly if thou wilt call to mind Thy by past life I doubt not but thou'lt find Th' hast had some warnings were 't but in a dream Of thy afflictions long before they came Yes in a dream for often-times I know God is accustom'd seriously to show To men what often they conceal for shame Their future state i' th' mirrour of a dream For when the active soul outwearied With toile o' th' day at night is brought to bed Of a sound sleep then it begins to fly Then liberat from the bodies drudgery It soares aloft and in another sphere Begins to act nay then it doth appear To be what we cannot imagine here For being then as fit for contemplation Almost as 't will be after separation By vision intuitive it sees The state of things to come and by degrees Becomes so subtile and doth at that rate In contemplation then expatiate With such delight as if it did not mean By natural Organs e're to act again But when some hours it has thus wandered And in that time God has discovered What for its profit he intends at large Then he commands it to its former charge Have you not sometimes seen a General His Officers to his Pavilion call Whilst all the Army do securely sleep Save a few Companies who Guard do keep And there inform them what he would ha' done Give every one his Orders and anon Command each to his Post so let 's suppose When in profoundest sleep the eyes are close The Body one would think o're-come by death Were 't not that only it did softly breath Th' Almighty then is pleas'd as 't were to call The soul unto him and inform it all What he intends to do with it and then Commands it to the sleeping Corps again Whether when come the sad Noctambulant In a cold sweat with fear and rambling faint Rouzes the Body from its sleep and then Shows its instructions and begins t' explain What it has seen and heard and plainly shows What Miseries Calamities and Woes They may expect God will to them dispense If not prevented by true penitence Then as if God himself to them did speak When on these admonitions they reflect With fear and horrour they begin to quake For they consider that his sole intent By these night-warnings is but to prevent Their total fall and by such signs as these Divert them from those foolish purposes Which in their hearts they proudly do intend To prosecute did he not kindly send Such seasonable messages to show What will be th' event if they forward go In such mad projects and by consequence Make them to understand the difference 'Twixt humane power and his Omnipotence By Dreams and Visions then he doth allarme Th' unwary race of man and from all harm Preserve both soul and body which alace Would fall into the dreadful ambushes Of th' enemy o' th' world wer 't not that he Who fram'd both soul and body thus did free Them both from danger and did constantly Mind their concerns with a Paternal eye For else the murdered body soon would drop Into the grave the soul without all hope Of pardon in that deep abyss would fall Which God in justice has design'd for all Whom he doth hate and dolefully in Chains Compare short pleasures with eternal pains Thus then we see how much we should esteem The ordinar Phaenomenon of a dream And not contemn it because usual As if a common accident to all Occurring in their sleep ane aâ—ry thing Of which the wiser make no reckoning For sure those dreams and visions contain The mind of God and are not shown in vain Next as by dreams so by diseases too The Spirit of God is pleased to allow Kind warnings to us for if understood All sicknesses of body for our good Are sent upon us so that did we know What kindness by diseases God doth show To our poor souls we never would complain But think our selves most happy in our pain For let 's observe now don't we daily see How man in health from all diseases free Consumes his precious years so wantonly As if he never did expect to die He so imploys his time in sinful pleasure As for devotion he can find no leasure But when diseases on his body seize And conquering death approaches by degrees When th' lungs all overflow'n with constant rain Of Pituite that falls down from the Brain Afford scarce room for breathing when the Blood Is in its Circulation withstood By stagnant humours when the Bones do ake And all the Pillars of the Body shake When for his food he has no appetite And in his Table he takes no delite But every dainty Dish doth nauseate On which with pleasure he did feed of late VVhen all his flesh in health so plump and fair Now rotten and consum'd doth not appear As formerly but shrunk quite to the bone The bones which were not seen before anon Stick out i'th'figure of a Skeleton When in this sad condition on his bed Helyes and sees that all his hopes are fled And he must die when all he can perceive Is nothing but the avenue o'th'grave And with himself he now considereth There 's no avoiding of a certain death Then he begins with horrour to reflect Upon his by past actions and take Account of all his wandrings then he falls On thoughts of Heaven and for Preachers calls For pious men who in this sad occasion May by their words afford him consolation And teach him how he may attain salvation Then all his former wayes he doth abhorre Complains on sin and can endure no more To hear the voice of pleasure in his ears But buried now in sorrows pains and fears His only thought his sole consideration Is what shall become after separation Of his poor soul how that in death shall fare For which in life he took so little care And if perhaps which is rare to be found A man of God appear who can expound The matter to him and before his eyes Draw out the Map of his iniquities Speak to his soul and to his anxious heart The gracious language of the Heavens impart Then will this good man to his God address And say have pity on this sinners case Father of mercy for I 'me confident He of his sins doth seriously repent Restore him to his health and let him see How much O Lord he is oblig'd to thee Who when thou couldst have ruin'd him with ease And made him perish in this sad disease Art pleas'd to let him live that he may yet Express thy glory in his mortal state To this petition God shall lovingly Make answer well this sinner sholl not dye For I have found him in this exigent Vext at his sins and truly penitent Then let him live for I his heart have try'd And for his errors he hath satisfy'd I 'me reconcil'd and freely to him give Full liberty
The grand Tryal OR Poetical Exercitations UPON THE BOOK of JOB WHEREIN Suitable to each Text of that sacred Book a modest Explanation and Continuation of the several Discourses contained in it is attempted BY WILLIAM CLARK Nam momentanea est ira ejus vita vero in beneplacito ejus ad vesperam accedat fletus licet sub auroram tamen redit laetitia Psal. 30. ver 5. EDINBURGH Printed by the Heir of Andrew Anderson Printer to His most Sacred Majesty Anno DOM. M. DC LXXXV TO JAMES EARL OF PERTH Lord Drummond and Stobhall LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR Of the KINGDOM of SCOTLAND My Lord BEing now to expose this Poetical Essay to the mercy of the censuring World and considering under whose Patronage I might adventure the Publication I humbly presum'd your Lordship both as a person eminent in Piety Virtue and Learning and by the high Character you bear in the Government as supream Judge of that Illustrious Court upon which my Profession as a Lawyer has afforded me a dependance now these many years to be the only Person to whom I could with honour dedicate this Proiece especially being encourag'd to it by your Lordships generous perusal and approbation of some of the Sheets in privat I do therefore my Lord address this Poetical Composure to your Lordship as to a Person whose sublime Soul I know entertains the true Sentiments of Mortality and the transient vanity of this World of which this admirable Book of JOB affords so large and spacious a Field for Contemplation as a Mind but even a little elevate above the Dust of the World and furnish'd but with ordinary Parts may in private Meditations on the several Texts far exceed my most polish'd Reflections on the Subject the exercise of Contemplation being so pleasing to an ingenuous Spirit as what in other Sciences reiteration renders nauseous in this it adds fresh Desires and makes the Soul so enamouâ—'d with but even a random Prospect of its true and permanent Felicity which it discovers through the Telescope of Conten plation as it undervalues all the Afflictions of this Life in the satisfaction of what nothing can parallel on this side Separation The ground of my Address to your Lordship proceeding then from that esteem which all this Nation has for you as a Person who in the Affairs of greatest Importance affords daily Proofs of your eminent Abilities I do not so much as approach the borders of Flattery if I name your Lordship one of the prime Ornaments of the Age in which you live For seriously my Lord when I compare the Figure you make in the State with that of your years contrary to the Vulgar opinion That Wisdom only dwells in aged Breasts I must acknowledge with the learned young man who bears no small part in the ensuing Discourses that There is a spirit in man and the instigation of the Almighty giveth understanding But as your Promotion my Lord in so small advance of years to the high Dignity in which you now move makes me admire the vivacity and felicity of your wit so to augment the wonder when I consider your Lordships younger Brother at this same time shining in that eminent station of Secretary of State making thus betwixt you the most â—â—â—ly conspicuous pair of one Family that has flourish'd since the days of the two Illustrious Brothers Dukes of Hamilton I find my self again oblig'd with that same Elihu to acknowledge that the Spirit of God has made you both and the breathing of the Almighty has given you life May this bright Constellation long shine in the Orb of our Government and as you increase in Years so may you both increase in Piety and Virtue advance in His Majesties Royal esteem and the love of your Countrey until such time as two such refined Souls being translated to eternal Felicity may make a fairer appearance in the Court of the King of kings then mortal Men can make in that of a King upon Earth to which the good Wishes shall never be deficient of him whose Ambition is to be esteem'd My Lord Your Lordships most humble most oblig'd and most sincerely devoted W. C. Preface SInce men do no less differ in their Judgments and apprehensions of what they read in this then in former Ages and that some out of envy others out of malice or ignorance do either abstain from perusing of Compositions of the nature of the ensuing Treatise or having perused such though never so well accommodate with all the embellishments of Wâ—t and Art in the same humour decry them it is usual for Authors to make Apologies for publishing of what many of them pretend were never design'd for the Light but importunity of Friends or Copies surreputiously creeping abroad oblig'd them to a Publication though in reality their only design was an itch of Applause only to be attained by the brokery of the Press as if a few polish'd expressions in the entry of their Writings were able to divert the torrent of the censuring Readers Hence tedious Prefaces and joyn'd with these a deal of Encomiums are posted in the Avenues of all our modern Writings only to put the Readers in an humor before perusal and invite them to an appetite for their Crudities But what is here published I acknowledge was originally design'd for the Press and so stands in need of no such inviting Complement the Publication being as necessary by the rules of my Circumstances as the Composition was which was so far from being calculate to the Meridian of Applause as I never projected a favourable reception of it but made my account as I yet do for censure and the worst of usage with all which I am resolv'd to dispense in confidence that all ingenuous and impartial Readers will find my design in it has been only to alleviate the severity of my own sad Circumstances It is true indeed the publishing my private Reflections upon a Subject of such sacred Importance as is that admirable Book of JOB may be esteem'd a presumption in one of my Profession whose business is generally to mind secular Affairs and not to make such in-roads into Divinity but with the good favour of the learned and worthy Clergy for whom no man has greater esteem then I have I hope it will be acknowledged that the Scripture being a Theme in which we are all equally concern'd as to perusal and instruction if I following the opinions of the best of Commentators on the Subject have at my solitary opportunities express'd my thoughts in Poesy upon the several Texts as I found those of their own Profession have learnedly instructed me in Prose my greatest Crime in this Publication is only that I am not of their Order Neither will it be found upon perusal by the most severe Inquisitors that I have deviate from the receiveâ—â—pinions of the Divines upon the place unless possibly in cap. 24. v. 18. where the words are He is swift as the Waters c. I
me since without dispute Had I then dy'd my happiness had been As great this very day as is my pain For I had now secure from trouble sleep't And in the silent grave my quarter keep 't I in the grave the grave to be envy'd And wish'd beyond all Palaces beside 'T is there 't is there 't is there where only all The groaning world themselves can happy call There both those who opprest and were opprest On earth enjoy uninterrupted rest There all are Friends there all our Picques and Jarrs Our Plots our Forraign and our Civil Wars Ly buryed with us I we all appear To be so many dormant Brethren there The boistrous Tyrant who in life did rage To whom no sleep could give an hours Soulage Who betwixt King and Prisoner spent his years Amidst a thousand jealousies and fears In deaths cold arms when he encircled lyes Hee 's free from all his Royal Miseries The valâ—ant Warriour who in life enjoy'd But little rest and was most part employ'd In action ready still to march or fight And knew no difference betwixt day and night Free from Allarm of Trumpets under ground He sweetly sleeps until last Trumpet sound Poor Prisoners who were in life distrest And by their cruel Creditors opprest In grave together comfortably rest No Usurer against them doth declare In Court no Action lies against them there Free from the gingling noise of Chaines and Keyes And weekly threatnings for their weekly Fees In Deaths low Rooms the Wretches sleep with ease There there both poor and rich both low and high Princes and Peasants undistinguish'd lye Those who in life imagin'd they excell'd All others and with vain Opinion swell'd Of their own parts do in the grave appear But even as those whom they call Dunces here The Servant there is from his Master free No former quarrels make them disagree The slave who all his life-time made no gain But what he earn'd betwixt the whip and chain Who oft his freedom would with tears demand And long'd to be turn'd by his Masters hand But still deny'd in grave that blessing hath And only owes his liberty to death O Death who can thy Excellence declare What state of life can we with thine compare In life we waste a few unhappy years In a continued Labarinth of tears 'Twixt envy and compassion here we breath Preferring worst estate of life to death For O this notion of life this bare And mean conception of a breathing here Doth in our wanton ears so sweetly sound That we abhorre the thoughts of under-ground Fools who 'd be rather toss'd 'twixt wind and wave Than sleep on Bed of Roses in the grave Whilst all bedaub'd with sweat in noon-tide-light Does not the wearied Labourer long for night That free from toyl he may enjoy at best But the poor Favour of a few hours rest Though quickly rouz'd before the Sun appear With morning-blush upon our Hemisphere Hee 's forc'd again to toil Then O how much then o how much should those Who in this sleep of life find no repose Wish sor the sleep of death in which they may Beyond the fear of interrupting day Though thunder round this lower world should roar Sleep undisturb'd while Heavens shall be no more Then why should one be thus compell'd to live That fain would dye Why should th' Almighty give A Lease of Life to one who seriously Hates it so much that he doth long to dy For what is life to one that 's destitute Of all the favours it can contribute What man is he on earth that can be able When of what even doth make it tolerable This life is spoil'd ah who is he who then For love of life would suffer so much pain As I endure Then why should one desire to live who lyes Environ'd with a thousand miseries A wretched man a man who hardly knows What life is now only he doth suppose By th' figure of his present suffering This life must be some very naughty thing Some naughty thing yes sure it must be such As wise men never can despise too much A thing it is esteem'd by none but Fools A thing which Boyes are even taught at Schools To undervalue nay each man doth boast Himself the bravest who contemns it most The Cob web-product of a toiling breath Never compleat while finished by Death A silly toy which as we come to years Still to us more ridiculous appears 'T is true this lise bestowes all empty pleasures On men on earth it gives them Honours Treasures Revenge and Success yes these Life doth give For which these Aery Fools desire to live As those who dream to sleep but after all When they on serious Contemplation fall When their own minds do tell them all is vain Which they thought here was Permanent O then O then how they abhor this Life and fain Would be out of its Intrigue yes at length When they perceive how all their wit and strength Is baffled by some pitiful disease Which on their bodies then begins to seise Lord how they 're vext and penitently think Of Life as men next morning after drink When the sad pleasures of their Cups now make Their Stomachs sick their Heads with horrour ake I then as these their Cups so these abhor Their Lives and swear they 'll never love them more But wearied of the Inconvenience Which Life affords with great Impatience O how they long to be a trudging hence With groans they hast the Journey of their breath And never rest till they arrive at Death Should any then extravagantly sad As I am now be yet alace so mad As wish to live no sure or if he do That man deserves no pity For a poor living man with grief oppressâ—t I horrid grief should have in mind no rest Whilst clogg'd with Fetters of a lingring Breath But in his Torments force resisting Death Yes and in Joyes mad excesse fondly rave When he 's so happy as to find his Grave Then why is Life upon a man bestow'd That would of Death be insolently proud Of Death I and esteem that favour more Then all the Blessings he enjoy'd before O then kind Death now let me see thy Face O wilt thou me in thy cold Arms embrace Make haste make haste for I 'me with Life opprest If thou hast any love for me make haste Haste haste for Heaven sake haste For why is Life upon a man bestow'd To whom his God no Comfort hath allow'd Why should I be condemn'd to Live when all What in this World I could Pleasure call Is gone when Felons are allow'd to Dye After the Fisque has stripp't them why should I Not yet not yet convict of any Crime Bear the sad threatnings of insulting Time Insulting Time that doth my Case proclaim Whilst gentle Death would cover all my shame Then let me dye yes dye and never more The benefit of a poor Life implore Of a poor
seem to represent In all his actings something of a Saint Yet then he cryes then he repines a main Then he complaines of poverty and pain O then he railes upon that providence Which was in former times his sole defence For now all sorrow wrath and desperation He thinks on nothing less then restauration Whereas before he thought he was so sure His wealth to generations would endure Well I have seen some Gallant in his pride Inâ—ulsly laugh at all the world beside Fix'd and firme-rooted as he did suppose And proof against the batterie of his foes When on a suddain providence would frowne And this same fool would tumble headlong down With all his sins about him in a tryce Kill'd by the fall from glories precipice Then would I say this man deservedly Doth fall and with him all his family Is levelled with dust because he did In such vain transitory things conside For by fair justice he shall be destroy'd And all his unjust purchases made voide Then after he has justly forfeit all He without pity shall most justly fall Those who are hungry shall eat up his grain And reap the profit of his nine Months pain Nay they shall sweep his grounds and fields so clean As his poor children shall find nought to glean The thirsty travellers who for rain doth gape Shall drink up all the substance of his grape For thou must know afflictions do not come By accident as is suppos'd by some On any man nor do Heavens noble laws Allow that any one without a cause Should suffer punishment no not at all There 's no such thing as that you fortune call 'T is a meer notion a device of men To palliate their sins and entertain A proud opinion of their innocence And lay the blame of all on Providence Which they call fortune and conclude from thence When any are afflicted at the rate As thou art now that they 're unfortunate Unlucky and I know not what alace Why should we with such sopperies as these Abuse our selves when certainly we know Who know there is a God things are not so But that our God doth formally arraigne For every sin convict and punish men Then know That no affliction comes by accident But that all Judgements to our doors are sent By rule of Heavens Court where information Is made and prov'd preceeding condemnation Besides as sparks by nature upwards fly So man to sorrows born doth live and dye In a continued sweat of toyle and care With dregs of anger for his daily fare Tortures of mind and body all at once Do suck the marrow from his very bones Nor can he pleasure to himself project Or joy and comfort in this earth expect Were I then in thy lamentable case I 'd not repine but humblie make address To my good God from him I would demand A patient mind and learn to understand From whence such floods of evils do proceed And in my sorrows I my sins would read To him alone my self I would apply To whom the world belongs who sits on High To whom all Creatures in subjection are Whose Jurisdiction doth exceed by far All Powers on Earth who things unsearchable Performes of which we are not capable To give a Judgement things beyond our reach Things which to act no humane Art can Teach 'T is he who makes the Rain from Clouds to fall By which the Earth made pregnant yeelds us all Our Hearts can wish affords us dayly Bread Drink Cloaths and Med'cine and what else we need For Maintnance of that Fabrick which he fram'd To Lodge the Soul and it the Body nam'd The Body O a thing most excellent For whose Subsistence we should even torment Our Souls a very precious thing indeed That on the Labours of the Soul should feed The Body a meer piece of useful Dust Demis'd for some time to the Soul in Trust. Though for its use the too kind Soul at best Payes a severe and dreadful Interest Whilst to afford it pleasure legally It forfaults its own true Felicity What is 't we hugg then what do we esteem A dying thing which scarce deserves a name A thing so long as Soul doth it inspire Moves for a time like Puppet on a Wyre That gone it moves it prats it squeeks no more But a dull piece of Clay as 't was before Breathless and Sapless on the Ground it lies Yet in its Fall its Maker glorifies As well as in its Frame because from thence We learn what Honour and Obedience We owe to him who this fair Fabrick raises And by a Breath destroyes it when he pleases Besides who 'd not in Duty be exact When still before his Eyes he sees the Rack The Axe the Gibbet and in Mind doth feel Sad apprehensions of the dreadful Wheel Is not our case the same do we not see How many thousand Shapes of Death there be Dayly presented to our view to show That after all all to the Grave must go From this fair Topick let us argue then He is our God and we poor sinful men Therefore since to him we owe Life and Breath We should live well that when invading Death Approaches he may find us on our Guard Not by his gastly looks to be out-dar'd For though he seize the Body yet on high The Soul shall live to perpetuity 'T is he the mighty God 't is he alone Who in the Heavens has set up his Throne From whence he orders all things and doth raise This man to honours and that man debase That to th' afflicted he may comfort give And make those whom the world abhorreth live The subtile plottings of our knowing men He disappoints and makes their projects vain He laughs at all their consults and despises Both them and all their silly state devises So that what e're those Crocodiles project Their Machinations never take effect He spoiles their counsels and makes all their wit Like salt whose savour's lost down-right unfit For any thing save at a round of Ale To be the subject of some Country tale For the Worlds wisdom in Gods eyes is folly Their Art but th' product of dull Melancholly Their reasoning is notional and vain Erring in things even evident and plain Things manifest things clear as noon-tide-light To them are dark as to one in the night Who nothing sees gropes but no rode can find And stands confounded betwixt raine and wind Whil'st at each justling shrub his joints do tremble Thinking the Night-thieves round him do assemble Lord what is all we brag of then for what Keep we such toyl on earth is 't only that We may be thought more wise than others are And be esteemed wits 't is very fair A rare designe indeed well worth our pain When after all we learn or can retain All our fine wisdom in Gods eyes is vain For when our Politicians counsel take How they the just and pious man
may break Partly by law partly by violence Th' Almighty soon appears in his defence He rescues him from all their calumnies Their false Inditements and the Batteries Of their foul mouths and powerfully withstands The rude attaques of their all-seizing-hands That grasp at person chattels fame and lands Thus from the snare the just man doth escape And saves his meanes for which those fools did gape As all had been even ready now to fall Into their hands whilst the unjust Cabal Now disappointed of their former hope Are forc'd at length their ravenous mouth to stop And all with shame confounded to confesse Gods justice and their own vile foolishness Our God alone the just mans cause maintaines And with strong Bitt and seasonable Reins He curbs the fury of th' oppressing beast Who to enrich himself would lay all waste Who formally denies that Laws were made For such as him to check his roving trade But boldly claimes all that his armes can take And in his Wars doth no distinction make Betwixt his Allies and his open foes But treates them all at the same rate God knows Our God shall sure attaque this foolish thing Whil'st all his friends do yet his triumphs sing And ' midst his pleasures make unwelcome death Rob him of both his Lawrels and his breath Then since the case is thus let 's be content With whatsoever plague or punishment Our God inflicts upon us for be sure To such as us his kindness doth endure O happy is that man whom God corrects And for his leud and sinful courses checks Thrice happy he whom when his sin abounds And makes him proud God in his mercy wounds And brings him low that on his former state In bed of sorrow he may meditate Counting what time he hath in folly spent And in return how his sad punishment Makes all his ballance Let 's then understand Our selves and patiently th' Almighties hand Endure and in our minds rest satisfy'd That for our good we 're with afflictions try'd For as he gives the wound with the same hand He binds it up he never wants a band A Slave a Plaster ready in such cases Which he applyes to all th' affected places He wounds he cures makes sick and doth restore Men to their health what can we ask for more Though troubles upon troubles woes on woes Should tumble on us as the Ocean flows And the rude tempests of adversity Should drive us on the rocks of poverty Where sure to suffer Shipwrack we despair Of all relief then will our God take care To rescue us that so we may perceive 'T is he alone who doth his people save Let 's praise him then pray to him and obey His word and we shall no more salvage pay When by oppression all our meanes seiz'd And we and all our family es are sqees'd Within the Compasse of a hazle nut For our Provisions and our bread is cut Like Sugar-tablets in small lozanges T' allay the hunger which doth sore express Our little ones and makes them often cry With tears for crums of bread or else they dye Of which when each so hunger-starv'd and pain'd In graines and scruples has its dividend These scrambling morsels rather doe incite Then quash the fury of their appetite Whilst thus I say we hunger-sick shall lye Under Deaths Talons and upbraidingly Our Enemies shall laugh out all around Whilst we and ours do tear the very Ground For â—oots and Vermine or what ever may Detain the poor life but one single day Then shall our God appear and furnish store Of Bread for us and all our Infants more Then we could even ha' wish'd and let us see Th' unjust for want of Food may dye but he Who trusts in God shall ne're want sustenance For I 've been Young in Age I now advance Yet all my time I never could observe One man that fear'd our God for hunger starve Nor could I ever see the just mans Seed Like those o' th wickeds offspring begging Bread Nay when the men of War shall roar around us And with their threatning Oaths shall so confound us As we shall not know whether we should flye To save our Lives and Goods When the enraged Sword shall hew down all And Old and Young do by its fury fall Then shall the Lord make Angels us Environ To Guard us from the blows o' th' dreadful Iron So whilst behind on both sides and before The hungry steal our Neighbours shall devour To us and ours God shall be Tutelar And save us from all miseries of War Nay further when another Sword doth rage And with us doth more cunningly engage The Sword o' th' Tongue then that of Steel more feirce For this the Body that the Soul doth peirce A killing Sword and yet invisible A Sword whose wound is inperceptible By outward Signs like Thunder wounds the Heart The Body still untouch'd in any part A Sword that kills us always unprepar'd For fight whose blows the bravest cannot ward A Sword that whet with Malice day and night Is still in Edge yet ne're within the sight Of him it wounds the subtlest of all ills Like Baâ—iliâ—k unseen it sees and kills An useless Sword in open fields and tame But in dark Rooms makes havock of our Fame The Champions who this famous Sword do use A â—e the meer Dross of Nature the Refuse Of Mankind who by secret Calumnies Foul Characters false Oaths and serious lyes Vain Apprehensions Jealousies and Fears Endeavour to set all the World by th' Ears Whilst the false decoyes hugg themselves to see The wish'd effects of their vile Treachery Poor Caterpillars who 'cause no man can Find out their Wakes escape th' revenge of man Yet God has Spyes on those malicious fools Ferrets them out of all their lurking Holes Though here they scorn the Ear the Sight the Scent Yet God will bring such out to Punishment Those ugly crawling Toads with malice swell'd Shall be at length destroy'd in open field To show how God abhors the very Race Of Back-biters as they still shun the Face Of those they injure and will vindicate The just from their aspersions soon or late From this same Sword which others doth devour Thou shalt be free and fear its Edge no more Than those who in Proof-armour do not feel The furious Gashes of the Murdring Steel But when both War and Famine do appear And Food shall be intolerably dear When wicked men shall howl and make a noise For lack of Bread thou freely shalt rejoyce And be of want of Meat no more afraid Than those who have their Stores in Garners laid The very stones o' th' field shall seem to be At such time in firm allyance with thee And in their several stations shall produce Something that to thy welfare may conduce Each Beast its throat shall offer to the Knife With emulation to support thy Life In fine shalt be so happy
Justice will proclaim My misdemeanors and make evident How I in courting sin my time have spent Nay though I were upright yet would I not Desire to live my Soul hath quite forgot Its former kindness to that piece of clay It lov'd so much before and every day Longs to be from its consort separate Whom it doth now with so much reason hate Yet here 's my comfort that I understand My God will punish with impartial hand Both just and unjust and will evidence That 'twixt them both he makes no difference Has no respect for persons no regard For one or other but gives out award In every point as he finds just and layes Every mans Cause in equal ballances In unjust Causes he will none maintain So of Gods Justice no man should complain If in his wrath God should the wicked slay And root them out what could those wretches say Against Gods Justice when their Conscience Assures them he has done them no offence Because Gods Judgements do their sins pursue And punishment t' offenders is as due As Wages to the Labourer for each sin First acts its part then Judgement does begin Where it leaves of and so pursues the Chace Until the breathless sinner end his Race This is his Justice but his Mercie sure Eternal to all ages doth endure Must not our God be full of Clemency When on the wicked even unwillingly He executes his Justice punishment Is long delay'd and vengeance seldom sent 'Gainst any but the stiff impenitent Who at his Judgement doth repine and cry Out upon Gods too great severity Sure that unhappy Creature doth mistake Gods Bounty and his own Condition make Worse than it was intended for we know In Mercy God is quick in anger slow A God of Mercy he himself doth write And so in sinners death takes no delite Far lesse than should the just and innocent Think God takes pleasure in their punishment Nor ought we to repine when we reflect How God the wicked Lords o' th' earth doth make How he puts Pastures Vineyards Houses Lands Power Jurisdiction Honours in their hands By which puff'd up a wanton life they lead Whilst godly men do toil for daily bread Nor how the Judges of the earth abuse Their Sacred Function and their Power do use T' oppress the Just whose eyes with avarice Are sealed up who boldly set a price On Justice and employ their utmost Art To sell the same as in a publick Mart. Who by their Friends use to negotiat For Quotes of Pleas and closely stipulat For so much at the Issue of the cause T' attain which point they cruciat the Laws And make them serve their ends so forcibly As all the world may see their Bribery If we consider how God doth permit Those men to live on earth as they think fit Because they 're none of his and have no share I' th'land of Promise whilst the upright are In sad afflictions toss'd and seem to be O're whelmed by a most impetuous Sea Of miseries wee 'l find these walk i' th'Road Of black Damnation of such Creatures God Doth take no care but le ts them all run wild Like Herds of Asses in the open field But his own Children he doth exercise In a continual tract of miseries That being keep'd in such strict Discipline In a full body they may mount the Line I' th' daily Seige of Heaven and in the end Possess the same only to be attain'd By Sighs and Tears whilst wicked men do run Without all order and so are undone Amidst their pleasures for they do compell Their Souls instead of Heaven to march to Hell Now were it lawful to repine did God Allow to any that do feel the Rod To say that his condition were sad Sure never any Mortal Creature had More cause than I poor wretch have to complain Who 've lost my years and spent my days in vain Swifter than Post my days their course have run That I might be more speedily undone My days are gone my time is vanished My hours are fled my life is finished My wretched life a Scene of woes has been Under the Sun I have small pleasure seen Whilst others of obscure and mean estate To Wealth and Honours have been elevate Their modest parts buoyd up by Friends and Fame Purchassing quickly to those Fools a Name Which impudently they would attribute To their abilities I destitute Of every thing that 's good do silently Spin out my days in grief and penury And as the south wind with a gentle breese Breaths on the verdant Plain and skims the Seas With little noise so I my days have spent My view o' th' world was meerly transient Have you not seen a Vessel under sail Swoln with a stiff but favourable gale Post through the stubborn Seas and make a Line Upon its surface in a foaming brine Or with what wonderful celerity The ravenous Eagle to her prey doth flye So have my days run out so have my years Plough'd through a sea of foaming brinish tears Now should I say I will complain no more But here my exclamations give o're Here to my querullous Notes I 'le put a stop And from this minute I 'le begin to hope Then all my sorrows all my woes and fears Would suddainly appear about my ears With ghastly looks they 'd stare me in the face And in their silence publish my disgrace Because however I my self do vent I know God will not hold me innocent If horrid sins then do my Soul distain Why do I thus excuse my self in vain If to my Maker I have given offence Why should I all this while plead Innocence No sure if things be so all I can say Is to no purpose only I betray My weakness in endeavouring to maintain My just demeanour where my guilt is plain For certainly however I pretend To Piety and Grace yet in the end The great Heart-searcher will make evident That to this minute I my days have spent In wickedness and sin in villany Not to be nam'd in stead of purity And thou O Lord in just conceived rage will Sentence such a Scandal of his age To utmost torment that the world may see How much thou hatest such a one as me Whilst all the Fig-leav'd arguments I use To palliate my sins and make excuse For my false dealings and unrighteousness ' Stead of concealing shall my guilt express For God Almighty's not a man as I'm That I should set my face to 't and defye him When he to Justice doth himself betake That I before my God should answer make An what am I a moulded piece of Dust Consigned to a few years breath in trust Awalking ghost a meer night wanderer Like th' empty figment of some Conjurer That such as I forsooth should undertake Harangues befor the King of Heavens to make And argue for my self whilst tacitely My Conscience tells me I deserve
preach What the Creation every hour doth teach Must we esteem you wise because that you Know as much as the Brutal Creatures do Or shall we think that you deserve esteem Because you can descantupon a Theme Well known to all men for who 's ignorant Of what you speak though you do proudly vaunt You are the only knowing men alace How much do I commiserate your case For ah who knows not how Gods mighty hand Hath all things fram'd in Heavens Air Sea and Land That mighty hand that hand which doth contain The precious Soul of every living man That hand which grasps at once both Life and Death That hand which stops and le ts out every Breath That mighty hand we know hath formed all Without the help of what you wisdom call That powerful hand that right hand which alone Acts by true wisdom is most surely known Beyond what all your wisdom can rehearse To be the Author of the Universe For lets observe but who did frame the Ear And for what use why it will soon appear If once we speak for then articulate And distinct words entring that narrow Gate Through the Ears winding Turnpikes progress make And are conducted to the Intellect In decent order have quick audience And from the council of the common Sense As quick returns for words are instantly Dispatch'd in answer twinkling of an eye Th' earsof both speakers do these words convey T' each others judgements i'th'same form and way Let us observe then how this useful sense By special licence from high providence Enjoys its place and faculty nor are Those many towrs and windings in the ear There to no purpose since experience Demonstrats every day their excellence For as we see in Princes Pallaces How all the avenues and passages Are strictly guarded to oppose the rude Tumultuous entries of the Multitude Whilst civil persons who have business Pass through the Guards and dayly make address To th' Princes ear so all the Guarde o' th' brain To civil courteous words do make a Lane Which passing forward to the Intellect Are there receiv'd with kindness and respect But if in throngs and with a hideous shout They chance to make approach to keep such out The Drum o' th' Ear doth quickly beat to Arms Yet by the frequent use of such allarms Those Guards are oft-times overcome and thence Men lose the use of that most useful sense That useful sense to which indeed we owe The greatest part of what we learn or know So that were 't even but in that curious sense We may admire the work of Providence Observe the Mouth too how it tastes the Meat To try if it be wholesome sowr or sweet Ere to the Stomach whether it doth tend It can have access that it may defend The Body from all Food that 's destructive To health and make its charge securely live Now from such topicks though there were no moe Who may not soon th' Almighties Glory know Forbear then all your arguing pray forbear And let 's no more of your vain Lectures hear Upon this subject since no art can show The full extent of what we only know From such external signs for what indeed The Power of God is whence all things proceed Which here we see how things are regulate In Heavens and Earth how he did Fabricate This vast stupendious Globe which still the more We view the more the Framer we adore Is what exceeds our reach 'T is true indeed and I do not deny But even on this side of Mortality There is a wisdom which one may attain By serious thoughts and labour of the Brain There is a thing I know which in some sense May be thought wisdom call'd experience Which mongst ag'd persons keeps its Residence Seldom in other company we see This grave Instructer whom I take to be A thing made up of many passages Of foolish Life by which it seems to guess At future Events and would wisely cast By th'vanity of things already past The issues of new Counsels but alace When we perceive how still new passages Occur which we have never known before Then we admire and can presage no more And then when we reflect what vast Expence Acquaintance with this same Experience Doth cost ' us daily and how ere we can Improve to its full height the wit of man The life of man runs out who 'd not assert That all the knowledge all the wit the art And all the cunning which we can attain Below the Heavens is absolutely vain Vain and inconstant frail and perishing A very inconsiderable thing Not worth our pains to know for don't we see Mongst all alive on earth how few there be Can teach us which obliges us to crave Instructions from the Records of the Grave Their sayings we esteem their Works we read And borrow all our Knowledge from the Dead But O how mean how poor and despicable This Wisdom looks how like a very bable A thing of no esteem compar'd with that Which did this Glorious Universe creat That that 's true Wisdom that O that indeed Doth all your Human Wisdom far exceed For with our God Wisdom and Strength doth dwell In understanding he doth ail excel No more than of that thing you Wisdom call Here 's Wisdom that gives silence to you all A Divine Wisdom which no art can teach A perfect Wisdom far above our reach A Wisdom infinit incomparable Vastly profound simply inimitable By us poor Mortals O the Excellence Of this eternal pure intelligence This uncreated Wisdom this so fair Unspotted Knowledge this so singular And precious Wisdom this so eminent And glorious Prescience which did all invent This solid Understanding this so clear And pointed Wisdom which should only bear The name of Wisdom this doth plainly show We have no Wisdom we do nothing know But all the Wisdom we can here attain Is without question evident and plain Though on it we bestow a goodly name But like the sparks that issue from the flame Or as we see in a contracted Ray O'th'Sun how Atoms wantonly do play Which were but â—ust while by that glorious Beam Rais'd from the Dung-hill then to men they seem To be some things of moment and become The subject of grave arguing to some More curious Brains as they 're of admiration To duller judgments and of meditation To pious Breasts yet let the Sun recall His Animating Ray and after all Those things appear but transient and vain And soon incorporat with the dust again Just so all Humane Knowledge animat By wisdom from above we estimat For some small time so long as so inspir'd But when the Divine Rayes are once retir'd Then we perceive what we did late esteem Was but a Shadow or an empty Dream O the great Power of God! who can express His admirable Strength we must confess 'T is he alone that rules 't is he alone That orders all accountable to
lye Am I not punish'd yet sufficiently Not yet not yet O may it not suffice That I am wrap'd in such calamities As hardly any one has suffered But I must yet be further punished Shall there be no end of my Miserie May not I now have libertie to die For thou hast fill'd my bodie with such pain As in me there doth no more life remain Than what doth serve to make me sensible Of what I fuffer O most terrible Consuming Wrath now let me die good Lord I can endure no more pray now afford This favour to a man in dying case That like Moth-eaten Garment rots apace Then since I cannot live O let me die Since Life it self is but Mortality For mortal man at best I do conceive To be a thing that like a Floating-wave Swells in the Cradle breaks upon the Grave Cap. XIV MAN of a Woman born in cares and teares Enjoyes a few but miserable Years He sucks in sorrow with his infant Breath And. in his husk he bears the seeds of death In his short life he nothing doth perceive But Seas of troubls Wave succeeding Wave He knows no pleasure nor contentment he Nor is he ever from some passion free Yet must this wretch be born Though it were better for him certainly He were not born than thus be born to dye 'T were better for him he lay buried With all his hopes about him covered With the thin notion of an entity Under the arch of possibility Then that he should exist But O he must be born he must appear On Earths wide and capacious Theater To act with mighty pomp and vanity His part o' th' fable of mortality Though 't were but fool o' th' play For whilst i' th' womb he safely lyes immur'd Free of all woe of aliment secur'd By others labour yet he thinks he 's there At best but a well treated prisoner Hence in the belly languishing he lyes And fain would make escape to feed his eyes On things abroad and fully satiate His Virgin-longing with he knows not what At length impatient of this kind restraint He 'l be no longer in this Cloyster pent But with his fellow-mortals he 'l b'acquaint At any rate what e're the event be And in this humour justles out to see This foolish world This world of which he fancies some such things As Beggars when they dream they 're mightie kings And yet no sooner into it he peeps Then instantly the changeling cryes and weeps Appearing in some inward perturbation As disappointed of his expectation In it he wastes his time in fear and pain And oft of being born he doth complain Yet when he goes out of it weeps again As if unwilling after all to part Sad as it is from what his soul and heart Doth truly love which that he might possess He could dispense with all its painfulness Inconstant Creature whom no state can please To whom nor life nor death can purchase ease Whose humorous fancy nought can satisfy Who knows not whether he should live or dye Yet is this man of so much worth and fame Whom all the Creatures have in great esteem This this is he who is so vainly proud Of the three souls which God has him allow'd Whilst those who do his actions strictly view Hardly believe that he has more than two For of the third he takes so little care As one would say his reason lay not there So that of all endu'd with growth and sense He least deserves that heavenlie influence This this is man who doth no sooner come A native naked Beggar from the womb Then assoon Food and Rayment God provides For him with every other thing besides Of which he stands in need ordering all The other Creatures to attend his call Yet after all when he 's accommodat By Providence at such a princelie rate The wretch becomes to him the most ungrate Of any thing that lives For as we know Beggars can bear no wealth So now endu'd with riches health and strength In these external things he puts his trust And quite forgets who rais'd him from the dust This is that formal piece of dâ—llest clay That moulded and unmoulded every day A thing from Heavens only with breath inspir'd That he who gave this breath might be admir'd And not the thing that breaths yet on this breath The Grashoper himself â—o valueth As he with lofty pride and arrogance Above his fellow creatures doth advance And thinks the world his sole inheritance Whilst many Brutes as we may daily see Both longer time and with more peace than he Possesse the same for he poor soul alace Can scarce enjoy but for one half hours space The full possession of what Life and breath Affords him when an enemy call'd Death Doth turn him out of all and then annon Ere he can view it well he must be gone This is the Source from which by progresse springs The Stream of all our Emperours and Kings Those men who with an armed foppery Blow up the pipes of vain Chronology Those men who when in their carreer withstood Will make the world swim around in blood Only to purchase to themselves a name And never think to have their fill of fame Whilst mean time ah poor souls how Iregrate There as ridiculous as illustrious state With all their glorious power they but appear To us like squibs that squandring here and there Put the admiring rabble in a fear Who know not what they are but men of sense Are not afraid of of their imperâ—nence For in an instant as with crackling noise Affording only sport to wanton Boyes These fly in smoak so these men in a tryce After they 've damp'd us with their cruelties Afford us sport in their own Tragedies This then is Man who rambles every where To catch a name who doth no labour spare T' attain his point running he cares not whether Killing and spoiling mixing all together In his hot fury sparing no expence To show the world his great magnificence Whilst really he 's but like one of those Who at our Fairs do set up publick Shows And with his Drums and Trumpets makes a noise In Streets and Lanes assembling all the Boyes And Girles about the Town but by and by His Licence now run out he silently Packs up his Trinkets and by break of day Out of the Town he meanly sneaks away So man on Earth for a small term of years Makes no small noise and then he disappears Have you not seen a silly Butter-flee Attacque the flaming light and wantonly Hover about it for some little space Until its wings begin to burn apace And then the helpless Creature in a tryce Sticks to the Candle spurns a while and dyes So on this dangerous Earth Stuck full of all the species of death Th' adventuring mortal arm'd with single breath Boldlie appears what next why in he flies Buzzes a while about the world and dies Is this the thing then
all kind of ill Let them Hood-wink their conscience as they will After great labour and perplexity Are all delivered of meer vanity Of all their stale devices here 's the end what ere they plot doth to their ruin tend PART III. Cap. XVI TH' afflicted man whom all this while we must Suppose on Dung-hill parch'd with blowing dust His Body all with grievous sores o're spread With Blood and Ulcerous runnings pargetted Such as would make a man in health forbear To sit by such a Carrion through fear He might b'infected putrify'd unclean Shrunk into bones all withered and lean with Boiles and Scabs so loathsome and so foul So noisesome to inhabit as his soul Can scarce have Lodging yet the loving thing For all his Sores for all his suffering Will not forsake him and for all that 's past Resolves by shifts to hold it out to th'last For as when Floods in Winter suddainly Break into lower Rooms men use to fly Up to their Garrets to preserve their Lives So to his head his soul doth fly and strives Whilst all below with sores are overflown And there 's no room undrown'd but that alone There to reside though in a doubtful case Until the Waters violence decrease Amidst these storms there it resolves to dwell And fortifie that goodly Cittadel Which if by strength of Art it can hold out Against those numerous foes it doth not doubt But though it gives the Body now as lost As but a breathing Skeleton at most Yet after all these woes by art and pain It may be soon recovered again Job then all soul with reason yet supply'd Doth think himself still so well fortify'd As he 'l not yeeld such courage this affords As all these furious batteries of words Us'd by his friends against his innocence Cannot prevail but still to his defence He means to stand and though he 's now so weak So fully spent as he can hardly speak Yet answers though he rather seems to squeak Job then I say we must imagine now To this so learn'd discourse has much adoe To make an answer for we must suppose This Eliphaz to be as one of those Who to a Castle by long Siege become At length esteem'd untenable by some With Forts on every side environed And to meer rubbish almost battered Is peremptorly with last summons sent And Job as speaking from the battlement Alace my friends said he what comfort brings This long discourse I 've often heard such things As you have spoke and I perceive you trace All the same steps and from one common place Draw all your arguments and still repeat As if in speech you were confederat Each one anothers words so palpably As though almost here without sense Ilye Yet seriously I am asham'd to hear Men of your parts men who to all appear Of a deep reach with so much toil and pain Speak the same lesson o're and o're again If this be that which comforting you call Most miserable comforters you 're all Still to repeat this harangue o're and o're And tell me nought but what I knew before Is very hard pray what d' ye take me for D' ye think for all the torments sores and pains Which I endure but that there still remains Some small reserve of reason not yet spent By which I may withstand your argument Yet for some time I am not yet o'recome So much with sorrow as I should be dumb Hearing of such discourse my conscience Doth still assure me of my innocence And therefore I must let you know that I Do still all your insulting words defy My God in whose Name you so much accuse Your miserable friend knows you abuse His Majesty whilst you would seem to be Of council to him as if all you three Were blamelesse without sin beyond the reach Of Laws and only I a sinful wretch Shall there be no end of such aery prating And what makes thee friend in expostulating So violent so bitter so severe In words so piquant as you 'd hardly bear From one another yet must I sustain All these reproachful words and not complain This 't is to be aflicted this to lye Under the mercy of sad penury This to be poor this to be miserable When words by me before intolerable Words which incensing Choller in my breast In the same heat I had return'd at least I 'm now compell'd with patience to digest D' ye think but I could speak as well as you And use the same unkind expressions too Nay more severe and pique you to the bones Were we in equal terms but for the nonce All you can say with patience I must bear For now it seems I am condemn'd to hear All you can speak But would that any of you Felt but the twentieth part of what I do Would that but for a week a day an hour You had some feeling of what I endure That for my satisfaction I might see In such a case what might your carriage be Should I but rate you thus as you do me In such a case I would indeed assert Though you set up for Saints yet in your heart You were all sinners men who take delite To counterfeit the puling hypocrite Men who deserv'd what ever you endur'd And therefore plead that you might be assur'd God had rejected you as all of you Affirm he has done me and argue too 'Gainst your impatience in your agony And by harsh words augment your misery I could insult I could your woes deride And jestingly passe by and shake my head When I might see you thus on Dung-hill sit As I do now and puzle all your wit Though in the eyes o' th' world pretended saints To make an answer to my arguments All this I could perform were I inclin'd On such occasions to be so unkind To you as you are all of you to me And try your patience to that same degree As you do mine I could indeed expresse My thoughts of you with as much bitternesse As you do now of me But God forbid were your estate so sad I should affliction to affliction add Or convocat my wits and rack my brain For shrewd inventions to augment your pain And smartly tax you when you did complain No no but on the contrair from my soul I would your sad affliction condole I 'd cherish you with soft and cordial words Such as true friendship at such times affords I 'd tell you that afflictions are sent From Heaven upon us with no ill intent But all our woes if rightly understood Do rain upon us only for our good I 'd tell you too that Wheat the best of Grain Doth in Earths surface almost dead remain All the long Winter buried in Snow Yet maugre all those Storms it still doth grow And in the Summer when the Sun draws nigh Makes an appearance with more bravery More Weight and Substance than all other Graines Which in Green Liveries do adorn the
Plains Though none of those in shivering cold were sown As was the Wheat or had such pinching known As this same precious feeding Grain had done I 'd tell you how the finest Gold is found Not in the Valleys and the fruitful Ground But amongst barren Rock and Desart places Where nothing fit for Humane Food increases I 'd tell you also where the Coral grows Which every Mortal doth esteem who knows Its use and value not in open Plains Amongst the pleasant Shrubs and useful Grains Not in inclosed Grounds on every side With Palisades of Quickset fortify'd Not in fair Gardens closly Wall'd a-round Parks Orchards Forrests Woods or some such ground Where other Plants do flourish and increase No this doth grow i' th' bottom of the Seas This fair ingrain'd Vermilion Plant doth grow Where huge Sea-monsters ramble to and fro Devouring every thing which they can eat And were this Corral for these fishes meat Man never would possess it There it grows Where horrid darkness all things overflowes In a most barren ground an useless land Made up of pickled rocks and furrowed sand Yet there it grows and there its virtue saves Amidst the boistrous seas and sullen waves And though indeed whilst in that dismal place Its form and beauty are in no good case Buried in Sea-weeds tender pale and soft Yet when by divers art 't is brought aloft Anon it becomes hard of Scarlet-hue Both profitable and pleasant to the view So in affliction virtue doth encrease Though buried in the bottom of the Seas Of Woes and Sorrows for it still retains Its true intrinsick value and remains Amidst these rude insulting Waves intire As a true Diamond doth amidst the Fire Thus thus my friends were you as I am now With such smooth Language I would comfort you And with such sug'red words and pleasant trops Allay your sorrows and refresh your hopes With healing words I would compesce the rage Of your afflictions and your grief asswage But O you 'l say since I can thus express My self so smoothly in anothers case Since I to others can such comfort speak Why to my self do I not comfort take Why here it is now thus 't is to be vex't With sore affliction thus to be perplex't In mind and body here 's the difference Betwixt a bare Opinion and Sense These are your thoughts now and you do suppose Your wretched Friend to be as one of those Who can give others good advice and show Where they may find true comfort in their wo. Can others teach when with sad losses cross'd And 'mongst the billows of affliction toss'd How they should inconvenience avoid And not be with their miseries annoy'd What Sail they should in such a Tempest bear Whot solid Course in prudence they should steer To save their lives and souls but change the case And let such men themselves be in distress Let but afflictions waves upon them break And to themselves they can no council take But tye up th' helm and let all go to wrack This you imagine 'cause you have no sense Of those sad pains which I do feel and thence Conclude that when you hear me thus complain I am the most unduiiful of men Who knowing better things do willfully Against my knowledge sin and foolishly Behave my self in misery like those Who nothing understand Thus you suppose Thus you conclude and so by consequence Return me guilty of impatience But pray my friends observe I said indeed Thus I could do thus were you in my stead And I as ye are from afflictions freed But O there 's great and vast disparity Betwixt the thought and sense of misery As much as is betwixt a real thing And that in fancy or a suffering True blowes of Death and those upon a Stage Or twixt a real tempest where the rage Of cruel waves some hundreds doth devour Where dying men with hideous cries out-roar The boistrous noise which wind and seas afford And such a thing in Picture in a word Unlesse you felt those sorrows reallie Which I do feel and your prosperitie Were to affliction turn'd unless your sense Were with such things acquaint no inference From suppositions no Imagination Of what they are by Picture or Relation No Map of such though ne'r so plain and fair Can make you understand what sorrows are All those Ideas wichh your brain doth frame When you with pleasure of affliction dream Are but weak notions mean conceptions And best of 'em but faint Comparisons By which you cannot know what I endure Or learn what true affliction is no sure Unlesse as you see mine your case be this You cannot fancy what affliction is But I do know alace I know too well What only you conceive but I do feel I am the man have seen and can declare By sad experience what afflictons are I am the man that have affliction seen In its true colours and have sadly been Oppress'd with grief I am the man that knows Beyond all others true and real woes Those wasting sighs in which insensibly The Soul out of its Earthly Cage doth fly Those heavy groans which Life can hardly bear To me are become so familiar As when a few another man would kill I can emit a thousand when I will And yet not dye Those hateful passages Of humane Life which make our woes encreasse Fraud and oppression hard for any man T' endure are become my quotidian Tears from my eyes incessantly do flow As when in Summer heaps of melted Snow Falls from the Mountains with such violence As I have almost lost my optick sense Yet still I live my Body is o're grown With putred sores my Spirit overflown With seas of grief yet am I not undone What shall I do then shall I live or dye Sleep or awake on this or that side lye Even what I will 't is all one in the case For no invention can procure me ease Speaking and silence is to me one thing For neither of 'em can me comfort bring Comfort alace a thing so strange to me I cannot fancy what it is nor see From whence it should proceed I scarce can dream Of such a thing I hardly know its name Now pray where is this comfort to be had Is it in commerce do men make a trade In venting of it is it to be sold Can it be had for Money or for Gold If so then you my friends may comfort buy You may acquire it by your Means not I Who stripp'd of all here a poor Beggar ly Poor and diseas'd o're burdened with wrath Depress'd with sorrow wearied to the death With heavy loads of grief I faint I faint My spirits now I hope are fully spent O let me dy since God has dissipat The hopes of both my Family and Estate Since thou hast scattered both my Means and Race And brought me in contempt and sad disgrace With all my friends who will not own me more Nor converse with me as
And with themselves think what they may expect When such as I who hopes all don't maintain That in Gods sight I am the worst of men Am so unkindlie us'd but when they check Their errors and begin to recollect Their minds and fall to solid Contemplations Of the true Order of Gods Dispensations Then do they understand that God doth try His own by so exact a scrutiny And with such Judgments doth their lives infest As puts their patience to the utmost test Yet still he loves them and will not permit The Floods to rise higher than he thinks fit Because good men men just and innocent Do at his hands deserve no punishment But for the couzâ—ning Hypocrite sad wrath Shall rain upon him he shall wish for Death But shall not find it and his miseries Shall be augmented by his unheard cries Because God knows those men the World do cheat With a fair show of zeal and shreudly treat The just and upright whilst they would maintain They were themselves the only pious men Then good men their afflictions shall forget When they see men whom God doth truly hate So justly punish'd men who have provok't By Villany Fraud and Oppression cloak't With piety one that will not be mock't Then shall the righteous men new Spirits take When they consider how God doth correct The good but utterly destroys the bad And makes their case irreparably sad Then though in dreadful misery and pain Yet shall they no more of their God complain Then will a Patient who doth understand His good Phisician will not set his hand To any Order or for any bribe Be hired by his En'mies to prescribe Such Medicines to him but what he knows At least he doth by rules of art suppose Are for his Health to those Religious Men In the most boiling Calenture of pain Shall not repine but with great constancy Endure all the assaults of misery And still hold bravely out untill at length God shall relieve them and renew their strength And now my friends though I design'd no more To argue with you as I did before Yet on this subject I cannot forbear But once again must in all calmness here Complain of you who so mistake my case And 'cause afflicted tell me in my face I 'm a curs'd Person a vile Reprobat One whom his Maker doth abhor and hate When you your selves for shame will not deny But that th' Almighty when he means to try The faith of those he loves will exercise Such with unheard of woes and miseries That when such fiery tryal they endure With patience they may become more pure Then formerly and as your selves aver After such sufferings in Gods sight appear More just and righteous then they were before Like Gold refin'd in Furnace o're and o're But since you 've taken up an argument To prove that no man can be innocent Who is afflicted but that only those Whose sins do cry for judgements suffer woes You do resolve although your reasons were Ill founded and of no more weight then air Yet still your reputation to maintain By a continued reasoning and vain Expressing of your Parts albeit you know You are i'th'wrong yet you will have it so Because you are wisemen and cannot err Whereas my friends by what doth yet appear I know not what you wit and prudence call But truth I find none wise amongst you all But O I will no more expostulat With men who love to entertain debate On every triffle and in foolish pride Think they know more than all mankind beside No such men are too wise for me and I Now am not for debates I dy I dy My days are spent all my designs are quash'd My poor endeavours are to pieces dash'd My thoughts are now so with afflictions clouded My judgement with the vail of woes so shrowded As now my sad confusion I see When things most clear are dubious to me Then why should I my time in arguing wast My small time that remains my days are past Then why should I desire to live when those From whom in this sad state I did suppose I might find comfort by their tart discourse Have rendred my condition ten times worse Then when they found me O had not these men Come hither sure I had been out of pain Before this time for in my solitude I had been stiffled by the multitude Of wasting sighs and groans sure I had dy'd And been so happy too as none had spy'd My face when dying none had interpos'd Themselves 'twixt me and death no hand had clos'd My glaring eyes none had officiousl Impeded me when I design'd to dy But in some silent hour unseen unknown Unheard uninterrupted all alone As one that falls asleep I had expir'd And gently from the Worlds view retir'd How sweetly had I dy'd how quietly Had I been shiffled in eternity Betwixt the utmost gasp of parting breath And the chill blowing of approaching death My wearied soul ere now from whence it came In the vehicle of a pleasant dream Had been transported and my Body laid In the cold Ground had its last tribute pay'd For though I with some reason hope that I May see my sun return before I dy And though I fancy to my self that yet The time may come in which I may forget All these afflictions which I now sustain And no more of consuming want complain The time may come in which my Body may In its own sphere its former strength display And this poor soul which now with heavy groans And floods of tears its miseries bemoans May from the Dung-hill yet be elevate And so restored to its former state Yet to what purpose all these hopes alace To what end serve those faÌ„ir appearances Those aery expectations which uphold The drooping spirits of both young and old Those pleasing notions by which we deceive Our lingring hours and make our selves believe We may when vapours of the night are gone Yet view our sun in its full horizon That smiling prospect of our future blisse Which for some time allays our grievances That painted idol in whose downy lap Our wearied sorrows sometime take a nap For what do all those serve when after all Death at our doors doth peremptorly call To Grave to Grave make haste my hour draws on Dispatch dispatch up I most wait on none Bestir your selves 't is high time to be gone Then where are all our hopes where all our joys And pleasures which did here make so much noise When that sad Summons in our ears doth sound Ah where is then our Life-guard to be found Those Champions of the World I doubt they are By that time bravely vanish'd into Air. Away all foolish hopes then for I know I know this Body to the Grave must go And after all those mournful passages I know the Grave must be my dwelling place Where in close darknesse and long night I must Attend until my Soul
noise thus cry and howl And in his anger tear his very Soul As thou dost now thy self in wrath expresse As though thou were 't first Martyr in the case How from my Soul do I commiserat A man in such a sad distracted state Why dost thou think but other men as well As thou my friend the same afflictions feel Thy case indeed is no ways singular Nor are thy sufferings extraordinar Then why my friend art thou become so vain To think thou shouldst not feel what other men As good as thee do dayly undergo And make not half this noise of it if so I do with sorrow look upon thy state And think indeed it is more desperate Then that of those shut up in Hospitals For most of these have lucid intervals But thou hast none their fury may be tam'd By strength of Medicine and they reclaim'd By time to their own wits thine doth encrease And seems to be a madness in excess Thy fury seizes on thee more and more Beyond the approved cure of Hallâ—bore For thou dost think that God to favour thee Should alter his established decree And even be pleas'd on thy account to change The so well ordred course of Nature strange That any mortal man endu'd with reason Should dar to hatch within his breast such treason Against Heavens King dost think that God will make The lofty Rocks within their Sockets shake Or mash the Frame of Nature for thy sake Dost think he 'll make the Earth turn desolate To complement thee in thy sad estate Or make Men Beasts Birds Fishes in the Sea Endure the same afflictions with thee That the whole Universe from Pole to Pole Might with one voice thy miseries condole Alace my friend thou rav'st thou rav'st indeed If thou foment such fancies pray take heed What thou dost think at least what thou dost speak For thy expressions show thy judgement weak And which is yet a sign more evident Of thy distemper and an argument Of thy disordred mind with confidence Because we seem to doubt thy innocence Thou calls't us fools and dunces which implyes As much as thou think'st thou art hugely wise Whilst all wise men conclude without debate That every man wise in his own conceit Iâ— but a fool of which alace I see A too true demonstration in thee And therefore with more reason I 'd request Then thou hast us thou would not speak at least For in this troubled state I 'd thee advise To hold thy peace and we shall think thee wise At least as we have heard with patience All thy discourse and taken no offence At thy injurious words so thou wouldst hear What I intend to speak which though I fear Will quadrat too much with thy case yet I With all discretion shall forbear t' apply But only shall endeavour to expresse In a few words wy judgement on the case I see my friend then though thou still dost plead Not guilty yet a man may plainly read In thy afflictions what 's the cause of all Thy miseries which I do freely call Thy crying sins thy unjust dealings hence Those woes from these thy sufferings commence Thy judgements clearly do thy sins expresse To all of us though thou wilt not confesse But cunningly wouldst still plead innocent And truly there 's no greater argument Of guilt then still denying when impeach'd But for all thy defences God has reach'd Thee in his justice and has punish'd thee For thy foul sins in manner as we see Now as in wrath our God is formidable So all his orders are inviolable He lets the wicked man in villany Proceed and flourish undisturbedly For a long time until he doth attain To the full Zenith of his joyes and then He draws the Reins and doth his pride compesce In the bright noon-tide of his happinesse So from his earthly glory in a tryce He tumbles down as from a precipice His radiant lustre shall be no more seen But his great name as though he ne'er had been Shall be raz'd out of the Records of Fame And none shall know he was or whence he came Nay those who knew him in prosperity Shall now abhor his very memory His wealth and power in which he did confide Shall fail him all his arts and tricks beside By which he us'd to couzen other men Shall be most quaintly disappointed then His council shall be overturned all And by his own devices he shall fall The course of life he in this Earth doth steer Shall be like Ships 'mongst shelves in constant fear With dreadful thoughts he shall be overlaid Of his own shadow he shall be afraid Sad apprehensions shall upon him seize And in his spirits he shall find no ease For when he means by pleasures to divert His sorrows and alleviate his heart By serene thoughts his conscience by and by Shall lay before him his impiety Which shall him also in his sleep affright And steal upon him like a Thief by night Shall apprehend that plots are every where Laid for his life and that men do prepare Actions Indytements Jurors evidence Against him and his frighted conscience Makes him believe that men do ly in wait To catch him and that every man doth hate Both him and all his execrable race And that he 's the discourse of every place When on his pillow he shall lay his head Thinking by sleep from terrors to be freed Then shall fresh terrors like a rapid stream Break in upon his fancy in a dream Then shall he start out of his sleep and call For Sword for Helmet Corslet Shield for all Then sleep again but in a tryce awake And nimbly to his feet himself betake So sleep and wake and wake and sleep by fits All the long night like one out of his wits His Creditors on all his Means shall seize Turn out his Family bring him by degrees To such a sad penurious exigent As he and his shall have no aliment Then wasting sorrow want of sleep and food With all things that to nature are allow'd Shall in his Loines his Body and his Head A complication of diseases breed By which the hateful wretch shall every day In some dark corner rot and pine away Then all his hopes by which he formerly In th' hottest fits of his adversity Would cheer his drooping spirits and recall His almost parting soul then shall they all Abandon him and he shall then appear Upon all hands environed with fear Like a poor Malefactor who has tane His leave of all his friends and with some pain Mounted the Ladder when he looks about Of deaths approach he makes no longer doubt Concluding 'cause attended now by none But th' horrid Executioner alone Sure he must dy for all his hopes are gone Fear while he lives shall dwell within those walls Which his indeed he most unjustly calls Because by fraud and rapine purchased In his own Chamber fear
innocent and upright in my heart Then O my friends why do you persecute A poor man thus why do ye contribute All your endeavours why is all your wit Employ'd to prove that I am Hypocrite Ah why so cruel why so inhumane As still to doubt me still to entertain Bad thoughts of me although you clearlie see What e're my faults and outward failings be Yet God to me some kindness doth impart And his true Grace is rooted in my heart Then if for my sake you will not forbear By strength of argument to make appear That I am guilty be at least so kind To your own selves as though you in your mind Suppose I am such yet to hold your peace And not so smartlie tell me in my face That I am of the number of those men Whom God doth hate when you perceive how plain And evident appears from what I speak Although my body be consum'd and weak Yet is my living Soul inspir'd with faith With which supported never while I breath Shall you evince by all your wit and art That I 'm an Out-side saint but in my heart A rotten Sinner truth you should be blam'd For this Discourse indeed I am asham'd To see wise men so over-reach'd with passion In words out run their reason in this fashion Now to conclude my friends I would advise You all hereafter to become more wise Than of your parts to be so proud and vain As thus t' insult on poor afflicted men As thus to stretch your argument so far Thus to conclude that none afflicted are But those who 've sinn'd a Principle indeed Of dangerous import pray my friends take heed How ye give Judgment i' th' afflicteds case How ye pronounce them guilty for alace Why should you thus presume why should you dare T' affirm what God himself doth not declare For he has never yet declar'd that all Those men who in afflictions Quag-mire fall Are meerlie sinners or that sorrows are Still signs of Gods Displeasure pray be'ware How you affirm this for you may incense Gods wrath by such your sawcy Eloquence And what you all so often do repeat Shall be the wretch'd and miserable state O' th' wicked in this world if you persist In these opinions argue as you list I fear shall be your own for you provock Your God to wrath and openly do mock His Providence and inwardly displease Your Maker by such Arguments as these But when your prosp'rous daies are vanished And in your Judgments you your sins do read When your high pride is level'd with the dust ' Then you will clearly see that God is just Pray then forbear for Heav'ns sake pray forbear This foolish arguing let me no more hear Those vain Debates but if you do intend To comfort me beseech you put an end To this Discourse and plainly let me know Whether you be my real friends or no. For if you be seeing how I abhorr This trifling talk you 'l argue so no more And if you be not pray you then begone And leave me here rather to die alone Than a sad life in such a converse lead As all my other sorrows doth exceed Cap. XX. AS one at Bar is to be pitied Who having well and eloquently plead His innocence and made the same appear By evidence as Sun at noon-tide clear Yet after all let him do what he can This friendlesse Creature this unhappy man Must be condemn'd he must to Gibbit go Because the partial Judge will have it so This is this good-mans case for all this time As one Arraign'd for an atrocious Crime He has by force of reason laboured To purge himself and for that end has made Ample confession of his Faith yet all These reasons cannot with his friends prevail They still esteem him guilty and maintain However of injustice he complain That he had grossely in his life provok't His God to wrath though cunningly he cloak't His murdred sins with such a specious vail Of Piety and World-deceiving zeal He closely kep't those murmuring faults conceal'd From sight of men yet now they were reveal'd For God at length had heard their shameful cry And by his punishment did testify How much he did abhor hypocrisie Let us observe then here with how great heat Zophar the words doth faithfully repeat Which Eliphaz himself and Bildad too Had spoke already yet this wise man now In his old strain will lisp them out once more As if they never had been spoke before When first says he fame to our ears did bring The dismal news of thy sad suffering When of thy many losses we did hear No men could be more troubled then we were We did thy griefs as heavilie bemoan As if thy losses had been all our own Nor could we in our troubled minds have peace When men inform'd us of thy woful case Until we see thy self and so forsook All that was dear to us and undertook A tedious journey to this place that so We might perform what every man doth owe To real friendship that we might condole Thy sufferings and from our very soul Lament with thee as one for whom we still Bore great respect think of us what thou will Therefore with more then ordinary speed We hasted hither not that we might feed Our eyes with such a woful spectacle As now alace we do behold or fill The appetites of envy and revenge With observations on so sad a change No we come hither only to declare That as thy friends we mean't to bear a share In thy afflictions and so thou didst see Seven days we sat in complaisance with thee With Garments rent and ashes on our Head Not speaking word more then we had been dead We beat our breasts we bow'd we sigh'd and weep't And with thy sorrows a true cadence kep't We had resolv'd on silence But when we heard thee with great violence Exclaim against the works of Providence When we did hear thee bitterly arraign The Justice of our God once and again When with great fury thou didst execrat The hour that gave thee Birth and with such heat Pursue thy foolish wishes as if he Who out of meanest Dust Created thee Who By his powerful Breath did make thee live Who did to thee wealth honours issue give Were still oblig'd to keep thee in that state And had no freedom to eradicate Thee and thy race as well as other men Who surely were it lawful to complain Could in as sad and mournful tone declare How they did once live and what now they are When we did hear thee with such impudence At all occasions plead thy innocence As if our God had been unjust indeed We might ha' fear'd to ha' been punished As well as thou if we had held our peace And not maintain'd his Justice in the case For who I pray could such discourses hear And after all from answering forbear On this account we 've spoke and spoke again And
all the world may see What mean esteem he has of mortal race View me I pray look but upon my face And there behold a sad Epitome Of Heavens displeasure O were there no more worth your noticing Then this alone 't is such a dismal thing As if you take it in consideration Affords a subject of sad contemplation Such as might make you all asham'd to speak As you have done and I 'm convinc'd would check The heat of your discourse give ear then pray As you would be inform'd to what I say For when I think upon my former state How in the World I flourished of late How all my wishes did attain their aim And I no sooner could a blessing name But assoon God would send it to my door And blesse me so till I could ask no more And now how wretch'd how poor and miserable In yours and all mens eyes how despicable And quite undone I here on Dung-hill ly Th' hyperbole of pain and misery When I amidst my groans and lamentations Reflect upon the various Dispensations Of our great God and weigh them seriouslie I quake I sweat I tremble by and by I shake all over I am dampt with fear Like one out of his wits I do appear Infernal horror on my Soul doth seize And I become all stupid by degrees When I consider on this sad occasion What unexpected fearful alteration I 've seen of late Oh I am all confounded My Soul with fear and terror is surrounded When I consider how th' Almighty raises This or that man and throws down whom he pleases Without regard to all these mean Defences Which mortals use these pitiful Pretences Of Piety and Virtues by which some Would plead forsooth Exemption from his Doom Whilst he with great indifference on all Sends out his plagues then I a-trembling fall Then I perceive that what you all assert And labour to evince with so much art Concluding firmly God doth punish none Nor sends afflictions but on those alone Whose Sins do call for Judgments and from thence By an unquestionable consequence Infer that I am such then then I see What ever errors you would fix on me That your Position is both false and vain Below such men as you are to maintain Since then my friends by sad experience I know what you who never yet had sense Of such afflictions cannot understand Me thinks I may with reason now demand Your firm atention to what I shall speak Upon the subject which you may expect Shall be sincere for who can so express The Justice of th Almighty in the case As he who feels it as the man God knows Who 's tasted both Prosperitie and Woes If it be true then what you all assert That sin is only punish'd for my part I 'de gladlie know why Heavens King doth give Blessings to those who merit not to live Why doth the race of sin the earth possess Why thus in Issue Honor Wealth encrease Do we not dailie see how sinful men Do in their several stations attain To all that in this life can be desir'd Wish'd or projected Nor doth the Tide of prosprous daies encrease To its full height but for a season last No as their sins so do their blessings grow The current of Gods mercies still doth flow In those mens lives whatever they demand To feed the sense is granted out of hand In a most smooth uninterrupted stream Of earthly blessings like a pleasant dream They 're gently wafted without Wind or Wave Into the spacious Ocean of the Grave Thus live and dy they but this is not all For were these blessings meerly personal And perish'd with themselves we might suppose That their poor issue who their eyes did close Shut up with these all their felicity And became heirs to utmost misery No no these outward blessings are so far From dying with themselves as they appear Entail'd upon their Family and Race And settled so on their appanages As if inherent in the several fees Nay which is more those men whom you do call The worst of sinners do perceive this all In their own time they see their Families Flourish like verdant plants before their eyes They see the hopes of numerous Generations And view the rise of many famous Nations In their fair Off-spring they perceive their seed In peace and plenty fully established Their Childrens Children grow up in their sight As Heirs apparent to their Fathers Right In fine those wretches see their memory Run on the lines of perpetuity These sinful men within doors live at ease Free from all jars bless'd with domestick peace They know no discords no nor quarrels they No picques or humours ly a-crosse their way But all the day they plentifully feed With pleasant converse and at night to bed They drill encircled in each others arms Free from all passions clamours fears allarums And as in plenty within doors they dwell So with these men all without doors goes well Their Cattle thrive their Grounds are well manur'd Their beasts are from ill accidents secur'd Their Revenues are punctually pay'd Their Acts of Court-leet faithfully obey'd Their Tennents too do live in wealth and peace Enjoying each an undisturbed lease For many years and richly cultivat Each one his parcel of his Lords Estate In short these men are fully bless'd in all They can desire their Vassals at a call Attend their motions every one contends Who most shall serve them and be most their friends Around the neighbouring fields their wings they spread And all the Campaign soil is overlaid With numerous Branches of their Families Which soon dilate themselves in Colonies And People Countreys far remote from these Which first their Predecessors did possesse Amongst themselves they make firm allyance And when they meet they revel sport and dance They Correspond in mutual harmony And spend their time in mirth and jollity For when they meet at their grand Festivals They eat and drink and then with Masques and Balls They entertain themselves the Harp and Lute The Viol Organ Timbrel contribute T' encrease their jovialty and all their care Is only for their sports and daily fare In peace and plenty with great affluence Of worldly blessings and convenience Of every thing that humane life requires They waste their days and when their lease expires And sullen death commands them to remove And quite those fields which with their souls they love Then do not these men dy as others do In pain and torment But as soft slumber on the eyes doth creep And gently moves when men would fall asleep Or as a Candle burning nigh the end Its light in twinkling by degrees doth spend So in the Grave those men do gently roul Not troubled with the progress of the soul Not anxious whither it should take its course After this life for better or for worse They care not whether all is one to them For they think Soul and Body
But when his Lust begins again to to flow Forgetting wholly all his former woe To the same place like mad-man he returns And in those unclean flames again he burns There 's one Crime more of which I do expect You will permit me yet my friends to speak A Crime well known by th' name of piracy Which is on Sea an open robbery I have already spoke of that on Land And now 't is fitting you should understand How that on Sea is no lesse openly Practis'd as from those men who live hard by The Coasts of the Red-sea we daily hear Where in great Fleets those Picaroons appear They re men who having try'd all Trades on Land And finding nothing which they took in hand Succeeded to their wish in hopes of gain At length they became down-right High-way-men Then out-law'd and by justice every where Pursu'd they found there was no living there And so at last to Sea-towns they repair Where buying some small Pinnace with a few Hatchets and Swords and mustering a crew Of Rake-hells like themselves to Sea they go And plunder all they meet both friend and foe They spoil all Trade they make the Merchants groan And to all States and Nations bemoan Their daily losses by such men as these Who 'gainst all justice do infest the Seas They seldom come on Land or if they do 'T is in some Creek where for a day or two They do refresh themselves and with great pain Carine their Barks and so to Sea again At length when by this vill'nous roaving trade Those Sea-opprssours have great Booty made To some small Island where they are not known They steer and there themselves they boldly own To be the Subjects of some mighty State Where they as Merchands do Negotiat With th' â—slanders and riotously spend What by their privateering they had gain'd These in their little Wherryes skim the Seas And ramble on the Ocean with ease Killing and Robbing doing what they please Who though each moment they have fair occasions T' enrich their Souls with pious Meditations Viewing Gods wonders in the deep Yet do they still their sinful Trade practise And both the Laws of God and man despise Though floating shrewdly betwixt Winds and Waves And not four inches distant from their Graves Thus then we see my friends how at all times Men take delite to act most horrid Crimes In a continued tract of villany Pray let us see now how these men do dye Why not bereav'd of Life by Rope or Sword Not drown'd not cut in pieces in a word After they have grown old in sin and known No other trade but that of Hell alone As in some places Snow doth still appear Until the Summer Solstice of the year And undissolv'd in heaps it self doth show Until by heat it doth in waters flow So these grown old in sin and now no more Able to act it as they did before Do softly dwindle to the Grave and there Lye down and rest without all fear or care Nay with such calmnesse and tranquility As if they mean't to sleep they softly dye And with so little violence or pain As even their very Mothers do abstain From weeping at their death and making noise Above their Corps but rather do rejoice To see their Children in th' extremity Of age wealth honours and discretion dye The worms upon their Corps do sweetly feed And they in Grave do find as soft a bed As do the bodies of those pious men Of whom no man had reason to complain Nay though those men with sin so soul and black May well be nam'd villany in th' abstract Yet in their Death there 's nothing singular Nor do they die in horrour and dispair But like an aged Trunk fall'n to decay Insensibly they moulder quite away Now here my friends I thought t' have given o're And of oppression to have spoke no more But that I think on 't there 's a species Of those unhappy men who do oppress Of whom I have not spoke as yet there are Some who for neither rich nor poor do care But bolster'd up with vain authority Against all persons they promiscuously Do vent their rage men full of picquant-wrath Who threaten still Destruction and Death To all who give them but the least offence And to th' afflicted with great violence They add affliction They take great pleasure tartly to upbraid All those on whom the hand of God is laid The barren woman who in doleful tone In private doth her barrenness bemoan They call an useless wretch a barren fool A dry She-ass a pitiful Night owl The widow too whose lamentable state All truely pious men compassionate Those men with all their force and art oppress And makes her Life a Scene of bitterness Nay on the wealthy too their hand they stretch And fleece them all as far as they can reach By heavy Fines give way to Informations Against them and encourage accusations On slender grounds which with great art they draw Out of the very Excrements of Law T' attain the lives and means of those they hate And satiat their Revenge at any rate Their dire Revenge which no man can endure For who is he can of his life be sure If once those men by their intelligence Can find against them any evidence Then must they dy for all their innocence Yet these these are the men who do possess The good things of the earth these men in peace Do spend their time whilst good and righteous men Of want of bread do every day complain But after all though these men sillily Suppose they sin with great security And think God doth not eye them nor remark At least their hidden actings in the dark Yet he doth eye them and will surely bring Those men to an account and reckoning For all these villanous deeds and make them know That though he be a God to anger slow Yet when inflam'd with a just indignation He 'll of his anger make clear demonstration And cut off all their race by extirpation For wicked men though in the worlds eyes They seem to swell and in great foamings rise Blown up by winds of pride to th'hight of all That which poor mortals happiness do call Yet are their honours titles dignities But meer delusions vain uncertainties Things of no value triffles emptie shows And but of short duration God knows For in a few years time we shall perceive Them and their honours shut up in the Grave And their successors prodigally fall A wasting spending and consuming all What those poor Caterpillers had with pain Amass'd together in their lives and then There shall be no more memory of those men Now to conclude then if what I have said Shall not be able fully to perswade Your minds my friends that what I speak is true Come let me hear I pray now which of you Will undertake the question to decide And make appear that I have
misery And point at me unhappy poverty There 's nought from thee more heavily we take Then that thou men ridiculous dost make Ridiculous indeed as ever man Was made by men since first the World began Am I now made And by young fools too fellows light and vain Shrewdly debauch'd and openly prophane Who flock to see me in this doleful state As others do and to expresse their hate Reproach me with foul words aud bitterly Insult o're me in my calamity Put on me all affronts imaginable And use all means to make me despicable But now I think on 't I should not admire To see the Race of Criminals conspire Against me in this miserable state Because when formerly a Magistrate I did indeed correct their Fathers so As till this time those slaves durst never show Their heads in publick yes I did indeed And to this day I think those men may read My justice plain and clear before their eyes I' th' Histories of their several Families For formerly when my Authority Did flourish these men living quietly And within bounds durst never give offence To any man left my intelligence Might reach their actings and by Law declare These Rogues all Out-laws as their Fathers were But now alace that God himself hath broke My power and turn'd my Honour all to smoke Now that his heavy hand doth on me ly And I am overcharg'd with misery Even those mean things now from their Kennels crawl And bark at me with open mouths nay all Who formerly did to my person bear Great reverence now openly appear My greatest enemies insultingly Reflecting on my former Dignity Of which I 'm now robb'd as is ordinar In time of Troubles Mutinies and War When by the Rabble Prisons are broke ope And Malefactors arm'd no House or Shop Is sooner ristled than those which belong To th' Magistrat 'bout which in Troops they throng Where all 's pull'd down and with difficulty To save their persons they are forc'd to fly And leave all in this lamentable case To th' fury of the hot-brain'd populace So these same lewd and insolent young men Whom formerly by Law I did restrain Now by my fall from inquisition freed Uninterrupted hourly do proceed By all the arts and tricks they can invent To make my case most sad whilst they torment My soul by frequent looking on my face And pointing out to all men my disgrace For where I would endure with patience My present sorrows these mens insolence Do cross my resolutions and raise My Spleen to some disorder whilst they please Themselves to see me in this sad estate Which visits all ingenuous spirits hate And by false accusations bitter tales Clamours unjust reproaches or what else Those virulent vindictive fellows art Can in their Cups devise or for their heart Contrive to vex me I am sore opprest And from their Spur galâ—'d Jests can have no rest Nor need they great mens help to countenance Th' abusive progress of their petulance For of themselves by their intolerable Proud wanton carriage truly they are able To do their business with convenience As I have found by sad experience For these licentious Youths have ta'ne delite To gaze upon me here with great despite Whilst other clamorous Villains on pretence Of wrongs sustain'd from me with violence Have rush'd on my possessions and seiz'd All my effects disposing as they pleas'd On what belong'd to me whilst each of them Parts of my means as by reprysals claim So that ev'n as a Town besieg'd I ly Beset on all hands by the enemy Who by continual Batteries have ply'd Its Walls and made at length a breach so wide That as a Torrent with great violence Breaks through the strongest Banks and Water-fence O're-running all it meets so at the breach The Souldiers enter with a shout and stretch Their Front so wide as they appear at least Pell-mell to throng a hundred in a breast Even so at that great breach which th' hand of God Has made on me as through a beaten road The dregs o' th' Countrey men of low estate And scarcely in Apparel till of late Have in this day of my calamity Rush'd in upon me and maliciously Seiz'd on my Goods and Chattels riffling all And left me nothing which I now may call My own for even what my wild neighbours spar'd These men have plunder'd having no regard To Conscience Honour Law or Equity But take advantage of me where I lye Floating in this huge gulf of misery And now those Donatars of my forfaulture Those vile oppressours those base villains sure Are now perswaded I am wholly gone Never to be restor'd and ali's their own 'T is true indeed as far as man can see I 'me lost for ever there 's no hopes of me No hopes that ever I can be restor'd And so my case is much to be deplor'd Besides alace within my breast I find Oppressions of a more destructive kind Terrours of Conscience ah strange terrours now O'rewhelm my spirit For as a Cloud before the Wind doth roul So by sad thoughts my over-wearied soul Is driven forward most impetuously And broke to pieces as a Cloud doth fly When scattered into Air such is my case And of my restauration alace There 's no more hopes I fear I now may say Then of a Cloud that vanisheth away What am I then my friends pray let me know Whether I breath whether I live or no Am I a man yet Do I yet retain Some vestiges of reason pray be plain Am I a Creature rational or can Such as now see me call me yet a man Is not my strength exhausted are not all My spirits wasted how then shall I call My self a living creature Is not my soul the source of life and strength By heat of woes evaporate at length Yes and the part that 's left of me appears But like the Ship-wracks of an hundred years A very lump of dust a lifeless thing A piece of earth not worth the valuing A Creature so deform'd so overspread With hideous sores as one can hardly read Its title in its fore-head or perswade Himself that such a thing a man was made In this condition in this sad estate You see my friends then how my God of late Has molt me in the Furnace of his wrath Dissolv'd me and yet after all I breath I only breath I live to feel the pain Which in my bones and sinews I sustain Such horrid pain as cannot be exprest Such pain as does allow my soul no rest For in the night time in the hour when all Submit themselves to sleep at Natures call Then then O then my Bones so shrewdly ake As I 'm compell'd by force of pain t' awake Alace such is the strength of my disease As no invention can my pains appease For by the course of matter purulent Which issues from my Sores and represent The foul ingredients of a common Shore My
thy Soul as it has done before No in such terms I 'le not my self express Nor use such harsh reflections as these Upon thy by-past life which if or no 'T was such as they alledge I do not know Nor will I check thee when I hear thee speak Of thy Integrity or answer make To what I charge thee with firm Protestation Of thy unspotted Life and Conversation No thou shalt have free libertie for me To answer for thy self thou may'st be free In what thou hast to say in thy defence And openlie lay out thy Innocence With all the art thou canst take courage then And be not overcome by what those men Have spoke against thee for I lay no hold On their assertions be thou therefore bold And speak out freely what in thy defence Thou canst alledge with all the eloquence God has afforded thee be not afraid Of mortal men who usuallie upbraid Their friends with sin though neer so innocent When they perceive them in this exigent As thou art now for if thou trulie be Just innocent upright from error free As thou seem'st to pretend by all that 's past Why shouldst thou not stand to it to the last Yes why should'st not stand to it for what thou Hast all this while desir'd is granted now Thou didst desire that thou with God might'st plead Why do it now for I am in his stead I have Commission from our Great Creator To hear thee speak at large upon the matter Thou didst desire that he would hear thy case Why then imagine I am in his place Appointed as his Auditor say then Speak out thy mind be not afraid of men For I although I bear the character Of the Almighties High Commissioner Yet I am but a man as thou art made Of dust and clay be not thou then afraid That I will crush thee or increase thy woe By screwing up thy doleful sorrows no I will not use such methods but appear As soft as if I whisper'd in thy ear I will not use thee as thy friends ha' done Nor shall my Language in their Channel run Such picquant words as they have spoke shall be In my speech on the subject far from me To tell thee freely then I must complain Of what I 've heard thee speak once and again I must reprove thee for some rash Expressions Which thou hast often used in thy Passions For to my grief my friend I 've heard thee speak What from a wise man I did not expect O saidst thou I am clean and innocent Free of all sin in Virtue eminent I know not what belongs to vice not I Nor am acquainted with Iniquity Yet hath my great Creator punished Me no less then if I had merited Such Judgments by my sins his Wrath has seiz'd Upon my very soul and he is pleas'd ' Stead of rewarding my Integrity To look upon me as his Enemy ' Has pick't a Quarrel with me and of late ' Has sore oppress 't me for I know not what For as a Malefactor I am us'd Arrested clap't i'th'Stocks Arraign'd Accus'd Condemn'd and Forfault and yet all this time He 'll not let me so much as know my Crime Why here it is now here my friend indeed Thou grossly err'st and if thou dost proceed In such untain'd Expressions as these Allow me friend to tell thee in thy face Wer 't thou as upright innocent and just As he whom God did out of pregnant Dust At first creat before his foul Offence Did stain the beauty of his Innocence Yet thus to talk thus foolishly to prate Thus with thy Maker to expostulate As if he were thy Equal is my friend Such an escape as no man can defend This is thy Crime this is the Fault indeed Thus guiltily thy Innocence to plead Thus in asserting thy Integrity T' accuse Heavens Monarch of Iniquity Who is all Justice Pray what dost thou mean Do'st think if thou be from all Error clean But he is far more clean if thou be pure Upright and just in all thy ways why sure He who inspir'd thee he who made thee live He who to thee these Qualities did give Must be more just and upright he must be Far more then thou art from all Error free And as he 's just so he is likewise great For his Dominion is unlimitate He rules this spacious Universe alone And truely is accountable to none For his procedure why then would'st contend With him whose strength and power doth far transcend Thy weak Capacity why would'st dispute With him who is supream and absolute I' th' government o' th' World with him who sends Blessings or Plagues on Enemies or Friends As he thinks fit and is not ty'd to give To any curious Mortal that doth live A reason for his actings no not he And yet forsooth thou think'st he 'll humour thee Thou thinks't he will thy longing satisfy And condescend t' assign a reason why He thus doth plague thee O yes and do that In complaisance to thee which he as yet Has never done to any prethee then Forbear thy fretting do no more complain But rest assur'd as well as other men That For any man as thou dost to debate With this great God who all things did create Is such a piece of folly as I may In truth assert most freely to this day I have not heard the like then once again My friend I tell thee do no more complain As thou hast done for if with patience Thou cans't endure what God doth now dispense If thou canst suffer what he doth ordain At this time for thy Sentence and abstain From such Debatings and Expostulations As only sinful men at such occasions Do use then by that single Argument Thou'l't prove that thou art just and innocent More then by any I have heard as yet Manag'd by thee in all thy long Debate But why all this complaining why alace Dost thou so much debate upon the Case As if God sent out Judgments here and there Without so much as once declaring War But catching of his opportunities Did ruine honest Mortals by surprize Why here thou err'st too here indeed my friend Thou dost with God most foolishly contend For look you here now why should we complain That he doth deal surprizingly with men When every day he doth so openly By th'out-crys of his sweating Ministry By Signs Diseases Visions and even By all the dreadful Heraldry of Heaven Forwarn us of his Wrath to come and yet We understand not till it be too late This Universal Language but complain When Judgments come that we are overtane By meer surprize and foolishly cry out We had no warning whilst in truth I doubt We did not understand the Dialect Of him who doth so often to us speak So that my friend thou should st not thus exclaim Against thy Maker for thou art to blame Who didst not understand such revelations As usually preceed sad
how I am pure and innocent And so deserve not this great punishment But O where is he to be found ah where Doth he reside shall I search here or there North South East West why all is but in vain For after all I never can obtain A sight of him from whence I plainly see There 's nothing left but black despair for me So that my soul of life is wearied And would choose even strangling to be freed From its sad pains O how I life abhorre I hate it and desire to live no more O let me die then for I know his wrath Will never cease so long as I do breath For 't is in vain to think that ever I Can be on this side of mortality Restored to my late prosperity Why truly friend 't is no small provocation For one to use such terms of desperation Under sad woes 't is true men without hope Will think upon a Dagger or a Rope Not knowing God but for those men who fear This God in saddest trials to despair Is a great sin a fault intollerable A foul offence a crime unpardonable What to despair to give all o're for lost When in the Ocean of afflictions toss't To let our spirits fail and weakly faint Like Female souls in such an exigent When we have most need to be confident To show some courage in prosperity And in the Battel of adversity When we have most use for it to have none Is truly what I cannot think upon Without disdain to sink when we should swim To lye flat on the ground when we should climb To th'mountain tops so cowardly to shrink VVhen we should stand to 't bravely is I think A quality which he who valueth Hath neither courage prudence grace nor faith Thus to despair alace how meanly base And unbecoming one of Abrams race Of Abraham that supereminent Undaunted constant and believing Saint VVho in his God such confidence did place As he could not despair in any case And for that reason was of all esteem'd The father of the faithful Shouldst thou despair then one who art descended O' th' house of faith one who hath still depended Upon the promise to thy Fathers made And as I see dost yet thy self perswade That thy Redeemer lives whom no man hath Seen ever yet but with the eyes of faith What one of so much faith thus to despair 'T is truly friend a thing not ordinar Yes one of his integrity so fond Which should support his faith thus to despond Like those who conscious of some horrid crimes Spin out their days in melancholly Chines What to despair let 's hear no more for shame Of this despair I hate its very name Despair I know indeed some impious men Who thinking death will ease them of their pain Which here they suffer for their sins and that By it their crimes will be obliterat Like mad-men at such time for death do baul Supposing the kind grave will cover all Their lewd offences but I hope my friend Thou' rt none of those who think death puts an end To all our pains nay surely thou dost know And firmly dost believe things are not so For then the fiery trial but begins And after death we 're punish'd for our sins More then in life now we are but arraign'd And may plead mercy then we are constrain'd T' endure those torments which God has ordain d For unrepenting sinners and must ly Under his wrath to all eternity Rouz up thy self then and despair no more But trust in God for he will yet restore Thee to thy former state and let thee see He doth retain more kindness yet for thee Then thou dost either merit or expect Trust in him then let faith thy heart direct In this sad tryal do no more despair For he 's a loving God and will take care Of thee and thy concerns and after all When he has try'd thee fully he 'll let fall His wrath against thee and in pure compassion Deliver thee out of this sad temptation He will restore thee to thy former state For all that thou hast seen or suffered yet And now my friends I must again to you Address my self once more you see then how This good man is not so much punished For former sins as he is visited In wrath for his despondency and passion Though yet our God has us'd such moderation In trying of him as he has no cause T' exclaim against the rigor of his Laws For yet he lives and may yet live to see Himself from all his present sorrows free Judge then if he has reason constantly Thus to complain and foolishly to cry When he has suffered no extremity I therefore do conclude that Job has spoke Such language in his pains as might provoke The wrath of God and make him yet to pour Worse judgements on him then he to this hour Has ever felt and it were equity That he with whom he has so tenderly Dealt all this while for his despondency Should yet be further punish'd but I hope He 'll have compassion on him now and stop The current of his Wrath which for my part I wish he may do quickly from my heart Lest if his torments be continued He may in his extravagance proceed And so his Heavenly Father irritate As he for ever may exheridate This ungrate wretch and never owne him more To be his Child as he has done before This winnowing tryal and may do again Could he from his unjust complaints abstain Cap. XXXVI BReathing a while till he might recollect His spirits he begun again to speak As formerly and with a judgment stayd The zealous young man thus continued Suffer me yet a little while said he To speak my friend and I 'll impart to thee What further I have yet to plead and say On Gods behalf suffer me now I pray To speak but yet a little in defence Of my great Master that I may from thence Inform thee of his Power and Majesty And thy own dulnesse and stupidity Who all this while hast boldly argued 'Gainst his procedure in thy case and said 'T was hard to send so great a punishment Upon a man so just and innocent As thou art I shall therefore freely show How much thou to this mighty God dost owe Who hath been pleas'd with so much patience To hear thee talk so on thy innocence And even attempt t'arraign his Providence Without inflicting yet some harder things Upon thee for thy sinfull murmurings Allow me then to speak for I intend 'Gainst all opponents stoutly to defend The honour of my Maker and maintain Against all mortals who of him complain That he 's all justice mercy and compassion And uses in his wrath great moderation That he 's all virtue truth and righteousness And more then I am able to express Allow me then to speak allow me pray And seriously advert to what I say Upon the subject for though my intent
for I will lye before your face 29. Return I pray you let there be no iniquity return I say and you shall yet see my righteousness in that behalf is there iniquity in my tongue doth not my mouth feel sorrows 1. Is there not an appointed time for man upon earth and are not his days as the days of an hireling 2. As a servant longeth for the shadow and as a hireling looketh for the end of his work 3. So have I had as an inheritance the moneths of vanity and painful nights have been appointed to me 4. If I laid me down I said when shall I arise and measuring the evening I am even full with tossing too and fro unto the dawning of the day 5. My flesh is cloathed with worms and filthiness of the dust my skin is rent and become horrible 6 My days are swifter then a weavers shuttle and they are spent without hope 7. Remember that my life is but a wind and that mine eye shall not return to see pleasure 8 The eye that hath seen me shall see me no more thine eyes are upon me and I shall be no longer 9. As the cloud vanisheth and goeth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more 10. He shall return no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more 11 Therefore will I not spare my mouth but I will speak in the trouble of my spirit and muse in the bitterness of my mind 1â— Am I a sea or â—whale-fish that thou keep'st me in ward 12. When I say my couch shall relieve me and my bed shall give me comfort in my meditation 14. Then fearest thou me with dreams and astonishest me with visions 15. Therefore my soul chuseth rather to be strangled and to dyâ— then to be in my bones 16. I abhore it I shall not live always spare methen for my days are but vanity 17. What is man that thou shouldest magnify him or that thou â—ettest thy heart on him 18. And dost visit him every moment and tryest him every morning 19. How long will it be ere â—â—ou depart from thou wilt not let me alone whilst I may swallow down mâ—spittle 20. I have sinned what shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of men why hast thou set me as a mark against thee so that I am a burden to my self 21. And why dost thou not pardon my trespass and take away mine iniquity for now shall I sleep in the dust and if thou seekest me in the morning I shall not be found 1. Then answered Bildad the Shuhite and said 2. How long wilt thou talk of these things and how long shall the words of thy mouth be as a mighty wind 3. Doth God pervert judgement or doth the Almighty subvert justice 4. If thy sons have sinned against him and he hath sent them to the place of their iniquity 5. Yet if thou wilt early seek unto God and pray to the Almighty 6. If thou be pure and upright then surely he will awake up unto thee and he will make the habitation of thy righteousnesse prosperous 7. And though thy beginning be small yet thy latter end shall greatly encrease 8. Enquire therefore I pray thee of the former age and prepare thy self to search of thy fathers 9. For we are but of yesterday and know nothing and our days upon earth are but as a shadow 10. Shall not they teach thee and tell thee and utter the words of their heart 11. Can a rush grow without mire or can grass grow without water 12. Whilst it is yet in its greenness and not cut down it withereth before any other herb 13. â—o are the paths of all that forget God and the hypocrites hopes shall perish 14. His confidence also shall be cut off and his trust shall be as the house of a spider 15. He shall â—ean upon his house but it shall not stand he shall hold him fast by it yet it shall not endure 16 But the tree is green before the sun and the branches spread over the garden thereof 17. The roots thereof are wrapped about the fountain and are folden about the house of stones 18. If any pluck it from his place and it deny saying I have not seen the. 19. Behold it will rejoyce by this means that it may grow in another mould 20. Behold God will not cast away an upright man neither will he take the wicked by the hand 21. Till he have filled thy mouth with laughter and thy lips with joy 22. They that hate thee shall be cloathed with shame and the dwelling of the wicked shall not remain 1. Then Iob answered and said 21 I know that it is so for how should man compared unto God be justified 3. If he would dispute with him he could not answer him one thing of a thousand 4. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength who hath been fierce against him and hath prospered 5. He removeth the mountains and they feel not when he overthroweth them in his wrath 6. He removeth the earth out of her place that the pillars thereof do shake 7. He commandeth the sun and it riseth not he closeth up the stars as under a signet 8. He himself alone spreadeth out the heavens and walketh upon the hieght of the sea 9. He maketh the stars Arcturus Orion Pleiades and the climats of the south 10. He doth great things and unsearchable yea marvellous things without number 11. Lo when he goeth by me I see him not and when he passeth by I perceive him not 12. Behold when he taketh a prey who can make him to restore it who shall say unto him what doest thou 13. God will not withdraw his anger and the most mighty helps do stoop under him 14. How much less shall I answer him or how shall I find out my words with him 15. For though I were juli yet I could not answer but I would make supplication to my judge 16. If I cry and he answer me yet would I not believe that he heard my voice 17. For he destroys me with a tempest and woundeth me without a cause 18 He will not suffer me to take my breath but filleth me with bitterness 19. If we speak of strength behold he is strong if we speak of judgement who shall bring me into plead 20. If I would justify my self mine own mouth willcondemn me if I would be perfect he shall judge me wicked 21. Though I were perfect yet I know not my soul therefore I abhor my life 22. This is one point therefore I said he destroyeth the perfect and the wicked 23. If the scourge should suddainly slay should God laugh at the punishment of the innocent 24. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked he covereth the faces of the judges thereof if not where is he or who is he 25. My days have been more swift than a post they have fled and have seen no good
princes and maketh the strength of the mighty weak 22. He discovereth the deep places from their darkness and bringeth forth the shadow of death to light 23. He encreaseth the people and destroyeth them he enlargeth the nations and bringeth them in again 24. He taketh away the hearts of them that are the chief over the people of the earth and maketh them to wander in the wilderness out of the way 25. They grope in the dark without light and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man 1. Lo mine eye hath seen all this mine ear hath heard and understood it 2. I know as much as you know I am not inferior to you 3. But I will speak to the Almighty and I desire to dispute with God 4. For indeed you forge lies you are Physicians of no value 5. O that you would hold your tongue that it might be imputed to you for wisdom 6. Now hear my disputation and give ear to the arguments of my lips 7. Will you accept his person or will you contend for God 8. It is well that he should seek of you will you make a lye for him as one lyeth for a man 9. He will surely reprove you if you accept any person secretly 10. Shall not his excellency make you afraid and his fear fall upon you 11. Your memory may be compared to ashes and your bodies to bodies of clay 12. Hold your tongues in my presence then and let me speak let come upon it What will 13. Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth and put my soul in my hand 14. Loe though he slay me yet will I trust in him and I will reprove my ways in his sight 15. He shall be my salvation also for the hypocrite shall not come before him 16. Hear diligently my words and mark my talk 17. Behold now if I prepare me to judgement I know I shall be justified 18. Who is he that will plead with me now for if I hold my tongue I dye 19. But do those two things to me then will I not hide my self from thee 28. withdraw thy hand from me and let not thy fear make me afraid 21. then call thou and I will answer thee or let me speak and answer thou me 22. How many are mine iniquities and my sins show me my rebellion and my sin 23. Wherefore hidest thou thy face and takest me for thine â—remy 25 Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro and wilt thou pursue the dry stuble 26 For thou writest bitter things against me and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth 26. Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks and lookest narrowly into all my paths and makest the print thereof in the heels of my feet 27 Such an one consumeth like a rotten thing and as a garment that is moth-eaten 1 Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble 2. Hr shooteth forth as a flewer sâ—cut down he flyeth â—â—o as a shadow continueth not 3. Yet dost thou open thine eyes on suen a one and bringst me into judgement with thee 4. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean no not one 5. Are not his days determined the number of his months are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds which he cannot passe 6. Turn from him then that he may cease until his desired day as an hireling 7. For there is hope of a tree if it be â—ut down that it will yet sprout and the branches thereof will not cease 8. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth and the stock thereof be dead in the ground 9. Yet by the scent of water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant 10. But man is sick and dyeth man perisheth and where is he 11. As the waters pass from the sea the flood decayeth and dryeth up 12. So man sleepeth and riseth not for he shall not awake again nor be raised from his sleep while the heavens be no more 13. O that thou wouldst hide me in the grave and keep me secret untill thy wrath were past and wouldst give me a term and remember me 14. If a man dye shall he live again all the days of my appointed time will I wait till while my change come 15. Thou shalt call me and I shall answer thee thou lovest the work of thine own hands 16. But now thou numbrest my steps and dost not delay my sins 17. Mine iniquity is sealed up as in a bag and thou addest to my wickedness 18. And surely as the mountain cometh to nought and the rock that is removed from his place 19. As the waters break the stones when thou oversâ—â—â— est the the things â—â—â—ion grow in the dast of the earth 〈◊〉 thou destroyest the hope of man 20. Thou prevâ—â—lâ—st against him so that he passeth away he changeth his face when thou castest him away 21. And he knoweth not if his sons shall be honourable neither shall he understand concerning them if they be of low degree 22. But while his filesh is upon him he shall be sorrowfull and while his soul is in him it shal mourn 1. Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite and said 2. Shall a wise man speak words of the wind and fill his belly with the east-wind 3. Shall he dispute with words that are no comely or with talk that is not profitable 4. Sure thou hast casten off fear and restrains prayer before God 5. For thy mouth declareth thy iniquity seing thou hast chosen the tongue of the crafty 6. Thine own mouth condemneth thee not I and thy lips testify against thee 7. Art thou the first man that was born and wast thou made before the hills 8. hast thou heard the secret council of God and dost thou restrain wisdom to thee 9. What knowest thou that we know not and understandest that is not in us 10. With us are both ancient and very aged men far older then thy father 11. Seem the consolation of God smal unto thee is this thing strange unto thee 12. Why ' doth thine heart take thee away and what do thine eyes mean 13. That thou answerest thy God at thy pleasure and bringest such words out of thy mouth 14. What is man that he should be clean and he that is born of woman that he should be just 25. Behold he found no sted fastness in his saints yea the heavens are not clean in his sight 16. How much more 〈◊〉 man abominable filthy who drinketh iniquity like water 17. I will tell thee hear me and I will declare what I have seen 18. Which wise men have told as they heard of their fathers and have not keeped secret 19. To whom alone the land was given no stranger passed through them 20. The wicked man is as one that traveleth continually with child the number of years is hid from the tyrant 21. A found of fear is in his ears and
I will answer thee that God is greater then man 13. Why dost thou strive against him for he giveth not account of any of his matters 14. For God speaketh once yea twice yet man perceiveth it not 15. In a dream in a vision of the night when deep sleep falleth upon men in â—lumbrings on the bed 16. Then he openeth the ears of men and sealeth their Instruction 17 That he may withdraw man from his purpose and hide pride from man 18 He keepeth back his soul from the pit and his life from perishing by the sword 19 He is chastned also with pain upon his bed and the multitude of his bones with strong pains 20 So that his life abhorreth bread and his soul dainty meat 21 His flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seen and his bones that were were not seen stick out 22 His soul draweth nigh to the grave and his life to the destroyers 23 If there be a messenger with him an interpreter one amongst a thousand to shew man his uprightness 24 Then he is gracious to him saith deliver him from going down to the pit I have found a ransome 25. His flesh shall be fresher then a childs he shall return to the days of his youth 16. He shall pray unto God and he will be favourable unto him and he shall see his face with joy for he will render unto man his righteousness 27. He looketh upon men and if any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profited me not 28. He will deliver his soul from going into the pit and his life shall see the light 29. Lo all these things worketh God oftentimes with man 30. To bring back his soul from the pit to be enlightned with the light of the living 31. Mark well O Iob hearken unto me hold thy peace and I will speak 32. If thou hast any thing to say speak for I desire to justifie thee 33. If not hearken unto me hold thy peace and I shall teach thee wisdom 1. Furthermore Elihu answered and said 2. Hear my words O ye wise men and give ear unto me ye that have knowledge 3. For the ear trveth words as the mouth tasteth meat 4. Let us choose to us judgment let us know among our selves what is good 5. For Iob hath said I am righteous and God hath taken away my judgment 6. Should I lie against my rigâ—t my wound is incurable without transgression 7. What man is like Iob who drinketh up scorning like water 8 Who goeth in company with the workers of iniquity and walketh with wicked men 9. For he hath said it profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God 10. Therefore hearken unto me ye men of understanding far be it from God that he should do wickedness and from the Almighty that he should commit iniquity 11. For the work of a man shall he render unto him and cause every man to find according to his ways 12. Yea surely God will not do wickedly neither will the Almighty pervert judgement 13. Who hath given him a charge over the earth or who has disposed the whole world 14 If he set his heart upon man if he gather unto him his spirits and his breath 15 All flesh shall perish together and man shall turn again unto dust 16 If thou hast understanding hear this hearken to the voice of my words 17 Shall even he who hateth righ govern and wilt thou condemn him who is most just 18 Is it fit to say to a king thou art wicked and to princes ye are ungodly 19. How much less to him that accepteth not the person of Princes or regardeth the rich more then the poor for they are all the work of his hands 20. In a moment shall they dâ— and the people shall be troubled at midnight paâ—s away and the mighty shall be taken away without hand 21 For his eyes are upon the ways of man and he seeth all his goings 22 There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves 23 For he will not lay upon man more then right that he should enter into judgement with God 24 He shall break in pieces mighty men without number and set others in their stead â—5 Therefore he knoweth their works and he overturneth them in the nighe so that they are destroyed 26 He striketh them as wicked men in the open â—ight of others 27 Because they turned back from him and would not consider any of his ways 28 So that they cause the cry of the poor to come unto him and he heareth the cry of the â—â—â—â—â—ted 29 When he giveth quietness who then can make trouble and when he hideth his face who then can behold him whether it be done against a nation or against a man only 30 That the hypocrite reign nor lest the people be ensnared 31. Surely it is meet to be said to God I have born chastisement I will not offend any more 32. That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more 33. Should it be according to thy mind he will recompence it whether thou refuse or whether thou chuse and â—ot I therefore speak what thou knowest 34. Let men of understanding tell me and let a wise man hearken unto me 35. Iob hath spoken without knowledge and his words were without wisdom 36. My desire is that Iob may be tryed to the end because of his answers for wicked men 37. For he addeth rebellion to his sin he clapâ—eth his hands amongst us and mâ—ltiâ—lieth his words against God 1. Elihu spake moreover and said 2. Thinkest thou this to be right that thou saidst mâ— righteousness is more then Gods 3. For thou saidst what advantage will it be to thee and what profit shall I have if I be cleansed from my sin 4. I will answer thee and thy companions with thee 5. Look unto the heavens and see and behold the clouds which are higher then thou 6. If thou sinnest what dost thou against him or if thy transgressions be multiplied what dost thou unto him 7. If thou be righteous what givest thou him what receiveth he of thine hand 8. Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art and thy righteousness may profit the son of man 9. By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty 10. But none saith Where is God my maker who giveth songs in the night 11. Who teacheth 〈◊〉 more then the beaâ—â— of the earth and maketh us wiser then the fowls of heaven 12. There they cry but none giveth answer because of the pride of evil men 13. Surely God will not hear vanity nor will the Almighty regard it 14. Although thou sayst thou shalt not see him yet judgement is before him therefore trust thou in him 15 But now because iâ— is not 〈◊〉 he hath