the worlds foundation Thou did'st but speake and all this all 's creation Did to thy great Imperiall word obey Loe here shin'd light their shady darknes lay Here Hill's proud tops did on their tiptoes stand There did the Ocean roare against the sand Here on the floury bottoms fragrant mead The nibling troups securely prank and feed There in the bosome of the glassie deep The scaly nations softly swim and creep The ayrie legions scud along the skies As if they meant the Welkin to surprise And every thing that hath or life or sense To thy command'ment gave obedience And whil'st thou com'st an old world new to make No other toole nor mattock thou wilt take But that same word of thine that thou mai'st still By thy great Word thy glorious Will fulfill Since by thy Word then which is only wise Thou dostillighten thy Disciples eyes O let me heare thee in great Moses chaire Confound those Rabbins whom the world admire That by thy Doctrine I may learn that wit Which never nat'rall man could teach as yet To Nazareth he goeth and entring there Unto their Synagogue he doth repaire And reads in Esayes volume this sweet text Esay 61.1 Jehovahs Sp'rit is me let all vex'd With sinne afflicted hearts come heare my word For I am the annoynted of the Lord Whom he hath sent his Gospell to proclame To free the Captives and restore the lame Give sight unto the blinde binde up the bruised And give them grace who doe not quite refuse it This day saith he this Text is now fulfil'd This day is grace down from the heav'ns distill'd And happy he who heareth and believeth In him who this Salvation freely giveth But veng'ance shall his portion be who stops His ears against my heav'n elixer'd drops Doe not you call to minde how that of old From Ebals threatning tops it was foretold A thousand curses should fall down upon A sinfull froward generation But who so should their soules enclinet obey The sacred Sanctions of the mount Siney Ten thousand blessings from Gerizims store Should on their heads be multiplied and more Now is the time and here am I the man From out whose mouth or curse or blessings can Receive effect or force to save or kill They heare my word and they obey my will Blessed is he therefore whose heart is pure For of my heav'nly kingdome he is sure Blessed are they who hunger for my grace They shall be fill'd and satisfied with peace Blessed are they who doe in secret mourn Their sorrows to their solace shall return Blessed be you when men for my name sake Shall of your life and goods proud havock make Blessed be you when ' gainst you men speak evill And call you sonnes of Beliall and the Devill For what they derogat from your regard They adde against their will to your reward Yea bless'd and more then blessed shall you be When you be thrust from their societie Thrust from their Synagogu's excommunicate Rebuk'd blaspheam'd and all disconsolate Be not dismaid but rather be you glad The Prophets old no better service had The Sonne of man himselfe shall so be us'd Contemn'd reproach'd disdain'd and fouly brus'd And sure I am that when the master hath No softer shelter and no surer path The servant should not grudge nor yet disdaine If with his master he shall share like paine But wo to such whose riches shall abound Whose heart and hands are in their store house sound I tell you truly they have their reward No after pleasure is for them prepar'd Woe woe to those who laugh and never weep Destruction to their soules doth softly creep Woe woe to such as vainly cry peace peace Thinking the mountaine cannot change his place For sorrow griefe and plagues shall on them come Like travell on a womans burth'ned wombe Stoln bread and water sweet are to the taste But gall and worm-wood's easier to digest Blesse you therefore such as doe curse you for If you shall blesse your friends and doe no more What honour can you crave of God by them Who live estrang'd from God they doe the same Doe good to those who harm you pray for those Who persecute your Soules with griefes and woes Give to all such as aske you freely len And look for no requitall back agen So shall you show your selves th' Almighty's sonnes When you be cloath'd with his perfections You are this worlds chief salt while you have savour Your work with God and Men shall finde true favour But if you lose your savour then your taste Shall all your service to the dunghill cast You are a Citty set upon a hill Which to the worlds proud gaze stands object still Dream not you can be hid all eyes are on you And all mens motions doe depend upon you If whil'st they wander in an oblique Car Your course prove constant like a fixed Star If whil'st they stumble in Cymerian night You walk in Goshen like the sonnes of light Whil'st muddy cares doe their best joyes controle If your affections rest above the Pole If whil'st their runnalls Marah like prove tart Your springs drink sweet and so rejoyce the heart If whil'st they hold in hand a fruitlesse goad You bud ripe Almonds like to Arons rod If whil'st a stranger cals you you repine And know no shepheards voice but only mine In all your wayes if you shall still intend Your masters glory and no other end Then ô how happy happy thrice you be Life is your lot your term eternitie Then feare not man whose hand can doe no more But kill the body feare God rather for When he hath kil'd the body yet he can Powre out destruction on the soule of man And send both soule and body down to hell In chains of darknesse and of death to dwell 'T is true those precepts which I now doe Preach Exceed the narrow bounds of humane reach Yet though the flesh be weak the Spirit 's strong And grace can rectifie stern natures wrong Think not I come to put the law at under Or what the Lord hath joyn'd to cut asunder No no the Law and Gospell be two brothers The sonnes of one man though of severall mothers That Hagars brood who unto bondage beareth This Sarahs sonne who 's free and nothing feareth That 's Sinays suckling who with terrour shaketh This Syons nursling whom no feare awaketh That first this last that strong but this the stronger And so the elder must needs serve the younger The Law requireth works the Gospell Faith Both have one ayme though in a severall path For he who sweetly speaketh in them both Is but one God and one same sp'rit of truth Works without faith are like to fig-tree leaves Which seem to shelter but in end deceive's And faith unlesse good works doe crown her head May seem to live yet 's spirit'ally dead For as faith laying hold on th' Mediator Makes man stand just before the just Creator So works
thoughts espy With a loud voyce he boldly thus doth say Alas I now perceive it for a truth This people doe draw neer me with their mouth Whil'st as their hearts are farre from me for loe Not for my Doctrine sake they doe me know But for the barlie loaves they did partake When I did feed them for my mercy sake But travell not I pray you for that meat Which is as quickly gone as it is eate But labour for that bread which lasts for ever Which I the sonne of man to you deliver Your Fathers in the deserts did eate Manna And prais'd the giver with a loud Hosanna Yet did they perish dye and eke consume In their stifnecked murmuring A mertume But he who eats the bread that I shall give him Shall never perish for it shall revive him I am the bread of life which came from heaven My father unto you this bread hath given That by his bread of life which is supernall He may your soules maintain to life Eternall As many then as come to me shall neither Have thirst nor hunger for my glorious Father Sent me from heav'n not my own will to doe But mans hard heart unto his yoak to bow That so man may eschew his burning wrath And scape the sorrows of the second death No man hath seen the Father but the Sonne Who in the Fathers bosome dwels alone He doth reveale him unto whom he pleaseth Whose crosse he lightneth and whose soule he easeth No man ascendeth unto heav'n but he Who came from heav'n and doth in Majestie Though base on earth yet when he thinketh sit Doth on his Fathers right hands glory sit And at his second comming saves his sheep From sinking in that never fathom'd deep Whereas the sulpher of th'Eternalls breath Layes hold upon the vessels of his wrath And makes the faithfull and the righteous all Be fill'd with glories endlesse festivall The Metamorphose CANTO 6o. FOre-chosen Jacob Isaac's second Swaine Jah-struggling champion and victorious man Thou royall she apheard and tresprudent Siere Whom Palestina's Princes did admire Vouchsafe me but t' approach thy dying throne And charge thee with this Gordian knot alone And like Apollo thou thy front shalt see Deckt with a garland from the Lawrell tree Whence come th' Enthusiasm and that sacred sury Which made thee all thy carnall senses bury In Lethe's lap and with religious rage Divide Chams tents to Israels heritage VVhence hadst thou wisdome and sweet inspiration To precognose and with true divination Foretell that Juda's tribe should beare the sway Till Shilo should ecclipse his Majesty How madest thou Joseph like a fruitfull Vine That doth her arms about her Bridegroom twine Drunk with the grapes of Ephraims royall cup Which weak Manasseh's hands could not beare up But above all I stand amaz'd to see Lewd Levi's scatt'rings dare t' approach so nigh To Joves Ariell offring there upon For sinne and sinners expiation Is Dinah dead or Sechem's blood gone dry That thou dost thus forget his villany And without smarting for his foule offence Exalt him to the high-Priests eminence 'T is strange that divine Justice should permit Him who i th' chaire of sinners so hath sit Without corrections rod possesse the throne And sing the carrols of exemption O now I see thy tongue was not thy own A higher power hath it rul'd and thrown Even He great He whose wayes we cannot spy Because his will 's the square he worketh by Who where he will have mercy there he pardons And where he will with draw his grace he hardens From his good pleasure then and no where else It is that Levi's tribe the rest excels And on his Ephod whiter then the snow Hath tyed his breast plate where in sumptuous show Stands Vrim and great Thummims true direction For light of knowledge and for lifes perfection So then from loyns of that unhallowed stem Which Jacob thrust from Israels diadem The Lord hath chosen a successive race Of royall Priesthood who before his face Shall in that course which David did prescribe Burn incense and their sacrifice contrive With never alter'd though alternat order Till Melchizedeck come and crush their border All those like Comets when they first appeare In our sublunar regions hemispheare Did draw mens wandring eyes and wondring hearts To scan their sequels whether smiles or smarts But all in vaine nature can ne'er unty The clasped books of heav'ns great mystery For till the Word was Flesh great Judah's throne Ne'er knew her perfect exaltation And Aarons rod did ne'er her top bow down With reverence to Melchizedecks Crown But when thou cam'st those figures types and tropes Had reall Essence for unreall hopes For where the Sun doth shine in lights aray All clouds evanish night gives place to day Since then thou art true light and since with thee Darknesse dare plead for no societie O let me but be bold this once to follow Thee to thy Tabor that my sp'rit being shallow May by the lustre of thy glories shine Taste of that light that never shall decline But aye me whil'st I see the hill so steep The gulfe of my poore misery so deep The flesh so fraile the sp'rit so soone o'retak'n The flax so quench'd the bruised reed so shak'n The load of sinne so great my faith so faint So strickt the forfeit of the Covenant I cannot choose but feare lest by the way My hasting doe defraud me of my pray Unlesse thou help who help'd the faithfull thiefe For I believe Lord help my unbeliefe Come then dread Saviour let me search the time Wherein thou didst to Tabors fastege clime Thy Scriv'ners differ many therefore doubt Thy journies Epoche how they shall finde out One sayes that it was fully six daies after That thou didst make their soules o'reflow with laughter By promising that some who stood thee by Should not see death nor taste mortality Till they being witnesse of thy raptures story Should see the Sonne of man come in his glory Another saith the dayes were almost eight After that promise that thou scal'dst this height Thus doe some weake mindes stumble whilst they spy Amidst thy truth so great variety But foolish we in vanity still wallow We straine a Gnat yet doe a Camel swallow We grope at noone day and make known our blot Whil'st in a rush we seek a Gordian knot For where the eight day's neere and six are spent By true arithmetick the seventh is meant Upon this day when heav'ns and earth were made And all their frame and fabrick finished Th' Eternall seeing all his creatures good Proclam'd the seventh dayes rest and so it stood Upon this day from Mysraims darkned Cell God did redeem his first born Israel Upon this day from Baalz phons shoare To Migdoll he his people dry-foot bore Upon this day from Syna's thundering jaw He gave the Sanctions of his sacred Law Upon this day in Cana's wedding shrine He turned fountaine water unto wine And
Zachary Th' Almighties Flamin his anoynted rather Ev'n thou who by thy lot within this shrine With hallowed Judgment and with Art divine Attendst thy service and observ'st thy station To expiat Israels sinfull conversation O how my ravish'd Soule doth now admire The glorious fabrick of this glorious Quire Wherein thou standst for Porphyr Gold and Mabre Strive t'eternize the curious workman's-labor No whilst within this house my greedy eye Doth glut her self on Arts brave industry No sooner can I rest my thoughts upon This carved seiling or that graven stone But lo a rare rare Deity ties my Sense To ruminat his matchlesse eminence For whilst I call that Majesty to minde Whose grace and glory peace and truth hath shin'd Within those walls what need I more to seek Nile's Hyeroglyphicks or the Delphian Creek The Rabbiâ—-Talmud characters of Perss Turks Alcaron or Sybillaean verse No those are all but fancies and inventions Of humane frailties and of frail intentions Which like their owners perish in that rust Which Time and Canker portrays in the dust But here and here alone I know within These vaulted-Arches Man infect with Sin May read the Programs of th'Eternal's Love Made manifest for Adam's sonns behove Son saith the Syre what proud ambitious strain Hath led thee hither that thou shouldst prophane Jehovah's sacrifice and solemn Rite With babling Riddles of a brain-sick sprite Look but I pray thee what dread adorations The Idoll godlings of the godles Nations Require within their shrines and shadowing Grove And thence learn thou to dread th' Almighty Jove Shall Jupiter Ammonius or Apollo Or wandring Cynthea whom the Sylvans follow At Daphne's trypod Dodona or there Whereas th' Argolick sages did repair Require a grave and reverend Majesty To enact their hel-born magick mystery And shall not he who 's one and trinally od Of kings chief King and above all gods God Receive a reverend form and sacred guize Of worship in his daily Sacrifice Or tell me Son have nere thy eares as yet Heard how his Ark did scaily Dagon smit And all the Princes with a deadly wound In Ashdod Gath and Ekrons coasts confound Or knowst thou not poore Vzzah's fatall storie Or Abthu and Nadab's fatall glorie Who in their vain presumptions fell and falling Bid man observe the compasse of his calling All those stand written in truth's sacred book That wee may read when upon them wee look His fearfull glory and unapproched might Who sets us in his never slumbring sight Out therfore get thee out from hence and stand With Israel in his porch whose heav'd up hand Dejected heart and humbly-patient ey Attends the Missa of this Mistery At this rebuke I goe yet scarce am gone When loe the relicts of a mourning groane Cut in a thousand parcells seems to call Mee back to gaze some divine spectacle Returning then amazd behold I finde After the rushing of a mighty winde A light ore-shadow Zachary more cleere Then that which gilds our mid-daies hemispheere In midst whereof at Zacharies right hand Behold a glorious Cherubim doth stand Whose smiling eyes and countenance excels All human beauties and all creatures els About his head a semi-circled Crown Of Iris parti-colour'd coat was drawn Which to my poore amazed wandring eyn Seem'd dy'd in opall yellow blue and green The curled hayrs which on his head doe grow Are whiter far then new faln flaughts of snow 'Twixt which the sparks of gold bespangled brands Makes Ganges blush and Tagus loath her sands His eys like stars in dark Cymerian night Dart forth their flashings with a wondrous light And like that troop which trips about the Pole In restles wandrings here and there they role Next this with two Seraphick wings he flies Whereon the heav'ns have daind t'immortalize Their rarest beauties in the rarest hue Of crimson red and pure vermilion blue Down from his middle to his feet is drawn A pretious vail more cleere then any lawn On which stands portray'd by celestiall Art That love-sick Foule which tares her tender heart And yeelds a Runnall of her deerest blood To glut her Paricids amidst their food A little lower Jesse's son doth stand With peeble stones and sling-staffe in his hand Trampling Goliah's glory in the dust Who in his strength and sinnewy force did trust Loe here the Phoenix aromatick cole Burns her to dust and yet revives her soule And there Arachne from her belly spins The tissue-mantle that obscures our sins These and a thousand other severall passions Of severall figures severall forms and fashions Stand checker'd all as emblems of that Love Which weds our frailties to a spotles Jove At this great sight old Zachary stands mute Confus'dly amaz'd amaz'dly irresolute For by a pallid ghostly feare his sense Of speech and hearing lose their influence At last like to the Delian Princess when She fluttereth over the Atlantick Ocean He curbs the fit that conquer'd him before And to his reason thus he opes the dore O! what is this that I behold faith he Is this a fain'd evanishing Majesty Of Molech Milcom Chamosh Ashtaroth Of Baal Dagon or that spirit which doth Transform'd in light bewitch with darknes spell Those howling ghosts which on Earths center dwell No sure I am those Idols are not such They neither heare nor see nor talk nor touch They smell not taste not and in all their bands There is no heart that knows or understands As for that hellish Prince or fearfull spirit Lights hatefull foe who darknes doth inherit I know that here he never dare aspire To view the secrets of this sacred fire Whose Censers in their sweet exhaling cloud Presignifie that Shiloe in his blood Shall such a fragrant Sacrifice reveale As shall bruise down the head that bites his heele What then it is some vision sent from heav'n But those have ceas'd and our deserts have driv'n That sacred Chore and great Angelick train To shun the lewd societies of Men. Whilst thus old Zachary's mutinous thoughts are all Beleaguer'd by Opinion's Generall Feare Hee whose feare restrains the Lions jaws And curbs the rigour of the Tygers paws Cries by his Angell Zachary feare no more For lo thy prayer 's heard and come before His glorious eyes who shuts our tears each one In bottles of due retribution Recall therefore thy Spirits from gates of death For lo thy barren wife Elizabeth Shall beare a Son and thou shalt call him John Heavn's holy-Ghost shall alwaies rest upon His head and his celestiall pow'r shall sacre Thy Son a Minion to the worlds great Maker Nor wine nor strong drink shall hee taste at all Nor shall a rasor make his tresse to fall But as a Nazarite both in name and spirit He shall Eliah's talent re-inherit And as a Lyon he shall roare and cry Prepare before Messiah's face the way In him thou shalt rejoyce for many one Jew Prosolyte and far-bred nation Shall joy in him for by his heav'nly Art He shall the
sinner from his sinnes convert He shall the father to the son rejoyn The son gainst father shall no more repine Each lofty Mountain and declining vally Through which our bubling brooks doe crawl and dally Shall change their state for those shall be made low And these exalted to an eminent show Things rough shall be made smooth things crooked streight And on rous things shall lose their pondrous weight And all the sucklings sleeps in natures lap Shall see the lightning of his thunder-clap That all the world may learn t' adore and kis Immanuel whose harbenger he is O how can 't bee saies Zachary that I Whose loynes are fruitles juceles barren dry Or that my wife Elizabeth whose raines Have stopt the fruitfull current of their vains Should recollect recover and rebring A living Runnal from a wither'd Spring No Zachary saith the Angell know that hee Whose glory wisdom pow'r and Majesty Turns heav'ns bright Sphears about earths drossy ball Shall make thy tragick-Theatre comicall And lest that like a bull rush beaten reed Thy faith should faint or hope should lose her Creed Recall the memoyr's of the daies of old How Nature hath been by his pow'r control'd And thou shalt see that to the supreme powrs VVee stand subjected and what ere is our For let mee ask whence comes these Nectar'd drops Which like pure Balme doe drench Pomonaes tops Who makes the Oceans mutinous waves reflote Or who enamels Vestaes petticote VVho doth the fields refresh or flowrs re-flowr Who Bride-like busks Apolloes Paramour Who leads brave Titan captive through the sky Or who decks Cynthia with a silver dy Who brings old Boreas from his frozen Cave Who makes his furie all the world out-brave Who can command the light in darknes Camp To checker portraits in a dornick Champ Or who can shut again Lights glistring ey To snort in midst of darknes Canopy All these like antient Hieroglyphicks may God's wondrous power to the world display But since thou by a faithles feare wilt try His might goe mannage thy security By Sarahs loynes the faithfull Abraham's wife Whose barren belly is a well of life Behold Rebecca and the barren Anna Mother to Samuel wife to Elkana And by the histoyr ' of their strange exchange Command thy reason and thy sense t'estrange Their course from Nature and repose alone Thy faith and hope ev'n against hope upon His never failing word whose power can frame From senslesse stones a seed to Abraham 'T is true that Nature since the world began Strugleth ' gainst Faith within the naturall man And like a mutinous Hagar strives to steal The lot from Isaack to her Ishmael And he who hath not learned to deny Himselfe his reason wit and industry And with the welcome of affections kisse Submit himselfe to God and all that 's his May well expect but never shall embrace The dignities of Glory or of Grace And now since by a further doubting thou Hast call'd his word in doubt who 's only true Loe I who stand before his glorious eyes Who though unseen himselfe yet all things sees Must tell thee that till these things come to passe Which he hath spoke who shall be is and was This just deserved Rod on thee shall fall That thou shalt neither heare nor speake at all But shalt be dumb till with thine eyes thou see Th' accomplishment of this my Heraldrie Thus having with dread Majestie engraven In Zacharies heart this sowre-sweet-newes from heaven Like lightning when it darts alongst the skies His wings support him and away he flies The Annunciation CANTO 3o. STay stay your course you christall heav'ns and you Swift rolling Sphears whose vaulted Arches bow An azur'd brave Pavilion o're Ear ths bail Stay stay your motions sweetly musicall Arrest your course likewise you twinckling starrs Who dallying in your gold rich ammel'd Carrs Doe like brave Torches and still burning Tapers Light natures Chappell at her ev'ning Vespers And Amphitrite thou where Syrens dwells And celebrate their Nymph-like festivalls Braule thou no more in that tumultuous guize That sacks the Merchant 's far fetch'd Indian prize But like a Bride who knows her Bride-groom's diet Greet thou thy Neptune with a sacred quiet And whilst thy waiting hand maids-cristall brooks Desert their Fountains and their floury crooks To bring a Consort of their watry Calls To gratulate thy Nymph-like Nuptialls Then clasp them in thine arms with joyfull heast And bid them welcome to thy Virgin feast Till reconvey'd with Tritons for their trayne Thou sendst them to their bubling sourse againe Empamper'd Vesta on whose embroider'd kirtle Hangs Alloes Cassia Spicknard Balme and Mirtle Carowse that Nectar which the Heav'ns doe weep To all those sucklings in thy lap doe sleep That they may dance amidst thy pearlelike shower A Masquedrade before thy Paramour Thus like a bold-fac'd Herald I proclame To Nature and her Universall frame Ev'n from Boötes in his whirling Carre To pale Orion's tempest boding Starre A sacred quiet and a sweet cessation From all their influence course and operation Till he whose Royall and Imperiall Throne Transcends our azur'd skies and heav'ns each one Doe from the Senate of his own good pleasure Send Man the Message of his Soules rich treasure Sixe times hath now faire Phaebe cut a caper In opposition to her brothers Taper And six times couch'd againe within his armes Sh' hath glut her selfe with his delightfull charmes Since earst a heav'n-born Legat hath declar'd To Zachary That for his faiths reward From out his wife Eliz'beths barren wombe The great Messiahs Prodrome John should come Now now Time big with fulnesse doth require That he who first did blow our Soules bright fire Should contribute truth life and light unto Those shady Tipes which did his Sonne foreshow That so the gracelesse World by him might plant Within their hearts his gracious Covenant Time then being full Night in a sad Sea-green Or pitchy-purpled mantle like Deaths Queen Had tane her Brother Morpheus Mace in hand And sent a drowsie rest over all the Land The ever-sacred ever Virgin-mother Whose glory neither heav'n nor earth can smother Great Arimathea's joy and Bethels Crowne And Palestina's dread sweet rich Renowne Still ruminating heav'ns unshun'd decree How from a Virgins belly there should flee A Soule dread Monarch and Celestiall Prince Whose blood should purge our leprous foule offence Prevent the rosie mornings warbling train And hyes her to a neighboring Grove amain That there in darknesse shady lap she might In divine contemplations spend the night Yet stay my Muse stay but a little while And view this grove which Eden-like doth smile That by the survey of so sweet a shade My muse may some way make my Reader glad Neare to that place whence hoary Jordane slides From Hermons hill and makes his twin-born Tides To meet in Marons lap in view doth lye The ever fruitfull pleasant Galily Whose right hand 's dipt in those tumultuous waves Which by Tiberius