Catarrhs yea Pox that mouts The feathers of our courtiers coxcombs so That they wear borrow'd heads lest they should show Their scalded crowns excess and drink prepares Their minds and bodies for those torrid wares Which they so dearly pay for that oft times They a bone-ague get to plague their crimes Excess of sickness-breeders is the King Most if not all diseases from her spring Yet cures she none hunger and thirst excepted Which might by temperance be intercepted With much more thrift to soul and bodie too As well's estate excess doth all undo Sardanapalus of great Nimrod's race And Heliogabalus that glutton base Feel this firm truth confirm'd And many more Great Emperours and Kings lie on the score Doom'd to eternal hunger thirst and pain Yea triple-crown'd earth-gods who erst did reign In Babylon mysterious are no doubt Where they with their false Keys can ne'er get out Epicurism hath tainted Peters Chair Most of all thrones on earth Romes very air Doth stink of surfeits it therewith infected All Christendom and made that vice neglected But ah poor England thou hast since out gone Thy giddy Mistress and art past by none Though Dutch and Dane go far it 's all our shame To be Deform'd in Deed Reform'd in Name Reformed Cburches Reformation need In Manners more then Doctrine if we heed How universally this sin doth reign ' Mongst us more rare in France abhor'd in Spain The Germans bought Excess at famines rate Speedy ensuing Lord prevent that fate From scourging ours and win our hearts with love Off from the creatures to the things above Spiritualize our appetites and then Feed us the fullest of all mortal men Indeed Lord so thou dost provide us store So great as never Nation had before But we thy Manna loath as did of old Thy people Israel our stomacks cold Are squeazy grown and turn the bread of life To noysome humours faction schism and strife Yea heresies are bred and foster'd by Thy means ordain'd for Truth and Unity Fulness hath wantoniz'd our appetites That one in this t' other in that delights A third in none knows what Yea oft the Cook Makes bad meat lik'd the Authors unread Book The Preachers Doctrine took on trust are priz'd Most men affect what 's vented or devis'd By those of their own faction howe'er bad Some all for old some for the new stuff mad That many preachers cook-like strain their wit For ev'ry coxcombs palate sawce to fit Whilst some like all some-none yet all are right In their own fancies darkness so is light Ah sharpen Lord our souls weak stomacks more To truth and unity then heretofore Evacuate those humours gross afford â—ls true digestion of thy sacred word That may pure nutriment abroad diffuse Into our Churches bodie grown profuse Not only stain'd with fleshly drunkenness And surfeiting but with soul-giddiness And Spirit'al intoxication Glutted with food of life Ah stupid Nation That none but you should strength of wit devote Poison to suck out of your Antidote To make your cordial suffocate your life The curing word of peace breed killing strife This drunkenness of spirit far exceeds â—n its malignity that which proceeds â—rom drinks inebriation that makes men â—egrade themselves to beasts and this agen â—romotes them with the mischief to be Devils â—oth are inflaming fuming flatuous evils â—otti-fer's spirit giddifies the first â—he last the sp'rit of Lucifer accurst â—ord sheild us from them both but most of all â—rom that most mortal which is Sp'ritual â—inse Lord our Nations from that beastial sin â—f bodily excess we wallow in â—hat we thy blessings temporal may use â—ith temperance and never more abuse â—…ur peerless plenty Ah! But rinse us too â—…om drunkenness of soul which will undo Both Church and State unless thy grace prevent Impow'r us Lord of both so to repent And both so to renounce henceforth that we From thy impending Judgements freed may be An Epigram on the same WHat Man turn'd Beast is Reason grown a yoke Tiresome that thou it sell'st for drink and smoke Are Health and Knowledge contemptible both That thou preferr'st to them Excesse and Sloth Is grace thy scorn thy body and thy soul Neither worth saving Then continue foul And so foul beast farewel Soft here 's another Both have one Father but not both one Mother Satan gets one of Flesh t'other of Spirit The last's his darling though both shall inherit His dismal Kingdom he doth her affect As his choice sieve to sift the Lords Elect She best resembles him though both are evil The first 's a Beast the last's a perfect Devil Presumption one of sins tops MAke room for Rome's great Sov'raign who hath worâ— The triple-crown e'er since 't was made whose horâ— Pushes at Stars and shakes the Host of Heaven At least those seeming so whose hand hath given More fatal wounds to self deluding souls Then there are Stars betwixt the worlds two Poles Presumption 's Highness who loves room so well She takes up most part of the room in Hell For her attendants whom she rocks asleep With songs of heav'n till they approach that deep And vast Abyss whence none was ever freed Such dangers from security proceed Presumption flatters mankinde to damnation With false Plerophory of their salvation And so they run relying on dead faith Hand over head unto eternal death Perfidious Traytor thou hast Myriads slain Who deem'd their state secure till in that pain That hath nor ease nor end they plagued were And saw that thy seducements brought them there Thou hadst a hand in Mans and Angels falls Thou didst of old first found proud Babe's walls Which brought on Adams progeny confusion And probably was cause of the effusion Of all the blood that hath in war been spilt In all the ages since O horrid guilt For change of tongues to change of hearts inclin'd Had they one Tongue kept so they might one Mind She martial'd Aegypts people and their King Themselves away in the Red Sea to fling Who having tri'd Gods wonders oft before Would madly needs provoke him to one more VVhereby sad extirpation them befel Whose souls the sea did waft from earth to hell She ston'd the great Goliah whilst he braves And makes the Philistins to Isr'el slaves Most likely 't is the wisest Solomon VVas train'd to sin by foul Presumption As well as by strange women for a man Of his great knowledge and experience can Hardly great sin commit or grace withstand Unless Presumption have therein a hand Next his son Rehoboam ten Tribes lost By this proud Dames provoking him to boast Vaunting Sennacherib th' Assyrian King Play'd blasphemies upon thy untun'd string To humble Hezekiah's loathing ears Till he retreated fill'd with shame and fears When sudden vengeance from his camp had call'n A hundred fourscore and five thousand fall'n And afterwards to his eternal pain In Idol-worship by his sons was slain The greater Nebucadnezar presumes To make new gods the old gods
faith meek Abel off'red sacrifice More excellent and pleasing in God's eyes Then Cain's his elder brother Enoch's faith Caus'd his translation that he saw not death By faith did Noah warn'd the Ark prepare Wherein he and his houshold saved were By faith the faithful's father Ur forsook And to an unknown place himself betook By faith he and his seed did sojourn there In a strange land their Tabernacles were By faith old Sarah Issue did receive And quite past age had strength seed to conceive By faith tri'd Abram Isaac offered Accounting God could raise him from the dead That Isaac blessed his two sons hereby And Jacob Joseph's sons when he did die By faith departing Joseph mention made That Isr'el out of Aegypt should evade By faith was new-born Moses three months hid And when he came to yeers refuse he did The Title of King Pharao's daughter 's son And rather chose to bear affliction With God's poor Israel then for a season Sin 's pleasure to enjoy faith was his reason Hereby he Aegypt left Passover kept And sprinkling blood lest he should them have swept Who the first-born destroy'd By this they post Through Red-Sea dry-shod while th' Aegyptian Host The like assaying were o'erwhelmed all By Faith the Walls of Jericho did fall And Rahab saved was But should I tell Of Gideon Barak Sampson Samuel Jephta and David of the Prophets all Whom faith to do or suffer forth did call Whose faith wrought righteousness Kingdoms subdu'd Obtained promises and stop'd the rude And savage Lyons mouths and quencht fierce fire Escap'd the sword made weakness to aspire To be most strong wax'd valiant in fight And turned Aliens Armies all to flight How women have their dead reviv'd receiv'd And others tortur'd would not be reliev'd With the unnumbred wonders faith hath wrought Unparallel'd and passing humane thought Time would me fail for no tongue can express Faith's famous miracles were they much less Whose all-subduing pow'r none can resist She makes th' Almighty God do what she list For if faith as a grain of mustard-seed Can Mountains move as in truth's word we read None can imagine any thing is hard To a firm faith from sinful doubt debarr'd Faith is the clew that in earths pilgrimage Convey's the Lord's elected heritage Through the world's labyrinth and brings them home Unto the King of glorie 's presence-room She is the souls perspective glass whereby She spies what friends or foes in kenning lye If Pyrates cross us or we victual want Faith 's both our ammunition and provant She is the winde that drives the needle card And Pilot that directs she is our guard Nay she 's our Sun by day our Moon by night Our Star that brings us to our Saviours sight Next whom she 's all in all to those that sail For Bliss-port and without her all must sail Epigram on Faith MY soul thou' rt bliss-ward bound make faith thy friend Eternal bliss is at her fingers end He that the same bestows is in her eye who 'll cease to be as soon as her deny Stupendious wonder God should stoop so low As to be creature-rul'd yet I will show True reason for 't and briefly that is this It is his will whose will true reason is Hope FIrm Anchor of our souls that moar'st them fast Unto the sacred Rock when thou art cast On what side ere thou fall'st thou hold fast tak'st And in that adamant impression mak'st When our weak faith's Sun-beams eclipsed are We sail by thee alone our only Star In those dark obfuscations which sometimes Becloud the best at sight of their high crimes Which interpose a foggie mist between Our faith 's dim'd eyes and Christ and like a screen Repel the light and heat that should proceed From his bright Rayes unto our souls in need Then thou our Pilot ready art at hand When we are toss'd in deeps to drive to land Thou art the Master's Mate though faith be chief And in her absent actings yeeld'st relief When she 's asleep or else unactive grown And we upon the quick-sands well-nigh thrown Thou bring'st assistance with thy gentle gale That we a while may with a by-wind sail Till faith do re-enliven and recover Until her soporif'rous fit be over When she awakes and wash'th her spethom'd eyes In Penitences laver thou dost rise And succour her enfeebled arm and hand Depriv'd of their late holdfast thou dost stand And her support who if thou wert not nigh Would languish in those fainting fits and die VVhen Faith is mir'd in pudly sink of sin And tired quite thou wad'st through thick and thin To draw her out rub'st her benummed limbs Till by regain'd agility she climbs And tow'rs aloft and tramples down her foes And conquers all the pow'rs that her oppose In sad desertions when the wounded soul Studie's by art to make her fair parts foul Hope gently wipes her spots and rins'th her eyes That she may clearer view the mysteries Of love Divine and not despair to cry For mercy which she else would do and die Hope in our souls a kind of being gains Ere saving Faith can act and this restrains New Faith from failing whence she term'd may be Her elder grace without absurdity And though Plerophory which some attain Seem hope needless to make when that they gain She 's needful still and fades not till fruition Of what is hoped then shall blessed vision Withal determine faith when she shall see What she believ'd and thence both useless be When doubts and fears which here them both annoy'd â—hall be discuss'd and quell'd by bliss enjoy'd â—in's sting envenom'd quite extracted be And death be swallow'd up in victory Then necessary uselesness attends Them both when they have both attain'd their ends â—aith Hope and Charity may well be call'd â— Christian 's tria Omnia and install'd â—he Princesses of other gifts and graces â—nd in Christ's Church rightly supply the places â—o Sulphur Salt and Mercury alotted â—… nature's schools by those whom Art besotted â—he three chief corner-stones in Sion's wall â—emove but these and you will ruine all â—ea rob a man of hope faith soon will die â—nd so will everlasting Charity â— hope surcease soon by degrees expire â—…r hope of all the three keep in the fire â—…e gains them life and heat and them inflames â—ith Zeal Divine the surging waves she tames â—hich in the storms of passions or affections â—f Spir'tual or temporal afflictions â—nd perturbations them would overwhelm â—…d she not steer their course and sit at Helm â— sacred hope steer on our course aright â—…rough this dark vale of tears in darkest night â—hilst faith is hood-winkt Charity inchill'd â—… other graces dead thou only skill'd â—… give sight heat and life unto them all â—…lp hope at need dear God or else we fall Who dying we shall live thy face to see And to enjoy and be enjoy'd by thee Epigram on Hope WEak faith's chief crutch deserted soul's sole prop Charities
makes them both Heav'n and Hell Her age in times meer infancy was vast Transcending all Arithmeticians skill The number of her fore-past years to cast Though they should use the stars that Heaven fill Each grass and grain of dust that Earth can shew And all the drops and sands in Sea and shore With the Ayre 's Atomes they would be too few Were each a thousand thousand millions more For figures that grand number to express To which they would amount Howe'er when time Shall be no more her youth will be no less Then at the first O wonder most sublime Here muse and stand amaz'd presumptuous man Who squandrest pretious time in seeking that VVhich when possess'd annoys Content ne'er can Be found in Treasures Honours Pleasures flat False titillations They the fancy please With momentaneous tickling but the foul Can no satiety receive from these Whilst her diviner eyes espie their foul And gross delusions winning us to waste Our time of grace short week of working dayes On toyes and trifles care away to cast Neglecting our creation's end his prayse That formed us and so to lose our pay In that eternal Sabbath's rest to come And gull us with false hopes that fade away When Judgement dooms us Hell for our sad home Whose everlasting flames should us deter From their allurements and our souls provoke No longer true repentance to defer But take upon us our Redeemers yoke Embrace his endless love And let that force Our souls to grace by holy violence Redeem our time by Faith and true remorse And giving neither God nor man offence For on the husbanding of this short span Of our frail life eternal life depends Or death eternal Oh! when this we scan It should unbottom us from all false ends And keep us firm in truths sincerest wayes And in the pathes of life that when times race Is run and all distinguishments by dayes Hours months years shall here no more have place We may enjoy Eternity above Whereof that we may not at last be mist But ponder still in heart what doth behove Eternity Ah dearest Lord assist AMEN The Epigram on the same ETernity my Muse doth quite confound Her true Description never Mortal found Rings Snakes and Globes with such round things as those Th' Ancients for her diâ—…e resemblance chose A boundless Plain a pointless Parallel A Circle that includes both Heaven and Hell Yet hath nor Centre nor Circumference Demonstrable to Reason or to sence Each Mathematick poinâ— of whose vast Ring Equals her whole Dimension Wondrous thing Yet true as strange Nay more I 'll tell you what Think what man cannot think and she is that She rounds my Verse no man her depth can sound Eternity my Muse doth quite confound Objections Solutions and Chorus Objection 1. WHy should onely Man desire To transgress his Makers Laws Who made him so high aspire That all earthly things he awes Solution 1. NOthing but corrupted Nature Made Man so perverse a creature Nothing but renewing Grace Can Mans guilt and filth deface Objection 2. WHy should Christ from glory come To be born in coursest home Live and die in pain and grief For unthankful mans relief Solution 2. NOthing but divinest Love Brought our Maker from above Who for all his grief and pain Craves but Love for Love again The CHORE OH admired Love divine Suit our hearts with love to thine Then adieu false creature-joys Welcom Truths and farewel Toys Man's Heart 1. A Curious triangle methinks I see Immur'd by Heav'ns Eternal Architect His seed-plot of each Grace divine to be A glorious Paradise without defect A Paradise in Paradise that 's slight The Paradise of Paradise the throne Of the worlds great Creator whose delight Was fiâ—… therein his Majesty thereon Such was Mans heart and such might still have bin Had he baulk'd Serpentine deceit of sin 2. But ah most horrid fate since Adam fell This Nursery a Wilderness is grown Eden of Eden is the Hell of Hell And Graces plants by Pride's puffs over-thrown Earth-mice have eat the seeds the thorns and briers Hemlock and Wormwood have o'er spread the ground Once till'd to grace Lusts and corrupt desires With all their base productions there abound And what was once the King of Glories home Is wholly now a Den for Fiends become 3. World flesh and devil this triangle have fill'd Having got full possession plac'd therein A cursed rabblement of Elves that build Fortifications and strong holds for Sin The blessed Founders greatest Enemy Who in them rests secure thence Grace repells Though profer'd by the Lord spontaneously And all good Inclinations quite expells Whence from a sp'ritual Cana-an it 's grown No less then a mysterious Babylon 4. It 's now the old Red Dragons Nursery A new Plantation of each hateful crime The Shop of that accurst Apothecary Who therein doth his pois'nous drugs sublime Pride's Mercury Zeal-chilling Ellebore Intemperancies Swine-bane Antimony Of Infidelity and thousands more The Opium of dull security And Lusts Cantharides these he refines By them to work his mischievous designes 5. The cunning Gardiner doth oft-times graft Bud and inoculate to shew his skill Produc'th fair-seeming flow'rs on stocks stark naught And specious fruits from roots corrupt and ill But these like Sodoms Apples vanish quite If try'd by touch which sorts he mostly plants In a close corner for his own delight Allotted to Hypocrisie where wants No dressing that the Devil can afford To nourish plants accursed and abhorr'd 6. Stand you but there at gaze and you will deem Your self in Heaven with Saints incircled round Whilst it is Hell and Devils for they but seem And are not real as will once be found The Angels trumpets that at last shall blow Our Resurrection-summons them shall blast And we their painted falsities shall know Themselves in everlasting flames be cast Their rotten Roots which all shall plainly see Proclaim who Impt them and whose Imps they be 7. Dread God! shall this Intruder still possess Thy sacred portion and thy choisest field 'T will make him question thine Almightiness Avenge thee Lord and force the fiend to yeild Root out his worthless plants and replant thine New turn the ground and sow thy seeds of grace Afresh therein and let thy power divine Cherish them there Satans rank weeds deface Batter his raised forts his forces rout Re-enter in thy Right and turn him out 8. Renew thy sin-demolish'd Image here Hallow this little frame to thy great praise New mold new make the model hence cashier Innate corruptions plain the crooked ways Throw down the hills and hillocks raise the vales Manure the barren ground more fertile make The erst unfallow'd plots re-build the walls Thy wonted pleasure in this fabrick take Lord it did cost thee dear when thou went'st hence To purchase it with thy heart-blood's expence An Epigram on the same COuld not Creations Title keep Gods Right In mans false heart that subtile Serpents spight Compell'd him to
that raigns for evermore 10. To Father FArewel my being's instrumental Cause Assign'd by him from whom all beings flow Who my new Father is and old one was Ere you were so methinks my heart doth grow With grief to part But yet part needs I must From all relations that Heav'ns Canopy Surrounds to find the merciful and just Who 's Father to us all whose Progeny Are all man-kind whose wonderful affection By his Son's blood redeem'd me who before Made love sole ground of my poor souls election For which I 'll sing his praise for evermore Father if you are loath I gone should be Come but to him you 'll surely come to me 11. To Mother FArewel dear mold where in my mortal clay First by th' eternal potter formed was In pain that baâ—'st me nine months night and day And after grievous travel gav'st me pass Into this vale of tears thy torments bind Me to a boundless love yet wonder not If I now leave thee for a new I find Who hath me born again since 't was thy lot A mother militant who hath prepar'd A third triumphant for me who doth dwell Where never to approach a foe yet dar'd Above the fear and spite of Earth and Hell Oh let me fly and haste thee after me For she to both of us will mother be 12. To Children FArewel sweet implings quick Epitomes Of me and my dear second I must leave Your lov'd society death 's Writ of Ease Doth me remove yet not of life bereave That 's length'ned by my change you I commit Unto a faithful guardian yea a father To me and you with whom I go to sit In everlasting glory who will gather You all to me again when his time comes Only be faithful to the death and he Will give you crowns of life when your bless'd homes Shall be th' imperial Heaven where with me With Angels Saints and Martyr's crowned throng You 'll sing for ever Sion's Lamb 's sweet song 13. To Wife FArewel my better half life of my life And sub-celestial comforts we must cleave One heart in two at parting dearest wife As we made one of two at meeting leave Spare those heart-melting cries those thriftless tears Thy frailties to bewail in those streams swim Home to thy harbour where my faith me bears There my Bridegroom and thine doth mansions trim For us with everlasting ornaments With whom we both shall newly marri'd be And raign eternally fill'd with contents Passing what heart can think ear hear eye see I do but go before and thee expect Among the number of the Lord's Elect. 14. To all Joyntly FArewel World Europe Britain native Shire And Parish too servants acquaintance friâ—…ds Kindred with Father Mother children dear And dearest Wise have all contented mindes Fot I am to so high preferment call'd That if you lov'd me you would urge me on To haste away that I may be install'd A death-less prince crown'd King by him whose throne Is over all whose Scepter sways at once Heav'n Earth and Hell with their inhabitants That Triple Crown that girts the pride-puft sconce Of Antichrist who there of falsly vaunts Is this Kings right alone stil'd in truth's words The only King of Kings and Lord of Lords The Charge BRitain thy glory 's sunk swoln are thy sins To an o'erwhelming torrent that begins Thee to o'erwhelm thy erst indulgent God Hath turn'd his hand against thee see his rod Begins to whip thy follies whose dread sword Did lately fight thy battels whose pure word Made the earth's Goshen thou begin'st to grope In an Egyptian darkness many hope To see th' unbottom'd pits black mists o'ercloud Thy splendent Sun yea thy own sons have vow'd To put out that great light to raise thereby Their ignis fatuus light of phantasie Father of lights frustrate their curs'd design The comfort shall be ours but glory thine Let not the pit's black torches smokie fumes Eclipse thy Sun-shine here though he presumes To see it so who is the man of sin Who among us those false fires usher'd in To light us on to darkness Lord return Those fires into his bosom let them burn Mysterious Babylon their heat calcine The scarlet whore and beast to ashes fine Their light discover Antichrist to all That they and their false fires together fall Quench'd in eternal flames and then on high And here beneath thy Church shall glorifie Thy aweful name But ah Lord we betray Our selves to them by sin wildely display Our nakedness and what defects we have Thy hand 's not shortned that it cannot save Nor thine ear heavie that it will not hear But our iniquities O God most dear Have separated us from thee our sins Have stockt our feet in their intangling gins Our gross abominations in thy sight Have thee provok'd to take from us the light That we so long unworthily enjoy'd Thanklesly too which made the favour void Our disesteeming of thy sacred light Perverting it to doctrines of the night To schisms and errours heresies and factions Have justly brought on us these sad distractions And since so many of us dare to scoft it Thou justly may'st henceforth deprive us of it Thou may'st remove our candlestick to those who 'll bring forth better fruit then our vain shows Our painted leaves and blossoms which discrie Our faith but fain'd our zeal hypocrisie Provoke thy patience to fierce wrath's effusion And woo thy vengeance to our own confusion But Lord forbid forbid dear God the sins Of us poor nothings who have nothing in 's But sin and folly ever should out-vie Thy boundless mercy force thee to defie Fond weakling worms yet thy own creatures Lord Create ' Redeem'd preserved by thy word And those whom thou hast lov'd Oh rather turn Us from our sins to thee for them to mourn Then thee from us to view them and in wrath For them to punish Lord thy mercy hath Ways to prevent thy justice and can give Light unto all that all may see to live Hoping to live to see the gen'ral call Of nations to the light by all in all Who shall have all the glory that redounds Eccho'd from Heav'ns and earth's remotest bounds And when all other Kingdoms are o'erthrown Pow'r and dominion shall be all his own Which hasten Lord that we may see with joy To thine Elect and to their foes annoy And oh prepare us for that glorious day Turn us from each perverse and crooked way Wherein we wander fit this Island 's ghests For thy bright coming and for the arrests Of death and judgment that whate'er befal The glory may be thine joy ours in all But Lord our sins have at such height o'erbore us That they transcend all Nations past before us It well may make at sight of our base pride Lucifer blush to see himself out-vi'd And we have those by us'ry and oppression Who would wrest Mammon's self out of possession Fraud and deceit to such a height are grown That most men
it for their profession own And many more whose words do it defie Do in their practice give themselves the lie Achitophel if living now would be An ass to most in wicked policie Joab a man of mercie would appear Among such blood-hounds as have lived here And Absalom a most obedient son Compar'd with ours who wilder courses run Drunken King Elah would too civil be By far for modern Roarers companie Lot's drunken Incest which he doubled in Have we out-vi'd as a small venial sin Yea Sodomy is prov'd a puisne crime For many have committed in our time Foul Rapes on Beasts some of the wrong sex too Nay acts with Devils as mostly witches do Whose seed's not only Molech's sacrifice But Beelzebub's the Prince of feinds and flies And we have those whose Concubines are more Then Solomon's for all his regal store But oh our female's lust we women have Who were each hair upon their head a knave Would find all wicked work who change desire To quench th' unsated flames of lustful fire Heliogabalus was temperate Nero a Prince of mercies to who late Have sway'd these Isles Plague-soars have quite orespread The body politick from foot to head Oppressors swarm and brother against brother Do act the Devils part upon each other And by an uncouth way sublim'd deceit Hath taught the smaller to oppess the great As true as strange though mostly undescry'd For poorer sort have to maintain their pride Inhauns'd their price of hire yet lessen still Their daily labour both are what they will No past age heard the like prepost'rous curse Bred by proud heart wedded to beggers purse A subtile down-right theft yet lawful held Satan hath so this generation spell'd Charm'd and deluded that most part believe It 's charity and wisedom to deceive And truth to say the rich so cruel be So voyd of mercy and humanity Towards the poor that both all conscience smother And God doth justly plague them each by other Yea all degrees amongst us are perverted From God and good and grown so stubborn hearted In their own wayes So self-ishly inclin'd So headstrong wilful each will have his mind Though thereby all should be undone they knew And universal ruine should ensue Our Princes are like Rampant Lyons grown Seizing on poor mens right as if their own Their Courts have Theaters of vices been Where Devils incarnate made a sport of sin Where pride and luxury sloth and excess With emulation envy drunkenness And hypocritick flattery was taught Yea where mens blood was often sold and bought Where God's name was prophan'd his worship scorn'd Or mungrelliz'd by those the beast suborn'd To puddle our pure streams and turn their course From truth to errour and from that to worse Our Peers have been like Judahs Peers of old When Joash reign'd of whom thy word hath told That they by flatteries the King seduc'd From thy true worship which before he us'd To groves and Idols and not to attend VVhen God to him his prophets oft did send They have been proud luxurious avaricious And prone to bribery extreamly vicious In all their ways a Peerage fitter for The commonwealths of Sodom or Gomorrh ' Then for a Christian state and God hath now For their great sins enforc'd their pride to bow Our Priests have been blind watch-men nothing knowing Dumb dogs that cannot bark yet always crowing In sleep delighted and so sleeping lie Whilst their neglected flocks do stray and die As greedly dogs that ne'er enough can have They look all their own way how they may save For their advantage and their purposes And mutually provoking to excess Crying Come we 'll bring wine and we will fill Our selves with strong drink till our bellies swill And having spent this day in jollity Much more abundant shall to morrow be Yea many if not worse have been as bad As any prophets Jezebel ere had VVhen God a sad decree pronounc'd the while Against his person and his projects vile They sent their King by their base flattery And lies to Ramoth-Gilead there to dy Who would not notice take of Micah's word When he not long had raign'd sent from the Lord Although he had receiv'd express directions Not to be led by such false prophets fictions And many other prophets cunningly Preach up division for divinity Vent schisms and errours fantasies of men For divine truths but I 'll instruct my pen In brief to tell whence these instructers come They 're Seminaries sent us forth from Rome And wer 't not that our sins them here detain We'ld send them with the mischief back again Or give them to the sowls of Heaven here For a sweet meal of politick good cheer Our judges who our seats of justice fill'd More in corruption then in law were skill'd Unless in wresting it to base by-ends To vex their honest-foes please their knave-friends The proverb prov'd true here birds of a feather Did by the help of angels hang together Had man's help but at Tyburne hung them so T' had sav'd these Isles much blood and treasure too And as a mighty torrent breaking out From mountains top frets every side about And drowns the vales with its impoison'd streams So did injustice dart her lightless beams And pour her floods from those high courts about On all the lower courts the land throughout Mayors Justices of peace and Constables With under-sh'riffs and all the lower rabbles Of officers in this great Isle were grown Corrupt yea many to take bribes did own In face of justice daring impudence Enough to make Heaven blush at the offence And pour down thunder-bolts of indignation To root for ever hence our Name and Nation To puff us off like th'atoms of a feather And Sodomize us into Hell together Shalt thou not visit Lord for this and be Aveng'd on such a Nation as are we It 's more then miracle we being have On this side Hell at least this side the grave It 's thy meer mercy Lord. Oh give us sense Of thy forbearance and our own offence Oh that my lines like Jonah's crying could Ninivetize our hearts our souls new-mould Wrest cries from man and bellowing from beasts Charm us from daily food and nightly rests Till thou be pleas'd to hear and hearing see And seeing heal our plague-sick malady Our sin-sick State and to reform our ways And send us truth and peace and we thee praise But Lord we in our wilfulness go on Just as our Fathers have before us done They ate sowre grapes our teeth are set on edge Vith eating sowrer for none can alledge Our God unjust thou long since profer'dst us A way of peace but we grown mutinous VVould walk our own and thou mayst justly send Our froward ways a fatal journeys end VVe heard a voice behind us plainly say Let God elect with you this is your way Walk in 't and prosper yet we still will choose Members whose discord will the body lose Unless thy grace prevent for we are