own Elect And in the Reprobates augment defect But soft my Muse launch not into the deep Lest thou o'erwhelmed be to Leeward keep These depths are soundable by none but him VVho can walk dry where heav'n earth may swim VVhose Spirit mov'd upon the waters face When all the world an Embâ—…ion Chaos was Lord these thy works of wonder far transcend VVhat can be thought much more what can be pen'd My silenc'd Quill by thy dread awe supprest Shall cease to write I 'll wonder out the rest An Epigram on the Creation POor man why why so proud see here thy stock Thy principles are chips of Nothing 's block Thy Mother Earth beast fish fowls worms and all May thee their younger Brother justly call Yet he who all things out of nothing made The rule of them to thee committed had But thou by sin that Kingdom forfeited'st Pois'ned'st the air thou breath'st the earth thou tread'st Disord'redst all the creatures Mark this well And why art ' proud because an heir to hell That 's a flight ground for Pride that 's reason small For cursed is that Kingdom heirs and all Truly thou 'rt proud for want of Grace I fear And pride entitles thee to be hells heir Another on the same OH how it blinds all mortal wits to pry Into a time when all was Trinity Next Angels Men Heav'n Earth Hell Sea were one Coagulted Chaos form'd alone Out of meer nothing by the Tri-Une God VVho for his glory on them all bestow'd Their beings but to Man alone did give A means when dead whereby he might revive In Gods own glory if he sought it here VVho slights that love of his Crearor dear Lord make us once again or better 't were We nothing had remain'd as first we were Better for us indeed but one to thee Who wilt have glory though we damned be On the Creatures SEe the great Architectors Alphabet In his grand Chirograph mans second Book Wherein by reading he may knowledge get Of his Creator spell his Name whose look Would blind all mortal eyes But this great Glass Doth by reflection represent that God Unto Mans prying Soul who Pen-man was Of all these Characters It 's wondrous odd To see Man's gross stupidity how blind His sin-soil'd Reason's grown his will perverse That dumb Irrationals are fain to mind Him of his God nay he is more averse From answering the end of his creation By far then they who in their kindes fulfil God's sacred will and keep in their low station His holy Laws according to their skill They do so all and always but our hearts Are shooting still at Rovers when the Lord Hath set us Butt-marks our vile Nature thwarts His wayes of Grace our Wills oppose his Word As if we would send challenges to Heaven And woo Damnation headless heedless man Sets all his Makers Laws at six and seven In scorn neglects what do with ease he can Should this great Army of the creatures be So mutinous the world would soon resolve Into its principles Mans Pedegree Produce no more descents Oh let 's revolve This in our hearts and view this goodly frame As an eye-lecture to our souls to bring Us home to holy life that we his Name May glorifie who is our God and King Amen On Redemption TEnter up Nature to the highest pin And rack Philosophy with quaintest gin Frenzifie Chymistry and summon too 't The old red Serpent's wits calcin'd to boot A way to finde for lapsed man to rise And unborn-Babes might it as soon devise As that grand Senate But they ne'er desir'd That work by Men and Angels so admir'd Nature conceiv'd it not to be conceiv'd Wherein the God of Nature her deceiv'd Philosophy with reason would have shaken That plot whence for Morosophy she 's taken Chymistry's wit to prove a practise rare Turn'd Ignis fatuus and expir'd in air The subtile Serpent keeping still the field With World and Flesh a Lamb inforc'd to yeild Oh Lamb invincible to thee be glory Were 't not for thee the Serpent sure would worry Thy little Lambs dispersed here and there Now so far sundred as no man knows where Haste Lord to re-unite them and disperse Thine and their Foes revengeful and perverse For thou art Judah's Lyon and canst tame The wildest Beasts that dare blaspheme thy Name For thine hast thou descended from above From thy dear Father and the sacred Dove From everlasting glory to put on A shrine that Angels ne'er could think upon Our basest nature for our baser sakes Who this in contemplation truly takes Must needs be wonder-struck stand and admire At thy divinest love who dost desire For all thy paines which pass all valuation Nothing but hearty meek retaliation Of love for love doubtless were man not mad Satan still tempting world and flesh as bad And self-betraying self still pressing on us By sin to draw more hardness still upon us The hardest heart could ne'r retain a thought Of slighting love by God so dearly bought Who pay'd a price of blood for man's base fall Enough to ransom Devils men and all Had he ordained so whose mercy will Man shall redeemed be but they damn'd still O mercy trans-superlative so high As blinds both mens and Angels reasons eye And dumbs my Muse who else would fain expend Time on this subject till my time shall end Applicatio Oratio WHat God and man And God for man be so Think man what thou to God for this dost owe. The debt is great if thou a Banckrupt art Yet he is sated give him but thy heart Oh take it Lord thou bought'st it dear 't is thine It was but is not now nor shall be mine Lord hold it fast for sure it 's slip'ry ware T will slide from thee without thy special care An Epigram on our Redemption FAll'n man redeem'd what cannot mercy do That saves those who their own destruction woo Man's actions retrograde from what they seem Tend all to what none wise their end would deem Mercy in heart he likes In practice proves That he severest justice rather loves And have it sure he should had not the Son Of his incensed God his pardon won Who gave his foes his blood and flesh for food O love incredible to flesh and blood It can be credited by none but those Whom that true Manna turns to friends from foes Whose faith's eyes their redemption see as cleer As fleshly eyes see any object here On man's Justification LOrd I am wonder-struck at this sweet sound Justification doth me quite confound When I consider what our nature is Thoughts words and works and all that is amiss Ev'n in the best of the best man's endeavours The Agues of our spirits and their feavours And all our soul-sick frenzies which possess Some with a fancy of self-righteousness Our waywardness to good proneness to ill Rounding the paths of sin like horse in mill The number numberless of all our crimes Re-iterated too so many
lave the blurs That in thy book appear Make no demurs In thy great suit for pardon get it out With restless speed in thy proceedings doubt Lest Errour be in thy Original Or any other Writ and make sure all As thou go'st on cast often thy account And see to what thy sums receiv'd amount And how expended what thou see'st amiss Amend in future by more carefulness For past debts take Repentances keen knife And raze them out then to avoid all strife Smooth it with Faith's rough pummice o'er and o'er Thy Creditor never will charge it more This play seems foul but is not though he know Thy crafty trick he loves to have it so And though such tricks may Merchants seem to stain It both augments his glory and thy gain Now shall the Earth-amazing Dooms-day be A day of joy and comfort unto thee Thy hearts chief solace in the saddest fits Whose thoughts might formerly have scar'd thy wits Look how the chased Hart desires the Brooks The blind Gods Herd their living Idols looks As Mariners nigh shipwrack'd wish for shore Or tyred School-boyes learning to give o'er As poor deserted Souls for faith do long The faithful for Plerophory so strong Will thy desires wishes and longings be To see that day once terrible to thee Thy soul once thus sublim'd will ever cry With yerning Bowels Come Lord Jesus Hye And with the Spirit and the Bride will say Come come Lord quickly while it is to day That Trump whose very thought the world doth fray Will be thy Cock-crow to eternal day The Epigram STout Man why quak'st to think on this days sound Thy fear doth from thy inward guilt redound Sweep clean thy conscience mundifie thy Heart Through-captivate thy will to his whose art Of love did thee redeem thence Judgements trump Will cheer thy soul whose thought now doth it dump At this Assizes fear not to appear The Judge will read thy Neck-Verse for thee here Plead guilty and condemn thy self before Confess and so be sav'd for evermore Lord what vast difference herein appear'th Betwixt thy Laws of Heaven and ours of earth Hell HOrrid'st of Creatures who wast solely made To please Eternal Justice thy black shade Abounds with Contradictions freezing fires With torrid chilness Infinite desires Void of the least attainments Howling theams Compos'd all of Exordiums fiery beams Flashing yet light-less This school's Alphabet Abjures Omega they who there are met To roar out Palinodes and Elegies Are still beginning Cain if there he lies Is no whit farther in his lesson come Then he that last went hence to that sad home Nay Lucifer grand-paedagogue of all Hath not learn'd A. B. C. since his first fall Though our and his great Master taught him better The Dullard is not yet past the first letter His lesson's now as far from learning out As 't was when first he troopt the Angel-rout Into Rebellion and the Lesson's dire 'T is wo and lamentations in a fire Tormenting not consuming burning still Still killing yet doth never fully kill Eternal labour with eternal loss Uncessant cares and yet uncessant cross A death-less death a life-less life remains Which multiplies the terrour of the pains Measureless endless hapless hopeless fate Whoe'er comes here findes it too soon too late Too soon to sense the pain but to prevent That sense too late since too late to repent Ah careless cureless heedless headless man Leap not into the fire out of the pan Whilst here Afflictions Cauldron thou dost shun Thou darest Hell and so art quite undone Temporal crosses may be better born Then those eternal do not counsel scorn That 's good and given gratis strike thy sails Stoop thy top-gallant Will it nought avails Poor Sculler these to mount in a Bravado When he 's in viron'd with a strong Armado If thou stand out thou' rt sunk and lost for ever Submit submit to change thy will endeavour Look ere thou leap thy foot is at pits brink Move but a hairs-breadth forward thou must sink And sink eternally see here the Chasm Against whose wounds there is no Cataplasm Who falls here wounded is beyond all cure And must beyond all time his pains endure This Dungeon hath nor joy nor rest nor ease Nor comforts nor a hope of ought like these But desperation of them and assurance Of perpetuity of pain 's endurance View view bewitched man this place of wo Jehovah's Magazine of Terrour Lo This Den from beatifick Vision is Excentrick quite exterminate from bliss Its Ghests all captive mourners who delight Each other to torment and to affright Mutual Assassinates and merciless Unsatiate in fiercest cruelness VVhose hideous howlings raving roaring cries Gnashing of teeth loud shreeks would rend the skies Shake all the earth to shivers melt proud man Into a floud of tears make beauty wan Strength feeble and his specious frame dissolve To nothing once to hear them Oh! revolve This frequently in heart lest Hells dark flame The thought whereof should wildest Mortals tame Prove the first light that gives thee sight of sin And sense of second death when once thou' rt in There 's no Redemption Poenitence too late VVill but increase thy torment not abate Here shalt thou see Nimrod's stern progeny Tyranniz'd o'er as they lov'd tyranny Gygantick Cyclops may tormented be By Pygmey feinds t' augment their misery The pompous Dives there shall not command One drop of water from a Lazar's hand Nor it obtain yet begging heartily To cool his parched tongue although it fry Abaddon and Apoll'on here do raign Great Lords of mis-rule o'er the damned train ' Mongst whom confusion is the perfect'st order And greatest mercy worse then horrid'st murder Where Lucifer and Beelzebub now ly Inflicting pains and pain'd eternally These lapsed Angels knowing their own fate Irrevocable are incens'd with hate Against both God and man but wanting power God to infest they seek man to devour Whom living they by flatt'ry strive to win But dead torment most justly for his sin Their first plot is Gods image to deface Once stampt on us now re-ingrav'd by grace Since our base forfeitute of that great favour In Paradise by breach of good behaviour Whilst sweet redemption crusht that curst design They now do re-inforce to undermine Us by our neerest friends the world and flesh Yea self on self fiercely assaults afresh And did not an Almighty pow'r defend us These our three friends to those our soes would send us Blessed Redeemer with thy banner shield us Oh let thy Spirit still assistance yeild us Against those subtile falshoods fly devices VVhereby Hell 's regent our poor souls intices Confound his plots and by thy grace relieve us And from this dismal dungeon Lord reprieve us The Epigram SEâ— man thy creature's creature this curst place Of endless torment thy sweet meats sow'r sawce Thy honey's gall house of thy sins foundation Tophet the cell of thy deserv'd damnation Critical Atheists have a question stirr'd VVhere it should
redeem what was his own Unforfeited It now his right is grown By purchase too Lord keep what now thou hast For we shall lose it if thou hold not fast A fairer purchase ne'er was bought or sold Nor fickler for the Purchaser to hold Were not thy Mercy great and stupifying 'T was ne'er worth making much less worth thy buying Infancy EPitome of man why such sad chear As cries and tears at thy first entrance here Sure thou confut'st philosophers of old Who tales of spheres harmonious musick told Such a celestial quire must by and by Ravish thy soul with charming melody But thou art deaf to them they mute to thee 'Twixt deaf and dumb new-met what sympathy Alass but small But thou thus dost not cry Their errour to confute or to descry Thou 'st cause enough besides thy pain in birth And birth to future pain whilst here on earth Thou com'st from whence thou hadst content before And whilst thou' rt here shalt never have it more Can thy diminutive heart chuse but mourn To restless pains and crosses to be borne Alas what hath this empty world that 's rare To please thee with a teat a bib fine ware A rattle whistle toys with crying after These rarities may justly challenge laughter Though not worth joying in nor yet injoying But that thy crying fits are husht with toying Yet this I 'll say for thee who in no wise Canst for thy little self apologize Men riper year'd pursue as eagerly More noxious bables and sing lullaby To their deluded souls in those enjoying Which mostly are their selves and souls destroying Bacchus wins men with bibbs Cupid with teats Whilst Mars with whistles calls to famous feats But all-commanding Mammon rattles makes With cursed coyn-baggs cheating metal-cakes Worse then At'lanta's apples in the way To Heav'n they force us both to stay and stray Oh then let 's cease to laugh at thy weak wits And learn to mourn for our own frantick fits Far better we delighted in thy toys Then by our own to lose eternal joys But ah thy innocence in act could wee In that perfection equalize but thee We happy were Such must we be for none But some way such shall Heav'n attain alone Lord make us such for only thou canst tame Our headstrong natures and make us disclaim Proud self who flown aloft doth meteorize And with false flashes dazles faith's weak eyes Extinguish Lord this fatal Comet in us Infantize thou our high-swoln hearts and win us To humble meckness by thy peerless skill Make us stout men yet little children still That with humility and innocence ' Gainst all assailants we may make defence And strive to victory Oh thou most high List us for soldiers of thy infantry The Epigram WEakest of creatures what come naked forth Into the world's vast wilderness it's worth Thy cries and tears yea cares and fears beside What may thee in this solitude betide Yet ne'er despair take for thy comfort this 'T is the most beaten road to future bliss Husband thy teares treasure them up in store To mourn for sin thy joy shall be the more Foes thou hast great and many but a friend That 's gone this way unto the journey's end Hath weak'ned them yea will them all subdue Only believe in him he 's yet in view In eye of faith keep still thy innocence Be still a child in giving no offence Keep thy friend's foot-steps home to Heaven door For 't is Heav'ns-God's-son that is gone before Puerility INfancy was illiterate and past In wordless craving to be pleas'd in hast The A. B. C of man next treads the stage It foots the world's great ball which riper age Doth head and hearts so much that oft' it strains Her heart-stings to a crack oft' breaks her brains Childhood's a pretty fiddle but the rod Doth spoil it's case and makes it's musick odd And harsh which else would mostly pleasant be Though much more out of tune the Birchen tree Terrifies more in schools then English oaks ' Erst did their foes at Sea with thunder strokes Whence some of this small tribe will dare aver Nero not half so bad 's a school-master See see our way-ward nature native hate To means whose ends might us felicitate We willingly will precious time advance To loss of knowledge gain of ignorance A barter that breaks all the Merchants trust Yet satisfies none but the Devil and lust His foes not creditors Hark wanton hark Walk in the day for danger 's in the dark Knowledge no burthen is save unto those Whom ignorance marks out for wisdom's foes Learn but what 's good and what is evil shun Play on as long 's thou wilt the game is won Surely thy life 's a puppet-play wherein â—hy acted parts allude to future sin â—hy pot-guns may to Cannons grow thy cash Of rounded slats breed love of that base trash That so inchants earth's pilgrims that they sell Their lives their souls for coyn to purchase Hell Thy plays in which thou pris'ners tak'st descry The course of wars where some pursue some fly Thy hood-winck't sports give ignorance her due â—n emblem fabulous whose moral 's true These thy now counterfeits in future times Become thy real actions and thy crimes Lord what a gallimaufry of deceit â—s man's frail life who first doth counterfeit Next rea-lize those vanities which tend At last to falshood and an endless end End end these wanton toys play not the sot To make a trade of that which profits not â—eason thy new-made clome with sipid liquor These us'd as recreations may make quicker Thy parts of soul and body for that trade In whose sole profit thou art marr'd or made Oh! 't is of high concernment weigh thy time And weigh it to the grains it 's rare pastime Full fraught with true content rich gain to boot And now 's thy time yea now 's high time to do 't Each minute this way spent will win thee store Of wealth and bliss when time shall be no more Think in thy play each step of thine steps on One step towards thy grave which steps-time gone Thou never canst recal to re-imploy More profitably for thy future joy When thou dost learn thy book each letter think Sin 's embleme as the paper 's stain'd with ink Sin staines thy self each sin 's a letter foul A capital character for thy soul Wherein to read its doom if penitence Rinse not away with blood guilt and offence Learn'st thou to write Ah! then thou act'st to life Thy own life's acts to sins-blurs far more rife And prone then fairest paper is to take The blurs that thy miss-guided pen doth make And learn from hence occasions to avoyd Whereby thy soul with sin might be annoy'd These uses make of thy occurrent playes And of thy labours too that so thy wayes By both may better'd be Though this seem hard It 's worth thy pains and will return reward Reward that will requite thy vigilance Ten thousand-fold
hath seen Say Princess great why is thy look so grim To what 's meer man being so fair and trim To gracious souls it's but the fear of change That makes thee so And yet oh wonder strange Want of change caus'th that fear man hear my breath Change but thy self thou'lt ne'er fear change by death Death's visage is a looking-glass wherein Thou view'st thy foul deformity by sin It 's guilt of that breeds fear of death in man Whilst rinsed souls with joy embrace it can See see besotted earth-worm who hast run The race of man and nought but cob-webs spun Sow'd rotten seed death thy race terminates Cuts off thy warp thy harvest antidates And makes it dreadful which might joyful be If thou thy way of safety couldst but see Death is a bond-mark-bridge to Heav'n and Hell On yonder side On this to earth as well Three spatious Kingdoms yea the three and all On this side are two roads which equal fall At the bridge-end the roads of joy and wo And every man in one of them doth go On t'other side two spatious Inns are built The one for innocence t'other for guilt To entertain the Travellers that pass The former roads In these a boundless mass Of joyes and woes are treasur'd up in store Where they shall joy or mourn for evermore Both Inns are at Bridge-end on t'other side One hath a narrow gate the other wide Whoe'er in either enters ne'er returns But there eternally or joys or mourns Joy's road is narrow rough and thorny woe 's Broad plain and smooth wherein the whole world goes Have care to chuse thy path and rightly judge For there 's no changing paths beyond the bridge But each of all the num'rous pilgrims throngs Lies in that Inn that to his path belongs And there remains for ever Heed thy walk It 's of concernment high whereof we talk Tread the straight path then death will be thy friend And guide thee to joy's Inn at journey's end For she presents the ghests in both the places And is chief Umpire in all doubtful cases For many seem to walk in way of zeal Whose specious shews do good opinion steal Ev'n of the best Yet tri'd by death's true test Lie down in sorrows Inn among the rest Others but few may seem to walk the ways That lead to wo whom death at last displays To be the joy-house ghests who there sit down And for their crosses here enjoy a crown Death is both ferry-man and boat whereby We launch the Ocean of eternity The Poets Charon who doth waft alone Souls to Elysium or to Acheron It is the intermitting point whereby We time divide from perpetuity Our time dies with us though time 's self remain Unto the time when we shall rise again In brief it 's but a blank at life's line 's end To bad men mortal foe to good a friend It 's amiable in a faithful eye But horrible to Belial's progeny Fond man cease death to fear make right thy heart Faith steeps in Balsamum death's surest dart Trans-forms its wounds to cures for thou shalt live Eternally by the wound death doth give The Epigram PAle Princess spare thy threats we know thy force Thou su'st the soul and bodies short divorce It lasts but one night's rest and that 's a toy For in the morning they shall meet with joy Thou wounded'st once our brother Lord and King And in that wound drone-like didst lose thy sting Now thou canst hurt no more save such mad elves As bring thee a new sting to kill themselves 'T were better for them death had kept his sting Then they be stung to death by stings they bring Though plain perire be a fate past jest Pennis perire propriis grave est Judgment HArk hark rebellious man the trumpet sounds Thy judgment-march the earth for fear rebounds Rocks rock the mountains tremble all the world Is ague-shook into hearts passion hurl'd Tellus keeps open house the grave 's unfraught Thetis re-renders up the dead she caught Both now their captives forth to judgment bring Before the throne of Heav'ns eternal King They can't detaine a dust of good nor bad But re-deliver must whate'er they had The ratling flames with horrid whirling roar Drink up the Sea and eat at once the shoar It 's quite in vain to mountains now to cry Or rocks to hide they all like atoms fly Hence in the beams of fire-light Oh! look look Sun Moon and Stars have Firmament forsook They fall like mellow fruit in blustring storms The spheres are shrivel'd up and loose their forms The Elements do melt the fixed Stars Fall down pel-mel as soldiers drop in wars The Heavens can no canopy afford No curtain thee to hide for in a word Both Heav'n and earth are nonplus'd at this blast And shall together in new molds be cast Thou' rt past advising now appear thou must Thy sentence to receive which will be just That 's all thy comfort and small comfort 't is To those who in this life have done amiss For all accounts shall here be fully cast And each man have full pay for labour past See yonder where the Judges books are come Whereby he judges and will pay all home According as appears by those records Whose counterparts thy own scar'd soul affords And still hath kept lockt up in conscience-chest But now must bring them forth among the rest Both she and thou and all know all is true In those records so there needs no review Sentence will soon be past the judge will say To you of his left-handed herd Away Depart from me ye cursed into fire That lasts for ever fitted for your Sire The Devil and his Angels Oh sad doom Yet ne'er to be revok'd for time to come Wer 't but to death or to annihilation The pains would end by senses deprivation But in these torments life and sense remain Yet neither life nor sense save those of pain Pains measureless and endless pour'd on thee Where wronged mercy will most cruel be Millions of ages past thy pains appear As far from end as when thou first wast there Their measure is as much as Devils can Devise of torment to inflict on Man Or an Almighty God can storm on those Who have declar'd themselves his mortal Foes There needs no more be spoke Ah wretched wight Think on this day before eternal night Prevent thy thinking on 't by being in 't Fence off the blow before thou feel the dint It 's true in God's as well's in Nature's school QUIS EXPECTAVIT is a cure-less fool If hearing man be told that death is nigh And scorns to heed it he must surely die Heed heed thy way of peace in this thy time Repent each former shun each future crime Redeem thy time to come none can what 's past Spend thy first hour as if it were thy last Think still thou dost the trumps loud summons hear ARISE you Dead to Judgement quick appear With penitential water