THE GLASSE OF TIME IN THE two first Ages Diuinely handled By Thomas Peyton of Lincolnes Inne Gent. LONDON Printed by Bernard Alsop and are to be had at Laurence Chapmans shop ouer-against Staple Inne 1620. TO THE ILLVSTRIOVS PRINCE Charles Prince of Wales MOst hopefull Prince Europaes richest Iem Successor to these famous westerne Iles Chast Oliue Branch descended of that Stem Whose what he hath all on thy fortune smiles Inheritor to such a Potent King As no Age yet his Like could euer bring Braue Pearle of men within whose louely Face The sacred Muses learned Arts combine And all Heauens gifts from great Apollos Race Apparant seeme within thy Browes to shine Thy Fathers Doran kingly workes of State This more then needs as borne but out of date Yet Royall Prince let but thine eyes behold This lofty Subiect in these Rurall Rimes T' will more encourage then Earths purest gold To make my Muse to all succeeding times Blaze forth thy parts and high deserued Fame That thy rare worth may all the World inflame As in a Garden of sweete fragrant flowers Where each man takes what to his mind seemes best Then sits him downe within their pleasant Bowers Peruseth all and for a Time doth Rest Contented Ioy'd Admiring to haue found So great a change in one small piece of Ground So deerest Prince within thy Fathers workes What Poesies sweete Graue sentences diuine Sad morrall matter in each Subiect lurkes To draw thy youth to trace him line by line Whilst this may chance to recreate thy mind As glimmering Luna in Sols absence shin'd Persist go on and as thy Vertues won The Loyall Loue of euery faithfull heart So to the end thy course directly run And winged Fame shall from thee neuer start But scale the Cloudes and mount the lofty Skyes To sound thy worth as farre as India lyes Your Highnesse in all humblenesse Thomas Peyton TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE FRANCIS Lord Verulam Lord Chancelor of England MOst Honor'd Lord within whose reuerend face Truth Mercy Iustice Loue and all combine Heauens deerest Daughters of Iehouahs Race Seeme all at full within thy Browes to shine The King himselefe T'immortalize thy fame Hath in thy Name Foretiped out the same Great Verulam my Soule hath much admirde Thy Courtly carriage in each comely part Worth Merrit Grace when what the land desirde Is powr'd vpon thee as thy iust desart Graue liberall mind contending with the rest To seate them all in thy Iuditious brest Thrice noble Lord how dost thou prize of gold Wealth Treasures Mony and such Earthly cash For none of them thou hast thy Iustice sold But held them all as base infected trash To snare allure out from a dunghill wrought The seared conscience of each muddy thought Weigh but my cause referre me not to those That from the first were partiall in my right Ah this is more then once thine Honour knowes Thou seest mine owne hath now vndone me quight Whilst by a trick they got me in their paw Against the Order of thy Court and Law If I were such as some would haue thee thinke I meane my Foes which vtterly defame Mine Innocence and all together linke To wound my state and blemish much my name Yet Iustice wils what in their hands hath laine Thus to my losse should be restord againe Ah deerest Lord hold but the Scales vpright Let Court nor fauour ouersway my cause To presse me more then is beyond my might Is but their Reach to crosse thy former Lawes Let me have Peace or that which is mine owne And thy iust worth shall o're the World be blowne Your Lordships in all humblenesse Thomas Peyton TO THE READER The Title described VNto the Wise Religious Learned Graue Iudicious Reader out this Worke I send The tender sighted that small knowledge haue Can litle loose but much their weaknesse mend And generous spirits which from heauen are sent May Solace here and finde all true content A Paradise presented to ech eye Within the Vinnet of the Title page Where Iustice Mercie Nature Loue do lye Beforeth ' Almightie in the first found Age. Time stands betwixt and Truth his daughter beares His traine behind a world of Aged yeares Fierce Nemesis she mounts within the Ayre On Pegasus that winged Horse of Fame And by her side a Sword all naked bare Graue Iustice sits a sable lowring Dame Vnder her feete the worlds most spatious Globe And weighs mens Actions in a scarlet Robe This may denote the goodly glorious worth The pretious Value Maiestie and Grace Of all the Sisters Glory of this Earth Gods deerest daughters in their seuerall place Aboue the world heauens crowne their browes adorne To shew at full how they do bribing scorne Peruse it well for in the same may lurke More obscure matter in a deeper sence To set the best and learned wits on worke Then hath as yet in many Ages since Within so small a little Volumne beene Or on the sudden can be found and seene Vrania deere attired in her silke To draw thee on with more attentiue heede The weaker sort she sometime feedes with milke All guiltie mens damn'd vices vp to weede Th' enuious Momes that her chaste Muse doth tuch She hopes to mend but cares not for them much Thine to his power Tho. Peyton HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE Beati Pacifici THE GLASSE OF TIME IN THE FIRST AGE The Argument The Author first doth Gods assistance craue Throughout the worke that he his helpe may haue The sacred Sabbaoth Sathans enuious gall The Woman fram'd and Mans most dismall fall The Tree of Life protected from the Brute The Tree of Knowledge with her fatall Fruit For feare the World should finally be ended Gods deerest Daughters downe in hast descended The flaming Sword the Tree of Life which garded The Cherubins vpon the walls that warded The Land of Eden is discrib'd at large Heauens iudgement iust to all men's future charge SInce true examples in Gods holy Booke Are found of those that in it loue to looke Of men whose Image portraiture and soule Haue beene transform'd to monstrous shapes and foule According as their liues haue pleasing beene Gen. 19 26 To him whose sight their secret thoughts hath seene And as his goodnesse sacred is that some Dan. 4. 30 Should be examples for these times to come His Church to comfort Pagans to appall To teach to vs what did to them befall Within the stories of the new and old Rom. 15 4 Of many more then can by me be told And since that Ouid in a pleasing verse Doth pretty Tales and Metaphors rehearse Of men to birds and then againe to beasts To make you parly at your welcome feasts Whose fabled fictions warbled in that age The infancy and sacred pupill-age Of the Religion which we heare maintaine Vnder our Soueraignes thrice most happy raigne May seeme from Moses and the rest diuine In 's Metaphors to trace them line by line
In some I meane and not in all his worke For pleasant folly couch't therein may lurke Yet the allusion and the meaning sure May reference haue vnto the Scripture pure And though it shines as Tytans westerne rayes By some 't is held but wanton in our dayes But most of all the ripenesse of these times The heauenly works vp to the clouds that climes The enuious eye which ouerlookes our deeds When each mans taste on sundry dishes feedes The snarling cur at euery thing that bites The slandring Mome which no good worke endites The monster curst with his vile forked tongue That from Hels vault vp to the earth first sprung With Hidra heads and Ianus double face To fawne before then wound to our disgrace Hath made my Muse vnwilling heere to sing As loath her selfe vpon the stage to bring To each mans view and her owne painefull toyle But that the sight may many vices spoyle When sin we see vnmasked brought to light And damn'd offences naked to our sight Like lezabel that did the Clouds aspire 1. Kin. 4. 18 19 Chap. 19. 2 Cha. 21. 10 23 In rusling silks and glorious braue atire Vnder a holy outward forme and rite Gods chosen flock are fleec't and murthered quite But once vnmask't the Minions of her court Hurle heri'th durt pash out her braines in sport And as a foule mishapen painted monster 2. Kin 9. 30 33 35 37. Conceit of her as all the world doth conster Then is she seene disrob'd disrank't of all The map of folly in her sudden fall Her cup with poyson damned Enuy fills Her cursed eyes haue seene those seuen built hills Where all the Saints Apostles Martyrs stood With crimson colours all imbru'd in bloud O glorious God inspiror of my Muse Grant that thy Word my soule may dayly vse And that what learning painefully it got Still from the truth may neuer swerue a iot That in her spring beginning and her bud May sing thy glory to the Churches good And in foule folly none asleepe I rock Nor giue offence to any of thy flock But that my speech as generall to all May like a Sermon in the Pulpit fall And not to wade in curious questions deepe But feede thy flock and edifie thy sheepe That none at all may haue a iust excuse By such examples as I shall produce And all that see their faults their liues may mend That to thy glory I this Worke may end Then shall the world with admiration see Her face vnmask't to all eternitee The famous actions heeretofore lay dead Shall then be rouz'd out from obliuions bed And all the noblest kingdoms euer knowne Will be reuiu'd within my verse be showne Their manners customes nature and their state Their end beginning fortune and their fate From Adam first throughout in euery age Shall heere be mustred on this publike Stage In Rurall Robes to giue the earth content How heeretofore the ages past weee spent O that my Muse might once but rest in peace Then would she sing diuinely neuer cease But worke out Truth within her holy Rimes Glyding along descending to our times And deare Vrania Soueraigne of my verse Should heere the glory of this world rehearse Vnfoulding still to Gods immortall glory The heauenly sweetenesse of a sacred story What may we thinke of all the iudgements iust Of great Iehouah buried in the dust Beside all those in holy Scriptures pend Which humane wit as yet could neuer mend Nor all the Rabbies in their learned fame Could euer tell how to correct the same Shall we go on and still be bold to thinke Hee 'le punish them and on vs alwayes winke For some of them the earth it selfe did gape How can we know that we are sure to scape The Angels which against the Lord did swell He quite casheer'd and cast them downe to hell Where being bound eternally in chaines They feele the torments of ten thousand paines Farre more then can expressed be in inke And all the world and sinfull man can thinke Adam what made thee wilfully at first To leaue thy of-spring to this day accurst So wicked foule and ouer growne with Sinne And in thy person all of it beginne That hadst thou stood in Innocenie fram'd Death Sin and Hell the world and all thou hadst tam'd Then hadst thou beene a Monarch from thy birth Gods onely Darling both in heauen and earth The world and all at thy command to bend And all heauens creatures on thee t' attend The sweetest life that euer man could liue What couldst thou aske but God to thee did giue Protected kept thee like a faithfull Warden As thy companion in that pleasant Garden No canckred mallice once thy heart did moue Free-will thou hadst endude from him aboue What couldst thou wish all worlds content and more The best Diuine that ere the Earth yet bore Gods onely Sonne the Prince of Peace except For thy sad fall how oft mine eyes haue wept Alas weakeman hadst thou in honour stood How heauenly blest thrice happy beene thy blood And all thy aged issue to this day Had liu'd secure as in the Month of May. What need had we that any should haue dy'd Vpon the Crosse our sinfull soules reuiu'd And that Messias God himselfe the Son Should here descend to put our nature on To liue deiected poore contemn'd forlorn'd Derided beate tost vpside downe and scorn'd And more to beare for this thy wofull fall Then euer man which liu'd vpon this ball Curst be that Diuell that first thy sence bely'd If thou hadst liu'd then we had neuer dy'd Oh God! to purchase with that bloody cost Our soules redeem'd when they were fully lost Here is a loue which farre surmounts the skies My sences rapts and dazles both mine eyes But tell me Adam what might be the cause That thou shouldst breake thy holy Makers lawes When of a thousand which might make vs weepe In all the world thou hadst but one to keepe And that but light Alas couldst thou not see But touch and taste that one forbidden tree Which in the midst of all the garden grew An ill knowne tree to make thy ofspring rew What pleasant tast or relish had the same How were thy senses dim'd and much to blame That had the Garden sole at thy command And all the fruits within thy sight to stand Farre better pure more daintier euery way Then such an Apple painted like a gay Fit for a woman or some lickorish foole A silly child or one that goes to schoole Thy wilfull foule absurd and grosse abuse Against thy God admits no iust excuse T is not the losse of one poore Apple mist That thou didst grapple in thy sinfull fist Could be the cause his anger to procure Fierce heauy wrath eternall to endure It was not that he did so much respect But thy foule error wilfull bad neglect Contempt of Him rebellion treason pride And all the sinnes within the world beside That linked
proceede With fearefull Evah and her timerous seede Her naked husband that himselfe excuz'd And said his wife his loue had much abuz'd O silly woman to be thus beguil'd Gods iudgement on Euah In sorrow now that shalt bring forth thy child A hard conception with an extreme paine Sick loathsome vomits at my hands shall gaine Thy husband now shall ouerrule thee still Thy fond desires bee subiect to his will A constant loue shall hardly once be found Within the brest of any on this ground And from this day the most of all vnkind Fickle vncertaine as the wauering wind Tost too and fro with euery blast that blowes Entangled straight with gawdy curious shewes That most of you your husbands will forsake A golden bribe or licorish thing to take Heauens glorious iudge to Adam also said Gods iudgement on Adam Because thy wife thou hast an I doll made To trace her steps which leade to deadly sin Thou dost but now to feele thy woe begin Curst is the earth and curst is for thy sake The fruite thereof accursed will I make In great vexation extreme labour paine Toyle sweate and dust thou shalt much sorrow gaine The earth henceforth shall now no more endure Vnlesse thou till and much her sides manure And when thou think'st thy barnes top full to fill Thy Vintage stor'd with plenty at thy will In monstrous Mows to pile a wondrous heape Then thistles thornes instead thereof thou'lt reape Much like the beast which on his belly feedes Soe shalt thou liue by hearbs and garden seedes Till thou returne vnto the earth againe And that therein thy limbs all cold be laine This is the mother that thy body nurst Out from the same thou taken wast at first Sorrow and sicknesse shall thy body burne For dust thou art to dust thou shalt returne O heauenly God heere is a iudgement past Throughout this world eternally to last No writ of errour can the same reuoke When as the words by thine owne mouth are spoke Heere is a sentence with a sacred seale No inhibition can thy law repeale Nor all the tricks deuises subtill shifts Of greedy Lawyers with their bribes and gifts Can once dissolue a knot so surely knit With all their braines and cunning peeuish wit But that the same for euermore must stand A iust decree by heauens diuinest hand Drawne vp aboue in Eden ratified With all the Angels in the world beside And all the powers of firmament and all To this decree consented at thy call Heauens deerest Babe whose fame shall perish neuer Hath with his bloud confirm'd the same for euer The Register that vp this order drew Tempus veritas ear descriptio Was Time it selfe clad all in Azure blew Wing'd like an Angel shadowed with a vaile And Truth his Daughter bearing vp his traile Nobly attended with a Lady kind More quick and nimble then the swift foote hinde Within his mouth a lofty Trumpe doth stand And a sharpe sith or sickle in his hand A glasse of sand continually that runs Within his way no liuing thing he shuns Lock't long before his head behind all bald To shew what 's past can neuer be recal'd O Time preseruer of all ages past How are mens eyes on all thy actions cast Thou shouldst be true and constant in thy course Why should base gold thy mind to ill inforce Allure thy sence and reasons temporize Alter an order daube vp both thine eyes When God the King and all the Lords decree A Iudgement iust to all eternitee In open court pronounce the same at large Commit it safe to thy sole care and charge Yet for a bribe within thy griping fist Thou l't ad substract and set downe what thou list Princes and peeres graue Iudges of the Land Let euer Iustice in your actions stand Looke well to time for time it selfe doth call It may deceiue and goe beyond you all Dispatch the poore and heare the widdowes cause Let not the Orphant perish by your lawes The Innocent is oftentimes vndone But in defending of a sute begun By mighty foes that ouer dares his youth And lies suggest instead of naked truth Then is he posted too and froin hast His life lands liuing all he hath to wast And neuer left so long as worth a groate His weary limbs oft times in prison rot All by delayes when golden angels houer Within the fist of euery seruile louer That but attends and comes before your face By bribing liues vnto your foule disgrace O to be sway'd with euery glistring fee This is iniustice in the worst degree But you are wise to you a word is more Then all the workes to this day kept in store Can be to those that little vnderstand And more respect some feeling in their hand Trace that great God in all your actions out Let him be still to bring the day about Your only starre sole leuell and your square The seuerall frames of all your works to reare But you are men your memories may faile Let not your seruants set your worth to saile Iustice and Mercy Time and all for gold ' Gainst Natures lawes outright are bought and sold And why should man thus to base bribing fall There is a God which takes account of all And oftentimes what by the diuill is got Vnder his feete he treades it till it rot And yet what reason haue we to complaine When England thou hast got the richest gaine Iacobus Rex The deerest treasure and the welcom'st fee That euer any land attain'd but thee A royall King deriued from the race Of Edens Monarch in her greatest grace Within whose face true Maiesty doth shine Iustice and Mercy in his browes combine His temples chast with lawrell boughes are wreathed The sacred Muses in his brest haue breathed Vpon his head three famous crownes do stand Gods deerest booke is euer in his hand Whose Angels still his person hath protected And all his daughters him for King elected Too weake alas I must my selfe confesse O that my Muse could but his worth expresse Though in this place I doe but giue a glance Of that which after in my worke may chance His fame renowne shall euer flourish greene Sire to a Prince and father to a Queene So shall the fame of his illustrious sonne Carolus Princeps Mount vp the aire in Phoebus chariot run About the earth on euery side shall sound As far as Eden and the Indian ground And still his Glory all the world shall passe And be ingrauen in monuments of brasse That Time for euer shall his worth adorne The greatest prince that euer yet was borne Braue Prince of peace from heauen it selfe descended How hath this land beene by thy birth befriended To haue a spirit of such noble wit heereafter sway within her lap to sit When England thou maist ioy delight and court thee Vnder his wings maist sit thee downe and sport thee Sollace thy labours with a glad content
guard thy person with her flaming sword Not long before if you remember well When Adam first with Eue his darling fell Charitas And both all naked iustly for it blam'd Loues bashfull Lady was thereof asham'd And as offended in that sacred place Mounts vp the clowds with discontented face Bewailes mans fall with teares bedewes her cheeeks Most louely looks and round about she seekes If she can find with all her toyle a friend To set all right and past offences mend When she had past to siluer Cinthia fayre Through the cold Region of the liquid Aire And crost the way that Phaeton begun With his prowd Teame about the world to run Aboue the stars and fiery regions hot With extreame labour paine and trauell got On euery side through danges great had ventred Yet at the last within heauens wals she entred Where she beheld a goodly glorious sight Ten thousand candles all the world to light Carryed in course about the earth to reele And Nature nobly turning of their wheele After those kind imbraces euer vsde Twixt Ladies faire dame Nature smiling musde To see her sister with her louely face Thus rapt alone within that sacred place To passe the clowds and firy frozen Ayre The earth to leaue vnto her to repayre Euen in an instant at that happy time What heauen so high but loue diuine will clime Scale vp the throane of God himselfe aboue Thrise noble Lady full of grace and loue Nature amaz'd as wondring what it ment To see thy lookes bewray a discontent Enquires the cause that makes thy face so sad The newes below she thinks is worse then bad But when she heard and vnderstood the cause That Eue and Adam brake their Makers lawes Incurr'd a curse on all their future seed She thought the world and all therein would bleed And that Gods anger for so foule offence Would not be pleasde vnlesse she went from thence Not staying now to heare the matter scand She takes her sister by her louely hand Descending both in all their rich attire Downe the hot region of heauens burnisht fire Through the cold Aire beneath the Moone they diued And at the last in Paradise arriued Here she stood by and saw Gods iudgement past And oftentimes forth from her eyes she cast A Sea of salt and driery briny teares Her loue alas was euer full of feares To make her venter in the heate and cold And mount the skies as euen but late I told Bring Nature downe in speedy postapace To appease Gods Iustice in that sacred place Time spies her forth and takes her by the hand Which louely there within that place did stand And as before he vsde each other Sister So now this Lady first of all he kist her Then leades her foorth much like a louely Queene Spangled in Iewels wrought with gold in greene Brings her to Iustice plac't her by her side In future ages euermore to bide That till this world by power diuine shall stand These sisters both should be on either hand To guide the earth and keepe her feete vpright And gouerne all vnder the Prince of might When Mercy Iustice both from Loue do flow The Scarlet garment seemes as white as Snow Time backe retires as heretofore he did When now the place was of the Ladyesrid And on a Dame of Noble birth doth light Cald Truth his daughter cloathed all in white Veritas He takes her gently by her lilly hand Wherein Gods booke did at that instant stand Brought her along as all the rest before Ouer the gate vpon the sacred dore In all her roabes with comely pompe and grace And plac't her right before dame Iustice face O heauenly God may I not well resemble Iusticia The flaming Sword which made the earth to tremble When all the world thy sacred Iustice saw To deare Elias liuing in the Law Rapt vp a liue within a flaming Cart His coate imblazde might be a bleeding heart 2. Kin. 18. 40. 2. King 1. 10. 2. Kiug 2. 11. When Iesabel the monster of her sexe His harmelesse soule vpon the earth did vexe Her Prophets false to Babylon that ran He quite consum'd and scarcely left a man To carry newes of that vn wonted fire Which fell vpon them at his iust desire That Cherubin vpon the right hand plac't Misericordia Which time himselfe hath with his fauour grac't In all the world how well I may compare To aged Henoch walking in the Ayre Within whose dayes when God his body rapt Aboue the clouds in innocency lapt Before such time as Moses Law was gaued By Mercy onely all the world was saued The other damsell which my pen doth lim Charitas The sweetest fast and louelyest Cherubim That Time himselfe vpon the left hand set And which my Muse can neuer well forget If that we reade the holy sacred Booke How neare her person all diuine doth looke To that Disciple which the rest suruiu'd In Pathmos I le into the heauens a riu'd Rauisht in spirit on a sacred day Within a coffin did his body lay And round about a light there shined bright The coffin caught quite out of all their sight The lesson still that he did euer preach Both in his life and by example teach In all his workes like to the Turtle doue Throughout his bookes was little else but loue That Cherubin which stood before the face Veritas Ofsacred Iustice in that reuerent place Like to an infant that his Nurse doth weane Whose face is smiling fingers ends are cleane All full of Truth not knowing how to faine Dissemble falsly all the world to gaine How well I may compare her setled looke To Gods eternall euer blessed booke These Cherubins all glorious to behold Surpassing farre the purest burnisht gold The radiant splendor of whose sacred rayes Resemble those ador'd within our dayes Iustice diuine much like to God himselfe Iustitia That scorneth bribing and all ill got pelfe And shewes by iudgements fearefull past examples How all the world vnder his feete he tramples Mercy againe much like to Christ his son Miserecordia That hath the crowne of glory for vs won And from the heauens descended to the earth To make vs happy in his welcome birth Whose panting soule had neuer minutes rest Suffring those torments not to be exprest Surpassing farre the greatest learned wits To see how he at Gods right hand now sits Triumphing ouer sin world death and hell In ioyes eternall which no tongue can tell Thrice euer blessed be his glorious name It was his mercy made him do the same Then Charity much like the God of loue Charitas I meane no Cupids which to folly moue But that great spirit ere the world was made Vpon the waters through the deepe did wade Gen. 1. 2 Mat. 1. 13. 20. By whom the Virgin happily conceiued To bring forth him that lustice wrath appeased When afterwards by