outbids the Devils market far Judg whether Vice or Virtue is more gainful Since Life to come's so sweet and Death so painful Nor canst thou say 't is thine unhappy state Sin never was thy choice but 't is thy Fate Can Life cause Death Good Evil Truth a lye Life Goodness Truth crys out why wilt thou dye Is man a Creature of a rank no higher Than artificial Puppet made of Wier Are praises promises rewards all one As if you should sing well to please a stone Is man no more blame worthy for his sin Than is a Watch not pointing right the Pin Conscience would never smite thee for a Vice Did not thy Nature prompt thee otherwise Is' t not the Drunkards choice to set at nought That cup where Aconite is made the draught And cannot Heaven nor Hell make him refrain Can Heaven e're lose its price or Hell its pain Strange Fate ne're fix'd on ought but what are evils As if God ne're made men but all were Devils If sin hath caught thee in its fatal gin Thy punishment's as fatal as thy sin But after all is there no strength and force In this that sin made God himself a curse Then sinner take thy fill carouse and quaff But canst thou drink o th' Cup that Christ drank of Or can thy back once bear that direful Rod Prest with the Arm of an Almighty God If sin made God so cursed Oh what can Make sin more cursed unto sinful man If innocence did under wrath so groan What comfort can the sinner look for none I beg thy Favour Lord for to relate Why thou wast Crucifi'd without the Gate CHRIST For to compleat a Jewish Type of note Th' accursed Sacrifice o' th' Scapen Goat Nor was it fit my Merits and my Grace Should be confin'd only to th' Jewish Race I dy'd a Pagan Death my erected wood Stood ' loft that all may view it for their good My Arms were stretched out from East to West To close with every Soul that would be Blest My Titles wrote in Hebrew Latin Greek All Nations in me may Salvation seek SOUL Thou dyd'st for all nought can it falsify But only cursed Infidelity Were not thy Death of Value infinite It could not make atonement for one sprite But being infinite it satisfi'd Both for this world and thousand worlds beside Let my name in thy Cross Engraven be Thou didst not dye for all if not for me But why in Holy Writ is' t verifi'd My Lord betwixt two Malefactors dy'd CHRIST There is a reason why th' Apostle said it Not only for to save the Prophets credit I was esteem'd a greater thief to be Than either of those Thieves that dy'd with me But yet by dying thus I mercy meant To th' greatest thief the greatest penitent When Adam robb'd the Tree to make him VVise And then deny'd it lost his Paradise Humble confession finds admission in To Paradise thus lost by Adams sin Wht one Thief lost you see the other found Who falls and riseth soon he gaineth ground But he that lives in sin in sin shall dye Yea tho his Lord and Saviour standeth by VVho hopes for Heaven but will not change his vice May find a Hell yea in a Paradise His very hopes are founded in his fears Since lust would fire a Heaven about his Ears Bateing my word each sinner can foretel Sin hath a Central force that points at Hell I need not say Depart out of my sight It never was nor can be his delight VVho to my sacred Laws hath small regard Hath less of reason to expect reward My Cross here seems to represent my Throne VVhich at the last day I shall sit upon O' th left hand stands the Goats my Sheep o' th' right As meet inheritors with Saints in light SOUL By these two Thieves my Lord hath clearly shown Justice and Mercy doth uphold his Throne Th' one aws my hopes th' other checks my fears Th' one hoists up Sail whil'st that the other stears To th' dying Thief much was thy mercy shown I won't presume on 't cause he was but one 'T was his first time he ever heard of thee The same can ne're be verifi'd of me He for his Lord and Saviour once did take thee In that weak state when all thy friends forsake thee Thou own'st him at thy death he thee at thine The same can ne're be truly said of mine I 'le now resolve God ne're held forth to morrow Or if he did did not repenting sorrow That I shall turn to God can it be said When that I scarce can turn me in my Bed My time is short way heavy long the course Shall all the burden lye o' th' weakest Horse My debts run on shall I discharge the score And pay them bitter when I owe the more I blush to think what 's dreadful for to own My lusts shall have the Marrow God the Bone When on the dying Thief thou cast thine Eyes Methinks thy words some potent truth implies This day thou shalt be with m' in Paradise CHRIST The Jews held forth a double Paradise That on the Earth and that above the Skies The place where earthly joys all met together The one the fitter umbrage of the other From hence th' Elysian Fields first took their rise Shades of the Trees that grew in Paradise Both Jew and Greek concur that men survive Their mortal clay and then are most alive Nothing to nothing tends and more say I 'T is by a Metaphor my Saints can dye God 's not the God o' th' dead but of the living The Souls of Abraham Isaac still surviving Moses Elias in the Mount appears Alive tho dead above two thousand years When Jacob saw the garment of his son Cries out some Beast hath kill'd him I 'm undone Whilst thus lamenting his unhappy fate Joseph's alive and Lives in Princely state Whilst mine and thy dear friend do spriteless lie Inexorable to thy sighs and cry They are not Dead but are alive as I Leaving their Grave-Cloaths for to wipe thine Eye Hast thou not seen a Student at his Book Close pent and pris'ned in some private nook He 's then all Mind all Soul all Life all Sprite And most alive when dead to Human sight Hast thou not seen two Combatants Engage Till one seems prostrate dead upon the Stage But when drawn off dragg'd through a Postern Door He is alive as e're he was before So have I seen the Branches of a Vine At Winters season faint away and pine When at that instant each luxuriant shoot Tho seeming dead yet is alive at Root And when the Sun imparts its gentle light Each branch appears again in pregnant plight Thy Life on Earth is hid with Christ above And when the Sun of Righteousness and Love Quickneth thy Soul all truth shall be display'd And latent forms of things which have been dead Hast thou not heard the pangs and pains that come From teeming Mothers of a pregnant
wish so too but such hecame thy sin For never was there sin thou didst commit But pain and shame and curse attended it SOUL Truth Lord in every breach of thy command The Pain doth take the Pleasure by the hand The Proud shall never want their pain and trouble The reason is they bottom on a bubble The worldlings in their plenty still do crave And pain'd in this they want the goods they have The envious to themselves prove very Devils Making their brothers goods become their evils Lust is a Devil too that first doth tempt us Then making conscience Devil to torment us The lyar finds a truth who never said it He suffers from his conscience and his credit Injustice that withdraws anothers pelf Doth the exactest Justice on it self It is a truth too true we may relye on 't Each sin doth bear his cross but will not dye on 't Thy death was painful Lord but I 'm offended That by a shameful death thy life was ended CHRIST My Cross was as a Pulpit plac'd on high Preaching a Sermon visible to th' eye Of Meekness Patience Love Humility These virtues in the mind could make no stamp Had I appear'd array'd in worldly Pomp Phocian Thrasias and such men as these Regulus Aristides Socrates Such Heroes Virtues ne'r could climb the sky Were not their persons once condemn'd to dye So stars shine brightest in a frosty night The biggest least appearing in our sight In love to man and tender sympathy To man in troubles 't was but meet that I Should feel the brunt of all and therefore dye Now love's a law never to be controul'd What e're it toucheth turneth all to Gold From an accursed death exalts its fame Nobles disgrace finds dignity in shame Since God must be aton'd too I 'm content To undergo this legal punishment Condemn'd to dye in shame what greater dread Than to dye once be killed too when dead Can worse be meant what all men always have My pains must want a death my death a grave This was thy shame my soul mine ne'r had been Wer 't not to expiate thy shameful sin That sin is cloath'd with shame this doth express it Men dare to sin but dare not to confess it Sin dyes thy Aspect red or makes it pale Nature to hide thy shame pulls on her Vail Like to the cursed Serpent such is lust It creeps on 's belly and it licks the dust Lyars want feet to stand on yet they can Dare to affront a God but sneak from man Drunkards have naught to speak them humane creatures But inward guilt and some few outward features Would they but once in my word view their face They 'd curse the Image but commend the Glass The Misers sins as base base earth at best Making it self the center of its rest Thus shame to wait on sin will never fail Bating the sting that 's in the vipers tail SOUL Most shameful sin tho Hell had never been Methinks there 's Hell enough in every sin Shall I create a Title and a Name To that which made my God a publick shame Since sin expos'd my Lord I 'le here begin From this example to expose my sin I 'le search and try judg and condemn its cause At the most strict Tribunal of thy Laws I 'le strip the Varlet of his vain pretences Then Scourge him roundly for his vile Offences I 'le bind him fast in this fast twisted Cord Sins guilt deaths curse Gods Ire Hells Flaming Sword I 'le make him feel his burden with Remorse Of conscience bear and dye too on the Cross I 'le cause my luxuries to take a sup O' th' mixtures they prepared for thy Cup. Here my intemperance like thee O Christ Shall on thy Cross cry out I thirst I thirst My whoredorms riots revels in the Night Shall here do penance in thy Robes of White My Oaths that stabb'd thee to the Heart shall feel The pangs and pains of thy side-peircing Steel My pride that cannot stoop nor bear a frown Shall feel the pungent prickles of thy Crown My lusts those Nayls that ty'd thee to the Tree Shall feel themselves fast bound and ty'd with thee Those fierce and fiery passions that most please us Shall here lye prostrate at the Feet of Jesus Thus shall my sins with all their mighty Host Be stretcht and nailed to thy cursed Post Then cry aloud and so give up the Ghost Why wouldst thou dye upon that cursed Wood Methinks ther'e 's something yet Lord understood CHRIST T' attone the sin of the forbidden Tree Once curs'd by Adam but more curse to me O Cross the name and quintessence of Evils Cursed by God by Angels Men and Devils What curse is greater except this be worse I am at length become the Creatures curse The Sun at Noon-day hides his Glorious Face Blushing at such an object of disgrace My Corps they must not rest a night o' th' Tree Lest that the Air should take offence at me The Earth that 's curs'd by mine tho Adams sin Won't let me touch her with my nether skin That Earth where Serpents feed and Beasts do tread on I must not find a place to lay my head on Rocks put on sence and seem for to condole The pangs and dolors of my dying Soul The Temple seems to be profan'd by me And rents its Cloaths as hearing Blasphemy SOUL If spotless innocence hath thus been used Can sins Excuses ever be excused Who counts his sin but small of little weight Must say the same of God if he say right Count thy sin small if any can be such 'T is not a little that thou lov'st it much For so a Bodkin if it reach thy Heart Kills thee as sure as doth a greater Dart. The prickles of that Crown which Jesus wore Bedew'd his Temples with a purple gore The smaller instance doth enhanse the sin VVilt loose Gods Grace and Favour for a pin In smallest cranies serpents will not fayl First to twine in the Head and then the tayl VVho takes an earnest penny he engages To do more work when Satan bids more wages Nor must thou reckon at the common rate Thy sin was small cause the temptation 's great Such as man is such is the power of sin Prevailing not without but from within Some Healthful persons will devour a mess VVhen squeamish stomacks will recoyl at less Joseph was Tempted more than e're was David The one fell foul the other he was saved Poor thirty pieces did prevail upon Judas when thousands could not on St. John VVho for a pound won't sin but will for seven This is to set a price on God and Heaven VVhat 's Infinite and what 's Eternal Life Equal outweighs five thousand pounds as five But for Temptation this had never bin Is nought to say but that you love the sin Nor can sins pleasure or its pleasing Profit Excuse the sin for the Commission of it Since in its tempting and commodious ware Jesus
Lord his dear-bought purchase have My debts are paid shall I begin the score And load thy Cross with sins and sorrows more Oh that the breath of life would breath upon This rotten Carkass and this dryed Bone That I may testifie two Truths in one Thy mighty Death and Resurrection One question more VVhy did th' Apostles all So faithfully record thy Burial CHRIST The Prophet David did this Truth †Psal 16. foretell Thou wilt not leave my soul i' th' nether Hell This from Isaiah too may be ¶ Isa 55.9 infer'd I dy'd with wicked with the rich inter'd Joseph 's Pit Daniel 's Den and Jonah 's Whale VVere but the umbrage of my Burial 'T is a religious seed in nature bred All Nations do prepare t' inter the dead Such was the custom of th' Egyptian Sages Holding the Soul to live immortal Ages Lest after death the soul might transmigrate The body was embalm'd in Princely State That both uniting they might frustrate death Aping an Immortality on Earth The Grecian Rites tho different did tend To perfect and compleat the self-same end Fetching the Souls Original no higher Than that its nature was like unto Fire The Piles erected and the Bodies burned By this the soul to her first state returned The body too thus purged in the fire Like to the soul may never more expire The Romans did no less their bodies burn Closing the ashes in sepulchral Urn. The corps drencht of its dregs was thus calcin'd And made Aethereal like to the mind These uncorrupted Ashes did presage Their firm belief of an immortal age The Jews best taught of God abhorred burning The soul next aftr death to God returning The body was committed to the Earth It s proper Parent whence it had its birth It was Gods penal law too sinners must As dust they were return unto the dust Nor did Gods Law consign men to this fate Without a prospect of a future state VVho di'd a cursed death so 't is ‖ Deut. 29. infer'd VVas afterwards expos'd but then inter'd Lest perishing o' th tree may thence create A foul opinion of a future state For so Gods image would have been beli'd As if the soul like to the body di'd The body too prey'd on by winged Fowl Should never more return unto the soul The Washings Oyntments Gums with other cost Suggests this Truth None that are dead are lost Nor can we Judas like this question state Why was this Oyntment spent at such a rate VVhy are our Cloaths wrapt up so neatly spread But that the Grave 's a Wardrope for the Dead VVhen th' Sacrifice o' th' Altar was consum'd The Ashes by the Priest was then assum'd Then Faithfully deposited abroad As Relicks that were Relative to God The Earth the Elements the spacious Globes Are but one chest to keep my Servants Robes The Keys are hung upon my Royal Throne And when I turn my hand all know their own None is so rich in death but that he hath Either a Monument or Epitaph Nor none so poor but that he thinks it meet A stone should Crown his Head or shoe his Feet This truth by this dumb Language is display'd Man fain would be alive when he is dead Thus stones do speak and speak it to the full That man both is and would be living Soul Thus Custom Nature Piety withal Brings Gums and Spikenard for my Burial Nor did my due interment want its sence Both as to time and place and circumstance The seventh day was the season God had blest The very day on which I took my rest O' th' six't day Adams Body had its Birth O' th' six't my Body visited the Earth This held for truth and for a truth related Adam the same day fell he was created On the same day I gave the Thief a tast O' th' Fruit of Paradise which Adam lost Nor was it less Mysterious that I have A Garden-plat wherein to pitch my Grave By this cunclude my Death a way hath forc't To Paradise again which Adam lost 'T is not without remark I laid my Head In a new Tomb where none was buried As I was spotless in the Virgins Womb My Purity requir'd a Virgin Tomb. Were I inter'd with sinners as I dy'd My Resurection would have been beli'd Had others slept with me it might be said Some other person 's risen in my stead My Tomb was therefore new hewn out of stone That so my Resurrection may be known Had it been built of stones stones more than one The Bottom might be raz'd the Body stone But since it was a stone cut out of Rock Had Pilates Signet too to be the Lock Since that a weighty stone too guards the Cell And did become its sturdy Centinel And to make sure a band of Soldiers taken Whom envy malice fear did keep awaken This Rock so Guarded was the Corner-stone Of the truth of my Resurrection SOUL Since my Lord dy'd for me shall I not come And break a Box of Spikenard on thy Tomb I know thy purity and innocence Needs not my Myrrh my Gums my Fankincense For to preserve thy sacred person whole As uncorrupt in Body as in Soul What Pow'r in Gums and Oyntments e're can be The Body from corruption to keep free Such was the power of thy Divinity Since that I cannot now Embalm my Head I will Anoint the Members in its stead Thy Body Hands and Feet shall nor go free What to the Members done is done to thee Since thou wilt have a Tomb cut out by Art Oh let thy Spirit work it in my Heart It is a Rocky Stone but yet it will Make thee a Tomb when Polisht by thy skill Since it was so as thou my Lord hast said Thou wast inter'd where no man else was lay'd Oh let no wilful sin dare once to dwell Within that place where God hath made his Cell Seal it then with the signet of thy VVord That no vile lust may steal away my Lord. Help me to watch my Lips and guard my Heart That no ill thought ill speaking or ill Art May offend my Lord and cause him to depart VVhat I engag'd in my Baptismal Vow I here remember and do promise now That since my Lord was Dead and Buried This Truth in me shall be accomplished My sins shall dye with thee upon the Cross A painful lingring Death as Jesus was VVhen once they 'r Dead Oh let it ne're be said I shall renew acquaintance with the Dead But like our dearest Friends when dead and rotten Become vile Earth and therefore soon forgotten So Abra'm said of Sarah when she dy'd Take her away let her no more be ey'd If that my sin with thee is thus inter'd And that I am made free among the dead I shall with joy at last lift up my head Lord lay me lower in this bed of dust Then raise me to the mansions of the Just The Close I am thy Servant Lord I am no Poet As thou dost know and all that know me know it If I have ask't or made thee say amiss I beg thy pardon on my beaded knees Grant me thy Spirit Lord and by its art Do thou imprint these Lines upon my heart That then my scribble not till then shall be Esteemed to be good Divinity VVhat 's said amiss thy pardon Lord that mine is What well the Grace and Favour only thine is As thou hast been my Alpha be my FINIS