Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A66774
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A prophesie written long since for this yeare, 1641 wherein prelate-policie is proved to be folly : as also, many notable passages concerning the fall of some great church-men / written by a modern poet.
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Wither, George, 1588-1667.
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1641
(1641)
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Wing W3182A; ESTC R11664
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44,260
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90
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degrees A Clergie that shall more desire to fleece Then feede the flocke A Clergy it shall be Divided in it selfe and they shall thee Divide among them into sev'rall factions which rend thee will and fill thee with destructions They all in ourward seeming shall pretend Gods glory and to have one pious end But under colour of sincere devotion Their study shall be temporall promotion Which will among themselves strange quarrels make Wherein thy other children shall peâ—â—take As to the Persons or the Cause they stand Affected even quite throughout the Land One part of these will for preferment strive By liâ—ting up the King's prerogative Above it selfe They shall perswade him to Much more then Law or Conscience bids him do And say God warrants it His holy Lawâ—s They shall pervert to justifie their cause And impudently wrest to prove their ends What God to better purposes intends They shall not blush to say that ev'ry King May doe like Solomon in every thing As if they had his warrant and shall dare Ascribe to Monarches rights that proper are To none but Christ and mixt their flatteries With no lesse grosse and wicked blasphemies Then Heathens did yea make their Kings beleeve That whosoever they oppresse or greive It is no wrong nor fit for men oppressed To seeke by their owne Lawes to be redressed Such councell shall thy Princes then provoke To cast upon thee Rehoboams yoake And they not caring or not taking heed How ill that ill-advised King did speed Shall multiply thy causes of distraction For then will of thy Priests the other faction Bestir themselves They will in outward showes Those whom I last have mentioned oppose But in thy ruine they will both agree As in one Center though farre off they be In their Diameter With lowly zeale An envious pride they slâ—ly shall conceale And as the former to thy Kings will teach Meere Tyranny so shall these other preach Rebellion to the people and shall straine The word of God Sedition to maintaine They shall not feare to say that if thy King Become a Tyrant thou maist also fling Obedience off or from his Crowne divorce him Or by the terror of drawne swords enforce him Which false Divinity shall to the Devill Send many soules and bring on thee much evill Oh! be thou therefore watchfull and when e're These Lambs with Dragons voyces doe appeare Repent thy sinne or take it for a token That some great Bulwarke of thy peace is broken Which must be soone repaired or else all The greatnesse of thy glory downe will fall Take heede of those false prophets who will strive Betwixt thy Prince and people to contrive A disagreement And what ever come Thy due Allegeance never start thou from For their oppressions though we may withstand By pleading Lawes or Customes not a hand Must move against them save the hand of God Who makes a King a Bulwarke or a Rod As pleaseth him Oh! take ye therefore heed Yee People and ye Kings that shall succeed Of these Impostors Of the last beware Yee Subjects for their Doctrines hellish are And though they promise Liberty and Peace Your Thraldome and your Troubles they 'll increase Shun oh yee Kings the first for they advise What will your Crownes and honors prejudice When you doe thinke their Prophecies befriend you They doe but unto Râ—moth-Gilead send you Where you shall perish and poore Micahs word Though lesse esteem'd more safety will afford They will abuse your piety and all Your vertues For their wicked ends they shall Apply the Sacred Story or what ever May seeme to further their unjust endevor Ev'n what the son of Hannah told the Iewes Should be their scourge because they did refuse The sov'raignty of God and were so vaine To aske a King which over them might raigne As heathen Princes did that curse they shall Affirme to be a Law Monarchicall Which God himselfe established to stand Throughout all ages and in ev'ry land Which is as good Divinity as they Have also taught who doe not blush to say That Kings may have both Wives and Concubines And by that Rule whereby these great Divines Shall prove their Tenet I dare undertake If found it hold that I like proofe will make Of any Iâ—wish Custome and devise Authority for all absurdities But false it is For might all Kings at pleasure As by the right of royaltie make seasure Of any mans possessions why i pray Did Ahab grieve that Naboth said him nay Why made he not this answer thereunto If what the Prophet said some Kings would do Were justly to be done Thy vineyards mine And at my pleasure Naboth all that 's thine Assume I may like a Turky-chick Did he so foolishly grow sullen-sick And get possession by a wicked fact Of what might have beene his by royall act If such Divinity as this were true The Queene should not have needed to pursue Poore Naboth as she did or so contrive His death since by the Kings Prerogative She might have got his Vinyard Nor would God Have scourg'd that murther with so keene a rod On Ahab had he asked but his due For he did neither plot nor yet pursue The murther nor for ought that we can tell Had knowledge of the deed of Iezabel Till God reveal'd it by the Prophet to him Nor is it said that Naboth wrong did do him Or disrespect in that he did not yeeld To sell or give or to exchange his Field The Iewish Commonwealth did so instate That their possessions none could alienate But for a time who ever for his mony Or in exchange desir'd their patrimony And doubtlesse we offend who at this day Those fredomes give or lose or sell away Which were in common right possest of old By our Forefathers and continue should To all their after commers For altho We may dispose of what pertaines unto Our persons yet those dues which former ages have left unto us for our heritages And whereunto the child that borne must be Hath ev'ry whit as good a right as we Those dues we should preserve with all our might By pleading of our just and ancient rgiht In humble wise if so the Sov'raigne state Our freedome shall attempt to violate But when by peacefull meanes we cannot save it We to the pleasure of the King must leave it And unto God our Judge for all the pow'r In us consists in saying This is our A King is for a blessing or a curse And therefore though a Foole he were or worse A Tyrant or an Ethnick no man may So much as in their private closets pray Against his person though they moy petition Against the wickednesse of his condition Nor is this suffrance due to those alone Who subject are unto a Monarchs throne But from all those who either subjects are To mixed Government or popular For though irregularities appeare In ev'ry State because but men they are Whom Gods exalts to rule yet it is he By
their lives Ev'n by their just and due Prerogatives When thus much they have made them to beleeve Then they shall teach them practices to grieve Their subjects by and instruments become To helpe the screwing up by some and some Of Monarchies to Tyrannies They shall Abuse Religion Honestie and all To compasse their designes They shall devise Strange projects and with impudence and lyes Proceed in setling them They shall forget Those reverent usages which doe befit The majestie of State and raile and storme When they pretend disorders to reforme In their high Counsels and where men should have Kind admonitions and reprovings grave When they offend they shall be threatned there Or scoft or taunted though no cause appeare It is unseemly for a Judge to sit And exercise a jibing Schoole-boyes wit Vpon their trades or names who stand before Their judgement seats buâ— who doth not abhor To heare it when a Magistrate objects Birth poverty or personall defects In an upbraiding wise Or who with me Derides it not when in our Courts we see Those men whose bodies are both old and weake Forgetting grave and usefull things to speake Uent Giants words and bristle up as tho Their very breath could armies overthrow Whereas poore weaklings were there in their places No more authority then in their faces Their persons or their language all their chasing And threatning nothing would effect but laughing For unto me big looks and crying hoâ—â— As dreadfull seemes as when a child cryes boh To fright his Nurse yea such a bugbeare fashion Effâ—cteth nought but scornefull indignation But in those times which nearer are then somâ— Suppose perhaps such Rhetoricke will come To be in use and arguments of Reason And just proceeding will be out of season Their Wisedome shall be folly and goe nigh To bring conâ—empt on their Authority Their Councell Fable shall a snare be made And those 'gainst whom they no just matter had At first appearance shall be urg'd to say Some word or other e're they part away Which will betray their innocence to blame And bring upon them detriment and shame Yea many times as David hath of old Concerning such oppressors well foretold To humble crouchings and to fained showes Descend they shall to worke mens overthrowes And what their subtilty doth faile to gaine They shall by rigour and by force obtaine What ever from thy people they can teare Or borrow they shall keep as if it were A prize which had beene taken from the Foe And they shall make no conscience what they doe To prejudice Posterity For they To gaine their lust but for the present day Shall with such love unto themselves endeavor That though they knew it would undoe for ever Their owne posterity it shall not make Those Monsters any better course to take Nay God shall give them up for their offences To such uncomely reprobated senses And blinde them so that when the axe they see Ev'n hewing at the root of their owne tree By their owne handy strokes they shall not grieve For their approaching fall no nor beleeve Their fall approacheth nor assume that heed Which might prevent it till they fall indeed Thy Princes Brittaine in those dayes will be Like roaring Lyons making prey of thee God shall deliver thee into their hand And they shall act their pleasure in the Land As one his Prophet threatned to that Nation Which doth exemplifie thy Desolation Thy Kings as thou hast wallowed in excesse Shall take delight in drinke and wantonnesse And those who thou dost call thy Noble-ones Shall to the very marrow gnaw thy bones Thy Lawyers fulfully shall wrest thy Lawes And to the ruine of the common Cause Shall mis-interpret them in hope of grace From those who may dispoyle them of their place Yea that whereto they are obliged both By Conscience by their Calling and their Oath To put in execution they shall feare And leave them helpelesse who oppessed are Thy Prelates in the spoyle of thee shall share Thy Priests as light shall be as those that are The meanest persons All their Prophecies Or preachings shall be herisies and lies The word of truth in them shall not remaine Their lips no wholsome knowledge shall retaine And all his outward meanes of saving Grace Thy God shall carry to another place Marke well oh Britaine what I now shall say And doe not sleihhtly passe these words away But be assured that when God begins To bring that vengeance on thee for thy sinnes Which hazzard will with totall over-throw Thy Prophets and thy Priests shall sliely sow The seeds of that dissention and sedition Which time will ripen for thy sad perdition Ev'n they who formerly were of thy peace The happy instruments shall then increase Thy troubles most And ev'n as when the Iewes Gods truth-presaging Prophets did abuse He suffered those who preached in his Name Such falshoods as the chiefest cause became Of their destruction so if thou go on To make a scorne as thou hast often done Of them who seeke thy welfare he will send False Prophets that shall bring thee to thine end By saying all things thou wouldest have them say And lulling thee asleepe in thine owne way If any brain-sick Fellow whom the Devill Seduceth to inflict on thee some evill Shall coyne false Doctrines or perswade thee to Some foolish course that will at length undoe The Common-weale â—his counsell thou shalt follow Thou cover'd with his bait a hooke shalt swallow To rend thine entrailes and thine ignorance Shall also for that mischiefe him advance But if that any loveâ— of thy weale Inspir'd with truth and with an honest zeale Shall tell thee ought pertâ—ining to thy good His Messages shall stiffly be withstood That Seer shall be charged not to see His word shall sleighted as a potsherd be His lâ—fe shall be traduced to disgrace His Counsells or his errant to debase In stead of recompence he shall be sure Imprisonments or threatnings to procure And peradventure as those Prophets were Who did among the Iewish Peers declare Their States enormities his good intention May be so rong'd that he by some invention May loose his life with publike shame and hate As one that is a troubler of the State But not unlesse the Priest thereto consent For in those dayes shall few men innocent Be griev'd through any quarter of the Land In which thy Clergie shall not have some hand If ever in the Fields as God forbid The blood of thine owne children shall be shed By civill discord they shall blow the flame That will become thy ruine and thy shame And thus it shall be kindled When the times Are nigh at worst and thy increasing crimes Almost compleat the Devill shall begin To bring strange crotchets and opinons in Among thy Teachers which will breede disunion And interrupt the visible communion Of thy establisht Church And in the steed Of zealous Pastors who Gods flock did feed There shall arise within thee by