mountaines tops My honour shall bee placed in deceit And counterfait new shewes of little weight verse 10 My pen doth almost blush at this replie And faine would call him wicked to his face But then his breath would answeâ—… with a lie And staine my inck with an vntruths disgrace Thy maister bids thee write the pen sayes no But when thy maister bids it must be so Call his hart ashes oh too mild a name Call his hope vile more viler then the earth Call his life weaker then a clayeie frame Call his bespotted heart an ashye hearth Ashes earth clay conioyn'd to heart hope life Are features loue in being natures strife verse 11 Thou mightst haue chose more stinging wordes then these For this he knowes he is and more then lesse In saying what he is thou dost appease The foming anger which his thoughts suppresse Who knowes not if the best be made of clay The worst must needs be clad in foule array Thou in performing of thy maisters will Dost teach him to obay his lords commaunds But he repugnant is and cannot skill Of true adoring with heart-heau'd vp hand Hee hath a soule a life a breath a name Yet is he ignorant from whence they came verse 12 My soule saith he is but a mappe of shoes No substance but a shadow for to please My life doth passe euen as a pastime goes A momentary time to liue at ease My breath a vapour and my name of earth Each one decaying of the others birth Our conuersation best for there is gaines And gaine is best in conuersations prime A mart of lucre in our conscience raignes Our thoughts as busie agents for the time So we get gaine ensnaring simple men It is no matter how nor where nor when verse 13 We care not how for all misdeedes are ours We care not where if before God or man We care not when but when our crafts haue powres In measuring deceit with mischiefes fanne For wherefore haue we life forme and ordaining But that we should deceiue and still be gaining I made of earth haue made al earthen shops And what I sell is al of earthy sale My pots haue earthen feete and earthen tops In like resemblance of my bodies vale But knowing to offend the heauens more I made fraile images of earthy store verse 14 O bold accuser of his owne misdeedes O heauy clod more than the earth can beare Was neuer creature clothde in sauage weedes Which would not blush when they this mischief hear Thou toldst a tale which might haue bin vntolde Making the hearers blush the readers olde Let them blush still that heares be olde that reades Then boldnes shal not raigne nor youth in vice Thrice miserable they which rashly speeds With expedition to this bold deuice More foolish than are fooles whose misery Cannot be changde with new felicitie verse 15 Are not they fooles which liue without a sence Haue not they misery which neuer ioy Which takes an idoll for a Gods defence And with their self-willd thoghts themselues destroy What folly is more greater than is here Or what more miserie can wel appeere Call you them gods which haue no seeing eyes No noses for to smell no eares to heare No life but that which in deaths shadow lies Which haue no hands to feele no feete to beare If gods can neither heare liue feele nor see A foole may make such gods of euery tree verse 16 And what was he that made them but a foole Conceiuing follie in a foolish braine Taught and instructed in a wodden schoole Which made his head run of a wodden vaine T was man which made them he his making had Man full of wood was wood and so ran mad He borrowed his life and would restore His borrowed essence to another death He faine would be a maker though before Was made himselfe and God did lend him breath No man can make a god like to a man He sayes he scornes that worke he furder can verse 17 He is deceiude and in his great deceit He doth deceiue the folly-guided harts Sin lies in ambush he for sin doth waite Here is deceit deceiude in either parts His sin deceiueth him and he his sin So craft with craft is mewed in either gin The crafts-man mortall is craft mortall is Each function nursing vp the others want His hands are mortall deadly what is his Onely his sins buds in destructions plant Yet better he than what he doth deuise For he himselfe doth liue that euer dies verse 18 Say call you this a God where is his head Yet headlesse is he not yet hath he none Where is his godhead fled his power dead His raigne decayed and his essence gone Now tell me is this God the God of good Or else Siluanus monarch of the wood There haue I pierst his barke for he is so A wooden god fainde as Siluanus was But leauing him to others let vs go To senslesse beasts their new adoring glasse Beasts which did liue in life yet died in reason Beasts which did seasons eate yet knew no season verse 19 Can mortall bodies and immortall soules Keepe one knit vnion of a liuing loue Can sea with land can fish agree with foules Tygers with lambes a serpent with a doue Oh no they cannot then say why doe wee Adore a beast which is our enimy What greater foe than folly vnto wit What more deformitie than vgly face This disagrees for follie is vnfit The other contrary to beauties place Then how can senslesse heads deformed shoes Agree with you when they are both your foes Chapter XVI verse 1 OH call that word againe they are your friends Your liues associats and your loues content That which begins in them your follie ends Then how can vice with vice be discontent Beholde deformitie sits on your heads Not hornes but scornes not visage but whole beds Beholde a heap of sins your bodies pale A mountaine-ouerwhelming villany Then tell me are you clad in beauties vale Or in destructions pale-pale-dead liuerie Their life demonstrates now aliue now dead Tormented with the beasts which they haue fed verse 2 3 You like to Pelicans haue fed your death With follies-vaine let bloud from follies veyne And almost sterude your selues stopt vp your breath Had not Gods mercie helpt and easde your paine Beholde a new-found meat the Lord did send Which taught you to be new and to amend A strange disgested nutriment euen quailes Which taught them to be strange vnto misdeeds When you implore his aide he neuer failes To fill their hunger whom repentance feeds You see when life was halfe at deaths arrest Hee new created life at hungers feast verse 4 Say is your God like this whom you ador'd Or is this God like to your handie frame If so his power could not then afford Such influence which floweth from his name Hee is not painted made of wood and stone But he substantiall is and rules alone He can oppresse and
to flye sin run into sin And thinke to end when they do new begin God made the earth the earth denies their sute Nor can they harbor in the centres womb God knowes their thoughts although their tongs be mute And heares the sounds from forth their bodies tomb Sounds ah no sounds but man himselfe hee heares Too true a voice of mans most falsest feares verse 10 Oh see destruction houering ore thy head Mantling her selfe in wickednes array Hoping to make thy body as her bed Thy vice her nutriment thy soule her pray Thou hast forsaken him that was thy guide And see what followes to asswage thy pride Thy roaring vices noyse hath cloyd his eares Like foaming waues they haue orewhelmde thy ioy Thy murmurings which thy whole body beares Hath bred thy waile thy waile thy lifes annoy Vnhappy thoughts to make a soules decay Vnhappie soule in suffering thoughts to sway verse 11 Then sith the height of mans felicitie Is plung'd within the pudle of misdeedes And wades amongst discredits infamie Blasting the merit of his vertues seedes Beware of murmuring the chiefest ill From whence all sin all vice all paines distill O heauie doome proceeding from a tong Heauie light tong tong to thy owne decay In vertue weake in wickednesse too strong To mischiefe prone from goodnesse gone astray Hammer to forge misdeedes to temper lies Selling thy life to death thy soule to cries verse 12 Must death needs pay the ransome of thy sin With the dead carcasse of descending spirit Wilt thou of force be snared in his gin And place thy errour in destructions merit Life seeke not for thy death death comes vnsought Buying the life which not long since was bought Death and destruction neuer needs a call They are attendants on liues pilgrimage And life to them is as their playing ball Grounded vppon destructions anchorage Seeke not for that which vnsought will betide Nere wants destruction a prouoking guide verse 13 Will you needs act your owne destruction Will you needs harbour your owne ouerthrowe Or will you cause your owne euersion Beginning with dispaire ending with woe Then die your hartes in tyrannies arraie To make acquittance of destructions pay What do you meditate but on your death What doe you practise but your liuing fall Who of you all haue any vertues breath But ready armed at a mischiefes call God is not pleased at your vices sauour But you best pleased when you lose his fauour verse 14 He made not death to be your conqueror But you to conquer ouer death and hell Nor you to bee destructions seruitor Enhoused there where Maiestie should dwell God made man to obay at his beheast And man to be obayde of euery beast He made not death to be our labours hire But we our selues made death through our desart Here neuer was the kingdome of hell fire Before the brand was kindled in mans hart Now man defieth God all creatures man Vice flourisheth and vertue lieth wan verse 15 O fruitefull tree whose roote is alwaies greene Whose blossomes euer bud whose fruites encrease Whose toppe celestiall vertues seat hath been Defended by the soueraintie of peace This tree is righteousnes ô happy tree Immortalized by thine owne decree O hatefull plant whose roote is alwaies drie Whose blossomes neuer bud whose fruites decrease On whom sits the infernall deitie To take possession of so foule a lease This plant is vice O too vnhappy plant Euer to die and neuer fill deaths want verse 16 Accursed in thy growth dead in thy roote Cancred with sin shaken with euery winde Whose top dooth nothing differ from the foote Mischiefe the sappe and wickednesse the rhinde So the vngodly like this withered tree Is slacke in doing good in ill too free Like this their wicked growth too fast too slowe Too fast in slouth too slow in vertues hast They thinke their vice a friend when t is a foe In good in wickednes too slow too fast And as this tree decayes so do they all Each one copartner of the others fall Chapter II. verse 1 INdeede they doe presage what wil betide With the misgiuing verdict of misdeeds They knowe a fall will follow after pride And in so foule a hart growes manie weeds Our life is short quoth they no t is too long Lengthned with euill thoughts and euill tong A life must needs be short to them that dies For life once dead in sin doth weakely liue These die in sin and maske in deaths disguise And neuer thinke that death new life can giue They say life dead can neuer liue againe O thoughts ô wordes ô deeds fond foolish vaine verse 2 Vilde life to harbor where such death abodes Abodes worse then are thoughts thoughts worse then words Wordes halfe as ill as deeds deeds sorrowes odes Odes ill inchaunters of too ill records Thoghts words and deeds conoyined in one song May cause an Eccho from destructions tong Quoth they t is chaunce whether we liue or die Borne or abortiue be or neuer bee Wee worship fortune shee 's our deitie If she denies no vitall breath haue wee Here are wee placed in this orbe of death This breath once gone we neuer looke for breath verse 3 Betweene both life and death both hope and feare Betweene our ioy and griefe blisse and dispaire We here possesse the fruite of what is here Borne euer for to die and die deaths heire Our heritage is death annexde to life Our portion death our death an endlesse strife What is our life but our liues tragedy Extinguishde in a momentary time And life to murder life is cruelty Vnripely withering in a flowrie prime And vrne of ashes pleasing but the showes Once dry the toiling spirit wandring goes verse 4 Like as the traces of appearing clouds Giues way when Tytan resalutes the sea With new-changd flames guilding the Oceans flouds Kissing the cabinet where I hetis lay So fares our life when death doth giue the wound Our life is led by death a captiue bound When Sol bestrides his golden mountaines toppe Lightning heauens tapors with his liuing fire All gloomye powers haue their diurnall stoppe And neuer gaines the darknes they desire So perisheth our name when wee are dead Our selues nere cald to mind our deeds nere read verse 5 What is the time wee haue what be our daies No time but shadowe of what time should be Daies in the place of houres which neuer staies Beguiling sight of that which sight should see As soone as the begin they haue their fine Nere waxe still waine nere stay but still decline Life may be cald the shadowe of effect Because the cloude of death doth shadow it Nor can our life approaching death reiect They both in one for our election sit Death followes life in euery degree But life to followe death you neuer see verse 6 Come we whose olde decrepit age doth hault Like limping winter in our winter sin Faultie wee know we are tush what 's a fault A
vices raigne God wanteth power say they of what we can The other would performe that which is vaine Both faultie in one fault and both alike Must haue the stroke which our lawes iudgements strike He calls himselfe a sonne from heauens descent What can earths force aualie gainst heauens defence His life by immortalitie is lent Then how can punishment his wrath incense Though death her selfe in his arraignment decke He hath his lifes preseruer at a becke verse 21 As doth the Basiliske with poysoned sight Blinde euery function of a mortall eye Disarme the bodies powers of vitall might Rob heart of thought make liuing life to die So doth the wicked with their vices looke Infect the spring of clearest vertues brooke This Basiliske mortalities chiefe foe And to the hearts long-knitted arterie Doth sometime perish at her shadowes showe Poysning her selfe with her owne poysoned eie Needs must the sting fall out with ouer-harming Needs must the tong burne out in ouer-warming verse 22 So fares it with the practisers of vice Laden with many venomous adders stings Sometimes are blinded with their owne deuice And tunes that song which their destruction sings Their mischeife blindeth their mischeiuous eies Like Basiliskes which in their shadow dies They goe and yet they cannot see their feete Like blinded pilgrimes in an vnknowen way Blind in perceiuing things which be most meete But neede nor sight nor guide to goe astray Tel them of good they cannot vnderstand But tell them of a mischeife that 's at hand The Basiliske was made to blind the sight verse 23 24 The adder for to sting the worme to creepe The viper to deuoure the dog to bite The nightingale to wake when others sleepe Onely man differs from his makers will Vndoing what is good and doing ill A god-like face he had a heauenly hue Without corruption image without spottes But now is metamorphosed anewe Full of corruption image full of blottes Blotted by him that is the plot of euill Vndone corrupted vanquisht by the deuill Chapter III. verse 1 BVt euery cloude can not hide Phoebus face Nor shut the casement of his liuing flame Nor is there euery soule which wanteth grace Nor euery hart seducde with mischiefs name Life cannot liue without corruption World cannot be without destruction Nor is the body all corrupt or world Bent wholie vnto wickednes assault The adder is not alwaies seene vncurlde Nor euery soule found guiltie in one fault Some good some bad but those whom vertues guard Heauen is their hauen comfort their reward verse 2 3 Thrice happy habitation of delight Thrice happy step of immortalitie Thrice happy soules to gaine such heauenly sight Springing from heauens perpetuitie Oh peacefull place but oh thrice peacefull soules Whom neither threats nor strife nor wars control They are not like the wicked for they liue Nor they like to the righteous for they die Each of their liues a differing nature giue One thinkes that life endes with mortalitie And that the righteous neuer liue againe But die as subiects to a grieuous paine verse 4 What labouring soule refuseth for to sweat Knowing his hire his paiment his reward To suffer winters colde and summers heate Assured of his labours due regard The Bee with summers toile will lade her hiue In winters frost to keepe herselfe aliue And what diuinest spirit would not toile And suffer many torments many paines This worlds destruction heauie laboures foile When heauen is their hire heauens ioy their gaines Who would not suffer torments for to die When deaths reward is immortalitie verse 5 Paine is the entrance to eternall ioy Death endeth life and death beginneth life Beginneth happy endeth in annoy Begins immortall peace ends mortall strife Then seeing death and paines bring ioy and heauen What need we feare deaths pain when life is giuen Say sicknes or infairmities disease As many harmes hang ouer mortall heades Should be his worlds reward yet heauen hath ease A salue to cure and quiet resting beds God maketh in earths world lament our pleasure That in heaueÌ„s world delight might be our treasure verse 6 Faire may the shadow bee the substance foule After the â—â—…all followeth the trust The clearest skinne may haue the soulest soule The purest golde will looner take the ruste The brooke though nere so cleare may take some foile The hart thogh nere so strong may take some foile Wouldst thou be counted iust make thy selfe iust Oh purifie thy mire be spotted heart For god doth trie thy actions ere he trust Thy faith thy deeds thy wordes and what thou art He will receiue no mud for clearest springs Nor thy vnrighteous wordes for righteous things verse 7 As God is perfit God and perfit good So hee accepteth none but perfit mindes They euer prosper flourish liue and bud Like blessed plants far from destructions winds Still bud nere fade still flourish nere decay Stil rise nere fall still spring nere fade away Who would not couet to be such a plant Who would not wish to stand in such a ground Sith it doth neither fruit nor blessing want Nor ought which in this plant might not be found They are the righteous which enioye this earth The figure of an euer-bearing birth verse 8 The small is alwayes subiect to the great The yong to him which is of elder time The lowest place vnto the highest seate And pale-facde Phoebe to bright Phoebus clime Vice is not gouerner of vertues place But blushes for to see see so bright a face Vertue is chiefe and vertue will be chiefe Chiefe good and chiefe Astraea Iustice mate Both for to punish and to yeeld reliefe And haue dominion ouer euery state To rghit the wrongs which wickednes hath done Deliuering Nations from life-lasting mone verse 9 Oh you whose causes plungeth in despaire Sad facde petitioners with griefes request What seeke you heere 's nor Iustice nor her heire But woe and sorrow with deaths dumbe arrest Turne vp your woe blinde eyes vnto the skie There sits the Iudge can yeeld you remedie Trust in his power he is the truest God True God true Iudge true Iustice and true guide All trueth is placed in his trueths abode All vertues seated at his verouous side He will regarde your sure and ease your plaint And mollifie your miseries constraint verse 10 Then shall you see the Iudges of the earth Summoned with the trumpet of his ire To giue account and reckning from their birth Where worthy or vnworthy of their hire The godly shall receiue their labours triall The wicked shall receiue their ioyes deniall They which did sleepe in sinne and not regarded The poore mans fortune prostrate at their feete Euen as they dealt so shall they be rewarded When they their toyled soules destruction meet From Iudges they petitioners shall be Yet want the sight which they do sue to see verse 11 That labour which is grounded on delight That hope which reason doth enrich with hap That merite which is
lifes and deaths disgrace A fault without amends crime without ease A sin without excuse death without aide To loue the world and what the world did please To know the earth wherein their sinnes are laide They knew the world but not the L. that framde it They knew the earth but not the L. that namde iâ— verse 10 Narcissus drownde himselfe for his selfes shew Striuing to heale himselfe did himselfe harme These drownde them selues on earth with their selues woe Hee in a water-brooke by furies charme They made dry earth wet with their follys weepiÌ„g Hee made wet earth dry with his furies sleeping Then leaue him to his sleepe returne to those Which euer wake in miseries constraints Whose eyes are hollow caues and made sleeps foes Two dungeons darke with sin blind with complaints They called images which man first found Immortall Gods for which their tongs are bound verse 11 12 Golde was a God with them a golden God Like children in a pageant of gay toyes Adoring images for saints abode Oh vaine vaine spectacles of vainer ioyes Putting their hope in blocks their trust in stones Hoping to trust trusting to hope in mones As when a carpenter cuts downe a tree Meet for to make a vessell for mans vse He pareth all the barke most cunningly With the sharp shauer of his kniues abuse Ripping the seely wombe with no entreate Making her woundy chips to dresse his meat verse 13 14 Her bodies bones are often rough and hard Crooked with ages growth growing with crookes And full of wether-chinkes which seasons marrde Knobbie and rugged bending in like hookes Yet knowing age can neuer want a fault Encounters it with a sharpe knifes assault And carues it well though it be selfe-like ill Obseruing leasure keeping time and place According to the cunning of his skill Making the figure of a mortall face Or like some vgly beast in ruddy mould Hiding each crannie with a painters fould verse 15 16 It is a world to see to marke to view How age can botch vp age with crooked thread How his olde hands can make an olde tree new And dead-like hee can make another dead Yet makes a substantiue able to beare it And she an adiectiue nor see nor heare it A wall it is it selfe yet wall with wall Hath great supportance bearing either part The image like an adiectiue would fall Were it not closed with an yron hart The workman being olde himselfe doth know What great infirmities olde age can show verse 17 Therefore to stop the riuer of extreames Hee burst into the flowing of his wit Tossing his braines with more then thousand theams To haue a wooden stratagem so fit Woodden because it doth belong to wood His purpose may be wise his reason good His purpose wise no foolish fond and vaine His reason good no wicked vild and ill To be the authour of his owne liues paine To be the tragick actor of his will Praying to that which he before had fram'd For welcome faculties and not asham'd verse 18 19 Calling to follie for discretions sence Calling to sicknes for sick bodies health Calling to weakenes for a stronger fence Calling to pouertie for better wealth Praying to death for life for this hee praide Requiring helpe of that which wanteth aide Desiring that of it which he not had And for his iourney that which cannot goe And for his gaine her furdrance to make glad The worke which he doth take in hand to doe These windie words do rush against the wall Shee cannot speake t will sooner make her fâ—â—â— Chapter XIIII verse 1 AS doth one little sparke make a great flame Kindled from forth the bosome of the flint As doth one plague infect with it selfe name With watrie humours making bodies dint So euen so this idoll worshipper Doth make another idoll practiser The shipman cannot teeme dame Tethis waues Within a winde-taught-capring anchorage Before hee prostrate lies and suffrage craues And haue a block to be his fortunes gage More crooked then his sterne yet he implores her More rotten then his ship yet he adores her verse 2 3 4 Who made this forme he that was form'd and made T was auarice t was shee that found it out Shee made her crafts-man crafty in his trade Hee cunning was in bringing it about Oh had he made the painted shew to speake It would haue calde him vaine herselfe to wreake It would haue made him blush aliue though hee Did die her colour with a deadly blush Thy pouidence ó father doth decree A sure sure way amongst the waues to rush Thereby declaring that thy power is such That thogh a man were weake thou canst do much verse 5 What is one single barre to double death One death in death the other death in feare This single barre a borde a poore bords breath Yet stops the passage of each Neptunes teare To see how many liues one borde can haue To see how many liues one borde can saue How was this borde first made by wisedomes art Which is not vaine but firme not weake but sure Therfore do men commit their liuing hart To plancks which either life or death procure Cutting the stormes in two parting the winde Plowing the sea till they their harbour finde verse 6 The sea whose mountaine billowes passing bounds Rusheth vpon the hollow-sided barke With rough-sent kisses from the water grounds Raising a foaming heat with rages sparke Yet sea nor waues can make the shipman feare Hee knowes that die he must hee cares not where For had his timorous heart beene dide in white And sent an eccho of resembling woe Wisedome had beene vnknowne in follies night The sea had beene a desolations showe But one world hope lay houering on the sea When one worlds hap did end with one decay verse 7 8 Yet Phoebus drowned in the oceans world Phoebe disgrast with Tethis billow-roules And Phoebus firie-golden-wreath vncurl'd was seated at the length in brightnes soules Man tosst in wettest wildernes of seas Had seed on seed encrease vpon encrease Their mansion-house a tree vpon a waue O happy tree vppon vnhappy ground But euery tree is not ordain'd to haue Such blessednes such vertue such abound Some trees are carued images of nought Yet God-like reuerenc'd ador'd besought verse 9 Are the trees nought alas they sencelesse are The hands which fashion them condemne their groth Cuts downe their branches vailes their forehead bare Both made in sin though not sins equall both First God made man and vice did make him new And man made vice from vice and so it grew Now is her haruest greater then her good Her wonted winter turn'd to summers ayre Her ice to heat her sprig to cedars wood Her hate to loue her lothsome filth to faire Man loues her well by mischiefe new created God hates her ill because of vertue hated verse 10 O foolish man mounted vppon decay More vgly then Alastors pitchie backe Nights dismall summoner and end of day Carrying all
and fed with Angells food Yet maist thou say for trueth is alwayes had That raine falles on the good aswell as bad And say it doth farre be the letter P. From R. because of a more reuerent stile It cannot doe without suppression be These are two barres against destructions wile Paine without changing P cannot be raine Raine without changing R can not be paine verse 21 Both sunne and raine are portions to the ground And ground is dust and what is dust but nought And what is nought is naught with Alphaes sound Yet euery earth the sunne and raine hath bought The sunne doth shine on weeds as well as flowers The raine on both distills her weeping showers Yet far be death from breath annoy from ioy Destruction from all happines allines God will not suffer famine to destroy The hungry appetite of vertues signes These were in mid'st of fire yet not harmed In mid'st of water yet but coolde and warmed verse 22 And water-wet they were not water-drowned And fire-hot they were not fire-burned Their foes were both whose hopes destruction crowned But yet with such a crowne which ne'er returned Heere fire and water brought both ioy and paine To one disprofit to the other gaine The sunne doth thaw what colde hath freezde before Vndoing what congealed ice had done Yet heete the haile and snow did freeze the more In hauing heat more piercing then the sunne A mournfull spectacle vnto their eyes That as they die so their fruition dyes verse 23 24 Fury once kindled with the coles of rage Doth houer vnrecall'd slaughters vntam'd This wrath on fire no pitty coulde asswage Because they pittilesse which should be blam'd As one in rage which cares not who he haue Forgetting who to kil and who to saue One deadly foe is fierce against the other As vice with vertue vertue against vice Vice hartned by death his hartlesse mother Vertue by God the life of her deuice T is hard to hurt or harme a villany T is easy to do good to verity verse 25 26 Is grasse mans meat no it is cattells food But man doth eat the cattell which eats grasse And feeds his carcasse with their nurst vp blood Lengthning the liues which in a moment passe Grasse is good food if it be ioynde with grace Else sweeter foode may take a sowrer place Is there such life in water and in bread In fish in flesh in hearbs in growing flowers Wee eat them not aliue wee eat them dead What fruit then hath the word of liuing powers How can wee liue with that which is still dead Thy grace it is by which we all are fed verse 27 28 This is a liuing food a blessed meat Made to digest the burthen at our harts That leaden-weighted food which we first eat To fill the functions of our bodies parts An indigested heape without a meane Wanting thy grace o Lord to make it cleane That ice which sulphure vapours could not thaw That haile which piercing fier could not bore The coole-hot sunne did melt their frosty iaw Which neither heat nor fire could pierce before Then let vs take the spring-time of the day Before the haruest of our ioyes decay verse 29 A day may be deuided as a yeare Into foure climes though of it selfe but one The morne the spring the noone the summers sphere The haruest next euening the winters moone Then sowe new seeds in euery new dayes spring And reape new fruite in dayes olds euening Else if too late they will bee blasted seeds If planted at the noonetide of their growing Commencers of vnthankfull too late deeds Set in the haruest of the reapers going Melting like winter-ice against the sunne Flowing like follies tide and neuer done Chapter XVII verse 1 Oflie the bed of vice the lodge of sin Sleep not too long in your destructions plesures Amend your wicked liues and new begin A more new perfect way to heauens tresures Oh rather wake and weep then sleep and ioy Waking is truth sleep is a flattring toy O take the morning of your instant good Be not benighted with obliuious eye Behold the sunne which kisseth Neptunes floud And resalutes the world with open skie Else sleep and euer sleep Gods wrath is great And will not alter with too late intreat verse 2 Why wake I them which haue a sleeping minde Oh words sad sargiants to arrest my thoughts If wakt they cannot see their eyes are blinde Shut vp like windolets which sleep hath bought Their face is broad awake but not their hart They dreame of rising yet are loth to start These were the practisers how to betray The simple-righteous with beguiling words And bring them in subiection to obay Their irreligious lawes and sins accords But nights black coloured vale did cloud their will And made their wish rest in performance skill verse 3 The darkesome clouds are summoners of raine In being somthing blacke and somthing darke But cole-blacke clouds makes it poure downe amaine Darting forth thunderbolts and lightnings sparke Sin of it selfe is black but black with black Augments the heauie burthen of the back They thought that sins could hide their sinfull shames In being demi-clouds and semi-nights But they had clouds enough to make their games Lodg'd in black couerings of obliuious nights Then was their vice afraid to lie so darke Troubled with visions from Alastors parke verse 4 The greater poyson beares the greater sway The greatest force hath still the greatest face Should night misse course it would infect the day With foule risle vapours from a humorous place Vice hath some clouds but yet the night hath more Because the night was fram'd and made before That sin which makes afraid was then afraid Although enchambred in a dens content That would not driue back feare which comes repai'd Nor yet the ecchoes which the visions sent Both sounds and showes both words and action Made apparitions satisfaction verse 5 A night in pitchie mantle of distresse Made thick with mists and oppsite to light As if Cocytus mansion did possesse The gloomy vapours of suppressing sight A night more vgly then Alastors pack Mounting all nights vpon his night-made back The moone did mourne in sable-suted vale The stars her hand maids were in black attire All nightly visions tolde a hideous tale The scrich-owles made the earth their dismall quire The moone and stars diuide their twinckling eies To lighten vice which in obliuion lyes verse 6 Onely appear'd a fire in dolefull blaze Kindled by furies raisde by enuious winds Dreadfull in sight which put them to amaze Hauing before furie-despairing minds What haire in reading would not stand vpright What pen in writing would not ceasse to write Fire is Gods Angell because bright and cleare But this an euill Angell because dread Euill to them which did already feare A second death to them which were once dead Annexing horror to dead strucken life Connexing dolor to liue natures strife verse 7 Deceit was then deceau'd treason
shadowed vision of destructions gin Our life begun with vice so let it ende It is a seruile labour to amend Wee ioyde in sin and let our ioyes renewe We ioyed in vice and let our ioyes remaine To present pleasures future hopes ensue And ioy once lost let vs fetch backe againe Although our age can lend no youthfull pace Yet let our mindes follow our youthfull race verse 7 What though olde age lies heauie on our backe Anotomie of an age crooked clime Let minde performe that which our bodies lacke And change olde age into a youthfull time Two heauie things are more then one can beare Blacke may the garments be the body cleare Decaying thinges be needfull of repaire Trees eaten out with years must needs decline Nature in time with foule doth cloude her faire Begitting youthfull daies with ages twine We liue and while we liue come let vs ioy To thinke of after life t is but a toy verse 8 Wee know God made vs in a liuing forme But wee le vnmake and make our selues againe Vnmake that which is made like winters storme Make vnmade things to aggrauate our paine God was our maker and he made vs good But our descent springs from another blood He made vs for to liue â—ee meane to die He made the heauen our seate we make the earth Each fashion makes a contrarietie God truest God man falsest from his birth Quoth they this earth shal be our chiefest heauen Our sin the anchor and our vice the hauen verse 9 Let heauen in earth and earth in heauen consist This earth is heauen this heauen is earthly heauen Repugnant earth repugnant heauen resist We ioy in earth of other ioyes bereauen This is the Paradice of our delight Here let vs liue and die in heauens spght Here let the monuments of wanton sports Be seated in a wantonnes disguise Closde in the circuit of veneriall forts To feed the long staru'd sight of Amours eyes Bee this the Chronicle of our content How wee did sport on earth till sport was spenâ—… verse 10 But in the glory of the brightest day Heauens smoothest browe sometime is furrowed And cloudes vsurp the clime in dim array Darkning the light which heauen had borrowed So in this earthly heauen wee dayly see That greife is placed where delight should bee Here liues the righteous bane vnto their liues O sound from forth the hollow caue of woe Here liues age-crooked fathers widowed wiues Poore and yet rich in fortunes ouerthrowe Let them not liue let vs increase their want Make barren their desire augment their scant verse 11 Our lawe is correspondent to our doome Our lawe to doome is dooming lawes offence Each one agreeth in the others roome To punish that which striues and wants defence This Cedar-like doth make the shrub to bend When shrubs doth wast their force but to contend The weakest power is subiect to obay The mushroms humbly kisse the cedars foote The cedar florishes when they decay Because her strength is grounded on a roote Wee are the cedars they the mushromes bee Vnabled shrubs vnto an abled tree verse 12 Then sith the weaker giues the stronger place The yong the elder and the foote the top The low the high the hidden powers the face All beastes the Lion euery spring his stop Let those which practise contrariety Be ioynd to vs with inequallity They say that we offend we say they doe Their blame is laid on vs our blame on them They stricke and we retort the strucken blowe So in each garment there 's a differing hem Wee end with contraries as they begun Vnequall sharing of what either wun verse 13 14 In this long conflict betweene tongue and tong Tongue new begining what one tonque did end Made this cold battell hot in eithers wrong And kept no pawsing limites to contend One tongue was eccho to the others sound Which breathed accents between mouth ground Hee which hath vertues armes vppon his shield Drawes his descent from an eternall King Hee knowes discretion can make follie yeild Life conquere death and vice a captiue bring The other tutred by his mother sin Respects nor deedes nor words but hopes to win verse 15 The first first essence of immortall life Reprooues the hart of thought the eie of sight The eare of hearing ill the minde of strife The mouth of speach the body of despight â—…art thinks eies sees eares heares mindes meditate Mouth vtters both the soule and bodies hate But Nature differing in each natures kinde Makes differing hartes each hart a differing thought Some hath shee made to see some follie blinde Some famous some obscure some good some nought So these which differeth in each natures reason Had natures time when tâ—me was out of season verse 16 Quoth they he doth reprooue our hart of thinking Our eies of sight our eares of hearing ill Our minds our hearts in meditation linking Our mouthes in speaking of our bodies will Because hart sight and minde do disagree Hee 'ld make heart sight and mind of their decree Hee saies our hart is blinded with our eies Our eies are blinded with our blinded hart Our bodies on both parts defiled lies Our mouthes the trumpets of our vices smart Quoth hee God is my Father I his sonne His waies I take your wicked waies I shun verse 17 As meditated wrongs are deeper plaste Within the deepe crue of a wronged minde So meditated wordes is neuer past Before their sounds a setled harbour finde The wicked answering to the latter words Begins to speake as much as speach affords One tong must answer other tongues replie Beginning boasts requires an ending fall Wordes liuely spoke do somtimes wordles dye If not liue Ecchoes vnto speeches call Let not the shadow smother vp the deed The outward leafe differs from in ward seed verse 18 The shape and shewe of substance and effect Doth shape the substance in the shadowes hue And shadowe put in substance will neglect The wonted shadowe of not being true Let substance followe substance showe a showe And let not substance for the shadowe goe Hee that could giue such admonition Such vaunting wordes such words confirming vaunts As if his tongue had mounted to ambition Or clim'd the turrets which vaine-glory haunts Now let his father if he be his sonne Vndoe the knot which his prowd boasts haue spun Wee are his enimies his chaine our hands verse 19 Our wordes his fetters and our hart his caue Our sterne embracements are his seruile bands Where is the helper nowe which he should haue In prison like himselfe not to be found Hee wanteth helpe himselfe to be vnbound Then sith thy father beares it patiently To suffer torments griefe rebuke and blame T is needfull thou shouldst beare equallity To see if meekenesse harbour in thy name Help father for thy sonne in prison lies Helpe sonne or else thy helples father dies verse 20 Thus is the righteous God and righteous man Drownde in obliuion with this
but scornes to yeeld vnto decay She hath no withered fruit no shew of store But perfect essence of a compleate power Say that she dies to world she liues the more As who so righteous but doth waite deaths hower Who knowes not death to be the way to rest And he that neuer dies is neuer blest verse 8 Happy is he that liues twice he that dies Thrice happy he which neither liu'd nor died Which neuer saw the earth with mortall eies Which neuer knew what miseries are tried Happy is life twice happy is our death But three times thrise he which had neuer breath Some thinkes that pleasure is atchieude by yeares Or by maintaining of a wretched life When out alas it heapeth teares on teares Griefe vpon griefe strife on beginning strife Pleasure is weake if measured by length The oldest ages hath the weaker strength verse 9 Three turnings are containde in mortal course Old meane and yong meane and old brings age The youth hath strength the meane decaying force The old are weake yet strong in angers rage Three turnings in one age strong weak weaker Yet age nor youth is youths or ages breaker Some sayes that youth is quicke in iudging causes Some sayes that age is witty graue and wise I holde of ages side with their applauses Which iudges with their hearts not with their eyes I say graue wisedome lies in grayest heads And vndefiled liues in ages beds verse 10 God is both graue and old yet yong and new Graue because aged aged because yong Long youth may wel be called ages hew And hath no differing sound vpon the tongue God old because eternities are old Yong for eternities one motion hold Some in their birth some dies when they are borne Some borne and some abortiue yet all die Some in their youth some in old age forlorne Some neyther yong nor old but equally The righteous when he liueth with the sinner Doth hope for death his better lifes beginner verse 11 The swine delights to wallow in the mire The giddy drunkard in excesse of wine He may corrupt the purest reasons gire And shee turne vertue into vices signe Mischiefe is mire and may infect that spring Which euery flowe and ebbe of vice doth bring Fishes are oft deceiued by the baite The baite-deceiuing fish doth fish deceiue So righteous are allurde by sins deceit And oft inticed into sinners weaue The righteous be as fishes to their gin Beguilde deceiude allured into sin The fisher hath a baite deceiuing fish verse 12 The fowler hath a net deceiuing fowles Both wisheth to obtaine their snaring wish Obseruing time like night-obseruing owles The fisher layes his baite fowler his net He hopes for fish the other birds to get This fisher is the wicked vice his baite This fowler is the sinner sinne his net The simple-righteous-falles in their deceit And like a prey a fish a fowle beset A baite a net obscuring what is good Like fish and fowle tooke vp for vices food verse 13 14 But baites nor nets gins nor beguiling snares Vice nor the vicious sinner not the sin Can shut the righteous into prisons cares Or set deceiuing baites to mew them in They know their liues deliuerer heauens God Can breake their baites and snares with iustice rod. When vice abounds on earth and earth in vice Then vertue keepes her chamber in the skie To shun the mischiefe which her baites intice Her snares her nets her guiles her companie Assoone as mischeife raignes vpon the earth Heauen calls the righteous to a better birth verse 15 The blinded eies can neuer see the way The blinded heart can neuer see to see The blinded soule doth alwayes go astray All three want sight in being blinde all three Blinde and yet see they see and yet are blinde The face hath eies but eyelesse is the minde They see with outward sight Gods heauenly grace His grace his loue his mercy on his Saints With outward faced eie and eied face Their outward body inwarde soule depaintes Of hearts chiefe eye they chiefely are berest And yet the shadowe of two eyes are left verse 16 Some blinded be in face and some in soule The faces eyes are not incurable The other wanteth healing to be whole Or seemes to some to be indurable Looke in a blinded eie bright is the glasse Though brightnes banished from what it was So quoth the righteous are these blinded hearts The outward glasse is cleare the substance darke Both seeme as if one tooke the others parts Yet both in one haue not one brightnes sparke The outwarde eye is but destructions reader Wanting the inwarde eye to be the leader Our body may be calde a common-weale verse 17 Our head the chiefe for reason harbours there From thence comes hearts and soules vnited zeale All else inferiours be which stande in feare This common-weale rul'd by discretions eye Liues likewise if shee liue dies if shee die Then how can weale or wealth common or proper Long stand long flowe long flourish long remaine When wail is weales stelth is welths chiefe stopper When sight is gone which neuer comes againe The wicked sees the righteous loose their breath But knowe not what rewarde they gaine by death verse 18 19 Though blinde in sight yet can they see to harme See to despise see to deride and mocke But their reuenge lies in Gods mighty arme Scorning to chuse them for his chosen flocke He is the shepheard godly are his sheepe They wake in ioy these in destruction sleepe The godly sleepe in eies but wake in hearts The wicked sleepe in hearts but wake in eies These euer-wake eyes are no sleepie partes These euer sleepe for sleepe is hearts disguise Their waking eies do see their hearts lament While heart securely sleepes in eyes content verse 20 If they awake sleepes image doth molest them And beates into their waking memories If they doe sleepe ioy-waking doth detest them Yet beates into their sleeping arteries Sleeping or waking they haue feare on feare Waking or sleeping they are ne're the neare If waking they remember what they are What sins they haue commmitted in their waking If sleeping they forget tormentings fare How ready they haue beene in mischiefes making When they awake their wickednes betrayes them When they do sleepe destruction dismayes them Chapter V. verse 1 AS these two slumbers haue two contraries One slumber in the face one in the minde So their two casements two varieties One vnto heauen and one to hell combinde The face is flattery and her mansion hell The minde is iust this doth in heauen dwell The face heauing her heauie eie-lids vp From foorth the chamber of eternall night Sees vertue holde plenties replenisht cup And boldly stands in Gods and heauens sight Shee opening the windowes of her brest Sees how the wicked rest in their vnrest verse 2 3 Quoth shee those whom the curtaine of decay Hath tragically summoned to paine Were once the cloudes and clouders of
my day Deprauers and depriuers of my gaine The wicked hearing this descending sound Feare strucke their lims to the pale-clothed ground Amazed at the freedome of her words Their tongue-tide accents droue them to dispaire And made them change their mindes to woes records And say within themselues lo what wee are We haue had vertue in derisions place And made a parable of her disgrace verse 4 See where she sits enthronizde in the skie See see her labours crowne vpon her head See how the righteous liue which erst did die From death to life with vertues loadstaâ—re led See those whome we derided they are blest They heauens not hels we hells not heauens guest We thought the righteous had beene furies sonne With inconsiderate speech vnstayed way We thought that death had his dishonour wonne And would haue made his life destructions pray But we were mad they iust we fooles they wise We shame they praise we losse they haue the prise verse 5 We thoght theÌ„ fools when we our selues were fooles We thoght them mad when we our selues were mad The heate which sprang from them our follie cooles We find in vs which we but thought they had We thought their end had beene dishonors pledge They but surueyd the place we made the hedge We see how they are blest how we are curst How they accepted are and we refusde And how our bands are tied their bands are burst Our faults are hourely blamde their faults excusde See how heauens gratulate their welcomd sight Which comes to take possession of their right verse 6 But oh too late we see our wickednesse Too late we lie in a repentant tombe Too late we smoothe olde haires with happinesse Too late we seeke to ease our bodies doome Now falshoode hath aduauncde her forged banner Too late wee seeme to verefie truths manner The sunne of righteousnes which should haue shinde And made our hearts the cabines of his East Is now made cloudy night through vices winde And lodgeth with his downefall in the west That summers day which shuld haue bin nights bar Is now made winter in her icie carre verse 7 Too much our feet haue gone but neuer right Much labour we haue tooke but none in good We wearied our selues with our delight Endangering our selues to please our moode Our feete did labour much t was for our pleasure We wearied our selues t was for our leasure In sinnes perfection was our labour spent In wickednes preferment we did haste To suffer perills wee were al content For the aduancement of our vices past Throgh many dangerous waies our feet haue gone But yet the way of God we haue not knowne verse 8 9 Wee which haue made our harts a sea of pride With huge risse billowes of a swelling minde With tossing tumults of a flowing tide Leauing our laden bodyes plungde behinde What trafficke haue we got our selues are drownd Our soules in hell our bodies in the ground Where are our riches now like vs consumde Where is our pompe decaide wher 's glory dead Where is the wealth of which wee all presumde where is our profit gone our selues misled All these are like to shadowes what they were There is nor wealth nor pompe nor glory here verse 10 The diall giues a caueat of the houre Thou canst not see it go yet it is gone Like this the diall of thy fortunes power Which fades by stealth till thou art left alone Thy eies may well perceiue thy goods are spent Yet can they not perceiue which way they went Lo eu'ne as ships sailing on Tethis lap Plowes vp the furrowes of hard grounded waues Enforced for to go by Eoles clap Making with sharpest teeme the water graues The ship once past the trace cannot be found Although shee digged in the waters ground verse 11 Or as an Eagle with her soaring wings Scorning the dusty carpet of the earth Exempt from all her clogging gesses flings Vp to the ayre to shew her mounting birth And euery flight doth take a higher pitch To haue the golden sunne her wings enrich Yet none can see the passage of her flight But onely heare her houering in the skie Beating the light winde with her being light Or parting through the ayre where she might flie The eare may heare the eye can neuer see What course she takes or where she meanes to bee verse 12 Or as an arrowe which is made to goe Through the transparent and coole-blowing ayre Feeding vpon the forces of the bowe Else forcelesse lies in wanting her repaire Like as the branches when the tree is lopt Wanteth the forces which they forcelesse cropt The arrow being fed with strongest shot Doth part the lowest elementall breath Yet neuer separates the soft ayres knot Nor neuer woundes the still-foote windes to death It doth seioyne and ioyne the ayre together Yet none there is can tell or where or whither verse 13 So are our liues now they beginne now end Now liue now die now borne now fit for graue As soone as we haue breath so soone we spend Not hauing that which our content would haue As ships as birds as arrowes all as one Euen so the traces of our liues are gone A thing not seene to go yet going seene And yet not shewing any signe to go Euen thus the shadowes of our liues haue beene Which shewes to fade and yet no vertues shew How can a thing consumde with vice be good Or how can falshoode beare true vertues foode verse 14 Vaine hope to thinke that wickednes hath bearing When she is drowned in obliuions sea Yet can she not forget presumptions wearing Nor yet the badge of vanities decay Her fruites are cares her cares are vanities Two both in one destructions liueries Vaine hope is like a vane turnde with each winde T is like a smoake scattred with euery storme Like dust sometime before sometime behinde Like a thin some made in the vainest forme This hope is like to them which neuer stay But comes and goes againe all in one day verse 15 View Natures gifts some gifts are rich some poore Some barren grounds there are som clothd with fruit Nor hath all nothing nor hath all her store Nor can all creatures speake nor are all mute All die by nature being borne by nature So all change feature being borne with feature This life is hers this dead dead is her power Her bounds begins and ends in mortall state Whom she on earth accounteth as her flower May be in heauen condemnde of mortall hate But he whom vertue iudges for to liue The Lord his life and due reward will giue verse 16 The seruant of a king may be a king And he that was a king a seruile slaue Swans before death a funerall dirge do sing And waues their wings agen ill fortunes waue He that is lowest in this lowly earth May be the highest in celestiall birth The rich may be vniust in being rich For riches do corrupt and not correct The poore
She loues she likes and yet not lustfull blinde She is true loue the other loue a toy Her loue hath eyes the other loue is blinde This doth proceed from God this from a boy This constant is the other vaine combinde If longing passions follow her desire She offereth her selfe as labours hire verse 15 She is not coyish shee won by delay With sighs and passions which all louers vse With hot affection death or lifes decay With louers toyes which might their loues excuse Wisedome is poore her dowrie is content Shee nothing hath because shee nothing spent She is not woo'd to loue nor won by wooing Nor got by labour nor possest by paine The gaine of her consists in honest doing Her gaine is great in that she hath no gaine He that betimes followes repentance way Sall meet with her his vertues worthy pay To think vpon her is to think of blisse verse 16 The very thought of her is mischiefes barre Depeller of misdeeds which do amisse The blot of vanitie misfortunes scarre Who wold not think to reap such gain by thought Who would not loue when such a life is bought If thought be vnderstanding what is shee The full perfection of a perfect power A heauenly branch from Gods immortall tree Which death nor hell nor mischiefe can deuoure Her selfe is wisedome and her thought is so Thrice happie he which doth desire to know verse 17 Shee manlike woes men womenlike refuses She offers loue they offered loue denie And hould her promises as loues abuses Because she pleads with an indifferent eye They thinke that she is light vaine and vniust When she doth plead for loue and not for lust Hard hearted men quoth shee can you not loue Behold my substance cannot substance please Behold my feature cannot feature moue Can substance nor my feature helpe or ease See heauens ioy defigured in my face Can neither heauen nor ioy turne you to grace verse 18 19 Oh how desire swayes her pleading tong Her tongue her heart her heart her soules affection Faine would she make mortalitie be strong But mortall weaknes yeelds reiection Her care is care of them they carelesse are Her loue loues them they neither loue nor care Faine would shee make them clients in her lawe Whose laws assurance is immortall honour But them nor words nor loue nor care can awe But still will fight vnder destructions bonner Though immortalitie be their reward Yet neither words nor deeds will they regard verse 20 Her tongue is hoarse with pleading yet doth plead Pleading for that which they should all desire Their appetite is heauie made of lead And lead can neuer melt without a fire Her words are milde and cannot raise a heat Whilst they with hard repulse her speeches beat Requested they for what they should request Intreated they for what they should intreat Requested to enioye their quiet rest Intreated like a sullen bird to eate Their eies behold ioyes maker which doth make it Yet must they be intreated for to take it verse 21 You whose delight is plac'd in honours game Whose game in maiesties imperiall throne Maiesticke portratures of earthly fame Releeuers of the poore in ages mone If your content be seated on a crowne Loue wisedome and your state shall neuer downe Her crownes are not as earthly diadems But diapasans of eternall rest Her essence comes not from terrestriall stems But planted on the heauens immortall brest If you delight in scepters and in raigning Delight in her your crownes immortall gaining verse 22 Although the shadowes of her glorious view Hath beene as accessary to your eies Now will I shew you the true substance hiew And what she is which without knowledge lies From whence she is deriude whence her discent And whence the linage of her birth is lent Now will I shew the skie and not the cloude The sunne and not the shade day not the night Tethis her selfe not Tethis in her floud Light and not shadow of suppressing light Wisedome her selfe true tipe of wisedomes grace Shall be apparant before heart and face verse 23 Had I still fed you with the shade of life And hid the sunne it selfe in enuies aire My selfe might well be called natures strife Striuing to cloude that which all cloudes impaire But Enuy haste thee hence I loathe thy eie Thy loue thy life thy selfe thy company Here is the banner of discretions name Aduaunst on wisedomes euer-standing tower Here is no place for enuie or her shame For Nemesis or blacke Mageraes power He that is enuious is not wisedomes frend She euer liues he dies when enuies end verse 24 25 Happy thrice happy land where wisedome raignes Happy thrice happy king whom wisedome swayes Where neuer poore laments or soules complaines Where follie neuer keepes discretions wayes That land that king doth flourish liue and ioy Farre from ill fortunes reach or sins annoy That land is happy that king fortunate She in her dayes he in his wisedomes force For fortitude is wisedomes sociate And wisedome truest fortitudes remorce Be therefore rulde by wisedome she is chiefe That you may rule in ioy and not in griefe Chapter VII verse 1 WHat am I man oh what is man oh nought What am I nought yes what sin debate Three vices all in one of one life bought Man am I not what then I am mans hate Yes man I am man because mortall dead Mortalitie my guide by mischiefe led Man because like to man man because borne In birth no man a child child because weake Weake because weakned by ill fortunes scorne Scorn'd because mortall mortall in wrongs reake My father like my selfe did liue on earth I like my selfe and him folow his birth verse 2 My mothers matrice was my bodies maker There had I this same shape of infamies Shape ah no shape but substance mischiefes taker In ten months fashion months ah miseries The shame of shape the very shape of shame Calamitie my selfe lament my name I was conceiude with seede deceiude with sin Deceiude because my seede was sins deceit My seede deceit because it closde me in Hemd me about for sins and mischiefes baite The seede of man did bring me into blood And now I bring my selfe in what no good verse 3 When I was borne when I was then I was Borne when yet borne I was but now I beare Beare mine owne vices which my ioyes surpasse Beare mine owne burden full of mischiefes feare When I was borne I did not beare lament But now vnborne I beare what birth hath spent When I was borne my breath was borne to mee The common aire which aires my bodies forme Then fell I on the earth with feeble knee Lamenting for my life 's ill fortunes storme Making my selfe the index of my woe Commencing what I could ere I could goe verse 4 5 Fed was I with lament as well as meat My milke was sweet but teares did make it sower Meat and lament milke and my teares I eat As bitter
When vnexpected things were brought to passe They were amazde and wondred where God was Hee whom they did denie now they extoll Hee Whom they do extoll they did denie Hee whom they did deride they doe enroll In register of heau'nly maiestie Their thirst was euer thirst repentance stopt it Their life was euer dead repentance propt it And had it not their thirst had burnd their harts verse 13 Their harts had cri'd out for their tongues replie Their tongues had raised all their bodies parts Their bodyes once in armes had made all die Their foolish practises had made them wise Wise in their hearts though foolish in their eyes But they alas were dead to worshippe death Sencelesse in worshiping all shadowed showes Breathlesse wasting of so vaine a breath Dumbe in performance of their tongues suppose They in adoring death in deaths behest Were punished with life and liuing beastes verse 14 15 Thus for a shew of beasts they substance haue The thing it selfe against the shadowes will Which makes the shadowes sad woes in lifes graue As nought impossible in heauens skill God sent sad-ohes for shadowes of lament Lions and beares in multitudes he sent Newly created beasts which sight ne'er sawe Vnknowne which neither eye nor eare did know To breathe out blasts of fire against their law And cast out smoake with a tempestuous blow Making their eyes the chambers of their feares Darting forth fire as lightning from the spheares verse 16 Thus marching one by one and side by side By the prophane ill-limnd pale spectacles Making both fire and feare to be their guide Pulld downe their vaine-adoring chronicles Then staring in their faces spit forth fire Which heats and cools their frosty-hot desire Frosty in feare vnfrosty in their shame Coole in lament hot in their powers disgraces Like luke-warme coales halfe kindled with the flame Sate white and red mustring within their faces The beasts thē selues did not so much dismay them As did their vgly eyes aspects decay them verse 17 Yet what are beasts but subiects vnto man By the decree of heau'n degree of earth They haue more strength then he yet more he can Hee hauing reasons store they reasons dearth But these were made to breake subiections rod And show the stubernnesse of man to God Had they not beene ordain'd to such intent Gods word was able to supplant their powers And root out them which were to mischiefe bent With wrath vengeance minutes in deaths houres But God doth keepe a full-direct-true course And measures pitties loue with mercies force verse 18 19 The wicked thinkes God hath no might at all Because he makes no shew of what he is When God is loth to giue their pride a fall Or cloud the day wherein they do amisse But should his strength be showne his anger rise Who could withstand the sunne-caues of his eyes Alas what is the world against his ire As snowie mountaines gainst the golden sunne For'st for to melt and thawe with frosty fire Fire hid in frost though frost of colde begunne As dew-distilling drops fall from the morne So nw-destructions claps fall from his scorne verse 20 But his reuenge lies smother'd in his smiles His wrath lies sleeping in his mercies ioy Which very seldome rise at mischiefes coyles And will not wake for euery sinners toy Boundlesse his mercies are like heauens grounds They haue no limittes they nor heau'n no bounds The promontary top of his true loue Is like the end of neuer-ending streames Like Nilus water-springs which inward moue And haue no outward shew of shadowes beames God sees and will not see the sinnes of men Because they should amend amend oh when verse 21 The mother loues the issues of her wombe As doth the father his begotten sonne Shee makes her lap their quiet sleeping tombe Hee seekes to care for life which new begun What care hath he think then that cares for all For aged and for yong for great and small Is not that father carefull filld with care Louing long suffering mercifull and kinde Which made with loue all things that in loue are Vnmercifull to none to none vnkinde Had man beene hatefull man had neuer beene But perisht in the spring-time of his greene verse 22 23 But how can hate abide where loue remaines Or how can anger follow mercies path How can vnkindenesse hinder kindnesse gaines Or how can murder bathe in pitties bath Loue mercy kindenesse pitty eithers mate Doth scorne vnkindenesse anger murder hate Had it not beene thy will to make the earth It still had beene a Chaos vnto time But t was thy will that man should haue a birth And be preserude by good condemnd by crime Yet pitty raignes within thy mercies store Thou spar'st lou'st vs all what would we more Chapter XII verse 1 2 WHen all the elements of mortall life Were placed in the mansion of their skin Each hauing dayly motion to be rife Closde in that body which doth close thē in God sent his holy spirit vnto man Which did begun when first the world began So that the body which was king of al Is subiect vnto that which now is king Which chastneth those whom mischiefe doth exhale Vnto misdeeds from whence destructions spring Yet mercifull it is though it be chiefe Conuerting vice to good sin to beliefe verse 3 Old time is often lost in being balld Balld because old old because liuing long It is reiected oft when it is calld And weares out age with age still being yong Twice children we twice feeble and once strong But being old we sin and do youth wrong The more we grow in age the more in vice A house-roome long vnswept wil gather dust Our long vnthawed soules wil freeze to ice And weare the badge of long imprisoned rust So those inhabitants in youth twice borne Were old in sin more olde in heauens scorne verse 4 5 Committing workes as inckie spots of fame Commencing wordes like foaming vices waues Committing and commencing mischiefes name With workes and words sworne to be vices slaues As sorcery witchcraft mischieuous deeds And sacrifice which wicked fancies feeds Well may I call that wicked which is more I rather would be lowe than be too hie Oh wondrous practisers clothde all in gore To end that life which their owne liues did buy More than swine-like eating mans bowelles vp Their banquets dish their blood their banquets cup. verse 6 7 Butchers vnnaturall worse by their trade Whose house the bloody shambles of decay More than a slaughter-house which butchers made More than an Eschip seely bodies pray Thorow whose hearts a bloody shambles runnes They do not butcher beasts but their owne sonnes Chief murdrers of their soules which their souls boght Extinguishers of light which their liues gaue More than kniue-butchers they butchers in thought Sextons to digge their owne begotten graue Making their habitations old in sinne Which God doth reconcile and new beginne verse 8 9 That murdring place was turnd into
laboring ant VVee hope for mercy at our bodies doome Wee hope for heau'n the baile of earthly tombe verse 23 What hope they for what hope haue they of heau'n They hope for vice and they haue hope of hell From whence their soules eternity is giu'n But such eternity which paines can tell They liue but better were it for to die Immortall in their paine and misery Hath hell such freedome to deuoure soules Are soules so bolde to rush in such a place God giues hell power of vice which hell controules Vice makes her followers bolde with armed face God tortures both the mistris and the man And ends in paine that which in vice began verse 24 A bad beginning makes a worser end Without repentance meet the middle way Making a mediocrity their friend Which else would be their foe because they stray But if repentance misse the middle line The sunne of vertue endes in wests decline So did it fare with these which strai'd too far Beyond the measure of the middayes eye In errors waies lead without vertues star Esteeming beast-like powers for deitie Whose heart no thought of vnderstanding ment Whose tongue no word of vnderstanding sent verse 25 Like infant babes bearing their natures shell Vpon the tender heads of tendrer wit which tongue-tide are hauing no tale to tell To driue away the childhood of their fit Vnfit to tune their tongue with wisedomes string Too fit to quench their thirst in follies spring But they were trees to babes babes sprigs to them They not so good as these in being nought In being nought the more from vices stem Whose essence cannot come without a thought To punish them is punishment in season They children like without or wit or reason verse 26 To bee derided is to be halfe dead Derision beares a part tweene life and death Shame followes her with misery halfe fed Halfe-breathing life to make halfe life and breath Yet here was mercy showne their deeds were more Then could bee wipte off by derisions score This mercy is the warning of misdeedes A trumpet summoning to vertues walls To notifie their hearts which mischiefe feeds Whom vice instructs whom wickednes exhal's But if derision can not murder sin Then shame shall end and punishment begin verse 27 For many shamelesse are bolde stout in ill Then how can shame take roote in shamlesse plants When they their browes with shamelesse furrows fill And plows ech place which one plow-furrow wants Then being arm'd gainst shame with shamlesse face How can derision take a shameful place But punishment may smoth their wrinckled brow And set shame on the forehead of their rage Guiding the forefront of that shamelesse row Making it smooth in shame though not in age Then will they say that God is iust and true But t is too late damnation will ensue Chapter XIII verse 1 THe branch must needs be weake if roote be so The roote must needs be weake it branches fall Nature is vaine man cannot be her foe Because from nature and at natures call Nature is vaine and wee proceede from nature Vaine therefore is our birth and vaine our feature One body may haue two diseases sore Not being two it may be ioynde to two Nature is one it selfe yet two and more Vaine ignorant of God of good of show Which not regards the things which god hath don And what things are to doe what new begun verse 2 Why doe I blame the tree when t is the leaues Why blame I nature for her mortall men Why blame I men t is she t is she that weaues That weaues that wafts vnto destructions pen Then being blamefull both because both vaine I leaue to both their vanities due paine To prize the shadow at the substance rate Is a vaine substance of a shadowes hue To thinke the sonne to be the fathers mate Earth to rule earth because of earthly view To thinke fire winde ayre stars water and heau'n To be as Gods from whom their selues are giu'n verse 3 Fire as a God oh irreligious sound Winde as a God oh vaine oh vainest voice Aire as a God when t is but duskie ground Star as a God when t is but Phoebes choice Water a God which first by God was made Heauen a God which first by God was laide Say all hath beautie excellence array Yet beautifide they are they were they bee By Gods bright excellence of brightest day Which first implanted our first beuties tree If then the painted outside of the show Bee radiant what is the inward row verse 4 If that the shadowe of the bodies skin Bee so illumin'd with the sun-shin'd soule What is the thing it selfe which is within More wrencht more cleansde more purifi'd from foul If elementall powers haue Gods thought Say what is God which made them all of nought It is a wonder for to see the skie And operation of each ayrye power A meruaile that the heau'n should be so hie And let fall such a low distilling shower Then needs must hee bee high higher then all Which made both hie and lowe with one tongues call verse 5 The workeman mightier is then his hand-worke In making that which else would be vnmade The nere-thought thing doth alwaies hidden lurke Without the maker in a making trade For had not God made man man had not beene But nature had decayde and nere beene seene The workman neuer shewing of his skill Doth liue vnknowne to man though knowne to wit Had mortall birth beene neuer in Gods will God had beene God but yet vnknowne in it Then hauing made the glory of earths beautie T is reason earth should reuerence him in dutie verse 6 The sauadge people haue a supreame head A king though sauadge as his subiects are Yet they with his obseruances are lead Obaying his beheasts what ere they were The Turkes the infidels all haue a Lord Whom they obserue in thought in deed in word And shall we differing from their sauage kinde Hauing a soule to liue and to beleeue Be rude in thought in deed in word in minde Not seeking him which should our woes releeue Oh no deere brethren seeke our God our fame Then if wee erre we shall haue lesser blame verse 7 How can wee erre wee seeke for ready way Oh that my tongue could fetch that word againe Whose very accent makes me go astray Breathing that erring wind into my braine My word is past and cannot be recalde It is like aged time now waxen balde For they which goe astray in seeking God Doe misse the ioyefull narrow-footed path Ioyfull thrice ioyfull way to his abode Nought seeing but their shadowes in a bath Narcissus-like pining to see a show Hindring the passage which their feete should goe verse 8 9 Narcissus fantasie did die to kisse O sugred kisse dide with a poisoned lip The fantasies of these do die to misse Oh tossed fantasies in follies ship He dide to kisse the shadow of his face These liue and die to
duskie vapours hemde in blacke Behold thy downfall ready at thy hand Behold thy hopes wherein thy hazards stand Oh spurne away that blocke out of thy way With vertues appetite and wisedomes force That stumbling blocke of follie and decay That snare which doth ensnare thy treading corse Beholde thy body falls let vertue beare it Beholde thy soule doth fall let wisedome reare it verse 11 Say art thou yong or olde tree or a bud Thy face is so disfigured with sin Yong I doe thinke thou art in what in good But olde I am assur'd by wrinckled skin Thy lips thy tongue thy heart is yong in praying But lips and tongue and heart is olde in straying Olde in adoring idolls but too yong In the obseruance of diuinest lawe Yong in adoring God though olde in tong Olde and too olde yong and too yong in awe Beginning that which doth begin misdeeds Inuenting vice which all thy body feeds verse 12 13 But this corrupting and infecting foode This caterpiller of eternitie The foe to blisse the canker vnto good The new accustom'd way of vanitie It hath not euer beene nor shall it be But perish in the branch of follies tree As her descent was vanities aline So her descending like to her descent Here shall shee haue an end in hell no fine Vaine glory brought her vainely to be spent You know all vanity drawes to an end Then needs must shee decay because her frend verse 14 Is there more follie then to weepe at ioy To make eyes watrie when they should be drie To greeue at that which murders griefes annoy To keepe a shower where the sunne should lie But yet this folly-cloude doth oft appeare When face should smile and watry eie bee cleere The father mournes to see his sonne life-dead But seldome mournes to see his sonne dead-liu'd Hee cares for earthly lodge not heau'ns bed For death in life not life in death suruiu'd Keeping the outward shadow of his face To worke the inward substance of disgrace verse 15 Keeping a shew to counterpoize the deed Keeping a shadow to be substance heire To raise the thing it selfe from shadowes seed And make an element of liuelesse aire Adoring that which his owne hands did frame Whose hart inuention gaue whose tong the name But could infection keepe one setled place The poyson would not lodge in euery brest Nor feede the hart the minde the soule the face Lodging but in the carcasse of her rest But this Idolatry once in mans vse Was made a custome then without excuse verse 16 Nay more it was at tyrannies commaund And tyrants cannot speake without a doome Whose iudgement doth proceed from heart and hand From heart in rage from hand in bloudy tombe That if through absence any did neglect it Presence should pay the ransome which reiect it Then to auoide the doome of present hate Their absence did performe their presence want Making the image of a kingly state As if they had new seed from sins olde plant Flattring the absence of olde mischiefes mother With the like forme and presence of another verse 17 Making an absence with a present sight Or rather presence with an absent view Deceiuing vulgars with a day of night Which know not good from bad nor false from true A crafts-man cunning in his crafty trade Beguiling them with that which he had made Like as a vane is turn'd with euery blast Vntill it point vnto the windie clime So stand the people at his worde agast Hee making olde new forme in new-olde time Defies and deifies all with one breath Making them liue and die and all in death verse 18 They like to Tantalus are fed with shoes Shewes which exasperat and cannot cure They see the painted shadow of suppose They see her sight yet what doth sight procure Like Tantalus they feed and yet they starue Their foode is caru'd to them yet hard to carue The crafts-man feeds them with a staruing meat Which doth not fill but empty hungers gape Hee makes the idoll comely faire and great With well limnd visage and best fashioned shape Meaning to giue it to some noble view And faine his beautie with that flattring hue verse 19 Enamour'd with the sight the people grew To diuers apparitions of delight Some did admire the portraiture so new Hew'd from the standard of an olde trees hight Some were allur'd through beutie of the face With outward eye to worke the soules disgrace Adored like a God though made by man To make a God of man a man of God T is more then humaine life or could or can Though multitudes applause in error trode I neuer knew since mortall lifes abod That man could make a man much lesse a God verse 20 Yes man can make his shame without a maker Borrowing the essence from restored sin Man can be vertues foe and vices taker Welcome himselfe without a welcome in Can he doe this yea more oh shamlesse ill Shamefull in shame shamelesse in wisedomes will The riuer of his vice can haue no bound But breakes into the ocean of deceit Deceiuing life with measures of dead ground With carued idols disputations baite Making captiuitie cloth'd all in mone Bee subiect to a God made of a stone verse 21 Too stony hearts had they which made this lawe Oh had they beene as stony as the name They neuer had brought vulgars in such awe To be destructions pray and mischiefes game Had they beene stone-dead both in looke fauour They neuer had made life of such a sauour Yet was not this a too sufficient doome Sent from the roote of their sin-oregrowne tong To cloud gods knowledge with hel mischiefs gloome To ouerthrowe truths right with falshoods wrong But dayly practised a perfect way Still to begin and neuer end to stray verse 22 23 For either murders pawe did gripe their harts With whispring horrors drumming in each eare Or other villanies did play their parts Augmenting horror to newe strucken feare Making their hands more then a shambles stall To slay their children ceremoniall No place was free from staine of blood or vice Their life was markt for death their soule for sin Marriage for fornications thawed ice Thought for despaire body for eithers gin Slaughter did either end what life begunne Or lust did end what both had left vndone verse 24 25 The one was sure although the other faile For vice hath more competitors then one A greater troupe doth euermore auaile And villanie is neuer found alone The bloud-hound folows that which slaughter kild And theft doth folow what deceit hath spild Corruption mate to infidelitie For that which is vnfaithfull is corrupt Tumults are schoole fellowes to periury For both are full when either one hath supt Vnthankfullnes defiling and disorders Are fornications and vncleannes borders See what a sort of rebells are in armes verse 26 To root out vertue to supplant her raigne Opposing of them selues against all harmes To the deposing of her empires
helpe helpe and oppresse The sinfull incolants of his made earth He can redresse and paine paine and redresse The mountaine-miseries of mortall birth Now tyrants you are next this but a show And merry index of your after woe verse 5 6 Your hot-colde misery is now at hand Hot because furies heat and mercies colde Cold because limping knit in frosty band And cold and hot in being shamefast-bolde They cruell were take crueltie their part For misery is but too meane a smart But when the Tygers iawes the Serpents stings Did summon them vnto this lifes decay A pardon for their faults thy mercy brings Cooling thy wrath with pitties sunnie day O tyrants tere your sin-bemired weeds Beholde your pardon sealde by mercies deeds verse 7 8 That sting which pained could not ease the paine Those iaws that wounded could not cure the wounds To turne to stings for helpe it were but vaine To iawes for mercie which wants mercies bounds The stings ô Sauiour were puld out by thee Their iawes claspt vp in midst of crueltie O soueraigne salue stop to a bloody streame O heauenly care and cure for dust and earth Celestiall watch to wake terrestriall dreame Dreaming in punishment mourning in mirth Now knowes our enimies that it is thee Which helpes and cures our griefe and misery verse 9 Our punishment doth end theirs new begins Our day appeares their night is not oreblowne Wee pardon haue they punishment for sins Now we are raisde now they are ouerthrowne Wee with huge beasts opprest they with a flie Wee liue in God and they against God die A flie poore flie to follow such a flight Yet art thou fed as thou wast fed before With dust and earth feeding thy wonted bite With selfe-like food from mortall earthly store A mischiefe-stinging food and sting with sting Do ready passage to destruction bring verse 10 Man beeing grasse is hopt and graz'd vpon With sucking grasse-hoppers of weeping dew Man being earth is wormes vermilion Which eats the dust and yet of bloudy hue In being grasse he is her grazing food In being dust he doth the wormes some good These smallest actors were of greatest paine Of follies ouerthrow of mischiefes fall But yet the furious dragons coulde not gaine The life of those whom verities exhale These follie ouercame they foolish were These mercie cur'd and cures these godly are verse 11 When poysoned iawes and veninated stings Were both as opposite against content Because content with that which fortune brings They eased were when thou thy mercies sent The iawes of dragons had not hungers fill Nor stings of serpents a desire to kill Appal'd they were and struck with timerous feares For where is feare but where destruction raignes Agast they were with wet eye-standing teares Outward commencers of their inward paines They soone were hurt but sooner healde and cured Lest black obliuion had their minds inured verse 12 The lion wounded with a fatall blow Is as impatient as a king in rage Seeing himselfe in his owne bloody show Doth rent the harbour of his bodies cage Scorning the base-housde earth mounts to the skie To see if heauen can yeeld him remedy Oh sinfull man let him example be A patterne to thine eye glasse to thy face That Gods diuinest word is cure to thee Not earth but heauen not man but heauenly grace Nor hearb nor plaister could help teeth or sting But t was thy word which healeth euery thing verse 13 We fooles lay salues vpon our bodies skin But neuer drawe corruption from our minde We lay a plaister for to keepe in sin We drawe foorth filth but leaue the cause behinde With hearbs and plaisters we do guard misdeedes And pare away the tops but leaue the seedes Away with salues and take our Sauiours word In this word Sauiour lies immortall ease What can thy cures plaisters and hearbs afford When God hath power to please and to displease God hath the power of life death help and paine He leadeth downe and bringeth vp againe verse 14 15 Trust to thy downefall not vnto thy raise So shalt thou liue in death not die in life Thou dost presume if giue thy selfe the praise For vertues time is scarce but mischiefes rife Thou mayst offend mans nature is so vaine Thou now in ioy beware of after paine First commeth fury after fury thirst After thirst blood and after blood a death Thou mayst in fury kill whome thou louedst first And so in quassing blood stop thine owne breath And murther done can neuer be vndone Nor can that soule once liue whose life is gone verse 16 What is the body but an earthen case That subiect is to death because earth dies But when the liuing soule doth want Gods grace It dies in ioy and liues in miseries This soule is led by God as others were But not brought vp againe as others are This stirs no prouocation to amend For earth hath many partners in one fall Although the Lord doth many tokens send As warnings for to heare when he doth call The earth was burnt drownd with fire raine And one could neuer quench the others paine verse 17 Althogh both foes God made them then both frends And onely foes to them which were their foes That hate begun in earth what in them ends Sins enimies they which made friends of those Both bent both forces vnto single earth From whose descent they had their double birth T is strange that water should not quench a fire For they were heating-cold and cooling hot T is strange that wailes could not allay desire Wailes waters kinde and fire desires knot In such a cause though enimies before They would ioyne friendship to destroy the more The often weeping eies of drie lament verse 18 Doth powre forth burning water of despaire Which warms the caues frō whence the tears are sent And like hot fumes do foule their natures faire This contrary to icie-waters vale Doth scorch the cheekes makes them red pale Here fire and water are conioynde in one Within a red-white glasse of hote and cold Their fire like this double and yet alone Raging and tame and tame and yet was bold Tame when the beasts did kill and felt no fire Raging vpon the causers of their ire verse 19 Two things may well put on two seuerall natures Because they differ in each natures kind They differing colours haue and differing features If so how comes it that they haue one minde God made them friends let this the answer be They get no other argument of me What is impossible to Gods command Nay what is possible to mans vaine eare T is much he thinkes that fire should burne a land When mischiefe is the brand which fiers beare He thinkes it more that water should beare fire Then know it was Gods will now leaue t' enquire verse 20 Yet mightst thou aske because importunate How God preserude the good why because good Ill fortune made not them infortunate They Angells were
betrayed Mischiefe beguilde a night surpassing night Vice fought with vice and feare was then dismayde Horror it selfe appal'd at such a sight Sinâ—s snare was then ensnarde the fisher cought Sinnes net was then entrapt the fouler fought Yet all this conflict was but in a dreame A show of substance and a shade of truth Illusions for to mocke in flattring theame Beguiling mischiefe with a glasse of ruth For boasts require a fall and vaunts a shame Which two vice had in thinking but to game verse 8 Sinne tolde her creditours she was a Queene And now become reuenge to right their wrong With hony-mermaids speech alluring seene Making new-pleasing words with her olde tongue If you be sick quoth she I 'le make you whole Shee cures the body but makes sicke the soule Safe is the body when the soule is wounded The soule is ioyfull in the bodies griefe Ones ioy vpon the others sorrow grounded Ones sorrow placed in the ones releefe Quoth siâ— feare nothing know that I am heere When shee alas her selfe was sick for feare verse 9 A promise worthy of derisions place That feare shoulde helpe a feare when both are one Shee was as sick in hart though not in face With inward griefe though not with outward mone But shee claspt vp the closure of the tongue For feate that words should do her body wrong Cannot the body weepe without the eies Yes and frame deepest canzons of lament Cannot the body feare without it lies Vpon the outward shew of discontent Yes yes the deeper feare sits in the heart And keeps the parliament of inward smart verse 10 So sin did snare in minde and not in face The dragons iaw the hissing serpents sting Some liu'd some dide some ran a fearefull race Some did preuent that which ill fortunes bring All were officious seruitours to feare And her pale connizance in heart did weare Malice condemnd her selfe guiltie of hate With a malicious mouth of enuious spight For Nemesis is her owne cruell fate Turning her wrath vpon her owne delight Wee need no witnes for a guiltie thought Which to condemne it selfe a thousand brought verse 11 12 For feare deceiues it selfe in being feare It feares it selfe in being still afraid It feares to weepe and yet it sheds a teare It feares it selfe and yet it is obaid The vsher vnto death a death to doome A doome to die in horrors fearefull toome His owne betrayer yet feares to betray He feares his life by reason of his name He feares lament because it brings decay And blames himselfe in that he merites blame He is tormented yet denies the paine He is the king of feare yet loath to raigne verse 13 His sons were they which slept and dreamt of feare A waking sleepe and yet a sleepy waking Which passt that night more longer than a yeare Being griefes prisners and of sorrowes taking Slept in nights dungeon insupportable Lodgde in nights-horror too indurable Oh sleepe the image of long-lasting woe Oh waking image of long-lasting sleepe The hollow caue where visions come and goe Where serpents hisse where mandrakes grone creep Oh fearefull shew betrayer of a soule Dieng each heart in white each white in foule verse 14 15 A guilefull hole a prison of deceit Yet nor deceit nor guile in being dead Snare without snarer net without a bait A common lodge and yet without a bed A holow-sounding vault knowne and vnknowne Yet not for mirth but too too well for mone T is a free prison a chainde libertie A freedomes caue a sergeant and a baile It keepes close prisoners yet doth set them free Their clogges not yron but a clog of waile It stayes them not and yet they cannot goe Their chaine is discontent their prison woe verse 16 Still it did gape for more and still more had Like greedy auarice without content Like to Auernus which is neuer glad Before the dead-liude wicked soules be sent Pull in thy head thou sorrowes tragedy And leaue to practise thy olde cruelty The merry shepheard can not walke alone Tuning sweete Madrigals of haruests ioy Caruing loues Roundelayes on euery stone Hanging on euery tree some amorous toy But thou with sorrow enterlines his song Opening thy iawes of death to do him wrong verse 17 18 Oh now I know thy chaine thy clog thy fetter Thy freechainde prison and thy clogged walke T is gloomy darknesse sins eternall detter T is poysoned buds from Acharonticke stalke Sometime t is hissing winds which are their bands Somtime inchanting birds which binds their hands Sometime the foaming rage of waters streame Or clattring downe of stones vpon a stone Or skipping beasts at Titans gladsome beame Or roaring lions noyse at one alone Or babbling Eccho tell-tale of each sound From mouth to skie from skie vnto the ground verse 19 20 Can such like feares folow mans mortall pace Within drie wildernes of wettest woe It was Gods prouidence his will his grace To make midnoone midnight in being so Midnight with sin midnoone where vertue lay That place was night all other places day The sun not past the middle line of course Did cleerely shine vpon each labours gaine Not hindring daily toyle of mortall force Nor clouding earth with any gloomy staine Onely nights image was apparant there With heauy-leaden appetite of feare Chapter XVIII verse 1 YOu know the Eagle by her soaring wings And how the Swallow takes a lower pich Ye kno the day is clear clearenes brings And how the night is pore thogh gloomy rich This Eagle vertue is which mounts on hie The other sin which hates the heauens eie This day is wisedome being bright and cleare This night is mischiefe being blacke and fowle The brightest day doth wisedomes glory weare The pitchie night puts on a blacker rowle Thy saints O Lord were at their labors hire At whose heard voyce the wicked did admire verse 2 They thought that vertue had beene clothde in night Captiue to darknesse prisoner vnto hell But it was sin it selfe vice and despight Whose wished harbours do in darknesse dwell Vertues immortall soule had middaies light Mischiefes eternall foule had middayes night For vertue is not subiect vnto vice But vice is subiect vnto vertues seate One mischiefe is not thawed with others ice But more adioynde to one makes one more great Sin vertues captiue is and kneeles for grace Requesting pardon for her rude-run race The tongue of vertues life cannot pronounce verse 3 The doome of death or death of dying doome T is mercifull and will not once renounce Repentant teares to wash a sinfull roome Your sin-shine was not sun-shine of delight But shining sin in mischiefes sunny night Now by repentance you are bathde in blisse Blest in your bath eternall by your deedes Behold you haue true light and can not misse The heau'nly foode which your saluation feedes True loue true life true light your portions true What hate what strife what night can danger you verse 4 Oh happy when
forst to lie One here one there in prison yet vnbound Heart-striuing life and death to liue and die Nor were they ignorant of fates decree In being tolde before what they should bee verse 20 There falsest visions shewde the truest cause False because fantasies true because haps For dreames though kindled by sleep-idle pause Sometime true indices of dangers claps As well doth proue in these sin-sleeping lines That dreames are falsest shewes and truest signes By this time death had longer pilgrimage And was encaged in more liuing breasts Now euery ship had fleeting anchorage Both good and bad were punisht with vnrests But yet Gods heauie plague indur'd not long For anger quencht her selfe with her selfe wrong verse 21 Not so for heat can neuer coole with heat Nor colde can warme a colde nor ice thaw ice Anger is fire and fire is angers meat Then how can anger coole her hot deuice The sunne doth thaw the ice with melting harme Ice cannot coole the sunne which makes it warme It was celestiall fire terrestriall cold It was celestiall colde terrestriall fire A true and holy praier which is bolde To coole the heat of angers hot desire Pronounced by a seruant of thy word To ease the miseries which wraths afford verse 22 Weapons and wit are double linkes of force If one vnknit they both haue weaker strength The longer be the chaine the longer corse If measurde by duplicitie of length If weapons faile wit is the better part Wit failing weapons haue the weaker hart Praier is weake in strength yet strong in wit And can do more then strength in being wise Thy word ô Lord is wisdome and in it Doth lie more force then forces can surprize Man did not ouercome his foes with armes But with thy word which conquers greater harms verse 23 That word it was with which the world was framde The heauens made mortalitie ordain'd That word it was with which all men were namde In which one word there are all words containde The breath of God the life of mortall state The enimie to vice the foe to hate When death prest downe the sin-dead-liuing soules And draw'd the curtaine of their seeing day This word was vertues shield and deaths controules Which shielded those which neuer went astray For when the dead did die and end in sin The liuing had assurance to begin verse 24 Are all these deeds accomplisht in one word O soueraigne word cheefe of all words and deeds O salue of safrie wisdomes strongest sword Both food and hunger which both starues and feeds Food vnto life because of liuing power Hunger to those whome death and sins deuoure For they which liu'd were those which vertue lou'd And those which vertue lou'd did loue to liue Thrice happy these whom no destruction mou'd Shee present there which loue and life did giue They bore the mottoes of eternall fame On diapasans of their fathers name verse 25 Here death did change his pale to purple hue Blushing against the nature of his face To see such bright aspects such splendent view Such heau'nly paradice of earthly grace And hid with lifes quick force his ebon dart Within the crannies of his meagre hart Descending to the place from whence he came With rich-stor'd chariot of fresh bleeding wounds Sore-greeued bodies from a soules-sick name Sore-greeued soules in bodies-sin-sick sounds Death was afraide to stay where life should be For they are foes and cannot well agree Chapter XIX verse 1 2 AVant destroier with thy hungry iawes Thy thirsty heart thy longing ashie bones The righteous liue they be not in thy lawes Nor subiects to thy deepe oppressing mones Let it suffice that we haue seene thy show And tasted but the shadow of thy woe Yet stay and bring thy empty car againe More ashie vessells do attend thy pace More passengers expect thy comming waine More groaning pilgrimes long to see thy face Wrath now attends the passage of misdeeds And thou shalt still be stor'd with soules that bleeds verse 3 Some lie halfe dead while others dig their graues With weake-forst teares to moyst a long-drie ground But teares on teares in time will make whole waues To bury sin with ouerwhelming sound Their eies for mattocks serue their teares for spades And they them selues are sextons by their trades What is their fee lament their paiment woe Their labour waile their practise miserie And can their conscience serue to labour so Yes yes because it helpeth villanie Though eies did stand in teares and teares in eyes They did another folishnes deuise verse 4 5 So that what praier did sin did vndoe And what the eies did win the heart did loose Whom vertue reconcilde vice did forgoe Whom vertue did forgoe that vice did choose Oh had their hearts beene iust eyes had bin winners Their eyes were iust but hearts new sins beginners They digd true graues with eyes but not with hearts Repentance in their face vice in their thought Their deluing eies did take the Sextons partes The heart vndid the labour which eies wrought A new strange death was portion for their toyle While vertue sate as iudge to end the broyle verse 6 Had tongue bin ioynde with eies tong had not strai'd Had eyes bin ioyn'd to heart heart then had seene But oh in wanting eye-sight it betrai'd The dungeon of misdeeds where it had beene So many liuing in this orbe of woe Haue heau'd-vp eyes but yet their hearts are low This chaunge of sin did make a chaunge of feature A new strange death a misery vntoulde A new reforme of every olde-new creature New seruing offices which time made olde New liuing vertue from an olde dead sin Which ends in ill what doth in good begin verse 7 When death did reape the haruest of despight The wicked eares of sin and mischiefes seed Filling the mansion of eternall night With heauy-leaden clods of sinfull breed Life sowde the plants of immortalitie To welcome olde-made new felicity The clouds the gloomy curtaines of the aire Drawne and redrawne with the foure-winged winds Made all of borrowed vapours darkesome faire Did ouershade their tents which vertue findes The red seas deepe was made a drie trod way Without impediment or stop or stay verse 8 9 The thirsty windes with ouertoyling puffes Did drinke the ruddy-oceans water drie Tearing the Zones hot-cold whole-ragged ruffes With ruffling conflicts in the field of skie So that drie earth did take wet waters place With sandy mantle and hard grounded face That way which neuer was a way before Is now a troden path which was vntrod Through which the people went as on a shoare Defended by the stretcht-out arme of God Praising his wondrous workes his mighty hand Making the land of sea the sea of land verse 10 That breast where anger slept is mercies bed That breast where mercy wakes is angers caue When mercie liues then Nemesis is dead And one for eithers coarse makes others graue Hate furrowes vp a graue to bury loue