Zachary Th' Almighties Flamin his anoynted rather Ev'n thou who by thy lot within this shrine With hallowed Judgment and with Art divine Attendst thy service and observ'st thy station To expiat Israels sinfull conversation O how my ravish'd Soule doth now admire The glorious fabrick of this glorious Quire Wherein thou standst for Porphyr Gold and Mabre Strive t'eternize the curious workman's-labor No whilst within this house my greedy eye Doth glut her self on Arts brave industry No sooner can I rest my thoughts upon This carved seiling or that graven stone But lo a rare rare Deity ties my Sense To ruminat his matchlesse eminence For whilst I call that Majesty to minde Whose grace and glory peace and truth hath shin'd Within those walls what need I more to seek Nile's Hyeroglyphicks or the Delphian Creek The Rabbiâ—-Talmud characters of Perss Turks Alcaron or Sybillaean verse No those are all but fancies and inventions Of humane frailties and of frail intentions Which like their owners perish in that rust Which Time and Canker portrays in the dust But here and here alone I know within These vaulted-Arches Man infect with Sin May read the Programs of th'Eternal's Love Made manifest for Adam's sonns behove Son saith the Syre what proud ambitious strain Hath led thee hither that thou shouldst prophane Jehovah's sacrifice and solemn Rite With babling Riddles of a brain-sick sprite Look but I pray thee what dread adorations The Idoll godlings of the godles Nations Require within their shrines and shadowing Grove And thence learn thou to dread th' Almighty Jove Shall Jupiter Ammonius or Apollo Or wandring Cynthea whom the Sylvans follow At Daphne's trypod Dodona or there Whereas th' Argolick sages did repair Require a grave and reverend Majesty To enact their hel-born magick mystery And shall not he who 's one and trinally od Of kings chief King and above all gods God Receive a reverend form and sacred guize Of worship in his daily Sacrifice Or tell me Son have nere thy eares as yet Heard how his Ark did scaily Dagon smit And all the Princes with a deadly wound In Ashdod Gath and Ekrons coasts confound Or knowst thou not poore Vzzah's fatall storie Or Abthu and Nadab's fatall glorie Who in their vain presumptions fell and falling Bid man observe the compasse of his calling All those stand written in truth's sacred book That wee may read when upon them wee look His fearfull glory and unapproched might Who sets us in his never slumbring sight Out therfore get thee out from hence and stand With Israel in his porch whose heav'd up hand Dejected heart and humbly-patient ey Attends the Missa of this Mistery At this rebuke I goe yet scarce am gone When loe the relicts of a mourning groane Cut in a thousand parcells seems to call Mee back to gaze some divine spectacle Returning then amazd behold I finde After the rushing of a mighty winde A light ore-shadow Zachary more cleere Then that which gilds our mid-daies hemispheere In midst whereof at Zacharies right hand Behold a glorious Cherubim doth stand Whose smiling eyes and countenance excels All human beauties and all creatures els About his head a semi-circled Crown Of Iris parti-colour'd coat was drawn Which to my poore amazed wandring eyn Seem'd dy'd in opall yellow blue and green The curled hayrs which on his head doe grow Are whiter far then new faln flaughts of snow 'Twixt which the sparks of gold bespangled brands Makes Ganges blush and Tagus loath her sands His eys like stars in dark Cymerian night Dart forth their flashings with a wondrous light And like that troop which trips about the Pole In restles wandrings here and there they role Next this with two Seraphick wings he flies Whereon the heav'ns have daind t'immortalize Their rarest beauties in the rarest hue Of crimson red and pure vermilion blue Down from his middle to his feet is drawn A pretious vail more cleere then any lawn On which stands portray'd by celestiall Art That love-sick Foule which tares her tender heart And yeelds a Runnall of her deerest blood To glut her Paricids amidst their food A little lower Jesse's son doth stand With peeble stones and sling-staffe in his hand Trampling Goliah's glory in the dust Who in his strength and sinnewy force did trust Loe here the Phoenix aromatick cole Burns her to dust and yet revives her soule And there Arachne from her belly spins The tissue-mantle that obscures our sins These and a thousand other severall passions Of severall figures severall forms and fashions Stand checker'd all as emblems of that Love Which weds our frailties to a spotles Jove At this great sight old Zachary stands mute Confus'dly amaz'd amaz'dly irresolute For by a pallid ghostly feare his sense Of speech and hearing lose their influence At last like to the Delian Princess when She fluttereth over the Atlantick Ocean He curbs the fit that conquer'd him before And to his reason thus he opes the dore O! what is this that I behold faith he Is this a fain'd evanishing Majesty Of Molech Milcom Chamosh Ashtaroth Of Baal Dagon or that spirit which doth Transform'd in light bewitch with darknes spell Those howling ghosts which on Earths center dwell No sure I am those Idols are not such They neither heare nor see nor talk nor touch They smell not taste not and in all their bands There is no heart that knows or understands As for that hellish Prince or fearfull spirit Lights hatefull foe who darknes doth inherit I know that here he never dare aspire To view the secrets of this sacred fire Whose Censers in their sweet exhaling cloud Presignifie that Shiloe in his blood Shall such a fragrant Sacrifice reveale As shall bruise down the head that bites his heele What then it is some vision sent from heav'n But those have ceas'd and our deserts have driv'n That sacred Chore and great Angelick train To shun the lewd societies of Men. Whilst thus old Zachary's mutinous thoughts are all Beleaguer'd by Opinion's Generall Feare Hee whose feare restrains the Lions jaws And curbs the rigour of the Tygers paws Cries by his Angell Zachary feare no more For lo thy prayer 's heard and come before His glorious eyes who shuts our tears each one In bottles of due retribution Recall therefore thy Spirits from gates of death For lo thy barren wife Elizabeth Shall beare a Son and thou shalt call him John Heavn's holy-Ghost shall alwaies rest upon His head and his celestiall pow'r shall sacre Thy Son a Minion to the worlds great Maker Nor wine nor strong drink shall hee taste at all Nor shall a rasor make his tresse to fall But as a Nazarite both in name and spirit He shall Eliah's talent re-inherit And as a Lyon he shall roare and cry Prepare before Messiah's face the way In him thou shalt rejoyce for many one Jew Prosolyte and far-bred nation Shall joy in him for by his heav'nly Art He shall the
What shall my eyes be thus reserv'd to gaze Ev'n in my glorious prime the darkned rayes Of black disgrace ecclipse my glory so That I from Honor it from me must goe No no great Caesar hath in due regard Of my deservings for my sake ensnar'd Old Hircanus by force of Parthian wrath To drink his last draught in the Cup of Death And have not all his off-spring which doe wander About the Stygian lake even Alexander Antipater and Aristobolus With Mariamnes and Antigonus Faire Alexandra and each Ghost elsewhere Who in the helm of Sion claim'd a share Been sent as Vassals of my wrath to plead In heritance in cloudy Deaths dark shade And lest that Hydra-like their power or wit Should breed a Rivall on my Throne to sit Have not my wits more subteliz'd than theirs Pluckt up that grave Sanhaedrine by whose cares The state of Salem fortifi'd her stage Against the stormes of Fortunes spightfull rage So that no bud nor branch may thence re-spring That may my power to a period bring Whence com'th it then that such a sad affright Of alteration turns my Day to Night And makes a lightning flash of sad-â—v'rthrow Disturb the Ocean where my hopes did flow It may be that the heav'ns whose boundlesse powers Controlls these currents and these tides of ours Have grudg'd to see me great and therefore send Those Heralds to proclame my Glories end For this I know which former times have taught That mortall men whose mindes are alwaies fraught With care to conquer in their deepest care Are but like bubbles blown alongst the aire Which by our breath 's no sooner blown and cherish'd Then by a counterpâ—ffe 't is gone and perish'd Else wherefore did the Fates so proudly thrust Great Niniveh and Babel to the dust Why have they trod on Carthage with their foot Or laugh'd to see brave Ilion's lights blown out Yea push'd at Craesus and Darius Crowne And thrust the Macedonian from his Throne But that the world may learn that honor's strain Is hardl'acquir'd but quickly lost again Shall I therefore like to a Childe whose eare Hath ty'd him in the bands of causlesse feare By hearing of a foolish doting fable Apprentice all my thoughts to this unstable Narration and trust that for a truth Which hath no warrant but a wand'rers mouth Or shall I like Endimion in the deep Of base security lye still and sleep VVhen Heav'ns by that great care of me they take Doe by these warnings bid me thus awake No ' gainst the Heav'ns I spurn not yet I scorn A Monarch and much lesse a Babe new born Should in Judaea to that state arise As may my Glory and my Crown surprise I will therefore look what a treacherous art Dissembling fury in a hollow heart Can add to high exploits and then imploy My wits to search the corner where that boy Can lurk whose fame thus makes the world agast And drunk with expectation and at last By sad experience I will make him hear That Crownes are weighty things for babes to wear VVhilst thus 'twixt Fear and Envy 's mutinous hoast The subtelizing Tirants soule is toss'd Rage breaks at last the gap and opes the way To vent the passions which his soule dismay Goe saith the subtle fox goe quickly call The Talmudists and Rabbins great and small The Priests the Prophets Pharises and Scribes Through all Judaea's severall coasts and tribes Make them revolve consider search and try The time and place of his Nativity VVhom these distracted Pilgrims have so farre Search'd by prognostication of a starre For wheresoe're or whosoe're he be Whose light thus threats t' obscure my Majestie I can conform my minde unto my fate And kisse the foot that tramples on my state And if the heav'ns will needs blot out my name I 'le doe him homage who procures the same Thus hath the viper big with fierce envy Breath'd out the flashes of his cruelty But God who dwelling in the heav'ns unfolds The heart's hid secrets rheines and deepest holds Laughs this dissembling project all to scorn And by his spirit doth secretly suborn The Sages to retire another way That so he may the Tyrants rage display He warneth also Joseph and his Bride To take the childe and step a while aside To Aegypt that Gods will might so be done Who sayes From Aegypt I have call'd my Sonne Exod. 4. Hosea 11. O God how deep 's the Ocean rich the store Of mercy thou lay'st up for evermore To such as truly doe rely upon Thy Providence for their salvation The Sword by day may fiercely rage and smite The Pestilence may rove abroad by night The Cedars may be pluck'd up from their station The Mountains may be hurl'd from their foundation The windes may blow the Seas may rage and even Black darknesse may ecclipse the lights of heaven But he who with a fully fixed minde On thee doth stay his Soule shall surely finde He needs not feare the crafty hunters snare Which for his downfall's stretched here and there For when the world was drown'd by Nereus waves Thy Noah like a Neptune them outbraves When fire sack'd Sodome loe thy Lot survives And in his Zoar like a Vulcan lives When Jericho's vain trust o'returns her walls Thy Rachab sits and sings her festivals When Syrian Captaines would command thy Seer Thy Seraphins doe guard him in their Quier When Babels scorching flames shall threat thy Saints They stand unstain'd and all their Aetna daunts And what needs more the Lions in their den May ramp and roar against the sonnes of men But hee who shall within thy shadow hide His head and in thy Tents and Courts abide Though heav'ns earth ayre and seas and all were shaken Shall never perish never be forsaken Yet stay my muse arrest thy course a space T' attend the tenor of this tragick-case VVhich with an unexpected troup of feares From secret ambush doth assault my ears What roaring griefs and tear-drownd plaints be those The neighboring Eccho's to the heav'ns up-throwes VVhat mourning groans and sad lamenting cries Be those which over this high mountain flies Ay me what 's this be those the caroling voyces Of a proud conquering army whose rejoyces Evaporate up to the azur'd round Reverberat the earth 's environ'd ground Or is' t the gleanings of that grievous cry VVhich conquer'd-wretches in their butchery And soule-depriving smart doe cut asunder Like clouds condensed when they melt with thunder No sure it is no voice of tryumph nor The voice of such as are tryumphed o're These wofull screeches rather represent The ditties of some harmless innocent VVhich by the tort'ring butchers butch'rous clap Are stab'd or stifled in the mothers lap And so it is for cruell Herod hath Subsign'd and seal'd a warrant for the death Of all those Infants which in Bethleem's coast Of two yeeres time or under age can boast For so the reverend Seer Hieremie Jer. 30.5 Hath in his never fayling Prophecy Foretold
are gone His foes are fill'd with feare amaze and wonder Like Latmos rent with heav'ns high ratling thunder Seraphick Spirits bow before his face Mortality to glory now gives place And all the Children of his wedding Chamber Whose lips are Corrall and whose locks are Amber Whose eyes Carbuncles are in dark of night Gladly doe now attend this mornings light And from the grave they role away that stone Which Caiaphas had fet his seale upon 'T were strange to see that was could make that sure That heav'ns had destin'd to distemp'tature But now the Scriptures are fulfill'd which say He gives his Angels charge 〈◊〉 thy way To keep thee lest thy foot should either slip Or'gainst a stone at any time should trip Yet was it neither Angels might nor power That did return life to my Saviour But that same Godhead which in him did dwell Restor'd his life and did his death expell For though his soule was from his body cut His Godhead from his Man hood was not shut For that great tye of Hypostatick union Shall never be dissolv'd or lose communion No no Mans nature which he did assume And unite to the Word i' th' Virgins wombe Shall in no after time or taste Confusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or by a stronger hand ' plain of Division Or by a change smell any Alteration Or by or death or life have Separation But shall for ay that union retaine Where three are one and one is three againe No sooner doth my Soules brave Sampson draw Gaza's gate-barrs asunder then his aw Maketh earths wieghty globe to reatch and reele About him like Ixyons giddy wheele The dead arise and to the Citty goe As witnesse of his great triumphing show The Lyons to their dens return apace Because great Judah's Lyon shakes his tresse And all the beasts of neighb'ring Forrests feare Whilst they this matchlesse Lyon's roaring heare The chirping birds whose sweet melodious notes Bring sweeter crotchets from their carr'ling throats Then all Apollo's nymphs can straine or sing Unto his Harps delicious fingering Betake themselves unto their wings to flie Rather then in an Earthquakes arms to die The nibling Lambs which graze on Vesta's kirtle And sips her hony suckles and her mirtle Leaving their breakfast bleat and cry and call Each one to gaze anothers festivall Great Neptune and his Thetye now sing dumbe Because the Soveraign of the Seas is come To put a hooke in their nostrills and draw Leucotheo from Achelous maw But above all the long-liv'd Phenix seems As freshly wak'd from her reviving flames To greet him with the rarest welcome that E're Lark or Finch or Linot modulat And at his foot her starry Spangled Crown As to the righteous owner she throws down For she reviv'd hath thousand years in store But he requickneth lives for evermore In end comes Titan dayes bright shining eye Who lately slept in darknesse Cannopy And from his Orient or Eoan wave Where Neptune doth his steps in pearle engrave Seeing a clearer Sun i' th' West arise To all his Naids and his Napaeis cries Look here and see the rare yea rarest wonder That ever Earth held up or Heav'ns kept under Two Suns arise at once and in one day Two Titans to the world their lights display The one wherof although he rise must fall The other knowes no Occident at all Thus is my Saviour up and mangre hell And all the pow'rs of darknesse there doe dwell A new light life and liberty is given To all that hunger for the light of Heaven 'T is true no article o' th' Christian faith More faithlesse or reluctant en'mies hath Then hath the Doctrine of the Resurrection Whil'st it stands canvass'd by humane direction Yea nature ne'er requir'd a better sport Then tosse this Ball within her Tennis-court For faith it selfe can hardly sound this deep How a scatter'd non ens to an ens can creep Although that Nature and the Scriptures both Have writ the hieroglyphicks of this truth The Phoenix spicie nest her Mistris burneth Yet she from out her fatall Urne returneth When length of time sun-staring Eagles spills They doe revive by casting off their bills Hearbs trees and plants which in the winter wither I' th' spring receive both sap and life together The Corn we sow doth first corrupt and die Yet from that death their grains doe multiply And if 't be true Medaea for the sake Of Jason made old Aesons youth t' awake But Scripture tells us that the first man hath By sinne subdu'd all mankinde unto death And that the second man doth yeeld more grace Requickning that which dy'd by our trespasse And unto Abram's seed the Lord hath said I am the livings God and not the dead Adde unto this that he who first did make All things of nothing can from something take With lesser pain this little world of Man Then when at first he from the dust it span Nor is it just that any coupled paire Who work together should not have like share Of glory after death who in their life ' Gainst Sin and Sathan kept a conjunct strife Why art thou then so sad my Soule and why Art thou cast down with such anxiety Dost not thou know that Christ is made thy head And thou by faith his living member made He is thy husband thou his wedded wife Whil'st he doth live how canst thou doubt of life He is the root and thou his ingraft-branch When thou art judg'd he sitteth on the bench He is our Main which by our faith 's hid pores Refreshing waters to our springs restores And till his never ebbing streams goe dry We need not fear to lack a new supply Naked from out our mothers wombe we come And thither naked must we once goe home Yet we believe earth shall not still enfold Us in her arms that were too base a hold For any in whose soule the sp'rit of grace Hath made his mansion or a dwelling place No sure suppose these putrid tents of clay Wherein we sojourn for a night or day Must be dissolved better buildings we In heav'n shall have For Immortalitie Shall this our Mortall swallow and devoure Our weaknes then shall be exchang'd to power Corruption shall to incorruption turne And shame shak'd off we shall no longer mourn For what by Nature we doe here inherit Shall there renew'd be by th'Eternals Sp'rit Though then the grave unto weak natures taste Relish no better then the hemlocks feast Yet from her arms we reap a richer store Then ever nature did possesse before For there the poore have peace from their oppression There earths horsleeches shrink from their possession There rich and poore the high the low and all To earthly tempest ly no more made thrall But waiting for the return of their Judge In secret for a while lye still and lodge Since then I know that my Redeemer liveth And that he shall perform what faith believeth In all the periods of my lifes poore