in sorrow weepe A man that liues in pleasures as his dayes Increase the dayes past ouer seeme a dreame Stil newer ioy more hope of ioy bewrayes And as he liues he liues still in extreame He wakes to sleepe and sleeps in hope to wake So here is all the pleasure he can take Is this a life O what a life is this To couet age which being come is hated Whose end is death which death the vtmost is Of eu'ry lease that in the graue is dated They that enioy what their owne hearts can craue Craue onely time which brings them to the graue And here they die and dying once die all Die al as they vnworthily haue liu'd No part of them suruiues but feeles the thral Of life in death and death of life depriu'd Thus then the promise of al the worlds desire Beares life to die then dies in life to tire Weary vnrest and restlesse wearie woe That leads to pleasures in their birth abortiue How much more better were it to forgoe A life so grieuous and a death so sportiue And rest the griefes so numberlesse and great In the sweet slumber of his bloody sweat When Pharaohs heart was hardned and deny'd Freedome to Israel the Lord to scourge Pharaohs ambition and detested pride Which mercy could not win nor mildnesse vrge Commanded Aaron when he toucht the flood Th' Aegyptian waters all were turnd to blood Water was turnd to blood but in this sweat Here blood is turnd to water as the first Betoken'd plagues for sins the last doth treat Redemption from those sins who were accursâ— The first his wrath the lass doth shew his loue His iustice this did that his mercy proue By blood offences in the written law Vnto the law of grace were reconciled By blood offences must redemption draw From blood which blood the Gospel now is stiled The law the blood of Goats and buls desired The Gospel hath the blood of Christ required A surety for his friend that is arrested Kept close in prison bound in yron chaines Is hungry cold and weary sicke and wrested To change of inward griefes and outward paines Deserues from him for whom he asseast If not a full reward yet thanks at least So he who in the absence of his friend Whom malice hath vpbraided with abuse Doth vndertake his quarrell to defend Clearing the imputation with excuse Fights and is wounded being wounded dyes May iustly claime the tribute of his eyes Iesus the sonne of God was at our suâ—e A rested and imprison'd in the frame Of flesh was fetter'd and of no repute Tyr'd with his griefes the by-word of defame All this he was and did yet to relieue him Wee scarce can in our hearts finde thankes to giue him Hee vndertooke our quarrell with the Deuill When we were all vnable to resist And in that quarrell to discharge our euill Was wounded to the death yet wee persist Too obstinate in malice and forbeare Vpon his bleeding wounds to shed one teare Wee see vpon his furrow-drowned face The print of sorrowes stampe yet not regard him Wee see his honour leuel'd with disgrace Yet with our only thankes will not â—eward him 'T is bad to sin sin 't is to be vngratefull Sin is abhorr'd vnthankfulnesse is hatefull Goe then Remembrance tell that Queene of Reason Fayre bride to Christ the Souâ—e her louer comes Deckt in his wedding robes and courts the season With choyce of pleasures and with many sinnes Of sure deserts inuites this wandring Queene To be as true as he to her hath beene Ladie quoth hee thy fortunes haue not won My heart to loue thy beauty cannot force mee To wanton dotage what my care hath done No time shall alter no repoâ—ts diuorce mee For to my chaster flames thy zeale gaue fuell And I will guard thee if thou be not cruell No dower from thy treasuries I craue No wanton dilâ—â—ance in a bed of lust Thy purenesse is the portion I would haue Artlesse simpliciue and steedy trust And if thou proue but constant to implore Vertue with goodnesse I will aske no more Heerâ— vowes the soule virginiâ—v and sweares Shee will bee only his and meanes to doe it Vntill distracted in her fleshly feares She shrinkes from her first troth when she comes to it And like a strumpet false she heere â—â—â—swore That plighted promise she had made before Simplicitie was woo'd by youthfull Iust And would not yeeld young Iust did fee old sinne Old sin assaults simplicitie whose trust Thus to make lesse she trimly doth beginne Faire daughter â—â—â—â—en time will come when thou Shalt change thy hue and be as I am now Vnhealthie old forsaken and despis'd I lead a life who was adored then Beautie amidst the â—roppe is only priz'd Faire soules in youth are chieâ—ly lik'd of men But when my time did court me I for-went it And lost my daies and now I doe repent it Daughter wilt thou alone liue vnpossest Of youths best ornaments and natures ioyes Wilt thou deny to be a mother blest In pretty daughters and more pretty boyes O no had not our mothers tooke their lot Wee had bene yet vnborne and vnbegot Heauen hath oâ— dained thee to be sweet on earth Both loue and youth do-homage to thine eyes And wilt thou curbe thy selfe of pleasures mirth By vainely striuing how to be precise She that hath fairenesse were as good haue none If foolishly she keepe it all for one Yet you forsooth young mistresse in the folly Of standing on some pleasure threatning text Dreame of some great renowne in being holly Reade this and that and that and what is next I know not what and euer vainly plod In hope to marry with the Sonne of God No doubt come yet I le tell a safer way If you will needs to that ambition clime Do it at last buâ—spend thy youth in play Reuell enioy the freedome of the time And when y' are old vnfit for sport bereauen Of youth and ioyes then you may think on heauen Tush daughter God respects thee in thine age As well as in thy prime and he will beare With flesh and blood then seeke not to ingage Best of delight before delights do weare And thou to God maist be my words are truth As welcome in thine age as in thy youth Wonne is the soule with this or rather lost Sins sweet temptation hath vndon the zone Of Maiden chastitye the feeld is lost Lust hath preuailde and Christ is left a lone For now the soule resolues that sports vnfold Law to the young repentance fits the old Yet thus that kinde good God will not giue ouer But once againe by parley doth attempt To court this perâ—uâ—'d dame and like a louer Scorn'd of his Lady from all hope exempt Pittyes the shipwracke of her taiuted name And yet by Manage would recure her fame I know quoth Christ I louethee els I would not Haueâ—â—â—â—nd vnto thee in a Sea
true way to happines should bee Found out in bloud and bloud of his annointed Whose pure Vermilion red did fairely guild Sinn 's blacke as night for whoÌ„ this lambe was kild Meeke and vnfriended to the world he came Lowly sad patient in his humbled lookes The Mirror of humility so â—ame As if his forehead had bin sorrowes bookes Thus whiles the Iewes hopes with ambition wing'd Flew through yâ— earth their Sauiour cames vn-king'd Vn-king'd good man so far from any grace Of earthly maiâ—stie of Crownes of state As he was set much lower then the base Beneath the sight of pittie or of hate Yet this is that Messiah he who brings Life in his death makes men saints Saints as Kings What eye did euer see him laugh what eares Haue heard him speake the languages of pleasure But euery eye that saw him saw his Teares All Eares that heard him heard him speake in measure For still his wordes with griefe such measure kept His speech was sighes and as he spoke he wept No hand did lend on little Cloth to drye The riuers on his cheekes no thought bewail'd His solitary Cares but all past by Those vnrespected griefes his heart assail'd Himselfe he seem'd as if he meant to craue But of himselfe to beare him to his graue His precious head crown'd with a goodly fleece Of hayres more precious then are goulden threedes Appeares but as an Artist's Maister peece Scarce worth to view his lockes him ouer-spreads vntrim'd as if they ought that head no duety So much his dayly woes had chaung'd his beauty His face in which the Rose did with the lilly Striue curiousty for chaunge in little space Through many vntaught sighes appear'd so silly As t' was but like the ruins of a face Neuer was man so excellently nam'd For shape whom sadnesse had so soone vnfram'd And now the fulnesse of the time drew on When he should pay the ransome of his death To make oblation of his bloud alone Offring the last gaspe of a guiltlesse breath As if his onely arrant from the wombe Were but to run a race vnto his Tombe When with the small remainder of his stocke A remnant of the worldes vn-numbred son 's A little remnant a poore simple flocke This pastour with those sheepe together run's To sequester them and himselfe apart That he might offer vpp to God his heart Not far from the Holy Cittie stood The mount of Oliuet at whose steepe Base Ceadron the riuer with a gentle flood Made Musicke to the silence of that place Neere which was Gethsemane whereto say He often came and often vs'd to pray Retyr'd from out the clamours of the day Our Sauiour with his chosen thiâ—her came That with more leysure hee might freely pray Before the houre that must dissolue the frame Of his mortallity the curse and scourge He was to beare from sinners sinne to purge And feeling now th' approaching horrors neere Of God's inkindled wrath the time at hand Of coming vengeance trembling in his feare Which being man he knew not to commaund His soule was heauy to the death his heart Through wounded ere he felt his woundes to smart Burst with the burthen of tormenting anguish Wasted with bitter throbbes his hastning paine Did make his Manhood quake and sadly languish In agonyes so heauy to sustaine As but the Iewish malice was to heady New death 's were needlesse he was dead already In terrors buried quicke he stroue to hast To the prepared Sepulcher of shame Dreading the iudgment heauen had ouer past Vppon his humaine frailty hell to tame His flesh and God-head stâ—oue but he the while Meeke in his suffraunce did both weepe and smile His God-head smil'd to see his man-hood weepe Remembring what his Godhead had decreed His man-hood did a sure full reckoning keepe Of euery sorrow that could sorrow breed And faine he would as man from death be-los'd which on himselfe as God himselfe impos'd Father hee pray'd and lifted vp his eyes For in his eyes he had inthron'd his heart Father ah that those terrors might suffize Ah that this deadly banquet might depart In which without thy wrath I might not sup The health of sicke soules in a poys'ned Cup. And if it may be possible But Oh? Let not my prayers disanull thy will If thine eternall counsaile order so That I must thy seuere decree fulfill Father so it let bee though death hath wonne Gayne on my flesh yet O thy thy will be done Heere sincking downe for being fore opprest With all the worldes innumerable sinnes Assaulted in that conflict and distrest An Angell comforts him and he begins To shake of those his feares in which he stood Which from his passions drew a sweate of blood Deere eye what-soe're thou be that shall peruse The Lurthen of those lamentable lines An holy meditation may infuse A-mazement to thy soule by those faire signes Heere stay thy wandring gaze and faintly heare Ere thou read more thou mayst let fall a teare And thinke it not a labour all vn-meete To spend a sigh on this vnhappy view Wofull the subiect but the gaine is sweete By which all serue no more but raigne a new For euery teare of water thou canst shed The heart of Christ a teare of bloud hath bled Hee sweat not droppes of bloud for his owne cause For hee vnblemish't lambe was innocent Hee had obai'd no God hee broke no Lawes Hee harbourd no deceit no falshood meant Hee neuer wrong'd his freind by secret stealth Nor by oppression sought to purchase wealth His tongue for gaine was neuer heard to lye Or tu'nd to sweare or flatter curse or fawne Lust could not traine his heart or loue his eye No wanton baites of pleasure could impawne His chast desire to forfet to delight The lawelesse issues of a banefull night His meekenes thirsted notreuenge his minde Was neuer set on wrath no fruitlesse pride Trauail'd new fashions curiously to finde He onely car'd his naked wast to hide He neuer sought to be reputed braue So he had clothes yet clothes could scarcely haue Helou'd not sloath vnprofitable rest Which eates and feedes and onely feedes and eates Excesse of feeding he hath not profest To surfet in varietie of Meates His diet was not change or choyse his dish Some-times a Barly loafe sometimes a fish No Wines of mixture or new drinkes to drowne His soule he vsd he was as Nature made him A drinker but no drunkard to vncrowne His innocence no friendship should perswade him His voyce vn-fee'd spoke to a Nation dull And fed the sheepe but would not share the Wooll Hee did not stop his eares against the cryes Of harmelesse suters to doe iustice right Hee enui'd not the great nor did despise The broken hearted poore borne
only only cunning in deniall In whose deniall vertue was so scant As when they not deni'd they most will graunt Wordes wit and fayrnesse or the smiling ginnes Wherewith they catch insnard men where to heauen Bestow'd for blessings are but bands to sinnes Abus'd whom God made straight those make euen Of whom the most are worst the fewer good The good not free for all he sweated bloud No sex was vncorrupt but all in all In euery fashion and in each degree Drew comfort from the sower-bitter Gall Of his afflictions therein to set free That soules from bondage and to coole that heate of iust damnation in his bloudy sweate The tide of killing Sinnes was swollen high And could not be abated to an ebb Before the blessed Son of God must dye Vndoing by his death the painefull webb The web of endlesse paynes that Sathan lay'd In which the Soules of sinners were betray'd Euen as a man that treades a wearie pace In laborinthes continually in doubt To find the center of the curious trace Once entred still vncertaine to get out Before some skillfull maister by a twist Doth guide him in or out or as he list Or as some Christian Marchant by a Turke Surprisd and chayn'd is made a gally-slaue Whipt euery day and forc't to toyle and worke Consum'd with griefe still liuing in a graue Vntill some one more strong doth free his payne And set's him in his wonted state agayne So men that in a maze of deathfull errour Did treade the pathes of miseries and woe Bound by that Turke the Deuill slau'd to that terror Of condemnation labour'd to and fro Till Christ by death did lead them out of sinne And free'd them from the bondage they were in The Deuill could not with his actiue might Preuaile against the Lord but he abates His policy and strength and skil'd in fight Conquer's the sting of Death cast downe hell gates Triumphes on sinne kept darke confusion vnder Breaking the cursed Dragons head a sunder Captiuitie led Captiue doth vn-maske The hideous visor of his dismall smiles And all the world shakes off the irkesome taske It had sustayn'd and see 's the deadly guiles The sugred bane the draught it had suck't vp Of spiced pleasures in a damned cup. A damned cup a cup of Gods fierce wrath Of fornications of consuming wine A cup such as restoratiues none hath But meere consumptions no way to refine New bloud as Cordialls but to ouer-cloy The Dyet of the Soule and Soule destroy All those hath Christes deere bloudy sweat layd openâ— For euen his death was but a sweate in bloud Offring to all in heart contrite and broken The benefit of life and liuing foode Not fooâ—e not Manna that shall perish waste Or stincke but bread that shall for euer last For euer last O who would spend his dayes In transitory follyes of delight Such as passe soone away and soone decayes Vanish assoone as thought forgotten quite When they beyond all tearme of time or date might raigne as Kings but in a happier state This did the Leacher sleeping in the sheetes Which reeke with lust but thinke on he would weepe This did the Drunkard reeling in the streetes Then only wise when hee doth onlie sleepe Consider he might sigh and not incline To vomit out his soule in streames of wine This did the Miscreants Gallant 's cald who boldly Teare Godes eternall name with liberall oathes Remember they would pray and not so coldly Quench zeale by warning pride in costly clothes For zeale doth last wheÌ„ clothes are worne rotten Men great once seen in rags are soone forgotten This did the gamsters spending nightes and dayes In loosing what they gaine such gaine is losse For-cast they would repent and haue such playes Reputing mony as it is but drosse They whiles other cheate in hope of slime Ill-gotten thrift doe cheate their selues of time This did the loâ—-sicke musicke-straining wanton Who leades his life in sonnetting some Ay-mâ—es Ponder he 'd cease and then there would be scant one En-amourd on so many lisping Shces But changing better notes they would take pittie On their owne soules and sing a sweeter dittie This did the bloody-minded butcher mildly Conceiue he would not be so flesht in strife He would not ouer-giuen be so wildly To stabbe to fight to scorne the weight of life Who seekes a name by murther and doth prize it Being termd a true braue Spirit hardly buyes it This did the mockers of th'elect and holy Whom God hath set on earth to do his will Regard they could not be so curst in folly As to perseuer in their miscniefe still Despising Preachers and nicke naming those With malice whom the holy ghost chose This did the women of much shame and badnesse Who prostitute their bodies do disgrace In penance and a feeling tuch of sadnesse But looke into they would not be so base To gaine diseases but with hearts all rent Redeeme the vnchast houres they haue mispent He that doth most addict himselfe to sin Did he but bathe his thoughts and once a day Wash through his earnest meditations in The bloody sweat of Christ and truely pray To be made cleane by sorrowes strongly vrged Soone should he hate his faults soone be purged But this to flesh and frailty is so strange So hard to thinke so difficult to doe As t is almost impossible to change From bad to good though God in mercy woe Mortality to tast of mercies treasure Yet O t is hard to leaue the baites of pleasure O thou that dalliest in secure content And dost not feele the sinnes that ouer-presse thee Thinke on his bloodie sweate and straight repent Before a heauier Iudgement do distresse thee And then alas in that vn-hopefull state The time is past thou wilt repent too late Christs bloody sweate was that distilling riuer The comfortable Iordan whose faire streames Did cleanse the Syrian Naaman and deliuer His bodie from the leprosies extreames We all are Naamans leprous but more foule Till in his bloody sweate he purge our soule Christs bloody sweate that precious poole is truely Bethesda cald where he that was dis-easd For eight and thirty yeares did waite most duly To be put in thereby to be releasd We all are sicke and languishingly houer Till in his bloody sweat we health recouerâ— Christs bloody sweat that Siloam is where he Must striue to wash his eyes who was borne blind In which pure lauer he attaind to see With eyes of body and with eyes of mind So must we wash our blinduesse is so great In the fresh fountaine of his bloody sweat These are the waters of eternall life And he that drinkes them shall not thirst againe Not springs of Meribath or floods of strife To moue contentions or produce disdaine For such as tast this licour shall possesse Sure peace of conscience perfect happinesse
defend vs As he fore-thinks the means that must coÌ„mend vs. When Christ prepar'd himselfe to die and beare The wrath of God that we in him might liue The time of his sowre passion drawing neare In which he was his life for vs to giue Retird alone his father to intreat His agonies brought forth a bloody sweat So when vpon the crosse he had indur'd The bitter pangs of hell and breathd the last Confounding death that had his death procur'd When all the tide of cruell griefes was past A souldier with a speare did pierce his side When blood with water gushing was espide Water and blood what could it else intend Or wher-unto so likened could it be But to the bloody sweat his soule did send Before his death opprest in agonie That as the first before his death diminisht Death of the soule this in his death that finisht He di'd indeed not as an actor dies To die to day and liue againe to morrow In shew to please the audience or disguise The idle habit of inforced sorrow The Crosse his stage was and he plaid the part Of one that for his friend did pawne his heart His heart he pawnd and yet not for his friend For who was friend to him or who did loue him But to his deadly foe he did extend His dearest blood to them that did reproue him For such as tooke his life from him he gaue Such life as by his life they could not haue Great miracle of loue redemptions wonder Where he that should be su'd to sues to those Who would not sue to him but still kept vnder That better part which he in mercy chose Rare president of value which discouers How loue is scant where plenty is of louers If we but looke into the little home The home of our owne selues we may espie How many pyrates still make haste to come To wrecke our soules whom whiles we do defie We entertaine and freely but vnsought Make marchandize of what we neuer bought The pearle and the treasures which the Lord Did witnesse were of an vnualued price Iesus did purchase of his owne accord To free vs from our death deseruing vice And left vs for an heritage the gaine Of life immortall euer to remaine Hels gaping wombe which euery minute sunke Millions of soules and would not be content With streams of blood which greedily it drunke But still cryde more his mercy did preuent For he shut vp the lawes and did acquit The rau'nous gorge of that deuouring pit The euer empty swallow of the graue And bottomlesse confusion of the deepe His blood hath made in vaine and this doth saue From dangers such as dangers dayly keepe Deaths sting it hath rebated and vn-edg'd Such soules as were in sorrowes bondage pledg'd What should a sinner doe or whither flie To hide him from his shame that euer wakes Poore man lesse then a man who cannot die Nor cannot liue so much his Care mistakes And still he drawes destruction with his breath As t' is all one to suffer life or death Sad thoughts like burning furies still pursue him And seeke his life who them aliue doth cherrish Fond thoughts whose inward eyes nosooner view him But kill that Maister who once dead they perish His thoughts do tell his conscience of his thrall His conscience makes him thinke that he must fall What shall he crie to mountaines to conceale him Or shall he beg the seas to ouer-drench him The mountaines are remou'd and cannot heale him The Seas are dry and they cannot entrench him But euer as he hopes the light to shun In groping for the night he findes the sunne A Sonne whose glory doth disclose abroade The secrets of his hearts and layes all open Lines out the sundry paths that he hath trode Vnfolds the seuerall treasons he hath spoken The inside of his bosome is apparant And he hath none excuse to pleade his warrant What can he now resolue but to retire Vnto the sweat of Christ and cleft in mind Humbled in meeke astonishment desire Comfort in this his bloody Bath to find Which bloody sweat when euery helpe doth faile To cure the soule that onely doth auaile Pure distillations are but vaine receits Curious to draine but comfortlesse in tast Compounded Cordials are vnwise deceits Whose vertue doth but with the present last Christs body is the Limbecke that must yeeld Distilled blood our soules from death to shield If pleasures honors money gifts promotion Phisicke restoratiues repasted diet Ease cost delights cold heate prophane deuotion Drinkes purges obseruation courtly quiet Or one or all the soules spots could expell Great Kings had neuer ran so fast to hell The Princes of the Sodomites the chiefes Of Aegypt Achab Eserod and the rest Had neuer felt the terrours of their griefes If art could haue a remedy exprest But therefore di'd they cause they know no good To purge them in the streame of Christ his blood The womans painting Iesabel the whore Of th' Israelitish monarch could not hide Her sins from God but as her selfe was poore In virtue so she dy'd in naked pride O had she feâ—ne Christs bloody sweat contâ—iâ—'d In his Eliahs griefe she might haue liâ—'d But they whom worldly pleasures wrap in woe Esteemd this sweat a fancie or a fable Which one day they will find was nothing so When to recall againe they are not able And their this blood which hath procurda crowne Shal be a flood not to refresh but drowne What is a man but dust made vp in forme Fraile weake corrupted keeping tiâ—e in motion A ship at sea â—re-turnd with euery storme Eates sleeps and dies vnsetled in deuotion In health vnbridled in his yeares a span A sading bloome and such a thing is man Mans beautie but a frame made vp in snow Immixt with waxe which melts with euery Sun Euen so experience teacheth men to know How soone this worke of frailtie is vndone A winters frost or summers parching heate Doth soone this pictures ornament defeate Yet as a cunning fire-worke lighted glowes Spits and with hissing wonders dares the skies Till being wasted downe it fal and showes No more his matter spent it weakely dies And vanisheth to aire and smoke so men In health are strong but dying vanish then Man as a cunning fire-worke in his power Dares God and heauen and kicks against the Lord Till all his force be spent then in an hower Abates decaies fals of his owne accord Being indeed as nothing in dcspaire Of doing ill fumes into smoke and aire But here is not the end of all his ilsâ— His greater soules vexation is behindâ— A death which both the soule and body kils To which the miserable are confind And then too late they wish to coâ—â—e the heate Of flames and brimstone in Christs bloody sweate If one condemnd for some notorious fact Labour his pardon and doth surely thinke His life is safe
one accord They boast the glorie of their owne desert Damning the sâ—mpe and the poore in minde As serues their lusts Blinde guides to lead the blinde All those the Lord foresaw and gron'd in Spirit Sweated in blood was heauie to the death That so his precious passion blamelesse merit Should be abus'd that he had giu'n his breath His life his ghost his soule yet could not win Such wretched creatures from inchanting sin Inchanting sinne that with it's cunning charmes Luls men in death-full sleepes and slily makes Impostum'd vlcers of vnsenced harmes Rockes them in Lethargies and neuer wakes Reason to feele the bane-impotion'd wrath Which by such dead securitie it hath This was the cause that from our Sauiour drew A bloodie sweat so grieuous to be borne As did the eyes of cruell men but view How with this bloodie tempest he was worne Humane compassion could not choose but melt To thinke vpon the sorrowes which he felt No measure did his payned soule acquaint With case or respite no Arithmeticke Cast vp the summe of his vnheard complaint No heart conceiue the dolours that did pricke With fiery stings his manhood and appall His face with streames which burst in twain his gall For as a Riuer running in a round Hauing no vent or sluce to slide away Will make by force eruptions in the ground Drowne all the neighbour-land and neuer stay Till with a violent course and headlong rage It slacke his strength and of it selfe asswage Euen so the tide of many griefes abounding Sweld in the bosome of the Sonne of God Still growing to a head and still confounding His fraile mortalitie deepe horrors rod Till bursting foorth with might and furie great It drown'd his bodie in a bloodie sweat Who euer saw as often hath beene seene A shoure of blood but thought it did portend Some doome of Iudgement or some angry teene Of heauens-incensed King So heere the end Of this strange bloodie raine doth shew in briefe How shortly Christ was to be wrapt in griefe The pangs of death th'ntollerable paines Which wofull creatures were to vndergoe The man Christ Iesus in this sweat sustaines Consuming wrath and soule-deuouring woe He felt that he vs men might timely free From Gods vnchanging and diuine Decree Not that his death could abrogate the will Of his great Father for he aym'd not to it But that in death he wholly might fulfill The eternall Iustice as hee came to doe it Who as hee death from men for sin required Had in his Sons death more than death desired Yet neither did the Death or Bloodie sweat Of Christ extend to soules ordain'd to Hell But to the chosen and elect beget A double life although the Scriptures tell How this meeke Lambe of God did chiefly come To call the lost sheepe and the strayers home Looke how the blessed doe pertake the good Sweete pledge of bountie precious Seale of Ioyes Which issues from his Water and his Blood So both alike the Reprobate destroyes Gods mercies to the Righteous to his foes Are Iustice to augment their enlesse woes When Isack's seede fled from th' Egyptian force And through the Red Sea tooke the readie way The waters stood on heapes and slaid their course Both waues and windes the passage did obey And in those waters safely paston ground In which whiles Pharaoh follow'd he was drown'd Whereby as water sau'd the Lords Elect And led them through the terrors of the deepe So water to them of a deulish sect Prou'd sod ine death and neuer-waking sleepe Christs blooâ—ie sweat is that Red Sea whose power Secures the good and doth the bad deuoure The Cloude and fierie â—illeâ— that gaue lightâ— Vnto the children in the desert plainesâ— The one by day the other shin'd by night Guiding their iourneis comforting their paines Were to the Hoast of Egypt mistes obscure To blind their eyes and certaine death procure Which burning Pillar and which shining Cloud Is Christ vnto whose blood such are baptiz'd As by the Holy Spirit are allow'd When otherwise all such as are despis'd Are darkned in the comforts of their sight And loose the glorie of this holy light A greater ligh more holy and Diuine Surpâ—ssing all the splendour of the Sun Could neuer to the eyes of mortals shine Then this most sacred Blood which hath vndon And laid to publick view the Mount of Euill Which both was fram'd and colourd by the Deuill In after-times when in the winters cold Folkes vse to warme them by their nightly fires Such Parents as the time of life termes old Wasting the season as the night requires In stead of tales may to their children tell What to the Lord of glorie once befell Once may they say my childe a time there was When men were beasts so cruelly they liu'd As they did nights and dayes in pleasure passe Like some of Reason and of Sence depriu'd Not fearing God or louing man giu'n ore To Lust and Will as beasts could doe no more The naughtie Deuill slylie did intice By sensuall sports and pittilesse deceits Our weake fore-fathers to insnaring vice Masking his tyrannie with wanton baites And wee in them did euery thing he wil'd vs Till the foule feind my childe had almost kild vs. But straight when our good God almightie saw How neere vnto the Pit-hole wee were brought For being not obedient to his Law He forthwith of a remedie bethought And hee to saue vs from this wicked Feind His onely Sonne into the world did send A louely Sonne my childe a daintie boy Who had a cheeke as red as any cherie Sweete babie was his mothers only ioy And made her â—eauie heart full often merie Who though he were Gods Son yet like a stranger Hee in a Stable borne was in a Manger And poore God knowes he was my childe not fine Or like a gentleman in gay attyre But simple clothes hee had which was a signe How little to be proud hee did desire Yet if hee would haue sought for worldly grace Hee might haue gone in silke and golden lace When he was twelue yeeres old marke this my child Hee was a perfect Scholer and did pose Great learned clarkes and Doctors but so milde As hee would neuer chide but rather chose To teach then anger and one might perswade him To doe whats'uer any bodie bad him Thirtie good yeeres and odde this blessed man Liu'd on the earth in all which time he seem'd So comfortlesse with lookes so pale and wan As if he had not bin by men esteem'd Full many an hungry meale he made and lay Bare leg'd and bare-foote many a day Hee neuer laugh'd but he did euermore Weepe weepe continually and O my child Hee neuer did none harme he holpt the poore Cur'd tht diseas'd and such as were beguild With witches and with wicked things God blesse vs He droue them from vs when they would oppres vs. And hee made much of