hel The Antipodes WHy art so sad and sullen O my Muse That now to make a verse thou dost refuse Must thou be mov'd by a reward to raise Thy fancie up Lo here 's a sprig of Bayes To make a lawrel if that wil not do it Meere indignation wil create a Poet Art thou not angry yet at these mad times Canst thou forbeare to write Satyrick rhimes A rod is good for mad men in their fits 'T wil them restrain if not restore their wits The world is a great Bedlam where men talke Distractedly and on their heads doe walk Treading Antipodes to all the Sages And sober minded of the former ages They were content good souls with slender meat Such as their gardens yeilded they did eate A sallet bread and water fresh that ran From the next spring did dine a Gentleman They were content good souls for to be clad In skins which from the beasts backs could be had And so it did them from the cold defend It was enough they had no other end They were content to sit under the shade Of their own Vine ne're offering to invade Their neighbours or take arms them to oppresse So they their own might quietly possesse They were content with such instructions as From their own Priests and Prophets mouths did passe And with that fear and reverence did them hear As though the only oracles they were It was the golden age of the world then When merit and not mony raised men Grace was their gold their hearts were the rich mine Where vertues most transparently did shine Faces about now and behold the sceane Turn'd topsie turvie all things changed cleane No fare contents us but what 's fetcht from far And deerly bought and cookt with curious care And dainty sauces thus with art we strive Our appetites to kil and to revive We of our bellies Gods do make and thus Are gluttons beyond Heliogabulus No drink contents us but the richest wine And strongest beer which we swil in like swine Keeping no meane but quaffing round about Til all the wine 's in and the wit is out No clothes content us but the richest stuffe And costâ—iest die else 't is not gay enough Nay it is nothing worth unlesse the fashion Come like Queen Sheba from a forraign nation We change our habits like the moon our shapes With Proteus and are made the Frenchmens Apes No living wil to us contentment yeild But we must stil be laying field to field Wishing this Lordship purchasing that Farme If mony wanting be then force of arm Shal make it ours or subtiltie of wit One way or other we wil compasse it No teaching now contents us the old way The Lay-man is inspired every day Can pray and preach ex tempore he Priest With all his learning is despis'd and hist Out of the Church and some have lately fed He should be shortly brought to beg his bread We 've nothing of the golden age unlesse That Gold 's our Grace and Gaine 's our godlinesse Not manners now but monie makes a man Yea many think it makes a Christian As if none were religious but the rich And the poor body damn'd were for a witch Dost see my Muse the world turn'd upside down The Prince on foot whiles mounted is the clown The beggar now a purchaser and hee That was worth thousands brought to beggerie Dost thou behold all this and canst be mute Come take thy bow and arrowes aim and shoot The sharpest of them cast thy keenest dart At this mad age and strike it to the heart Come dip thy pen in vinegar and gall And never leave til thou hast vented all Thy just spleen on it if it stil grow worse Let it expect not thine but Gods great curse To a Gentlewoman that was extremely troubled with the Tooth-ach I Grieve and wonder so great pain You should from one smal tooth sustaine That you can neither eate nor drink Nor aâ—l the night scarce sleep a wink Yet to your comfort this I 'll say That to hell pains 't is but a toy A pleasure if compar'd it were To what the damned suffer there If in one tooth such anguish lies What torments from that fire arise This in a night or two is past But that doth infinitely last In this one member akes no more In that all members o're and o're In this the body doth but smart In that the soul too beats her part Think then that this is all the hell Which you shal feele and you are wel Upon a Passing Bel. HEark how the Passing Bel Rings out thy neighbours knel And thou for want of wit Or grace ne're think'st on it Because thou yet art well Fool in two dayes or three The same may ring for thee For deaths impartial dart Wil surely hit thy heart He will not take a fee Since then he wil not spare See thou thy self prepare Against that dreadful day When thou shalt turn to clay This bel bids thee beware Upon the setting of a Clock-Larum O What a drowzie lump of flesh is man Whose life being no longer then a span Great part of that short span is past away In sleep so that 't is hard for us to say Whether we live or no for whiles that we Repose our selves dead to our selves we be Without all motion and intelligence Till this shril Larum quicken our dulsense And make us living souls to th' day arise Like Adam when he opened first his eyes Yet this sleep 's short and sweet if we compare It to that other wherein many are Profoundly steep'd a spiritual sleep in sin The major part o' th' world is drowned in That but the Body's nap we know to be This the souls everlasting Lethargy Unlesse God waken it to that intent He hath to man a treble Larum sent His Word first from his Prophets mouth did beat A Parley and from sin sound a Retreat Saying Thou sleeper wake attention give To what I say hear and thy soul shall live Let not thy sins turn day into black night Rise from the dead and Christ shal give thee light And left this Larum should not be of force From this dead sleep in sin to raise a Course He sets a second that with secret art Besides the eare pierceth the very heart His spirit it is and when the other failes To rouze the sleepie sinner this prevailes But if his eares and heart be so fast barr'd That neither of these larums wil be heard Then sounds a third Gods judgements powring down Upon his head and making it ring noone Flashing like lightning ratling too like thunder Parting his soule and body far asunder Til so from sleep in sin he fal at last To sleep in death and in the grave is cast From which he shall not wake before he heare Th' Archangels dreadful larum in his eare Saying Arise ye dead to judgment come And from Christs mouth receive your final doome Scylla and Carybdis TWo gulfs there are 'twixt
close As though his own they were No more their malice fear For let them do the worst to thee they can Since that thy fellow suff'rer's God and man 1 Cor. 6.19 What know ye not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and yee are not your own LOrd what an humble God art thou Thus to descend And be my friend Yea more then friend mine In-mate now Dost not enough thy self abase To look on me But I must be Thy Temple and thy dwelling place This my vile Body thou dost take And thinkest fit To honor it And for thy use a house it make Henceforth I 'l prize this house of thine At a high rate Being consecrate To thee and count it no more mine Not any part thereof shall be An instrument To sin but bent In holy wayes to wait on thee The windowes in 't shall be mine eyes Through which I 'l see My God thou me My tongue shall offâ—r Sacrifice My lips the Calves which I will pay To thee my Lord And every word Well weigh'd I 'l on thine Altar lay My Lungs the bellowes which shall blow The holy fire Of my desire Till to a lively flame it grow My Prayer as Incense shall ascend And every room In me perfume That no ill savour thee offend My heart shall be the Holocaust My hands shall bring An Offering And all shall serve the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 10.12 Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall LEt none presume he stands so fast But that he may fall first or last The most confirm'd in grace Stands in a slipp'ry place He treads on ice and if he take not care Unto his steps is down e're he 's aware 'T is hard to keep a middle way 'Twixt two extreams and never stray Since to the worst mans mind By nature is inclind Each vertue hath two vices on both sides 'T is odds that into one of them he slides So many snares so many evils So many doubts so many divels Environ him about That be he ne're so stout His faith may faile his feet may slip awry And he soon fall from his integrity David that was so great so good And highly in Gods favour stood In two such sins he fell As might have damn'd him well But that in mercy God pleas'd to restore Him to that state that he was in before Peter though he a pillar were Of th' Church his Master did forswear Such power had fear to make His former faith to shake Thus he who stood the day before so strong Was to his grief and shame laid all along I will not be too confident Of my fast footing but content My faith and fear should stand Together hand in hand That fear may keep my faith from being too bold And faith my fear from losing of its hold 1 Cor. 15.19 If in this life only we have hopes in Christ then were wee of all men most miserable I were of things the worst And most accurst If in this life my happiness did end Beasts and Birds me exceed In strength in speed The Divels me in knowledg far transcend The wicked in sports swim Up to the brim The Epicure abounds in carnal pleasure Th' ambitious man is crown'd With Honours round The Covetous augments his daily Treasure My conscience will not let Me Riches get As others do by rapine and deceit Such wayes it checks me in Saying 't is sin And warnes me of the hook under the bait As sparks do upwards fly Even so am I To troubles born at every turn we meet Reproach and iâ—nomy My Honours be My wealth serves but to buy a winding sheet Yet courage take my soul Let faith controul Thy reason let it fix thy thoughts elsewhere These worldly things ne're can Make happy man Thy happinesse comes from a higher sphere With holy Job then know Though thou art low Thy head 's as high as heaven there lives he Who thy Redeemer is And that thy bliss In seeing him with these same eyes shal be Worldly delights be gone In him alone All wealth all honor and all pleasure lies No sorrowes then shall rest Within my brest His hand shal wipe all tears from my sad eys His hand my head shall raise And crown with joyes Such joies no eye hath seen nor ear hath heard No tongue of men can tell Nor Angels well Only to feel them shall be my reward 2 Cor. 12.10 When I am weake then I am strong WHat Paradox is this that there should be Weakness and strength at the same time in me A Paradox to Nature not to Grace Where without contradiction both have place When I am weakin body then I find That I am strong i' th' vertues of the mind And when I am brought by affliction low Then I in spiritual comforts high do grow When of my self I cannot go nor stand Yet I supported by Gods heavenly hand Can safely travel through a world of wo Yea through the valley of deaths shadow go And fear no ill walk through a sea of troubles Yet never sink counting the waves but bubbles Which my faith blowes away my hope doth sound The greatest depths and even touch the ground When I am ready to be swallowed by Deaths greedy jawes faith sets me up on high Like Moses on Mount Pisgah whence I can Behold a better Land of Canaan And enter too where I with joy shall see His glories in a blest eternity If so much strength to weakness doth belong Lord make me weak that thou maist make me strong Gal. 2.20 Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave his life for me BEhold the priviledg of a Christian Above another man Both Tenants to one Lord Yet in their Tenures they do not accord One hath two lives in present and the third In future but confirm'd by Gods own Word The life of Nature first the life of Grace Takes up the second place The life of Glory last Which comes not till the other two are past The Christian esteems the Natural Compar'd with th' other nothing worth at all The Natural man in present hath but one And in reversion none Yet he doth so depend Upon that one as if it ne're would end Not once considering how each trivial thing Serves to draw on its speedy ruining And as the beasts that perish so shal â—e To dust dissolved be Yea a worse mischief shall After this life this wretched man befall Of his unhappiness it being the least That his short breath expireth like the beast For his one life a double death shall have His body in the grave His soul in hell shall lye A second death that 's to eternity A miserable man he is indeed Whose single short life two long deaths succeed I will account no more
fall Made them and an Apostle divels all To gather Churches then 's a vaine attempt As if you could have any quite exempt From sinful men when do what e're you can The hypocrite wil be the holy man And put as good a face on 't as the best Purge ne're so much your body there will rest Some noxious humours in 't some Judas wil In spite of you lie lurking in it stil Christs Church is likened by him to a field Which tares and wheat confusedly doth yeeld And he commandeth us to let both grow Together til the harvest left that now By hastie separation e're the day We not good husbands but the wilde Bores play Rooting up both whereas they both should stand And waite the weeding of the Angels hand You 'l say by Tares is meant the hypocrite Which cannot be discerned by our sight Being only knowne to God and therefore we May mix with him in our society Whereas the wicked is so easily known We may and ought shun his communion Why then did Christ into his fellowship Take Judas suffer him to kisse his lip Cal him by' th' name of friend nay give him leave The holy Sacrament for to receive Although he knew his heart and all the evil He had conceiv'd which made him up a divel And so no hypocrite to Christ was he What shall we purer then our Saviour be ' Tâ—s true the childrens bread should not be cast To dogs yet of the crumbs the dogs may taste And who knowes but the tasting of them may Turn dogs to Christians ere they goe away The Word alone converts a wicked mind Much more the Word and Sacrament combind Both holy be And if we must for bear To give the Sacrament to some for fear Of profanation Why do we dispense The Word to all men without difference Or if we must not give it 'cause it may Prove death to some that take it the wrong way The very same may of the Word be said Therefore to preach it we should be afraid To mixed Congregations left that some Should worser then they were before become This only so falls out by accident 'T is neither in the Word nor Sacrament God commonly by them grace on us pours If it prove death the fault 's not theirs but ours It is the duty then of every one To fit himself for this communion And if the Minister the danger tell Of taking it unworthily 't is wel His own soul he delivers if he do it Upon their peril 't is that wil come to it We wish the Church invested were again With power notorious sinners to restraine And excommunicate them too til then We may reprove but not correct these men It is our hearts desire and we pray That every one rightly receive it may And that no Judas any more may be Admitted to this blest Society But this is rather to be wisht then found In this craz'd age where more are sick then sound More traitors then are faithful twelve to one How can we then make separation For if we wil not partial be but just Scarce one of twelve into our flock we must Receive and then how many little flocks Wil there be of us subject to the mocks Of all our enemies and whiles that each Intends his own particular the breach Wil wider grow i' th' general and we May seek a Church but stil to seek shal be John 14.2 I go to prepare a place for you WHat a high favour 's this That God should be mans harbinger to blisse When John prepar'd the way before thy face O Christ 't was no smal grace Unto the Baptist then Much greater dost thou now bestow on men In that thou goest before to make us roome In heaven against we come Lord we were not more glad At thy first coming then we should be sad At thy departure didst not thou impart This cordial to our heart Chearing our spirits thus That thou possession tak'st of heaven for us Thou in our flesh hast entered there and we By vertue thereof be Assured of our places As soone as ever we have run our races With all the Patriarchs we shal sit down And there receive our Crown It is then fit and just That we should think of shaking off our dust And laying downe our earthly Tabernacles Which are to us as shackles And hinder our souls flight To those blest Mansions which are ours by right Let us not dreame of setting up our rest Til w' are of heaven possest That is our center that Our country is our proper place whereat All our endeavours must aim since we are ne're At home til we come there O thou that art the way And wanâ—'st the way before us grant we may Follow thy steps so close that in the end We may that place ascend John 14.6 I am the Way the Truth and the Life I Came from heaven to be your guide and I Am he by whom your path to heaven doth lie The steps I trod on earth are th' only right Way to those Mansions of most glorious light The doctrine which I taught you is the whole Truth which if follow'd wel wil save your soul And bring you to those joyes shall never end The joyes to which blest spirits doe ascend Life without death to that your hopes must tend Acts 9.4 Saul Saul why persecutest thou me NEver was union seene So strict as that between Christ and his members though in hevaen he be And we on earth yet see We cannot suffer here but strait he cryes And feels our miseries As if they were his own So wel to him th' are known That what e're persecutions we sustain He hath the greatest share and wil complaine Talk not what vertue lies In secret sympathies As that between the loadstone and the steele Which do at distance feele Each others force and by an innate love This unto that wil move Or that betwixt the wound And Talbot powder found Or of that sensitive plant whose vertue 's such That it contracts it self at every touch All these though very rare Secrets in nature are But grace a stronger sympathy doth make 'Twixt Christ and us we take New life from him as he took flesh from us We now are one and thus Our wounds are his our smart Grives him unto the heart Who touch us touch the apple of his eye A tender part how can he chuse but cry You then that persecute And all your arrowes shoot Against the truly Christian know that you One day shall deerly rue And pay for this your spite your arrowes all On your own head shal fall You 'l find it hard to kick Against the sharpest prick And whiles you aime at man you shoot far wide Hitting your God thorow your brothers side Why then my soul art thou So sad because that now By wicked men thou persecuted art Thy Saviour bears a part And wil revenge thy cause against thy foes His hand thy wounds wil