CHRISTS PASSION A TRAGEDIE WITH ANNOTATIONS LONDON Printed by Iohn Legatt M. D. C. XL. M. TO THE KINGS MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTIE SIR I Am bold to present you with this Peece of the PASSION the Originall designed by the curious Pensill of Grotius whose former afflictions seeme to have taught him pliable passions and art to rule the affections of others cloathing the saddest of Subjects in the sutable attire of Tragedy not without the Example of two ancient Fathers of the Primitive Church Apollinarius and Nazianzen The Argument is of both the Testaments a patheticall Abstract Those formidable Wonders effected by God in his owne Common-wealth those stupendious Miracles for truth a Pattern to all History for strangenesse to all Fables here meet together to attend on CHRIST'S PASSION The effects of his Power here sweetly end in those of his Mercy and that terrible Lord of Hosts is now this meeke God of Peace reconciling all to one another and Man-kinde to Him-selfe Sr. in this change of Language I am no punctuall Interpreter a way as servill as ungracefull Quintilian censures a Painter that he more affected Similitude then Beauty who would have shown greater Skill if lesse of Resemblance the same in Poetry is condemned by Horace of that Art the great Law-giver Thus in the Shadow of your Absence dismist from Arms by an Act of Time have I in what I was able continued to serve you The humblest of your Majesties Servants GEORGE SANDYS THE PERSONS JESUS CHORUS OF JEWISH WOMEN PETER PONTIUS PILATE CAIAPHAS JUDAS THE JEWS FIRST NUNCIUS SECOND NUNCIUS CHORUS OF ROMANE SOULDIERS JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA NICODEMUS JOHN MARY THE MOTHER OF JESUS Imprimatur Tho: Wykes September 17. 1639 THE FIRST ACT. JESVS O Thou who govern'st what thou didst create With equall sway great Arbiter of Fate The Worlds Almighty Father I thy Son Though born in Time before his Course begun Thus far my Deeds have answered thy Commands If more remain my Zeale prepared stands To execute thy Charge all that I feare All that I hate I shall with patience beare No misery refuse no toile nor shame I know for this into the world I came And yet how long shall these extreames indure What Day or Night have known my life secure My burthen by induring heavier grows And present ills a way to worse disclose My Kingdome Heaven I left to visit Earth And suffer'd banishment before my Birth An unknown Infant in a stable born Lodg'd in a manger little poore forlorn And miserable though so vile a Thing Yet worthy of the envy of a King Two yeers scarce yet compleat too old was thought By Herods fears while I alone was sought The bloudy Sword Ephratian Dames deprives Of their dear Babes through wounds they exhal'd their lives Secur'd by flying to a forreign Clime The Tyrant through his Error lost his Crime A Thousand Miracles have made me known Through all the World and my extraction shown Envy against me raves yet Vertue hath More storms of Mischief rais'd then Herods wrath It is decreed by thy unchanging Will I should be acknowledg'd and rejected still Th' inspired Magi from the Orient came Prefer'd my Starre before their Mithra's flame And at my infant feet devoutly fell But Abrahams Seed the House of Israel To thee sequestred from Eternity Degenerate and ingrate their God deny Behold the contumacious Pharisies Arm'd with dissembled Zeale against me rise The bloudy Priests to their stern Party draw The Doctors of their unobserved law And impious Sadduces to perpetrate My intended Overthrow incense the State What rests to quicken Faith Even at my Nod Nature submits acknowledging her God The Galilean Youth drink the pure bloud Of generous Grapes drawn from the Neighbor floud I others famin cur'd subdu'd my own Life-strengthning food for fourty dayes unknown Twixt the Dispensers hands th' admired Bread Increas'd great multitudes of People fed Yet more then all remain'd The Windes asswage Their stormes threatning Billows calme their rage The hardned Waves unsinking feet indure And pale Diseases which despise their cure My Voice subdues Long Darknesse chac'd away To me the Blind by Birth now owes his Day He hears who never yet was heard now speaks And in my Praises first his silence breaks Those damned Spirits of infernall Night Rebels to God and to the Sonnes of Light Inveterate foes my Voice but heard forsake The long possest and struck with terror quake Nor was 't enough for Christ such wonders done To profit those alone who see the Sunne To vanquish Death my powerfull hand invades His silent Regions and inferior Shades The Stars the Earth the Seas my triumphs know VVhat rests to conquer but the Deeps below Through op'ning Sepulchers Nights gloomy Caves The violated priviledge of Graves I sent my dread Commands A heat new born Reanimates the Dead from funerals torn And Deaths-numb Cold expulst inforc'd a way For Soules departed to review the Day The Ashes from their ransackt Tombs receive A second life and by my bounty breathe But Death his late free Empire thus restrain'd Not used to restore his Spoyles complain'd That I should thus unweave the web of Fate Decrease his Subjects and subvert his State I for so many ransomed from Death Must to his anger sacrifice my breath And now that horrid Houre is almost come When sinfull Mortalls shall their Maker doom When I the worlds great Lord who life on all Mankinde bestow'd must by their fury fall That Tragick Time to my last Period hasts And Night who now on all her Shadows casts While with the motion of the Heavens she flies This short delay of my sad life envies Fate be lesse sterne in thy intended Course Nor drag him who will follow without force After so many miseries indur'd Cold Heat Thirst Famine eyes to teares inur'd The end yet worst of ills draws neare their breath For whom I suffer must procure my death The Innocent made guilty by the foule Defects of others must his weary Soule Sigh into aire and though of heavenly birth With his chaste bloud distain th' ungratefull Earth They traffick for my Soule my death long sought Is by the mitred Merchants faction bought And Treason findes reward My travels draw Neare their last end These practices I saw See what this Nights confederate Shadows hide My Minde before my Body crucifi'd Horrour shakes all my Powers my entrailes beat And all my Body flowes with purple sweat O whither is my ancient Courage fled And God-like Strength by Anguish captive led O Death how farre more cruell in thy kinde Th' anxiety and torment of the Minde Then must I be of all at once bereft Or is there any hope of safety left O might I to my heavenly Father pray So supple to my teares to take away Part of these ills But his eternall Doome Forbids and ordered Course of things to come His purpose fixt when yet the world was young And Oracles so oft by Prophets sung Now rushing on their
gall'd deep dy'd in their own gore His sides exhausted all the rest appeares Like that Fictitious Scarlet which he weares And for a Crown the wreathed Thornes infol'd His bleeding browes With griefe his griefe behold JEWES Away with him from this Contagion free Th' infected Earth and naile him on a Tree PILAT. What crucifie your King JEWES Dominion can No Rivall brook His rule a Law to Man Whom Rome adores we readily obay And will admit of none but Caesars Sway He Caesars right usurps who hopes to ascend The Hebrew Throne Thy own affairs intend Dost thou discharge thy Masters trust if in Thy government a president begin So full of danger tending to the rape Of Majesty Shall treason thus escape PILAT. The Tumult swels the Vulgar and the Great Joyne in their Votes with contributed heat Whose whisperings such a change of murmur raise As when the rising Windes first Fury strayes 'Mong wave-beat Rocks when gathering Clouds deforme The face of Heaven whose Wrath begets a Storme The fearefull Pilot then distrusts the Skies And to the neerest Port for refuge flies To these rude Clamours they mine eares inure Such sharpe diseases crave a sudden cure You my Attendants hither quickly bring Spot-purging Water from the living Spring Thou liquid Chrystall from pollution cleare And you my innocent hands like record beare On whom these cleansing streames so purely runne I voluntarily have nothing done Nor am I guilty though he guiltlesse die Yours is the Crime his Blood upon you lie JEWES Rest thou secure If his destruction shall Draw down celestiall Vengeance let it fall Thick on our heads in punishment renew And ever our dispersed Race pursue PILAT. Then I from this Tribunall mounted on Imbellish'd Marble Judgements awfull Throne Thus censure Lead him to the Crosse and by A servil death let Judahs King there dye CHORVS OF JEWISH WOMEN JESVS VVE all deplore thy miseries For Thee we beat our brests our eyes In bitter teares their moysture shed If thou be he by Ravens fed Aloft on flaming Charriot born Yet wouldst to cruell Lords return Or that sad Bard believ'd too late Who sung his Countreys servil Fate Now come to sigh her destiny A like unhappy twice to dye Or he long nourish'd in the Wood Who late in Jordans cleansing Flood So many wash'd that durst reprove A King for his incestious love Slain for a Dancer If the same Or other of an elder fame Sent back to Earth in vices drown'd To raise it from that dark Profound 'T is sure thy Sanctitie exceeds Blaz'd by thy Vertue and thy Deeds O never more ring'd with a Throng Of Followers shall thy sacred tongue Informe our Actions nor the way To Heaven and heavenly joyes display The Blind who now the unknown light Beholds scarce trusting his own sight Thy gift shall not the Giver see Those maladies subdu'd by thee Which powerfull Art and Hearbs desie No more thy soveraign Touch shall fly Nor Loaves so tacidly increast Againe so many thousands feast Thou Rule of Lifes Perfection By Practice as by Precept shown Late hemb'd with Auditors whose store Incumbred the too-narrow Shore The Mountains cover'd with their Preasse The Mountains then their People lesse For whom our Youths their garments strew Victorious Boughs before thee threw While thou in Triumph rid'st along Saluted with a joyfull Song Now see what change from Fortune springs O dire Vicissitude of Things Betray'd abandon'd by thy owne Drag'd by thy Foes oppos'd by none Thou hope of our afflicted state Thou Balme of Life and Lord of Fate Not erst to such unworthy bands Did'st thou submit thy powerfull Hands Lo he who gave the dumbe a tongue With patient silence bears his wrong The Souldier ah renews his blows The whip new-op'ned furrows shows Which now in angry tumors swel To us their wrath the Romans sel Lo how his members flow the smart Confin'd to no particular part His stripes which make all but one sore Run in confused streames of gore Art thou the Slave of thy owne Fate To beare thy torments cursed waight What Arab though he wildly stray In wandring Tents and live by prey Or Cyclop who no pitty knowes Would such a cruel task impose O that the fatall pressure might Sinke thee to Earth nor weigh more light Then Death upon thee that thy weake Vntwisted thread of life might breake It were a blessing so to dye But O for how great cruelty Art thou reserv'd the Crosse thou now Support'st must with thy burden bow JESVS Daughters of Solyma no more My wrongs thus passionately deplore These teares for future sorrows keep Wives for your selves and children weep That horrid day will shortly come When you shall blesse the barren Wombe And Brest that never infant fed Then shall you wish the mountains head Would from his trembling basis slide And all in tomb's of ruins hide CHORVS Alas thou spotlesse Sacrifice To greedy Death no more our eyes Shall see thy Face ah never more Shalt thou return from Deaths dark shore Though Lazarus late at thy call Brake through the barrs of Funerall Rais'd from that Prison to review The World which then he hardly knew Who forth-with former sense regains The bloud sprung in his heated Veins His sinews supple grew yet were Again almost conjeal'd with feare Thy followers Sadock now may know Their Error from the Shades below A Few belov'd by the Most High Through Vertue of the Deitie To others rarely rendred breath None ever rais'd himselfe from death THE FOVRTH ACT. FIRST NVNCIVS CHORVS OF JEWISH WOMEN SECOND NVNCIVS I From the horrid'st Act that ever fed The fire of barbarous Rage at length am fled Yet O too neare The Object still pursues Flotes in mine eyes that sad Scene renewes CHORVS Art thou a witnesse of his miserie Saw'st thou the Galilean Prophet die 1. NVNCIVS Those Savages to Scythian Rocks confin'd Who know no God nor vertue of the Minde But onely Sense pursue who hunger tame With slaughtered Lives they and their food the same Would this detest CHORVS Vain Innocence would none Lend him a teare were all transform'd to stone 1. NVNCIVS No certainly yet so commiserate As Pittie prov'd more tyrannous then Hate The cursed Tree with too much weight opprest His stooping shoulders Death had now releast His fainting Soul but O the Lenitie Of Malice would not suffer him to die Part of the load impos'd with idle scorn On Lybian Simon in Cyrene born To whom th' affected quiet of the fields Secur'd by Poverty no safety yeelds The Furies of the Citie him surprise Who from the vices of the Citie flies Who beares not his own burden that none may Misdoubt the Innocent became their prey CHORVS Forth-with unmask this wretched face of Wo All that he suffer'd and the manner show What words brake from his sorrow give thy tongue A liberall scope Our mindes not seldome long To know what they abhorre nor spare our eares What can be heard is fancied by our feares
jaws of Hell thy guilt extend This death we owe to our impiety But what are his misdeeds why should he die Then looking on his face with dropping eyes Forgive me O forgive a wretch he cries And O my Lord my King when thou shalt be Restor'd to thy own Heaven remember me He mildly gives consent and from the barres Of that sad Crosse thus rais'd him to the Starres With me a happy Guest thou shalt injoy Those sacred Orchards where no frosts destroy The eternall Spring before the Morne display The purple Ensigne of th' ensuing Day CHORVS What 's this the Centre pants with sudden throwes And trembling Earth a sad distemper showes The Sun affrighted hides his golden Head From hence by an unknown Ecliptick fled Irregular Heavens abortive shades display And Night usurpes the empty Throne of Day What threats do these dire Prodigies portend To our offending Race Those ills transcend All that can be imagin'd which inforce Disturbed Nature to forget her Course I heare approaching feet What ere thou art Whom darknesse from our sight conceales impart All that thou know'st to our prepared eares Accomplish or dissolve our pressing feares II NVNCIVS Fury from which if loose the Earth had fled And fatall Starres have their event He 's dead CHORVS O Heaven we pardon now Dayes hasty flight Nor will complain since they have quencht this light Yet tell how he dispos'd of his last breath The passages and order of his death II NVNCIVS As the declining Sun the shades increast Reflecting on the more removed East His blazing haire grew black no clouds obscures His vanisht Light this his own Orb immures The Dayes fourth part as yet invests the Pole Were this a Day when from the afflicted Soule This voice was clearely heard not like the breath Of those who labour between life and death My God O why dost thou thy own forsake VVhich purposely the Multitude mistake But to prolong their cruel mirth who said He on the Thesbian Prophet calls for aid Now to return and draw from Heaven again Devouring Showres of Fire or Flouds of Rain VVith silence this he indures His body rent His bloud exhausted and his Spirits spent He cry'd I Thirst As servants to his will The greedy hollowes of a spunge they fill VVith vineger which Hyssops sprigs combine And on a reed exalt the deadly Wine This scarcely tasted his pale lips once more He opens and now lowder then before Cry'd All is finisht here my labours end To thee O heavenly Father I commend My parting Soul This said hung down his head And with his words his mixed Spirits fled Leaving his body which again must bleed Now senselesse of the Crosse From prison freed Those happy seats he injoyes by God assign'd To injur'd Vertue and th' etheriall Minde But Terrours which with Nature war affright Our peacelesse Souls The World hath lost its Light Heaven and the Deeps below our Guilt pursue Pale troops of wandring Ghosts now hurrie through The holy Citie whom from her unknown And secret Wombe the trembling Earth hath thrown The cleaving Rocks their horrid jawes display And yawning Tombes afford the dead a way To those that live Heaven is the generall And undistinguisht Sepulcher to all Old Chaos now returnes Ambitious Night Impatient of alternate Rule or Right Such as before the Dayes etheriall birth With her own shady People fills the Earth CHORVS How did the many-minded People look At these Portents with what affection strook II. NVNCIVS The Lamentations mixed with the cries Of weeping Women in low'd Vollies rise Those who had known him who his followers were While yet he liv'd and did in death adhere In that new Night sighs from their sorrowes send And to those Heavens they could not see extend Their pious hands complaining that the Sun Would then appeare when this was to be done The safety of their lives the Vulgar dread Some for themselves lament some for the dead Others the ruine of the world bewaile Their Courages the cruel Romanes faile Those hands which knew no peace now lazie grew And conquering Feare to earth their weapons threw Th' amaz'd Centurion with our thoughts compli'd And swore the Heros most unjustly dy'd Whose punishment the Earth could hardly brook But groaning with a horrid motion shook Confirmed by the Dayes prodigious flight To be a beame of the celestiall Light And so the mourning Heavens inverted face Showes to the Vnder world his Heavenly Race CHORVS Why flock the People to the Temple thus No cause excepting piety in us Can want belief Hope they to satisfie With Sacrifice the Wrath of the most High II. NVNCIVS New prodigies as horrid thither hale Th' astonisht Multitude The Temples Vale That hung on guilded Beames in purple dy'd Asunder rent and fell on either side The trust of what was sacred is betray'd And all the Hebrew Mysteries display'd That fatall Ark so terrible of old To our pale foes which Cherubins of Gold Veil'd with their hovering wings whose closure held Those two-leav'd Tables wherein God reveal'd His sacred Lawes That Food which by a new Example fell from Heaven in fruitfull Dew About our Tents and tacidly exprest By intermitted showres the seventh Dayes rest The Rod with never dying blossoms spread Which with a Miter honour Aarons Head These with th' old Temple perisht Th' eye could reach No object in this rupture but the Breach What was from former Ages hid is shown Which struck so great a reverence when unknown The Temple shines with flames and to the sight That fear'd Recesse disclos'd with its own Light Either Religion from their fury flies Leaving it naked to profaner eyes Or God doth this abhorred Seat reject And will his Temple in the Minde erect CHORVS Shall Punishment in Death yet finde an end Shall his cold Corps to earth in peace descend Or naked hang and with so dire a sight Profane the Vefper of the sacred Night II. NVNCIVS Too late Religion warmes their savage brests Lest that neare Houre which harbengers their Feast Should take them unprepar'd to Pilat they Repaire intreat him that the Souldier may From bloudy crosses take their bodies down Before their Festivalls the Morning crown That no uncleannesse might from thence arise In memory of th' Aegyptian Sacrifice The leggs of the two Thieves they brake whose breath Yet groan'd between the bounds of life and death The crashing bones report a dreadfull sound While both their souls at once a passage found Nor had the Cohort lesse to Jesus done Who now the Course prescrib'd by Fate had runne But dead deep in his side his trembling speare A Souldier strake his entrails bare appeare And from that wide-mouth'd Orifice a floud Of water gusht mixt with a stream of bloud The Crosses now discharged of their fraught The People fled not with one look or thought Part sad and part amaz'd Spent Fury dies Whither so fast run you to sacrifice A silly Lambe too mean an Offering Is this for you
1. NVNCIVS With-out the Citie on that side which lies Exposed to the boysterous injuries Of the cold North to War a fatall Way Infamous by our slaughters Golgotha Exalts his Rock No flowers there paint the field Nor flourishing trees refreshing shadowes yield The ground all white with bones of mortalls spread Stencht with the putrefaction of the dead And reliques of unburied Carcases Who on his aged Fathers throat durst sease Rip-up his mothers wombe who poyson drest For his own brother or his unknown Guest Betray'd and gave his mangled flesh for food Vnto the wild inhabitants of the Wood This Stage of Death deserv'd while every soule Misdeed of theirs pursues the guilty Soule Now when the Nazarite at this dismall place Arrived with a weak and tardy pace Least he should die too quickly some preferre Sweet wine mixt with the bitter teares of Myrrhe He of the idle present hardly tasts But to incounter with his torments hasts The Steel now bor'd his feet whose slit veines spout Like pierced conduits both his armes strechtout His hands fixt with two nailes While his great Soule These tortures suffer'd while the rising Bole Forsook the Earth and crimson Torrents sprung From his fresh wounds he gave his Grief no tongue The Crosse advanc'd and fixt then as more nigh To his own Heaven his eyes bent on the Skie Among such never to be equal'd woes Who would beleeve it pities his stern foes And thinks those false Contrivers those who gor'd His flesh with wounds more fit to be deplor'd Who even their merited destruction feares And falsely judg'd the truly guilty cleares Father he cries forgive this sinne they knew Not what they did nor know what now they do Mean-while the Souldiers who in bloud delight With hearts more hard then Rocks behold this sight And savage Rigor never reconcil'd To Pitty all humanitie exil'd Who us'd to pillage now intend their prey Nor for his death though then a dying stay But he alive and looking on divide The Spoil yet more in the Spectatour joy'd Fury in trifles sports their scorn his poore Yet parted garments distribute to foure His inward Robe with one contexture knit Nor of the like division would admit Their votes to the dispose of Lots referre Electing Chance for their blinde Arbiter Nor wa st the least of evils to behold Th' ignoble Partners of his pain who old In mischief rob'd the murder'd Passengers Follow'd by Troops that fill'd the Night with feares While thus they hung none could the doubt explain VVhether He more had sav'd then They had slain The numerous Index of each bloudy deed Now brand their lives when those who could not read At such a distance of the next inquire For what they dy'd who had the same desire But above his declining Head they hung A table in three Languages the Tongue The first of tongues which taught our Abrahamites Those heavenly Precepts and mysterious Rites Next that which to th' informed World imparts The Grecian Industry and learned Arts Then this from whence the conquer'd Earth now takes Her Lawes and at the Romane Virtue quakes All of one sense His place of birth his Name Declare and for the Hebrew King proclame After the bloudy Priests so long had fed On this lov'd Spectacle at length they read The Title and in such a miserie So full of ruth found something to envy The Governour intreating to take down That glorious Stile lest he the Hebrew Crown Should vindicate in Death and so deny That Princes by Subordinates should die But who that Day so readily compli'd To give a life austerely this deni'd CHORVS While lingring Death his sad release deferr'd How lookt the standers by what words were heard I. NVNCIVS Not all alike discording murmurs rise Some with transfixed hearts and wounded eyes Astonisht stand some joy in his slow fate And to the last extend their Barbarous hate Motion it self variety begets And by a strange vicissitude regrets What it affected nor one posture beares Teares scornfull laughter raise and laughter teares Who to the Temple from th' impoverisht shore Of Galilee his followed steps adore And ministred to his life now of his End The Witnesses still to their dying friend Their faith preserve which as they could they show In all th' expressions of a perfect woe One from her panting brest her garments tare Another the bright tresses of her haire This with her naked armes her bosome beats The hollow rock Her fearfull shriekes repeat She stiff with sorrow But what grief could vie With that example of all piety His virgin Mothers this affords no way To lessening teares nor could it self display Where should she fix her looks if on the ground She sees that with her bloud he bleeding drown'd Or if she raise her eyes the killing sight Of her wombes tort'red Issue quencht their light Fearing to look on either both disclose Their terrours who now licences her woes Ready to have stept forward and imbrast The bloudy Crosse her feeble lims stuck fast Her feet their motion lost her voice in vain A passage sought such Grief could not complain Whose Soul almost as great a Sorrow stung As his who on the Tree in torments hung That Youth one of the Twelve so dignifi'd By his deare Masters love stood by her side Beholding this sad Paire those Souls that were To him then life while life remain'd more deare He found an other Crosse his spirits melt More for the sorrow seen then torments felt At length in strength transcending either brake The barres of his long silence and thus spake A legacie to each of you I leave Mother this sonne in stead of me receave By thy adoption and thou gentle boy The seed of Zebedeus late my joy Thy friend now for thy mother take This said Again he to his torments bow'd his Head The Vulgar with the Elders of our Race And Souldiers shake their heads in his disgrace Is this the man said they whose hands can raise The Temple and rebuild it in three dayes Now shew thy strength Or if the Thunderer Above the rank of Mortalls thee preferre Acknowledg'd for his Heir let him descend Confirme thy hopes and timely succour lend Behold the help thou gav'st to others failes The Authour Break these Bonds these stubborn Nails And from the Crosse descend then we will say Thou art our King and thy Commands obey Nor wast enough that the surrounding Throng Wound with reproches Who besides him hung Doth now again a murderers minde disclose And in his punishment more wicked growes Who thus If thou be he whom God did choose To Govern the free'd Nation of the Jews Thy self and us release thus honour win The Partner of his death as of his sinne Who had his fiercenesse with the thief cast-off Ill brookes and thus reprooves that impious scoff Hast thou as yet not learnt to acknowledge God Nor sacred Justice fear who now the rod Of vengeance feel'st wilt thou again offend And to the
at length our faith it selfe exprest But to the Dead JOSEPH This is a truth confest The Evening now restored Day subdues And lo the Vigil with the Night enseues Not farre from Golgotha's in famous Rocks A Cave there is hid with the shady Locks Of funerall Cypresse hewne through living stone The house of Death as yet possest by none My Age this chose for her eternall rest VVhich now shall entertaine a nobler Guest That ample Stone which shuts the Sepulcher Shall the inscription of his Vertues beare VVho knows but soon a holier Age may come VVhen all the World shall celebrate this Tombe And Kings as in a Temple here adore Through fire and sword sought from the farthest Shore NICODEMVS Pure water of the Spring you precious Tears Perfumes which Odor-breathing Saba beares VVith your preservatives his body lave Sinke through his pores and from corruption save Nor God nor Fate will suffer that this pure This sacred Corps should more then death indure Religion if thou know'st the Shades below Let never filthy putrefaction flow Through his uncover'd bones nor wast of Time Resolve this heavenly figure into slime JOHN MARY THE MOTHER OF JESVS THou reverent Virgin of his royall Bloud Who all between the Erythrean Floud And great Euphrates won by strenuous Armes Assume his noble fortitude those harmes Which presse thy Soul subdue ungentle Fate Hath by undoing thee secur'd thy state Fortune her strength by her own blowes hath spent Judaea's kingdome from thy Fathers rent By forrein hands of ancient Wealth bereft Except thy Son what was for danger left These stormes by death disperst serene appeare For what hath childlesse Poverty to feare MARY O John for thee in such extreames to mourn Perhaps is new but I to grief was born With this have we convers't twice sixteen yeares No form of sorrow hath beguil'd our feares To me how ominously the Prophets sung Even from the time that heavenly Infant sprung In my chaste Wombe Old Simeon this reveal'd And in my Soul the deadly wound beheld When One among so many Infants slain Was by the Tyrants Weapons sought in vain No miracles had then his fame displaid Or him the object of their envy made Perfidious Fraud in Sanctities disguise Nor the adulterated Pharisies By his detection had he yet inflam'd Nor for despising of their Rites defam'd A Trumpet of intestine Warre the Earth Of nothing then accus'd him but his birth Not that fierce Prince so cruell to his Own Nor his Successour in that fatall Throne As high in vice who with the Prophets Head Suppli'd his Feast and on the bloud he had shed Fed his incestuous eyes in dire delight To highthen impious Love could me affright Nor yet the vulgar hating his free tongue And showres of stones by a thousand Furies flung I though no mischief could our steps pursue That was more great or to our sufferings new What wants example what no mother fear'd This this alone my dying hopes inter'd Wretch wilt thou seek for words t' expresse thy woes Or this so vast a grief in silence close Great God such is my faith why wouldst thou come To this inferiour Kingdome through my wombe Why mad'st thou choice of me to bring thee forth For punishment unhappy in my worth No woman ever bare a Son by touch Of man conceiv'd whose Soule indures so much No mother such an issue better gain'd Nor lost it worse by cursed Death profan'd JOHN What lowder grief with such an emphasis Strikes through mine eares What honour'd Corse is this With Tyrian linen vail'd What 's he whose haires Contend with snow whose eyes look through their tears Who on those veins yet bleeding odors powres Or his assistant crown'd with equall houres What troops of women hither throng what stormes Rise in their looks Grief wanders through all formes My eyes ah wound my Heart This was thy son This is thy bloud thy mangled flesh O run Take thy last kisses ere of those bereft By funerall What else of all is left MARY My Soul tyr'd with long miserie A midst these greater Sorrows die While Grief at his sad Exequies Poures out her last Complaints in these Let me this snowy Paul unfold Once more those quickning looks behold O Son born to a sad event Thus thus to thy poore Mother sent O Salem was thy hatred such To murder him who lov'd so much Ah see his side gor'd with a spear Those hands that late so bounteous were Transfixt his feet pierc'd with one wound The Sun had better never found His losse then with restored light To shew the World so dire a sight You Neighbours to the Suns up-rise Who read their motions in the Skies O you in chief who found your Lord And with such lively Zeal ador'd Now view the Heavens inverted laws With me bewail the wretched Cause His Birth a Starre new kindled sign'd To see his Death the Sun grew blinde Thou hope of my afflicted State Thou living I accus'd not Fate The Day again with light is crown'd But thou in Night for ever drown'd O could'st thou see my broken heart The flowing teares these springs impart Thy mother whom man never knew Who by the Word then fruitfull grew My Womb admir'd that unknown Guest Whose burden for nine Moones increast Thy Mother to a Scepter borne With age and wrinkling sorrow worne This Countrey sees to get her bread With labour in an humble Shed Thy milk from these two fountaines sprung These armes about my neck have hung Coucht on the flowry bancks of Nile Aegypt so just to thy exile Hath now redeem'd her former Curse Our Jews then those of Memphis worse If his chast bloud at length asswage The bitter tempest of your rage If you can pitty misery O let me by your mercy dye Or if not glutted with his bloud With mine increase this purple floud O my deare sonne what here our eyes behold What yonder hung or what Death could infold In endlesse Night is mine and onely mine No mortall did in thy conception joyne Nor part of thee can challenge Since the losse Was onely ours let us the griefe ingrosse Vngratefull Man who his Protector slew Nor feels his Curse nor then his Blessing knew Poore wretch no soule in thy defence durst rise And now the murdred unrevenged lies The Lame who by thy powerfull Charmes were made Sound and swift-footed ran not to thy aide Those Eies which never saw the glorious Light Before thy soveraign touch avoid thy sight And others from Deaths silent mansion by Thy Vertue ravish'd suffer'd thee to dye JOHN Too true is thy Complaint too just thy Woes Such were his friends whom from a World he chose O desperate Faith from whence from whom are we Thus falne our Soules from no defection free Some sold forswore him none from tainture cleare All from him fled to follow their owne feare Thou Oracle a father in thy care In love a brother the delinquent spare In thy divine affection
destinated end No Orisons nor Sacrifice can bend Why stay I with triumphant feet to tread Vpon th' infernall Serpents poysnous Head And break th' old Dragons jaws The sin of our First Parents must be cleansed with a showre Of bloud rain'd from my wounds my death appease And cure the venome of that dire Disease All you who live rejoyce all you who die You sacred ashes of the just which lie In peacefull Vrnes rejoyce in this my fall I for the living liv'd but die for all My sufferings are not lost To Earth I owe These promis'd ills bonds whips and thorns to grow About out bleeding brows the Crosse the scorn Of a proud People to destruction born O let my Fathers wrath through singed aire On me in thunder dart so mine it spare Lest the World should I perish and must beare The punishments of all that ever were You who inhabit where the Sunne displaies His earely light or neer his setting Raies Who suffer by his perpendicular Aspect or frieze beneath the Northerne star Affect this ready Sacrifice who am A greater offering then the Paschall Lamb My precious bloud alone the vertue hath To purge your sins and quench my Fathers wrath Now the full Moone succeeds that Vernal light Which equally divides the Day and Night Sacred to Feasts The next Sunne shall survay One brighter then himselfe and lose his Day False Traitor through thy guilt so timerous growne Although thou lead'st an army against One Shrouded in Night I am not taken by Thy guile but know thy' fraud and hast to die But you my chosen friends who yet preserve Your faith intire nor from your duty swerve Your Festivall our washings past reherse Your Makers excellence in sacred Verse While I to those frequented Shades repaire Where the trees answer to the sighing Aire Learn as we walke along unto what place I shortly shall return what heavenly Grace Is to descend upon you from above What are the laws of Charity and Love While my last prayers solicit Heaven to Sleep Give no accesse this Night my Vigil keep CHORVS OF JEWISH WOMEN THe rapid Motion of the Spheres Old Night from our Horizon bears And now declining shades give way To the return of chearefull Day But Phosphorus who leads the Starres And Day 's illustrious Path prepares Who last of all the Hoast retires Not yet with-draws those radiant Fires Nor have our Trumpets summoned The Morning from her dewy Bed As yet her Roses are unblown Nor by her purple Mantle known All night we in the Temple keep Not yeelding to the charmes of Sleep That so we might with zealous praier Our thoughts and cleansed hearts prepare To celebrate th' insuing Light When Phoebe shall her hornes unite This annuall Feast to Memory Is sacred nor with us must die Thus by that dreadfull Exul taught When God his plagues on Aegypt brought Those Cities these our Rites bereave Of Citizens and widdows leave Where Jordan from two bubling Heads His oft-returning waters leads Till they their narrow bounds forsake And grow a Sea-resembling Lake Those Woods of Palme producing Dates Of fragrant Balsamum which hates The touch of Steele where once the sound Of trumpets level'd with the ground Vnbatter'd Wals that Mount which shrouds His aiëry head in hanging Clouds Where Death clos'd our lost Prophets eies Admire to see their Colonies Ascend the hills of Solyma In celebration of this Day Cephaeans whose strong Wals with-stood The ruines of the Generall Flood To solemnize this Day forsake Ador'd Dercetis and her Lake Hither the Palestines from strong Azotus both the Jamnes throng Not Lydda could her Own restraine Nor Caparorsa's wals containe Her Edomites Damascus could Not hers though she ten Nations ruld Nor yet Sabaste long the Nurse Of impious Sons sprung from our Surse Phoenicians who did first produce To Mortals letters with their use Where Tyrus full of Luxury With Mother Sidon front the Sky Hither with hasty zeale repaire Among the Syrians those who dare Feed on forbidden fish nor more The Deitie of a Dove adore From Belus whose slow waters passe On glittering sands which turn to glasse From Arnons banks those Borderars The subject of our ancient wars Whose sulphurous Bitumen take From salt Asphaltis deadly lake No Tempest on that Sea provailes No ship upon her bosome sailes Vnmov'd with oares what over-flies Struck by her breath fals down and dies Hates all that lives in her Profound None are receiv'd but flore undrownd No Seas by slymie fhores imbras't So pestilent a vapor cast This blasts the corne before it bears And poysons the declining Ears Sad Autumns fruits to cinders turn And all the fields in ashes mourn Lest time should waste the memory Of those revengefull flames the sky On Earth in melting sulphur showr'd Which that accursed Race devour'd When she who did commiserate With impious griefe her Cities fate Grew in the moment of her fault A Statue of congealed Salt Hither devout Esseans fly Who without issue multiply And Vertue onely propagate All sensuall loves all lucre hate And equall Povertie imbrace Thrice happy of a noble Race Who slight your own particular Transported with a publique care He flies a pitch above our woes Or crimes who gladly undergoes Their toile and want nor would possesse VVhat others miscall Happinesse VVhat numbers from the Suns up-rise From where he leaves the mourning Skies Of our dispersed Abrahamites This Vesper to their Homes invites Yet we in yeerly triumph still A Lamb for our deliverance kill Since Libertie our Confines fled Given with the first unleaven'd Bread She never would return though bought With wounds and in destruction sought Some stray to Lybia's scorched Sands Where horned Hammons Temple stands To Nilus some where Philips Son VVho all the rifled Orient won Built his proud City others gon To their old Prison Babylon A part to freezing Taurus fled And Tiber now the Oceans Head Our Ruines all the world have fill'd But you by use in sufferings skill'd Forgetting in remoter Climes Our vanisht Glory nor those Times Those happy Times compare with these Your burdens may support with ease More justly we of Fate complaine VVho Servitude at home sustaine VVe to perpetuall woes design'd In our owne Countrey Aegypt find THE SECOND ACT. PETER YOu Of-spring of bloud-thirsty Romulus Foes to sweet Peace to our great God and us And you prophaner Sacrificers who VVith subtil mischiefe guiltlesse bloud pursue Since you would not refuse to binde the hands Of Innocence on me impose your bands Seize on the guilty he who hath refus'd His Lord and Master by himselfe accus'd The ills yet suffer'd I deserve to beare For looking on what follows for my feare You need no torches to subdue the Night's Dark Shades to finde me no sterne Satellites Drawn from the Temple nor with Romanes joyne To act one Sin nor spend your sacred Coine In salary to such a Guide as may VVith a perfidious kisse his Lord betray This Head I give
the Prime And Prince of Priests relate th' imputed Crime CAIAPHAS Great Guardian of the Romane Peace whom we Next Caesar honour to be doom'd by thee Our Senate brings th' Infection of these Times Whom we accuse of no suggested crimes Those holy Rites which grave Antiquity First introduced since defended by A long descent this Innovator sought To abolish and a new Religion taught Nor fearing the Recesse of Gods own Seat The Temples ruine sings and Roof repleat With the full Deitie disturbs the Feast Of the seventh Day design'd for sacred Rest Those lawes rejects which Moses pen reveal'd Even those by God with dreadfull thunder seal'd Nor so content with Heaven his furie warres Aspires that Throne and tramples on the Starres Who stiles himself though of ignoble birth His onely sonne who made both Heaven and Earth This Death must expiate he hath judg'd his Cause Who writ in leaves of Marble our ten Lawes PILAT. When Wrath the Nurse of War and thirst of gold Destructive Arts produc'd the better Soul'd No peace nor safety found inforc't to bear Life of it self infirme through common fear Into Societies the scattered drew Who by united forces potent grew Intrenched Cities with high walls immur'd But more by well-digested Lawes secur'd The Crime and Punishment proportion kept And Wrongs like Wolves on their first Authors leapt Justice from each Offence example took And his own weapon the Delinquent strook Spoil seaz'd on Rapine Bloud drew bloud deter'd From doing that which they to suffer fear'd But more then humane plagues attend on those Who God provoke he prosecutes his foes With sure revenge Why should those Hands which tear The clouds with thunder shake the World with fear Their wrath to Man resigne The impious finde Their scourge the terror of th' astonish'd Minde Affrights their peace who feel what they deny And fear an unbeleeved Deity One Day no period to his torment gives To tremble at the Name of Death he lives Still apprehending what then death is worse Long life awarded to prolong his curse But if he have your laws infring'd be you Your selves the judges and his guilt pursue CAIAPHAS Although those ancient Laws which now remain Among us we acknowledge to retain From Romes free bounty yet to you 't is knowne Our curbed Power can death inflict on none You to whom Caesars Fortunes recommend His Rods and Axes sacred Rule defend This guilty Wretch whose practises we feare Of late his place of birth forsaking where The Sea is honour'd with Tiberius Name With troopes of Clients to this City came Who seeds of War among the Vulgar sowes With what injustice Romane Armes impose Their Tribute on a Nation ever free With magick Charmes and Stygian compact he Attracts beliefe denies the dead their rest Of those un-envi'd Mansions dispossest By wicked Spels These prodigies delude The novelty-affecting Multitude Whom for their Lord their loud Hosannas greet And strew the noble Palme beneath his se et Imboldned by these Arts He as his own By birth aspires to Davids ancient Throne When Rome provok'd by his rebellion shall Arme her just Griefe we by the sword must fall Our City sinke in flames our Countrey lye Depopulated But since One must dye To save the Generall sentenc'd by thy breath Let him redeeme his Nation with his death PILAT. Such doubtfull causes grave advice require Here if you please attend while I retire The Pris'ner to the Souldiers care commit On whom this day we will in judgement fit CHORVS OF JEWISH WOMEN YOu lofty towers of Solyma Thou ancient Throne of Soveraign sway To thee the conquered Tribute pay'd From th' Isthmos crown'd with Ebon shade To great Euphrates trembling Streames Arabians scorch'd by Phoebus beames Th' admiring Queen wing'd with thy Fame From her black-peopled Empire came Great Kings ambitious of thy love To joyne with thee in friendship strove Those who Canopus Scepter bore Those Monarchs who the Sun adore And o're the wealthy Orient reigne Sarrana Soveraigne of the Main Now ah a miserable Thrall O nothing but a prey to all This Land t'one God once chastly wed How often hath she chang'd her Head Since they our Temples ruin'd pride With bad presage reedifi'd Since those in forrein bondage born Did with their servile Fates return On us Antiochus guilt reflects Our Fathers Sinnes sit on our necks What durst that wicked Age not do Which could those Altars naked view Oft flaming with celestiall Fire Provoking Heavens deserved ire With their adult'rat Sacrifice For this did Ours so highly prize Th' Iönian Gods by mortals made And incense to those Idols pay'd Since when th' Accurst their brothers slew Wives lesse malitious poyson brew Sons fall by Mothers we have known That which will be beleev'd by none Twice vanquished by Romane Armes Twice have their Conquerours our harmes Remov'd for greater Fortunes change To our proud Masters prov'd as strange Yet this no lesse our grief provokes Our kindred beare divided yokes One part by Romane bondage wrung The other two by Brothers sprung From Savage Idumaeans whom Our Fathers have so oft ore-come O thou the Hope the onely One Of our distresse and ruin'd Throne Of whom with a prophetick tongue To Judah dying Jacob sung The crowned Muse on ivory Lyre His breast inflam'd with holy Fire This oft fore-told That thou shouldst free The People consecrate to thee That thou triumphing shouldst revoke Sweet Peace then never to be broke When free'd Judaea should obey One Lord and all affect his Sway O when shall we behold thy Face So often promis'd to our Race If Prophets who have won belief By our mishaps and flowing grief Of joyfull change as truely sung Thy absence should not now be long Thee by thy Vertue we intreat The Temples Vaile the Mercies Seat That Name by which our Fathers sware Which in our vulgar Speech we dare Not utter to compassionate Thy Kindreds Teares and ruin'd State Hast to our great Redemption hast O thou most Holy and at last Blesse with thy Presence that we may To thee our Vowes devoutly pay THE THIRD ACT. JVDAS CAIAPHAS YOu who preserve your pure integrity O you whose crimes transcend not credit fly Farre from my presence whose invenom'd sight Pollutes the guilty Thou who wrong and right Distinctly canst discern whose gentle brest All faith hath not abandon'd but art blest With children brothers friends nor hast declin'd The sweet affections of a pious Minde Shut up the winding entry of thine eare Nor let the world of such a bargain heare A Sinne so horrible should be to none Besides the desperate Contractors known Wher 's now that mitred Chief where that dire Train Of Sacrificers worthy to be slain On their own Altars I have found my Curse The Sun except my self sees nothing worse Heare without hire O heare the too well known If you seek for a witnesse I am one That can the truth reveal Or would you finde A Villain Her 's a self-accusing Minde That
ô too blest Whom Yester-night saw leaning on thy brest If Love in death survive if yet as great Even by that Love thy pardon I intreat By this thy weeping Mother I the Heire By thee adopted to thy filiall care Though alike wretched and as comfortlesse Yet as I can will comfort her distresse O Virgin-mother favour thy Reliefe Though just yet moderate thy flowing griefe Thy downe-cast Minde by thy owne Vertue raise Th' old Prophets fill their Volumes with thy praise No Age but shall through all the round of Earth Sing of that heavenly Love and sacred Birth What female glory parallels thy Worth So grew a Mother such a Son brought forth She who prov'd fruitfull in th' extreame of age And found the truth of that despis'd presage She whose sweet Babe expos'd among the reeds Which ancient Nilus with his moisture feeds Who then a smiling Infant overcame The threatning floud aspir'd not to thy fame But these expressions are for thee too low The op'ning Heavens did their observance show Those radiant Troopes which Darknesse put to flight Thy Throws assisted in that festive Night Who over thy adored Infant hung With golden wings and Allelujah's sung While the Old Sky to imitate that birth Bare a new Starre to amaze the wondring Earth MARY Sorrow is fled Joy a long banish'd Guest With heavenly rapture fill's my inlarged brest More great then that in youth when from the Sky An Angel brought that blessed Embassy When Shame not soon instructed blush'd for feare How I a Son by such a Fate should beare I greater things fore-see my eyes behold What ever is by Destiny inrold With troops of pious Soules more great then they Thou to felicity shalt lead the way A holy People shall obey thy Throne And Heaven it selfe surrender thee thy own Subjected Death thy Triumph now attends While thou from thy demolish'd Tombe ascends Nor shalt thou long be seene by mortall eies But in perfection mount above the Skies Propitious ever from that heighth shalt give Peace to the World instructed how to live A thousand Languages shall thee adore Thy Empire know no bounds The farthest Shore Washt by the Ocean those who Dayes bright Flame Scarce warmes shall heare the thunder of thy Name Licentious sword nor hostill Fury shall Prevaile against thee thou the Lord of all Those Tyrants whom the vanquisht Worlds obay Before thy feete shall Caesars Scepter lay The Time draws on in which it selfe must end When thou shalt in a Throne of Clouds descend To judge the Earth In that reformed World Those by their sins infected shall be hurl'd Downe under one perpetuall Night while they Whom thou hast cleans'd injoy perpetuall Day The END THe Tragedie of CHRIST'S PASSION was first written in Greek by Apollinarius of Laodicea Bishop of Hieropolis and after him by Gregory Nazianzen though this now extant in his Works is by some ascribed to the former by others accounted suppositions as not agreeing with his Strain in the rest of his Poems which might alter in that particular upon his imitation of Euripides But Hugo Grotius of late hath transcended all on this Argument whose steps afar-off I follow ANNOTATIONS VPON THE FIRST ACT. VErse 23. Ephratian Dames Of Ephrata the same with Bethlehem Ver. 33. Magi Tradition will have them three of severall Nations and honour them with crownes But the word delivers them for Persians for so they called their Philosophers such as were skilfull in the Coelestiall Motions from whence they drew their predictions and with whom their Princes consulted in all matters of moment Some write that they were of the posteritie of Balaam by his Prophesies informed of the birth of Christ and apparition of that narrative Starre but more consonant to the Truth that they received it from divine inspiration Ver. 34. My Starre None of those which adorne the Firmament nor Comet proceeding from condensed Vapors inflamed in the Aire but above Nature and meerely miraculous which as they write not onely illuminated the eye but the understanding excited thereby to that heavenly inquisition Some will have it an Angel in that forme The excellencie whereof is thus described by Prudentius This which in Beames and Beauty far Exceld the Sunnes flame-bearing Car Shew'd Gods descent from Heaven to Earth Accepting of a humane Birth No servant to the humerous Night Nor following Phoebe's changing Light But didst thy single Lamp display To guide the Motion of the Day Hym Epiphaniae It is probable that this Starre continued not above thirteene dayes if we may beleeve that Tradition How the Magi were so long in travelling from their Countrey unto Bethlehem Ver. 34. Mithra's flame Mithra the same with the Sunne adored by the Persians His Image had the countenance of a Lion with a Tiara on his head depressing an Oxe by the hornes Of this Statius Come O remember thy owne Temple prove Propitious still and Juno's Citie love Whether we should thee rosy Titan call Osyris Lord of Ceres festivall Or Mithra shrin'd in Persian rocks a Bull Subduing by the horror of his skull Thebaid l. 1. And in a Cave his Rites were solemnized from whence they drew an Oxe by the hornes which after the singing of certaine Paeans was sacrificed to the Sun Zorastes placeth him between Oremazes and Arimanius the good and bad Daemon from which he took that denomination Vers. 39. Pharisees A precise Sect among the Iews separating themselves from others in habit manners and conversation from whence they had their Name as their Originall from Antigonus Sochaeus who was contemporary with Alexander the Great Men full of appearing Sanctitie observant to Traditions and skilfull expositors of the Moysaicall Law wearing the Precepts thereof in Phylacters narrow scroules of parchment bound about their browes and above their left elbowes passing thorow the streets with a slow motion their eyes fixed on the ground as if ever in divine contemplations and wincking at the approach of women by meanes whereof they not seldome met with churlish incounters Superstitious in their often washing keeping their bodies cleaner then their soules They held that all was governed by God and Fate yet that man had the power in himselfe to doe good or evill That his Soule was immortall that after the death of the body if good it returned into an other more excellent but if evill condemned to perpetuall torments Vers. 43. Sadduces These derived the Sect and name from Sadock the scholar of Antigonus Socaeus as he his Heresie by misinterpreting the words of his Master that we should not serve God as servants in hope of reward concluding thereupon that in another World there was no reward for Pietie and consequently no resurrection holding the Soul to be annihilated after the death of the Body herein agreeing with the Stoicks As smoke from trembling flames ascends and there Lost in its liberty resolves to aire As empty Clouds which furious tempests chace Consume and vanish in their aiery race So our commanding Souls