never tast deaths woe But let them sleepe Lord and mee mourne a space For if above all these my sinnes abound 'T is late to aske abundance of thy grace When wee are there here on this lowly ground Teach mee how to repent for that 's as good As if thou'hadst seal'd my pardon with thy blood V. If poysonous mineralls and if that tree Whose fruit threw death on else immortall us If lecherous goats if serpents envious Cannot be damn'd Alas why should I bee Why should intent or reason borne in mee Make sinnes else equall in mee more heinous And mercy being easie and glorious To God in his sterne wrath why threatens hee But who am I that dare dispute with thee O God Oh! of thine onely worthy blood And my teares make a heavenly Lethean flood And drowne in it my sinnes blacke memorie That thou remember them some claime as debt I thinke it mercy if thou wilt forget VI. Death be not proud though some have called thee Mighty and dreadfull for thou art not soe For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow Die not poore death nor yet canst thou kill mee From rest and sleepe which but thy pictures bee Much pleasure then from thee much more must flow And soonest our best men with thee doe goe Rest of their bones and soules deliverie Thou art slave to Fate chance kings and desperate men And doth with poyson warre and sicknesse dwell And poppie or charmes can make us sleepe as well And better then thy stroake why swell'st thou then One short sleepe past wee wake eternally And death shall be no more death thou shalt die VII Spit in my face you Jewes and pierce my side Buffet and scoffe scourge and crucifie mee For I have sinn'd and sinn'd and onely hee Who could do no iniquitie hath dyed But by my death can not be satisfied My sinnes which passe the Jewes impiety They kill'd once an inglorious man but I Crucifie him daily being now glorified Oh let mee then his strange love still admire Kings pardon but he bore our punishment And Iacob came cloth'd in vile harsh attire But to supplant and with gainfull intent God cloth'd himselfe in vile mans flesh that so Hee might be weake enough to suffer woe VIII Why are wee by all creatures waited on Why doe the prodigall elements supply Life and food to mee being more pure then I Simple and further from corruption Why brook'st thou ignorant horse subjection Why dost thou bull and bore so seelily Dissemble weaknesse and by'one mans stroke die Whose whole kinde you might swallow feed upon Weaker I am woe is mee and worse then you You have not sinn'd nor need be timorous But wonder at a greater wonder for to us Created nature doth these things subdue But their Creator whom sin nor nature tyed For us his Creatures and his foes hath dyed IX What if this present were the worlds last night Marke in my heart O Soule where thou dost dwell The picture of Christ crucified and tell Whether his countenance can thee affright Teares in his eyes quench the amasing light Blood fills his frownes which from his pierc'd head fell And can that tongue adjudge thee unto hell Which pray'd forgivenesse for his foes fierce spight No no but as in my idolatrie I said to all my profane mistresses Beauty of pitty foulnesse onely is A signe of rigour so I say to thee To wicked spirits are horrid shapes assign'd This beauteous forme assumes a pitious minde X. Batter my heart three person'd God for you As yet but knocke breathe shine and seeke to mend That I may rise and stand o'erthrow mee ' and bend Your force to breake blowe burn and make me new I like an usurpt towne to'another due Labour to'admit you but Oh to no end Reason your viceroy in mee mee should defend But is captiv'd and proves weake or untrue Yet dearely'I love you and would be lov'd faine But am betroth'd unto your enemie Divorce mee ' untie or breake that knot againe Take mee to you imprison mee for I Except you'enthral mee never shall be free Nor ever chast except you ravish mee XI Wilt thou love God as he thee then digest My Soule this wholsome meditation How God the Spirit by Angels waited on In heaven doth make his Temple in thy brest The Father having begot a Sonne most blest And still begetting for he ne'r begonne Hath deign'd to chuse thee by adoption Coheire to'his glory ' and Sabbaths endlesse rest And as a robb'd man which by search doth finde His stolne stuffe sold must lose or buy'it againe The Sonne of glory came downe and was slaine Us whom he'had made and Satan stolne to unbinde 'T was much that man was made like God before But that God should be made like man much more XII Father part of his double interest Unto thy kingdome thy Sonne gives to mee His joynture in the knottie Trinitie Hee keepes and gives to me his deaths conquest This Lambe whose death with life the world hath blest Was from the worlds beginning slaine and he Hath made two Wills which with the Legacie Of his and thy kingdome doe thy Sonnes invest Yet such are these laws that men argue yet Whether a man those statutes can fulfill None doth but thy all-healing grace and Spirit Revive againe what law and letter kill Thy lawes abridgement and thy last command Is all but love Oh let this last Will stand EPIGRAMS Hero and Leander BOth rob'd of aire we both lye in one ground Both whom one fire had burnt one water drownd Pyramus and Thisbe Two by themselves each other love and feare Slaine cruell friends by parting have joyn'd here Niobe By childrens births and death I am become So dry that I am now mine owne sad tombe A burnt ship Out of a fired ship which by no way But drowning could be rescued from the flame Some men leap'd forth and ever as they came Neere the foes ships did by their shot decay So all were lost which in the ship were found They in the sea being burnt they in the burnt ship drown'd Fall of a wall Under an undermin'd and shot-bruis'd wall A too-bold Captaine perish'd by the fall Whose brave misfortune happiest men envi'd That had a towne for tombe his bones to hide A lame begger I am unable yonder begger cries To stand or moue if he say true hee lies A selfe accuser Your mistris that you follow whores still taxeth you 'T is strange that she should thus confesse it though'it be true A licentious person Thy sinnes and haires may no man equall call For as thy sinnes increase thy haires doe fall Antiquary If in his Studie he hath so much care To'hang all old strange things let his wife beware Disinherited Thy father all from thee by his last Will Gave to the poore Thou hast good title still Phryne Thy flattering picture Phryne is like thee Onely in this that you both painted be An obscure writer
ill For that first marriage was our funerall One woman at one blow then kill'd us all And singly one by one they kill us now We doe delightfully our selves allow To that consumption and profusely blinde Wee kill our selves to propagate our kinde And yet we do not that we are not men There is not now that mankinde which was then When as the Sunne and man did seeme to strive Joynt tenants of the world who should survive When Stagge and Raven and the long-liv'd tree Compar'd with man dy'd in minoritie When if a slow pac'd starre had stolne away From the observers marking he might stay Two or three hundred yeares to see 't againe And then make up his observation plaine When as the age was long the sise was great Mans growth confess'd and recompenc'd the meat So spacious and large that every Soule Did a faire Kingdome and large Realme controule And when the very stature thus erect Did that soule a good way towards heaven direct Where is this mankinde now who lives to age Fit to be made Methusalem his page Alas we scarce live long enough to try Whether a true made clocke run right or lie Old Gransires talke of yesterday with sorrow And for our children wee reserve to morrow So short is life that every pesant strives In a torne house or field to have three lives And as in lasting so in length is man Contracted to an inch who was a spanne For had a man at first in forrests stray'd Or shipwrack'd in the Sea one would have laid A wager that an Elephant or Whale That met him would not hastily assaile A thing so equall to him now alas The Fairies and the Pigmies well may passe As credible mankinde decayes so soone We' are scarce our Fathers shadowes cast at noone Onely death ads t' our length nor are wee growne In stature to be men till we are none But this were light did our lesse volume hold All the old Text or had wee chang'd to gold Their silver or dispos'd into lesse glasse Spirits of vertue which then scatter'd was But 't is not so w' are not retir'd but dampt And as our bodies so our mindes are crampt 'T is shrinking not close weaving that hath thus In minde and body both bedwarfed us Wee seeme ambitious Gods whole worke t' undoe Of nothing hee made us and we strive too To bring our selves to nothing backe and wee Doe what wee can to do 't so soone as hee With new diseases on our selves wee warre And with new Physicke a worse Engin farre Thus man this worlds Vice-Emperour in whom All faculties all graces are at home And if in other creatures they appeare They 're but mans Ministers and Legats there To worke on their rebellions and reduce Them to Civility and to mans use This man whom God did wooe and loth t' attend Till man came up did downe to man descend This man so great that all that is is his Oh what a trifle and poore thing he is If man were any thing he 's nothing now Helpe or at least some time to wast allow T' his other wants yet when he did depart With her whom we lament hee lost his heart She of whom th'Ancients seem'd to prophesie When they call'd vertues by the name of shee Shee in whom vertue was so much refin'd That for allay unto so pure a minde Shee tooke the weaker Sex shee that could drive The poysonous tincture and the staine of Eve Out of her thought and deeds and purifie All by a true religious Alchymie She she is dead shee 's dead when thou knowest this Thou knowest how poore a trifling thing man is And learn'st thus much by our Anatomie The heart being perish'd no part can be free And that except thou feed not banquet on The supernaturall food Religion Thy better growth growes withered and scant Be more then man or thou' rt lesse then an Ant. Then as mankinde so is the worlds whole frame Quite out of joynt almost created lame For before God had made up al the rest Corruption entred and deprav'd the best It seis'd the Angells and then first of all The world did in her cradle take a fall And turn'd her braines and tooke a generall maime Wronging each joynt of th'universall frame The noblest part man felt it first and than Both beasts and plants curst in the curse of man So did the world from the first houre decay That evening was beginning of the day And now the Springs and Sommers which we see Like sonnes of women after fiftie bee And new Philosophy calls all in doubt The Element of fire is quite put out The Sun is lost and th' earth and no mans wit Can well direct him where to looke for it And freely men confesse that this world 's spent When in the Planets and the firmament They seeke so many new they see that this Is crumbled out againe to his Atomies 'T is all in peeces all coherence gone All just supply and all Relation Prince Subject Father Sonne are things forgot For every man alone thinkes he hath got To be a Phoenix and that then can bee None of that kinde of which he is but hee This is the worlds condition now and now She that should all parts to reunion bow She that had all Magnetique force alone To draw and fasten sundred parts in one She whom wise nature had invented then When she observ'd that every sort of men Did in their voyage in this worlds Sea stray And needed a new compasse for their way She that was best and first originall Of all faire copies and the generall Steward to Fate she whose rich eyes and breast Guilt the West-Indies and perfum'd the East Whose having breath'd in this world did bestow Spice on those Iles and bad them still smell so And that rich Indie which doth gold interre Is but as single money coyn'd from her She to whom this world must it selfe refer As Suburbs or the Microcosme of her Shee shee is dead shee 's dead when thou knowest this Thou knowest how lame a criple this world is And learn'st thus much by our Anatomy That this worlds generall sicknesse doth not lie In any humour or one certaine part But as thou sawest it rotten at the heart Thou seest a Hectique feaver hath got hold Of the whole substance not to be contrould And that thou hast but one way not t' admit The worlds infection to be none of it For the worlds subtilst immateriall parts Feele this consuming wound and ages darts For the worlds beauty is decai'd or gone Beauty that 's colour and proportion We thinke the heavens enjoy their Sphericall Their round proportion embracing all But yet their various and perplexed course Observ'd in divers ages doth enforce Men to finde out so many Eccentrique parts Such divers downe right lines such overthwarts As disproportion that pure forme It teares The Firmament in eight and forty sheires And in these
of all our Soules devotion As vertue was in the first blinded age Are not heavens joyes as valiant to asswage Lusts as earths honour was to them Alas As wee do them in meanes shall they surpasse Us in the end and shall thy fathers spirit Meete blinde Philosophers in heaven whose merit Of strict life may be imputed faith and heare Thee whom hee taught so easie wayes and neare To follow damn'd O if thou dar'st feare this This feare great courage and high valour is Dar'st thou ayd mutinous-Dutch and dar'st thou lay Thee in ships woodden Sepulchers a prey To leaders rage to stormes to shot to dearth Dar'st thou dive seas and dungeons of the earth Hast thou couragious fite to thaw the ice Of frozen North discoueries and thrise Colder then Salamanders like divine Children in th'oven fires of Spaine and the line Whose countries limbecks to our bodies bee Canst thou for gaine beare and must every hee Which cryes not Goddesse to thy Mistresse draw Or eate thy poysonous words courage of straw O desperate coward wilt thou seeme bold and To thy foes and his who made thee to stand Sentinell in his worlds garrison thus yeeld And for forbidden warres leave th' appointed field Know thy foe the foule devill h 'is whom thou Strivest to please for hate not love would allow Thee faine his whole Realme to be quit and as The world 's all parts wither away and passe So the worlds selfe thy other lov'd foe is In her decrepit wayne and thou loving this Dost love a withered and worne strumpet last Flesh it selfe death and joyes which flesh can taste Thou lovest and thy faire goodly soule which doth Give this flesh power to taste joy thou dost loath Seeke true religion O where Mirreus Thinking her unhous'd her and fled from us Seekes her at Rome there because hee doth know That shee was there a thousand yeares agoe He loves the ragges so as wee here obey The statecloth where the Prince sate yesterday Crants to such brave Loves will not be inthrall'd But loves her onely who at Geneva is call'd Religion plaine simple sullen yong Contemptuous yet unhansome As among Lecherous humors there is one that judges No wenches wholsome but course country drudges Graius stayes still at home here and because Some Preachers vile ambitious bauds and lawes Still new like fashions bids him thinke that shee Which dwels with us is onely perfect hee Imbraceth her whom his Godfathers will Tender to him being tender as Wards still Take such wives as their Guardians offer or Pay valewes Carelesse Phrygius doth abhorre All because all cannot be good as one Knowing some women whores dares marry none Graccus loves all as one and thinkes that so As women do in divers countries goe In divers habits yet are still one kinde So doth so is Religion and this blindnesse too much light breeds but unmoved thou Of force must one and forc'd but one allow And the right aske thy father which is shee Let him aske his though truth and falshood bee Neare twins yet truth a little elder is Be busie to seeke her beleeve mee this Hee 's not of none nor worst that seekes the best To adore or scorne an image or protest May all be bad doubt wisely in strange way To stand inquiring right is not to stray To sleepe or runne wrong is on a huge hill Cragg'd and steep Truth stands and hee that will Reach her about must and about must goe And what the hills suddennes resists winne so Yet strive so that before age deaths twilight Thy Soule rest for none can worke in that night To will implyes delay therefore now doe Hard deeds the bodies paines hard knowledge to The mindes indeavours reach and mysteries Are like the Sunne dazling yet plaine to all eyes Keepe the truth which thou hast found men do not stand In so ill case that God hath with his hand Sign'd Kings blanck-charters to kill whom they hate Nor are they Vicars but hangmen to Fate Foole and wretch wilt thou let thy Soule be tyed To mans lawes by which she shall not be tryed At the last day Will it then boot thee To say a Philip or a Gregory A Harry or a Martin taught thee this Is not this excuse for mere contraries Equally strong cannot both sides say so That thou mayest rightly obey power her bounds know Those past her nature name is chang'd to be Then humble to her is idolatrie As streames are Power is those blest flowers that dwell At the rough streames calme head thrive and do well But having left their roots and themselves given To the streames tyrannous rage alas are driven Through mills rockes woods and at last almost Consum'd in going in the sea are lost So perish Soules which more chuse mens unjust Power from God claym'd then God himselfe to trust Satyre IIII. WEll I may now receive and die My sinne Indeed is great but I have beene in A Purgatorie such as fear'd hell is A recreation and scant map of this My minde neither with prides itch nor yet hath been Poyson'd with love to see or to bee seene I had no suit there nor new suite to shew Yet went to Court But as Glaze which did goe To Masse in jest catch'd was faine to disburse The hundred markes which is the Statutes curse Before he scapt So'it pleas'd my destinie Guilty of my sin of going to thinke me As prone to all ill and of good as forgetfull as proud as lustfull and as much in debt As vaine as witlesse and as false as they Which dwell in Court for once going that way Therefore I suffered this Towards me did runne A thing more strange then on Niles slime the Sunne E'r bred or all which into Noahs Arke came A thing which would have pos'd Adam to name Stranger then seaven Antiquaries studies Then Africks Monsters Guianaes rarities Stranger then strangers One who for a Dane In the Danes Massacre had sure beene slaine If he had liv'd then And without helpe dies When next the Prentises'gainst Strangers rise One whom the watch at noone lets scarce goe by One to whom the examining Justice sure would cry Sir by your priesthood tell me what you are His cloths were strāge though coarse black though bare Sleevelesse his jerkin was and it had beene Velvet but 't was now so much ground was seene Become Tufftaffatie and our children shall See it plaine Rashe awhile then nought at all This thing hath travail'd and saith speakes all tongues And only knoweth what to all States belongs Made of th' Accents and best phrase of all these He speakes one language If strange meats displease Art can deceive or hunger force my tast But Pedants motley tongue souldiers bumbast Mountebankes drugtongue nor the termes of law Are strong enough preparatives to draw Me to beare this yet I must be content With his tongue in his tongue call'd complement In which he can win widdowes and