from the People this contrary to the Opinion of our Authour Baronius conceives to be that which then rent asunder interpreted to signifie the finall abolishing of the Law Ceremoniall They write that at the tearing thereof a Dove was seene to flye out of the Temple Vers. 319. Or God doth this abhorr'd c. Eusebius St. Ierome and others report that with this Earthquake at the Passion the Doores of the Temple flew open and that the Tutular Angels were heard to cry Let us remove from this place though Iosephus referre it to the destruction of the Temple Vers. 362. Tyrian Gades Gades now called Cales an Iland lying on the South of Spaine without Hercules Pillars held to be the uttermost Confines of the Western World was planted by a Colony of the Tyrians Vers. 363. As yet sees not thy panting Horses c. A Charriot and Horses were attributed to the Sunne in regard of the swiftnesse of his Motion and to expresse what is beyond the object of the sense by that which is subject unto it These also by the Idolatrous Iews were consecrated unto him The Sunne was feined to descend into the Sea because it so appeareth to the eye the Horizon being there most perspicuous Vers. 371. Hath some Thessalian Witch c. The Thessalian women were infamous for their inchantments said to have the power to darken the Sunne and draw the Moone from her Spheare Such Lucans Erictho Her words to poyson the bright Moone aspire First pale then red with darke and terrene fire As when deprived of her Brothers sight Earth interposing his Coelestiall Light Perplext with tedious Charmes and held below Till she on under Hearbs her gelly throw Phar l. 6. The Author of this opinion was Aglonice the daughter of Hegaemon who being skilfull in Astronomy boasted to the Thessalian women foreknowing the time of her Eclips that she would performe it at such a season which hapning accordingly and they beholding the distemper'd Moone gave credit to her deception The like may arise from the Eclipses of the Sunne Vers. 372. What new Phaëton The fable of Phaëton the sonne of Phoebus as the Allegory is notorious who by misguiding the Charriot of the Sunne set all the World on a conflagration Vers. 377. As when sterne Atreus c. Atreus having had his bed dishonored by his brother Thyestes slew his children and gave them for food to their father when the Sunne to avoid so horrid a sight fled back to the Orient So fained in that Atreus first discovered the Annuall Course of the Sun which is contrary to his Diurnall Vers. 379. Ilia's god-like sonne c. Romulus cut into a hundred pieces by the hundred Lords of the Senate for being so rigorous to them and so indulgent to the People every one carrying a piece away with him under his long Gowne to conceale the murder when Iulius Proculus to appease the People swore that he saw him ascend into Heaven whereupon they consecrated Temples unto him and gave him divine honours changing his Name into Quirinus Vers. 383. Or hath that Day c. The Great Yeere when all the Planets here called Gods because they carry their Names shall returne to that position which they were in at the beginning Comprising according to Cicero's Hortensius the revolution of twelve thousand nine hundreth and fifty yeers Vers. 390. If the World perish by licentious fire The Romanes could not then have this from St. Peter but rather from the Prophesies of the Sibyls These Signes the Worlds combustion shall fore-run Armes clashing Trumpets from the rising Sun Horrible fragors heard by all this Frame Of Nature then shall feed the greedy flame Men Cities Floods and Seas by rav'nous lust Of Fire devour'd all shall resolve to dust Orac. l. 4. From hence perhaps the Ancient Philosophers derived their opinions as Seneca a Latter The Stars shall incounter one another and what now shines so orderly shall burne in one Fire Vers. 395. Either the groaning world c. Vers. 397. Do proud Titanians c The Poets feigne that the angry Earth to be revenged of the Gods brought forth the Titans as after the Gyants who by throwing mountains upon mountains attempted to scale the Heavens and disinthrone Iupiter who overthrew them with his Lightning and cast those conjested Mountains upon them Pherecydes the Syrian writes how the Devils were cast out of Heaven by Iupiter this fall of the Giants perhaps alluding to that of the Angels The chief called Ophionius which signifies Serpentine having after made use of that Creature to poyson Eve with a false ambition Vers. 400. Dire Python A prodigious Serpent which after Deucalions Floud lay upon the Earth like a Mountain and slain by Apollo the sense of the Fable being meerely Physicall for Python born after the deluge of the humid Earth was that great Exhalation which rose from the late drowned world at length dissipated by the fervour of the Sunne or Apollo The Earth then soak'd in showres yet hardly dry Threw up thick clouds which darkned all the Sky This was that Python Pont. Meteor The word signifies putrefaction and because the Sun consumes the putrefaction of Earth his beams darting from his Orb like arrows with his arrows he is said to have slain Python Vers. 400. Lerna's Fen In this lay that venemous Serpent Hydra which is said to have many Heads whereof one being cut off two rose in the room more terrible then the former and with her poysnous breath to have infected all the Territories adjoyning This Fable had a relation to that place which through the eruption of waters annoyed the neighbouring Cities when one being stopt many rose in the room this Hercules perceiving burnt them with fire Corruption boyls away with heat And forth superfluous vapours sweat But Physically Hydra signifies water and Hercules according to Macrobius presenteth the Sunne whose extraordinary fervour dried up those noysome and infectious vapours Vers. 404. Lyaeus gave to man lesse precious wine Lyaeus is a name of Bacchus because wine refresheth the Heart and freeth it from sorrow Noah was he who immediately after the Floud first planted a Vineyard and shewed the use of wine unto man wherefore some write that of Noachus he was called Boachus and after Bacchus by the Ethnicks either by contraction or through ignorance of the etymologie This comparison hath relation to Christ's conversion of water into such excellent wine at Cana in Galilee Vers. 405. Not Hercules so many Monsters slew Hercules saith Seneca travelled over the world not to oppresse it but to free it from Oppressours and by killing of Tyrants and Monsters to preserve it in tranquillitie But how much more glorious were the victories of Christ who by suffering for Sinne subdued it led Captivity captive was the death of Death triumphing over Hell and those Spirits of Darknesse Vers. 406. Vnshorn Apollo desse in Physick knew Apollo to whom they attribute long yellow haire in regard of his beautifull Beams is
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
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
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
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
the place by beholding that which was to be seene but by the High Priest onely Vers. 58. The Temple sackt with bloud c. He slew twelve thousand Iews within the wals of the Temple Vers. 66. Cedron This Brook or Torrent runnes thorough the Vale of Iehosaphat between Mount Olivet and the City close by the Garden of Gethsemane where Christ was betrayed Vers. 103. Not Jordan with two c. See the Note upon vers 195. Act. 1. Vers. 105. Callithoe A Citie in the Tribe of Ruben so called of her beautifull Springs where from a Rock two neighbour Fountaines gush out as from the brests of a woman the one of hot but sweet water the other of cold and bitter which joyning together make a pleasant Bath salubrious for many diseases and flowes from thence into the Lake of Asphaltis Herod in his sicknesse repaired to this place but finding no help and despairing of life removed to Iericho where he died Vers. 105. That ample Lake The Sea of Galilee by which Peter was borne Vers. 107. Blew Nereus c. Nereus is taken for the Sea in generall but here for the Aegyptian into which Nilus dischargeth his waters by seven currents the fresh water keeping together and changing the colour of the Salt far further into the Sea then the shore from thence can be discerned Vers. 128. Lethe A River of Africa passing by Bernice and running into the Mediterranian Sea neere the Promontory of the Syrtes It hath that name from Oblivion because those who drunk thereof forgot whatsoever they had formerly done Of this Lucan Where silent Lethe glides this as they tell Draws her Oblivion from the veines of Hell So feigned because of the oblivion which is in Death as allegorically for that of Sleep Vers. 139. Tarpean Jove Tarpeus is a Mountaine in Rome taking that name from the Vestall Virgin Tarpea who betrayed her Fathers Fort to the Sabines upon promise to receive what they ware on their left armes for her reward she meaning their golden bracelets which they not onely gave but threw their shields upon her a part of the bargaine and so prest her to death who buried her in the Place since called the Capitol where Iupiter had his Temple Vers. 139. Mars great Quirinus Sire Romulus was called Quirinus of his Speare or for his uniting the two Nations of the Cures and Romanes as the sonne of Mars in that so strenuous a Souldier Plutarch writes that he was begotten by his Vncle Aemulius who counterfeiting Mars disguised in Armour ravished his mother Ilia not onely to satisfie his Lust but to procure her destruction as the heire to his elder brother the law condemning a defiled Vestall to be buried alive Vers. 140. You Houshold Gods snatcht c. Penates which Aeneas saved from burning at the sack of Troy and brought them with him into Italy supposing that from them they received their flesh their life and understanding Vers 151. Caprae A little Iland in the Tyrrhen Sea and in the sight of Naples naturally walled about with up-right Cliffs and having but one passage into it Infamous for the Cruelties and Lusts of Tiberius who retiring thither from the affairs of the Common-wealth sent from thence his Mandates of death polluting the place with all varietie of uncleannesse whereupon it was called the Iland of secret lusts and he Caprenius conversing there with Magicians and South-sayers whereof the Satyr speaking of Sejanus The Princes Tutor glorying to be nam'd Sitting in caves of Caprae with defam'd Chaldeans Iuv: Sat. 10. Ver. 152. The long-gown The gowne was a garment peculiar to the Romanes by which they were distinguished from other Nations as of what qualitie among themselves by the wooll and colour fashion and trimming In so much as they were called Togati Whereof Virgil in the person of Iupiter Curst Juno who Sea Earth and Heaven above With her distemper tires shall friendly prove And joyne with us in gracing the Long-gownd And Lordly Romanes still with conquest crown'd Aen. l. 1. Vers. 157. Their hate to all c The Iews with the hate of an enemy detested all other Nations would neither eat with them nor lodge in their houses but avoided the stranger as a pollution Proud in their greatest poverty calling themselves the elect of God boasting of their Countrey their Religion and ancient Families in their conversation austere and respectlesse So full of jealous envy that by a Decree in the reigne of Hircanus and Aristobulus such suffered the dreadfull censure of a Curse who instructed their sons in the Grecian Disciplines and much regrated that the laws of Moses was translated into a profane language by the command of Philadelphus expressing their grief by an annuall Fast which they kept on the Eighth day of the moneth Teveth Vers. 159. Abjure for one c. Pilat accuseth them here for their piety who after the Captivity as much detested Idolatry as they affected it before who could not be compelled by their Conquerours to worship the Images of Tiberius Caesar which Pilat brought into the Citie but was forced to carry them away upon their refusall Caius not long after commanded that the Statues of the Gods should be erected in their Temple menacing if they should refuse it their utter subversion But his death prevented their ruine who before had made their protestation that they would rather suffer the generall destruction of themselves and their City then suffer such an abomination so repugnant to their Law and Religion Vers. 168. With how much grief our swords c. Iosephus mentions one slaughter onely which Pilat as then had made of the Iews and that about the drawing of water by conduits into the sacred Treasury which divers thousands of the Iewes tumultuarily resisted Pilat invironed them with his Souldiers disguised in popular garments who privately armed fell upon the naked People and by the slaughter of a number appeased the mutiny Vers. 234. Rods and Axes Borne before the Romane Consuls Pretors and Governours of Provinces bound together in bundles to informe the Magistrate that he should not be too swift in execution nor unlimited but that in the unbinding thereof he might have time to deliberate and perhaps to alter his sentence that some are to be corrected with Rods and others cut off with Axes according to the quality of their offences Vers. 254. Since one must die c. Caiaphas prophesied being then the High Priest though not of the House of Aaron He was thrown out of his Office by Lucius Vitellius who succeeded Pilat and Ionathan the sonne of Annas placed in his room when distracted with melancholy and desperation he received his death from his own hands Vers. 242. Stygian Styx is a Fountain of Arcadia whose waters are so deadly that they presently kill whatsoever drinks thereof so corrodiating that they can onely be contained in the hoof of a mule This in regard of the dire effects was feigned by the Poets to be a
said to have invented the Art of Physick his name importing a preservation from evil because the Sunne is so powerfull in producing physicall Simples and so salubrious to our bodies when Christ by his own Vertue cured all diseases gave sight to the blinde by birth which surpasseth the power of art threw out wicked Spirits from the tortured bodies of the possessed and called the Dead from their beds of death to converse again with the Living Verse 419. With the Religion of the Samean Of Pythagoras of Samos who by his doctrine and example withdrew the Crotonians from luxury and idlenesse to temperance and industry calming the perturbations of the Minde with the musick of his Harp for he held that Vertue Strength all Good and even God himself consisted of Harmony That God was the Soul of the World from whence each creature received his life dying restored it And lest it might be doubted that the Souls of all had not one Originall in regard of their different understandings he alleadged how that proceeded from the naturall complexion composition of the Body as more or lesse perfect whose opinions are thus delivered by Virgil The arched Heavens round Earth the liquid Plain The Moons bright Orb and Starres Titanian A Soul with-in sustaines whose Vertues passe Through every part and mix that huge Masse Hence men hence beasts what ever fly with wing And Monsters in the marble Ocean spring Of Seed divine and fiery Vigour full But what grosse flesh and dying member dull Thence fear desire grief joy nor more regard Their heavenly Birth in those blinde Prisons barr'd Aen. l. 6. Moreover he held that this visible Soul or Godhead diffused throughout all the world got it self such diversitie of Names by the manifold operations which it effected in every part of the visible Vniverse Vers. 420. Nor Thracian Harp wilde Beasts instructing can Orpheus of Thrace who with the musick of his Harp and voice attracted even beasts and sencelesse stones to heare him The morall of which Fable may parallell with that of Amphion Orpheus the Gods Interpreter from blood Rude men at first deterr'd and savage food Hence said to have Tygers and fell Lions tam'd Amphion so who Theban bulwarks fram'd T' have led the stones with musick of his lute And milde requests Of old in high repute Publick from Private Sacred from Prophane To separate and wandring Lust restrain With matrimoniall ties faire Cities raise Laws stamp in brasse This gave the honour'd Bayes To sacred Poets and to verse their praise Horat. de Art Poet It is apparent by his Testament to his Scholar Musaeus whereof certain verses are recited by Iustin Martyr that his opinion in divinitie was in the main agreeable with the sacred Scriptures As of one God the Creator of Heaven and Earth the Authour of all good and punisher of all evil exhorting him to the hearing and understanding of that knowledge which was revealed from Heaven meaning nothing else by those various Names which he gives to the Gods but divine and naturall Vertues shadowing God himself under the Name of Iupiter to avoid the envy and danger of those times as is almost evident by these attributes Omnipotent Jove the First the Last of things The Head the Midst all from Joves bounty springs Foundation of the Earth and starry Skie A Male a Female who can never die Spirit of all the Force of awfull Fire Sourse of the Sea Sun Moon th' Originall The End of all things and the King of all At first conceal'd then by his wond'rous Might And sacred Goodnesse all produc'd to light Vers. 421. Nor that prophetick Boy c. Of whom Ovid The Nymphs and Amazonian this amaz'd No lesse then when the Tyrrhen Plow-man gaz'd Vpon the fatall clod that mov'd alone And for a humane shape exchang'd his own With infant lips that were but earth of late Reveal'd the Mysteries of future Fate Whom Natives Tages call'd He first of all Th' Hetrurians taught to tell what would befall Met. l. 15. And Cicero in his second book of Divination Tages when the Earth was turned up and the Plow had made a deeper impression ascended as they say in the Tarquinian fields and spake to the Tiller It is written in the Hetrurian Records that he was seen in the form of a Boy although old in wisdome The Husband-man amazed and exalting his voice drew thither a great concourse of People and with-in awhile all Thuscany who spake many things in that populous audience by them remembred and committed to writing His oration onely contained the discipline of Divination by the entrails of beasts which after increased by experience but is referred to this Originall A delusion of the Devils to introduce that Superstition ANNOTATIONS VPON THE FIFTH ACT. VErse 30. O may they perish c. This imprecation comprehends those following calamities which the Divine Vengeance inflicted on the Iews more and more horrid then ever befell any other Nation Vers. 35. Let the great in Warre c. Titus Vespasian who besieged Ierusalem when almost all the Iewish Nation was within the Walles there met to celebrate the Passeover who took it by force consumed the Temple with fire which fell on that day in which it was formerly burnt by the Chaldeans and levelled the City with the ground eleven hundred thousand Iewes there perishing by famine pestilence and the sword another hundred thousand Captives were publikely sold for a Romane penny a Iew and sixteene thousand sent to Alexandria for servill imployments two thousand of the most beautifull and personable young men reserved to attend on his Triumph who after to delight the Spectators were torne in pieces by wild beasts in the Amphitheater Vers. 26. Let Diseases sow c. During the siege the Pestilence violently raged proceeding from the stench of dead bodies to whom they afforded no buriall but piled them up in their houses or threw them over the Wall of the City Vers. 41. Famine in their dry entrailes c. Vnexpressible was the Famine they indured and pittifull if they themselves had had any pitty enforced to seeth their Girdles and Shooes and fighting fiercely with one another for so course a diet Driven in the end to that exigent that they were faine to rake the sincks and privies and to feede on that which was loathsome to behold neither could they keep what they found from the rapine of others Vers. 44. The Babe re-enter her c. Hunger had so overcome Nature that a Woman of riches and honour named Mary being daily rob'd of her provision by the Seditious slew her owne childe which suckt at her brest and having sodden one halfe thereof eat it When at the sent of flesh they broke in upon her who presented them with the rest the theeves then hardly refraining though they trembled at so horrid a Spectacle Vers. 45. While yet the eager Foe c. The enemy assailed them without and the Seditious massacred one another within divided into three parties the Zealous the Idumaean Robbers and the rest of the mutinous Citizens but upon every assault of the Romanes setting their private hatred aside united themselves as if of one Minde and with admirable courage repulsed the Enemy but upon the least cessation renewed their bloudy discord some beginning with their owne hands to set the Temple on fire Vers. 47. Let th' Enemy c. See the Notes upon the 35. Verse Verse 50. The Reliques of their slaughter In the dayes of Adrian the Iewes raised a new Commotion of whom his Lieutenant Iulius Severus slew five hundred and foure score thousand transporting the rest into Spaine by the command of the Emperour so that Iewry was then without Iews as it continues to this present Vers. 52. Despis'd and wretched wander c. Out of Spaine they were banished in the yeer 1500. by Ferdinand and Emanuel Now scattred throughout the whole World and hated by those among whom they live yet suffered as a necessary mischiefe subject to all wrongs and contumelies who can patiently submit themselves to the times and to whatsoever may advance their profit Vers. 53. Abolish'd by their Law c This they lost in the destruction of their City Yet daily expect that Messias who is already come and as they beleeve shall restore them to their temporall Kingdome Vers. 55. This infected soyle c. The Ecclesiasticall Histories report how Ioseph of Arimathea after he had suffered imprisonment by the envy of the Iews and was delivered by an Angel left his Countrey and sailed to Marcellis in France from thence passing over into this Iland he preached the Gospell to the Brittaines and Scots who there exchanged this life for a better Vers. 95. Who knows but soone a holier Age c. Helena the Mother of Constantine throwing downe the Fane of Venus which Adrian had erected on Calvary covered both the Mount and Sepulchre with a magnificent Temple which yet hath resisted the injuries of Insolence and Time and what was before without in reverence to the place is now in the heart of the City To recover this from the Saracens divers of the Westerne Princes have unfortunately ventured their Persons and People though Godfry of Bullein with an Army of three hundred thousand made of the City and Country an absolute Conquest Whose Successours held it for fourescore and nine yeers and then beaten out by Saladine the Aegyptian Sultan Yet yeerly is the Sepulchre visited though now in the possession of the Turke from all parts of the World by thousands of Christians who there pay their vowes and exercise their Devotions Vers. 109. Of his Royall Bloud c Of Davids See the Notes upon the 264. Verse of the second Act Vers. 139. Not that fierce Prince c. Herod the Great the murderer of the Infants who put three of his sonnes to death with his wife Mariamme whom he frantickly affected Vers. 140. Nor his Successour c. Herod Antipas who cut off the Head of Iohn the Baptist Vers. 189. You neighbours to the Sunnes up-rise The Persian Magi FINIS Imprimatur Ioannes Hansley September 27. 1639