T were better tho we did confesse our wound Then hide it till our state grew more unsound T were better we some wealth or office lost Then keepe them till our lives and all it cost And therefore let us wisely be advised Before we by a tempest be surprised Downe first with our Top-gallants and our Flags In stormes the skilfull'st Pilots make no brags Let us if that be not enough let fall Our Misnâ—-yeard and strike our top-sailes all If this we finde be not enough to doe Strike Fote-saile Sprit-saile yea and Main-saile too And rather then our Ship should sink or rend Let 's over-board goods mast and tackling send Save but the Hull the Master and the Men And we may live to scoure the seas agen Beleeve it England howsoever some Who should foresee thy plagues before they come Endeavour to perswade thee that thou hast A hopefull time and that the worst is past Yet I dare boldly tell thee thou hast nigh Worne out Gods patience by impiety And that unlesse the same we doe renue By penitence our folly we shall rue But what am I that me thou should'st beleeve Or unto what I tell thee credit give It may be this adultrous Generation Expecteth tokens of her desolation And therefore I will give them signes of that Which they are now almost arrived at Not signes so mysticall as most of those Which did the ruine of the Iewes disclose But signes as evident as are the day For know ye Britaines that what God did say Ierusalems destruction should foreshew He spake to ev'ry State that should ensue And that he nought of her or to her spake For hers alone but also for our sake One signe that Gods long-suffering we have tired And that his patience is almost expired Is this that many judgements he hath sent And still remov'd them e're we did repent For God ev'n by his Holinesse did sweare Saith Amos such a Nation he will teare With bryers and with Fish hookes rend away The whole posterity of such as they Cleane teeth saith God I gave them and with bread In many places them I scantly fed And yet they sought me not Then I restrained The dewes of heav'n upon this Field I rained And not on that yea to one City came Some two or three to quench their thirsty flame Yet to returne to me no care they tooke With Blastings then and Mildewes I them strooke And mixt among their Fruits the Palmer-worme Yet they their lives did not a jot reforme Then did I send the Pestilence said he Devoured by the Sword their young men be Their Horse are slaine and up to heaven ascends Their stinke yet I discover no amends The selfe same things thy God in thee hath done Oh England yet here followes thereupon So small amendment that they are a signe To thee and their sharpe Judgement will be thine The second Token which doth fore-declare When Cities States and Realmes declining are Ev'n Christ himselfe hath left us for saith he When Desolation shall approaching be Of wars and warlike rumours ye shall heare Rare signes and tokens will in heaven appeare Downe from the Firmament the starres shall fall The hearts of many men then faile them shall There will be many scandals and offences Great earthquakes Schismes Dearths and Pestilences Realme Realme and Nation Nation shall oppose The nearest friends shall be the greatest foes Against the Church shall many tyrannize Deceivers and false Prophets shall arise In ev'ry place shall wickednesse abound And Charity shall very cold be befound This Christ himselfe did Prophecy and we Are doubtlesse blind unlesse confest it be That at this houre upon this Kingdome here These markes of Desolation viewed are How often have we seene prodigious lights O'respread the face of heav'n in moonlesse nights How many dreadfull Meteors have there beene In this our Climate lately heard and seene Who knoweth not that but a while agoe A Blazing-Star did threat if not foreshow Gods Judgements In what age tofore did heare So many who did Saints and Stars appeare Fall as it were from heav'n Or who hath heard Of greater Earth-quakes then hath lately scar'd These quarters of the world How oft the touch Of Famine have we had But when so much Devoured by the Pestilence were we As in this present yeare our people be Of Wars and martiall rumors never more Were heard within these confines heretofore When were all Kingdomes and all Nations through The world so opposite as they are now We know no Country whether nigh or far But is engag'd or threatned with some War All places either present woes bewaile Or else things feared make mens hearts to faile False Prophets and Deceivers we have many We scarcely finde integrity in any The Name of Christ beginnes in ev'ry place To suffer persecution and disgrace And we the greatest jeopardies are in Among our neighbours and our nearest kin Strange Heresies doe ev'ry where encrease Disturbing Sion and exiling peace Impiety doth multiply True love Growes cold And if these tokens doe not prove Our fall drawes on unlesse we doe amend I know not when our folly shall have end A third apparant signe which doth declare When some devouring Plague approacheth neere Is when a Nation doth anew begin To let Idolatry to enter in And openly or secretly give place To Heresie where Truth establisht was Or when like Jeroboam to possesse An outward profit or a temporall peace They either change Religions or devise A worship which doth mixe Idolatries With truth For this ev'n for this very crime The King of Ashur in Hosea's time Led Isr'el captive And both from the sight Of God and from the house of David quite They were cut off for ever and did neither Serve God nor Idols but ev'n both together In such a mixt Religion as is-that Which some among us now have aymed at Marke England and I prethee marke it well If this offence which ruin'd Israel On thee appeare not and if so it be Amend or looke for what it threatens thee The fourth true token which doth fore-expresse The ruine of a Land for wickednesse Is when the Priests and Magistrates begin To grow extreamly impudent in sin This Signe the Prophet Micah giveth us And he not I to you cryes loudly thus Heaere O ye house of Jacob and all ye That Princes of the house of Israel be Ye Justice hate and ye pervert what 's good Ye build the wals of Sion up with bloud Jerusalem with sin ye up have rear'd Your Judges passe their censures for reward Your Priests doe preach for hire your Prophets doe Like them and prophecy for money too And for this cause shall Sion mount saith he Ev'n like a plowed field become to be And like a Forrest hill where bushes grow The Citie of Jerusalem shall show Change but the names oh Britain and that token Of desolation unto thee is spoken For what this day thy Priests and Princes are Their
actions and the peoples cryes declare A fifth sure evidence that God among Thy ruines will entomb thy same e're long If thou repent not is ev'n this that thou Dost ev'ry day the more ungodly grow By how much more the blessed meanes of grace Doth multiply it selfe in ev'ry place God sends unto thee many learned Preachers Apostles Pastors and all kind of teachers His Visions and his Prophecies upon thee He multiplies And that he might have won thee To more sinceritie on all occasions By counsell by entreatie and perswasions He hath advis'd allured and befought thee With precept upon precept he hath taught thee By line on line by miracle by reason In ev'ry place in season out of season By little and by little and by much Sometime at once yet is thy nature such That still thou waxest worse and in the roome Of pleasant Grapes more Thistles daily come And thou that art so haughty and so proud For this shalt vanish like an empty cloud And as a Lion Leopard or a Beare Thy God for this shall thee in pieces teare If thou suppose my Muse did this devise Goe take it from Hosea's Prophesies The sixth undoubted signall when the last Good dayes of sinfull Realmes are almost past Is when the people neere to God shall draw In word to make profession of his Law And by their tongues his praises forth declare Yet in their hearts from him continue far To such a Land their destiny displayes Isaiah for even thus the Prophet sayes God will produce ae marvell in that state And doe a Worke that men shall wonder at The wisedome of their wisest Counsellor Shall perish and their prudent men shall erre On their deepe Counsels sorrow shall attend Their secret plots shall have a dismall end Their giddy projects which they have devised Shall as the Potters clay be quite despised Like Carmel Lebanon shall seeme and he Like Lebanon shall make mount Carmel be Their pleasant Fields like Desarts shall appeare And there shall Gardens be where Desarts are God keepe thou Brittish Ile this plague from thee For signes thereof upon thy Body be Thou of the purest worship mak'st profession Yet waxest more impure in thy condition Thou boastest of the knowledge of Gods word Yet thereunto in manners to accord Thou dost refuse Thou makest protestation Of pietie yet hatest reformation Yea when thy tongue doth sing of praise divine Thy heart doth plot some temporall designe And some of those who in this wise are holy Begin to shew their wisedome will be folly For when from sight their snares they deepest hide By God Almighties eyes they are espide The seventh Symptome of a dreadfull blow If not a perpetuall overthrow Is when a slumbring Spirit doth surprize A nation and hath closed up their eyes Or when the Prophets and the Seers are So clouded that plaine truths doe not appeare Or when the Visions evidently seene Are passed by as if they had not beene Or when to Nations who can reade God gives His Booke and thereof doth unseale the leaves And bids them reade the same which they to do Deny or pleade unablenesse thereto Blacke signes are these For if that Booke to them Still darke or as a Book unsealed seeme Or if they heede no more what here is said Then they that have the Books and cannot reade The Iudgements last repeated are the doome That shall on such a stupid Nation come This signe is come on us for loe unsealed Gods Booke is now amongst us and revealed Are all the Mysteries which doe concerne The children of this present age to learne So well hath he instructed this our land That we not onely reade but understand The secrets of his Word The prophecies Of his chiefe Seers are before our eyes Vnveiled true interpretations Are made and many proper applications Ev'n to ourselves yet is our heart so blind That what we know and see we doe not mind We heare and speake and much adoe we keepe But we as senselesse are as men asleepe What then we doe Yea while that we are talking What snares are in the way where we are walking We heed not what we say but passe along And many times are fast insnar'd among Those mischiefes and those faults we did condemne Before our tongues have left to mention them For our neglect of God in former times Or for some present unrepented crimes A slumbring Spirit so possesseth us That our estate is wondrous dangerous We see and heare and tell to one another Our perils yet we headlong haste together To wilfull ruine and are growne so mad That when our friends a better course perswade Or seek to stop us when they see we run That way in which we cannot ruine shun We persecute those men with all our soule That we may damn our selves without controule The eight plaine Signe by which I understand That some devouring mischiefe is at hand Is that maliciousnesse which I doe see Among Professors of one Faith to be We that have but one Father and one Mother Doe persecute and torture one another So hotly we oppose not Antichrist As we our fellow-brethren doe resist The Protestant the Protestant defies And we our selves our selves doe scandalize Our Church we have exposed to more scorne And her faire seamlesse Vestâ—ent rent and come By our owne fury more then by their spight Who are to us directly opposite To save an Apple we the Tree destroy And quarrels make for ev'ry needlesse toy From us if any brother differ shall But in a crochet we upon him fall As eagerly and with as bitter hate As if we knew him for a Reprobate And what ever all this doth signifie Saint Paul by way of caveat doth imply Take heed saith he lest while ye bite each other You of your selves consumed be together Another Signe which causeth me to feare That our confusion is approaching neere Are those Disunions which I have espide In Church and Common-wealth this present tide We cannot hide these rents for they doe gape So wide that some their Jawes can hardly scape Would God the way to close them up we knew Else what they threaten time will shortly shew For all men know a Citie or a Land Within it selfe divided cannot stand The last blacke Signe that here I will repeat Which doth to Kingdomes desolation threat Is when the hand of God Almighty brings The people into bondage to their Kings I say when their owne King shall take delight Those whom he should protect to rob and smite When they who fed the Sheep the Sheep shall kill And eate them and suppose they doe no ill When God gives up a Nation unto those That are their neighbours that they may as foes Devoure them When oh England thou shalt see This come to passe a signe it is to thee That God is angry and a certaine token That into pieces thou shalt quite be broken If not by forraine strength by force at home And that thy
graces That by their lives and doctrines they may reare Those parts of Sion which decayed are Awake this People give them soules that may Beleeve thy Word and thy commands obey The Plagues deserv'd already save them from More watchfull make them in all times to come For blessings past let hearty thanks be given For present ones let sacrifice to heav'n Be daily offred up For what is needing Or may be usefull in the time succeeding Let faithfull prayers to thy throne be sent With hearts and hands upright and innocent And let all this the better furthred be Through these Remembrances now brought by me For which high favour and emboldning thus My spirit in a time so dangerous For chusing me that am so despicable To be employed in this honorable And great employment which I more esteeme Than to be crowned with a Diadem For thy enabling me in this Embassage For bringing to conclusion this my Message For sparing of my life when thousands dy'd Before behind me and on ev'ry side For saving of me many a time since then When I had forfeited my soule agen For all those griefes and poverties by which I am in better things made great and rich Then all that wealth and honour brings man to Wherewith the world doth keepe so much adoe For all which thou to me on earth hast given For all which doth concerne my hopes of heaven For these and those innumerable graces Vouchsafed me at sundry times and places Unthought upon unfained praise I render And for a living sacrifice I tender To thee oh God my body soule and all Which mine I may by thy donation call Accept it blessed Maker for his sake Who did this offring acceptable make By giving up himselfe Oh! looke thou not Upon those blemishes which I have got By naturall corruption or by those Polluted acts which from that ulcer flowes According to my skill I have enroll'd Thy Mercies and thy Justice I have told I have not hid thy workings in my brest But as I could their pow'r I have exprest Among our great assemblies to declare Thy will and pleasure loe I doe not feare And though by Princes I am checkt and blamed To speake the truth I am no whit ashamed Oh! shew thou Lord thy mercy so to me And let thy Love and Truth my guardians be Forgive me all the follies of my youth My faulty deeds the errors of my mouth The wandrings of my heart and ev'ry one Of those good workes that I have left undone Forgive me all wherein I did amisse Since thou employd'st me in performing this My doubtings of thy calling me unto it My feares which oft disheartned me to doe it My sloth my negligences my evasions And my deferring it on vaine occasions When I had vowed that no worke of mine Should take me up till I had finisht thine Lord pardon this and let no future sin Nor what already hath committed bin Prophane this Worke or cause the same to be The lesse effectuall to this Land or me But to my selfe oh Lord and others let it So moving be that we may ne're forget it Let not the evill nor the good effect It takes or puffe me up or me deject Or make me thinke that I the better am Because I tell how others are to blame But let it keepe me in a Christian feare Still humbly heedfull what my actions are Let all those observations I have had Of others errors be occasions made To mind me of mine owne And lest I erre Let ev'ry man be my Remembrancer With so much charity as I have sought To bring their duties more into our thought And if in any sin I linger long Without repentance Lord let ev'ry tongue That names me check me for it and to me Become what I to others faine would be Oh! let me not be like those busie broomes Which having clensed many nasty roomes Doe make themselves the fouler but sweet Father Let me be like the precious Diamond rather Which doth by polishing another stone The better shape and lustre set upon His owne rough body Let my life be such As that mans ought to be who knoweth much Of thy good pleasure And most awfull God Let none of those who spread of me abroad Unjust reports the Devills purpose gaine By making these my warnings prove in vaine To those that heare them but let such disgraces Reflect with shame upon their Authors faces Till they repent And let their scandall serve Within my heart true meeknesse to preserve And that humility which else perchance Vaine-glory or some naturall arrogance Might overthrow if I should think upon With carnall thoughts some good my lines have done Restraine moreover them who out of pride Or ignorance this Labour shall deride Make them perceive who shall prefer a story Composed for some temporall friends glory Before those Poems which thy works declare That vaine and witlesse their opinions are And if by thee I was appointed Lord Thy Judgements and thy Mercies to record As here I doe set thou thy mark on those Who shall despightfully the same oppose And let it publikely be seene of all Till of their malice they repent them shall As I my conscience have discharged here Without concealing ought for love or feare From furious men let me preserved be And from the scorne of fooles deliver me Vouchsafe at length some comforting reflection According to the yeares of my affliction On me for good some token please to show That they who see it may thy bounty know Rejoyce with fellow-feeling of the same And joyne with me in praising of thy Name And lest oh Lord some weake ones may despise My words because of such necessities As they have brought upon me by their spight Who to my Studies have beene opposite Oh! give me that which may sufficient be To make them know that I have served thee And that my labours are by thee regarded Although they seeme not outwardly rewarded Those Honors or that Wealth I doe not crave Which they affect who most endeavored have To please the World I onely aske to gaine But food and rayment Lord for all my paine And that the slaunders and the poverties Wherewith my patience thou shalt exercise Make not these Lines or me become a scorne Nor leave me to the world-ward quite forlorne Yet in preferring of this humble Suit I make not my request so absolute As that I will capitulate or tye To such conditions thy dread Majesty For if to honour but an earthly Prince My Muse had sung it had beene impudence To prompt his bounty or to doubt he might Forget to doe my honest Labours right Doe therefore as thou pleasest onely give Thy Servant grace contentedly to live And to be thankfull whatsoever shall In this my weary Pilgrimage befall Such things thou dost command me to require With earnest and an absolute desire With which I come beseeching I may finde Thy love continue though none else be kinde That blessednesse eternall I may get Though all I lose on earth to compasse it And that at last when my accompt is eaven My payment may be summon'd up in heaven Lord this will please me call me quickly thither And pay me there my wages all together Not that which mine by merit seemes to be But what by thy meere grace is due to me FINIS