Christ is dead and rizen I know no greater sinner then Iohn Taylor Of all his Death did Ransome out of Prizzen And therefore heere 's my Pride if it be Pride To know Christ and to know him Crucifide Thine in all humilitie Iohn Taylor TAYLORS VRANIA 1 ETernall God which in thine armes do'st Graspe All past all present and all future things And in ineuitable doome dost claspe The liues and deaths of all that dies and springs And at the doomefull day will once vnhaspe Th' acusing booke of Subiects and of Kings In whom though ending nor beginning be Let me ô Lord beginne and end in thee 2 All cogitations vaine from me remooue And clense my earthly and polluted heart Inspire me with thy blessings from aboue That to thy honour I with Artlesse Art May sing thy Iustice Mercy and thy Loue Possesse me with thy Grace in euery part That no profane word issue from my pen But to the Glorie of thy name Amen 3 I do beseech thee Gracious louing father Reiect me not in thy sharpe iudging Ire But in thy multitude of mercies Rather Recall me to thee Recolect me Nigher My wandring Soule into thy bosome Gather And with thy Grace my gracelesse heart Inspire Dictate vnto my minde what it may thinke Write with thy spirit what I may write with inke 4 Thou all things wast eu'n then when nothing was And then thou all things did'st of nothing make Of nothing All thou still hast brought to passe And all againe to nothing must betake When sea shall burne and land shall melt like brasse When hills shall tremble and the mountaines quake And when the world to Chaos turnes againe Then thou Almighty All shalt all remaine 5 And since this vniuersall massie ball This earth this aire this water and this fire Must to a ruine and a period fall And all againe to nothing must retire Be thou to me my onely All in All Whose loue and mercy neuer shall expire In thee I place my treasure and my trust Where Fellon cannot steale or canker rust 6 All things but only God at first began The vncreated God did all Create In him Alone is equall will and can Who hath no ending or commencing date To whose Eternitie all time 's a span Who was is shal be euer in one state All else to nothing howerly doth decline And onely standes vpon support diuine 7 Our high Creator our first Parents form'd And did inspire them with his heau'nly spirit Our Soules seducer Sathan them deform'd And from Gods fauour did them disinherit Our blest Redeemer them againe reform'd And ransom'd them by his vnbounded merit Thus were they form'd deform'd reform'd againe By God by Sathan and our Sauiours paine 8 Mans Generation did from God proceed A mortall Body and a Soule Eternall Degeneration was the Deuils deed With false delusions and with lies infernall Regeneration was our Sauiours meede Whose death did satisfie the wrath supernall Thus was man found and lost and lost was found By Grace with Glory euer to be crownd 9 Man was produc'de seduced and reduc'de By God by Sathan and by God agen From good to ill from ill he was excusd'e By merit of th' immortall man of men The vnpolluted bloud from him was sluc'de To saue vs from damnations dreadfull den Thus man was made and marde and better made By him who did sinne death and hell inuade 10 Let man consider then but what he is And contemplate on what he erst hath bin How first he was created heyre of blisse And how he fell to be the Childe of sinne How of himselfe he howerly doth amisse And how his best workes do no merit winne Except acceptance make them be esteem'd Through his obedience that our Soules redeem'd 11 Before thou wast remember thou wast nought And out of nought or nothing thou wast fram'de And how thy Body being made and wrought By God was with a liuing Soule inflam'de And how th' eternall Nomenclator taught Thee name all Creatures that were euer nam'de And made thee Stuard of the worlds whole treasure And plac'de thee in a paradice of pleasure 12 Then wast thou Viceroy to the King of heau'n And great Lieuetenant to the Lord of hosts The rule of all things vnto thee was giu'n At thy command all creatures seru'd like posts To come or go and at thy becke were driu'n Both neere and farre vnto the farthest coasts God all things made as seruants vnto thee Because thou only shouldst his seruant be 13 He gaue life vnto herbes to plants and trees For if they wanted life how could they grow A beast hath life and sence moues feeles and sees And in some sort doth good and euill know But man 's before all Creatures in degrees God life and sence and reason did bestow And least those blessings should be transitory He gaue him life sence reason grace and glory 14 Then let our meditations scope be most How at the first we were created good And how we wilfull Grace and goodnes lost And of the sonnes of God were Sathans broode Then thinke the price that our redemption cost Th' eternall sonne of Gods most precious bloud Remember this whilst life and sence remaine Else life and sence and reason are in vaine 15 Thou to requite thy God that all thee gaue Ingratefully against him didst rebell Whereby from Regall state thou turnedst slaue And heau'nly Iustice doomb'd thee downe to hell As thy rebellion from thy God thee draue So 'gainst thee all things to rebellion fell For when to heau'n thy due obedience ceast Thy disobedience taught each brutish beast 16 Now see thy miserable wretched state Thou and the earth is eake with thee accurst All worldly things which thee obaide of late In stiffe commotion now against thee burst And thou for euer droue from Eden gate To liue an exilde wretch and which is worst Thy soule Gods darling fell from her preferment To be the Deuils thrall in endlesse torment 17 But Mercies sea hath quenched Iustice fire And Heau'ns high heyre in pittie of mans case In person came and satisfide Gods ire And Gracelesse man new Repossest in Grace The sonne of God came downe to raise vs higher To make vs Glorious he himselfe made base To draw vs vp downe vnto earth he came And honor'd vs by putting on our shame 18 Who can conceiue the Glory he was in Aboue the heau'n of heau'ns in throan'd in blisse Who can conceiue the losse that he did winne To rectifie and answere our amisse Who can conceiue the Mountaines of our sinne That must be hid with such a sea as this No heart no tongue no pen of mortall wight These things can once conceiue or speake or write 19 Man may collect th' abundance of his vice And the deare loue his God to him did beare In thinking on th' inestimable price Was paide his sinne polluted soule to cleare To gaine him an immortall paradice And to Redeeme his foes to pay so
Gallant mounted all in gold Like Alexander on Bucephalus The ground in his conceit too base to hold Him whom the smiles of fortune fauours thus But in his height of heat how soone hee 's cold By death snatch'd from his pompe himselfe and vs. His Name and Noble-Mushrom-fame forgot And all things but his shame must lye and rot 78 The beauteous Lady that appeares a Saint Of Angells forme and Heau'n admired hue That can by Art defectiue Nature paint And make false colours to the eye seeme true Yet Death at last hir brau'ry doth attaint And spight hir Art she must pay Natures due The rarest features and the fairest formes Must dye and rot and be consum'd with wormes 79 Wealth Beauty as they are abusde or vsde They make the owners either curst or blest As Good or Ill is in the minde infusde They adde a ioyfull rest or woes vnrest To vse them well th' are blest but if abusde Thy God doth thee and them loath and detest And turns his blessings which shold most coÌ„teÌ„t thee To dreadfull cursings which shal still torment thee 80 Seek then Heau'ns kingdom things that are right And all things else shall be vpon thee cast Thy daies of Ioy shall neuer turne to night Thy blessed state shall euerlasting last Liue still as euer in thy Makers sight And let Repentance purge thy vices past Remember thou must drink of deaths sharp cup And of thy Stuardship account giue vp 81 Had'st thou the beautie of faire Absolon Or did thy strength the strength of Sampson passe Or could thy wisdom match wise Salomon Or might thy riches Cressus wealth surpasse Or were thy pompe beyond great Babylon The proudest Monarchie that euer was Yet Beauty Wisdom Riches Strength and State Age Death and Time will spoile and ruinate 82 Make of the World no more then as it is A vale of Cares of miseries and woes Thinke of it as the sinke of all amisse That blinds our Sences with deceiuing showes Account it as a den of balefull blisse The which vnthought of all estates o'rethrowes How Sathan in it beares a Lordly sway And how none but his subiects it obay 83 And whilst thou runn'st this transitorie race Vse well the blessings God to thee hath sent Do Good with them whilst thou hast time and space And know they are but things vnto thee lent Know that thou must appeare before Gods face To answer if they well or ill be spent If thou hast spent them well then heau'n is thine If ill th' art damn'd to hell by doome diuine 84 But ten times happy shall that Steward be Which at the last the Lord shall faithfull finde Heart tongue or eyes cannot thinke speake or see The glory that to him shall be assinde He shall out-passe the Angells in degree He shall out-shine all Starrs that euer shinde He shall for euer and for euer sing Eternall praises to his God and King 85 Vnto which God the Father first and last Whose goodnes all conseru's preseru's and feeds To God the Sonne whose merits downe hâ—ath cast Sinne death and hell due vnto Sinners meeds To thee ô Holy Ghost that euer vvast The blessing that from Sire and Sonne proceeds And to the vn-deuided Three in One All Power and Praise and Glory be alone FINIS THE SEVERALL Sieges Assaults Sackings and finall Destruction of the famous ancient and memorable Citie of IERVSALEM Deuided into two parts By IOHN TAYLOR LONDON Printed by Edward Griffin for Nathaniel Butter and are to be sold at his shop at S. Austins gate at the signe of the Pyde Bull. 1616. TO THE TRVLY worthy and right Worshipful IOHN MORAY Esquire one of the Gentlemen of his Maiesties Royall Bed-chamber Earths Honors and Heauens happines THis Booke Good Sir the issue of my braine Though far vnworthy of your worthy view Yet I in dutie offer it to you In hope you Gently it will entertaine And though the Method and the Phrase be plaine Not Artlike writ as to the stile is due Yet is it voide of any thing vntrue And truth I know your fauour shall obtaine The many fauours I from you haue had Hath forc'd me thus to shew my thankfull minde And of all faults I know no vice so bad And hatefull as ingratefully inclinde A thankfull Heart is all a poore mans pelfe Which with this Booke I giue your Worthy Selfe Your Worships euer most obliged IOHN TAYLOR The seuerall Sieges Assaults Sackings and finall destruction of the famous ancient and memorable Citie of IERVSALEM THe Iustice Mercy and the Might I sing Of Heau'ns iust mercifull almighty KING By whose fore knowledge all things were elected Whose power hath all things made all protected Whose Mercies flood hath quencht his Iustice flame Who was is shall be one and still the same Who in the Prime when all things first began Made all for Man and for himselfe made Man Made not begotten or of humane birth No Sire but God no Mother but the Earth Who ne're knew Childhood or the sucking teate But at the first was made a man compleat Whose inward Soule in God-like forme did shine As Image of the Maiestie diuine Whose supernaturall wisdom beyond Nature Did name each sensible and senceles creature And from whose Star-like Sand-like Generation Sprung euery Kinred Kingdom Tribe and Nation All people then one Language spake alone Interpreters the world then needed none There liued then no learned deep Grammarians There were no Turks no Scithians no Tartarians Then all was one and one was only all The language of the vniuersall Ball. Then if a Traueller had gone as farre As from the Artick to th' Antartick starre If he from Borcas vnto Auster went Or from the Orient to th' Occident Which way soeuer he did turne or winde He had bin sure his Countrey-man to finde One hundred thirty winters since the Flood The Earth one only Language vnderstood Vntill the sonne of Cush the sonne of Cham A proud cloud-scaling Tower began to frame Trusting that if the world againe were drown'd He in his loftie building might rest sound All future Floods he purposd to preuent Aspiring to Heau'ns glorious Battlement But high Iehouah with a puff was able To make ambitious Babell but a bable For what is man that he should dare resist The great Almighties power who in his fist Doth gripe Eternitie and when he please Can make and vnmake Heau'n and Earth Seas For in their expectation of conclusion He plag'd them all with sundry Tongues confusion Such Gibrish Gible Gable all did iangle Some laugh some fret all prate all diffring wrangle One calls in Hebrew to his working Mate And he in Welch Glough whee Comrage doth prate Another gapes in English or in Scotch And they are answer'd in the French or Dutch Caldaicke Siriacke and Arabian Greeke Latin Tuscan and Armenian The Transiluanian and Hungarian The Persian and the rude Barbarian All these and diuers more then I can
deare For if our sinnes had not been more then much The ransome of them sure had not been such 20 The bloud of any mightie mortall King Was insufficient this great debt to pay Arch-angels power or Angels could not bring A Ransome worth forbearance but a day The only sonne of God must do this thing Else it must be vndone and we for aie God was the Creditor and man the debter Christ God man did pay none could pay better 21 Then since thy sinfull Soule from Grace was lost And since by Grace it hath found Grace againe Since being lost so Great a price it lost T' enfranchise it from euerlasting paine And since thy crimes are quit thy debts are crost Thy peace with God the way to heau'n made plain Let not all this in vaine for thee be done But thankfull be to God through Christ his sonne 22 Forget not thou art ashes earth and dust And that from whence thou cam'st thou shalt again And at the last trump that appeare thou must When Procseys and Essoynes are all in vaine Where iust and vniust shall haue iudgement iust For euer doomb'd to endlesse ioy or paine Where though that thou be damb'd it is Gods glory Thy wife thy Sonne thy Sire will not be sorry 23 Methinks it should make man this world to loath When that which will a thousand cloath and feede It should but onely one man feede and cloath In fares excesse and gorgeousnesse of weede Yet this braue canker this consuming moath Who in his life ne're meanes to do good deede Must be adorn'd for those good parts he wants By fearefull Fooles and flattering Sichophants 24 Hath he the title of an earthly grace Or hath he Honor Lordship Worship or Hath he in Court some great commanding place Or hath he wealth to be regarded for If with these honors vertue he embrace Then loue him else his puckfoist pompe abhorre Sun-shine on dung-hills makes them stinke the more And honor shewes all that was hid before 25 Shall men giue Reu'rence to a painted trunke That 's nothing but all outside and within Their senses are with blacke damnation drunke Whose heart is Sathans Tap-house or his Inne Whose Reputation inwardly is sunke Though outwardly raisd vp and swolne with sin I thinke it worse then to adore the Deuill To worship his base Instruments of euill 26 No looke vpon the Man and not his Case See how he doth his Maker imitate If Grace supernall giue internall Grace That makes his minde on vertue contemplate That holds this world and all things in 't as base Knowes death makes happie or vnfortunate That doth no wrong for Fanour Gaine or Feare And layes on each what each deseru's to beare 27 Such men no doubt but few such liuing are For they are thickly sow'd and thinly grow'd The purest wheat is mixed with the Tare The humble minds are seruile to the Prowd Vice Reuells and poore Vertues poore and bare Hypocrisie into the Church will crowd So man must more then humane wit possesse T' escape the baites and snares of wickednesse 28 The Atheist of the Scriptures can dispute That one would deeme him a Religious man The Temporizer to the Time will sute Although his Zeale be Machiuillian Then there 's a Faith that seldom yeelds good fruit And though impure is calld a Puritan A thousand Sects in thousand Proteus shapes Are Times true turne-coats and Religious Apes 29 The greatest plague that euer came from Hell Is to be puft and stuft with selfe-conceit When men too Ill esteeme themselues too well When ouer-valued worth proues light in weight When Selfe-loue and Ambition makes vs swell Aboue the limits of Discretions height When the poore Iay displaies his borrowed plumes And man vnfeeling sin to sinne presumes 30 But if thy featherd pride Icarian-high Doth soare too farre aboue true Reasons bownd Th' eternall Sunne thy waxen wings will frie Thy fatall Fall thy Folly shall confownd Who like that Cretian mounts ambitiously In Seas of sorrow shall like him be drownd By pride the Caldean Monarchie decreast A King the best of men was made a Beast 31 The state of Man may be compared well Vnto a Kingdom gouern'd well or Ill For if his Rule and Policie excell His Reason like a Queene commands his will But if seditious Passions do rebell They Reasons Court with all disorder fill And ouer-run hir carelesse Common-wealth With murder fraud oppression whoredome stealth 32 The Sences are this Kingdoms Court of Guarde To keep their Queene secure from terrene treason Great is the trust and saftie of this warde Whilst they giue true Intelligence to Reason But if this Guard their duties not regard And mis-informe their Queene at any season Then right for wrong and wrong for right shee le conster And in hir Apprehension proues a Monster 33 The Hearing Sight the Taste the Smell and Touch If Vices do present themselues for obiects And they incredulous not deeme them such Informing Reason that they are good Subiects If Reasons iudgment be not more then much She entertaines for Worthies these base Abiects Who spoyle hir Court and breake hir Kingdoms frame And turne her State Glory into shame 34 The Appetite the Fancie and the Will Spirituall Faculties are Reasons Peeres Who of themselues do counsell all things ill Not knowing what is true but what appeares If she attend what only they instill She takes in meere delusions through hir eares And they at last will thrust hir from hir Throne And then vsurping Rebells sit thereon 35 These Vassals hauing got the Regall sway Inforce the Commons which are the Affections Their hatefull hellish precepts to obay With promise of their fauours and protections Th' Affections all agree and all do pay These Miscreants their tributes and subiections And now is Reason banisht and they threat She ne're shall gaine againe hir awfull seat 36 Th'vsurping Heart sometimes doth raigne as King Sometimes the Braine is Counseller of State The Eyes and Eares Intelligence do bring The Tongue as Herald tydings doth relate The Hands and Feet do execute each thing Which these intruding Tyrants loue or hate And euery Member plaies a painfull part To serue a swimming Braine and swelling Heart 37 The Fancie like an Ape skips to and fro Begins a thousand things and endeth none Makes marrs forbids and bids no yea yea no Doe and vndoe hold fast and let alone Run stay vp downe stand fall go come come go Sad glad mad wittie foolish mirth and mone Thus Fancie doth in Apish toyes delight To serue the greedie maw of Appetite 38 And Appetite as doth a big woomb'd Dame Lusts longs desires and must haue this and that Hearbs roots fruits flowres Fish Fowle Beasts wilde She must wil haue wel she knowes not what tame Whilst Fancie and Imagination frame Themselues more nimbly then a mowzing Cat. Still searching what the Appetite desires Superfluous meats drinks bables and attires 39 The Memorie Lord Keeper