there was light He that made all things with his mighty might He by whom all things haue their life and breath He humbled himselfe vnto the death Vnto the death of the curst crosse this he This he this he of hee s did stoope for me For me this welspring of my soules reliefe Did suffer death on either hand a Theife The one of them had run a theeuing race Rob'd God of glory and himselfe of grace He wanted liuely faith to apprehend To end his life for life that ne'ere shall end With faithlesse doubts his minde is armed stiffe And doth reuile our Sauiour with an If If that thou be the Sonne of God quoth he Come from the Crosse and saue thy selfe and me The other Theife arm'd with a sauing faith Vnto his fellow turn'd and thus he saith Thou guilty wretch this man is free and cleare From any crime for which he suffers here We haue offended we haue iniur'd many But this man yet did neuer wrong to any We iustly are condemn'd he false accus'd He hath all wrong all right to vs is vs'd He 's innocent so are not thou and I We by the law are iustly iudg'd to die Thus the good theife euen at his latest cast Contrary to a theife spake truth at last And looking on our Sauiour faithfully Whilst Christ beheld him with a gracious eye These blest words were his prayers totall summe O Lord when thou shalt to thy kingdome come Remember me Our Sauiour answer'd then A doctrine to confute despairing men Thou who by liuely faith laist hold on me This day in Paradise with me shalâ— be Thus as this Theifes life was by theft supply'd So now he stole Heauens Kingdome when he dy'd And I doe wish all Christians to agree Not'liue as ill but dye as well as he Presumptious sinnes are no way here excus'd For here but one was sau'd and one refus'd Despaire for sinnes hath here no rule or ground For as here 's one was lost so one was found To teach vs not to sinne with wilfull pleasure And put repentance off to our last leasure To shew vs though we liu'd like Iewes Turks Yet Gods great mercy is aboue his workes To warne vs not ' presume or to despaire Heer 's good example in this theiuing paire These seas of care with zealous fortitude This Virgin pas'd amongst the multitude Oh gracious patterne of a sex so bad Oh the supernall patience that she had Her zeale her constancy her truth her loue The very best of women her doth proue Maids wiues mothers all conforme your liues To hers the best of women maids or wiues But as her Sonnes death made her woes abound His Resurrection all griefe did confound She saw him vanquish't and in glorious And after saw him Victor most victorious She saw him in contempt to lose his breath And after that she saw him conquer death She saw him blest a cursed death to dye And after saw him rise triumphantly Thus she that sorrowed most had comfort most Ioy doubly did returne for gladnes lost And as before her torments tyranniz'd Her ioy could after not be equaliz'd Her Sonnes all wondred resurrection Her Sauiours glorious ascention And last the holy Ghost from heauen sent downe These mighty mercies all her ioyes did crowne Suppose a man that were exceeding poore Had got a thousand tunnes of golden ore How would his heart be lifted vp with mirth At this great masse of treasure most part earth But to be rob'd of all in 's height of glory Would not this lucklesse man be much more sory Then euer he was glad for in the minde Griefe more then ioy doth most abiding finde But then suppose that after all this losse The gold is well refined from the drosse And as the poore man doth his losse complaine His wealth more pure should be restor'd againe Amid'st his passions in this great reliefe I doubt not but his ioy would conquer griefe Euen so our blessed Lady hauing lost Her ioy her Iewell she esteemed most Her all in all the heauen and earths whole treasure Her gracious heart was grieued out of measure But when she found in him triumphant state No tongue or pen her ioy could then relate She lost him poore and bare and dead and cold She found him rich most glorious to behold She lost him when vpon his backe was hurld The burthen of the sinnes of all the world She lost him mortall and immortall found him for crown of thorns a crown of glory crownd him Thus all her griefes her losse her cares and paine Return'd with ioyes inestimable gaine But now a true relation I will make How this blest Virgin did the world forsake T' is probable that as our Sauiour bid Saint Iohn to take her home that so he did And it may be suppos'd she did abide With him and in his house vntill she di'de Iohn did out liue th'Apostles euery one For when Domitian held th' Emperiall throne To'th Ile of Pathmos he was banisht then And there the Reuelation he did pen But whilst Iohn ar Ierusalem did stay God tooke the blessed Virgins life away For after Christs ascension it appeares She on the earth suruiued fifteene yeares Full sixty three in all she did indure A sad glad pilgrimage a life most pure At sixty three yeares age her life did fade Her soule most gracious was most glorious made Where with her Son her Sauiour her Lord God She euerlastingly hath her abode In such fruition of immortall glory Which cannot be discrib'd in mortall story There mounted meeke she sits in Maiestie Exalted there is her humility There she that was adorned full of Grace Beholds her Maker and Redeemers face And there is she amongst all blessed spirits By imputation of our Sauiours merits She there shall euer and for euer sing Eternall prayse vnto th' Eternall King When she had payd the debt that all must pay When from her corps her soule was past away To Getsemany with lamenting cheare Her sacred body on the beere they beare There in the earth a Iewell was interd That was before all earthly wights preferd That holy wife that mother that pure maid At Getsemany in her graue was laid Lenuoy This worke deserues the worke of better wit But I like Pilate say What 's writ is writ If it be lik'd poore artles I am glad And Charity I hope will mend what 's bad I know my selfe the meanest amongst men The most vnlearned'st that ere handled pen But as it is into the world I send it And therefore pray commend it or come mend it FINIS
THE LIFE AND DEATH of the most blessed among women the Virgin MARY Mother of our LORD IESVS VVith the Murder of the Infants in Bethlehem Iudas his Treason and the Confession of the good Theife and the bad Printed at London by G. E. and are to be sold at Christ-church gate 1620. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE AND truly vertuous Lady the Noble Patronesse of good endeuours MARY Countesse of Buckingham Right Honourable Madam AS the Graces the Vertues the Senses and the Muses are emblemed or alluded to your noble sex and as all these haue ample residence in your worthy disposition To whō then but to your selfe being a Lady in goodnes compleat should I commit the patronage of the memory of the great Lady of Ladyes Mother to the high and mighty Lord of Lords And though I a Taylor haue not apparell'd her in such garments of elocution and ornated stile as befits the glory and eminency of the least part of her Excellency yet I beseech your Honor to accept her for her own worth and her Sonnes worthinesse which Sonne of hers by his owne merits and the powerfull mercy of his Father I heartily implore to giue your Honour a participation of his gracious Mothers eternall felicitie Your Honors in all humble seruice to be commanded IOHN TAILOR The Argument and cause of this Poem BEing lately in Antwerpe it was my fortune to ouerlooke an old printed Booke in prose which I haue turned into Verse of the life death buriall of our blessed Lady wherin I read many things worthy of obseruation and many things friuolous and impertinent out of the which I haue like a Bee suck't the sacred hony of the best authorities of Scriptures and Fathers which I best credited and I haue left the poyson of Antichristianisme to those where I found it whose stomackes can better disgest it I put it to the Presse presuming it shall be accepted of pious Protestants and charitable Catholikes as for luke-warme Neutralists that are neyther hot nor cold they doe offend my appetite and therefore vp with them The schismaticall Separatist I haue many times discoursed with him and though he be but a Botcher or a Button-maker and at the most a lumpe of opinionated ignorance yet hee will seeme to wring the Scriptures to his opinions and presume to know more of the mysteries of Religion then any of our Reuerend learned Bishops and Doctors I know this worke will be vnrelished in the pestiferous pallates of the dogmaticall Amsterdammatists but I do must and will acknowledge a most reuerend honor and regard vnto the sacred memory of this blessed virgin Lady Mother of our Lord and Redeemer Iesus and in my thoughts she shall euer haue superlatiue respect aboue all Angels Principalities Patriarkes Prophets Apostles Euangelists or Saints whatsoeuer vnder the blessed Trinity yet mistake me not as there is a difference betwixt the Immortall Creator and a mortall creature so whilst I haue warrant sufficient from God himselfe to inuocate his Name onely I will not giue man Saint or Angell any honour that may be derogatory to his eternall Maiestie As amongst Women she was blest aboue all being aboue all full of Grace so amongst Saints I beleeue she is supreame in Glory and it is an infallible truth that as the Romanists doe dishonour her much by their superstitious honourable seeming attributes so on the other part it is hellish and odious to God and good men either to forget her or which is worse to remember her with impure thoughts or vnbeseeming speech for the excellency of so deuine a Creature I confesse my selfe the meanest of men and most vnworthy of all to write of her that was the best of Women but my hope is that Charity will couer my faults and accept of my good meaning especially hauing endeuoured and striuen to doe my best So wishing all hearts to giue this holy Virgin such honour as may be pleasing to God which is that all should patterne their liues to her lifes example in lowlinesse and humility and then they shall be exalted where shee is in Glory with eternity Iohn Taylor THE LIFE AND DEATH OF THE most blessed amongst all Women the Virgin Mary the Mother of our Lord IESVS CHRIST BEfore the Fire Ayre Water Earth were fram'd Sunne Moone or any thing vnnam'd or nam'd God was who nere shall end nor nere beganne To whom all ages and all time 's a spanne By whose appointment each thing fades or growes And whose eternall knowledge all things knowes When Adams sinne pluckt downe supernall ire And Iustice iudg'd him to eternall fire Then Mercy did the execution stay And the great price of mans great debt did pay And as a woman tempted man to vice For which they both were thrust from Paradise So from a woman was a Sauiours birth That purchas'd Man a heauen for losse of earth Our blest Redeemers mother that blest she Before the world by God ordain'd to be A chosen vessell fittest of all other To be the Sonne of Gods most gracious mother Shee is the theame that doth my Muse inuite Vnworthy of such worthinesse to write I will no prayers not inuocations frame For intercession to this heauenly Dame Nor to her name one fruitlesse word shall runne To be my Mediatresse to her Sonne But to th' eternall Trinity alone I le sing I le sigh I le inuocate and mone I prize no creatures glory at that rate The great Creators praise t'extenuate But to th' Almighty ancient of all dayes Be all dominion honour laud and prayse I write the blest conception birth and life Of this beloued Mother Virgin Wife The ioyes the griefes the death and buriall place Of her most glorious gracious full of grace Her father Ioachim a vertuous man Had long liu'd childlesse with his wife S. Anne And both of them did zealously intend If God did euer sonne or daughter send That they to him would dedicate it solely To be his seruant and to liue most holy God heard and granted freely their request And gaue them Mary of that sex the best At three yeares age she to the Temple went And there eleuen yeares in deuotion spent At th' end of foureteene yeares it came to passe This virgin vnto Ioseph spoused was Then after foure months time was past and gone Th' Almighty sent from his tribunall throne His great Ambassador which did vnfold The greatest ambassage euer yet was told Hayle MARY full of heauenly grace quoth he The high omnipotent Lord is with thee Blest amongst women by Gods gracious dombe And blessed be the fruit of thy blest wombe The Angels presence and the words he sayd This sacred vndefiled Maid dismaide Amazed mused what this message meant And wherefore God this messenger had sent Feare not said Gabriel MARY most renownd Thou with thy gracious God hast fauour found For loe thou shalt conceiue and beare a Sonne By whom redemption and saluation's wonne And thou his sauing name shalt IESVS
call Because heel 'e come to saue his people all She humbly mildly heauens high Nuntius heares But yet to be resolu'd of doubts and feares How can these things quoth she accomplisht be When no man hath knowledge had with mee The Holy Ghost the Angell then replide Shall come vpon thee and thy God and guide The power of the most High shall shadow thee That holy thing that of thee borne shall bee Shall truely called be the Sonne of God By whom sin death and hell shall downe be trod Then MARY to these speeches did accord And said Behold the hand-maid of the Lord. Be it to me according to thy will I am thine owne obedient seruant still This being said she tun'd her Angell tongue My soule doth magnifie the Lord she sung My spirit and all my faculties and voyce In God my Sauiour solely doth reioyce For though mans sinnes prouoke his grieuous wrath His humble hand-maid he remembred hath For now behold from this time henceforth shall All generations me right blessed call He that is mighty me hath magnifide And holy is his name his mercies bide On them that feare him to prouoke his rage Throughout the spacious world from age to age With his strong arme he hath shewed strength and batterd The proud their imaginations scatterd He hath put downe the mighty from their seat The meeke and humble he exaulted great To fill the hungry he is prouident When as the rich away are empty sent His mercies promis'd Abraham and his seed He hath remembred and helpe Israels need This Song she sung with hart and holy spright To laud her Makers mercy and his might And the like song sung with so sweet a straine Was neuer nor shall e'er be sung againe When Mary by the Angels speech perceiu'd How old Elizabeth a childe conceiu'd To see her straight her pious minde was bent And to Ierusalem in three dayes she went And as the Virgin comne from Nazareth Talk't with her kinswoman Elizabeth Iohn Baptist then vnnam'd an vnborne boy Did in his mothers belly leape with ioy Both Christ and Iohn vnborne yet Iohn knew there His great Redeemer and his God was neere When Ioseph his pure wife with childe espide And knew he neuer her accompanide His heart was sad he knew not what to say But in suspect would put her quite away Then from the high Almighty Lord supreame An Angell came to Ioseph in a Dreame And said Feare not with Mary to abide For that which in her blest wombe doth recide Is by the Holy Ghost in wonder done For of thy Wife there shall be borne a Sonne From him alone Redemption all begins And he shall saue his people from their sinnes This being said the Angell past away And Ioseph with his Wife and Maid did stay Then he and she with speed prepared them To goe to Dauids City Bethelem Through winters weather frost winde snow Foure weary dayes in trauell they bestow But when to Bethlem they approched were Small friendship lesse welcom they found there No Chamber nor no fire to warme them at For harbour onely they a stable gat The Inne was full of more respected guests Of Drunkards Swearers and of Godlesse beasts Those all had roomes whilst Glory and all Grace But amongst beasts could haue no lodging place There by protection of th' Almighties wings Was borne the Lord of Lords and King of Kings Our God with vs our great Emanuel Our Iesus and our vanquisher of hell There in a Cratch a Iewell was brought forth More theÌ„ ten thousand thousand worlds in worth There did the Humane nature and Diuine The Godhead with the Manhood both combine There was this Maiden Mother brought to bed Where Oxen Kine and Horses lodg'd and fed There this bright Queen of Queens with heauenly ioy Did hug her Lord her life her God her Boy Her Sonne her Sauiour her immortall blisse Her sole Redeemer She might rocke and kisse Oh blessed Lady of all Ladies blest Blessed for euer for thy sacred brest Fed him that all the famisht soules did feed Of the lost sheepe of Israells forlorne seed A Stable being Heauen and Earths great Court. When forty dayes were ended in that sort This Virgin Mother and this Mayden Bride All pure yet by the Law was purifide Old Simeon being in the Temple than He saw the Sonne of God and Sonne of Man He in his aged armes the Babe imbrac't And ioying in his heart he so was grac't He with these words wisht that his life might cease Lord let thy Seruant now depart in peace Mine eyes haue seens thy great Saluation My loue my Iesus my Redemption Vnto the Gentiles euerlasting light To Israell the glory and the might Hope Faith and zeale truth constancy and loue To sing this song did good old Simeon moue Then turning to our Lady most diuine Thy Sonne said he shall once stand for a signe And he shall be the cause that many shall By faith or vnbeleefe arise or fall He shall be raild vpon without desert And then shall sorrowes sword peirce through thy heart As Iesus fame grew dayly more and more The Tyrant Herod it amazed sore The Sages said borne was great Iudaes King Which did vsurping Herodâ— conscience sting For Herod was an Idâ—mean base Not of the Kings of Iudahs royall Race And hearing one of Dauids true borne Line Was borne he fear'd his State he should resigne And well he knew he kept the Iewes in awe With slauish feare not loue gainst right and law For'tis most true A Prince that 's fear'd of many Must many feare and scarce be lou'd of any Herod beleaguer'd with doubts feares and woes That Iesus should him of his Crowne dispose He chaf't and vext and almost grew starke mad To vsurpation he did murther adde An Edict sprung from his hell hatched braine Commanding all male Infants should be slaine Of two yeares old and vnder through the Land Supposing Iesus could not scape his hand But God so Ioseph downe an Angell sent Commanding him by flight he should preuent The Murderers malice and to Egypt flye To saue our Sauiour from his tyrannie Our blessed Lady with a carefull flight Her blessed Babe away did beare by night Whilst Bethelem with bloody villaines swarmes That murdered Infants in their Mothers armes Some slaughter'd in their Cradles some in bed Some at the Dugg some newly borne strook dead Some sweetly fast asleepe some smiles awake All butcher'd for their Lord and Sauiours sake Their wofull Mothers madly heere and there Ran rending of their cheeks their eyes and hayre The Tyrant they with execrations curst And in despaire to desperate Acts out-burst Some all in fury end their wofull liues By banefull poyson halters or by kniues And some to sorrow were so fast combind They wept and wept and wept themselues starke blind And being blinde to lengthen out their mones They peic'd their sorrows out with sighs grones Thus with vnceasing griefe