the joyfull matter you may guess Glory to God good will to men t' Earth peace When such a Song shall ever more be heard Or when such Choristers 't is to be fear'd The Saints are black and of another tone Hatred to men War and Destruction Upon the Sons o' th' Earth and yet they cry All 's done to the glory of God on High Away then Sheepherds to the humble place And kiss his feet view your sweet Saviours face What Glory shines about the Babe the Hay And Straw all on a fire make no such day The Beasts affrighted with such flames here gaze And run about the Infant as it blaze What need we care where us our Mothers lay A Manger is Gods Incunabula Mary incircled with a glorious Light Is in a cloud her self her thoughts in night Deliver'd of a Son but not of Doubt Her heart was joy'd but yet was pierc'd throughout Certain 't is hers uncertain how 't is hers Shee does believe 'fore Reason Faith preferrs The births of all men do depend upon Their Mothers here the Mother trusts the Son Whose Incarnation to himself was known And Mary Mothers it Father there 's none Upon S. Stephen the Proto-martyr HOw shall I write thy Legend who am all Extremely bad as bad as either Saul What though I threw no stones as Saul I had A hand in thy Lords Lords death and that 's as bad The Sins preceding present and to come Are all upon account the cursed summe And hand-writing against us which stood good Untill Christ had expung'd it with his Blood The Jewes cry'd Crucifie their voice prevailes But every Sin of mine was Goad and Nailes Mount Calvary the Stage the World the Cause And He condemn'd for our not keeping Lawes And every one that does profess that name Hath for his Badge Death Poverty and Shame While devout Stephen preaches him and spake A Poniard-Sermon made the heart to ake Like the smart penn'd Philippicks word and blow Th' eternal Life and Death of Cicero What is contriv'd his fate a Sermon friend Of truth doth th' utterer to th' Scaffold send But what should anger them Stephen you know Was no Apostle that 's no Bishop no He was a fervent Deacon had he been O' th' higher Form he 'd been the Man of Sin No Order scapes their malice no Degree Exempts the Clergie from their Tyranny If he speak truth and boldly reprehend Bishop or Deacon it shall be his end 'T is not thy Miracles or Wisdome Saint Though it convince them shall obtain a Grant They are o'recome convicted Guilt proves Rage Not onely then but now in this our Age. Look what a crew and crowd of Enemies Are rais'd against apparent Verities Which Libertines convene they will dispute And Sense and Wonders shan't a man confute Just like the enemies to David's Throne A line of wicked Combination Edom and Ishm'el Moab Hagarens Gebal and Ammon Tyre and Philistines Conspire 'gainst Iudah all so here a Nest Of Sectaries oppose the Truth profest And all in vain then to the old Designe Make a Malignant of the best Divine Blasphemer Innovator one that doth Act against God in words and the State both This will prevaile if that the people cry Iustice aloud good Stephen thou must die Thus do false cryers up o' th' Temple kill The truest Props and Churches Pillars still Upon S. John Evangelist and Apostle BElov'd Disciple pillow'd on the breast Of Christ which was a favour 'bove the rest From whence thou suck'dst sublime Divinity And soarst aloft with Eagles piercing eye Into the Mysteries of Faith To thee We owe the profound arguments whereby The Ebionites and Arrian Hereticks Socinians and their late invented tricks Are all confounded and whosoe're do fight Against Christs Incarnation or his Right In the Blest Trinity th' c Eternal Word As in a scabbard is inclos'd a sword Couch'd in the Flesh shewn thorow that shadowing veyle And 'bove the Hood the Glory did prevail It was not possible to shrowd him so But by his works his Father he must know He prov'd his Father by his wondrous Deeds Than those his Acts there need no other Creeds Believe me for my Works they 'r his own words These speak me God these speak me onely Lord. To make men eyes and legs were blind and lame It is as to create the very same To raise the dead to life redeem restore To raise himself from death what would you more More if he would have done his own self saith Could not if what he did would not gain Faith The reason of this Unbelief 't is this Men hated Light for its discoveries Mischiefs in Lanthorns lodge in Mists and clouds And flie whatsoe're their dark designs inshrowds Deluding Oracles are dumb when Truth Doth speak the Divel himself hath ne'r a mouth When that the Word Essential is in place Darkness and Light can't joyn Malice and Grace Forc'd and extort confessions may come From Devils themselves who would like men be dumb But when th' Effective Word exerts its pow'rs Both Devils and Men must then be Confessors But in his Umbrage of Divinity These combin'd parties dare affront him high Call him a VVine-bibber companion With Publicans and Sinners any one Harlots Samaritans he made no choice Rather with Poor then Pharisees rejoyce Christ was no Seperatist onely from Sin He liv'd up Love and preach'd Communion in So did his lov'd Apostle whose works show The Fountain whence those streames of love did flow How sweet his Trias of Epistles run And to his last he sang as he begun Love one another when his aged eyes By guides came to his Pulpit-offices Love one another his last text so prove Your selves to be of God to be in love So ended this Saints life for he alone Escap'd the Cross the Fire the Sword the Stone Of all the Twelve yet was the Caldron heat And the amanded Fires did streight retreat And could not hurt his Sacred Person for Long life was promis'd by his Saviour Not a No Death as was mistook so he In Patmos was an Exile then did die VVhere lies the Body of this Sacred Man Banish't to th' Isle by proud Domitian Upon the death of the Innocents LOe here a company of sucking Saints Suffring before the knowledge of their wants Their Saviours Proxies Vicar-Sacrifice Whilst He by Angels guide to Aegypt flies Aegypt the succour now of Israel Which did to its own cost them once expell Away false gods and Garden Deities No Superstition neer this cradle lies The Land is Goshen all and Light by thee And cursed Cham a greater Child doth see Then Moses or that fam'd Interpreter Made the chief Ruler from a prisonar Not so in Israel where the cruel King Slayes without mercy every sucking thing Nor spares his own young Infants but lets Rage Arm it self keen 'gainst that Innocent Age As if the Land were
with this damnable Doctrine the Lees of the Cup of the Lady of Babylon How far short are our Sectarians at home who hold not forth indeed a Golden Cup but a worse an Antinomial Cup which if the Princes of this World drink the rough emetick will make them void all the just prerogatives belonging to their sacred Authorities Up comes first the Militia without which Kings are as powerful as our Saviour with his Reed in his hand Arundinem pro Sceptro they must hold forth a Bulrush instead of a Scepter The next reach or straine of this vomitary Purge is Potestas vitae naecis without which there can be no Magistrate the Administration of Justice the Dispensations of Rewards and Punishments being the Charter of God delegated to his servant the King for the encouragement of the good and punishment of evil persons The third operation is as bad which fetches all his jurisdiction Ecclesiastical up at one heave and throwes that precious Right into the Classical Bason first and then into the great Caldron of a Provincial Synod in which his own head must boil if he dissent from that Consistorian sentence and Assembly suffrage What Jew what Loyolist of Ignatius could ever desire more These are the Abisgah of our Adonirams Adonijah's humble petition to his Majesty and let his answer be as I hope his wisdome is like Solomon's aske the Kingdome also to be tripartite and divided betwixt Abiathar a covenanting Presbyter and Ioab the Son of Zervia a traiterous Generall So let the King serve them as Solomon did who dare to intreat him from his power with bended knees and hands lift up to Heaven yet carry short swords to destroy the loyal Abners the Kings most trusty and well-beloved friends So let the King displace such Abiathars who not subscribing to the enacted Lawes of the Land under pretence of weak conscience have the consciences to disturb the Peace of the Land and affront the Government thereof There is no fear Royal Sir that your Majestick Brother should want Zadocks Orthodox and Loyal Priests For look Sir in the Cave where God hath hid from cruel persecution five thousand who never bowed to the Baal of those dayes nor fell down to worship the Calfe though made of the Ear-rings Whistles Bodkins and Silver Spoons of the deluded Sisters of the Nation Let them bite upon the bit and stoop to the sentence of the house of Eli and Abiathar till they snap at a morsel of bread out of the inferiour tables belonging to your High Priests If upon any threats or solicitations these Prerogatives be parted with then take heed of a Tolle crucifige away with him crucifie him as your Martyr'd Father saith in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kings once divested of their power are soon imprisoned and then murdered For truly Royal Sir the Lives of Princes run almost parallel with their Saviours Their whole Reignes are but continued Passions Damocles did well in his Item of Regal Care and Danger to suspend a naked Sword with the point downward by a slender twist over his head as he sate at table How early was thy Persecution my deare Redeemer when thy Cradle was not free from a murtherous Herod whose life he so much thirsted for that many Hecatombs of Infants were musthered for fear Thy tender Person should escape That streame of Innocent Blood was praeludium to the Death of the Lamb that the Red Sea wherein thou didst float to Aegypt which harbour'd Thee in Thy flight the onely Goshen of the Land No Pharaoh's daughter now to suckle this Divine Exile but Angels were thy Rockers and Nurses and the Apis of Aegypt I mean the Cow was prostrate and fed the onely Via Lactea or milky way to Heaven Herod dead and the Wise men thy Worshippers Star-guided home thou didst return to thy Ierusalem a while to preach anon to die 'T is true indeed the loaf-fed multitude very pious by qualmes and fits especially when their bellies are full would have made an earthly Prince of the King of Heaven But Thou that knewest the danger of such Principalities didst flie from a Scepter with more hast then Richard the Third came to it of whom it is storied That he came from the womb with his feet forward and he made wicked speed and in a crimson flood swom to the Crowne which he did not long enjoy the Duke of Richmond soon after avenging the blood of his slain Kindred in Bosworth Field which was his just Aceldama Just got Diadem Regal Inheritances are insecure but ill acquired Thrones never sit safe and Tyrants seldome make a drie end but are wet and bedewed in blood to their graves Neque enim Lex justior ulla est Quam necis artifices arte perire sua 'T is just th' Inventers of great Torments have The Executions they to others gave There is a Bull for a Phalaris nay his owne Bull a Thomaris for Cyrus a Gibbet for Haman an Axe for a Bloody Rump and a Pole Rampant higher then the rest for an aspiring Oliver Our Saviour said His Kingdome was not of this world he was Lord over it Lord Paramount and these the Fifth Monarchists who so much contend for his reign upon earth though they make themselves onely his subjects shall never see their adopted King whom the Heaven of Heavens must contain untill all Kingdomes Levellers and all are levelled with the Earth He came not to wear a Crown of Gold but Thorns which made his head so many Fontinells of blood every prick opening an Orifice whence issued salvation to the world In the Garden this bloody Fight began when by his strong apprehension of the imminent danger he sweat thick drops of blood the soveraigne water of that Garden then he prayed that man of sorrow deprecated that that Cup might pass Vox hominem sonat the Prayer shewes him Man but his Suffering and his Submission God not My will not the will of me as Man for what man can court Death but thine and my will as God be done Therefore his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his vehement Groaning and Weeping were the strong and emphatick Emanations of his sad Soul laden with the Sins of the whole earth as a Cart is laden with sheaves in which are millions of millions of Grains the complicated vices of the Seed of Adam so was this Winepress-treader burthened who alone trod the Grapes in garments sprinkled with his own Blood Can we heare this and not compassionate weep Daughters of Ierusalem a little for him but more for your selves for whose defections whose spiritual Fornications for whose Pride and Luxury Covetousnesse and Hypocrisie this Hen that so oft would have gathered you as Chickens under his healing wings is pull'd and torn to pieces hash'd by barbarous Souldiers and tumultuous villaines If we can let us with watery eyes follow the pomp and prowess of his Sufferings through Water and Tears Objects are magnified but this Shew
Lands See now what a Pharaoh's Dream is new interpreted the lean Kine the meanest basest and worst wretches of the land eat up the Fat the Rich the Fortunate and what becomes of the lowing of these Oxen the bleating of these Sheep Alas ye fooles ye saw not the hand-writing on the wall your Mene Tekel was then set up and your fatnesse onely prepared you for the slaughter Saginati in caedem Mischiefs feed Like Beasts till they be fat and then they bleed A MEDITATION Upon the 29th of May being His Majesty's Birth-Day and Day of Restauration and upon the Fifth of November being the day of the General Deliverance of the King and Parliament from the Gunpowder-Treason IF the noyse of Ioy were not as loud as that of Treason we should not on this day hear the news of our own Redemption said a learned Arch-deacon of Christ Church and to quote an eminent Prelate of the same House I shall borrow a little Preface from him also and say Sicut infra sic supra Sicut extra sic intra as the Mine of the first Treason was in a cellar and below the House so the second which was no lesse in intention and higher in execution was in the House it self where depraved and most wicked persons out-gunpowdered the Popish Conspirators What those intended these acted the Conclave was but the Antimasque to the Consistory If ever Lenthall the faithless Speaker spoke any thing true it was that the Presbyterians were and are the mortal enemies to Monarchy This was no extorted confession but the words of a dying sinner affraid of the account he was to make to him by whom Kings reign His vast Estate could not quiet a troubled conscience nor will Brandywine though it intoxicate for the present comfort or relieve a Harrison or a Hugh Peters Sir Henry Vane saying he died a Presbyterian shewed he died a Rebel in Grain and in his confession aggrevated his Sin against God and entail'd to that Faction I believe the Prick-ear'd Knight thought to see a new War out of the Elysian fields where he Cromwel Ireton and Bradshaw are dancing a Fiery Morris and the three Furies playing upon severe instruments to their deplored Changes Let not any man or party think that evil is or ought to be done that good may come of it when it is contrary to the expresse words of the Text no man is able or can or must bring good events out of bad actions 't is onely God can do that and alwayes does who over-ruling all designes and suffering high mischiefs for ends best known to himself doth and providentially did confound the Presbyterian Contrivances by an Anabaptistical Army and that Army by an Indigent Rump and an almost beggar'd City and the sound rather then the power of an Army and so restored without a blow a most Heroick Prince to the Rights which every one of those Factions had deprived his Father of Who I pray but God blasted the Councils of Achitophel dethroned the hotspur Absalon intrapped the politick Adonijah and his Second Ioab the revolted Captain of the Host of Israel Men may plot but God orders the event What are the tutelary Angels of Kingdomes for but to execute his Will and to over-rule the mad enterprizes of ambitious covetous and blood-thirstymen Nor doe I write this because of the joyfull event onely but in the midst of the Usurpers glory it was my faith though I could not assure my selfe the sight of it that it would be brought to pass These are thy Doing O God and it is wonderfull in our eyes let our hearts be enlarged with thankfulness as thy favours are amplified above our deserts Honourable mention is made by the Parliament for the 29th of May and in everlasting memory will be the fifth of November Here the Grandfather Uncle and Father of our King was preserved from the blow of unruly fire and now the joy of our hearts the breath of our nostrils wonderfully brought in into a gasping and almost expiring Kingdome Ezekiels Vision acted to the life bones carcases Skelitons are re-enlivened reflesh'd and walking not like trees but trees reverst men indeed Royalists the reputed off-scouring of this Nation in Feathers Velvet Jumps and Gold Belts as if it had been their Resurrection day an Army but a moneth ago in pay against their Prince the loyal Reer-guard of his Majesty's person Red-coats that routed him at Worcester and my heroick Duke at Dunkirk houting and shouting loud Vive le Roy's tossing their caps for joy that he was come again to them whom God would exalt The Devils extorted confession of our Saviour was the effect of a Divine Power and these Acclamations were the Finger-work of God who can turn the hearts of men as it pleaseth him best who stills the raging of the people and allayes the foaming of the Sea Let us therefore cry Salvation to him that sitteth on the Throne setteth in the Throne Let our Amen be as a clap of Thunder and our Hallelujahs as the roaring of the Sea Let the harmony of our Souls out-voice the Organs and let the Anthem of all true Englishmen be as that sometimes of the Angels at the Birth of Christ so now at his Restitution to this Island Glory be to God on high good will to men and peace on earth Let the Discontented no more repine at what the Lord hath brought about let them not fight against Heaven but imitate this story of Philip the husband of Queen Mary who when he heard of the loss of his formidable Armado dispersed and scattered by the Fleet of Queen Elizabeth but as it was related to him by a Tempest he patiently said He did not send his Navy to fight against God Almighty The 29. of May be ever as the Spring it self for Glory a day of all Ornaments Feasts and Jubilee for two such great Blessings a Prince born and a Prince reborn without a Baptism of Blood to his Crown of Inheritance Caesar came to a Dictator-ship through a Pharsalia Field of Blood But here was no Feri faciem Miles Strike at their faces Souldiers but rather a Parce civibus an Act of Indemnity which every Citizen should wear in their hats to expiate for the Libellous Petitions they sometimes so carried In that Oblivion let the triumphs for two seditious Barrabbas's Burton and Bastwick be for ever forgot and let the cursed Hue and Cry maker be forgiven and his Exit Tyrannorū ultimus be washed out of his conscience as it is exploded from the Statue Let the Crucifige of the Souldiers be drowned in their Vivat Rex and let the Pouder of the Petropolitans be buried in the earth from whence it is made even in that cellar where it was barrell'd up for King and Parliaments destruction Let the Restoring of a true persecuted Church inform the Roman Catholicks that This is Mother of the true Children the Common Prayers add good Preaching which the Dragon of