gales Distend thy sheet and wing thy flying sailes That all designes which must on thee embark May be securely plac't as in the Ark. May'st thou where ere thy streamers shall display Enforce the bold disputers to obey That they whose pens are sharper then their swords May yield in fact what they deny'd in words Thus when th' amazed world our Seas shall see Shut from Usurpers to their own Lord free Thou may'st returning from the conquer'd Main With thine own Triumphs be crown'd Soveraign AN EPITAPH On his most honoured Friend Richard Earl of Dorset LEt no profane ignoble foot tread neer This hallow'd peece of earth Dorset lies here A small sad relique of a noble spirit Free as the air and ample as his merit Whose least perfection was large and great Enough to make a common man compleat A soul reâ—in'd and cull'd from many men That reconcil'd the sword unto the pen Using both well No proud forgetting Lord But mindful of mean names and of his word One that did love for honour not for ends And had the noblest way of making friends By loving first One that did know the Court Yet understood it better by report Then practice for he nothing took from thence But the kings favour for his recompence One for religion or his countreys good That valu'd not his Fortune nor his blood One high in fair opinion rich in praise And full of all we could have wisht but dayes He that is warn'd of this and shall forbear To vent a sigh for him or lend a tear May he live long and scorn'd unpiti'd fall And want a mourner at his funerall The Exequy ACcept thou Shrine of my dead Saint Insteed of Dirges this complaint And for sweet flowres to crown thy hearse Receive a strew of weeping verse From thy griev'd friend whom thou might'st see Quite melted into tears for thee Dear loss since thy untimely fate My task hath been to meditate On thee on thee thou art the book The library whereon I look Though almost blind For thee lov'd clay I languish out not live the day Using no other exercise But what I practise with mine eyes By which wet glasses I find out How lazily time creeps about To one that mourns this onely this My exercise and bus'ness is So I compute the weary houres With sighs dissolved into showres Nor wonder if my time go thus Backward and most preposterous Thou hast benighted me thy set This Eve of blackness did begeâ— Who was 't my day though overcast Before thou had'st thy Noon-tide past And I remember must in tears Thou scarce had'st seen so many years As Day tells houres By thy cleer Sun My love and fortune first did run But thou wilt never more appear Folded within my Hemisphear Since both thy light and motion Like a fled Star is fall'n and gon And twixt me and my soules dear wish The earth now interposed is Which such a strange eclipse doth make As ne're was read in Almanake I could allow thee for a time To darken me and my fad Clime Were it a month a year or ten I would thy exile live till then And all that space my mirth adjourn So thou wouldst promise to return And putting off thy ashy shrowd At length disperse this sorrows cloud But woe is me the longest daâ—e Too narrow is to calculate These empty hopes never shall I Be so much blest as to descry A glimpse of thee till that day come Which shall the â—arth to cinders doome And a fierce Feaver must calcine The body of this world like thine My Little World that fit of fire Once off our bodies shall aspire To our soules bliss then we shall rise And view our selves with cleerer eyes In that calm Region where no night Can hide us from each others sight Mean time thou hast her earth much good May my harm do thee Since it stood With Heavens will I might not call Her longer mine I give thee all My short-liv'd right and interest In her whom living I lov'd best With a most free and bounteous grief I give thee what I could not keep Be kind to her and prethee look Thou write into thy Dooms-day book Each parcell of this Rarity Which in thy Casket shrin'd doth ly See that thou make thy reck'ning streight And yield her back again by weight For thou must audit on thy trust Each graine and atome of this duâ—t As thou wilt answer Him that lent Not gave thee my dear Monument So close the ground and 'bout her shade Black curtains draw my Bride is laid Sleep on my Love in thy cold bed Never to be disquieted My last good night Thou wilt not wake Till I thy fate shall overtake Till age or grief or sickness must Marry my body to that dust It so much loves and fill the room My heart keeps empty in thy Tomb. Stay for me there I will not faile To meet thee in that hallow Vale. And think not much of my delay I am already on the way And follow thee with all the speed Desire can make or sorrows breed Each minute is a short degree And ev'ry houre a step towards thee Aâ— night when I betake to rest Next morn I rise neerer my Weâ—t Of life almost by eight houres saile Then when sleep breath'd his drowsie gale Thus from the Sun my Bottom stears And my dayes Compass downward bears Nor labour I to stemme the tide Through which to Thee I swiftly glide 'T is true with shame and grief I yield Thou like the Vann first took'st the field And gotten hast the victory In thus adventuring to dy Before me whose more years might crave A just precedence in the grave But heark My Pulse like a soft Drum Beats my approch tells Thee I come And slow howere my marches be I shall at last sit down by Thee The thought of this bids me go on And wait my dissolution With hope and comfort Dear forgive The crime I am content to live Divided with but half a heart Till we shall meet and never part The Anniverse AN ELEGY SO soon grown old hast thou been six years dead Poor earth once by my Love inhabited And must I live to calculate the time To which thy blooming youth could never climbe But fell in the ascent yet have not I Studi'd enough thy losses history How happy were mankind if Death's strict lawes Consum'd our lamentations like the cause Or that our grief turning to dust might end With the dissolved body of a friend But sacred Heaven O how just thou art In stamping deaths impression on that heart Which through thy favours would grow insolent Were it not physick't by sharp discontent If then it stand resolv'd in thy decree That still I must doom'd to a Desart be Sprung out of my lone thoughts which know no path But what my own misfortune beaten hath If thou wilt bind me living to a coarse And I must slowly waste I then of force Stoop to thy
ere he moves by land or through the Main These go along sworn members of his train But he whom the kind earth hath entertain'd Hath in her womb a sanctuary gain'd Whose charter and protection arm him so That he is priviledg'd from future woe The Coffin's a safe harbour where he rides Land-bound below cross windes or churlish tides For grief sprung up with life was mans half-brother Fed by the taste brought forth by sin the mother And since the first seduction of the wife God did decree to grief a lease for life Which Patent in full force continue must Till man that disobey'd revert to dust So that lifes sorrows ratifi'd by God Cannot expire or find their period Untill the soul and body disunite And by two diff'rent wayes from each take flight But they dissolved once our woes disband Th' assurance cancell'd by one fatall hand Soon as the passing bell proclaims me dead My sorrows sink with me lye buried In the same heap of dust the self-same Urn Doth them and me alike to nothing turn If then of these I might election make Whether I would refuse and whether take Rather then like a sullen Anchorite I would live cas'd in stone and learn to write A Prisoners story which might steal some tears From the sad eyes of him that reads or hears Give me a peaceful death and let me meet My freedom seal'd up in my winding sheet Death is the pledge of rest and with one bayl Two Prisons quits the Body and the Jayl The Labyrinth LIfe is a crooked Labyrinth and we Are daily lost in that Obliquity 'T is a perplexed circle in whose round Nothing but sorrows and new sins abound How is the faint impression of each good Drown'd in the vicious Channel of our blood Whose Ebbes and tides by their vicissitude Both our great Maker and our selves delude O wherefore is the most discerning eye Uâ—â—pt to make its own discovery Why is the clearest and best judging mind In her own ills prevention dark and blind Dull to advise to act precipitate We scarce think what to do but when too late Or if we think that fluid thought like seed Rots there to propagate some fouler deed Still we repent and sin sin and repent We thaw and freeze we harden and relent Those fires which cool'd to day the morrows heat Rekindles Thus frail nature does repeat What she unlearnt and still by learning on Perfects her lesson of confusion Sick soul what cure shall I for thee devise Whose leprous state corrupts all remedies What medicine or what cordial can be got For thee who poyson'st thy best antidot Repentance is thy bane since thou by it Onely reviv'st the fault thou didst commit Nor griev'st thou for the past but art in pain For fear thou mayst not act it o're again So that thy tears like water spilt on lime Serve not to quench but to advance the crime My blessed Saviour unto thee I flie For help against this homebred tyrannie Thou canst true sorrows in my soul imprint And draw contrition from a breast of flint Thou canst reverse this labyrinth of sin My wild affects and actions wander in O guide my faith and by thy graces clew Teach me to hunt that kingdom at the view Where true joyes reign which like their day shall last Those never clouded nor that overcast Being waked out of my sleep by a snuff of Candle which offended me I thus thought PErhaps 't was but conceit Erroneous sence Thou art thine own distemper and offence Imagine then that sick unwholsom steam Was thy corruption breath'd into a dream Nor is it strange when we in charnells dweâ—â— That all our thoughts of earth and frailty smell Man is a Candle whose unhappy light Burns in the day and smothers in the night And as you see the dying taper waste By such degrees does he to darkness haste Here is the diff'rence When our bodies lamps Blinded by age or choakt with mortall damps Now faint and dim and sâ—ckly 'gin to wink And in their hollow sockets lowly sink When all our vital fires ceasing to burn Leave nought but snuff and ashes in our Urn God will restore those fallen lights again And kindle them to an Eternal flame Sic Vita LIke to the falling of a Starre Or as the flights of Eagles are Or like the fresh springs gawdy hew Or silver drops of morning dew Or like a wind that chafes the-flood Or bubbles which on water stood Even such is man whose borrow'd light Is streight call'd in and paid to night The wind blowes out the Bubble dies The Spring entomb'd in Autumn lies The Dew dries up the Starre is shot The Flight is past and Man forgot My Midnight Meditation ILL busi'd man why should'st thou take such care To lengthen out thy lifes short Kalendar When e'ry spectacle thou lookst upon Presents and acts thy execution Each drooping season and each flower doth cry Fool as I fade and wither thou must dy The beating of thy pulse when thou art well Is just the tolling of thy Passing Bell Night is thy Hearse whose sable Canopie Covers alike decâ—ased day and thee And all those weeping dewes which nightly fall Are but the tears shed for thy funerall A Penitential Hymne HEarken O God unto a Wretches cryes Who low dejected at thy footstool lies Let not the clamour of my heinous sin Drown my requests which strive to enter in At those bright gates which alwaies open stand To such as beg remission at thy hand Too well I know if thou in rigour deal I can nor pardon ask nor yet appeal To my hoarse voice heaven will no audience grant But deaf as brass and hard as adamant Beat back my words therefore I bring to thee A gracious Advocate to plead for me What though my leprous soul no Iordan can Recure nor flouds of the lav'd Ocean Make clean yet from my Saviours bleeding side Two large and medicinable rivers glide Lord wash me where those streams of life abound And new Bethesdaes flow from ev'ry wound If I this precious Lather may obtain I shall not then despair for any stain I need no Gileads balm nor oyl nor shall I for the purifying Hyssop call My spots will vanish in His purple flood And Crimson there turn white though washt with blood See Lord with broken heart and bended knee How I address my humble suit to Thee O give that suit admittance to thy ears Which floats to thee not in my words but tears And let my sinful soul this mercy crave Before I fall into the silent grave AN ELEGY Occasioned by sickness VVEll did the Prophet ask Lord what is man Implying by the question none can But God resolve the doubt much less define What Elements this child of dust combine Man is a stranger to himself and knowes Nothing so naturally as his woes He loves to travel countreys and confer The sides of Heavens vast Diameter Delights to sit in Nile or Boetis
Gold And 't is no wonder if with such a Sum Our Brethrens frailty might be overcome VVhat though hereafter it may prove their Lot To be compared with Iscariot Yet will the VVorld perceive which was most wise And who the Nobler Traitor by the Price For though 't is true Both did Themselves undo They made the better Bargain of the Two VVhich all may reckon who can difference Two hundred thousand Pounds from Thirty Pence However something is in Justice due VVhich may be spoken in defence of You For in your Masters Purchase you gave more Than all your Iewish Kindred paid before And had you wisely us'd what then you bought Your Act might be a Loyal Ransome thought To free from Bonds your Captive Soveraign Restoring Him to his lost Crown again But You had other Plots your busie hate Ply'd all advantage on His fallen State And shew'd Yoâ— did not come to bring Him Bayl But to remove Him to a stricter Gaol To Holmby first whence taken from His Bed He by an Army was in Triumph led Till on pretence of safety Cromwel's wile Had juggl'd Him into the Fatal Isle VVhere Hammond for his Jaylor is decreed And Murderous Rols as Lieger-Hangman fee'd VVho in one fatal Knot Two Counsels tye He must by Poison or by Pistol Dye Here now deny'd all Comforts due to Life His Friends His Children and His Peerless VVife From Carisbrook He oft but vainly sends And though first Wrong'd seeks to make you Amends For this He 〈◊〉 and by his râ—stless Pen Importâ—nes Yoâ—r deaf Eâ—rs to Treat agen VVâ—ilst th◠〈◊〉 Faction scorning to go less Return thâ—s◠〈◊〉 Votes of Non Adâ—ress VVhich 〈◊〉 were by th' Armies thundring To 〈…〉 agâ—inst the King Yâ—t whâ—n 〈◊〉 râ—mov'd and the clear Light Drawn fâ—â—m 〈…〉 Reasons gave You sight O◠〈◊〉 own 〈◊〉 had not Their Intents Reâ—ardâ—d bâ—en by sâ—mâ— crâ—ss Accidents VVhich 〈◊〉 a while with fâ—rtunate 〈◊〉 Châ—câ—'d 〈◊〉 divâ—râ—â—d Their swoln Insâ—lâ—nce When the whole Kingdom fâ—r a Treaty cry'◠〈…〉 Tha◠〈…〉 Votes and God once mâ—râ— Your 〈…〉 Kingdome did restore Remâ—mbâ—r how 〈…〉 Treatâ—r◠〈◊〉 Not to 〈◊〉 Pâ—acâ— but to proâ—ong Dâ—bâ—te How Yoâ— that precious time at first dâ—lâ—y'd And what ill â—se of Your advantage made As if from Yoâ—r 〈◊〉 Hâ—nds God had decreed Nothin◠〈◊〉 War and Mischiâ—f should succâ—ed Fâ—r whâ—n by â—â—sy Graâ—â—s the Kings Assent Did your Desirâ—â— in greater things prevent Whâ—n 〈…〉 yield â—â—ster than You intreat And mâ—râ— thâ—n Modâ—sty dares well repeat Yet not content with this withoâ—t all sense Or of His Honoâ—â— or His Conscienâ—e Still you prest on till you too late descry'd 'T was now less safe to stay than be deny'd For like a Flood broke loose the Armed Rout Then Shut Him closâ—r up And Shut You out Who by just Vengâ—ance are since Worried By those Hand-wolâ—es Yoâ— for His Ruine bred Thus like Two smoaking Firebâ—ands You and They Have in this Smother choak'd the Kingdom 's Day And aâ— you rais'd Them first mâ—st shave the Guilt With all the Blood in those Distractionâ— spilt For though with 〈◊〉 Foxes backward turn'd When he Philistia's fruitfull Harvâ—st burn'd The fâ—ce of yoâ—r Opinion stands averse All yor Coâ—clâ—sions bâ—t one Fire disperse And â—very Line which carries your Designs In thâ— sâ—mâ— Centre of Confâ—sion joyns Thoâ—gh then the Iâ—dâ—pendants end the Work 'T is known they took theâ—r Platform from the Kirk Though Pilâ—te Brâ—dshâ—w with his pack of Jews God'â— High Vice-gâ—râ—nt at the Bar accuse They but râ—viv'd the Evidâ—nce and Charge Yoâ—r poys ' noâ—s Dâ—clâ—ratâ—ons laid at large Though they Condemn'd or made his Life their Spoil Yoâ— were the Sâ—tters forc'd him to the Toil For you whose fatal hand the Warrant writ The Prisoner did for Execution fit And if their Ax invade the Regal Throat Remember you first Murther'd Him by Vote Thus they receive your Tennis at the bound Take off that Head which you had first Un-crown'd Which shews the Texture of our Mâ—schiefs Clew If Ravell'd to the Top begins in You Who have for ever stâ—in'd the brave Intents And Credit of our English Pâ—â—liâ—ments And in this One caus'd greaâ—â—r â—lls and more Than all of theirs did Good that went bâ—fore Yet have You kept your word against Your will Your King is Great indeed and Glorious still And You have made Him so We must impute That Lustre which His Sufferings contribute To your preposterous Wisdoms who have done All your good Deeds by Contradiction For as to work His Peace you rais'd this Strifâ— And often Shot at Him to Save His Life As you took from Him to Encrease His wealth And kept Him Pris'ner to secure His Health So in revenge of your dissembled Spight In this last Wrong you did Him greatest Right And cross to all You meant by Plucking down Liâ—ted Him up to His Eternal Crown With this Encircled in that radiant Sphear Where thy black Murtherers must ne'r appear Thou from th'enthroned Martyrs Blood-stain'd Line Dost in thy Virtues bright Example shine And when thy Darted Beam from the moist Sky Nightly salutes thy grieving Peoples Eye Thou like some Warning Light rais'd by our fears Shalt both provoke and still supply our Tears Till the Great Propâ—et wak'd from his long Sleep Again bids Sion for Iosiah weep That all Successions by a firm Decree May teach their Children to Lament for Thee Beyond these Mournfull Rites there is no Art Or Cost can Thee preserve Thy better Part Lives in despight of Death and will enduâ—e Kept safe in thy Unpattern'd Portraicture Which though in Paper drawn by thine own Hand Shall longer than Corinthian-Marble stand Or Iron Sculptures There thy matchless Pen Speaks Thee the Best of Kings as Best of Men Be this Thy Epitaph for This alone Deserves to carry Thy Inscription And 't is but modest Truth so may I thrive As not to plâ—ase the Best of thine Alive Or flatter my Dead Master here would I Pay my last Duty in a Glorious Lye In that Admired Piece the World may read Thy Virtues and Misfortunes Storied Which bear such curious Mixture Men must doubt Whether Thou Wiser wert or more Devout There live Blest Relick of a Saint-like mind With Honours endless as Thy Peace Enshrin'd Whilst we divided by that Blooâ—y Cloud Whose purple Mists Thy Murther'd Body shroud Here stay behind at gaze Apt for Thy sake Unrâ—ly murmâ—rs now 'gainst Heav'n to make Which binds us to Live well yet gives no Fence To Guard her dearest Sons from Violence But He whose Trump proclaims Revenge is mine Bids us our Sorrow by our Hope confine And reconcile our Reason to our Faith Which in thy Ruine such Conclusions hath It dares Conclude God does not keep His Word If Zimri dye in Peace that slew his Lord. From my sad Retirement March 11. 1648. CAROLUS STUART REX ANGLIAE SECURE COESUS VITA CESSIT TRICESSIMO IANUARII * Resurgam * Magis triumphati â—â—uam â—victi Tacit. de nor Ger. * Sr. Edwin Sandys survay of religion in the West Ioh. Ecclâ—siastes â—he Act of â—arliament â—or publick 〈…〉 on the â—â—fth of Noâ—emb set to tune by â— Dod a tradesman of London at the end of his Psalmes which stole â—om the Press Anno Domini 1620. Hymns Lamentat Psalmes * Non nasci aut quà m citissimè mori * Belshazar Dan. 5. * Sir George Lisle at Newbury charged in his Shirt and Routed them * Patroclus * Famagosta defended most Valiantly by Signior Bragadino in the time of Selymus 2d. was upon Honourable terms surrendred to Mustapha the Bashaw who observing no Conditions at his Tent Murthered the Principal Commanders invited thither under shew of Love and slayed Bragadine Alive * The Swedes hired Anno 164. to invade the King of Denmark provided to assist his Nephew the King of England * See the Letter sent to Edward Earl of Manchester Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore from T. Fairfax Dated August 29. 1648. at Hieth * Wat-Tyler and his coâ—plices design was to take away the King and chief Men and to erect petty Tyrannies to themselves in every Shire And already one Littistarâ— a Dyar had taken upon him in Norfolk the Name of King of Commons and Robert Westborâ— in Sastolk Rich. 2. Anno 1381. Speed * Aâ— St. Fagans in Glamorganshire near Cardiff The Welsh unarmed were taken in very great Numbers and Sold for twelve pence a piece to certain Merchants who bought them for Slaves to their Plantation * Grimes now a Captain formerly a Tinker at St. Albans with his own hand Killed four of the Prisoners being not able for Faintaess to go on with the rest of which number Lieutenant Woodward was oâ—e Likâ—wise at Thame and at Whateley some others were Kill'd 1 Kings 2. 32. vers 〈…〉 Call'd the Councel of Troubles The form of taking the Covenant June 1643. 〈…〉 lib. â— Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom Dec. 15. 1641. Ord. Feb. 29. Voted March 15. The Nivy seiz'd Mar. 28. 1642. The London Tumults Jan. 10. 1641. * At Basing-Chapel Sold Dec. 29. 1643. * At Winchester Lactant. â— l. 2. c. 4. Iulian. Praefectus Aegypti Theodoret. l. 3. c. 11. ibid. Gâ—nguin l. 6. The Carpet belonging to the Commâ—â—ioâ— Table of Winchester Cathedral Dec. 18. 1642. Adrian Emp. At Winchcomb in Glocestershâ—re Whitehall Windsor Feb. 3. 1643. E. of Essex Army Aug. 1. 1642. The Standard at Notingham Aug. 25. 1642. June 27. 1643. Declaration and Resolution of Parl. Aug. 15. 1642. History of English and Scotish Presbytery p. 3â—0 The 19 Propos. April 27. 1646. May 5. 1646. This Order publish'd by beat of Drum May 4. 1646. Jan. 3. 1647. Jan. 9. 1647. Câ—â—chester Siâ—ge Junâ— 30. 1648. Treâ—ty Vâ—ted Julyâ—8 â—8 1648.
from her look Then that she henceforth Canonize your book A Rule to all her travellers and you The brave example from whose equal view Each knowing Reader may himself direct How he may go abroad to some effect And not for form what distance and what trust In those remoâ—er parts observe he must How he with jealous people may converse Yet take no hurt himself by that commerce So when he shall imbark'd in dangers be Which wit and wary caution not foresee If he partake your valour and your brain He may perhaps come safely off again As you have done though not so richly fraught As this return hath to our Staple brought I know your modesty shuns vulgar praise And I have none to bring but onely raise This monument of Honour and of Love Which your long known deserts so far improve They leave me doubtfull in what style to end Whether more your admirer or your friend To my honoured Friend Mr. George Sandys IT is Sir a confest intrusion here That I before your labours do appear Which no loud Herald need that may proclaim Or seek acceptance but the Authors fame Much less that should this happy work commend Whose subject is its licence and doth send It to the world to be receiv'd and read Far as the glorious beams of truth are spread Nor let it be imagin'd that I look Onely with Customes eye upon your book Or in this service that 't was my intent T'exclude your person from your argument I shall profess much of the love I ow Doth from the root of our extraction grow To which though I can little contribute Yet with a naturall joy I must impute To our Tribes honouâ— what by you is done Worthy the title of a Prelates son And scarcely have two brothers farther borne A Fathers name or with more value worne Their own then two of you whose pens and feet Have made the distant Points of Heav'n to meet He by exact discoveries of the West Your self by painful travels in the East Some more like you might pow'rfully confute Th'opposers of Priests marriage by the fruit And since t is known for all their streight vow'd life They like the sex in any style but wise Cause them to change their Cloyster for that State Which keeps men chaste by vowes legitimate Nor shame to father their relations Or under Nephews names disguise their sons This Child of yours born without spurious blot And fairly Midwiv'd as it was begot Doth so much of the Parents goodness wear You may be proud to own it for your Heir Whose choice acquits you from the common sin Of such who finish worse then they begin You mend upon your self and your last strain Does of your first the start in judgment gain Since what in curious travel was begun You here conclude in a devotion Where in delightful raptures we descâ—y As in a Map Sions Chorography Laid out in so direct and smooth a line Men need not go about through Palestine Who seek Christ here will the streight Rode prefer As neerer much then by the Sepulchre For not a limb growes here but is a path Which in Gods City the blest Center hath And doth so sweetly on each passion strike The most fantastick taste will somewhat like To the unquiet soul Ioh still from hence Pleads in th' example of his patience The moâ—tify'd may hear the wise King preach When his repentance made him fit to teach Nor shall the singing Sisters be content To chant at home the Act of Parliament Turn'd out of reason into rhime by one Free of his trade though not of Helicon Who did in his Poetick zeal contend Others edition by a worse to mend Here are choice Hymnes and Carolls for the glad With melancholy Dirges for the sad And David as he could his skill transfer Speaks like himself by an interpreter Your Muse rekindled hath the Prophets fire And tun'd the strings of his neglected Lyre Making the Note and Ditty so agree They now become a perfect harmonie I must confess I have long wisht to see The Psalmes reduc'd to this conformity Grieving the songs of Sion should be sung In phrase not diff'ring from a barbatous tongue As if by custome warranted we may Sing that to God we would be loth to say Far be it from my purpose to upbraid Their honest meaning who first offer made That book in Meeter to compile which you Have mended in the form and built anew And it was well considering the time Which hardly could distinguish verse and rhime But now the language like the Church hath won More lustre since the Reformation None can condemn the wish or labour spent Good matter in good words to represent Yet in this jealous age some such there be So without cause afraid of novelty They would not were it in their pow'r to choose An old ill practise for a better lose Men who a rustick plainnesse so affect They think God served best by their neglect Holding the cause would be profan'd by it Were they at charge of learning or of wit And therefore bluntly what comes next they bring Course and unstudy'd stuffs for offering Which like th' old Tabernacles cov'ring are Made up of Badgers skins and of Goats haire But these are Paradoxes they muâ—t use Their sloth and bolder ignorance t' excuse Who would not laugh at one will naked go 'Cause in old hangings truth is pictur'd so Though plainness be reputed honours note They mantles use to beautify the coat So that a curious unaffected dress Addes much unto the bodies comeliness And wheresoere the subjects best the sence Is better'd by the speakers eloquence But Sir to you I shall no trophee raise From other mens detraction or dispraise That Jewel never had inherent worth Which askt such foils as these to set it forth If any quarrel your attempt or style Forgive them their own folly they revile Since 'gainst themselves their factious envy shall Allow this work of yours Canonicall Nor may you fear the Poets common â—ot Read and commended and then quite forgot The brazen Mines and Marble Rocks shall wast When your foundation will unshaken last 'T is fames best pay that you your labours see By their immortal subject crowned be For nere was writer in oblivion hid Who firm'd his name on such a Pyramid The Woes of Esay VVOe to the worldly men whose covetous Ambition labours to joyn house to house Lay field to field till their inclosures edge The Plain girdling a countrey with one hedge That leave no place unbought no piece of earth Which they will not ingross making a dearth Of all inhabitants untill they stand Unneighbour'd as unblest within their land This sin cryes in Gods ear who hath decreed The ground they sow shall not return the seed They that unpeopled countreys to create Themselves sole Lords made many desolate To build up their own house shall find at last Ruine
and fearful desolation cast Upon themselves Their Mansion shall become A Desart and their Palace prove a tombe Their vines shall barren be their land yield tares Their house shall have no dwellers they no heires Woe unto those that with the morning Sun Rise to drink wine and sit till he have run His weary course not ceasing untill night Have quencht their understanding with the light Whose raging thirst like fire will not be tam'â— The more they poure the more they are inflam'd Woe unto them that onely mighty are To wage with wine in which unhappy war They who the glory of the day have won Must yield them foil'd and vanquisht by the tuâ— Men that live thus as if they liv'd in jest Fooling their time with Musick and a feast That did exile all sounds from their soft ear But of the harp must this sad discord hear Compos'd in threats The feet which measures tread Shall in captivity be fettered Famine shall scourge them for their vast excess And Hell revenge their monstrous drunkenness Which hath enlarg'd it self to swallow such Whose throats nere knew enough though still too much Woe unto those that countenance a sin Siding with vice that it may credit win By their unhallow'd vote that do benight The truth with errour putting dark for light And light for dark that call an evil good And would by vice have vertue understood That with their frown can sowre an honest cause Or sweeten any bad by their applause That justify the wicked for reward And void of morall goodness or regard Plot with detraction to traduce the fame Of him whose merit hath enroll'd his name Among the just Therefore Gods vengeful ire Glows on his people and becomes a fire Whose greedy and exalted flame shall burn Till they like straw or chaffe to nothing turn Because they have rebell'd against the right To God and Law perversly opposite As Plants which Sun nor showres did ever bless So shall their root convert to rottenness And their successions bud in which they trust Shall like Gomorrahs fruit moulder to dust Woe unto those that drunk with self-conceit Value their own designs at such a rate Which humane wisdome cannot reach that sit Enthron'd as sole Monopolists of wit That out-look reason and suppose the eye Of Nature blind to their discovery Whil'st they a title make to understand What ever secret's bosom'd in the land But God shall imp their pride and let them see They are but fools in a sublime degree He shall bring down and humble those proud eyes In which false glasses onely they lookt wise That all the world may laugh and learn by it There is no folly to pretended wiâ— Woe unto those that draw iniquity With cords and by a vain security Lengthen the sinful trace till their own chain Of many links form'd by laborious pain Do pull them into Hell that as with lines And Cart-ropes drag on their unwilling crimes Who rather then they will commit no sin Tempt all occasions to let it in As if there were no God who must exact The strict account for â—'ry vicious fact Nor judgement after death If any be Let him make speed say they that we may see Why is his work retarded by delay Why doth himself thus linger on the way If there be any judge or future doome Let It and Him with speed together come Unhappy men that challenge and defie The coming of that dreadful Majestie Better by much for you he did reverse His purpos'd sentence on the Universe Or that the creeping minutes might adjourn Those flames in which you with the earth must burn That times revolting hand could lag the year And so put back his day which is too near Behold his sign 's advanc'd like colours fly To tell the world that his approch is nigh And in a furious march he 's coming on Swift as the raging inundation To scowre the sinful world 'gainst which is bent Artillery that never can be spent Bowes strung with vengeance and flame-feather'd darâ—s Headed with death to wound transgressing hearts His Chariot wheeles wrapt in the whirlewinds gyre ' His horses hoov'd with flint and shod with fire In which amaze where ere they fix their eye Or on the melting earth or up on high To seek Heavens shrunk lights nothing shall appear But night and horrour in their Hemisphere Nor shall th' affrighted sence more objects know Then darkned skies above and Hell below An Essay on Death and a Prison A Prison is in all things like a grave Where we no better priviledges have Then dead men nor so good The soul once fled Lives freer now then when she was cloystered In walls of flesh and though she organs want To act her swift designs yet all will grant Her faculties more clear now separate Then if the same conjunction which of late Did marry her to earth had stood in force Uncapable of death or of divorce But an imprison'd mind though living dies And at one time feels two captivities A narrow dungeon which her body holds But narrower body which her self enfolds Whil'st I in prison ly nothing is free Nothing enlarg'd but thought and miserie Though e'ry chink be stopt the doors close barr'd Despight of walls and locks through e'ry ward These have their issues forth may take the aire Though not for health but onely to compare How wretched those men are who freedom want By such as never suffer'd a restraint In which unquiet travel could I find Ought that might settle my distemper'd mind Or of some comfort make discovery It were a voyage well imploy'd but I Like our raw travellers that cross the seas To fetch home fashions or some worse disease Instead of quiet a new torture bring Home t' afflict me malice and murmuring What is 't I envy not no dog nor fly But my desires prefer and wish were I For they are free or if they were like me They had no sense to know calamitie But in the grave no sparks of envy live No hot comparisons that causes give Of quarrel or that our affections move Any condition save their own to love There are no objects there but shadeâ—s and night And yet that darkness better then the light There lives a silent harmony no jar Or discord can that sweeâ— soft consort mar The graves deaf ear is clos'd against all noise Save that which rocks must hear the angels voice Whose trump shall wake the world and raise up men Who in earths bosom slept bed-rid till then What man then would who on deaths pillow slumbers Be re-inspir'd with life though golden numbers Of bliss were pour'd into his breast though he Were sure in change to gain a Monarchie A Monarchs glorious state compar'd with his Less safe less free less firm less quiet is For nere was any Prince advanc't so high That he was out of reach of misery Never did story yet a law report To banish fate or sorrow from his Court Where