Selected quad for the lemma: power_n
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A66774
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A prophesie written long since for this yeare, 1641 wherein prelate-policie is proved to be folly : as also, many notable passages concerning the fall of some great church-men / written by a modern poet.
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Wither, George, 1588-1667.
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1641
(1641)
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Wing W3182A; ESTC R11664
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44,260
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90
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their Flocks are gorg'd at full And sumptuously arayed in their wooll But those that are diseas'd they make not strong Their sickliest sheepe they seldome come among They take no care the broken up to bind The Sheepe that 's lost they doe not seeke to find They let such wander as will run astray And many times their fury so doth fray The tender conscience that their indiscretion Doth fright their hearers headlong to perdition Gods bounty hath large pastorage provided But they have not his flocks with wisdome guided For in the midst of plenty some be ready To starve in ignorance Some sheepe are headdy Some get the staggers some the scab and they Infect their fellowes Some the wantons play Among the thornes and bryers which have torne The marks and fleeces which they should have worn Some straggle from the flock and they are straight Surpriz'd by Wolves which lye for them in wait Some sought large feeding and ranck pastures got Which prov'd not wholsome they caught the Rot For many preach themselves and fancies broach That scandall preaching to the Truths reproach Yea some terme that forsooth Gods word divine Which would halfe shame me should they terme it mine And they we see that longest pray and speake Are priz'd of most though head nor foot they make Because the common hearers of this Land Think best of that which least they understand Some also by their feet disturb the Springs Or trample and defile Gods pasturings And they are either such who make obscure Faiths principles or such whose lives impure Prophane their Doctrines Other some have we Who like the beasts that over-gamesome be Doe push their weaker brethren with their homes And hunt them from the flock by wrongs or scornes Gods houses also much neglected are And of his Sanctuaries few have care A barne or any common house or roome Is thought as well Gods worship to become As in the Churches infancy or there Where wants and wars and persecutions are Amidst our peace and plenties we doe grutch Our Oratories should be trimm'd as much As are our vulgar dwellings and repine That exercises which are most divine Should with more Rites or Ornaments be done Then when the troublous times afforded none As if a Garden when the flow'rs are blowne Were still to look as when it first was sowne To worship so in spirit we pretend That in our bodies we doe scarcely bend A leg or move a cap when there we be Where Gods most holy Mysteries we see Yea many seeme so carefull to have bin To let no Superstition enter in That they have almost wholly banisht hence All Decency and pious Reverence The Church by Lukewarme Christians is neglected By brutish Atho'sts it is disrespected By greedy Worldlings robbed of her fleeces By selfe-will'd Schismaticks nigh torne in pieces By Tyrants and by Infidels opposed By her blind Guides to hazard oft exposed By Hypocrites injuriously defamed And by the frailties of the best oft shamed A pow'r ecclesiasticall is granted To them full often who those minds have wanted Becomming such Authoritie and they Play fast and loose ev'n with the Churches Key They censure and absolve as best shall make For their advantage not for conscience sake As they shall please they punish or connive And by the peoples follies they doe thrive Of evill customes many are we see Insinuated and so strict are we To keep them that we sottishly deny To leave them for what more would edifie And we so much doe Innovations feare That needfull Reformations none appeare We have prophaned ev'ry holy thing Ev'n our most Christian Feasts which are to bring Gods Mercies to our thought and memorize Of Saving-Grace the sacred Mysteries Some have ev'n those gain-sayed and in that Have evill spoken of they know not what Some others keep them but as heathenishly As Feasts of Bacchus and impietie Is then so rife that God is rarely nam'd Or thought upon except to be blasphem'd By these and other wayes the Church doth lose Much honour to the glory of her foes And our great shame and losse for her decayes Shall be this Realmes disprofit and dispraise God hath a Controversie with our Land And in an evill plight affaires doe stand Already we doe smart for doing ill Yet us the hand of God afflicteth still And many see it not as many be So wilfull that his hand they will not see Some plainly view the same but nothing care Some at the sight thereof amazed are Like Balthazar and have a trembling heart Yet will not from their vanities depart About such matters other some are loth Their thoughts to busie meerely out of sloth Like him who rather would in hazard put His life than rise from bed the doore to shut Some dreame that all things doe by chance succeed And that I prate more of them than I need But Heav'n and Earth to witnesse I invoke That causlesly I nothing here have spoke If this oh sickly Iland thou beleeve And for thy great infirmitie shalt grieve And grieving of thy follies make confessions And so confesse thine infinite transgressions That thou amend those errors God shall then Thy manifold distempers cure agen Make all thy scarlet sins as white as snow And cast his threatned judgement on thy foe But if thou fondly thinking thou art well Shalt sleight this Message which my Muse doth tell And scorne her counsell If thou shalt not rue Thy former wayes but frowardly pursue Thy wilfull course then harke what I am bold In spight of all thy madnesse to unfold For I will tell thy Fortune which when they That are unborne shall read another day They will beleeve Gods mercy did infuse Thy Poets brest with a prophetick Muse And know that he this Author did prefer To be from him this Iles Remembrancer If thou I say oh Britaine shalt retaine Thy crying sinnes thou dost presume in vaine Of Gods protection If thou stop thine eare Or burne this Rowle in which recorded are Thy just Inditements it shall written be With new additions deeply stampt on thee With such Characters that no time shall race Their fatall image from thy scarred face Though haughtily thou dost thy selfe dispose Because the Sea thy borders doth enclose Although upon the Rocks thy neast is plac'd Though thou among the Stars thy dwelling hast Though thou encrease thy ships and unto that Which is thine owne with King Iehosaphat Joyne Ahabs forces Though thou watch and ward And all thy Ports and Havens strongly guard Although thou multiply thy inland forces And muster up large troups of men and horses Though like an Eagle thou thy wings display'st And high thy selfe advancing proudly say'st I sit aloft and am so high that none Can fetch me from the place I rest upon Yea though thou no advantages didst want Of which the glorioust Emperies did vaunt Yet sure thou shalt be humbled and brought low Ev'n then perhaps when least thou fear'st it so Till thou repent
whom all Governments ordained be And ev'ry Goverment although the Name Be different is in effect the same In Monarchies the Counsell as it were An Aristocracy one while doth beare The sway of all and though they name the King Yet him they over-rule in ev'ry thing Sometime againe the pop'lar voice we see Doth awe the Counsell when in them there be Some pop'lar Spirits Aristocracies Are otherwhile the same with Monarchies For one great man among them gets the pow'r From all the rest and like an Emperor Doth act his pleasure And we know t is common To have some foolish Favorite or Woman To governe him So in a pop'lar State Affaires are manag'd by the selfe same fate And either one or more away doe steale The peoples hearts and sway the Commonweale Thus God is pleas'd to humble and to raise Thus he by sev'rall names and sev'rall waies The world doth governe Yea thus ev'n in one nation And in one State he makes much alteration In formes of Goverment of changing that Which is but accidentall to a State And such his Iustice and his Wisedome is That he preserveth by the meanes of this Those things which doe essentially pertaine To that great Power which over all doth raigne Nor is he pleased thus it should be done In States that meerely civill are alone But also in the Churches governments Allowes the change of outward accidents Yea they to whom he gives the oversights Of some particular Church may change old Rites The Customes Formes or Titles as occasions Are offered them or as the Times or Nations Require a change provided so that they Take nothing which essentiall is away Nor adde what shall repugne or prejudice Gods Lawes his Kingdome or the Liberties Of them that are his people For in what Hath any Church a pow'r if not in that Which is indifferent Or in what I pray Will men the Church authority obey If not in such like things Or who should be The Iudge what is indifferent if not she A private Spirit knowes what best agrees With his owne fancy but the Church best sees What fits the Congrâ—gation From what gives Offence to one another man receives Much comfort and his conscience edifies By disciplines which many doe despise A Parish is a little Diocesse And as of Cities Townes and Villages A Bishopricke consists so that doth rise By Tythings Hamlets and by Families And little difference would be in the same Excepting in the largenesse and the name If their opinions were allow'd of all Who favour not the stile Episcopall For ev'ry Priest would then usurpe the same Authority whereof some hate the name Yea many a one would then his Parish make A little Popedome and upon him take Considering his meane pow'r as much as he That Vniversall Bishop claimes to be And prove more proud and troublesome then they Against whose Lordlinesse they now inveigh This therefore is my Rule that Governâ—ment What e're it be in which to me God lent My birth and breeding that untill my end I will obey and to my pow'r defend Yea though it tyrannize I will denay No more obedience then by law I may Ev'n by those Lawes and Customes which doe stand In force and unrepealed in that land What right another had e're I was borne Or how or for what sinne Gods hand hath torne His Kingdome from him I will never care Let them goe answer that who Subjects were When lost it was and had that meanes and calling And yeares which might prevented have his falling Or should another Country take me home As one of hers when thither I did come I would not seek nor wish to innovate The Titles or the Customes of that State To what some other Countries better thought But leave such things to those to whom I ought And there if any Faction shall constraine That I one part must take I will maintaine What bore the Sov'raignty when I came thither And I and that will stand and fall together The same obedience also keepe I shall To governments Ecclesiasticall Where e're I come if nothing they command Which doth Gods word essentially withstand Or indirectly or directly thwart His glory or the purity pervert Of Christian Principles nor further strife Nor cause nor countenance an evill life The Hyerarchy here I will obey And reverence while I in England stay In Scotland if I liv'd I would deny No due respect to their Presbyterie Geneva should I visit I would there Submit my selfe to what their customes were Yea wheresoe're I am I will suppose The Spirit in that Church much better knowes What best that place befitteth then I do And I will live conformed thereunto In ev'ry thing that 's meerly politick And injuries not the Doctrines Catholick To ev'ry temp'rall pow'r I 'le be the same By whatsoever cognizance or name Men please to call it If I should be sent To Poland where a mixed government Establisht is I would not tell them there That any other Custome better were Were I in Switzerland I would maintaine Democrity and thinke to make it plaine That for these Times those Cantons and that Nation There could not be a better Domination In Venice far before a Monarchy I would prefer an Aristocratie In Spaine and France and in great Britaine here I hold no Goverments more perfect are Then Monarchies And if Gods will should be Beneath a Tyrant to envassaile me I would perswade my selfe that heavy yoake Were best for some respects and to the stroke Ev'n of an iron Mace would subject be In Body with a minde that should be free From his inforcement if he did withstand Or bid me what Gods Law doth countermand There is I know a middle-way that lies Ev'n just betwixt the two extremities Which to sedition and to faction tend To find which tract my whole desire I bend And wish it follow'd more For if we tread That harmelesse path we cannot be mis-led Nor sham'd though blam'd we be To ev'ry man I faine would give his due and all I can I doe endeavour it I would not wrong My Country neither take what doth belong To Cesar nor infringe or prejudice The vnivesall Churches liberties Nor for her outward Discipline prefer Or censure any Church particular Or any State but as befit it may His Muse which nought but needfull truths doth say Nor have I any purpose to withdraw Obedience or respect from any Law That 's positive or to dishearten from Those Customes which a Christian state become Nor have I any thought to scandalize Or speake a misse of Principalities Or to traduce mens persons but I fall On errors of mens lives in generall And on those great abuses which I see To blemish ev'ry Calling and Degree Of Dignities and Persons I observe All meanes I can their honours to preserve When I reprove their faults And ev'n as he That hunteth Foxes where Lambes feeding be May fright that harmelesse flock and suffer blame Of some By-standers