flies above the Pole And all the Stars where Charles great wain doth role And in the highest heav'ns doth steale a glance Of great Jehova's glorious countenance And with a ravish'd strain doth strive to see His one true Essence and his persons three That in the volume of his face she may The programs of his frowns and favour spy All those within thy hollow bosome dwell And yet by natures help thou canst not tell Nor when nor where nor how this bulk was made Begun advanc'd inlarg'd or finished Why dost thou then require that nature should Investigate or labour to unfold The secret footsteps and that hidden way Wherein th' Almighty doth his pow'r display Dost thou not know that in thee two men dwell The spirit and the flesh whose tides doe swell So boistrously each one against the other That cruell Cain when he had kill'd his brother Was never stuff'd with more vindictive spleen Then doe these two betwixt them entertain Water hath no more force to drown the fire Fire to drink water doth no more aspire Ayre in earths caverns hath not such a roar Earth doth no more ayres levity abhorre Heat against cold and moysture against drougth Doth not so largly ope their yawning mouth The light with darknes keeps no better coyle Death striving against life hath no such toyle As have these two whil'st their unstay'd desire To ruine one another doth aspire Hence doth arise so fierce a conflict that Unlesse the one the other subjugat With laboring Rebecca in her push Man may exclaime If so why am I thus For loe the good man would he cannot doe And th' ill he would not that he 's thrust unto Yet whosoever to the flesh shall give Obedience and in her Statutes live Shall from the flesh reape nothing but corruption And drink the bitter dregs of her destruction But he who by the spirit is made free From carnall lusts and their captivitie Shall by th' obedience of the Sp'rit have peace When all the turmoiles of the flesh shall cease But ay me now I see this world is gone And drown'd i th' deep of induration For though the light hath plentifully shin'd In all her corners yet men have repin'd Against the light and made their deeds so evill That they are slaves to Belial and the Devill Thus hath he gravell'd Nicodemus sp'rit And of a Pharisee made a Proselyte For nature being convinc'd must hold her peace And humane reason unto God give place Hence forth from Judah he doth take his way And in Samaria purposeth to stay Faint in his journey by the extream heat Which Earth to Titan did reveberat He comes to Sichars well but all in vain One drop of water he can not obtain Here down he sits straight from Samaria come A woman to draw water for her home Woman saith he I thirst extreamly pray Lend me some water this my thirst t' alay The jorney's long and eke the season hot Let me then drink some water from thy pot Some water saith she that is strange ô man That thou a Jew I a Samaritan Canst seek refreshment or a drink from me Those keep no commerce nor societie Woman saith he ô that thou couldst but know That gift of God and who it is that now Doth beg of thee some water for his thirst Surely thou shouldst have been my begger first And I to thy petition would have given A cup of better water brought from Heaven For who so drinks this water thirsts again But who tastes my unemptied Ocean Shall never thirst for from th' Eternal's throne It spring'th and tak'th eternall motion Master saith she you talk to me of water Whose bubling sourse some better streams doth scatter But to my taste I never yet could see A welspring of more pretious dignitie Our Father Jacob dig'd this well of old He drunk of it his children al 's ' were bold To fet it to their Cattels use art thou Greater then they I pray thee let me know That when I thirst hereafter I may drink And draw the waters of that better brink Goe saith he then and make thy husband come That when thou drink'st he also may have some I have no husband saith she Now I heare Thee speak the truth for it is more then clear That husbands five thou hast already had And he whom now thou hast thou hast not wed Thus hast thou sinn'd and in thy sinne dost lye Drunk with the dregs of sinnes security Yet though sinnes seed time seem a delicate Her harvest and her gleaning's desolate Master saith she a Prophet now thou art For thou display'st the secrets of my heart Messiah when he comes can doe no more But tell us all things this thou dost before I am the man saith he expect no other The only sonne of God by flesh thy brother Yea amongst many brethren the first borne And of great David's house th' exalted horne Shee hears those words and leaves her water pot Behinde her and to poore Samaria's lot She hies her self with all the speed she can And cals them from their trades each man by man Come come saith she now blessed be the Lord He hath made true the tenure of his word Which promiseth that in the end of time Messiah's blood should expiat our crime Come I have found him and what 's strange behold What I have done in all my life h' hath told Yea he hath fann'd the secrets of my heart And made my soule by griefe for sinne to smart I never heard so grave and learn'd a Preacher So strickt a schoole-man and so wise a Teacher Ne're doth the Phaenix when she first doth flie From out her Urn with self-bred infancie With richer troops attempt her first-wing'd march Along the conclave of th'ethereall Arch Than now my Saviour from Samaria â—â—th T' attend his doctrine and enrich their faith He seeth them hunger and he opes his mouth To feed them with those clusters of his truth Your fathers saith he worship'd in this mountain Here did they dig sweet water from this fountain But now the time drawes neere and is at hand When neither here nor in Judaea's land God shall be serv'd alone through all the world The chariot of his glory shall be hurl'd God is a Spirit all that doe him feare In sp'rit and truth unto him must draw neare You worship what you know not ô but we Know whom we worship in sinceritie And though salvation's to the Jewes first shown Yet shall the Gentiles for Gods sonnes be known O now say they unto the woman we Believe him not for what you testifie But having heard him with our eares our selfe On him we build our soules eternall health For now we see he is that Christ should come To ransome Israel with a pretious summe Thus turning to Judaea's coasts again Great multitudes doe follow him amain For they by him mirac'lously were fed VVhen in the desert they were hungered But whil'st he doth their hidden
tear-drown'd eye Weeps out his soules sad sorrowes but for what They neither know nor can prognosticat Is this the grave saith he where Laz'rus lyeth Is this the Tomb which his dead corps implyeth It is say they then roll away this stone Which holds him in his dusty mansion No no saith Martha now the time is past This is the fourth day since we made it fast Corruption e're now hath made him stench His putrifaction no perfume can quench What Martha saith he have not I e're now Told thee that if by faith thou shouldst subdue Thy soule thou shouldst behold the pow'r of God Change Moses serpent to an usefull rod They roll away the stone to heav'n doth he Lift up his heart his hand and weeping eye And with a loud voyce he doth thus encall His Fathers hearing O great All of all O dread Creator and ô loving Father From whom all creatures doe their essence gather I thank thee that thou now hast heard me nay I know that thou dost heare me every way But that this people may believe that thou Who in thy selfe art very truth and true Hast sent me thy right hands great strength to prove And to the sonnes of men make known thy love To thee I cry'd and yet to thee doe cry That thou wouldst their hard hearts once mollifie This said he straight on Lazarus doth call Come forth come forth stay no more there at all I have the keyes of life and death therefore To thee my quickning spirit I restore No sooner hath he spoke these words then he Who lay in death and graves captivitie Comes forth bound hand and foot with those poor ties Which laugh to scorn lifes superfluities Now loose him saith he loose him let him goe For God is Lord of life and death also O what a world of miracles doe here In coacervat troops of pow'r appeare He weeps and spends his teares this tells he 's Man His word awakes the dead God only can He makes the bound to walk and blind to see All this t' expresse his sacred Deity Yet will not loose the bonds nor move the stone Himselfe but gives to men direction To act that part that by this Riddle he May teach the sonnes of men a mysterie That he who without man did man first make Will not man but by man save or forsake Qui fecit te sine te non servat te sine te For though God works his work mirac'lously Yet t'ordinary meanes he doth man ty And now in end to shew how Christ of late The deafe and dumb did both re-consolate How for the payment of a Tributes penny A Dolphine from the deep affords him money How graciously th' Adulteresse is freed And both from sinne and shame stands purifi'd How that poor man who from the wombe was blinde By clay and spittle doth his eye-sight finde How Jairus daughter and the widdows sonne Of Naine were reviv'd how he alone Did feed five thousand with five barly loaves How dry-foot on the Seas proud waves he roaves I dare not longer undertake to tell Lest under such a weight my spirits faile Let this suffice those few which here be shown Make both his Godhead and his Manhead known The Proselyt's CANTO 5o. AS when a grave and sage Gymnosophist Minding to put his Scholler to the list Of publick dispute whence he hopes to gaine The honour of his long turmoyling paine Prescribes him first some disputable Theam To be contested in the Acadeam Which being toss'd in Dialectique manner By quircks and Sophismes of a subtill strainer Gives correspondent hopes or fears of what The publick The'ter can emarginat So Nicodemus having oft times heard Of that rich glory and that rich reward Which Christ had promis'd to all such as should By his directions be govern'd and rul'd Goes privily by night to him to try Who was the stronger Christ or th' Pharisie Master saith he I see thou art a man Come out from God for certainly none can Or speake or doe as thou hast spoke and done Without some divine inspiration Is' t so saith Christ brave Nicodemus now I needs must tell thee what thou dost not know Except a man be born again 't is sure He shall not enter in at Glories doore Be born again saith he what 's this I heare VVhat man can make this paradox appeare Can he that 's old return to 's mothers wombe And thence being born again a childe become This Maxim seemeth very strange to me It over-tops my weak capacity VVhat dost thou think this strange doth Christ then say That man must needs be born again Nay nay Unlesse a man be born again by water And by the Spirits inward hid lavacre He cannot enter in Gods kingdome for What 's born of flesh is flesh and what is more What is born of the Spirit 's likewise Spirit VVithout this birth no man can heav'n inherit The winde blows where it lists thou hear'st the sound Thereof but canst not tell where 't may be found From whence it comes or whither it doth goe So hidden are his waves who makes it blow Come come saith Necodemus tell me where Thou canst be bold this Doctrine to averre Thou speak'st to me of being born again But of a new birth I conceive no strain Thou prat'st to me of heav'ns great Kingdome but Of that Monarchick state I see no jot Make me then see a reason and a cause Of what thou speak'st else hold thy peace and pause VVell Nicodemus now of truth I see That Nature is to Grace an Enemie And what the nat'rall man thinks wisdome that Doth God as folly excommunicat And what the Lord counts wisdome that doth Nature Abhorre as voyd of her perfections feature VVhat if I should be bold but to demand Of thee this question what strong pow'r and hand Did frame thee in thy mothers womb when yet In darknesse as a Non-ens thou didst sit Whose fingers there condens'd thy bones what power Did fill thy veines with Bozra's crimson shower VVho made thy nerves and artyrs so to tie Thy bodies compact and societie Who fram'd thy braines great Chaos liver spleen Thy boyling choller or thy moyst'ning phleagm VVho made thy eyes so watchfull Centinels VVho made thy nose Judge of so various smels VVho made thy tongue to speak or eares to hear VVho made thy knees to bow or back to bear And last of all whence hadst thou that poor breath Whose presence lends thee life whose absence death Whose influence warms thee with celestiall fire And whose unmoved motion doth aspire In a poor minute to run round about Earths drossie globe and Seas green glassie spout Then in an eyes poor twinkle strives to know The treasures of the windes hail rain and snow Thence falling down doth view that woefull deep Wherein the Vessels of Gods wrath doe weep Thence scaling all the heav'ns doth scan the course Of all the Stars in their imperiall sourse Thence soaring higher
might'st be The Asahel of God the seepe-goat We Ne'er did the wounded Deere with more desire Run to the water brooks to queuch his fire Then thou dost thirst to taste that wofull cup Which Adam's with'red hand could not beare up Man thou didst make at first and him so lov'd That for his rescue from Gods wrath 't be hov'd Thee to be Man and all his sinnes sustain To reunite him to his God again Such leve as this hath not as yet been known As thou unto the sonnies of men hast shown The love that Danid did to Jou'than beare Or to proud Absoloms gold-locks of haire With this thy love cannot be parallel'd Thy love 's epcinall mah's by time is quel'd The old Passeover being finish'd now The Eucharist succeedeth in that liew They sing a Psalme and praise that mighty God Who brought his Isr'el out from Aegypts rod Then sayth my Saviour Now the houre draw'th neer Of my dread suffrings all of you stands here By me this night shall be offended for 'T is writ The shepheard I will smite therefore The sheep shall all be scattered anon And I to sorrow shall be left alone Yet come thus thus it needs must be for so The Prophets have forespoken long agoe This Peter heareth and with pride oppress'd As if his heart were steel'd his bones were brass'd He saith though vainly Master whither shall We run from thee though all the world should fail And shrink from thee yet will I never leave thee Till dust and earth doe of my life bereave me Peace Peter saith my Saviour hold thy peace Before the Cock crowtwice even to my face Thou shalt deny me thrice and by base feare Of this thy life thou shalt my love forsweare Thus out they goe and over Kedrons brook Whereas Mounr Olive overshading looke Covers Gethseman's garden there they stay But Jesus go'th aside and thus doth pray Father the houre is come now glorifie Thy Sonne as he hath glory giv'n to thee All such as thou didst give me I have kept And none of them hath perish'd save that sheep Or rather childe of wrath and of perdition For him thou didst nor give to my tuition This is eternall life that man should know Thee for true God and me thy Sonne also This I have taught them this doe they believe Eternall life by this doe thou them give I pray not for the world for them I pray That they in me by faith may alwayes stay I doe not pray that from the world thou take there But that thou in the world doe ne'er forsake them For while they in the world remain they 're hated And for my names sake shall be ill intreated But I have kept them in thy name and they Both know thee doe believe and thee obey Keep them therefore ô Father by thy truth Thy word is truth they have it from my month Nor doe I pray for them alone but eke For all these Prof lyres who salvation seek By faith begotten by their word in me O let them share in my felicitie For thou and I ô righteous God are one Let them with us have also unione That as thou art in me and I in thee So they may be made one with us trulie And by their joynture with us two may shun Sinne death and hell and condemnation Thus hath he prayed and now returning he To Peter James and John familiarlie Gives this forewarning Watch and pray lest that Your restlesse foe doe catch you in his net He go'th again unto his former station To taste the first fruits of his bitter passion He kneeleth down to pray but sense of wrath Makes him to cry My soule unto the death Is heavy Father if it be thy will Take this cup from me let not thy wraths rill Lay more upon me then my strength can beare O heare me Father bow thine ears and heare But ah his Agony waxing still more great Through his pure vains and pores a bloody sweat Doth from his body so bedew the ground As if from Eorâ—â—a's presseh ' had got a wound Three severall times in this perplexed state Doth Christ the selfe same words reiterat Father he cryeth still O let this cup Passe from inde for I cannot drink it up Yet if it be thy will let it be so Thy will and not my own I came to doe Father againe I pray thee let this houre Passe from me for 't is tart above my power Yet for this houre into the would come I Why should I then decline an piety No though I smart in this my passion Not my will Father but thy will be done Now all this while doe his Disciples fleep A Lethargy upon their soules did creep And though he wak'd them thrice yet thrice again They doe return to their Lethargiouest into But heav'ns amaz'd to see his soule so sad Doe by an Angels comfore make him glad Who can behold the passage of this story And see the dumpish fits o' th' God of glory And not be struck with more then admiration To view the sonne of God's evacuation What griefe what fear what blood what sweat is this Which wallowing like the Oceans vast abisse Can finde no bottom nor restrayning brink To curbe his woes or make his sorrows shrink O Bozra now I see thy robes are read O Ramah now thy joyes are banished O Rachel now thy children are transperted And justly thou disdainist to becomforted From Edoms winepresse whilst of late the come Hoping to finde somesweet refresh oâ— home Thou couldst find none thou trod'st that presse of wine Alone and therefore no mans greises like thine But ah me blessed Soviour where be now Thy wonted comforts and that strength'ning crew Of consolations which thou gavist of late To thy Disciples in their wofull state Where 's now the comforts which the Scriptures say Thy presence doth for evermore display Where 's now thâ—â— hope which in deaths valley from Thy rod and shepheards crook were wont to come Where 's now the promise of that great comforter Which thou didst promise as our soules supporter What shall become of us poore withered shrubs Of hysop how shall we endure the rubs And counter-pusss of fact all lictions when Thou lofty Cedar lowâ—es and bows for men Under that burthen and that load of wrath That should presse man down to the second death What was it Saviour tell me that thus lay Upon thy back with such impetuous sway That made thee with a sad redoubled groane Say that thy soule to th'gates of death was throwne What was it feare of death and fore felt-paine That madethee in such measure to complaine Or was 't the shame of thy ensuing Crosse That made thee utter this distemper'd voyce No no farre be 't from me to wrong thee so Those sighs those groans and grief's redoubled woe Did from another deeper sourse and spring Send forth their runnais wofull bubling It was the wofull burthen of mans finne Joyn'd with th'Etem
top which thou didst lately saile What wonder is' t though stripling I be shaken And with a tempest trespasse be ov'rtaken But bless'd be God thy fall was not so soule But true repentance hath restor'd thy soule That all the world may know As sinne breeds death The promise of true life Repentanee hath Look how a well-rig'd Pinnace set to sea With blind and Maine and Misaens liberty Lacking a Pilot who by due regard Should sit at stern and point her treâ—bling card Whil'st Dolphin-like she skips against the skies As if she would Joves starry throne surprise And like a Triton in the glassie field Dives down again and being forc'd to yield To Neptunes rage she visits Pluto's cell As if she sought Euridice from hell But recomforted by sweet Zephyr's gailes Whose following favours fill her empty sailes In short time she attains her wished shore Where winters tempests threaten her no more So fareth it with the irres'lute brests Of Adams off-spring who doe build their rests On their own strength no sooner doe they scale The Barracad's of Fortunes slippry ball When either fainting feare be-leads their heels And so they sink Or else their Chariot wheels Drawn by presumptuous Palfries trot so fast That hardly can they shun a fall at last Unlesse some strong strong hand doe curb their rein And so their ruine and their shame restrain For whil'st th' impetuous fancies of fraile man Sets him to try the worlds vain Ocean Unlesse a steddier hand than is his own Doe guide his course he 's either quite orethrown Or dash'd in peeces ' gainst some sturdy rock So furious be the flames of Sathans shock Thrice happy he whom Jacobs God doth guide And in his secret tent doth alwayes hide Thrice happy he whose heart kept in Gods hand Doth neither faintly fall nor proudly stand But in a due contemp'rature of Grace 'Twixt faith and feare doth wisely run his race O surely such a one when windes doe blow When seas doe rage and earth no rest doth know Shall by the secret influence of heaven So steare his course and hold his ballance even That neither death nor life nor wealth nor want Nor weale nor woe can crush his Covenant But holding still the gripes of grace h' hath got Still eyes his Pole and so he finketh not The Assize CANTO 4o. OF late I heard the High Priests Cock crow day Of late I saw Aurora shrink away From Darknesse center to th' Eoan plain T'enamell Heav'ns and guild the Ocean But ay me scarcely could the pearly morn With opall light our earthly globe adorn When loe Ixyons dark condensat cloud Did Pha'ton Titans Coach-man so oreshroud That one should think two nights combin'd in ire Had met together to drown out Sols fire A presage sure that ere that Sun should set A brighter Sun should be exanimat Yet hopefull day hath over come that shade And Titans rayes reclear'd made Flora glad But all this while since yester-nights surprise Till now that Phaebus 'gins to deck the skies My Saviour hath been bound with twisted cords Beaten with blowes wrong'd by sarcastick words Fond Jews and foolish Souldiers tell me why You doe outbrave him with such cruelty Had he not by his own will more been ty'd Then by the Cart-ropes of your swelling pride He like to Sampson might have burst your flax And made your bonds to melt away like wax But now what eye can choose but weep to see Those hands which fram'd the heav'ns the earth the sea And by his dainty singers framed man More nearly fine then art or nature can Thus wrung and wrested with a cord or rope Even whil'st Arachne-like he spins our hope But ah me Mans hard heart 's indured so That he can no compassions strain allow On him who from the heav'ns vouchsafes to take Our nature for our Soules redemptions sake Now Annas High-Priest and his sonne in law Great Caiaphas unto a Councell draw The whole Sanhaedrin Pharisees and all Whose suffrage can or life or death empale To judge the just one by injustice He Submits himself to all their tyrannie But ô you fooles and hypocrites wherefore Serves all this tumult and this mut'nous stirre One blow in secret might have finished Your wrath against him such the Baptist had But now I see Envy and Malice both Concurre together to oppresse the Truth And under shew of truth and justice must Sentence be giv'n unjustly ' gainst the just And since the Scriptures be not yet fulfill'd His blood in secret must not now be spill'd The Bench is set the Judges are conveen'd The guiltlesse is accus'd and guilty deem'd False witnesse now are sought and many come The hall is full there is no empty room At last two sonnes of Bielal are brought They witnesse ' gainst him what he never thought Thou sayd'st deceiver say they Let this Temple Be quite destroy'd and in three dayes more ample I will re-build it Fourty years and six Were spent in squaring stones and carving sticks To build it first and now thou say'st in three Dayes space thou wilt repair 't more sumptuously What canst thou doe it But he holds his peace And answers not to that their forged case And wisely doth he so for bruise a fool Even in a morter yet his folly still Shall cleave unto him wrangling is a vice And to the truth brings often prejudice The High-Priest seeing this saith I adjure Thee by the living God to tell me sure If that thou be the Christ the sonne of God Say either yea or nay and there he stood Jesus replies Thou say'st it I am he This world another Saviour shall not see And that thou may'st my words the more believe I tell thee that hereafter God shall give The Sonne of Man this honour to sit down At his right hand in glory and renown And thou shalt see him come again from thence To judge this world by righteous recompence At those words Caiaphas his cloaths doth rend Ev'n from their top unto their lower end Although against the laws expresse commend Lev. 21. â—â— Which to the contrair tyes the High Priests handâ— O now I see there 's an appointed time And for each thing beneath the Sun a Prime A time to laugh and so a time to weep A time to travell and a time to sleep A time to build a time eke to destroy A time to sorrow and a time to joy A time to rest a time to run our race A time to speak a time to hold our peace Whil'st foolish Ruffians did their cavill spue He neither said that they were false or true But now whil'st he his Fathers name doth heare Setting aside of humane force all feare He boldly speaks the truth and doth display The hidden Godhead in his flesh did lie The High Priest hath his robe no sooner tore When thus he speaks What need we any more To cite a witnesse ' gainst him hath not he Blasphemed God before us impiously