We are but pigmies (even our tallest men)
To the huge giants that were living then:
For but th' Almighty, which to this intent
Ordain'd the ark, knew it sufficient,
He in his wisdom (had he thought it meet)
Could have bid Noah to have built a fleet,
And many creatures on the Earth since grown
Before the flood that were to Noah unknown:
For though the mule begotten on the mare,
By the dull ass, is said doth never pair,
Yet sundry others naturally have mix'd 12,
And those that have been gotten them betwixt
Others begot, on others from their kind.
In sundry climates, sundry beasts we find,
That what they were, are nothing now the same,
From one self-strain, tho' at the first they came,
But by the soil they often alter'd be,
In shape and colour, as we daily see.
Now Noah's three sons all busy that had been
To place these creatures as they still came in :
Sem, Ham, and Japheth, with their wives 13 assign'd
To be the parents of all human kind:
Seeing the ark thus plentifully stor❜d,
The wondrous work of the Almighty Lord,
Behold their father looking every hour,
For this all-drowning earth-destroying shower,
When Noan their faith thus lastly to awake,
To his loy'd wife, and their six children, spake :
"The mighty hand of God do you not see,
In these his creatures, that so well agree?
Which were they not thus master'd by his power,
Us silly eight would greedily devour:
And with their hoofs and paws to splinters rend
This only ark, in which God doth intend
We from the flood that remnant shall remain,
T' restore the world, in aged Adam's strain:
Ye seven, with sad astonishment then see
The wondrous things the Lord hath wrought for
me!
What have I done, so gracious in his sight,
Frail wretched man, but that I justly might
Have with the Earth's abominable brood
Been overwhelm'd, and buried in the flood?
But in his judgment, that he hath decreed,
That from my loins by your successful seed,
The Earth shall be replenished agen,
And the Almighty be at peace with men.
A hundred years are past (as well you know)
Since the Almighty God, his power to show,
Taught me the model of this mighty frame,
And it the ark commanded me to name.
Be strong in faith, for now the time is nigh,
That from the conduits of the lofty sky,
The flood shail fall, that in short time shall bear
This ark we are in up into the air,
Where it shall float, and further in the end,
Shall fifteen cubits the high'st hills transcend,
Then bid the goodly fruitful Earth adieu,
For the next time it shall be seen of you,
It with an ill complexion shall appear,
The weight of waters shall have chang'd her cheer:
Be not affrighted when ye hear the roar
Of the wide waters when they charge the shore,
12 The opinions of the best naturalists that have
13 The names of the women were Tita, Pandora, Noella, and Noegla, as some of the most ancient write; but Epiphanius will have Noah's wife's pame to to be Barthenon,
Nor be dismay'd at all, when you shall feel
Th' unwieldy ark from wave to wave to reel;
Nor at the shrieks of those that swimming by
On trees and rafters, shall for succour cry,
"O ye most lov'd of God, O take us in!
For we are guilty, and confess our sin."
Thus whilst he spake, the skies grew thick and dark, And a black cloud hung hovering o'er the ark; Venus and Mars, God puts this work upon, Jupiter and Saturn in conjunction
I' th' tail of Cancer, inundations threat,
Luna disposed generally to wet,
The Hyades and Pleiades put too
Their helps; Orion doth what he can do.
No star so small, but some one drop let down,
And all conspire the wicked world to drown:
On the wide Heaven there was not any sign,
To wat'ry Pisces but it doth incline.
Now some will ask, When th' Almighty God (but
And his) by waters did the world destroy, [Noy
Whether those seven then in ark were good,
And just as he (reserved from the flood)?
Or that th' Almighty for his only sake,
Did on the other such compassion take?
'Tis doubtless Noah, being one so clearly just,
That God did with his secret judgments trust
From the whole world; one that so long had known
That living Lord, would likewise teach his own
To know him too, who by this mean might be,
As well within the covenant as he.
By this the Sun had suck'd up the vast deep",
And in gross clouds like eisterns did it keep;
The stars and signs by God's great wisdom set,
By their conjunctions waters to beget,
Had wrought their utmost, and even now began
Th' Almighty's justice upon sinful man:
From every several quarter of the sky,
The thunder roars, and the fierce lightnings fly
One at another, and together dash,
Volley on volley, flash comes after flash,
Heaven's lights look sad, as they would melt away,
The night is come i' th' morning of the day:
The card'nal winds he makes at once to blow,
Whose blasts to buffets with such fury go,
That they shemselves into the centre shot
Into the bowels of the Earth and got,
Being condens'd 16 and strongly stiff'ned there,
In such strange manner multiply'd the air,
Which turn'd to water, and increas'd the springs
To that abundance, that the Earth forth brings
Water to drown herself, should Heaven deny
With one small drop the deluge to supply,
That through her pores, the soft and spongy Earth,
As in a dropsy, or unkindly birth,
A woman, swol'n, sends from her fluxive womb
Her oozy springs, that there was scarcely room
For the waste waters which came in so fast,
As though the Earth her entrails up would cast.
But these seem'd yet but easily let go,
And from some sluice came softly in, and slow,
Till God's great hand so squeez'd the boisterous
[shrouds,
That from the spouts of Heaven's embattl'd Even like a flood-gate pluck'd up by the height, Came the wild rain, with such a pond'rous weight
14 God makes the stars his instruments to punish the wicked.
15 A description of the tempest, at the falling of the deluge. 46 Water is but air condensed,
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As that the fierceness of the hurrying flood,
Remov'd huge rocks, and ramm'd them into mud:
Pressing the ground with that impetuous power,
As that the first shock of this drowning shower
Furrow'd the Earth's late plump and cheerful face
Like an old woman, that in little space
With rivel'd cheeks, and with blear'd blubber'd
She wistly look'd upon the troubled skies.
Up to some mountain as the people make,
Driving their cattle till the shower should slake;
The flood o'ertakes them, and away doth sweep
Great herds of neat, and mighty flocks of sheep.
Down through a valley as one stream doth come,
Whose roaring strikes the neighbouring echo
dumb,
Another meets it, and whilst there they strive,
Which of them two the other back should drive,
Their dreadful currents they together dash,
So that their waves like furious tides do wash
The head of some near bill, which falleth down
For very fear, as it itself would drown.
Some back their beasts, so hoping to swim out,
But by the flood incompassed about,
Are overwhelm'd; some clamber up to towers;
But these and them the deluge soon devours:
Some to the top of pines and cedars get,
Thinking themselves they safely there should set;
But the rude flood that over all doth sway,
Quickly comes up, and carrieth them away.
The roe's" much swiftness doth no more avail,
Nor help him now, than if he were a snail :
The swift-wing'd swallow, and the slow-wing'd owl,
The fleetest bird, and the most flagging fowl,
Are at one pass, the flood so high hath gone,
There was no ground to set a foot upon :
Those fowl that follow'd moistness, now it fly,
And leave the wet land, to find out the dry;
But by the mighty tempest beaten down,
On the blank water they do lie and drown.
The strong-built tower is quickly overborne,
The o'er-grown oak out of the earth is torn:
The subtle shower the earth hath soft'ned so,
And with the waves, the trees tost to and fro,
That the roots loosen, and the tops down sway,
So that whole forests quickly swim away.
Th' offended Heaven had shut up all her lights,
The Sun nor Moon make neither days nor nights,
The waters so exceedingly abound,
That in short time the sea itself is drown'd,
That by the freshness of the falling rain,
Neptune no more his saltness doth retain ;
So that those scaly creatures us'd to keep
The mighty wastes of the unmeasur'd deep,
Finding the general and their natural brack,
The taste and colour every where to lack,
Forsake those seas wherein they swam before,
Strangely oppressed with their wat❜ry store.
The crooked dolphin on those mountains plays,
Whereas before that time, not many days,
The goat was grazing; and the mighty whale
Upon a rock out of his way doth fall,
From whence before one eas'ly might have seen
The wand'ring clouds far under to have been.
The grampus, and the whirlpool, as they rove,
Lighting by chance upon a lofty grove
Under this world of waters, are so much
Pleas'd' with their wombs each tender branch to touch,
" The roe deer, the swiftest beast known.
That they leave slime upon the curled sprays,
On which the birds sung their harmonious lays,
As huge as hills still waves are wallowing in,
Which from the world so wondrously do win,
That the tall mountains which on tiptoe stood,
As though they scorn'd the force of any flood,
No eye of Heaven of their proud tops could see
One foot, from this great inundation free.
As in the chaos ere the frame was fixt,
The air and water were so strongly mix'd,
And such a bulk of grossness do compose 1,
As in those thick clouds which the globe enclose,
Th' all-working Spirit were yet again to wade,
And Heaven and Earth again were to be made.
Meanwhile the great and universal ark,
Like one by night were groping in the dark,
Now by one billow, then another rock'd,
Within whose boards all living things were lock'd;
Yet Noah his safety not at all doth fear,
For still the angels his blest barge do steer:
But now the shower continued had so long,
The inundation wax'd so wondrous strong,
That fifteen cubits caus'd the ark to move
The highest part of any hill above:
And the gross earth so violently binds,
That in their coasts it had enclos'd the winds;
So that the whole wide surface of the flood,
As in the whole height of the tide it stood,
Was then as sleek and even as the seas
In the more still and calmest halcyon days.
The birds, the beasts, and serpents, safe on board,
With admiration look upon their lord,
The righteous Noah; and with submissive fear
Tremble his grave and awful voice to hear,
When to his household (during their abode)
He preach'd the power of the Almighty God.
"Dear wife and children "," quoth this goodly
Noy,.
"Since the Almighty vow'd he would destroy
The wicked world, a hundred years are past,
And see, he hath performed it at last;
In us poor few the world consists alone,
And besides us there not remaineth one,
But from our seed the emptied Earth agen
Must be repeopled with the race of men;
Then since thus far his covenant is true,
Build ye your faith on that which shall ensue;
Such is our God, who thus did us embark,
(As his select) to save us by the ark,
And only he whose angels guard our boat,
Knows over what strange region now we float,
Or we from hence that very place can sound,
From which the ark was lifted first from ground:
He that can span the world, and with a grip
Out of the bowels of the clouds could rip
This mass of waters, whose abundant birth
Almost to Heaven thus drowneth up the Earth;
He can remove this round, if he shall please,
And with these waters can sup up the seas,
Can cause the stars out of their spheres to fall,
And on the winds can toss this earthly ball;
He can wrest drops from the Sun's radiant beams,
And can force fire from the most liquid streams,
He curls the waves with whirlwinds, and doth make
The solid centre fearfully to shake;
He can stir up the elements to wars,
And at his pleasure can compose their jars;
18 A simile of the grossness of the deluge.
"Noah preaching faith to his family.
The sands serve not his wondrous works to count,
Yet doth his mercy all his works surmount;
His rule and power eternally endures,
He was your fathers' God, he's mine, he's yours:
In him, dear wife and children, put your trust,
He only is almighty, only just."
But on the Earth the waters were so strong;
And now the flood continued had so long,
That the let year 20 foreslow'd about to bring
The Summer, Autumn, Winter, and the Spring;
The gyring planets, with their starry train,
Down to the south had sunk, and rose again
Up towards the north, whilst the terrestrial globe
Had been involved in this wat'ry robe.
During which season every twinkling light
In their still motion, at this monstrous sight,
By their complexion a distraction show'd,
Looking like embers that through ashes glow'd,
When righteous Noah remembereth at the last,
The time prefix'd to be approaching fast,
After a hundred fifty days were gone,
Which to their period then were drawing on,
Pruning his plumage, cleansing every quill,
And going back, he beareth in his bill
An olive leaf; by which Noah understood
The great decrease and waning of the flood:
For that on mountains olives seldom grow,
But in flat vallies, and in places low;
Never such comfort came to mortal man,
Never such joy was since the world began,
As in the ark, when Noah and his behold
The olive leaf, which certainly them told
The flood decreas'd, and they such comfort take,
That with their mirth the birds and beasts they
make
Sportive, which send forth such a hollow noise,
As said they were partakers of their joys.
The lion roars, but quickly doth forbear,
Lest he thereby the lesser beast should fear;
The bull doth bellow, and the horse doth neigh,
The stag, the buck, and shag-hair'd goat, do bray,
The boar doth grunt, the wolf doth howl, the ram
Doth bleat, which yet so faintly from him came,
As though for very joy he seem'd to weep;
The flood should somewhat slack, God promis'd so, The ape and monkey such a chattering keep
On which relying, the just godly Noah,
To try if then but one poor foot of ground,
Free from the flood, might any where be found,
Lets forth a raven, which straight cuts the sky,
And wond'rous proud his rested wings to try,
In a large circle girdeth in the air,
First to the east, then to the south doth bear,
Follows the Sun, then towards his going forth,
And then runs up into the rising north,
Thence climbs the clouds, to prove if his sharp eye
From that proud pitch could possibly descry
Of some tall rock-crown'd mountain, a small stone,
A minute's space to set his foot upon,
But finding his long labour but in vain,
Returneth wearied to the ark again;
By which Noah knew he longer yet must stay,
For the whole Earth still under water lay.
Seven days he rests, but yet he would not
(For that he knew the flood must needs decrease)
But as the raven late, he next sends out
The damask-colour'd dove, his nimble scout,
Which thrills the thin air, and his pinions plies,
That like to lightning, gliding through the skies,
His sundry colour'd feathers by the Sun,
As his swift shadow on the lake doth run,
Causeth a twinkling both at hand and far,
Like that we call the shooting of a star;
But finding yet that labour lost had been,
Comes back to Noah, who gently takes him in.
Noah rests awhile, but meaning still to prove
A second search, again sends out the dove,
After other seven, some better news to bring,
Which by the strength of his unwearied wing
Finds out at last a place for his abode,
When the glad bird stays all the day abroad,
And wondrous proud that he a place had found,
Who of a long time had not touch'd the ground,
Draws in his head, and thrusteth out his breast,
Spreadeth his tail, and swelleth up his crest,
And turning round and round with cuttry-coo,
As when the female pigeon and he woo;
Bathing himself, which long he had not done,
And dries his feathers in the welcome Sun,
With their thin lips, which they so well ex
As they would say, "We hope to be releas'd;"
The silly ass set open such a throat,
That all the ark resounded with the note;
The watchful dog doth play, and skip, and bark,
And leaps upon his masters in the ark;
The raven croaks, the carrion crow doth squall,
The pye doth chatter, and the partridge call,
The jocund cock crows as he claps his wings,
The merl doth whistle, and the mavis sings,
The nightingale strains her melodious throat,
Which of the small birds being heard to roat,
They soon set to her, each a part doth take,
As by their music up a choir to make;
The parrot, lately sad, then talks and jeers,
And counterfeiteth every sound he hears;
The purblind owl, which heareth all this do,
T express her gladness, cries too-whit too-whoo.
No beast nor bird was in the ark with Noy,
But in their kind express'd some sign of joy;
When that just man, who did himself apply
Still to his dear and godly family,
Thus to them spake, and with erected hands
The like obedience from the rest demands.
"The world's foundation is not half so sure
As is God's promise, nor is Heaven so pure
As is his word, to me most sinful man;
To take the ark who when I first began,
Said on the hundred and the fiftieth day
I should perceive the deluge to decay;
And 'tis most certain, as you well may know,
Which this poor pigeon by his leaf doth show.
He that so long could make the waters stand
Above the Earth, see how his powerful hand
Thrusts them before it, and so fast doth drive
The big-swoln billows, that they seem to strive
Which shall fly fastest on that secret path,
Whence first they came to execute his wrath;
The Sun which melted every cloud to rain,
He makes it now to sup it up again;
The wind by which he brought it on before,
In their declining drives it o'er and o'er :
The tongues of angels serve not to express,
Neither his mercy, nor his mightiness.
20 The revolution of the year by a short peri- Be joyful then in our great God," (saith he)
"For we the parents of mankind shall be,
From us poor few, his pleasure that attend,
Shall all the nations of the Earth descend."
When righteous Noah, desirous still to hear
In what estate th' unwieldy waters were,
Sends forth the dove as he had done before,
But it found dry land, and came back no more;
Whereby this man precisely understood
The great decrease of this world-drowning flood.
Thus as the ark is floating on the main,
As when the flood rose, in the fall again,
With currents still encountered every where,
Forward and backward which it still do bear;
As the stream strait'neth, by the rising clives
Of the tall mountains, 'twixt which oft it drives,
Until at length, by God's almighty hand,
It on the hills of Ararat doth land.
When those within it felt the ark to strike
On the firm ground, was ever comfort like
To theirs, which felt it fixed there to stay,
And found the waters went so fast away,
That Noah set up the covering of the ark,
That those which long had sitten in the dark,
Might be saluted with the cheerful light,
( since the world, was ever such a sight!)
That creeping things, as well as bird or beast,
Their several comforts sundry ways exprest?
His wife and children then ascend to see
What place it was so happy that should be
For th' ark to rest on, where they saw a plain,
A mountain's top which seemed to contain,
On which they might discern within their ken,
The carcasses of birds, of beasts, and men,
Chok'd by the deluge, when Noah spake them thus:
"Behold th' Almighty's mercy show'd to us,
That through the waves our way not only wrought,
But to these mountains safely hath us brought,
Whose dainty tops all earthly pleasures crown,
And on the green-sward sets us safely down.
Had our most gracious God not been our guide,
The ark had fall'n upon some mountain side,
And with a rush removing of our freight,
Might well have turn'd it backward with the weight,
Or by these billows lastly overborne,
Or on some rock her ribs might have been torn.
But see, except these here, each living thing
That crept, or went, or kept the air with wing,
Lay here before us to manure the land;
Such is the power of God's all-working hand.”
In the six hundredth year of that just man,
The second month 2, the seventeenth day, began
That horrid deluge, when Heaven's windows were
At once all open'd, then did first appear
Th' Almighty's wrath, when for full forty days
There rain'd from Heaven not showers, but mighty
A hundred fifty days that so prevail'd,
Above the mountains till the great ark sail'd,
In the seventh month 23, upou the seventeenth day,
Like a ship fall'n into a quiet bay,
It on the hills of Ararat doth light:
But Noah deny'd yet to discharge the freight,
For that the mountains clearly were not seen,
Till the first day of the tenth month, when green
Smil'd on the blue skies, when the Earth began
To look up cheerly, yet the waters ran
21 Mountains of a wondrous height, either within,
or bordering upon Armenia.
22 In May, according to the expositors.
23 Part of September and part of October..
Still through the vallies, till the month again In which before it first began to rain; Of which, the seven and twentieth day expir'd, Quite from the Earth the waters were retir'd: When the Almighty God bade Noah to set Open the ark, at liberty to let [came The beasts, the birds, and creeping things, which Like as when first they went into the same; Each male comes down, his female by his side, As 'twere the bridegroom bringing out his bride, Till th' ark was emptied, and that mighty load, For a whole year that there had been bestow'd, (Since first that forty days' still falling rain That drown'd the world, was then dry'd up again) Which with much gladness do salute the ground, The lighter sort some caper, and some bound, The heavier creatures tumble them, as glad That they such ease by their enlargement had; The creeping things together fall to play; Joy'd beyond measure for this happy day, The birds let from this cage, do mount the sky, To show they yet had not forgot to fly, And sporting them upon the airy plain, Yet to their master Noah they stoop again, To leave his presence and do still forbear, Till they from him of their release might hear; The beasts each other woo, the birds they bill, As they would say to Noah, they meant to fill The roomthy Earth, then altogether void, And make, what late the deluge had destroy'd. When righteous Noah, who ever had regard To serve his God, immediately prepar'd To sacrifice, and of the cleanest beasts That in the ark this while had been his guests, He seizeth, (yet obedient to his will) And of them he for sacrifice doth kill: Which he and his religiously attend, And with the smoke their vows and thanks ascend; Which pleas'd th' Almighty, that he promis'd then, Never by flood to drown the world agen; And that mankind his covenant might know, He in the clouds left the celestial bow.
When to these living things quoth righteous "Now take you all free liberty to go, And every way do you yourselves disperse, Till you have fill'd this globy universe With your increase; let every soil be yours, He, that hath sav'd ye, faithfully assures Your propagation: and, dear wife," quoth he, "And you, my children, let your trust still be In your Preserver, and on him rely, Whose pronise is, that we shall multiply, Till in our days, of nations we shall hear, From us poor few in th' ark that lately were." To make a new world, thus works every one, The deluge ceaseth, and the old is gone.
24 In the same month the flood began, it ceased, which made up the year.
SEE how ingrate forgetfulness
Circles us round with dangers,
That all the saints whom God doth highly bless,
To us are strangers.
Now Heaven into our souls inspires
No true celestial motions:
Lust's ardent flame hath dimm'd the holy fires
That isle where Saturn's royal son was bred,
Hath been enrich'd with thy immortal rhymes:
Even to the burnt line have thy poems flown,
And gain'd high fame in the declining west,
And o'er that cold sea shall thy name be blown,
That icy mountains rolleth on her breast:
Her soaring hence so far made me admire,
Whither at length thy worthy Muse would fly,
Borne through the tender air with wings of fire,
Able to lift her to the starry sky:
[replete
This work resolv'd my doubts, when th' Earth's
With her fair fruit, in Heaven she'll take her seat.
THOMAS ANDREWE. Ex arduis æternitas.
MOSES HIS BIRTH AND MIRACLES.
This canto our attracted Muse The prophet's glorious birth pursues The various changes of his fate, . From humbleness to high estate, His beauty more than mortal shape, From Egypt how he doth escape, By his fair bearing in his flight, Obtains the lovely Midianite,
Where God unto the Hebrew spake, Appearing from the burning brake, And back doth him to Egypt send, That mighty things doth here intend.
GIRT in bright flames, rapt from celestial fire,
That our unwearied faculties refine,
By zeal transported boldly we aspire
To sing a subject gloriously divine:
Him that of mortals only had the grace,
(On whom the spirit did in such power descend)
To talk with God face opposite to face,
Even as a man with his familiar friend.
Muse, I invoke the utmost of thy might,
That with an armed and auspicious wing,
Thou be obsequious in his doubtless right
'Gainst the vile atheist's vituperious sting:
Where thou that gate industriously may'st fly,
Which nature strives but feignedly to go,
Borne by a power so eminent and high,
As in his course leaves reason far below,
To show how poesy (simply bath her praise)
That from full Jove takes her celestial birth,
And quick as fire, her glorious self can raise
Above this base abominable Earth.
O if that time have happily reserv'd,
(Besides that sacred and canonic writ,
What once in slates and barks of trees was carv'd)
Things that our Muse's gravity may fit,
Unclasp the world's great register to me,
That smoky rust bath very near defac'd,
That I in those dim characters may see
From common eyes that hath aside been cast,
And thou translator of that faithful Muse
This All's creation that divinely song,
From courtly French (no travel dost refuse)
To make him master of thy genuine tongue,
Salust, to thee, and Silvester thy friend,
Comes my high poem peaceably and chaste
Your hallow'd labours humbly to attend,
That wreckful Time shall not have power to waste,
A gallant Hebrew (in the height of life)
Amram, a levite honourably bred,
Of the same offspring won a beauteous wife,
And no less virtuous, goodly Jacobed:
So fitly pair'd that (without all ostent)
Even of the wise it hardly could be said
Which of the two was most preheminent,
Or he more honour'd, or she more obey'd.
In both was found that livelihood and meetness,
By which affection any way was mov'd:
In him that shape, in her there was that sweetness,
Might make him lik'd, or her to be belov'd:
As this commixtion, so their married mind
Their good corrected, or their ill reliev'd,
As truly loving as discreetly kind,
Mutually joy'd, as mutually griev'd:
Their nuptial bed by abstinence maintain❜d,
Yet still gave fuel to love's sacred fire,
And when fruition plentifullest gain'd
Yet were they chaste in fulness of desire.
Now grieved Israel many a woeful day,
That at their vile servility repin'd,
Press'd with the burthens of rude boist❜rous clay,
By stern Egyptian tyranny assign'd:
Yet still the more the Hebrews are oppress'd
Like to firm seed they fructify the more,
That by th' eternal providence fore-blest,
Goshen gives roomth but scantly to their store.
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