The sacred Muse by envious Foes is crost,
Adam and Eve how each from other lost,
Their first born sonne by cursed malice led,
Unkindly wounds his dearest brother dead,
APOSTACY the cause of all this ill,
The totall world on every side doth fill;
With BLOOD, OPPRESSION, CRUELTY and HATE
To waste, consume, and wonde each others state,
The CHURCH derived from the third born child,
Is stained polluted, with CAINES race defiled,
So that the WORLD and all therein was found,
Besides the arke were wash't away and drown'd.
URANIA SOveraigne of the muses nine
Inspire my thoughts with sacred worke divine
Come down from heaven, within my Temples rest,
Inflame my heart and lodge within my breast,
Grant me the story of this world to sing,
The Glasse of Time, upon the stage to bring,
Be Aye within me by thy powerful might,
Governe my Pen, direct my speech aright,
Even in the birth and infancy of Time,
To the last age, season my holy rime:
O lead me on, into my soul infuze,
Divinest work, and still be thou my muse,
That all the world may wonder and behold,
To see times passe in ages manifold,
And that their wonder may produce this end,
To live in love their future lives to mend.
Then shall thy lookes with sacred lustre shine,
The muses all within thy browes combine,
Richly adorned with all the Nymphes and Graces,
Shall sound thy praise with lovely pleasing faces,
Joying to see thy glorious heavenly hap,
The golden Ball cast down into thy lap:
To thy delight and great contentment more,
Then if the world were only thine in store.
Though cursed Envy on thy Fortune frowne,
Yet thy chaste Browes shall weare heavens laurel
In future ages as the Muses Queene,
Thy Temples wreath'd, shall ever flourish greene,
And what if Hymen something doe annoy
Thy tender fruit, yet shall thou live in joy:
And when pale death shall close up both thine
Thy fame shall mount above the lofty skies.
And yet Urania how canst thou be glad,
To see this age wherein we live so bad,
All overgrowne farre worse than at the first,
Bemir'd in sin as if it were accurst,
Nothing but blood, contention, bribes and brawles,
The serpent still upon his belly crawles,
And round about on every side doth winde,
With cunning sleights the infants face to grinde.
Nay thou thyself noble Urania deare,
Since first thy landing and arrival here,
Hast thou not been on every side turmoil'd,
Tost to and fro, by Envy overtoil'd?
Whose viperous tongue within a sacred place,
Hath belcht her venom, aim'd at thy disgrace,
Like to the Devil in Paradise at first,
That baneful poison in his breast hath nurst,
To wrong thy person, weaken much thy state,
Enrich himself to satisfy his hate,
Tooke all advantage working on thy youth,
Suggested lies instead of naked truth:
Lock't thee up close (Immur'd) within a wall,
When not a groate was due to him at all;
But by the order of his noble Land,
He in that place for debt to thee should stand.
Great God of Heaven it makes me weepe and waile, To see injustice often times prevaile:
To domineere and catch in her hand,
When Innocence must at her mercy stand,
Then doth she squeeze, wring, wrest, extort and lurch.
When seldome times oppression comes at Church,
Deare friends pursuasion once can ne'er prevaile,
To work a peace till all be set to saile,
Then swallows all into a griping purse,
Not satisfied, continues ten times worse.
Vowing to wast and ruine all thy state
Oh cursed malice hatcht by envious fate,
When thy false heart hath made thee act thy worst,
What art thou then more than a beast accurst:
Nay farre more worse, for thou must count at large,
For every
soule committed to thy charge,
If by thy fault the least of them be lost,
Thy soule in hell the price of it will cost.
But yet my muse, unfold to me the cause,
Why thou didst fall into the treacherous pawes
Of hateful foes, devouring Tigers fierce,
False hearted friends, which in thy state did pierce,
That thou shouldst thus be tost on every side,
Compeld oft times to be from home and ride,
To see if Envy with her viperous face,
Hath foisted lies in sacred justice place.
I know no cause, nor could I ever tell,
Why she should thus against thee always swell, Winding herself, her malice best to smother, Into the habit of thy elder brother.
One thou hast lov'd, enough to make thee doate,
To see vice lurke under a formall coate.
And thou thyself that yet didst never hurt,
To harme a childe, or throw a worm i' th' durt,
Or take delight to glory in the fall
Of any one, much lesse thy tongue to gall
Bite, scandall, blurre, to injury, defame,
The worth of any in their goods or name:
By wicked ways, the infants face to grinde,
Nor in thy hands thy neighbors living wind,
But to thy power hast shew'd thy best endeavour,
To love the Saints with all thy heart forever.
Urania (deere) thy very case is mine,
How did my foes still to this day combine,
Backesliding friends (much like to slippery eales)
Have undermind, to turne up both mine heels:
With fawning tearms my company have sought,
Inverted that (which yet) I never thought,
Reported words, the which were never spake :
Let every man by this a warning take
And careful be whom they converse withall,
The bird oft times in Fowlers nets doth fall:
Even when (alas) not any hurt she thinkes,
Then is she caught, under their burthen sinkes.
How often times have I bin tost and tir'd
Plung'd in the deepe and all with dirt bemir'd,
Tost to and fro by those in Ambush lay,
With secret Gins to trap me in my way,
Vow'd my destruction, all my state to baine:
Much to my troubles, injury and paine,
Swallow'd my goods within a griping purse,
Have I not cause all Romaine wolves to curse,
When all I have can scarcely give content,
Unlesse my life and living both be spent.
Were it for debt or title of my Land,
That thus my foes did in ther fury stand:
If possibly they could me more abuse,
Yet in some sort I would them here excuse.
Deere Muse the cause why I am thus perplext, Turmoil'd about on every side and vext,
To waste my state, and pass through dangers
Is not for wrong that I have done to any:
But by fell Envy hatcht in hell below,
In Eden nurc't, now e'er the Earth doth flow,
When Adam least suspected her intent,
Then was her minde on mischief bent,
And ever since hath labord what she may,
Eves seed to baine her secret traps to lay:
But all the spight against me she can use,
May waste my state and hinder thee my Muse.
For this alone by her I am misused,
Hurried about by slandrous tongues abused,
Kept long from home unto my great expense,
Weakened my lands and living ever since,
On all sides crost, by greatnesse oversway'd
By guile and cunning treacherously betrayed
Of smooth fac't friends abandon'd and forsaken,
And all Gods knowes but for a word mistaken.
11.
Nay had I been sole author of that thing,
Which some untimely to my hand did bring,
And blaz'd it forth, why should I thus be blam'd,
When no man (living) in the same is nam'd,
Nor any scandall in those words alone,
Intended are but by a man i' th' Moon,
Yet I turmoil'd against all right and reason,
Am us'd by some, as if it were High Treason.
Sacred religion brought from heaven above,
Thou shouldst be constant, full of grace and love,
From God (himselfe) thou hast a holy taske,
O let not vice under a surplisse maske,
By this alone Christs flock are scattered all,
O'er all the Earth, in every place do fall,
Some runne to Rome, and some renounce their creede,
And come againe, like to a stinking weede,
That bears a flower a womans love to win,
But yet the seed contagious all within.
All powerful God, when both by night and day,
Incessantly my heart to thee did pray,
To ease my griefe, and if it were thy will,
To send me peace to walke up Sions hill,
That in thy house where all thy saints do meet,
My soul might sing and offer odours sweet,
To heare thy word come purling from the Rocke,
Feeding thy sheepe and building up thy fucke,
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