For now oppression overflowes the Earth,
Farre more and worse than in her Infant birth,
Fowle crualty, extortion, envious Pride,
Hypocrasie and smooth fac't sinnes beside,
Jetting and masking under formall coates,
That hard it is to know the Sheepe from Goates,
The Puritant which hates the name of Mammon,
Is yet content to hold mens good in common,
And all the rest in this my tedious taske,
When time shall serve I hope for to unmaske
Meanewhile Romes wolfe hath entered in our Isle,
Devoured some by craft, Dissembling, guile,
Base covetousnesse the monster of our age,
How doth she creepe upon the grave and sage
When Mony swayes and Charity is cold,
What is it not, but some will do for gold?
O Plague, O Poyson, hatcht in Hell below,
Thy baneful breath o're all the world doth flow,
The Earth itself within her bowells pent,
Her
proper wombe is ript for thee and rent,
The (sacred) lap of Thetis cut and slicest,
Thou gnawst the minds of holy men like mice,
Thy sight doth sting worse than the Cockatrice,
How hast thou spoyld corrupted all in ages,
The purest minds of greatest Personages?
Whose servants painted with foul leperous kibes,
Now sell their soules and all they have for bribes.
Like curst Gehazies base polluted pawes,
Which wrong'd his God, and holy masters lawes,
And runs apace to catch into his hands,
A little gold to purchase Nabooths lands,
Perchance to hang upon his gawdy back,
When wife and children starv'd at home may lack,
Or else to spend in drinking drunke and play,
'Mongst beastly whores to cast the same away.
But God above that spyes the inmost thought,
Discernes the fact which is in secret wrought,
Upon the top of damn'd Gehazies head,
Showres downe his judgements as Elisha said,
And in an instant all his body o're,
From top to toe is pestred with a sore,
An irkssome scab upon his skin doth grow,
A Leprosie as white as any snow,
Nor this alone unto his body sticks,
Amates his mind and seared conscience pricks,
But all his kindred best acquainted friends,
Forsake him quight and none unto him sends,
And to this day his off-spring and his Race,
Are leperous tainted in that cursed case.
Father of lights and God of Spirits all,
Power down thy justice let thy judgements fall,
Upon the hairy scalpes of those that wrest,
Dishonestly their friends or neighbours beast
Their goods, their lands, their living or their life,
Not satisfied, continue still in strife:
Great God that all the world may see thy good
Taint thou their Issue off-spring and their bloud,
These are the Cankars of the Common wealth,
Base Caterpillars prowling best by stealth,
That never care so they may have their will,
Mens bloud their lives, their state and all to spill:
If thy good pleasure sayes my prayers nay,
Thy will be done, Lord sat them for thy day.
But holy God, what will become of those,
Which in an open publicke place shall chose,
To give occasion first to shew their gall,
Do call a man both this and that and all,
And afterwards shall lye upon the catch,
Their friends estate, into their hands to snatch,
By deedes, conveyances, obligations, bonds,
To wrong and wrest, to make them sell their
lands,
Before such time as any thing is due,
To clap up such with Cerberus his crue,
In woful prison sick to lie and rot,
Not once to ease, asswage their griefs a jot;
And all the while in Equity and Right
There's nothing due but what is got by might,
By wrong, oppression divelish traps and guile,
And wicked plodding in such actions vile.
Lord pardon them, forgive their great offences,
Call once againe, illuminate their senses,
Waken their carelesse too secure a slumber,
Forget their faults too infinite to number,
Let them restore what they have wrongly got,
Else will those goods consume away and rot,
And aye the Infant yet unborne will cry,
For vengence just on their posterity.
But let not us (good Lord) O let not us,
Trace out their steps to give examples thus,
Make us avoid to fall into the like
Lest suddenly thy judgements do us strike,
With farre more terror on our bodyes knowne,
That ever was upon Gehezi showne,
Or all thy chosen people thou didst make
A warning sad for us (in Time) to take,
Besides the losse (eternall) of thy Grace,
Where such a one shall never see thy face.
But chaste Urania, Soveraigne of my Muse,
In whom the Heavens do their best gifts infuse,
Why dost thou now thy love so farre ingage,
As to descend downe to our times and age,
Leaving the world that at the first was drownd,
To ramble out, beyond thy scope to sound?
Damn'd vice, unmaske with those that wrest and
lurch,
And all this while (thus) to forget the Church.
Retire againe, and stay not with us long,
Thou maist be blamed for this thy wholesome
For 'tis most true one hardly scapes of ten,
That hunts the Foxe too near the Lions den.
Avoide, begone, contend not much with these,
For feare perhaps thou dost some men displease,
And so incurre some danger on thyself,
For taxing those which are in love with pelfe:
Come to the Church deare Muse, where last of all.
Thou Henoch leftst upon this goodly Ball.
There thou art tide; O do not much abound,
Take sanctuary in their holy ground:
And from these things till time shall serve
Then shalt thou rest and live in perfect Peace.
Henoch the seventh from Adams pupillage,
A sixtie five years of his manly age,
Begat a childe whose like was never found,
From this worlds birth in all her spatious round,
That lived to see so many weekes of dayes
As this man did, and yet no strength decayes:
Methuselah the wonder of his time,
Whose age may claime of all the Earth the prime,
Which liv'd to see with Simeons heart inflam'd,
The Arke of Noah before his death all fram'd;
Tipe of that Church which from mount Sion purld,
When Cæsars scepter swayd the westerne world.
Methuselah both ancient, grave
and sage,
One hundred fourscore and seven yeeres of age,
All chaste doth live, and then begats a son,
Upon whose death, the world was quite undon,
Lamach the father of that faithful child,
Which sav'd heavens souls, and all the rest beguild,
When that the Arke was by the waters heaved O then they knew their wits were all deceived.
Great Noahs selfe from Lamechs loynes descended
When full one hundred eightie yeares were ended
And that the sun had foure times crost the line,
Then is he borne, and in his birth did shine,
Like to a glimpse of that all sacred light
Which in these days may dazle all our sight:
His name foretiping from his mothers brest,
That he was borne to be the Churches rest,
Five hundred yeeres (or neare upon) he past
His manly days both continent and chaste,
And then espowsed to his future Fame,
A noble, faire, and courteous, lovely Dume,
Some thinke the sister of the great Tubal-Caine, Sweete Naamah his love at first did gaine. Though from the line of cursed Caine descended, Yet of the heavens she was so highly friended, As that her lot before the world was drown'd, Fell lucky forth within the Churches ground.
Oh God thy workes are farre beyond our reach,
The least of them may all our Senses teach;
Thou hast thy Sheepe disperst in every place,
From Henoch, Seths, and Caines proud envious
Race,
It is thy pleasure bad mens sins to pay,
To save (some yet) and cast not all
away,
The flowres oft times which do mongst cockle
May smell more sweet than any plant we sow. And tender seeds out from the Popish seate, May yet at length prove ears of perfect wheate, Chiefly when Noah Gods husbandman shall till, And worke the ground according to his will, With pruning, planting in that forme and
As was the Church once under Cæsars banner.
Lo Abraham was out from Chaldee cald,
And Joseph great in Egypts court instald;
Job in the land of Uz amongst those men,
Where so he liv'd that grieves my soul to pen;
And Moses milde amongst the murdring sort,
Was nurst, brought up within King Pharoahs
Court.
Hester the Queene, that made her foes a scorne,
Was marryd (tide) unto a Pagan borne.
And Paul himself th' apostle of us all,
Yet first was bred within prowd Tarsus wal:
And divers others which my Muse could name
Were traind up thus, and yet deserv'd no blame.
For he that builds upon the slippery sand,
Yet time may serve to make his fabricke stand,
And these were such as from the rest reculde,
The weaker Sexe are by the greater rulde,
|