So was the Arke divided into parts,
To amaze the minds of true Religions harts:
Three stories high the same was fully fram'd,
To hold the sorts of creatures wild and tam'd,
Made all of Pine, pitcht both without and in,
To suckor none that perisht for their sin :
And that the rest as God had just decreed,
The Male and Female in the same should breed,
To store the world, replenish it againe
With fruite more milde than first the Earth did staine.
The Arke one fram'd according to the forme
That God had layd before the furious storme,
Fell crosly forth contrary to the minde,
Of those great men, which did the weaker grind:
They wondered all at this so huge a frame,
Derided, scoft, too bitter here to name,
And at the last attempted barbarous rude
Their hands polluted all with blood imbrude:
To teare it downe and make it but the scorne
To all those men hereafter should be borne
But God above perceiving that their pride,
The totall Earth on every side had dide,
With crimson gore and that they ment outright,
To spoyle his worke, deface it utter, quight,
Powers down his judgements, sends those fearful
showrs
That all the air i' th' instant thunders lowers,
With sable clouds, and sulphery. flames of fire,
Tearing the Heavens, making the world admire :
To see the Earth, the Aire, Fire Waters all,
Flock altogether round about this Ball,
Joyne all as one even in an instant soone,
To stop mans breath sending a night at noone,
That in a moment all their lives are dround,
Their pride much like the Egyptian army found,
That in the sea upon the crimson sands,
Against Gods sheepe heav'd up their murdring
hands,
The Arke protected from their trecherous pawes,
Damn'd Envious fowle base curst devouring
Jawes,
Heav'd from the Earth, upon the Water bides, Secure from hurt, when God her Pilot guides, Triumphant marches, in all stormes it stands, Their unbeliefe bold impudency brands,
With that just scourge, which if they had repented, All had been well, his judgements staid and stented.
Full sixteene hundred complete yeeres were ended,
And fifty sixe when God in sunder rended,
The sable clouds, and made the waters mount,
To drowne the world according to the count,
Of all the Hebrews, glory of the Earth,
Whose sacred stories of admired worth,
Have purchast fame, and aye deserved well,
Before the rest to beare away the Bell.
Heere could I sing th' afflictions, sorrowes, griefe,
Vexations, troubles, sundry mischiefes reife:
That dayly hapned to Noahs sacred Arke,
Tost too and fro as is a little Barke.
Upon the wings of (envious) Eols rage
And some good men within this iron age,
The Surges, Waves, upon her sides all beate,
The sturdy rocks to split, her wombe do threate,
The sands to choake, the stormes to batter downe,
As all the Rest lo she her selfe to drowne.
193.
But still protected by Gods powerfull hands,
Against the streame of all these rubs she stands,
And on the waters waves, foule mischiefes all,
She passes through, and viewes this spacious Ball,
Untill at last she chanst herselfe to ease,
From the fell fury of the envious Seas,
Upon the top of that admired hill,
Whose worthy fame the totall Earth doth fill,
As more at large shall be described plaine
In my next Booke*, when once (my peace) I gaine,
Meane time deare Muse, with Noahs sacred Pile,
Let us but stay and rest ourselves awhile.
* The next books never appeared.
|