A Considering Glass
The source for this document is https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A66781.0001.001
Project Note
This is licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND. This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.
The source of this document is the Early English Books Online (EEBO-TCP) website. Those books were transcribed in a character for character manner and can be very cumbersome to read since there was no standard spelling during that time. Many spelling variations such as "unlesse", "vnlesse", and "vnles" regularly appear.
This project was conceived to clean up those books as much as possible and make them more accessible to the interested reader, leading to the creation of a massive list of variant spellings and their corrections. This was used to clean up the text, but is of course only as complete as the list itself. Because of the nature of the original transcription, some words have missing characters or places where the original language (e.g., Greek) was not transcribed. This effort does not change that. Be aware that the original transcription can also be faulty and in some cases entire sentences may be missing.
Although this is no substitute for a properly compared, proofed, and scholarly edition, I believe that the result is a document which is far more accessible, particularly for searching for terms using standard spelling. The document has been cleaned and presented in what I hope is a pleasing and useful format for the vast majority of Christian brothers and sisters who just want access to read these spiritually nourishing works.
However, a word of warning: The Puritans were a very diverse group of people and their age was characterized with godliness, but also much upheaval, disputation and strife. They disagreed on many doctrines and some of these works contain less orthodox or Scriptural views than others. The reader is strongly advised to read with discernment, particularly if it is unknown whether author is trustworthy.
This project took a huge amount of time and skill to bring to fruition. I would particularly like to thank David Jonescue for the initial list of Puritans he found on EEBO and the concept behind this project as well as the continuous, unceasing efforts toward seeing this complete. Without his labor, this would not be available. Alex Sarrouf was invaluable in providing the initial list of over 7,000 spelling variations he had identified and corrected, as well as continuing to review more than 16,000 additions to that list for any typos.
Logan West
(with David Jonescue and Alex Sarrouf)
www.puritansearch.org
England this fable plainly show's,
a strong Allie no partner know's.
The Bull the Goat, and patient Sheep one day,
Leagu'd with the Lion, sought a common prey;
A pray they took, an high and mighty heart;
of which each thought to have his equal part:
Soft, quoth the Lion, I the first shaire claim,
Cause Lion King o'th forest is my mane;
The second you shall give me as my due,
Cause I am valiant, able to subdue:
The third I take by force, and for the rest,
Touch it who dares; yield it all, you had best.
Speculum Speculativum: OR, A CONSIDERING-GLASSE; Being an INSPECTION Into the present and late sad Condition Of these NATIONS; With some CAUTIONAL EXPRESSIONS made thereupon, by GEORGE WITHER, Immediately after His MAJESTIES Restauration: To preserve in himself and others a Christian Obedience to GOD's various Dispensations. Hereby also are some Glimmerings discovered Of what will probably ensue hereafter.
Fiat Justitia, Ruat Coelum:
Rather than
Justice
should be made a scorn,
Let all the
Planets,
from their
Sphears
be torn.
And
Jeremiah
said to
Seraiah,
When comest to
Babylon,
thou shalt read these words; and when thou hast made an end of reading this Book, thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of
Euphrates,
and say, Thus shall
Babylon
sink,
Jer. 51. 63.
London, Written June XIII. MDCLX. and there Imprinted the same year.
To the KING'S MAJESTY, If this Considering Glass comes accidentally to his View.
SIR,
Blest is he that in God's Name doth come,
In which Name I pronounce your
welcome home;
And, for your
Health
more heartily do pray,
Than any one who drinks it every day.
As often too, I have you in my thought
As they, who with the first your favor sought;
Which, if my heart you could as plainly see
As what you now read, would believed be.
When I had first composed what here ensues,
I wisht it, where you might the same peruse:
For men
unknown
(or known without respect)
So justly are affronted with
neglect,
For
proffered Services
to those, that have
More
Off'rings
daily than they can receive,
That, I commitred this to his Dispose,
Who orders everything that
comes
or
goes.
If
Providence
hath brought this to your hand,
Give up to REASON straight, the sole command
Ov'r all your
Passions;
Make her of your
Isle,
(Your Isle of MAN)
Queen-Regent,
all the while
You are perusing it; and let it be
Read through, else it will wrong both
You
and
Mee.
(Or you like
Caesar,
unperus'd perchance,
May leave that, which your welfare might advance)
To be her
Subject,
but so long endeavor
As till that's done, and then, be
King forever,
(Reigning with
her)
as absolute a
Prince,
As ever had over men
pre-eminence:
For, then, shall that, to you more
glory
add,
Than hitherto from any
Pen
you had;
And, be to you, a true
Mnemosyne,
When, peradventure, none so dares to be.
This
Glass
(though formed it be of
Common matter
And, made by him, who knows not how to flatter)
If, to a
Prince,
who needs it, it were sold,
Were worth to him
three times his weight in gold,
If he knew how to use it as he should:
Yet I had rather you for nothing had it,
So that it wrought th'
effect
for which I made it,
Than, from another, to receive that
price
In
ready money
paid me over
twice:
For, then, this Book (which hath not to your
praise
One
single Page)
thereto should
Trophies
raise
More glorious, than, your
LONDONS
wealth could rear
If wholly, thereupon consumed it were.
Your
Happiness
and
Honor
it intends:
By
not commending,
it much more
commends,
Than all their
Panegyrics
who bestrow
Those men with
praises
whom they do not know;
And, magnify, when they ascend the
Throne,
All
Kings
alike; which
praise
is less than
none;
For, 'tis a
Mock,
deserving but returns
Of sharp reproofs, or of neglect and scorns.
If,
wise
and
pious,
you I had not thought,
I, such like
Gew-gaws
could to you have brought
To put out of your mind, what GOD for you
Hath lately done; and what you ought to do
For
Him
and
His.
But neither
self-esteem,
Nor verbal
Attributes
can perfect him
By whom,
here,
shall be an Establishment
Of
Justice
in a
Righteous Government.
For, none else, but a
self-denying King,
Shall that great
Blessing
to these
Nations
bring;
And, his
Name
will be thereby honor'd more
Than all his
Predecessors
heretofore.
And, they, who then live shall fulfilled behold
What
Britain's Genius,
long ago foretold:
For, I believe, that such a one will be,
And also, much desire, you may be he.
A
King
you are, who, now
twice born
hath been
To
Royalty;
and therefore, by that
Mean
A
Child of honor,
by Regeneration
You seem to be: and in the
common fashion
To celebrate your
double birth,
it could
With your condition no proportion hold;
For that
Cause
in a path, by no man trod,
I seek to do you honor in this
Mode,
Which if accepted, your true
praise
will be;
And, peradventure no
disgrace
to me.
For as a
Lady
looking in a
Mirrour,
Puts on her
Dress,
and
Jewels
without error,
Heeding what is mis-placed, or forgot,
And to her
Handmaid
always trusteth not;
So, by this
Glass,
you may have by reflection
A sight of what pertains to your perfection.
See, not with others, but, with your own eyes,
Whether true
Ornaments,
or some
Disguise,
Be put upon you, which may render you
Less lovely, when you come in open view.
Herein, a
Catalogue
to you is shown
Of many long-lost
Jewels of the Crown;
And such as add the most
Essential Glory
Unto those
Crowns
that are but transitory.
A
Course
is offered here, whereby you may
Out-do,
all that, which
Flatterers can say:
(Or, by but so far forth endeav'ring it,
As
Human Frailties
will the same permit)
To praise you here, I do not undertake;
But, that yourself praise-worthy you may make
Is my design by bringing things to mind,
Which written in your own heart you shall find.
This shows the
Means
to make you honorable
With what should always be inseparable
From your own
person,
and doth also tend
To your
Immortal Glory,
without end:
It, such an
honor
gives, as will
increase
In their despite, who seek to make it less:
An honor which depends not on men's
tongues,
Which
Envy
blasteth not, nor
Malice
wrongs;
Which neither
Degradations,
nor
Advances,
Or, any human
Changes
or
Mischances
Can blemish: for, it will be much more clear
Than that
Star,
which within our
Hemisphear
Shin'd on your
Birth-day,
whilst the
Sun
at height
Display'd his beams to hide it from our sight.
Somewhat, by that, perhaps,
portended
was;
So will there be by this
Considering-Glass.
God grant my meaning be so understood,
That, now it may an
Omen
be for
Good.
By great
Afflictions
you were lately proved,
Which are in mercy totally removed.
At present, by as great
prosperities,
Your
Temper,
and your
Faithfulness
God tries.
And that things useful slip not out of thought,
This,
to your hands, by
Providence
was brought.
Be pleased seriously to look thereon,
For, you will find it a true
Lydian-stone;
And, if you bide the
Touch, WORDS
are too poor
To celebrate your
Worth;
who can say more?
Your Majesty's Loyal Subject, GEO. WITHER.
Instead of a Dedication, or an Epistle to the Reader, this Expostulation of the Author with Himself, is here inserted.
GEORGE,
wereit not fit, ere from thy hands it pass
To dress thy
self
by thy
Considering-Glass?
It hath now
six months
been exposed to
show
And some say,
Forth in public let it go.
Some, cry,
Conceal it;
for it may undo thee,
Or at the best, bring outward mischief to thee.
Say, shall, or shall I not divulge the same?
Shall it be spared, or given to the flame?
Quickly, resolve, before it be too late,
And
Cautions
needful, grow quite out of date.
Dost thou believe, that many men will read it?
Or, if they do, that any much will heed it?
Except it be, to seek how to abuse thee,
Or, find out somewhat whereof to accuse thee;
What ever thou shalt write,
Self-interest
No more will entertain, then shall consist
With her own
Principles.
Thou, to the SOT
Writ'st Greek: the
worldly-wise
regard it not;
And if, among
Swine,
thou thy pearls dost cast,
They'l
tear
thee, or
defile
thee at the least.
Yet, if thy
Conscience
doth incline thee to it,
More fear thou to
neglect it,
than to
do it;
For, from thy
Duties
thou art not excused,
Although thy pains be slighted and abused.
And, it were better,
mischief
should befall
Unto one
single person,
than to
all:
He perishing with an ill Conscience too,
Because, he did not, what he ought to do.
To
make this,
and
transcribe it,
I confess,
Much
pains
required not, and the
cost
is less.
In Ink and Paper: yet, perhaps, it may
Be better worth, than to be thrown away:
And though to my particular offense
It may redound a
tenfold Recompence,
It will repay thy Country by return:
And, for thy
self alone,
thou art not born.
My
Country!
Why perhaps my
Country-men,
Think, they need not my
service;
and, what then?
Am I obliged, if they be minded so,
To serve them still, whether they will or no?
I,
fifty years,
have served them in my
turn,
To that end, for which (I think) I was
born,
For no reward, but
injuries
and
scorn.
They, my
Good Meanings,
have repay'd with
ill,
And, can it be expected, I should still
Serve them on such hard terms? Then, so I will.
Hast thou composed, without
fear
or
wit,
What, may men's
discontented humors
fit?
Scribled enough, since here the
Scoene
did alter,
To purchase
Newgate,
or, to win a
Halter?
If so, and that which is deserved follows,
That will, perhaps, attend thee to the
Gallows:
There, either rail upon thee, or, else say,
Thou wert a
bold fool,
and so go their way.
And, if thou writ'st but
sober Truth
and
Reason,
Or, that, which
wise men
think to be in season,
They will be all the world will give thee for it,
She'l say that, Thou,
not worth the hanging art.
Not, worth the hanging!
Hah! that's somewhat though;
And may be worth as much, for ought I know,
As to be made a
Viscount,
or an
Earl,
A
Marquess,
or a
Duke
For, great my
Earthly Expectations
are not,
And, if they come to nothing, much I care not.
I know, which way, to make mine
honor
greater
Than that, for which I must become a Debtor
To other men; and, can augment the same
By that, which some do think, will do me shame.
But, hark! in policy a while delay
To publish, this; thou hast a
Game
to play
For
Prelates Lands,
which lately purchased were;
Thy
Claims
thereto, now in great hazard are,
And, thou, wilt both to
borrow,
and to
pay,
Disabled be, if they be took away:
Thy other Lands, by
Cheaters
were bereft,
And, if thou lose these too, there's nothing left.
Their
Temp'ralties,
must be restored again,
And, thou concerning them, writ'st here, such plain,
Such down-right
Truths,
that if there should be found
Surviving (or, new made) on
English Ground
A
Bishop
who will then thy
cause befriend,
It may presage that all the rest will mend:
And, that, here constituted, we shall see,
Such Bishops, as Saint
Paul
said they should be:
(Which our
Scotch-Brethren,
I suppose, will grant
To be within, our
Solemn Covenant)
But, that, is in great hazard; therefore, try
Their
Holiness,
and their
Humility:
And, if, as may be wished, thou shalt not speed,
Then, with what thou intendest straight proceed.
Out! Out Uponit!
this
Motion
is so evil,
That, 'tis a mere
suggestion
of the
Devil.
This, is that
foolish policy,
that brings
Destruction upon
Nations
and their
Kings.
'It is in effect, as if my heart should say,
Do, as most Worldlings do;
and when that
way
Thou proved hast, and thereby reap'st no good,
From thenceforth, put thy trust alone in GOD.
No, no; I bought those
Lands
without offending
My
Conscience,
or a wrong to them intending:
And, either still mine by GOD's help I will make them,
Or, let the
Prelates,
if it must be, take them;
Although I know them no
Appurtenance
To them belonging by GOD's
Ordinance.
A Covenant within his sight I took,
Which, though by some it slighted be, and broke,
I dare not sleight it so, but, to this hour
Have kept it (and will keep it) to my power.
Art thou then thus resolved? Yes, and till death
Resolved am, whilst I have
Pen
or
Breath,
Thus, to be still resolved, unless GOD leaves me,
Or else to change my mind his warrant gives me.
I will trust GOD in the
first place,
not the
last
Alone, and when all other hopes are past.
If
Prelates, Parliaments,
and
Kings
bereave me
Of all I have, He, helpless will not leave me.
But probable it seems, that, if hereby
Imprisonment,
or extreme
Poverty
Befalls now thou art
old,
that they who most
Thy hazard urge, will leave thee to be lost:
What if they do? thou hast a better
hold:
GOD leaveth no man because he is
old;
And never had he firm
Dependences
On him, that's frighted with such
Toyes
as these.
Recall to mind, that many years ago,
When such
Adventures
thou wert urged unto
It fell out otherwise. But there is yet
Another fear: Therefore consider it.
Thou hast Relations, who to thee are dear;
May these. not suffer more than they can bear,
By what may come? Alas! I will not dissemble,
My fears for them, do make my flesh to tremble;
And, when I mind their hazards and their fears,
'Spight of
Philosophy
I let fall tears.
But why, my
Soul,
art thou dejected so?
My
Heart,
why sad within me, dos
•
〈◊〉
grow?
Still trust in GOD, for he will be th
•••
aid.
Of these vain
Bug-bears
be thou not afraid;
For they are GOD's much more than they are thine:
To him therefore the charge of them resign.
This needless care, is but for
Three,
at most,
And, to the
Father, Son,
and
Holy Ghost,
If thou commit them, be will raise up
Friends
To make for all their losses large amends.
But, they have said, and so do many say,
That men are much estranged at this day
From what they were: that, in these latter times
They are grown much more hardened in their
crimes,
And far less sensible than they were then
Of
Sufferings,
which befell to
honest men,
Who (when their
pains
might that way be bestowed)
Preferr'd the
common good
before their
own:
And that their
number
too, who now are grieved,
Is more than theirs, by whom to be relieved,
They may have hope. Alas! if it be thus,
GOD only can, and he must succor us.
If it be so, our case is very sad:
Yet fear not,
Balm
in
Gilead
may be had.
Thy
Pains,
and this
Adventure
such times need:
On
good Intentions, good effects
succeed;
And, he at last will find it so, who scatters
His
Bread,
although it be upon the
Waters:
For God is still the same; his
Truth
will never
Be
Falsehood,
but continue
Truth
forever.
He, who thee hath preserved so many years
Amid so many
Dangers, Foes
and
Fears,
As thou hast passed through (and thy
Oppressors
Destroy'd from time to time with their Successors)
Will still prese
•••
thee; or, else, thither take thee
From
them,
〈…〉
he'l secure forever make thee;
And, be to
Wife
and
Children
at their need,
A
Husband
and a
Father,
in thy steed.
Well; I believe this; with myself, therefore
Hereof, I will
expostulate
no more.
I have so well, in my
Considering-Glass,
View'd, what my
heart now is,
with what
it was,
And, for what may
befall,
prepared it so,
That, whither GOD will send it, let it go:
Take it among you,
Newters, Friends
and
Foes,
And his Will be fulfilled, WIN or LOSE:
Who since I am excused from the cost
Of
Publication
(because, all I have lost)
Will in the best time, some man's heart incline
To add his Contribution unto mine;
That, what now
six months
hath perused been
In
private,
may more
publicly
be seen.
GEO. WITHER.
Decemb. 13. 1660.
SPECULUM SPECULATIVUM: OR, A CONSIDERING-GLASSE; Composed, June XIII.M.DCLX.
The Contents.
OUr Modern
Prophet
(so did
Paul,
A well known
Heathen Poet
call)
Doth, in the
Muses Mode
relate
This
Nations
past and present state.
Shows us, in this
Considering-Glass,
What, shall hereafter come to pass,
According as, we do fulfil,
Or,
cross
GOD's
manifested Will.
Shows by what light he doth behold
Those things that are by him foretold.
Praics
for the
King,
and minds him too,
In
praying for him,
what to
do.
Some things, which to
himself
pertain,
He intermixeth (not in vain)
Which will as much advantage them
Who sleight them not, as profit him.
And by the number of the
Beast,
Bounds the last year of
Antichrist.
THough of my
Friends,
I may almost profess,
As did
Elias,
in another case,
I know not one
(not one of those at least,
Who friendship for mere
civil ends
professed)
Yet here this day, may many thousands be
Who are my
real friends,
unknown to me:
Yea peradventure many among those
Who at this present time are thought my
Foes.
To them therefore, I wishing
Grace
and
Peace;
Do now, where ere they live, these
Lines
address
To fortify their
Faith,
and them incline
By their
endeavors
to help strengthen mine;
And that by our
Petitions
jointly made,
We may get
safety
where it can be had;
For, whether of a
low degree,
or
high,
To trust to
men,
is trusting to a
Lye.
I am surprised with another FIT,
But what it will produce, I know not yet.
Confusedly things tumble in my breast,
And if confusedly they be expressed,
You must be pleased to take them as you find them,
(And, as
begun,
before I had
designed
them)
Since when few knew what's best for them to do,
That will be done which they are forced unto;
And may perhaps too, have as good success
As that with which more freedom I express:
(At leastwise) when men's
manners,
and the
times
Shall make them heed the
Reason
of my
Rimes;
For nothing I will insist on, but what shall
Tend to GOD's glory, and the good of
all.
Of no men's
Persons
whosoe're they are,
Will I accept, in what I shall declare:
(Not of
mine own,
in anything that may
Wrong
Justice,
or my
Conscience
any way)
Nor be so fearful, or so over-bold,
So over-hot, so luke-warm, or so cold,
That any justly shall my words despise,
That's honest, sober, generous or wise:
But plainly tell things as I find they are,
And then concerning them my thoughts declare;
Not limited by
Method
like to those
Who make expressions of their minds in
prose;
But by
Digressions,
as the
Muses
do,
When sudden
Raptures
them incline thereto;
And in such Language as may evidence
The Truth, without affected Eloquence.
Yet, nor the better, nor the worse effect,
Whether I
write,
or
write not,
I expect
As to my
Self;
save, as I hope to raise
Thereby a
Ground-work
for GOD's
future praise
From things observed; with which
work
to dispense
I dare not, neither can without offense:
For GOD is much concerned in things now done;
As also, in what may succeed thereon;
And if well known, and well weighed, all things were
Which, to me pertinent at this time are,
As with those Lepers who distressed sat
'Twixt WAR and FAMINF, at
Samaria
's Gate;
So should I seem to fare: for, whether they
Continu'd in that place, or went away,
Their hazards were the same; and so are mine,
Whether to WORDS, or
Silence,
I incline.
They at the last resolved were to try
That
course
which they thought best; and so do I.
Which if no man regards, 'tis but the
lot
That, I, and better men have often got.
Assist, Oh GOD! in what I seek to do;
For, when that MAZE, I wistly look into
Which we are in, I am afraid almost
That I in some
dark passage
may be lost.
Our
Follies
have so wrapped us in a
Gin,
Composed both of
Righteousness
and
Sin,
Of
Truth
and
Falsehood,
of
Non-sense
and
Reason,
Of
Good
and
Ill,
of
Loyalty
and
Treason;
And
disagreeing Judgments
and
Affections,
Have broken us into so many
Fractions;
Our heads enforcing into such
cross Angels,
Whereby the
Net
still more and more intangles,
And fastened it with such a
snarled knot,
That, to untie it, if thou help them not,
All human pow'rs
will be employ'd in vain,
To set us at full liberty again.
But notwithstanding, here is hardly ought
That, is not wholly out of order brought;
Yet, if thou list, when
likeliest means
do fail,
Thou canst make
things unlikely
to prevail.
Thy
purpose,
thou as well to pass canst bring
By my
Goose-quill,
as by an
Angels Wing:
And, though on all sides all have so mis-done
That, I am like to give content to none;
If I may do thy
Will,
I shall not care
What else, ensues, or who displeased are.
Men's
Failings
and their
Duties
being shown,
Thy
Justice
and thy
Mercies
will be known.
And, hoping, to that end, thou guid'st my
Pen,
I will without fear, make my
Address
to men.
For, doubtless, I may boldly do mine
Errant
To
Kings
and
Nations,
when I have thy warrant.
Full
eighteen years and one month,
very near
Since we began to ring the
Changes
here
Are past away; and since by often
turning
We, have been
broiling,
to escape a
burning:
But, what are we the better, now, unless
We shall discover what things were amiss;
And when we find them, seriously intend
Our
courses,
for the future, to amend?
For, how can they have ease, who bear
about them,
And
in them,
what they seek to cure without them?
Or, to obtain it shall be still so mad,
As to expect it, where none can be had?
Or, how can possibly that
Body
be
From great
Distempers,
or
Destruction
free,
Whose
Head
and
Members
are from one another
Divided? or so cruel to each other
As not to let each
part,
enjoy that dole
Which
Nature
gave them to preserve the whole?
Our King's returned: but we, to him from whom
Our perfect
Peace,
and
saving-health
must come,
Are not as yet returned; and whilst we are
As we now be, things will be as they
were.
We shall be cheated, if we do suppose
Wasps
will turn
Bees,
or
Doves
proceed from
Crows,
Till GOD himself, whose proper work it is,
Shall bring to pass that
Metamorphosis,
Which hath been long expected by this Nation,
And, will require a longer Expectation,
Even till we more endeavor it, from him
Who may to us, as to
Jerusalem,
Cry out,
How often have I sought your good,
And as a Hen that's careful of her brood,
Would fain have brooded you? but, you would not!
His
Mercies
we have slighted, or forgot:
This
negligence,
(or, I might rather say
This
willfulness)
hath made us at this day
So wretched, that no hope doth now remain
But that which quickly may be lost again:
For, we do find, whatever is pretended,
That, like
Sour Ale in Summer
we are mended;
And, that as since we innovated first,
At every
Change,
the
last
proved always
worst.
(Whether things were presented to our sight
In Habits
old or new,
in
black or white)
So still, 'tis like to be, till we adhere
To
Righteous Actings,
with hearts more sincere,
By what vow, promise, or fair show soever,
The
Politician
works on his
Believer:
Yea, though the
King
should do the best he can,
And act beyond the sphere of
mortal man:
For, here
Hercule an labors
find he shall,
And, that he's come now to th'
Aeugaean-stall,
Which must be cleansed (as the
Poets
say
That was) by turning
Streams
another way.
I, round about me, hear a found of
Peace;
But I (as yet) discover nothing less;
Although, I do not see as heretofore
Swords
drawn; or hear so oft, the
Canons
roar.
That, which some dream we have, I cannot find;
Either, I see too much, or they are blind.
I see it possible; and with closed eyes
See also, how it may be otherwise,
Unless both
Prince
and
People
join as
One
In doing that, which is yet left undone.
We have a
King
(GOD prosper him:) but hark!
He, hath a
people
too will find him work.
He may perceive before this year wheels round,
That, with a
wreath of thorns,
they him have crowned;
And, that among their
Sweet-meats,
taste he shall
A little
Honey
mixed with much
Gall.
What can the
Masters
Art, at Helm prevail
To save the
Ship,
that spreadeth every sail
Amongst Rocks in a storm, from being sunk,
When all his
Mariners
are sick or drunk?
What can the wisest
Single person
do,
Although
King Solomon
and
David
too
Were of his
Council? Joshua
General,
Sampson
his Champion, and his
Life-guard
all
Like
David
's
Worthies,
till men understand
Their
own estate,
heed, what GOD hath in
hand;
What he
expects,
and better can discover
What
Grace
is offered, and what
Plagnes
hang over?
Or, what can any Nations do, whose Kings
And
Governors
are heedless of such things?
These
Duties,
few of us regarded have,
But multipli'd our
Feasts;
made our
selves brave;
Neglect, as others did, our
day of Trial,
And sing unto the
Lute,
the
Harp,
or
Viol,
Even whilst our
Brethren
sharply punished are
For sins whereof their
Judges
are not clear:
For I, nor
You,
nor any one of them,
Who with severity, their faults condemn,
Could be excused, if GOD should be severe
In questioning what hath been acted here.
As therefore, GOD shall bring them to my mind
To treat of those things I am now inclined,
Whereby,
Dooms
threatened may be turned from
These
Realms,
or born with meekness when they
But, I will first inform you, by what
light
come.
I see those things, whereof I have a sight,
In hope it will the better, then be known
If
Truth
I write, or
Fancies
of mine own.
Immodestly we must not pry into
GOD's secrets: yet, what he intends to do,
He, not alone doth by his
Word
reveal
With what to
Sins,
to
Duties, Woe,
or
Weal,
Relates:
〈◊〉
Medium's
also hath bestowed
Whereby, some
future things
may before-known;
And, he expects, that we with industry
Should to the search of them ourselves apply
According to that
means:
because, each thing
Which
Disquisition
may to knowledge bring,
Will either
hurt
or
profit,
less or more,
As (for the most part) it hath been before
Sought, shunned, hoped, feared,
and well
considered
on;
And that makes me ofttimes to muse upon
Things that
may be,
as well as those that
are;
And, things
past,
with things present to compare,
That I might know, as much as
Reason
can,
With help of
Grace,
my duties as a
man.
And, though it be of many disregarded,
GOD hath my pains, in that kind, oft rewarded
With such
Discoveries,
that (if timely heeded)
They might have
Plagues
prevented, that succeeded.
Whereof, lest you still doubt, here I will show
By what means I some
future things
fore-know.
That, you may prove, if those which I declare
Either Fanatics, or Impostures are.
My
Muse
acts by a Glass of
Speculation,
Whereto applying, what my Observation
Laies hold on, I do otherwhile fore-see
Some things, which either
may,
or
may not be,
As that shall be
omitted
or fulfilled
Which is by GOD,
conditionally willed.
Enthusiasms,
I know, most men contemn;
No further therefore, I pretend to them
Than POETS may; though in all Generations
GOD may, and doth vouchsafe both
Revelations
And
Visions
too (for ought yet known to me)
Which may to us
Premonitory
be:
Since, frequently,
prenotions
I have had
(By some Impressions on my spirit made)
Of what ensu'd, which I could not have known
By any Light, or Virtue of mine own.
If therefore, you shall be inclined unto
My way of
Divination,
then, thus do:
Withdraw yourselves to some place all alone,
Where you shall interrupted be of none:
(The Woods, your Closet, or the fragrant Field,
Conveniences for such a purpose yield)
When you are there, place GOD before your eyes,
And, minding he your deeds and thoughts espies.
Cast backward, so far from you everything
(As possibly) which an offense may bring
To such a Majesty; chiefly, those
ends
Whose
prosecution
neither truly tends
Unto GOD's honor, or to edify
Your selves or others; but, to vanity;
To satiate your Avarice or Pride,
Or such like
Lusts.
Thus, having sanctified
Your
Persons,
place upon the
right-hand side
GOD's
Oracles,
by which all things are tried.
You shall in them, expressed at large, behold
All
Acts
and
Sufferings,
which in times of old
Concern'd
Him,
or his
People,
with all those
To them relating, who were Friends or Foes,
So far forth, as to you their cognizance
Pertains, and as your Weal it may advance.
These, by GOD's
Providence
transmitted were
To future ages, to be everywhere,
(Even to the very utmost end of
Time)
That URIM and that THUMMIM unto them,
Whereto they might repair, when they of ought
That needed Resolution, stood in doubt.
Therein, you all
Occurrences
may find,
Which necessarily, in any kind,
Shall unto
Faith
or
Manners
appertain,
So long as in this world men do remain.
There are exemplifide, all human failings,
All
Changes, Hopes, Fears, Losings
and
Prevadings,
Of
Enemies
or
Friends:
Things
Good
and
Evil;
The Practices and Projects of the
Devil;
Things
Metaphysical,
products of
Nature
And
Grace,
with what concerneth every creature;
All Promises and Threatenings, which belong
To Faith or Unbelief, to Right or Wrong,
With all things else that pertinent may be
To every Faculty, and each Degree.
When with this GLASSE, you are acquainted grown
So that your
Self,
may to yourself be known;
(For, it will show more plainly, than your face
You ever, yet beheld in any Glass
What's in your heart; and also let you see
What things are wanting, which there ought to be)
And, when by practice you enabled are
To know to what
heads,
those things to refer
Of which you would inquire, place opposite,
What you have by your
hearing,
or by
sight
Discovered, to that
Subject
pertinent,
Concerning which, you seek to know th'
event,
Or
good
or
ill condition
of the same,
And what you may conjecture without blame.
Then, well consider all the Circumstances
That qualify, and all Appurtenances
That aggravate, to make men capable
Of Mercies, or to Judgments liable;
As likewise, all
Essentials
to that thing
Whose Nature, Merit, or demeriting
You seek to understand; or else what
Meed
Or punishment is for the same decreed
According to the
Rules,
and Judged Cases,
Recorded in that
Map of common places.
This being done, be confident (if you
Have not for Truths received things untrue)
By parallelling Objects which you see,
Upon your
left hand
placed, with such as be
Upon the
right,
it will to you appear
Whether or not approvable they are;
And, what on Human Actions, will ensue
Whereof you had an undeceived view;
Except, an
intervening change
takes place
By secret sins, or unseen
Acts of Grace.
Nay, otherwhile, it pleaseth Providence
To hint things not deducible from thence,
Concerning both the
manner
and the
time
Of
future Consequences,
unto them
Who seek not out of
Vanity
or
Pride
For
hidden things;
and they are verifi'd
Accordingly, when by what's fore-discerned
The welfare of GOD's
people
is concerned.
This, merely, is a work of
Contemplation,
Not practical without much Observation;
And will as harshly sound in most men's ears,
As
Love-songs,
to an aged
Usurer's;
And, teachable it is not, save to those
Whom GOD shall by his
Spirit
pre-dispose
For such a search: but, 'tis attained then
As soon by
mean wits,
as by
wisest men;
And, better answers what their
Queries
are,
Than if the
Influence
of every
Star,
With all their
Constellations
they could know,
And, more confirmed thereby their
Faith
will grow.
Now, what of our
Affairs,
I pre-conjecture
By this GLASSE, I intend to read a Lecture
As pertinently, as my shallow wit,
And those
confused Objects
will permit
Which press as hard within me to come out,
As those
Oppressions
hemming me about
Strive to break in upon me: for 'twixt these,
My soul and body lie in
Little-ease.
Oh GOD, thine aid I once again implore,
That my
Design
make not our breaches more,
Nor quite complete my ruin now begun;
At least till I thy work have wholly done:
For, I am of no
Faction,
but profess
To
King
and
Country
with true heartiness,
Both Loyalty and Love, with an intent
Destruction
and
Disunion
to prevent,
By offering to men's due considerations,
Some
Objects
of my private Observations
With those
Products,
which may arise from thence;
And which may likewise have an influence
On other things, that will relation have
To
Thee
and thine, whose interests to save
I so obliged am, that I would neither
Should be dishonor'd, or wrong done to either:
And,
LORD,
as this, my chief design to be,
Thou knowest, so vouchsafe to prosper me.
Betwixt Mount
Gebal
and Mount
Gerazim,
At this day, to be placed, we do seem,
And, 'tis yet in suspense, whether or not
A
Blessing
or a
Curse
will be our
lot:
The strst I hope for, and the last I fear,
Considering how still qualifide we are:
And what a little change is in us made
By all the changes we have lately had.
If raging singly,
Avarice, Ambition,
Self will, Profaneness, Envy, Superstition,
Hypocrisy
and
Malice
we have found,
Scarce tolerable; what when they abound,
And are united, can be here expected,
(Or, may be rationally then effected)
But multiplied
Injuries
and
Scorn,
Not easily expressed, much less born?
If here shall be with wicked
Canaanites,
A mixture of as wicked
Israelites,
Whose sins will be as many (if not more)
And greater, than they have been heretofore,
How can our expectations be much better,
Than either former punishments, or greater?
So bad, so mad, our prosecutions be,
(By all that yet appeareth unto me)
As if we willfully resolved had been
Against all spoke
without us,
or
within,
Or whatsoe'er to us
Examples
teach,
Or
Conscience,
by our
hopes
or
fears
doth preach:
But, if those
Juglings
which observed are
By me, should unto everyone appear,
All
Jugglers
would unto contempt be brought;
They, who seem very wise, would fools be thought,
And many in themselves grow doubtful whether
They to be pitied were, or scorned rather.
As great, as many, are the wrongs, the crimes,
The cruelties and falsehoods of these times,
As ever; and will such continue still,
Till
Truth
and
Error,
and till
Good
and
Ill,
Have plaid their
Master-prize;
to which intent
Their forces universally are bent
Against each other. From false hearts proceeds
Falsehood in
words,
and wickedness in
deeds;
And whilst we talk of
Righteousness
and
Peace,
They, who concealed their maliciousness
With fair
deportments
do anew begin
So to declare what they have always been,
As makes, in many, inlets to some fear,
That, till it endeth in a
Massacre,
No
Vengeance
will their projects terminate,
Or set a lasting period to their hate.
A
bloodless Massacre
here is already
Begun among us, and it will be bloody
When you perecive admittance of those
Strangers,
Who first begun out plagues, renew our dangers;
And then, they who supposed their persons free,
Will with the rest, in equal perils be:
For,
boundless lustings,
mischiefs will beget,
Which lie within the womb unheeded yet,
Where
Sin
and
Death
are twins conceived together,
Though born a little while before each other;
And, will in very ugly shapes be found
In many places, ere this year goes round;
Portended, and attended in strange wise,
With
Ominous Events,
and
Prodigies.
We shall see
Gown-men
tread on
Men of War,
High Courts of Justice
called to the
Bar;
Those, of whom no man lately stood in dread,
Arraign the Living, and condemn the Dead:
Make
Martyrs, Saints
and
Reprobates
of those
Whose good or bad conditon no man knows;
And act such things as never yet were done
Within this
Clymate
since the world begun.
Yet, heed this, you, who with a sober mind
Seek
peace,
and are not factiously inclined,
(And you, whose
principle
is to repair
What is decayed, with no worse Tools than
Prayer)
With
Christian patience
bear the
Visitation
Which is allotted to this Generation;
And know, that as now
Nature
runs the race
By her designed, so shall also
Grace
Pursue her
course,
to purge us in these
fires,
For that perfection whereto Faith aspires.
Strive by renewing of your
self-denials,
To bear with constancy your
fiery trials,
Which must be undergone: for they appear
In show more painful than in proof they are;
As their experience found, who in times past
Have into
Babels
Fornaces been cast,
When they were seven times heated; and as we
May peradventure find, ere long 'twill be.
Be not afraid of your own
sins;
for they
On your repentance will be done away:
Nor be discouraged, though your Foes at large
Shall sum them up, and lay unto your charge
False imputations also: for, with ease
Both
Saints
and
Reprobates
of whom they please
The
Vulgar
make: and, if
profane men
shall
Be Judges betwixt
David
and King
Saul,
The sins of
David
might be made appear
As many, and much greater than
Sants
were;
And He, upon whose side GOD sentence gave,
Amongst most men, the least esteem would have.
But, GOD observed his heart; purged what did slow
From
human frailty,
as he purgeth now
With sharp corrections, the late crying crimes
Of
Saints
prevaricating in these times.
Judgment,
in our days, at GOD's
house
begins,
Who takes such notice of our many sins,
That since we would not mend when we were chidden,
He will no longer now let them be hidden
Or go unpunished: but we, that each other
Provok'd to sin, shall punish one another.
Me blame not then, if I touch here and there,
Those failings on all sides which causes were
Of what we suffer: for, GOD will be known
By doing Justice; and we ought to own
Our great Transgressions, and not seek to hide
Those Crimes, for which he lays even Kings aside,
As well as other men; that all may know,
He giveth
equal dooms
to high and low.
Though, therefore, we sometimes a veil may cast
O'er
faulty Rulers,
whilst their
power
doth last,
To keep them from contempt, lest their disgrace
May cause infringement of the
Common Peace,
We must not counter-act what GOD will do,
When he reproves them, and removes them too:
But, suff'ring with them by commiseration,
As being worthy of like condemnation,
Give GOD the glory, with our Pens and Breath,
For what's intended by their shame or death.
A sickness which is
Epidemical
(In some degree) hath seized upon all,
And, ease we cannot have, till that hath wrought,
Which to procure a remedy is brought.
When
Cures
are to
distempers
first applied,
We must expect, more torments to abide
Than if we felt our
Maladies
alone,
Without a
Medicine
working thereupon.
Of our
malignant humors
to be eased,
To take some poys'nous Drugs we must be pleased;
For our
Physician,
who doth truly know
Their and our Natures, hath prescribed so.
Diseases otherwhile need
letting blood,
Though with what is corrupt, that which is good
Seems also lost:
Gangrenes
require sometimes
To save the
Whole,
by cutting off of
Limbs.
Yea, otherwhile a welfare doth redound
In common, when that suffers which is sound;
And, once when sick to death the
Body
lay,
'Twas cured by taking of the Head away.
GOD, who of evil things can make good uses,
And, by what is
unwholesome,
Health produces,
Vouchsafeth to make passage now and then,
To
signal Blessings,
by the
sins
of men;
As when the sons of
Jacob,
who enslaved
Their Brother, were thereby, from Famine saved.
Which teacheth us, to be contented still
To let him act, both
when
and
how he will;
To search into our own corruptions nearly,
And not to censure any too severely.
Since unto everyone it may be known,
That, no man's fault, so harms him as his own:
Let over
-bitter Censures
be suspended,
When you perceive a
Brother
hath offended
By rashness, or through frailty, (though in that
Which to our
Common Welfare
doth relate)
Spare not the sin a jot, but spare the man
(Whoe'er) as much as possibly you can,
Till some
Concomitancies
or th'
Event
Assures that malice was in his intent:
And, though that may appear, assume not then,
A power to judge, belonging not to men:
Because, for ought you know, God might bereave him,
Of counsel, or unto himself then leave him,
For our Transgressions past; and to let in
A
public mercy,
by his
private sin;
Thereby to humble us, and make us know
That all our
Weal
from his
mere Grace
doth flow;
And, that the sins of others to our peace
As helpful were, as our own
Righteousness.
In former
times
and
causes,
it was so,
Th'
Egyptian Mid-wives, Rahab, Jael
too,
Did things which in their nature sinful are,
Yet not alone by GOD made useful were
To save his people, but he also saith,
That even those actions were products of Faith.
And, in these times perhaps here have been such,
Whereon, if I with modesty shall touch,
Let me be blameless; for, with good intent
What GOD permits for our experiment,
I here will mention, and to make it known,
That there is nothing merely of our own,
Or which is in us either good or evil,
By
Nature
or suggestions of the
Devil,
That stops or furthers ought which GOD will do,
Though our concurrence he requires thereto
So far, as with his Will he us acquaints,
Or, bounds, by
unresistable restraints:
For, when we are enjoin'd to
that
or
this,
It is for our advantage, not for his,
Of us required; yea though we bounded be
By
Precepts, Rules
or
Laws,
so is not he.
As he himself shall please he can effect
His
Ends,
whatere we do, or shall neglect;
And, when against us any Foe prevails,
It is because
we,
not because he fails.
In all our late
contests,
'tis hard to say,
Whether our
Vice
or
Virtues
made best way
To that
Design,
whereby to pass were brought
Those, which our best
Aschievements
have been thoughts;
Or, whether led'by Folly or sound Reason
By
Fraud
or
Force,
by
Faithfulness
or
Treason
We prospered most: and 'tis not yet agreed
By all men, who our
prosecutions
heed,
Whether that which befell us at the first,
Or at the last, will prove the best or worst.
The
Louse
or
Lion, Black Doggs,
or the
white,
Most mischievously either fawn or bite;
Which Party most needs pardon for their Sin,
Upon which side there hath most Traycors been:
Or, whether their Deserts are worst or best
Who shall be honor'd most, or most disgraced;
For, though we know what Causes men did own,
With what heart they did act them, 'tis unknown.
Prodigious Fruits in these times have been born;
Crabs
on the
Vine,
and
Grapes
upon the
Thorn;
And,
Men
and
Causes,
whether good or bad,
Of
Weal
and
Woe,
by turns, like shares have had,
To teach, that our late Changes have succeeded
For some
ends,
which ought better to be needed.
By one
Irregularity,
we see
That, here in
two months
more
progressions
be
In order to the Temporary
peace
Which most men are desirous to possess,
Then all our
Powers
and
Virtues, Wit
and
Cost
Had brought to pass, in twenty years almost;
And we according to late promisings,
See creeping Motions toward some such things
As are expected: but, they to and fro,
Forward and backward, in their motion go
So doubtfully, that 'tis as yet uncertain
What resolutions are behind the Curtain.
As doubtful 'tis, whether more praise or blame
To them belong, who first contrived the same;
Whether the
Consequence,
or that which first
Thereto made pasage, will prove best or worst;
And whether want of
pre-conditioning
Will bring at length, most damage to the
King
And his Old Party, or else unto those
Who did his
Entrance
heretofore oppose:
For
Acts unjust,
are oftwell carried on,
And many righteous things unjustly done:
Some things likewise there be resmebling
Sand,
Which he that graspeth with an open hand,
May therewith lode his palm: but, if he gripe
Too hard, 'twill all between his fingers slip.
Concerning that
proceed,
which brought to pass
The
Change,
which lately here effected was,
Some scruplings have been made: But, on the
Fact,
Or upon them who put the same in Act,
I will nothing peremptorily declare,
Though therein, an
Obliquity
there were;
Because, means failed me, whereby to inspect
Ought further, than into the
single Act;
That, by the
Circumstances
I might see
What
Motives
to their hearts proposed might be;
What
Spirit
led them, and what straits they past
To that, which was resolved on at last:
For, in such
Cases,
what they ought to do,
Wise men
are oft to seek, and
good men
too.
If they who were chief
Instruments
in that
Which wrought the
Change,
that we have seen of late,
Sought only and unfeignedly that end,
Whereto all
Trusts
and Actions ought to tend,
And were but
Circumstantially
to blame,
In plotting or pursuing of the same,
Their fault (if any) is a
Venial Crime,
For which there may be made another time
Amends to
Sufferers;
that perhaps may more
Secure them, than they were secured before.
Their
Fault
was but the error of a
man,
Which well the
King
may pardon: for, I can;
Because, I know, what ere they did intend,
GOD will have glory by it, in the end;
And, all these
Nations
future welfare too,
If they neglect not, what is yet to do.
But, they whose
Trust
these
Trustees
did abuse,
Them, cannot peradventure so excuse:
And (I believe) more wise than heretofore,
Will henceforth never trust
Good Fellow
more;
Nor
Peasant, Peer, Priest, Prince,
or
Parliament,
With that which may produce a Detriment
To
common Int'rest
(till by some
condition
To them secured, they shall secure fruition
Of such
Concernments)
if, once more they may
Recover that which they did fool away.
But, that's impossible, as things now stand;
And, should GOD take the
power
out of his hand
Who grasps it now, they who shall next enjoy it,
No better peradventure would employ it
Than others did, GOd therefore, keep us from
Another
Change,
until his
Kingdom
come,
Except a change of hearts; and at this time,
Or his
probation,
let his Grace, in him
Be so effectual, that he may endeavor
To settle here, a righteous Throne forever.
For, every man that lives (at first or last)
Before a
Final Doom
on him is past,
Hath in his life-time, once (at least) an hour
Wherein our gracious God, vouchsafes him power
To
ask and have;
and to elect that path
Which leads to
weal
or
woe,
to
life
or
death:
Yea, always at such times, GOD, who first loves,
The soul of every
human-creature
proves;
And, those, who then, by giving him their heart,
(Though with much failing) do perform their part,
He will enable, and assist them still
By his
preventing Grace,
to do his will.
For they, as often as they go astray,
Shall either hear a VOICE
within them,
say,
(Or else
behind them;) Of that course beware;
Return, or thou art lost; thy way lies there,
Which leads to safety.
Thus the
Spirit
preacheth,
And by means extraordinary teacheth
Where
common means
fail: and till men contemn
His
Holy Spirit,
God forsakes not them:
But, afterward, indeed, although the same
He sometime speaks, 'tis to increase their shame,
Or others to instruct: for, then such
Voices
Are so drowned by the
Whisperings
and
Noises
Of
carnal things,
that all is spoke in vain,
Which to their
weal
or
safety
may pertain.
The
King
by such temptations, and so many
Beleagur'd seems, as never were by any
With constancy and without foil withstood,
Save by him, who was GOD with
Flesh and Blood:
For he stands now exposed to every evil,
(Even in the Front) whereby
World, Flesh,
or
Devil,
May him assault; and with him 'twill go hard,
Unless, GOD sends him in, an
Angel-guard;
Which (if it be his pleasure) that he may,
My heart unfeignedly doth often pray,
And that, at this time he submit his will,
The mind of God, sincerely to fulfil:
For, I believe, that as it did with
Saul,
(On his
probation-day,
long since befall)
These
Kingdoms
will established be to him,
As he with GOD complyeth at this time.
Fair
Opportunities
this present day
Are offered, which if he let slip away,
We have but hitherto a course begun,
Whereby we may at last be more undone:
And though he should become ten times as strong
In things which to a
carnal strength
belong,
It will to settle him prevail no more,
Than such
pow'rs
have prevailed heretofore:
Nor will it, when most mighty he appears
To others, from his own heart, keep out fears
Of things not to be feared; but at length
Make him, perhaps, afraid of his own
strength:
And that which by a
Trifle
hath been lost,
Will be recovered with as little cost
As when 'twas won, as soon as their despite,
Their sins and insolencies are at height,
Who shall by petulant exasperations,
(Beyond the common patience of these
Nations)
Abuse his
Grace,
and turn their late
success
Into oppression, pride, and wantonness.
This seems by some endeavor'd (having ends
Repugnant unto what the
King
intends)
Who do proceed (as if that for the nonce)
To make all
Suff'rers
desperate at once,
By gelding and delaying of the
Grace,
For wihch the
King
spontaneously did pass
His
Royal Word:
And this may an
Event
Produce, at last, whereof some will repent
When 'tis too late; since,
Mastives
brook it worse
To be over-much provoked, than
Fawning Curs.
All
vengeance
doth to GOD alone belong:
But, few remember this, when they have wrong.
An
English temper
doth that life disdain
Which is deprived of what should Life maintain:
And whatso'er is menaced or follows,
Some, in despite of Hang-man, Rope and Gallows,
Will anything attempt, to vindicate
Themselves from scorn, when robbed of their Estate:
And they have little
prudence,
who conceive
Bees will be quiet, when both from their Hive
And Honey they are forced: or, that small things
(When they are many, and have many stings)
Are safely slighted; for, there hath succeeded
Much mischief where this
Caution
was unheeded:
And probable it seems, that if the
King
Deters what's hoped for, now, but till next
Spring,
Destroying many thousand Families
By vacating their just
Securities,
(For what was bought or lent, to save these Lands
From desolation, when into their hands
The
Supreme Power
did slip by GOD's permissions,
Who then had cast him out of his possessions)
It will not be the next way to that
peace
Which many yet are hopeful to possess;
Or have a
consequent,
to answer that
Great
Mercy,
which GOD hath vouchsafed of late.
If, for performing that which both
Divine,
And
Human Laws
did warrant and enjoin,
(To wit, obedience to those Powers that were
In being) he from
Innocents
doth tear
Their Livelihoods; and their posterity
Exposeth unto scorn and beggary,
For having done their duties unto them
Whom GOD advanced by debasing him,
(And when he so unable was to give them
Protection,
or from their hand to reprieve them,
That at the same time, he himself was glad
To seek a
Refuge
where it might be had)
It will not seem to be an
Act of Grace,
That corresponds with what expected was
Before
Monk
gave us up into his power;
And made our
Trustees
much more his, than our.
If he shall lay an over-heavy weight
On those, whom he had left in such a straight,
Without their fault (except a fault it were
To lose, what they to keep unable were)
Or, if he shall, as other men have done,
Lose those Advantages that he hath won
By Angling for a
Frog,
till from his Net
The
Fishes
now enclosed forth shall get;
Young Counselors
may prove to him as bad
As those which foolish
Rehoboam
had.
But this is more than probable (altho
The
Priests
and
Prophets
dare not tell him so,
Who now most fawn upon him) that, even all
GOD's Condescentions are conditional;
And, that now or hereafter, their success
Will to his
Weal
or
Woe
add more or less,
Accordingly as he, and as these
Nations
Improve at this day,
His
and their
Probations.
Which
Truth
most men believe not, or forget;
And, that makes me so often mention it.
GOD gave unto his people, on conditions,
The Land of
Promise,
to be their possessions;
And, for their not performing of the same,
They
Vagabonds
throughout the world became.
Upon
conditions
also,
Solomon
Had promise of an
everlasting Throne;
Which he neglecting, ere the third descent,
Ten parts of twelve were from his
Kingdom
rent.
Yea, wicked
Jeroboam
might have had
A settlement on him forever made,
Upon the like
conditions:
and, so may
This
King;
but never any other way.
If he comes hither with the self-same heart,
With which, he did, in likelihood depart;
New covered over with a fairer skin,
And fully fraughted with
Revenge
within:
If he shall make his
Royal Word
a snare,
If he by hopes delayed nourish
fear
Instead of
love;
by mental Reservations,
(Or by deceivable Equivocations)
His
promise
vacates; or, if what he swore
In presence of his
Sovereign
heretofore;
Or, if he shall confine to others breasts
Those
Acts of Grace,
which to his
Interests
Will most advantage give, when it is known
The
pardons
which he granteth are his own:
If he refers his
Justice
to their Zeal,
Who may prefer their
Ends
before his
Weal,
Until it shall unhappily destroy
That
new-sprung hope
which many yet enjoy;
And by converting it into despair,
Blasts that in
Autumn,
whereof blowings fair
Appear this
Spring;
we may thereby perchance,
Ere many
Springs,
compelled be to dance
Another
Matachin.
If, GOD so please,
I wish and pray it may be otherwise;
And that this might be weighed: for, on this BALL
None are so firmly fixed but they may fall
If
Righteousness
and
Truth
support them not,
What other
prop
soever they have got.
We have a sight of this days joy and sorrow,
But no man knows what will befall tomorrow:
And should GOD be as rigorous as men,
That which is done, would be undone agen.
I do believe, that (not excepting any)
All men of great
Offences,
and of many
Are guilty. And, I do suppose the
King
Hath not been free from blame in everything.
To him there may, either by
Men
or
Heaven,
Be somewhat on the scores, to be forgiven,
As well as to the
People:
secret crimes
May be informer, or in latter times
Committed, wherein either he mis-did,
Or his
Progenitors,
which yet are hid,
And must be expiated, ere that
Rest
Where at we aim, willfully be possessed;
And have an Expiation by
mere Grace,
Or by that
penance
through which others pass.
In order whereunto, GOD now perchance
Him, to his
Fathers Throne
doth re-advance;
Either a new
Progression
to begin,
Or else to fill the measure of their sin;
And punish us, till ripen'd, he, or we,
Or both, for
Grace,
or for
Destruction
be.
If penitence allay not that fierce wrath,
Whereto our wickedness provoked him hath,
There will impartial search be made, by GOD,
As well for
common,
as for
Royal blood;
Yea, search on both sides, both for
blood
and
treason,
When equal Retributions are in season:
And, as much guiltiness if he shall then
In
Kings
discover, as in
common men,
Their Judges vindicate from guilt he shall,
Though them we
murderers
and
traitors
call;
And, their blood, if it guiltlesly be shed,
Will cry as loud to GOD as
Abel's
did.
What will it profit then, if there be none
To question them on earth, for ought mis-done,
When they shall know, and truly understand,
On what sad terms they fall into GOD's hand;
Who shall the more offend, because they were
More by him privileged than others are?
GOD will not then be mocked, whatever they
Shall dream, who put the thought thereof away;
Or whatsoe'er a
Prophet in Lawn Sleeves
Or Kings and their
Immunities
believes;
And though their
Nobles
also flatter them,
As
Judah's
did King
Joash
in his time.
Hereof I would be his
Remembrancer,
If in the place of some of those I were
Who ought to do it: yea, as now I am,
I had adventured to perform the same,
But that I lately have conceived a thought,
These
Lines
will timely to his view be brought,
By such a hand, as from it with respect
It may be taken, and have good effect.
And, if these
Cautions
he shall not contemn,
(Expressed in true Loyalty to him)
I may have hope, that
Justice
to obtain
Which I have elsewhere sought long time in vain;
And find it to be made a
real sign
Of his, and
public Peace,
as well as mine.
For, all I shall expect will be no more,
But, that, he make me neither rich nor poor;
And me within that Grace would comprehend,
Which he to some of those doth yet extend,
Who both by their
Examples
and
Command
First drew me with his
Opposites
to stand;
And who, if I mis-acted, did thereby
Contract ten times a greater guilt than I.
But, so the
public Peace
advanced may be
Hereby, let what GOD will befall to me.
To make their merits and demerits even,
They should
love much,
to whom
much is forgiven:
Yet, some to whom he hath forgiven least,
May love as well as they who love him best;
And, better too perhaps, when they behold
He executes that
Justice
which he should;
With constancy pursuing, what, more tends
To
public Welfare,
than to serve his
ends.
How these things may concern him, he best knows
Next GOD, who will (I hope) his heart dispose
To choose the way proposed at this time,
And to pursue the same, enable him.
Because, unless at this time, that
probation
For which GOD hath vouchsafed his
Restoration,
Produceth what with those ends may accord,
For which he was by
Providence
restored,
He'll turn the wheel, which hath so oft gone round,
Till men according to his heart be found
To rule his
People;
to direct his
Sheep;
To act his
Will,
and their own Vows to keep.
Herein hath been much
failing:
and, I fear,
Even for that
Covenants breach,
which many jeer,
And impudently sleight, GOD from this Land
Will not remove his now correcting hand,
Till to a true repentance he shall bring
For that sin,
People, Parliament
and
King.
A
Judgment
at this present is begun,
Which will extend to all ere it be done;
Even unto those who execute his
doom
On them, on whom it is already come;
(Yea, signally, in some respect or other,
To persons or estates, to friend or brother)
If they whom it concerns do not amend
What is mis-done; wave, what they mis-intend;
And hearken to GOD's Voice in this their day
Of
Trial;
and as (if they will) they may:
For GOD, though much provoked, still giveth space
'Twixt every
Judgment,
for
preventing-grace:
And now, to be a
Cautional
to him,
(As his
Corrections
lately were to them
Who reigned last) this King, shall see them scourged
Who scourged him, until their sins be purged.
God having cast his Predecessors out,
For their, and also for our sins (no doubt)
Them, with an
Iron Rod
begins to strike;
To show, that
sin
he hates in all alike,
And make it known that he will no man spare,
(Though one of his own
Household
he appear)
If he shall scandalously give offense
In any kind, without true penitence.
A
dreadful Judgment
he hath brought on those,
Who made of
Piety
the fairest shows;
And they, as traitors to their
King
are now
By those pursued, whom they did pursue
As traitors to their
Country;
and their
Laws,
Yea their own
Swords,
turn Foes unto their
Cause:
And they who lately, nor to friend nor foe,
But for
by-ends,
would either
Justice
do,
Or
Mercy
show, shall find in their distress,
That others will to them be merciless.
They, who were called
Saints;
and may be such,
Although their
failing
hath been very much;
Seem now the chief mark of GOD's
indignation,
And censured are as sons of
Reprobation;
Because, they often had fore-warned been,
(Twice were cast out of grace, and twice took in)
Are now deprived, a
third time,
of that power
Which they abused to their own harm and our:
They are exposed to such extreme disgraces,
Such hazards of their goods, lands, lives and places,
And to such scorns, that never was there more
Contempt cast upon any heretofore:
For, they, who as their
Chiefs
acknowledged them
(To their own shame) their persons did contemn;
And, far beyond all presidents, revile
Th'
Authority
they owned, even the while
It was in
being;
though they did in that
Make, as it were a
Close-stool
of their
Hat.
Of all esteem, they are now quite bereft,
And, in so sad a plight have thousands left,
Who trusted them with everything they had,
That their own selves alone, they have not made
Thereby contemptible to
Foes
and
Friends,
(Lost their estates, their safeties, and their ends)
And such confusions brought; that few or none
Are sure, they shall not thereby be undone,
Or damnified; but given cause likewise
To this, and times to come, so to despise
An
English Parliament,
that, if it get
No better credit than it hath, as yet,
It is in hazard to become a thing
As much abhorred, as the name of
King
Was once in
Rome;
for their
prevarications,
Their
self-ends, falsehoods,
and
dissimulations
With
King
and
People
so destructive were,
And both to
Round-head,
and to
Cavalier
(As then distinguished) that, if there be any,
Few
names
are left, whereof there be not many
Undone, or at least damnified, either
In credit or estate, or both together:
And, by those many thousands now undone,
That mischief, so, from man, to man, doth run,
That it infects three times as many more,
And may bring beggary to every door,
Besides, those quarrels which it may beget,
Whose sad effects lie unperceived yet.
Some, who had been most faithful to their side,
They much oppressed whilst they were dignified;
And, often when they did pretend a course
To cure their
Grievances,
they made them worse.
Then, what by such oppressed men from those
Can looked for be, whom they pursued as foes,
But to be kicked out of the world, or trod
Into the dirt? Except our gracious GOD
Hath now brought home the
King
to be a friend
To all men who did honestly intend?
And who, though in some things they did amiss,
Sin'd not with malice, or with willfulness?
The
Kings
work will be now, both to
relieve
And to
correct,
as cause, he shall perceive,
Without respect to persons, or wrongs done,
Before a
Reconcilement
was begun;
Except so far forth only, in relieving,
In recompensing, honoring, or giving,
As he's to those men, who with him engaged
In charity, and gratitude obliged,
Without destroying any in these
Nations
Who were submissive to GOD's Dispensations;
And, who, were moved to that which they have done
By
Conscience,
or by
Ignorance
alone,
Without malicious purpose or design,
Against a known
Law,
Moral or Divine.
And therefore, where respect is to be had
To suff'rers, and to satisfaction made;
The best
expedient
to prevent debates,
And ruining of many men's estates,
Will either be, if we had such
Trustees,
Who by this
change,
life nor estates do leese,
(And by confederating long together
With public spoils enriched one another,
Or, may be proved guilty of a
Cheat,
Which formerly did friend or foe defeat
Of his estate; or, to the
public wrong
More power assumed, than did to them belong)
To cause, that, they to whom these gave offense,
May out of their estates have recompense;
For, why should great Revenues be enjoy'd
By them, whose guilt hath guiltless men destroyed?
Or rather, since that many among these
Were intermixt (who their miscarriages
Opposed to their power) whom none knows how
From persons guilty, to distinguish now.
Why should not for the Credit of the Nation
(For Justice sake) and for the preservation
Of
common Peace,
all
parties
help to bear
Their heavy burdens, who oppressed are?
For every man among us, more or less,
Is some way guilty of this wickedness:
And GOD, if this course long defer we shall,
His Vengeance will divide among us all.
Let therefore none, who in these suffering-times
Shall scape the punishments due to their crimes,
Insult over them that suffer, or suppose
Their prosp'ring from their well-deserving flows.
Let them remember, and consider well,
That they on whom the
Tower
of
Silo
fell,
No greater sinners judged were than they
On whom it fell not; and think at this day
Some men may perish, who have been more free
From guiltiness, than most that saved be.
The
King,
together with his
Parliament,
May pardon every kind of punishment
For faults against themselves; or any one,
Except for what is willfully mis-done
Against our Maker; but, nor he nor they,
Can take the guilt of any sin away;
And though he may connive at some offenses,
Or be deceived as to men's innocencies,
Who by their cunning have found means of late
Themselves with him to re-indintegrate:
Yet, thousands know so well what they have done,
And felt so much of what ensu'd thereon,
That, though in charity, they do forgive
Their falsehood, they'll rememberit whilst they live.
Let them remember too, what they have done,
Lest GOD bring
Vengeance
when we call for none.
Can any Peer or Commoner suppose,
Who, in the supreme Council sat with those
Who did the late unhappy war begin,
And by their
Declarations
drew us in,
(As men obliged in duty, to adhere
To them, in what they prosecuting were)
That, they are guiltless, though now blamed less
Than others, who the same Cause did profess?
Can they be blameless, who did with the first
Begin the
Quarrel,
and till nigh at worst
Continue it; not leaving on
Record
Ought, whereby their dissent might be declared?
Nor sought for them, a
saving,
or
protection,
Who might be ruined by their defection?
Doth it not greatly their crime aggravate,
That they vouchsafed not to capitulate,
That,
Innocents,
by their default abused,
Might to some safe condition be reduced?
But rather, to their own designs made way,
By leaving them, to be the Spoilers prey?
Though they forgot us, I suppose it fit
To mind them; lest themselves they may forget
When I am dead, and, therefore, I will here
Leave somewhat to be their
Remembrancer.
Let them remember with consideration,
With true repentance, and with due compassion,
How many thousands (whilst they live at rest)
Are either quite destroyed, or oppressed,
Either in Person, Credit, or Estate,
Whose aid they did not only oft entreat,
But also (thereby to promote their end)
Compelled to contribute, pay and lend;
Yea, to engage their
Persons
in their
Cause,
Under pretence of Piety and Laws,
Whom they have now made innocently poor,
And forced to beg, or else to suffer more;
Whilst they from all those miseries are clear,
Whereof their
failings
chief occasions were:
Not only, making that an
Instrument
To ruin them, which ruin should prevent;
But also (probably) by their endeavor,
To make, and keep the people Slaves, forever.
To write plain
Truth,
why should I be afraid?
By what man may it not be justly said,
Our
public Faith
hath been the shameless'st Debtor,
And throughout all these
Realms
the greatest
Cheater
That ever was; and that our
Parliaments
Have been beyond all former Presidents.
The worst
Security
(and never more
Will be confided in, as heretofore)
If unconfirm'd they leave what hath been bought,
And, what was justly sold (as then 'twas thought?)
Or if they make not recompense at least
To those, who by their actings are oppressed?
For this is the same
Nation,
though the
Cause,
The
Governor,
and in some part the
Laws
Are changed now; GOD, who the wrong doth see?
Is yet the same, the same will always be,
And both for what is suffered, and was done,
Will prosecute the Judgment that's begun.
By mere
Cheats,
many thousand
Families
Destroyed are, and with complaints and cries,
So fill men's ears, that they make all to grieve,
Save those, who sense of no Afflictions have
But of their own. The Children, do bemoan
Their Aged
Parents
helplesly undone;
Who, now have nothing left of what was theirs
To recompense their pity, but sad tears:
And, he, who thinks Life a gratuity
In such a case, loves Life much more than I,
Supposing that's a
Mercy,
which to me
A barb'rous cruelty appears to be.
Oh GOD! how are thy kindnesses requited?
How in our
suff'rings
are our foes delighted?
How justly dost thou many now condemn,
And punish, for wrongs done to some of them?
How are the
Just
and
Unjust,
wrapped together
In one Snare, to torment and plague each other?
It is believed, that many men there were,
When
Innovations,
were beginning here,
Who, being in themselves malevolent,
(And for some private causes discontent)
Design'd and practice'd, how to bring to pass
That, which their own, and our
Destruction
was:
But, here were many moe, who did endeavor
To qualify the late infectious
Fever
Which had distempered us; and to retain
The Loyalty that seems renewed again:
Yet, now an
Epidemical Disease
Hath brought Confusion upon some of
these
As well as upon
them,
who fin'd perchance
Much more through willfulness, than ignorance.
They, who did neither by their
deeds or words,
By
counsel,
by their
pens,
or by their
swords,
Begin those
Innovations
in the
state,
Which have been prosecuted here of late;
No, nor so much as by a secret thought,
Contribute to those Changes which were brought
Upon these
Islands,
till they were effected
By other men: they, who themselves subjected
Either but
passively,
to those in power,
To scape those mischiefs which might them devour;
Or,
merely act vely,
to help prevent
An
Anarchy,
and Evils imminent;
Which is no more than God's
law
doth command,
When he makes alterations in a Land;
And hath been also, practice'd by all
Nations
In every Kingdom, through all
Generations,
When either by his
grace,
or his
permission,
He brings a
people
into our condition.
Even they who did no more, are made to share
With those, who
willfully transgressors
were,
And
Murderers,
and
Traitors
be reputed;
As if the Kingdom, which was constituted
Before these Changes had continued on,
And all which hath by GOD and
men
been done,
Were but a Dream, of which, now they awake,
Men may at will,
Interpretations
make:
Or, as if
Actings,
in a time of
War,
Were bounded, as in times of Peace they are:
Whereas 'tis known, that, War doth silence all
Laws, either Civil or Municipal:
And, that, what then
Necessity
constrained,
May by the
Law of Nations
be maintained,
As justly, as those contracts which are made
In times of peace by Laws which then we had;
Though they, perhaps, who shall have po'wr to do
What they themselves please, will not have it so.
But, though we get not that, whereat we aim,
We thereto will continue still our Claim,
And plead our
cause;
in hope, that
truth
and
reason
May at this present, be declared in season.
If
prudent men
collect and weigh the matters
Which here my
Muse
confusedly now scatters,
(Because at once within me I retain
More
Notions,
than by words I can make plain)
They may by them, if put together well,
And duly heeded, my true meaning spell.
They, who with no
side
factiously, took part,
And only in sincerity of heart,
Came to secure the
Sovereign Magistrate,
When called by those, who were co ordinate
With him in power; they, who had no intent
To make a breach 'twixt
King
and
Parliament,
But, faithfully did serve them both together,
To have preserved their
lawful Rights
to either,
And cannot be by
conscience, law
or
reason;
Delinquents
any way (much less for
Treason)
Against their
Prince,
for giving aid to those
Whom he himself authorized to be chose
For his chief
Council,
and whom likewise, he
Made
everlasting Senators
to be,
Impowr'd to make Laws everlasting too,
Until their own
Act
should themselves undo:
They, who did those obey, whom to withstand,
(Although made active by the
Kings
command)
Hath punishit been with Death; even some of these
Though acting also, with good Consciences,
For this
Obedience,
suffered with the first,
And may have also Lots among the worst
On both sides; which to me appears, at least
Injustice,
or no
Mercy,
at the best.
GOD may correct us thus, and justly too
Though to our
King
and
Country
we have true
Continued in the Main, for, in his sight
There are demerits in the most upright,
Which needs the
Rod;
and he chastises those
Whom he befriended, by their greatest
Foes;
Because, not seldom times they gave to them
Who were his
Foes,
occasions to blaspheme,
His grace and his
long-sufferings
much abused
His timely
Premnonition
oft refused.
For, very oft, and very many ways
They had
Fore-warnings,
of what in these days
Is brought upon them; and, as many times
As GOD forgave them, they renewed their Crimes.
When therefore they had long without dis-regard.
GOD's
Messengers
in ordinary heard;
When, such as they themselves did most esteem,
And those who preached in season unto them
Upon their solemn Fasts, or feasting-days.
They only thanked, but followed on their ways.
Then (as he doth, at first, with
Infidels)
By signs prodigious, and by miracles,
He proved them; but Pagans heretofore
Have by that means, been wrought upon much more
To warn them, and reprove them, he sent, then
A company of despicable men,
Who, though despised and houted at, they are
(And to the greatest number do appear
Fanatics)
were the
Messengers
of God,
And such, as he found fit to send abroad
To such a
People,
and at such a season
As this, wherein,
Rime
works as much as
Reason;
And manifests, 'tis such a time with us,
As when GOD's
Prophets
seemed ridiculous
Unto the
Jews,
by acting before them
Such
Signs,
as made them more their words contemn.
Among such like, he hath permitted me,
Not only their
Premonitor
to be,
But, likewise, to see, what I fore-expressed
Fulfill'd; and hear it, by themselves confessed:
For, I took once, or oftener, every year,
Occasion to be their
Remembrancer;
And, publicly declared what I knew
To be misdone, and what things would ensue
If not prevented; but most did deride
My timely Cautions: Vanity and Pride
Made ineffectual all my pains to be,
And, not a little mischievous to me.
Yet, still I persevered in declaring
What they were
doing,
and GOD was preparing.
Now fourteen years ago, with small regard,
My
English Opobalsamum
declared,
What would befall them; and, there, is recorded
Among such like
Expressions,
one, thus worded,
Opobalsamum Anglicanum, Page 20.
—Which side soever shall prevail,
We have a Mischief se ling by entail
On us, and on our heirs: For, in heart
You do unite (though corporally apart)
And join by close Compliances in one,
In hope to compass what you have begun,
Which is nor worse nor better, but to raise
Your houses, both by good and evil ways:
And for that end, to ruin you would bring.
Law, Gospel People, Parliament
and
King,
But ere this hope effected you shall see,
Hark,
Traitors,
what your destiny shall be,
Heed and observe it, for it is the
Doom,
Will, will without all peradventure come
Upon your heads, who have your trust betrayed,
Oppressions on your
faithful Servants
laid;
And multiplied your wealth with greediness,
By preying on your Country in distress.
And, this it is; He, that such wrongs requites,
Will give you
portions
among
Hypocrites.
Your
Pride
shall suddenly by shame be followed,
You shall spew up the Gobbets you have swallowed;
Your
way shall perish
&c.
Unto that book, wherein this is expressed,
I will refer you to peruse the rest.
The
preface
to my SALT on SALT, records
A
Hint
to that end, in these following words.
Last year I sent a
Flash
which is let pass
Unheeded, as a thing that never was;
Now follows the
Report,
or,
Clap of Thunder,
Which have been seen and heard, thus far asunder,
To give the longer
Warning:
for, the
Shot,
And
Thunderbolts
(if
Grace
prevent it not)
Will next
year flee among you. God, amend us,
And then I am affur'd, he will defend us.
Moreover, I,
ten months,
now past, foretold
That
nine months
longer if defer they should
Their Duties, and neglect the Grace twice shown,
They, and their Projects will be overthrown,
As now they are; and that they should be in
That
Purgatory
which doth now begin.
The
premonition
published last year
To that effect, shall be repeated here.
See Epistolium Vagum-prosa-metricum Page 20.
Let them remember,
he that stands may fall,
That every
promise
is
conditional;
And, that God's
promises
will be to them
Perform'd, as they to
others
and to
Him
Perform their promises: for though a wrong
He oft forgiveth, and forbeareth long,
There is a
set time,
which now draweth near,
Wherein, he will no longer so forbear.
Let no man slight this
Caution,
though by him
Divulged, who may despicable seem:
For in these days, it often comes to pass
That God speaks (as to
Balaam
by his Ass)
To
wisest men,
by those whom
fools
they deem;
To
Kings,
by persons that ignoble seem;
And, if their
Wills,
as willfully as he
They still pursue, like his their ends will be.
This
Power
now ruling, reigns by God's
Commission,
Yet, not without a fore-premised condition:
For, by
Unrighteousness
it shall not stand,
Though it were as the
Signet
on his hand.
If they themselves with
outward washings
flatter,
And, shall not cleanse the inside of the platter:
If those Defects of
Justice
and
Compassion
Which lately brought confusion on this
Nation,
Be not forth with repaired in some degree
(As means by
God's Grace
will vouchsafed be)
And if a
Model
truly genuine,
This
August
sixteen hundred fifty nine,
Be not conceived and fully born, before
The time exceeds the end of
nine months
more,
With all the essential parts of such a thing
As may receive a timely perfecting
To qualify the rage that will increase
The
breaches
made into the
Common peace;
Then all that this power thenceforth can endeavor,
Will either be a
Nullity
forever,
Or else, a forth'rance to that horrid pother
Which will make facile entrance for another
Oppressing Hand, that, will but
Justice
do
So far as
Vengeance
doth extend unto.
But lest you think it was by
Accident
That this
presage
hath had a
Consequent
Just at the time foretold, the same book showed
In what
mode also,
that which hath ensued
Should visit them; heed therefore, and compare
What's now begun, with what these Lines declare.
In the Book last mentioned, Page 24.
To cure those
Frenzies
for his future glory,
GOD
is preparing a
New Purgatory
To purge what may be purged from the dross,
That of the
pure Gold
there may be no loss;
The
Judgments
now beginning shall go round,
And
through these Islands,
till all those are found
Who have been false in that which they professed
To
GOD
or to the
public interest.
From house to house, from man to man, they shall
Procession make, till they have seized on all,
All shall be proved, whether poor they be,
Or rich, or of a high or low degree,
By
outward
or by
inward fiery Trials,
Till they are brought to real
Self-denials;
'Twixt GOD and them, through Mercy to repent
Their
Failings,
or to
outward punishment.
Those who shall in this Island scape his hand,
Vengeance
will seize on, in a
Forreign Land;
The foes of
Peace
among the
common Rout,
A
Pestilence
or
Famine
shall find out:
They who have shuffled from the
Soldiers fury,
Shall fall into the mercy of a
Jury;
And, when they from the sword are in some hope
To scape, shall then be hamper'd in a
Rope.
The Mischiefs which they shunned in the
Street,
Within a secret
Chamber
they shall meet.
Those men whom nothing
publicly
pursues,
Their
Consciences
in
private
shall
accuse.
They, who immoveably do think to stand,
Shall fall without the motion of a hand;
And when the things they feared, cannot annoy them,
That, which they sleight, and feared not, shall destory them.
I told them likewise that their gross neglect
Of
Justice
as to me would have effect
Upon themselves, that, what to me and mine
They suffered to befall, would be a
sign
Of what their
lot
must be; and when it should
So come to pass, my SALT on SALT foretold.
In these words, Page 47.
That this bears date the last day of
September,
In
sixteen hundred fifty eight
remember;
And that, a
Reconcilement
be before
We have provoked GOD's patience one year more,
Lest I myself be made another
sign
Of what the former
Symptoms
pre-divine:
For, those
Confusions
which distract this
State,
Are typified in my outward
Fate.
And printed on me by that violation
Of
Justice,
which defiles this
Generation.
They that seem to have enough in outward show,
To bear their
Part,
and pay the
Debts
they ow,
And for the future a sufficiency;
So also, if I had my right, have I.
As (notwithstanding this) with much ado
They now subsist; so fares it with me too.
As at the present, their
Expences
be
More than their
Incomes,
so it is with me.
I have more
Foes
than
Friends;
and much I am
Deceived, if they may not say the same.
My Foes and troubles in another year
Will ruin me, and so will also their,
If he, on whose assistance I depend,
Prevents not what their foes and mine intend,
Before another year wheels round, I may
Enjoy an outward peace, and so might they,
If they embrace the means that will be shown,
And follow not devices of their own.
If timely Justice be vouchsafed to me,
By timely Mercies they secured shall be.
If I permitted am to be aestroy'd,
Their power, will not long after be enjoyed.
Moreovet, my DARK-LANTERN fore-declared
As plainly (as such things might be aver'd
In such like times) what,
Cromwell
had designed,
That they in power (had they been so inclined)
Might have prevented it, when show he made
To give up that
Commission
which he had.
And had they been so prudent to have tookt,
They, his
White Lion,
at that time had dockt.
These were my words:
A
homebred Lion,
of a Hair unknown
In
Africa,
by being over-grown,
And dreadful to his
Keepers,
shall thereby
Increase the rage of smothered Jealousy,
And lose his
Tail,
except betwixt his paws
He couch his head, and hides his teeth and claws,
Or else grows
Rampant;
what will follow then?
Ask those you credit, they are cunning men;
Of me you ask in vain, for 'tis my fate
Never to be believed, till 'tis too late.
I, likewise did by parable express
In that book with what servile flatteries,
They fawn'd on their own Creature, whom they had
Hew'd out of
Common blocks,
and
Idols
made,
With what would follow it; and my intent
Was not, by my
Perpetual-Parliament
To make that such (as some have thought I meant)
But, rather that Designment to prevent
By some Diversion; for, full well I knew
That my
proposals
they would not pursue.
And, they who my
Poetic fury
read,
Which was by me last winter published,
May thence collect, that I did then foresee
The
Kings Return,
and how it so would be,
Though I my
preconjectures
did express
(As then I thought) with some ambiguousness,
To be excused; because of that
Relation
Which then I had, and my
Faiths
preservation:
For, though that Poets in the worlds first ages,
Were
Prophets, Priests,
and
Magisterial Sages,
And, in all former times (as
in Commendam)
Have been allowed a
Quid libet audendum;
Yea, though there doth to
sacred poesie,
Belong a necessary
Liberty
In Language, not so pertinent to those
Who hammer their
Conceptions
out in
prose,
Yet, that
Good Spirit,
which directs their
Muses,
Therewith, a
prudent wariness
infuses,
That Malice may not thereat take offense
To do them wrong, without much impudence,
Or gross
Injustice;
and, for which wrong he,
Will take Revenge, by whom inspired they be,
When he shall pleased be to call them to
That
work
which he prepared them to do.
And though my musings hitherto appear
But dreaming Fancies, whereat many jeer;
They who observe, what at the foresaid time
Befel to me, and afterward to them,
And also knew, that all true Christians be
Kings, Priests
and
Prophets
too, in some degree,
Shall find at last, that this Age
Prophets
had,
And
sober men
(though they were judged mad)
Whom God stirred up, to set before their eyes
Those needful
Cautions
which vain men despise,
Because it pleaseth him to give them pass
By
Instruments
more scorned than
Balaam's
Ass.
There are some at this day, on whom
nick-names
Are cast; and, whom, the Vulgar much defames;
Who (though they failings have) are by God's
warrants
Authorized to do such needful Errants
As to these times relate, and to deride
Our
complements,
our
vanities
and
pride:
And, whatsoever
Spirit
them hath moved,
We (not without cause) are by them reproved
Of things, whereto our
consciences,
with them
Bear witness, though their persons most contemn.
Among these (as aforesaid) I am one
By whom the work of GOD is to be done;
And he thereto is pleased to make use
Of
poesie
(at this time) when th' abuse
Of that gift, hath profaned it, much more
By Ribaldries, than ever heretofore.
It may be too, I serve my Generation
Thereby (although not wealth nor reputation
It gets me) and my GOD, as well as they
Who seek to take my purchased Lands away,
As sanctified to them; for, even by these
My
scriblings
(as to term them some do please)
Occurrences,
which else would be forgot,
(And passages which many minded not)
Will so remembered be, that GOD shall have
Some glory by them, and men good receive.
And though I take no care at all to trick
My Poems up, with flow'rs of Rhetoric,
A day will come, wherein with due respect
They shall more heeded be, and take effect.
You, who believe this, and each
Dispensation
Of GOD's, to merit your Consideration,
Improve them as you ought, in what strange ways,
Or, in what
form
soe'er he them conveys:
And though you suffer many persecutions,
Or losses, in the various Revolutions
Which do or may befall, be of good cheer;
Yea, whatsoever you shall see or hear,
Be not afraid of ought, which this last
Turn
May threaten to bring on, or to adjourn:
Nor be discouraged what ere the
King
Permits, omits, or acteth, which may bring
Harm in estate or person; for he comes
To do GOD's
work,
and executes his
dooms
With, or against his will, and shall proceed
No further, than hath been by him decreed.
His
power
and heart are always in his hands:
As well as we, accountable he stands
For all that he shall do; and, GOD of him
Now proof is making, as he did of them
Who reigned last. Yea, peradventure now
In proving him, is also proving you
And me, and all these
Nations,
that his
Grace
And
Justice
one another may embrace.
In which TEST, if we meekly wait th'
Event,
Till we behold how far this Parliament
Will stretch their mercy; and then, till we see
How far, the Kings
Grace
will extended be,
(Of his mere Goodness, and Self-inclination,
Beyond their narrow limited Compassion)
You, either shall by him, have an effect
To answer what you justly may expect
Or by GOD's
Providence,
who, if he please;
Can turn your losses to advantages.
For Consequents will follow to requite
Your
long-long sufferings
in the worlds despite.
GOD will appear, for your just vindications,
Who truly sought the welfare of these
Nations
In order to his glory; and so do it,
That, to be his own Act, most men shall know it.
And, by the
King
that
Grace
vouchsafe will he,
Except his heart as hard as
Pharaohs
be;
Or, is by such
Enchanters
led aside,
As
Jannes
and as
Jambres
typifide.
Try all things ere you counter-act, and heed
Whether or no from GOD they do proceed;
For, by their
work
if well the same you mark,
Are
work-men
known, and work-men by their work
As truly as a
Tree
is by his Fruit,
His bark, his leaves, his blossoms, and his root.
Since all is in GOD's hand, rest well assured
That your
chief interest
will be secured
In his best times, although the
Royal power
He more exalts, and brings the people lower.
For, his way, to the highest exaltations,
Is by Debasings, and by Degradations.
And, whether more or less, he gives or takes,
To, or from him, or them, its for their sakes
Conferred
or
withdrawn,
to whom pertains
That
Kingdom,
within which, no
Tyrant
reigns.
GOD is our
King,
and doth but him depute
To be here for a time, his
Substitute:
We are his
people,
and his
pasture-sheep,
Whom he is sent to govern, feed and keep;
Not to oppress, to fleece, or to devour,
And GOD retains us always in his power.
What, can we have, or wish for, more than this?
In whose hand are we safe, if not in his?
Whether we have a Government or none,
Whether it be by
Many,
or by
One:
In him External and Internal peace
Must sought for be; In his especial
Grace
Is our
Well-being,
and without the same,
All
Governors,
by whatsoever name
Distinguished, and every
Government,
Which all the wit of mankind can invent,
Will be destructive; and when left we be
Unto
ourselves,
such, to ourselves are we.
When we have
Kings,
& hope that they will save us
From wrongs, they oft endeavor to enslave us.
The more
power
we upon them do confer,
The more thereby at last enslav'd we are.
For, they of
wealth
and
Power
admit no measure
That's not as large as their own
will
and
pleasure.
If you confine them by a thousand laws,
They break those bonds as easily as straws;
And oft, when large in promise them we find,
Their own advantage chiefly is designed.
When on a
Parliament
our trust we laid,
We thereby were oppressed and betrayed;
And, may set up (as things are carried on)
Four hundred Tyrants
in the stead of one;
Or, make that which our
bondage
should prevent,
Help to enslave us by our own consent.
If rather, in an
Army
we confide,
They'l either turn unto another side,
Or else prolong their service, till it shall
Effect their
ends,
or eat us out of all.
If on the
common people
we depend,
They heed not that which to their
Weal
doth tend
In
common;
for, their individual cares
Are to increase, or keep their
private shares.
And to enjoy their Lusts a year or two,
Will all their own posterity undo.
If to themselves they should assume their power,
They could not use it prudently one hour;
So scattered lies, through many heads, their brain,
That half a Nut-shell will their wits contain:
And
fire
and
water,
may as well agree,
As they, who of so many Judgments be.
The Nobles would deserve our trust no better;
For, they would still endeavor to be greater,
By making others less; and breed distractions
Incurable, by everlasting
Factions.
Most men, the trust on them imposed, abuse,
As well the
choosers,
as,
they whom they choose:
The first so slavish and so brutish are,
They'l sell their
birthrights
for
Rost beef
and
Beer,
(As they but lately did) and, so, expose
Our Lives, Estates, and Freedoms unto those,
Who look more like our
tumblers
and our
players,
Then
Senators,
by whom our Grand Affairs
Should be determined, The
Last
with zeal
Make show a while, to serve the
Commonweal,
Till thereby some Advancement gain they may,
And, then, their zeal is turned another way.
If, our
chief City,
we our
Trustee
made,
She, to enlarge her
Charters,
and her
Trade,
To make herself more pow'rful, and more rich,
Hath ever been inclined so over-much:
And, to and fro, herself so often winds,
To
this,
and
that,
as she occasion finds,
That, when in her we do repose our trust,
We shall have
charters
written in the Dust.
Yet, for the love which thereunto I bear,
Or, rather for the sake of those in her,
Whose prayers, faith and tears, have h'thereto
Preserv'd her, I shall, still, as now I do,
Make my
Petition
for her preservation,
And, that she may by
Justice
and
Compassion
Break off from those sins, for which I discover
A Cloud of
Judgments
to be hanging over:
And, which e're since the last great plague hath been;
Sometimes approaching, though by few men seen;
And which, whilst she to power and wealth aspires,
Will be unheeded; immaterial fires,
Consume her dwellings, and decay her Trade,
Unless atonement speedily be made
By
works of mercy,
and that sacrifice
Which
GOD
hath promised he will not despise.
These
Trustees,
will at last deceive us whether
We trust them singly, or else all together.
If then, we should to this conclusion draw,
Be governed by the
Letter of the Law;
That, in itself, is grown so questionable,
So like a
Nose of Wax,
so variable,
And so uncertain made, as
Lawyers
please
To make them speak for their advantages
Who most advantage them; that, we shall there
Continue as unsettled as we were,
Till we are certain in what sense to take them;
Which will not be as long as Lawyers make them,
Who take more care to drive their own ends on,
Than to provide that
Justice
may be done.
Let me be bold to write Truths without blame,
(Which I know may be written without shame)
No
person, persons,
or that
Government
Which wisest men by general consent
Shall constitute, is able to bring hither
Both
Truth
and
Peace,
to settle them together,
Until Almighty GOD shall to this
Nation
A means discover for the Regulation
Of those who for their private
interests,
Confine both
Law
and
Gospel
to their breasts:
For, from them chiefly, most of all that springs,
Which either to this
people
or their
Kings,
Hath hurtful been; and till this be amended,
Our
Plagues
may be adjourn'd, but never ended:
For, by this means (mark if it be not so)
Human Affairs,
thus, for the most part go.
Councils
and
Parliaments
do counter-act
Unto themselves, in
Judgment,
and in
Fact.
And the same person, by the self-same
Law,
For the same
deed,
they
honor, hang,
and
draw.
Howe're the
Power in being
forms the
Cause,
For that, straight speaks
Divinity
and
Laws.
Let but another Power assume the
Throne,
Which quite contraries what the last hath done,
Both
Law
and
Gospel
straight confirms the same,
Even by their tongues from whence the
Judement
came
Which ratifide the former, and had laid
Strict penalties to make their Votes obaid;
So, that which was the last year
Truth
and
Reason,
Is made the next year
Heresy
and
Treason;
And,
Judges
act that guilt which they condemn.
In others, whilst they are condemning them.
Oh Impudence! how! how! is
Justice
lost?
How are poor men, like
Dogs
in
blankets
tost?
What great
Revenews
have been yearly paid,
And what vast sums bestowed to be betrayed!
Or, were at best, upon
blind Guides
conferred,
Who knew not, whether they went right, or erred?
GOD bless the
King,
and teach him what to do;
GOD bless the
People,
and GOD bless me too;
And keep us with our several
Interests,
From being wronged by
Lawyers,
and by
Priests;
And, from Aspersion, keep them also free,
Who, in those
Callings,
just and honest be.
These things I have observed: let us therefore
Trust to ourselves, or other men no more;
But, wholly leave to GOD our
grand affairs,
Lay by our
Swords:
betake us to our
Pray'rs,
And learn to use such
Weapons
which will shatter
Such
Fortresses,
as Canons cannot batter;
Lest, else, as lately, we do fight again
Our selves, out of one mischief into twain;
Which into twenty more may be improved,
Before it shall be totally removed.
A
Conquest
by the
Sword
we lately had,
But, that, our sins and follies frustrate made:
We were by GOD's aid made victorious then,
By letting forth the blood of other men:
But the next
Victory
to be bestowed,
Must purchased be, by shedding of our own:
Yea (mind this well) it to the
Saints
pertains,
To bind in fetters and in iron chains
Both
Kings
and
Peers,
and that these also may
Break off those bands, and cast those cords away:
If to assume that Power
the Saints
begin
Unseas'nably, or lose it by their sin;
Or, if they shall pursue the will of GOD
With
carnal Weapons,
in a carnal mode,
Seeking their own ends, when they his pretended,
For, with sad
Sequels
those ways are attended.
And, they will worthily be then corrected,
With that, which must upon them be inflicted.
But, when
Repentance,
and a fleshly
doom,
Hath purifi'd them, they shall overcome
By being vanquished, and prevail much more
By
loosing,
than by
winning
heretofore.
Men have their failings; but a
fiery Trial
Will purge the dross, which want of
self-denial
Within them left; and when that's fum'd away,
They will be Gold refined without allay.
In our own places, let us truly do
What duty to
Superiors
calls us to.
(An
absolute Obedience
unto none
My
conscience
owes, save unto GOD alone;
Yet, to what
Sovereign power
adjudgeth fit,
I will
actively
or
passively
submit)
Let
Soldiers
fight; give Pilots room to steer;
When we move, let us move in our own sphere,
Our
safety,
from henceforth, expecting, from
No
Mountain,
but from that, whence it must come.
We had ere while a
Power,
which to our cost
We mis-employed, and therefore now 'tis lost.
We, lately, active were even unto blood;
But, now such
activeness
will do no good,
And, we must
passive
be, till GOD shall please
Our sins to pardon, and to give us ease:
And he will show us then what must be done,
If him with patience we attend upon.
What we desired, he did not deny us;
And, by what we desired, he now will try us.
We have a
King
again: and since God gave him
Upon such terms, as most desired to have him,
We ought not to repine or to receed
From that which we to him have promised;
For, we our duties are obliged to do,
Whether he keep his promises, or no.
Leave him, unto that
Cov'nant
which was made
'Twixt GOD and him, when he admittance had:
For, GOD on our behalf, when that was done,
Premised terms, though we ourselves made none,
(Even such, as long ago upon record
Expressed were, in his revealed word)
And, if he keep them not, 'twill worse succeed
With him, than if his
signed and sealed Deed
He should to us infringe (though
Dispensations
He had, from all the
Prelates
in these
Nations,
And
Rome
to boot) which, I should fear to say,
If somewhat did not warrant me I may.
His power now is great; yet, had been more
Than ever
English King
had heretofore,
(A
•
•
onceive) had he content remained
With what was providentially obtained
Not looking backward, to hedge in the time,
Which will be no advantage unto him.
Had he not sought his
Honors Reparation,
By building it upon the old
Foundation
On which it stood; not thought it best to own,
That
Interest,
which GOD had overthrown,
(And
Human policy
inclined him to)
He might have done more than he now can do.
For
Conquest
giveth rather more than less
Than he did by
Inheritance
possess;
And his Re-entry was equivalent
To
Conquest,
though gained by assent:
For
Free Assent
was given by no more
Save those who were of his own side before;
Until they saw he had that
power supreme
Which warranted
Allegiance
unto him;
And that he had acquired interests
In what they claim, by plowing with their Beasts:
For, where WAR is, till peace, renewed shall be
In terminis,
a
Conqueror
is he,
Who
victory
by
Stratagems
hath gained
As truly, as when by the
sword
attained.
And his
Admittance
(whatsoe'er is thought)
Was by none else, but his
own paerty
wrought
Through GOD's permission, who, befooled them
Who had been false unto themselves and him.
It is a
Conquest,
which the Lord of
Hosts
Confer'd on him (although no blood it costs)
And they who do admit, without
condition,
A
Foe professed,
can challenge no fruition
Of any right, which was enjoyed before,
But that which he is pleased to restore;
Till for
Omissions,
or for things misdone,
GOD takes from him again what he had won,
As, but a few months past from them he did,
Who in this
Government
did him precede:
And, this point I insist on to declare
That (since of us our
Trustees
had no care)
How much to GOD we shall obliged be,
If from our Hazards he shall set us free
By moving this Kings heart, us to restore
To those enjoyments which we had before.
When first the
Norman
by the Sword came in,
A part of what the people's right had been
Was by
contract
secured: when
Solomon
Was dead, although the Kingdom to his son
Fell by
inheritance;
yet, maugre that,
The
Israelites
came to capitulate
With
Rehoboam,
and (as it appears)
The
Kingdoms,
and his Fathers Counsellers
Advis'd admittance of Capitulation,
As no less needful for his Confirmation,
Than to content the people: but, he leaves
Their counsel, and to
giddy Fellows
cleaves,
Companions of this youth, by whose
Bravado's
(Exprest with insolent
Rodomontado's)
He lost ten Tribes of twelve. But no man thought
Our Cause (it seems) worth speaking for, or sought
To save our Interests, though we had those
Impowr'd, who to that intent were chose,
And much confided in. And, GOD did thus
For his own glory pre-dispose of us,
That we might see the vanity of them
In whom we trusted, and trust more in him.
It had not else been so; for through the Land,
There was not sword nor spear in any hand
But what we thought our own: nor
power
appearing
For
Charles
without it, which was worth the fearing,
If
Providence
had not transferred this
power
Into his hand, which we supposed our.
So, all our
freedoms,
Life, Lands, goods and treasure,
Were actually to this
Kings
will and pleasure
Resigned up: for, nothing doth appear
That we of anything secured are,
Save by his Grace, though some a power then had
To get
Conditions
usual to be made
In such like Cases: which, if they had done,
They had not thereby well discharged alone
Their
public Trust,
and, rather more than less,
Might thereby have advanced the
common peace;
But, saved unto the
King
much labor too,
Which now he must be forced to undergo,
Yet, peradventure when that he hath done
The best he can, please very few or none:
For 'tis impossible the blessed fruit
Of
perfect peace
without
power absolute,
Should be produced, as we are now distracted,
And as things will in likelihood be acted;
'Cause such a
Flow'r
(as most
wise men
do know)
Upon a
single Root,
doth always grow;
And that, naught
perfect Unity
can breed,
Save that, which from
one spirit
doth proceed.
If, as he from these Kingdoms was expelled
By
Conquest,
he re-entering, them had held
As by
Re-Conquest
(which he might have done,
Consid'ring how
Affairs
were carried on)
He might have brought most things to good conclusions,
Without those interruptions and confusions
Which will ensue; for, he obliged then
By none, but GOD's and
Natures Laws
had been;
And should have had a large means to express
His
Mercy, Piety,
and
Righteousness,
By prudent modelizing and contriving
(Restoring, adding, giving and forgiving)
As need required, without such restraints,
Or giving these occasions of complaints,
As now occur: whereas he coming in
By that
Right,
which before had claimed been,
(As interrupted only) he seems bounded
By those
Laws,
whereon formerly 'twas founded.
And (as at present it appears to me)
So dubious
Laws
and
Parliaments
now be,
That by the course intended to be taken,
The
Peace
we hope to settle will be shaken
When we suppose it fixed; by failings, found
Hereafter, in some
Principles
unsound;
Or else, because some actings will appear
Not homogeneous to those Laws that are:
And, as things are, with us 'tis little better
Then if we conquered were, for, we are debtor
Unto the
King,
for all in our possessions
By his
spontaneous Act,
and
Free Concessions;
And whatsoever we can do or say,
If, now he will be
Absolute,
he may.
There be enough, who for their
private ends,
Will drive on whatsoever he intends,
Whether it be to do us
right
or
wrong;
And thereunto, our sins will make them
strong,
Till
GOD again
deliver us, who
hath
Now made us, justly, Objects of his
wrath.
For, if they are our
Trustees
duly chose,
Who
now
of us and our
Affairs
dispose,
(And us into the
Kings
hand wholly gave
Without
Reserve)
then, everything we have
Is
His;
and more it boots not than a Rush
Now to
deny
it: for, within a bush,
We shall our
Heads
but like the
Woodcock
hide,
Whom by his
Tail,
the
Fowler
hath espide.
We are reduced unto a
conquered State,
Though we ourselves are pleased to
wink
thereat.
The CUP pretended stolen to have been,
(By whose
device
soere it was put in)
Is found
within our sacks;
and
we
this day
Like
Josephs
Brethren, to the
King
must say:
We are thy servants: Providence Divine
Hath for our sins made our possessions thine:
For, we can challenge nothing as our own,
But what of thy free Grace hath been bestowed:
Or what thou shalt be pleased to afford
Upon Request: or, of thine own accord.
This we must say, how loath soere we are:
And, without scruple, this affirm I dare,
That, till the self-same
Providence,
or
He,
Or
both together,
join to make us free:
(Which will vouchsafed be,
with,
or
without
His will, when our
probation-time
is out)
We never shall be freed; but, without rest,
Be more and more enslaved, and oppressed.
Then, let none think I wrong this
Nation,
though
I say 'tis
conquered:
nor, by being so,
Fear they so much will disadvantag'd be,
As, by a vain suppose that they are free;
Since, by not making this acknowledgement,
GOD, of due thanks and glory we prevent:
For, had the King assumed the
Sovereign power,
(As being made by him, a Conqueror)
With no worse purpose, than to constitute
A
righteous throne
(to which Power Absolute
Is so Essential, that without the same,
Less Power, in great Confusions will be lame)
He possibly might have effected that,
Which to attempt, now 'tis perhaps too late.
This, was the mind of GOD (as I believe)
When he to him did that advantage give;
And, I am hopeful, he will bend that way
The Power that's left, as far forth as he may:
For, he is neither
Heathen, Jew,
or
Turk,
Impow'red to do only his own work;
Nor we, I hope, as were the
Canaanites,
To be destroyed, nor those
Amalekites
With whom God purposeth a War forever,
Unless we in impenitence persevere,
To make us liable to such a
doom
As did on that and other
Nations
come.
But, by this
King,
GOD rather doth intend
Our much depraved
Manners
to amend:
And deals with us, as he hath always done
With his own people, since the world begun.
When they by murmurings for
flesh
provokit him;
He, in displeasure gave them
Quails,
& choked them:
And he with us, in some things parallel
Thereto hath dealt, if we observe them well.
When he by
Moses
them from bondage brought,
(To lead them back again) they had a thought
To choose another
Captain;
for which crime,
He kept them in the Desert a long time:
Even till all that
Rebellious Generation
Was quite worn out for that prevarication.
This, let us well consider of, and learn
How much (and in what) it may us concern.
A
King
like other Nations they would have,
And what they asked, GOD with a vengeance gave:
Yet, by his
mercy
from his
wrath
did save them,
And plagues & blessings therewith mixed gave them.
When by the Sword of
Nebuchadnezzar,
The
Jews
were subjugated (as we are
For our transgressions) though their
Conqueror
Was not of their own Nation, as is our:
(Or, of their
Faith,
so much as a pretender,
Either to be
Professor
or
Defender)
GOD by
Him,
and by his
Successors
brought them,
Not only to be humbled, till they sought him;
But also, gave them favor in their sights;
Made some of them their chiefest
Favorites:
Yea, to repair enabled them, at last,
Their
Temple
and their
Cities,
which lay waste;
And to possess again that Land, from whence
They were ejected by
impenitence.
Why then should we not hope, since to these
Nations
Our present
King
hath manifest Relations:
(The same Faith holds, and of his own accord
To be propitious hath engaged his Word)
That, GOD, by him, will, at the least, restore
All that which he possessed heretofore?
Why should we not believe, that God's intent
Is to be gracious in his chastisement?
And may apply unto us
Lenitives
By this
King,
when he hath with
Corrosives
First made us curable; somewhat I declared
Among such other things (without regard)
Now, thirty five years past, that doth appear
Upon Record in my
Remembrancer,
Which now, perhaps, beginneth way to make
For what my
Britain's Genius
did fore-speak;
And, GOD, in
Judgment,
mindeth us, as yet,
In Mercy, though his kindness we forget.
Yea, if our sins make not his purpose void,
That, whereby some now fear to be destroyed,
Shall save us from that mischief which we fear,
When unavoidably it seemeth near.
For, notwithstanding, for their sins and our,
Our former
Governors
did lose their power;
Though they, and we have justly forfeited
Those
Freedoms
which we lately challenged,
And did possess (when after our
Appeal,
We were impowr'd to form a
Commonweal)
The
change
which now befalls will be of use
Hereafter, better sequels to produce.
We have but only lost, upon the wheel
A
broken pot,
and
work men without skill.
GOD, hath not wholly, us of Grace bereaved,
Although, to Grace, the
King
he hath received;
Nor hath he at this present brought him home
At our cost (without bloodshed) to become
A
Tyrant,
but our
King,
and unto us
To be as gracious, as to him, he was,
In thus restoring him with Conditions,
Unto his late lost Honor and Possessions.
GOD hath from
Mesech
lately brought him hither
Not that this
People
should be forced thither;
Or that their Burthens he should more increase,
Now that's removed which did him oppress.
GOD, did supply his wants, and him restore
To Riches lost, not to make others poor;
Nor from afflictions him redeemed, that he
Should for past injuries avenged be;
Or have a
Kingdom
here, like one of those
Which
Satan
on his Homagers bestows.
But, such a
Kingdom,
that his people might
Submit unto him, with a true delight,
And worship their
Creator
without fear,
In holiness, and in uprightness here.
And, if his
Power
be not this way employ'd,
The best men's hopes, will be a while made void:
And his forever (though he should recover
Ten times more strength and gild his acting over
With quaint pretences, and the fairest Paints
Of
Politicians,
or
dissembling Saints.)
For, though the Rabble, who were yesterday
His open Foes, now make professions may,
Of being loyal, and tomorrow should
Swear to become his
slaves,
they frustrate would
His best hopes; for, they are a flood that flows
This way,
and
that way,
as the next wind blows.
The Essence of a
Kingly interest
Doth
in,
and by the
Common good
consist,
Even in the
whole,
and not in any part
(Although as noble as the
Head
or
Heart)
And to indulge ought further then it shall
Tend really unto the good of all;
Destroys the whole, turns
Royalty
to
Faction,
And breeds at length a
general Distraction:
For, when the
limbs,
the
head
or
heart
surpass
Their due
proportions,
they make others less;
And all the
body
will not only grow
Deformed,
but
unserviceable
too:
So, likewise,
Kings,
if liberty they grant
To any
part
to be exorbitant,
Or in themselves be so, 'twill quite destroy
That
compound being,
which they shall enjoy.
They further should promote no interest
Than with the
public good
it may consist;
And that each
individual,
without wrongs,
May that possess, which to the same belongs.
By
Justice
he should cause a Restoration;
Of all
Incroachments
made by Usurpation;
And recompense for every Injury
Sustained by Supreme Authority,
How ere acquired, if the
Sufferer
In
conscience,
thereunto obedient were;
And no way active in that innovation,
Which was the former Powr's Eradication.
No party or profession whatsoever,
Neither the Prelate, Priest or Presbyter,
Or other Sect, nor
King
nor
Parliament
Should be indulged to common detriment;
For, that would be destructive to that end,
Whereto all Constitutions ought to tend.
'It is
mercy,
and performing
righteous things
That strengthens
Kingdoms,
and preserveth
Kings;
And they are their best
Subjects
who adhere
To Piety, and sound in Manners are:
Not they who think the glory of a Throne
Consisteth in the Guilding laid thereon:
Or, in such
Vanities
as did begin
To spring up when the
King
first entered in:
For, though those
Fools
(who such enjoyment crave
As soon, as of prevailing, hopes they have)
Insult, Jeer, brag, and insolently brave it,
Cry,
Now it is as we ourselves would have it,
And run out into that
Licentiousness
Which evidently may to all express
What they desire; he, that, on such relies,
Himself, with
Snow-balls
only fortifies;
And will by their assistance be at length
As old
Rome
was, oppressed by his own strength.
And, if abused, the
Grace
now offered be,
Some, yet may live another change to see:
For,
One
unheeded sits above our heads,
Who men's
Fanatic vanities
derides;
And
Judgments
in dark Clouds concealed are,
Which will surprise us, ere we be aware,
Unless we with more prudent moderation
Shall from henceforward manage that
occasion
Which GOD hath given of a happy close
Betwixt them, who have over-long been foes,
For, to that end (though not well heeded yet)
The
King
and we are in this posture met.
If, he be now
King by the Grace of GOD,
(As we entitle him) sent for our good,
And not in wrath: if, as his
Title
saith,
He be a true
Defender of the Faith,
(Which is my hope) he, seriously will heed,
How in his chief
concernments,
men proceed:
And, if he then finds, that, more in despite
To those whom they hate, than to do him right,
Some things by some are acted: and the spoil
Of others rather aimed at, then this
Weal,
(By prosecutions over-violent
To his dishonor and indangerment)
'Twill bring forth an unlooked-for effect
To those, upon whom he without suspect
Doth yet depend; and make him plainly see,
That, from thenceforth, his confidence must be
In GOD, and in those, who, with him partake
For GOD's, for
Justice,
and for
Conscience
sake;
And not in those who value not those things
Which most essential are to
Sov{us}reign Kings;
Though they pretend to suffer for GOD's
cause,
And
his;
or, fain obedience to his Laws;
Much less trust them, who did assist the
Boys
With Shouts, Drums, Guns and Squibs to make a noise
About their
bonfires,
hemmed in with Dances
Scarce modest, and sometimes with petulances
As scandalous, as if those men had best
Their
Loyalty
and
Gratitude
expressed,
Who, when he was proclaimed, most rudely swagger'd
Drunk to his
Health,
until they spew'd & staggered;
Consum'd that, on one
beast,
which to the poor
Distributed, might have refreshed a score:
And, when they should have praised GOD, for the
grace
To them vouchsafed, blasphemed him to his face.
If such
prevarications
do presage
A settled power, or a Reformed Age,
I am deceived; and wholly had despair'd
To see our
Breaches
in my time repaired;
But that the
King
hath given hopes of late,
By some proceeds, that he doth aim thereat;
And by his
Proclamation
startled them
From that, which many did expect from him:
Yea, I have feared, that I might have lived
To see all Heath'nish Vanities revived.
(With all old
Superstitions)
and, I pray,
This fear may wholly be removed away:
For, what some have expected all along,
And, from what
Root,
their zeal to
Kingship
sprung;
By many 'twas fore-shown, who did aspire
To
public trust.
That, which they now desire
Confirms it also; and perhaps it may
Be manifest to all another day,
When they shall either miss their expectations,
Who welcomed him with loudest
acclamations,
Or else, when they enjoy them; which to see,
I should be griv'd, and so, I hope would he.
But if to those things, which do now begin
In every place already, to flow in,
He puts not stop, ere further they proceed,
His power, perhaps, it shortly will exceeded;
And, we shall here behold (with new additions)
Prophanenesse,
and exploded
Superstitions,
Not only countenanced without awe
Of GOD, and
Men,
but settled by a Law:
For, this (or I am much deceived) is that
Which is by very many aimed at.
It was not (as these did pretend) to bring
From his late banishment, their
lawful King;
Nor love unto his
Person,
or his
Cause,
Or zeal to true
Religion
or the
Laws,
Which made so many, who had active been
To
drive him out,
make hast to
fetch him in:
Nor, that they could better be content
With
Kingship
or some other
Government,
Or persons then with those that ruled before:
But some did hope to have enjoyed more
A
Liberty,
whereby, without control
They might in
brutish lusts
at pleasure roll.
Some had a hoping of raising their Estate;
In some hope sprung from
Envy
or from
hate,
Conceiv'd against those persons who acquired
Those
honors
or some
profits
they desired:
And, not a few, who were at no expense
In this
Kings
service, or to make defense
Of
him
or his
cause,
hopeful were to get
(By suing to him, and pretending it)
Repair of those consumed Estates, which they
Had either drunk, or whor'd, or gam'd away.
Some, other, thereby, hoped for fruition
Of their beloved Mistress
Superstition;
Freedom, to swear GOD
damn them,
without a we
Of
Magistrate,
or mulct imposed by Law;
To wast, the day, and night, in drinking, gaming,
In cheating, roaring, whoring, and blaspheming,
Without reproofs. Some looked for increase
Of
Trading,
or of making
Taxes
less;
And, othersome (another way affected)
Together with a King, returns expected
Of
Masks
and
Revels, Turnaments
and
Plays,
May-poles, Wakes, Church-ales
and those
holy-days,
Wherein young men might have permitted been
As heretofore, to dance upon the Green,
With such-like
liberties
as may be used
Sometimes (if soberly) and not abused:
And, some, it may be, had an expection
The
Lord's day
should a day of
recreation
Be made agen; and preaching twice a day,
By some new Canon would be took away;
That all men (as they have internal motions)
Might have time for their
pleasures
or
devotions.
These were strong
motives
to some late Expresses
Of
loyalty,
as also to th'
addresses
Subscribed not long before by many a one
To OLIVER, and likewise to his
Son,
Whom quickly they deserted, though they had
To live and die with them professions made
Without enforcement, at the first, to make them,
Or at the last, so tamely to forsake them.
As much they magnifide them in their
Lyricks,
Heroic
Poems, Odes,
and
Penegyricks,
As they extol the
King.
No
flattering pen
Could more ascribe to any mortal men:
And, though such dawbings cannot keep from shame
Their
persons,
nor from infamy their
name,
(As now appears) yet this
magnificat
The world still sings. This
common strain
is that
Which most men do affect and in this wise
Flattry
still sings to all
Stars
when they rise:
Yea, all their songs unto this present day,
Are but the same,
new set
another way:
And, their
composers
do deserve no more
Then
begging Fiddlers
begging at the door.
Who if it might their
servile ends
advance,
Would, to the same tune play the
devil
a dance.
Such are too many, who do make a show
Of
loyalty
by their
expresses
now.
As little worth regarding is their love;
And, doubtless very fickle it would prove,
If GOD should be provoked to estrange
His favor, and permit another
change.
They who against one party lately cride,
Hang,
hang the Rogues;
against the
other side
Would then cry out as loud, Hang,
hang them all:
And, those whom they now
praise,
as much
mis call:
For, what their chiefest expectations are,
They make it evidently to appear
By
Words
and
Deeds;
and there are symptoms too,
What things, if cause were given, they would do.
Hornets
and
Wasps,
begin to show their stings.
The
butterflies
display their pointed wings
In every Garden, and there, spawn the seed
which
Palmer worms,
and
Catterpillars,
breed.
They, who were lately
Maggots
are grown
Flies,
In our ears buzzing, fleering in our eyes;
And, up were set, the worlds
God's
altogether
As soon as ere the
King
approached hither;
Who, probably, in
Flanders
had remained,
If, otherways, their ends they could have gained,
And
Dick,
perhaps, GEORGE,
Jack,
or anything,
With
popular app'auses
had been
King.
But, these
Insecti,
though they greatly swarm,
Can do the
King
not so much good, as harm:
Nor can those who through want of wit & courage
Will sell their
birth-rights
for a mess of Porredge,
To this establishment contribute ought,
Till they be better disciplined and taught:
It is not they in
Linen Ephods,
neither
Those
Chimerims
who now conspire together;
Nor those vain and fantastical baboons
Who jet in Feathers and in
Pantaloons,
Who fix a
King;
but, those grave men among
Our
Nobles.
And the civil
uulgar throng,
Who love the
Public peace,
and do profess
A Loyalty in truth and soberness,
Without regard of any
Interest,
Save that, which may with other men's consist.
The rest (if well considered) are a number
Of
animals,
which more confound and cumber,
Then settle
Governments;
and are to
Kings
But troublesome unprofitable things.
I have observed them well: and long ago
(Perceiving what they likely were to do,
Who know the way, as often as they please
To bring to pass, their own
Designes
by these)
Upon
Occasions
given, was so bold,
That what I pre-conjectur'd, I fore-told;
And how these
acting
singly, or together.
To
public Damage,
made use of each other.
This oft I did before the
Parliament
Became their
self-destroying instrument)
In plain terms, or
Aenigma
's; as the time
Would bear it; and as well in
Prose
as
Rimes:
I did the like to
him,
and to his
son,
Whom GOD permitted to usurp the
Throne,
(As two
addresses,
which I did prefer
To their own hands, yet extant may declare)
And whereby, such advantages I got
As usually they get who flatter not.
During the
last power
(in an oblique way)
As touching
him,
who reigneth at this day,
I hinted that, which now is come to pass
In such wise, as I might in such a case
At such a time as that; with what
Events,
To his
beginnings
would be
consequents,
If on the
Giddy Vulgar
he depended,
In prosecuting what should be intended:
Or, if he sought a
Kingship
to erect
Like what
mere earthly Princes
do effect:
Wherein, although I had no worse
Design
Then with the
public weal
to wrap up
mine,
I am, for my plain dealing, as a Foe
Both scandalized and oppressed so.
That all the Mercy some vouchsafe me would,
Is
Life
deprived of all things that should
In me and my
relations
Life uphold.
Which is a cruelty, and such away,
Of killing men a hundred times aday,
That GOD with due avengement will repay:
For, though men are not so, yet he is just;
The
measure,
which they gave, receive they must.
Yea, measure
running over,
and
pressed down,
Unless God show more grace then they have shown.
I have not much deceived been, in ought
Which with Pre-meditation I fore-thought,
And heretofore divulged relating to
These
Nations,
in the things they ought to do;
Or, unto that, which would require their heed,
How therein they go backward, or
proceed.
I, lately pre conjectur'd and fore-told,
That
London
was a
Mount
whence issue should
A
wind,
which hither likely was to blow
A
change,
that of our greatest
weal
or
woo,
(As likewise of her own) would be the cause:
And, by her aid, that change is come to pass.
Let her so mind it now, that GOD may bless
Her
future actings
with a good success;
For, that to them this
Caveat
give I may,
Thus purposely I stepped out of the way.
My
Muse
once more shall here likewise recall
What I presag'd would to myself befall;
Yea, though I touched upon it heretofore,
I will illustrate it a little more.
Me therefore, to insist thereon permit,
For as it me concerns to mention it,
It may concern you to, and doth declare
That poor men's wrongs by GOD observed are.
Upon my heart I strong impressions had,
That I, should of their fall a
sign
be made;
Who for my faithful service me oppressed;
And, they, who last the
supreme power
possessed,
This day, both see, and feelingly perceive,
That's come to pass which they would not believe
To them I told, both jointly and apart,
(But seemed to speak to men without a heart)
That, they in reason had good cause to fear,
If they should offer still, a Deaf man's Ear
To my
complaints,
a very sad reward,
Would be the
sequel
of their Dis-regard.
Yet, though with humbleness I them implor'd
By every means, which those times, did afford,
(Save bribes and flatt'ry they would seldom hear
Ought which concerned me, except it were
An
accusation;
or to grant an
Order,
Which more my Ruin, then Relief did further;
Or, do me Justice during my oppressions,
Nigh eighteen years complained of by Petitions,
And, by
addresses,
tenter'd unto them
(Not seldom, by some hundred at a time)
Nor to me their
Engagements
made they good;
Nor those
discharged
by which engaged I stood
For them; nor for their Debts detained from me
Three times six years,
although made due they be
By
Ordinance
and
Orders:
nor would they
Vouchsafe as much as interest to pay,
By them allowed; (though I much did need it,
Both to relieve me, and preserve my Credit.)
Nor could I that enjoy, which I had bought,
And they had sold, (as I in Justice ought;
Till my Estate and Credit was o'rethrown
By them, through their neglecting of their
own;
Though they were not alone obliged unto it,
But likewise had both
power
and
means
to do it.
A
single foe,
could do me in one hour
More injury, then all my Friends had power
To right whilst they reigned, though I seemed befriended
Of many, who to
Righteousness
pretended.
Though early at their doors, and also late,
As at
Bethesda-pool
the Cripple sat)
I waited on them, I went every day
Both without
Help,
and with small
Help,
away;
No more prevailing, then if still I had
To
blocks
or
statutes,
my Petitions made.
These
Grievances,
increasing every year,
Rais'd at the length, my
Damages
well near
To twice five thousand pounds; and so increased,
My
debts,
by
troubles, suits,
and
interest,
That
wants,
thereby, still multiplying more,
I was, at last, made somewhat worse then poor:
From
seven hundred pounds per annum,
brought
To be some
hundred pounds
less worth then naught,
So loosing my
repute,
with my
estate.
(Which many new perplexities begat)
To every wrong, I liable was made,
When no means left for my defense I had.
And, most men then perceiving that the Doom
Which I fore-saw would come, was then nigh come,
And likely to destroy them in whose hands
Lay all my whole Estate in
Debts
and
Lands,
And, that the Title which thereinII had,
Would, as they
stood
or
fell,
prove
good
or
bad;
My
Creditors
grew thereby so afraid,
What I then ow'd them, never would be paid,
That, more to pay one debt, then would pay two,
Was thereby (maugre all that I could do)
Streight torn away: and I, could neither set,
Nor sell, nor borrow, neither payment get
Of what was due, to buy things necessary,
Or save my credit till it did miscarry,
By forfeitures and burdens, cast upon me,
So mercilessly, that it hath undone me,
As to the world; unless GOD shall prevent
That, which now threats a further
Detriment;
For, when the CURS which did before but bawl,
(As when you see a
hunted Stag
doth fall
By alber Dogs) immediately fell in,
And from the
flesh
began to tear the
skin.
To make complaints, I saw it was in vain;
For, none I know to whom I might complain,
With hope of help; and certainly perceived,
That, though by them, I seemed to be bereaved
Of my Estate, yet GOD's hand was therein,
And, that the
Judgment
which doth now begin
At his
own House,
did mark me out for one,
Upon whom
Execution
must be done:
Therefore, forthwith, examining my heart,
And, finding that far less then my desert
Was brought upon me; to his
Chastisement
I humbly do submit, and will present,
Ere I proceed, this my
Confession,
With
Praises
intermixed, and
Contrition.
A HYMNE Of CONFESSION and PRAISE.
1.
LORD, Thou from dust didst raise me,
When I no being had,
And I in flesh to praise thee,
A
living Soul
was made:
That, therefore, I may praise thee,
as I am bound to do,
Still henceforth let me praise thee,
In
Soul
and
Body
too.
2.
To have thy
Will
fulfilled,
To thee, I oft have prayed;
Which, that I truly willed,
Now, comes it to be tried;
And, that, my
Soul
obeys thee,
as thou thy
Will
makest known,
I am resolved to praise thee,
by laying down
mine own.
3.
Thy
Servants
are confunded,
this day with shame of face,
And with their
Plagues
surrounded
for their neglects of
Grace;
On us therefore to praise thee
a
Judgment
is begun,
In which, my heart, to praise thee
still cries,
thy Will be done.
4.
And, since by my
Transgressions,
the
breach
was wider made,
I will by my
Confessions
unto thy Glory add;
Oh! make thou them to praise thee
so hearty and sincere;
That, other men to praise thee
their
failings
may declare.
5.
Me, thou hast not corrected
with worse or sharper things.
This are sometimes inflicted
upon the greatest
Kings:
By
Charity
to praise thee,
their wants thou then supplid'st;
And, now to make me praise thee,
that way for me provid'st.
6.
Nought heretofore I wanted
wherewith to give thee praise;
But, what to me was granted,
I wasted other ways:
And, since I did not praise thee
when I enjoyed most,
I now am come to praise thee
when all I had is lost.
7.
Oft, when my
Conscience
chid me,
I, in my
sins
went on;
She therefore lately led me
to what hath me undone;
Yet, that, at last will praise thee,
for which, I suffer must;
And I confess to praise thee,
that all thy
ways
are just.
8.
The
portion
by thee given,
I, on my
Lusts
have spent;
Sinn'd against
Thee
and
Heaven,
for which, I now repent:
And since I did not praise thee,
as I obliged have been,
I meekly now do praise thee
In
suff'rings for my sin.
9.
Of earthly
Joys
and
Pleasure
that most desired are,
To me in ample measure
thou didst vouchsafe a share;
But, I for them to praise thee
performed not my part;
And therefore, now I praise thee
with sad and contrite heart.
10.
An honest
Reputation
on me thou hast bestowed,
That, to this
Generation
thy praise I might make known.
But by what I should praise thee,
I sought a fruitless fame;
And therefore now
I
praise thee
for my
Reproach
and
shame.
11.
Of
Good Men,
much esteemed
I rend'red was by thee;
But, better oft I seemed
then I could truly be:
I therefore now do praise thee
that my
Defects
were hid,
And, that, some now dispraise me
for what I never did.
12.
To thee I am a Debtor
for what I most esteem;
(No
earthly blessing
better
deserving
Thanks
doth seem)
And for the, same still praise thee,
though lately for my sin,
That, for which now I praise thee,
a
bitter-sweet
hath been.
13.
But
sharp
and
sweets
together
(through all my life-time past)
And,
single shares
of either
so timely, deign'd thou hast:
That, I not only praise thee
for what most sweet appeared;
But, also, truly praise thee
for what I
shunned
and
feared
14.
Thou didst with
Robes
adorn me,
which men of
Honor
wear,
That
Fools
the less might scorn me
when I thy praise declare:
But, what thou gavest to praise thee,
I did to
folly
turn:
And therefore, now I praise thee
in
Garments
thread-bare-worn.
15.
To, thousands, much delightful,
my
Youthful days
were made;
My
Heart
was blith, and sprightful
thy praise the more was spread
But, I with them to praise thee
did not what should be done;
For which, I am left to praise thee
all day and night, alone.
16.
My
private Faith
infringed
to others and to thee,
Thou lately hast avenged
by
public breach
to me:
And therefore now I praise thee
for that just
doom
of thine;
Oh! make them also praise thee
whose
sins
have punished mine.
17.
Inspight of their
Oppressions
who my
Destruction
sought,
Thou gavest me large
possessions,
which now are come to naught:
And since I did not praise thee
when I enjoyed more,
I justly now do praise thee
in
Wants, Distress,
and
Poor.
18.
I, heretofore, had
fullness
of every
pleasant meat,
Which brought on me a dullness,
that made me thee forget:
And therefore now to praise thee,
Affliction, bread
prepares;
And thou dost make me praise thee,
in drinking
of my tears:
19.
Like
Baruch,
out of season
things for myself I sought;
Missed by
Carnal Reason,
lent, borrowed, built, and bought
But, left the way to praise thee
that's taught me in thy
Schools,
And therefore now to praise thee
I, numbered am with
Fools.
20.
Yet, as to sink me lower,
Scorns, wrongs,
and
Wants
increase;
So, daily
Faith
gets power,
Hope
thrives, and
Fears
grow less;
To move me to dispraise thee,
the more my
Temper
tries,
My Spirit,
still, to praise thee,
a pitch the higher flies.
21.
Though I myself have
nothing,
in thy hands all things be:
And
harbor, food
and
clothing
thou wilt provide for me:
For thou hast means to praise thee
stir'd up in every Town,
Whereby each man may praise thee
who hath not of his own.
22.
And for
Reptue
or
Treasures
I will not thee implore;
For friends, lands, goods, and pleasures
enjoyed heretofore,
I, rather, ask to praise thee,
what most extolls thy
Name,
Although it be to praise thee.
in
Sorrow, Death,
and
Shame.
23.
Whilst here my sins benight me,
still cause thy face to shine:
For what will more delight me,
then
Corn,
and
Oil,
and
Wine.
And though oppression weighs me
quite down unto the ground,
I, with more joy shall praise thee,
then when wealth did abound.
And whatsoe'r betide me
I will not change my
Case,
With any who derides me,
nor shall distrust thy
Grace,
My soul desires to praise thee,
and loves thy praise so well,
That, might I there best praise thee
thee, praise
I
would in
HELL.
25.
For,
Thee to love
thou mov'st me,
which shows thou lovest
Me,
And doubtless whilst thou lovest me,
even
Hell
a
Heaven
would be:
Since,
Love enough to praise Thee,
he, that could thither bear,
Should make the
Devils
praise thee,
And,
quench the Fires there.
26.
For
LOVE
all things created,
subdued
Hell
and
Death;
Thy Law it hath completed,
outlasteth
Hope
and
Faith.
Thou, when that
love
doth praise thee,
givest best respects thereto;
And, till in love we praise thee.
in vain is all we do.
27.
Were
I
therefore bereaven
of all that's called mine,
Of
Body, Soul,
and
Heaven,
my
love
should live in thine:
And, as
I
then did praise thee,
when
I
no
being
had;
So I again shall praise thee,
When I am quite unmade.
28.
But, never comprehended
Can be thy
Love to me;
And therefore never ended
My
Songs of praise
must be:
A
Hymn
wherein to praise thee
I have on earth begun;
And better hope to praise thee
When this
short life
is done.
29.
Then, when asleep
Death
lays me,
LORD,
let me from the
Grave
(Where
Dead-men
cannot praise thee
A
Joyful Rising
have:
Let those likewise who praise thee
With me, whilst I am here,
Where
Saints
and
Angels
praise thee,
(To
praise thee)
meet me there.
Two other Meditations here I will add,
Which though such
Musings
mean esteem have had
In latter times, may now as useful be
To some, in my case, as they are to me.
1.
BUt are in my Riches gone?
and all those fled away
Whose love depended thereupon?
forever,
Farewell
they.
Since these have gotten wings,
I will not them pursue;
But set my heart on better things,
and bid them quite adieu.
'It is GOD that
gives
and
takes,
whose love remains the same;
And whether rich or poor he makes,
still blessed be his Name.
With
sufferings
to comply,
loath was I to begin,
But better thoughts of them have I,
since they have proved been.
3.
For, what I
dreadful thought
when first the same appeared,
Hath
joys
to me by
sorrows
brought;
and hopes by what I feared.
To be despised and poor
if in my GOD I trust,
Will me at last advantage more
then if I nothing lost.
4.
Long time I have professed
in
words
a
Christian Creed,
And now am-with occasions blest
to show it forth by
Deed.
We,
holy men
would seem,
and up for Saints are cride,
But now comes that
Probation time
In which we must be tried.
5.
Whilst
Riches
I enjoyd,
They made me but a drudge,
To be on their affairs imployd,
and on their Errands trudge.
Me poor my
plenties
kept;
made me engage my
Friends;
And often wake whilst others slept,
to wait upon their ends.
6.
They filled me with
Desires,
whose
Lusting
endless was,
And only brought forth
thorns
and
briers
to choke the seeds of
Grace.
They made me fearful too
Of
Tyrants
and of
Knaves,
Yea (which is ten times worse then so)
Made me a
slave
to
slays.
7.
My
heart
then be content,
let
wealth
and
honor
go,
For, better things to thee are meant
then these can raise thee to.
Let those who on them dote,
by our deportment see,
That in those God's we trusted not
which their chief Idols be.
8.
Though my despightful Foes
Now my Estaie is gone,
(I having nothing else to lose)
my body seize upon,
Therefore take thou no care,
for
GOD
thy help will be,
And put on them a greater fear
then they can put on thee.
9.
And to increase that load
which I at present bear,
Though they say
Where now is thy God,
of whom thy boastings were?
He will of me, of me be found,
and also make it known,
(When open shame shall them confound)
that he my
Cause
doth own.
10.
Thy
Cross
with patience take,
do not there at repine,
But bear it stoutly for his sake
who bore his
Cross
for thine.
Still meekly in thy way
therewith proceed thou so,
That others it encourage may
to what they see thee do.
11.
The
Lot
of
Saints
hath been
Afflictions, Wants,
and
Scorns;
And he that is the best of Men
was mocked and crowned with
Thorns.
No
House
to him they gave
wherein to rest his head;
Him also in a
borrowed Grave,
they laid when he was dead.
12.
Yea, he that's
LORD
of all
when first with
flesh
arrayd,
Was meanly housed in a
Stall,
and in
Manager
laid.
A
Guest
so poor he was,
that whilst he lodged there,
The laboring
Ox,
and toiling
Ass
his
Chamber-fellows
were.
13.
Yet
Wisemen
from the East,
were guided by a
Star,
To bring to this
despised Guest
Gold, Frankincence and Myrrh,
They fooled for his sake
a
Tyrannizing King;
GOD'S Angels,
care of him did take,
and round about him sing,
14.
To him, allide am I,
and he will send to me,
Howere obscurd, the like supply,
as oft as need shall be.
For timely he relieves
all those that trust in him,
And charge unto his Angels gives,
to be a guard to them.
15.
In
Stables, Barns
and
Stalls,
the poor as much he heeds,
As those that are in
Princes halls,
to help them at their needs.
Yea, unto them he comes,
and will their
sufferings
mark,
Although they lie in nasty Rooms,
or
Dungeons
deep and dark.
16.
A
portion
more secure
then
Goods
or
Lands
is he,
An
Heritage
that will endure
when
Kingdoms
lost shall be.
And when exposd to shame
their
Bodies
we behold,
It shall more magnify their name,
then
Statues
made of gold.
17.
But this to them will seem
who dote on outward things,
No better then an idle Dream
which no assurance brings.
If pompously they live,
and in
rich Tombs
may lie,
Themselves they happy men believe,
although like beasts they die.
18.
And I am half in fear
when this is sung among
Those who in love with riches are,
'twill seem a
Bedlam-Song:
For, seldom we perceive
that when his
Mammon's
gone,
A
Rich Man's
able to believe,
he is not quite undone.
19.
It makes them almost mad
to hear another preach,
That joys and comfort may be had
whereto they cannot reach.
LORD
help their unbelief,
and mitigate their fears;
For, though they pity not my grief,
yet, I do pity theirs.
20.
Preserve in me that
Grace
which now infused I find:
And let not
time, events
nor
place,
hereafter change my mind:
For in them
good
or
bad,
External things
have naught;
But, as
Good,
or
ill use
is made,
Or else, as
got
or
sought.
Another Meditation relating to the Authors present Condition.
1.
MY
Foes,
you have your hearts desire,
a spoil of me you make;
And (as I hear) you now inquire
what
Course
I mean to take.
I now am brought so low, you say,
so destitute and poor,
That well assure yourselves you may
I shall arise no more.
2.
You, naytheless may be deceived,
and of your aims have mist;
For, in those things which are bereaved,
my wealth doth not consist:
And I have that within my view
which if pursude it be,
May make me as much laugh at you,
as you now laugh at me.
3.
But, though it makes you to be glad
to see my griefs encreast,
I have for some of you been sad
when you were less oppressed.
And if you shall go forward still
in doing causeless wrong,
I, who now at your folly smile,
may weep for you ere long.
4.
The greatest harm I wish my Foes
when me most wronged have,
Is, that themselves they may not lose
by what they seek to have.
And when that they shall come to try
what they have brought me to,
That they nuoght else may loose thereby
but what would them undo.
5.
Man liveth not by
Bread
alone
and that (should it be told)
Which now my life depends upon
your eyes cannot behold.
You robbed me of
External Things,
but what the worse am I,
If I have in me
Living Springs
that never will be dry.
6.
From that, which you debar me from,
me, long you cannot keep;
My
Noon
is past, my
Night
is come,
and I shall shortly sleep.
At first, to
Wither
I was born
(though then a springing
Tree)
And now my
leavss away
are torn,
I can but
Wither'd be.
7.
The
Birds
do live, the
Lilies
grow,
and are well clothed and fed;
Yet cannot spin, nor plow, nor sow,
to get them
Clothes
and
Bread:
I, therefore am without despair,
that he who clothes the
Grass,
And feeds the small'st
Fowls of the Air,
will heed my present
Case.
8.
But if my
Lot
reserve she shall
until another
Life,
The worst that can to me befall,
will bring more
Joy
then
Grief:
As
Nightingales
in summer do,
i'll sing all
Night
and
Day;
And so shall in a month or two,
sing
Care
and
Life
away.
Refreshed by these pertinent
Digressions,
Which fertifie my
faith
against oppressions,
I will proceed to make an
application
Of what pertaineth to my last Narration.
The main
breach
made upon me (and which drew
Those mischiefs that did afterwards ensue)
To me did happen some few days before
That
Parliament
was last shut out of door,
By whom those
Grievances
on me were brought,
And, then that fell on them, which I fore thought
And did foretell; perhaps that others may
Be wary, how they needlessly delay
That
justice
which to poorest men belongs,
When much opressed by continued wrongs;
Which GOD will execute, at first or last,
Hereafter as he hath done in times past.
In this
Relation,
I, nor
Poetize;
(As some may fancy) nor
Hyperbolize:
But, here, in simple plainness have set down
The naked
truth,
that when it shall be known,
GOD may be better praised, and these
Nations
Thenceforth take heed of willful
provocations.
For, greater
mischief
then to most appears,
(And very many
complicated snares)
Intangle thousands, who destructively
Oppressed are this day, as much as I:
To whom the grace intended can derive
Nought else, but such a life as I would give
Ten times away, to free them from Oppression,
Who suffer with me, by my sad condition;
And, whose complainings, end soul-piercing words,
Lie pricking at my Heart, like Darts and Swords.
How GOD hath fore-determined to dispose
Of me, from this time forth, he only knows;
And, his
will
shall be mine: but, if this
change
Brings good to me, it will be very strange:
For, men
profane esteemed,
would then appear
More just, then they who
saints reputed
were;
My
foes
much kinder, then they who professed
To be my
friends,
and whom I served best.
As yet, he hath retained me in their power,
Who day and night, are hunting to devour;
And, letteth loose upon me such a Herd
Of
brutes,
as
David
heretofore compared
To Dogs, Bulls, Lions, Serpents, and to those
From out of whose mouths, Adders Poison flows;
Whose
throats
are like devouring
graves;
whose
tongues
Are Mints of slanders & oppressive wrongs;
In secret, on a sudden shooting words
More sharp then arrows, or two-edged swords;
And were these only Foes professed, their scorn
Or malice, might with much more ease be born:
But, some of them, are those who many days
Walk'd with me friend-like in the self same ways;
And,
Neighbors
and acquaintance do begin
To be to me, as his to him had been:
My love to them, with hatred they requite;
For kindnesses, returning me despite.
Of me, their scurrile Songs the
drunkards
make,
With whom the scoffers in their jeers partake.
They, who as yesterday, pretended had
Some kindness, are maliciously grown mad,
Combining and conspiring, how they may
My Life, Estate and Credit take away;
As if until I wholly were destroyed
Their expectations could not be enjoyed:
Although I know no good that can arise
To them, by what against me they devise:
Or why such wrongs by them to me are done,
Except it be, because I did them none:
Or, else, for that their ways I look into,
More, then they are well-pleased I should do.
For, be it known, they who are thus inrag'd
Are not of those who formerly engaged,
In that
cause
which I lately did oppose;
No, no, so justly, these are not my Foes:
But, men, (if they deserve that name) whose base
Dissembling Heart false Tongues, and steeled Face:
Inclines them to make show, as if they never
Did anything against the
King
endeavor:
Whereas, a
chief
of that
debauched crew,
With his drawn Sword the late
King
did pursue;
And boasted heretofore (with his own breath)
Of personal assistance at his death:
Another of them, that he might endear
Himself to those who last inthroned were,
Made
Headless
this Kings
picture;
vowing then,
So to have done to him, had he there been.
These are my persecutors; these are they
Who help spread snares and mischiefs in my way:
And, some of those who yet in power a bide,
(By playing fast and loose on either side)
Are their
abettors;
for no cause to me
Yet known; unless they know I see
Their Juglings: or perhaps, because they fear
I may hereafter make them to appear.
Whereas, I rather (for my Countries sake)
To GOD, for their Conversion, prayers make,
That, timely, they their malice may repent,
Their own, and our perditions to prevent;
And that by our maliciousness they bring
No Damage to these
Realms,
or to the
King,
To superfiede that Mercy, which I find
GOD, te confer on us, is now inclinde,
Because our
weal
and
woe
will be involved,
Within each others, as we are resolved,
And, as for time to come we shall persevere
In Union, or neglect a
good endeavor.
Though by our sins, and by the sins of those
Who were acknowledged (however chose)
For our
Trustees,
our late immunities
Are wholly forfeited, whilst GOD shall please;
There is an open Gate, through which I view
A better way, then we do yet pursue,
To re-obtain them, and to settle that
Desired Peace which we have aimed at.
There is a hope, this King will be so just
(When those in whom the common people trust
He thoroughly hath tried) to let us see,
That, he shall prove at last our best
Trustee,
Next under GOD, and for us do much more
Then all our Parliaments did heretofore,
Or will do now; for, they often do those
Resemble so, by whom they have been chose,
That, we in probability shall never
Accomplish that for which we do endeavor,
Till GOD shall other instruments provide
To do his work, and throw all these aside.
He, those that are in being, doth permit
To be therein with him, Co-workers yet:
And there's a course that may with
ease be taken
To build a
Throne,
which never shall be shaken;
For, if that be performed, whereupon
The
King
is re-admitted to the Throne;
And, if due glory to the
King
of Heaven
Shall for the mercy now vouchsafed be given,
His
chastisement
(nigh twice so many years)
Continuing as
Nebuchadnezzar's)
Will make way in this day of
probation,
To much more, then was by that Restoration
Vouchsaf'd to him; for, he establish may
A Throne to last until the
Judgment day;
Whereby, shall be continued (so far forth
As may concern
Christ's Kingdom
here on earth)
The
Majestracy
and the
Ministry,
(If we loose not this opportunity)
Reform'd and vindicated (in short time)
From those
contempts
which have been cast on them.
Yea, if this
King
neglect not now to do
That, whereto
providence
doth prompt him to,
And would
assist
him in; the more he found
At his
Return
confusions to abound,
The more he shall be magnifide thereby,
If, by his wisdom and his industry,
With GOD's assistance, he shall so restore
Those
Powers,
that they may interfere no more:
For, then they shall apart, and both together,
Be active and a strengthening to each other,
To those good ends for which they were ordained;
Which was, that wickedness should be restrained;
And that each other men might not oppress,
But, in uprightness and in holiness
Live lovingly, and serviceable here
To GOD, and each to other, without fear.
My
Genius
many times inclineth me
Of these things his
Remembrancer
to be:
But, I have neither place to undertake
That
Office,
nor a
fluent tongue
to speak;
And should I write, I have so often tried
That course and found my writings cast aside,
(Though want of will, or leisure to peruse them,
Or else refer'd to those who did abuse them)
That, seldom times, the good effects they wrought,
Which by them I have rationally sought;
And they have not alone been often scorned,
But also to my advantage turned.
Beside,
Kings
will not easily forgo
What they resolve to
act,
or
not to do:
So wedded are they to their Policies,
And so bedazled are their Carnal Eyes
With that bewitching splendor and false glory
Which
Satan
put on
kingdoms transitory,
That, as to
Jeroboam
it befell
Though I should with a
threefold miracle
My word confirm; a
sequel
might succeed
As ineffectual as at that time did.
But, to neglect ought, which I think (in reason)
Tends to secure the
King,
may be high treason:
On his behalf therefore, to GOD in prayer,
(To whom I can more easily repair)
I will address myself, without delay,
In words both
weighed
and
measured
for him pray,
And spread them on that Paper, to remain
For those that will to pray them over again;
Till that which I on his behalf have prayed,
Shall some way to his knowledge be conveyd.
GReat
King of Kings,
to whom are chiefly given
All
praises;
who, in
Hell,
in
Earth,
in
Heaven,
Hast
Sovereign Power:
who
Kingdoms
dost bestow,
Change
Governments,
set up and overthrow
As thou shalt please and always art both
just
And
merciful
in everything thou dost:
Since thou, by
Interchanges
of thy
Grace
And
Judgments,
hast a long time in this
place
Vouchsaf'd
Experiments
which do declare
What
Thou art,
and what, in
ourselves we are.
(Informed us of what is now at hand
By
signs
upon the
waters
and the
Land,
As also in the
air
by
peace
and
battle
By judgments upon
Men,
and upon
Cattle)
And pleased art (as we behold this day)
To bring our
King
into a likely way
Of
settlement
upon his
Fathers Throne:
Perfect, I pray thee, the work thou hast begun.
Let thy vouchsafing him a
Restoration,
Unclog'd with aa
Explicite obligation,
No disadvantage to thy people bring,
But rather add more honor to the
King,
By manifesting that his
actings
be
Products of
Virtue,
from compulsion free:
And lest they fall into that
great offense
Which may obdure into
Impenitence,
(As
Jeroboam
and his
people
did
When their
Idolatry
thou didst forbid)
Permit thou not his
Failings
or his
Sin,
To frustrate what thy
Mercy
doth begin.
Let all these
Nations
on their part endeavor
To make this
Reconcilement
firm forever,
By that
Obedience
join'd with true
Affection,
Which may deserve his
Fatherly Protection:
And let their welfare be to him as dear,
As if they
Children of his body
were:
For, no
Bond of Allegiance
firm abides,
If equally not fastened on both sides;
Nor can their
mutual Ties
long lasting be,
Unless their
Duties
they perform to thee,
Their
Sovereign Paramount
who, search dost make
What course thy
Vice-Roys,
and their
subjects
take:
And always dost a
wicked People
bring
To be enslaved by a
wicked King;
Not long preserving any
Kingdom
clear
From
Rebels,
where the
Princes
Tyrants are:
For, thou acceptest no
Person,
as to that
Which unto
Common Justice
doth relate;
Though slowly, many times, thy
Judgments
come,
That
Mercy
may have time to bring them home.
Since he who governs men ought to be just,
On his part let the King perform his
Trust
On him imposed, and sincerely do
All things that really conduce thereto;
Shunning such
Flatterers,
and such
Whisperings
As by degrees may tempt him to those things
Which will at last divide them from each other
Whom now thy
Providence
hath brought together,
Lest they by Fraudulent Equivocations
Annihilate each others Expectations.
With
Wisdom
and with
Grace,
his Heart enlarge,
The Duties of his
Calling
to discharge,
Without pretending more than he intends;
Which practice always in dishonor ends.
When once the promise of a
King
is broken,
Few afterward regard what shall be spoken
By him, what probable excuse soever
To vindicate himself he shall endeavor:
And though in his
Designs
a while he speeds
That's one in
Words,
another in his
Deeds;
Yet, he who by that practice gaineth most,
Gets nothing at the last whereof to boast.
Let him take counsel from thy
Written Word,
How he should wield the
Scepter
and the
Sword,
Lest they may prove worse
Tools,
than if he had
Been born to use the
Mattock
and the
Spade.
Incline him also to enure his Ear,
The Voice of
Truth
in her own terms to hear,
Lest of such things as to his Weal pertain,
He may sometimes in ignorance remain.
And since he is thy
Steward
both by
Name
And
Office,
let him execute the same,
As one who knows, that he for all things done
Must give
accompt,
and no man knows how soon.
For though, thou call'st
Kings
God's, yet die they must
Like other men, and mingle with their Dust.
Him, keep thou mindful, that thou didst not make
These
Nations
for his ends, or for his sake,
But him to be their
Servant;
and to own
No
Privileges
upon him bestowed
But for their
Welfare;
and that he should do
To all men as he would be done unto.
True-hearted men,
to serve him, let him take,
Or them by his example such to make,
Instruct him,
LORD,
for, one of these will be
More useful, than of others, two or three.
What he is in
Himself,
let it be known
By those, on whom his
Favors
are bestowed,
Though undeserved, he vouchsafe to some
His
Grace,
that they more gracious may become;
As thou dost oftentimes, when we transgress
Through
frailty,
and not with
maliciousness.
Make him consider well, things lately past,
With what at
present
thou vouchsafed hast,
And what may yet ensue: Make him to mind
(If thereof, him forgetful thou shalt find)
Through what
wants,
to
abundance
thou hast brought him;
What
Lessons,
by
Affliction
thou hast taught him;
What
Snares
and
Dangers,
thou hast freed him from,
To what
security
he now is come,
Without
premised Conditions,
or engaging
Himself with others; or, by what the waging
Of
War
might have required, or by complying
With those, who for
self-ends,
at watch were lying:
What Hopes, and Fears, and Doubts, he had that night
In which he made escape from
Woster-Fight;
As also, when he
Sanctuary
took
Within the Body of a
Hollow Oak;
What secret Vows and Promises were made
By him to thee, when he Direction had
Unto that
LANE,
whereby he found a pass
Out of those hazards wherein then he was:
Make him therewith consider, to what
end
That great
Deliverance
thou didst intend,
And what thou mayst expect this day from him
For all by thee vouchsafed since that time.
Moreover, make him take especial heed,
Why thou with him and others didst proceed
As we have lately seen: wherefore, all those
And their
Adheres,
who, most did him oppose,
Thou givest into his hands: why, from the
Throne
Thou flung'st him; why, again setst him thereon;
Lest else,
False Prophets,
or
Court-Parasites,
Detractors,
bold
Impostors, Hypocrites,
Or such like, may divert him by Delusions
To that which is pursude with sad conclusions,
And not so much to his
Well-being
tends,
As to accomplish their own wicked ends:
Or, lest an
Over-weening
may persuade him,
That his own
Wisdom
prevalent hath made him;
And that thou hast vouchsafed a good success
To his Desires, for his own
Righteousness.
Let him some way, provide a Reparation
Of
Public Faith,
by whose late violation
These
Nations
are defam'd; and (which is worse)
Made liable unto a
dreadful Curse
Which may extend to him. Unsafe is he
With People that
anathemized be.
His
Person,
though their
suff'rings
reach not to,
To those, who now to him relate, they do;
And, those Oppressions which are lately cast
On thousands, will extend to him at last,
If he endeavor not what in him lies
To cure their
Grievances,
and stint their
Cries:
For well enough it doth appear to thee,
That, neither all
Men,
nor their
Causes
be
Such as to him they represented are;
Or, as unto the
World
they yet appear.
As
mercy,
therefore thou hast shown to him
So let him also
mercy
show to them
Who now are in his power: for, although thee
They have offended, they, thy
people
be;
And I desire it should by him be heeded,
That whosoe'er against such have proceeded
Beyond thy
Limits
(to pursue their own
Revenge
or
Ends)
do so incur thy frown,
That on themselves it brings at latter end
Those
mischiefs
which to others they intend.
Let him take also conscientious heed,
He makes that
pardon
which is promised,
(So far as thou allow'st) so full and free,
As he expects,
thine
unto him should be;
Else, Recknings, 'twixt you two will not be even,
For, as he
pardons,
he shall be
forgiven.
Discerning give him, betwixt
Rights
and
Wrongs,
To whom a
Frown,
to whom a
Smile
belongs;
Betwixt usurped
Prerogatives,
and those
Through whose Defects,
Power-needful
he may lose;
'Twixt
Formal
and
Essential Pieties,
True
Doctrines,
and deluding
Sophistries;
Betwixt
Nathaniel,
and an
Ananias,
Men biased, and men without a Byas;
Betwixt thy
Prophets,
and the Priests of
Baal,
By whatsoever,
Names
themselves they call:
Lest peradventure, some of those he takes
Into his bosom, may at last prove Snakes.
Give him an understanding heart, to judge
Betwixt true and pretended
Sacrilege;
Lest such as heretofore befooled
Kings,
By placing
Holiness
in
Common Things,
Turn thy true
Worship
into
Superstitions,
To multiply their temporal Fruitions;
Abuse his
Piety
as much (or more)
As they abused
Princes
heretofore;
Besainting
them for their misplaced Zeal,
When 'tis but such as was in
Jezebel,
Who fed four hundred
Prophets
every day
From her own
Table;
such, perhaps as they
Who in these days do arrogate to be
Thy
Prophets,
or
Apostles
sent from thee:
or, what are they ought better, who now dare
To count those
Holy Things
which offered were
To
Devils;
and, would that, as
sacred
hold
For which the
souls of men
were bought and sold?
Such
Merchants
may among us now be found,
And therefore (lest ere long they more abound)
Enable and incline the
King
to try
All
spirits;
that, with none he may comply,
Who may by his indulgence undermine
His
Throne,
and set the
MAN
of
SIN
on thine.
Thy
Pastors
teach him to distinguish from
Those
Thieves,
who in at
window
use to come:
And make him cherish those that are sincere
In thy
Profession,
by what name soe'er
They shall be called; since, things may be the same
Essentially, which differ in the
Name.
LORD!
'tis thy
Cause,
for which I have begun
This
Pleading;
I will therefore plead it on.
Let him of
Demas
and
Diotrephes
Take special heed: for, perilous are these;
And so are also they who do suppose
Religion
doth consist in
mimick shows,
Or, in those
Gaudy Furnitures,
with which
The
Scarlet-Strumpet,
Nations did bewitch:
Or in observing things indifferent,
As if
Essentially pertinent;
Or in opposing or neglecting them
Contentiously; or, with the mind of them
Who said,
What needs this waste?
for, nor their
use
Nor their
dis-use,
but only their
abuse,
Gives just offense: yea, 'tis not our
abating,
Or
adding;
but, 'tis our necessitating
Indifferent Things,
which renders them to be
Offensive to thy
Saints,
or unto thee.
Let him take heed of those, who with pretence
To
Piety,
affect
Pre-eminence:
For, those began the Quarrel whence did spring
The
Breach
betwixt this
People
and the
King.
And these, Oh GOD! if thou prevent it not,
Will re-beget what they at first begot.
The
King
was young when he departed hence,
And could not know them then; they, ever since
Were in a posture, which suppressed their pride,
And made them lay their haughtiness aside:
But when their late plucked wings are over-grown
With Feathers, they will perfectly be known.
Vouch safe him such a sanctifide discerning,
That neither their
Formalities
nor
Learning,
Their
Fawnings,
their
Dissembled Sanctity,
Or their pretendings to
Antiquity,
Deceive him; for, by such like specious sleights
The
Great Deceiver
brought in his
Deceits.
We
Old Impostors
have, as well as
New,
And
Truth
is made a baud to things untrue
When men rely on men; and, by
Records
Of their own forging, dare arraign thy
words
Before their
Bar;
whereas, they should be tried
(When they are questioned by none else beside
Thy
Spirit
and their
Peers:
which Privilege
(If they might have before an upright Judge)
Would end a thousand Quarrels, which will never
Till then have end; but multiply forever.
I know no prudent Christian, who dislikes
The
Name
or
Officer,
termed by the
Greeks
Episcopos
(and we in English call
An
Overseer)
if Episcopal
He truly be, and seeks not to obtrude
On other men a carnal servitude.
All
Presbyters
(as by thy
Word
appears)
Are
Bishops,
and all
Bishops
Presbyters;
And thou confer'dst precedency on none,
Except it be for
Orders
sake alone,
To prosecute such things as have relations
To thy
Affairs,
in several
Congregations,
As when that we, confusions to prevent,
A
Prolocutor,
or a
President
In
Synods,
and in
Counsels
constitute,
To whom a double honor we impute.
For such like ends (if used soberly)
To some, belongeth a
Precedency;
Yea, thy
Church,
being of a large extent,
Must have both
Overseers eminent,
And
super-eminent,
that so she may
With speed and ease, in a well ordered way,
(As need requires) those things communicate,
Which either
Universally
relate,
Or to
Particulars.
And, to pursue
This
Order,
there is doubtless also due
To such, proportionably, both
respect
And
maintenance,
to give it an effect,
With which all persons duly qualifide
For that
high Calling,
will content abide;
Although it otherwhile amounts to less
Than when
Corruption
sprung from an
Excess;
And thy
Apostle
hath declared from thee,
That thus a
Bishop
qualified should be.
A man that lives an unreproved Life,
The Conjugal Companion of one Wife,
One watchful, temperate, and hospitable,
One well composed, and for instruction able;
A man, that from excess in Wine refrains,
That seeks not to be rich by sordid gains:
That neither is malicious, nor a striker,
Nor of ought avariciously a seeker,
But just, no Novice; one that without blame
Guides his own house, and hath an honest fame.
And thou hast showed us, how he should be
chose
When
Judas
his
Apostleship
did lose.
If, I mistake thy
Paterns,
make them,
LORD,
Such as may therewith every way accord;
And so the Kings Heart toward them dispose,
That as
Matthias
was, they may be chose:
For, whilst for their
admittance
they depend
Upon men's pleasures, they will more intend
Their services
than
thine:
but, when they be
Elected by their
Peers,
and then by
Thee,
As heretofore; they shall defy the
BEAST,
And overthrow the
Throne
of
Antichrist.
Let him no
Power
usurp, whereby these may
Election have, by any other way
Than is agreeable to his intent,
By whom his
Messengers
at first were sent:
For, by that means, into thy
Church
were brought
Such
Overseers,
as much more have sought
To serve
themselves
than
thee;
much scandalized
Thy
Congregations,
and made Truth despised.
Such, as unlike to those
Apostles
be
Which were ordained by they
Christ
and
Thee.
Their
Pomp
and
Habit, Avarice
and
Pride,
Their
Language,
and some other marks beside,
Are
Symptoms
which do make it very plain,
To
whom,
and to what
Kingdom
they pertain;
And that they seek not thine; unless,
Oh GOD,
Thy
Holy word
I have mis-understood.
I did believe the
Kingdom
of thy
Son,
Which was at first in
poverty
begun
By him, who had all
Riches
at command,
With all things in areadiness at hand
That might at once have made
his Kingdom
here
More glorious than the
Popedom
doth appear,
Would not have left it struggling for that glory
Which is completed by things transitory,
Nigh sev'nteen hundred years had they been so
Essential, as some think they are thereto.
In my simplicity, I rather thought
That he who to advance his Kingdom sought
By
Piety
and
Meekness,
did intend
That way
to glorify it to the end
Of
Carnal vanities,
and should have had
Such
Officers
and
Overseers
made
As
rather therewith suited, than with those
Whose Kingdoms
Satan
hath at his dispose:
And that they should have had throughout all ages
The self-same
Badges, Liveries
and
Wages
As at the first, not such as some do now
Usurp and challenge as a sacred due,
Making them seem
Ambassadors
to be
Sent from the great
Turk,
rather than from thee.
Thus I believed,
LORD,
this, believe I still
To be according to thy sacred Will:
And thou dost know, that what I now express,
Flows from no
self-ends,
or maliciousness.
Without
Compliances
with such as these,
The
King
may reign with
honor,
if he please:
And with more safety, than if they acquired
That whereunto they lately had aspir'd.
But, I confess, a power he cannot have,
Both Soul and Body so much to enslave,
As by their help, who in these latter
Ages,
Have got
two Masters,
and
two sorts of Wages;
And, by whose aid, the
Throne
of
Antichrist
Doth not a little, at this day, subsist.
LORD,
therefore, to maintain the
Pageantry
And Lusts of an exploded
Prelacy,
Let not the KING expose to desolation
So many thousand persons in this
Nation,
As now are like to suffer, by a Rabble
Both unto
Thee
and
Him
unserviceable.
They, who are useful
Officers
of thine,
According to that
Antient Discipline,
Which from thy
Holy Word
we do derive,
And from the practice of
Times Primitive,
May be provided for, without that cost
Which hath for many years on them been lost;
Without incurring needless violations
Of
Contracts,
or th'
Engagements
of these Nations;
Without exposing many
Families
To suddenly-destructive Miseries;
And without hazarding of those Events
Which to such harshness may be
Consequents.
The
Temp'ralties
and
Lordships
they possessed,
Belong'd not to the
Calling
they professed.
When first they were confer'd, they brought perdition
To
Piety,
increase to
Superstition,
And Mischief to the Saints; for which they are
Ejected from them by that
Civil War
Which they occasioned; and though re-possession
They may have for a while, by thy permission,
I have a thought, that at their
Restoration
(As at new laying
Jericho's
foundation)
Some signal thing will then be done that shall
Declare, thou art not pleased therewithal;
Which, from thy purpose if it disagree
Pardon this babbling of my thought to thee.
That thus, Oh LORD! my heart is now inclined
Concerning these, to speak to thee my mind,
'It is not because thou needest it should be told,
But, that hereby, some other better should
Consider what by their means may befall,
Both in things ghostly, and things corporal.
Thou knowest that it is not my estate,
Which is by these in hazard now of late
To be bereft: for whether unto these,
Or unto me, to give it thou shalt please,
I am content; since all the world is thine,
And so much as is needful, shall be mine.
Thou likewise knowest, that of none of these,
I judge the
Persons,
or the
Consciences;
But, that I am in charity with all,
And, leave them by thy
Doom
to stand or fall.
The
various Forms
of worshipping of thee;
Within thy
Church
are no offense to me;
Because there may be possibly Salvation
Through
Christ,
in every
Christian Dispensation,
To those, who with a conscientiousness,
Believe and practice what they do profess.
The
Prelates,
not thy
Bishops,
I oppose;
Nor
Prelates,
if they naught on me impose,
For, when they less esteem
Things Transitory,
They may be instrumental to thy Glory;
And, to thy
Congregations
will dispense
Thy Sacred Mysteries,
without offense:
When we a little more are rubbed together,
To scour away the
Rust
from one another.
Although the Name of
Bishop
doth offend,
Thy
Son
his
Congregations
did commend
To
Overseers,
as well as to
Preachers;
(To
Deacons,
and to ordinary
Teachers)
And doubtless, though
Ambition
strained further
That
Discipline,
a
Primacie of Order
Is now so needful, that when thou hast broke
The
Bile
of
Pride,
and quite away hast took
From that
Imposthumation
all the
Core,
Thy Church will governed be as heretofore.
The
Prelates
being grossly led aside
By their
O'er-weening, Avarice
and
Pride,
Would have thy Church,
LAODICEA-like,
Her Glory,
in External Pomp,
to seek;
Their
Faction
only they conceive to be
That
Holy Church,
which is approved by thee:
Like her, she boasteth that she
nothing needs,
That all
Reformed Churches
she exceeds,
And, much triumphs now, in the restitution
Of her adored
Rags of Superstition:
But if their
Prelacy
aside they lay,
Therewith, will all their
Trinkets
fall away:
The
Treble, Mean,
the
Tenor
and the
Base,
And
Counter-tenor,
to a
Diapase.
Thou then shalt bring, and to this people give
The
Grace,
as well to
love
and to
believe,
As
hear
and
do;
and every differing String
Shall to the
Music
such a Concord bring,
That, what at
present
doth obstruct our Peace,
Shall to thy
Praise
hereafter add increase.
This I believe, LORD, let us wait upon
Thy will with patience, till this shall be done.
Mean-while,
preserve the
People
and the
King,
From those ensnarings, which these, else, may bring
Upon the
Conscience;
or, lest we by them
May be withdrawn from thy
Jerusalem,
To
Babylon;
Let such before our eyes
Unmasked stand, by whatsoe'r disguise
They are concealed: For, much I am afraid,
A
Game
is dealing now, which may be played
To thy dishonor, and
Wolves
forth be sent
Among thy
Lambs
to frust rate his intent,
Who sent
Lambs
among
Wolves:
for as of old
We were fore-warned, that some
Deceivers
would
Say,
Here is CHRIST,
and
there is CHRIST,
that they
Might set a false
Christ
up: So, at this day,
That undiscerned the
Antichrist
may be,
Some, tell us
This,
some, tells us,
That is He:
But, by such
signal marks
him thou hast shown,
That he to many thousands is well known.
Reveal him also to this
King,
and show,
How they to whom there's
Double Honor
due,
May with all Necessaries be supplide,
More to th' advance of
Piety
than
Pride:
That other
Nations,
by that
good Example,
May join in building thy
Essential Temple
With such
Materials
as may not confound
The
Parts
thereof, or make the
Whole
unsound.
And cause this King a
Pattern
to become
Of
Justice
to all Kings in
Christendom.
To that end I implore thy Majesty
(For thine own Honors sake which else thereby
May be eclips' d) that he usurp not on
The
Consciences of Men,
which is thy
Throne;
Nor suffer any other in thy Name,
And with false
Warrants to usurp the
same.
For, by that
Rule
whereby intrude they shall
On one
indifferent thing,
they may bar all;
And ere they leave encroaching thereupon,
Of
Christian
Liberties, not leave us one.
Inslaving of the
Conscience,
to all evil
Sets open Gates: and only for the
Devil
Or
Antichrist,
it maketh Proselytes,
And, doth but fill the world with Hypocrites.
Therefore, to all, who Faith in thee profess,
Who keep thy
Moral Law,
and
common Peace
Endeavor to preserve by word and deed,
Let such a
Freedom
be by him decreed;
That
Truth
and
Error,
whilst within those
Lists
They keep themselves, may for their
Interests,
Contend at will; and let those punished be,
Who break those
Lists,
as
Traitors
unto thee.
For, whereso'er this prudently is done,
The fall of
Babylon
is there begun;
And
Christ
will give true Judgment betwixt them
Who yet contend, in his appointed time.
For this
King's
likewise, and this
People's
sake,
Both
Him
and
Them,
henceforth, so wary make,
That neither
Vow,
nor
Covenant,
nor
Oath,
They violate: for, thou so much doest loath
Unfaithfulness,
that when thy People made
A Cov'nant,
which thy prohibition had,
(Yea, notwithstanding all Conditions were
Obtain'd by fraud) a punishment severe
Thou for the willful breach thereof, didst bring,
Both on thy
chosen People,
and their
King.
A
Vow likewise, by
Jonathan
infring'd
(Unwittingly) severely was avenged:
And breach of
Oaths
in every Generation,
Hath been pursued by thee, with Indignation,
Though made to
Infidels,
and unto those
Who were as well thine, as thy people's Foes.
Yea, though men are in durance when they make them,
Thou wilt severely punish those who break them;
As by that dreadful
Vengeance
which appeared,
(To make all future perjured Kings afear'd)
Thou broughtest on
Zedekiah;
and, of late,
Upon some
Christians,
who did violate
A
Contract
with the
Turk.
Yea, said it was
(As if thereof they were a special cause)
For Oaths, the Land doth mourn:
and much I fear
That of our
Mournings,
they, chief causes are.
LORD,
Cautious also make this King to be
Of wronging Justice, and displeasing thee,
By his imposing
Oaths,
which may give cause
Of Clashings, 'twixt
Divine
and
Human Laws;
Or, which ensnare, and rarely do produce
Effects equivalent to their abuse:
For, to impose such
Oaths
as may ensnare,
Which, dubious in their acceptations are;
Which,
Ignorant Deponents
may engage
In,
or
to
that whereof they cannot judge,
Or which their
Conscience
checks at, is an end
To which thou never didst an
Oath
intend,
And is a wicked and a cursed
Gin,
By
Tyrants
and by
tyranny
brought in.
Oh! make the King, mind and consider it;
That, fast and easy, his new Crown may sit.
If thou hast sent him hither in thy
Wrath,
'It is what our wickedness deserved hath
So justly, that the same we well may
fear;
And that in our
Corrections
he may
share,
'It is also possible, as soon as he
Hath dealt among us what our
Dole
must be:
And then, our Executioners must sup
The Dregs, at bottom of our
Bitter Cup:
As also they, who with a barbarous noise
O'er us, in our
Afflictions
now rejoice.
Thee, in humility, I, now therefore
With all th' affections of my heart implore,
To let with
Judgments, Mercy
come along,
To make our
Patience
and our
Faith
so strong,
That,
He
and
We,
our
Trials
may improve,
To turn thine
Indignation
into
Love;
And not as
We
and our late
Rulers
did,
Provoke thee still in anger to proceed:
Or, as they did, who, when thy
Wrath
on them
Was poured forth, did grow furious and blaspheme:
But, to avert the danger we are in,
Join in repentance, as we did in sin.
Give to the
King,
a
Spirit
fit to do
That signal
Work,
which thou hast called him to;
And give us meekness to be wrought upon
By that, which must by
Thee
and
Him
be done:
For, such and so great our
Distempers
be,
That they are curable by none but
Thee,
Or those with whom
Thou
shalt co-operate
Our manifold
Confusions
to abate.
It is a
Power
to
Thee
alone confinde
To make all in
one Household,
of one mind,
Much more 'tis thy
peculiar,
to atone
Three
Nations,
that, in him they may be
One.
Enable him therefore with everything
Which to effect, thy purposes may bring.
Assist him at this time, that he may 'bide
That
Test,
whereby he now is to be tried;
Lest his
Return
(ere many
turns about)
A
worse
Turn
prove, than his last
turning out.
From
Sycophants
preserve him, and from those
Who hide their
Private Malice,
under shows
Of
Public Ends.
From every man's unjust
Pretending, who departeth from his trust,
Protect him: for, he that was false to them
Who gave him credit, will be false to him:
Yea, he that is a
Traitor
to a
Stranger,
If he may get Reward, and scape the Danger,
Will to betray his
Country, Prince,
or
Friend,
One time or other, some
just Cause
pretend.
But, principally,
LORD,
preserve him from
That
Self-Will,
which
Self-Ruin
doth become
To all who cherish it, and maketh void
All means which to preserve him are employ'd.
If from those
Places
where he lately sought
His
Refuge,
any
Leven
he hath brought,
Which working on the Frailties of his Youth,
Hath sour'd
the Doctrines of thy saving Truth,
By him professed; purge it by thy Grace.
Lest it may poison him, and all his
Race.
Great have been his
Temptations;
great likewise
Have been their many
Opportunities,
Who sought to work upon him; and if home
A Conqueror over all this, he is come,
It will of him, to all these Nations, be
A
Testimonial
signed and sealed by thee:
And, to be thy
CONFESSOR
he will more
Deserve, then did
King EDWARD
heretofore.
Make him consider, that, to be a
King,
Is not to be an
Independent Thing;
Two ways, at least, a
Relative
is
He;
Thou,
and his
People,
Antecedents be:
That, for their sakes in chief, not for his own,
His dignity of
Kingship,
was bestowed.
That, he hath no just
Power,
but what they gave,
Or, thou permittest him in wrath to have,
To punish, when against thee they rebel;
Or else in order to their commonweal,
That
Ordination
was for
Good,
not
Evil,
Save when made by themselves, or by the Devil,
Which, sometimes
GOD
permits (for many
Ages)
So pay his
Executioners
their
Wages.
This, well consid'ring, let him not intend,
Or Kingship claim, to any other end
Then thou design'st; nor practice to grow strong
By offering violence, or doing wrong;
Lest thou let loose those
Mastives
which will tear
Those
Royal Robes,
which he in peace might wear.
Those
Beasts
an ancient
Hierogliphick
are,
Of
Englishmen:
By thee chained up they were,
When he came in; and though they then were pleased,
And fawn'd, they will be mad when they are teas'd,
And fly on anything, fearless of dangers,
Or odds, especially, if teas'd by
Strangers.
This to prevent, let him not now provoke them,
But rather, with a soft hand, gently stroke them;
Assure him that no people can disgust,
Or disoblige a
KING
that shall be just.
Since, when a true respect to them is shown,
It makes not only their Estates his own,
(And will enrich him more then if he could
Turn all our Mountains into
Ophir-Gold)
But, also builds him in their Heart, a
Throne
Of
Perfect Love,
for him to rest upon.
Make him but of this mind, and I shall seem
Henceforth as worthy of his good esteem,
For these
Remembrances,
as they that in
His suffering have with him partakers been;
And much more to his honor it will add,
Then if a
PANEGYRICK
I had made.
Make him but thus affected,
LORD,
to be,
And in thy Name, I will warrant this from thee,
That, henceforth it shall more and more increase
His honor; settle Him in perfect peace;
All present fears and jealousies remove;
End all our
Quarrels
in an endless Love;
Convert all that which will be found in Story
Of our late failings, to thy future glory;
And, make that useful to preserve from blame
Hereafter, that was heretofore our shame.
But, if that he and they, whom 'twill concern
Now to be just and prudent, shall not learn
What thou intend'st; but act as they have done
Who lately were ejected from the Throne;
If, yet, the
King
and
Judges
of the Land
Kiss not thy SON,
and timely understand
What's threatened now, but prosecute their lust,
And be as merciless, and as unjust
As others were; I will once more be bold
To tell them what to others I have told,
Even in thy Name: That, though a while they flourish,
They, and the Course they prosecute, shall perish.
And, this my
Prayer
(though they sleight it shall)
Will prove at last to be
Prophetical
In every Branch, as well as
Precatory:
But be it what shall most be for thy glory.
LORD, hear me, and vouchsafe that those Conditions
On which thou condescend'st to such
Petitions,
May be performed, and acceptation have,
(Although they cannot merit what I crave)
For,
Prayers
can for no man take effect,
Who willfully his Duty shall neglect.
In mercy too, remember
Me,
and
Mine:
Increase our faith; keep close our hearts to thine,
In all our
Trials:
Be not so severe
To heed the murm'rings, the distrusts or fear
Whereto we tempted are, but pardon all
Our
Failings,
that we stumble not to fall.
Grant, that these
Prayers
may as well prepare
Both me and everyone who shall them hear,
To mind our
Duties,
as be helps to crave
Of thee, those
Mercies
which I ask to have.
One word more, for my
dear Relations
sake,
Be pleased to hear: Compassion on them take:
And since by my
Adventures
they are left
Quite comfortless, (of everything bereft
Whereby they may subsist) some Hearts prepare
Of them, in their
Desertions,
to take care:
Or, since that they are thine, vouchsafe thou rather,
To be to them a
Husband,
and a
Father:
For, though they may hope well, they cannot know
What
Spirit
'tis, from whence my Actings flow;
And therefore cannot my Partakers be,
In those
Refreshments
which I have from thee;
As well, because they see men oft bereft
Of
Reason,
and to their own
Fancies
left;
As also, for that by our separation
We are deprived of mutual consolation.
As for myself, I ask no more of thee,
But that Grace which will all-sufficient be.
Life is preserved with a little matter;
And, he that with course clothe, and bread and water,
Content remaineth, neither can be poor,
Nor miserable, though he has no more.
To this
endeavor
give some good effect;
And, so to prosecute it, me direct,
That without fruit, my pains be not bestowed
Through other men's defaults, or by my own:
And, pardon it, if I, myself, have sought,
By minding my own
Cause,
more then I ought;
Whereof (I do confess) I am afraid
I may be guilty, by
self-love
over-swaid)
But, humbly to thy
Grace,
my
Soul
appeals,
Which will suffice for that, and all faults else.
For what I have done
well,
the praise be thine:
For what's
amiss,
let all the blame be mine.
Thus in a plain
petitionary mode,
I have been wrestling as it were with GOD,
For
King and People:
For whose sake I made
This GLASSE, which else no being should have had.
I must confess, my own
sad Cause
broke in,
As soon as ere I did therewith begin;
And would not suffer me to persevere,
Unless it therewith interwoven were.
Fain would I have forgot it; but I may
As well, if broiling on hot coals I lay,
Resolve I would not feel them, as I then
Could from it totally refrain my Pen:
For (as I have yet) I had then my share
With such, as this day most oppressed are.
Yea, moved I was, these
Musings
to compose,
When Scorns, Wrongs, Wants, and multiplying Foes,
Had overwhelmed me so, that they had cracked
My
Brains,
if this
Employment
I had lackt.
Like Balast in a Ship, it kept me steady,
When I had else been over-set, or giddy.
And, my Afflictions have permitted been,
Perhaps, not altogether for my sin;
But partly, that together with mine own,
The grievances of others might be known;
And that for no respects I might forbear
My thankless
Office of Remembrancer,
For which GOD had with
Health,
and
Food,
and
Rayment
Vouchsaf'd me extraordinary payment,
Till I neglected it, on vain surmises,
Appearing in some rational disguises.
At first I lazy grew; then, fell in doubt
Whether the work I was employed about
Were GOD's, or rather somewhat, which to do,
Not
Duty,
but my
Fancy
led me to.
Then I began to think it might be spared,
Because I saw that neither much regard
My
Musings
had nor any such effect
As I by them did formerly expect:
And at the last, I feared if I went on
With what I purposed, I should be undone.
Thus, though in Conscience I was called unto it,
I did neglect it, till GOD whipt me to it;
And therefore now am justly thrust among
Those thousands, who complain of helpless wrong.
I dreaded, that it might increase my
Troubles;
And therefore, them upon me GOD redoubles.
I feared that some Losses might befall;
And therefore worthily have now lost all.
My
Duties,
I deferred to be done,
Till I should have more Rest; and now have none.
My Wives and Children's ruin I did fear;
And therefore I and they now beggar'd are:
Yea, so much more then beggar'd, as my Debt
Amounts unto, (for ought that I know yet.)
This, by my
Carnal Prudence
I have got;
And this in like case, will be each man's
Lot
GOD, will have this work done for love or awe;
And since I did it it not whilst I had
Straw,
I now must gather
Stubble.
I was fain
To prosecute this (not without much pain)
When I had but a very little left,
And often threatened was to be berest
Even of that little. Scarce one man I knew
Who cared for my soul; and very few
To whom I my condition might relate,
Or unto whom I might communicate
These Lines, without a mischief or a jeer,
When I conceived they most useful were;
For have I where with to the Press to send them,
Though I for publication do intend them;
Nor have I in my power a certainty
Of what should necessary things supply;
Nor know from whence it shall to me be given
For time to come, except it rain from Heaven:
And (which of these
Afflictions
is the chief)
I freedom want to seek for my relief.
And whilst this was composing, the
despite
Which long was riping, grew to such a height,
That evil
News
like
Job
I did receive,
As if the
World
from GOD had gotten leave
To try my
Patience
as she pleased should be,
Preserving only
Life
and
Health
in me:
For by their
Censures
many did assay
To take my
Confidence in GOD
away:
Objecting, That my
scribbling
to make known
The Times
Corruptions,
flowed but from mine own:
That, Malice, Envy, Pride, or private Spleen,
The
Fountaines
are, whence issu'd they have been:
And pressed it so, as if it were a Crime
More capital, then any of our Time:
Which makes me unto GOD, sometimes to cry,
Search thou my heart, and give the world the lie.
She daily seeks occasion to defame me,
To make me miserable, and to shame me:
She practiseth all means that may deject me,
And how she by despairings, may afflict me.
Yea, as if knowing I were musing now,
On somewhat which her
Projects
might o'erthrow,
Her Friend the
Devil,
doth afflict me more,
Then all that I have mentioned before,
By strongly tempting them, whose nigh relations
Can most augment my inward perturbations,
To be afraid, that I so much prefer
My own Designes, before my Weal and their;
That, what at this time I pursue, will be
The total Ruin both of them and me;
And, that what I resolve, doth rather flow
From
Wilfulnesse,
then Duties which I owe;
Or, at the best, from some Fanatick Fit
Proceeding from a boldness without wit:
And to convince me of what they allege,
They thereof make my greatest
Foe
the
Judge:
Which more perplexed me; and my patience tried
A great deal more then all the world beside:
For neither
World
nor
Devil
could invent
A
Remora
like that, to my inten.
I, notwithstanding, still proceeded on
To do, what I think needful to be done;
As all men should, who know obliged they are,
Their
Deeds
by their own
Consciences
to square,
And not by other men's; because, that none
Must answer for their faults, but they alone.
If this be not my Work and that work too,
Which I was principally born to do,
I know not wherefore I was born, or why
I lived, but to eat, and drink, and die;
Which made me in condition, at the least,
As low, if not much lower then a Beast,
Considering what Faculties they be
Wherewith my
Maker
bath endowed me:
And if such
Works
as these, are fit for none
But
perfect men,
they never can be done.
Was I enabled this way to express
My mind so plainly and with easiness,
In my distracting troubles, to no end
But Time, and Ink, and Paper to misspend?
Are we, by GOD, so often called upon
To heed what he, and we our seves have done,
(And stir up others to perform the same)
For nothing but to be exposed to blame,
Or to mis-censures, when we undertake
That
thankless Office,
for mere Conscience sake?
Is
Poesie,
which
wise Men
have believed
A Gift from GOD, even in the womb received,
(And, whereby
David
did both Trophies raise
To his REDEEMER
's
everlasting Praise,
And leave behind him for our imitation,
Reproofs of
Tyrants,
in his Generation)
Is that now grown quite useless, in all those
To whom a portion thereof he bestows,
Except
Lust
to inflame? To cast disgrace
On
Virtue,
or extol a
painted Face?
Is it in these days, not to be allowed,
Unless it be to Idolize the
Proud:
Or flatter
Fools?
I will wonder then no more:
Why
Poets
are less prized then heretofore.
No marvel they are slighted; and, perhaps,
Cherishit like
Parrots,
or maintained with scraps.
Like Spaniels, & must think much honor done them,
If their great
Patrons
please to grin upon them:
For, they deserve no better need then so,
If that be all the work they have to do.
This way it is and shall be well employed
By me, although I thereby am destroyed:
And, though it is an old adjudged case,
That
Poets
must be poor, I will not be base.
My
poverty
is without president,
For I am poor by
Acts of Parliament.
I was not in that condition thrown,
Till they who cracked my credit lost their own;
And if the
King
pleaseth, he may make me rich,
Yet loose no honor, nor in treasure much;
For, had I but mine own, my Debts to free,
I should suppose myself as rich as he.
From
GOD,
if this proceed not, I shall have
The recompense I merit to receive;
Which will be at the worst an outward trouble,
And loss of that which I have built with stubble:
But, if it flows from him it will produce
Effects
which to his glory shall have use;
And, he will bring it forth at such a time,
As, serviceable make it will to him.
Yea, though in the
Thames
it should be thrown,
Like that which being tide unto a
Stone
Was sunk in
Euphrates
(and no more seen
After in
Babel
it once read had been)
And will be made available to that
Which, in composing it, I aimed at.
Till that time, therefore, I will lay it by,
Not doubting such a time is drawing nigh.
If this
King
(as I hope) be hither sent,
As well for
Mercy,
as for
Chastisement,
(For, we need both) it, such effects will bring,
That we in Judgment shall of Mercy sing.
For my part, whatsoever my
Portion
be,
I will take that thankfully which falls on me,
As sent from GOD, whoere he be that brings it,
Yea, though at me, in rage, the
Devil
flings it:
For (be it known and heeded) not in vain
Die they, who in the
forlorn Hope
are slain:
Nor useless to a Victory are they,
Who are supposed to throw their Lives away
By desperate attempts; since
Providence
(Whose way transcendeth man's intelligence)
Acts very many times, by things which we
Think may to her own ends repugnant be.
They who were slain when first the Fight begun,
And they who fought until the Field was won,
May (whatsoever to others doth appear)
In work and honor, merit equal share.
Nay, signal Victories are got sometime
By that which hath been punished as a Crime.
To me and many other men beside,
May, peradventure, such a Lot betide;
However, I submit unto his pleasure,
Who acts in his own time, by
weight
and
measure;
And, forasmuch as I have no defense
Against my
Foes,
but naked
Innocence,
(Or words, which are amongst them sometimes shot,
To let them understand I fear them not)
I, (that my
Flesh
my be preserved from
Dejection in her mode, till succors come)
My
fortress
keeping, their Affronts despise,
Shoot back their stones, and dirt into their eyes;
Believing, they to peace will now incline,
Or, be reduced to harder straits then mine,
As they but lately were, who did contemn
The Sequels, whereof I fore-warned them.
And, if by
Storm,
they take my life away,
(Which, I as little do regard, as they)
It, in their Souls may leave a Sting behind it,
Which, will with Torment, make them sometimes mind it.
But, here I yet remain; and for a
Close
(In reference to our
Antichristian Foes)
I will add this
Corollary
by the way,
Whilst on his
Horns,
the B E A S T is
tossing Hay:
For, if deceived I am not, our Disease
Chiefly proceedeth, underhand, from these.
And though (a farther-off removed Cause
Pretending) they bescratch us with the Paws
Of other Beasts: it plainly may be seen
By whom our troubles have contrived been.
I, therefore, make but a
Defensive War
With such as mine own adversaries are;
And (to his Captains as th'
Assyrian, King
Once gave command) intend no Dart to fling,
To be destructive to Foe great or small,
Whose hate to me, is only personal;
But, at those only, whose hate doth extend
To HIM, and HIS, on whom I do depend.
To act the last
Scoene
which precedes their
Doom,
They, now new vampt upon the
Stage
are come;
And though that with the
KING,
as if his Friends,
They seem to side, they come to other ends,
Which, he not yet discerning, in his grace
Vouchsates them a considerable place;
And, of prevailing they already boast,
As if they saw the LAMB, and all his Host
Quite overthrown; which, me as confident
Hath made, that GOD their proud hope will prevent;
And overthrow that
Tyranny
out-right,
By what they think shall raise it to its height.
But, many trials must the Saints abide,
And very much their patience will be tried
Here and elsewhere, before that
Act
is done,
Which with an
Anti-mask
is now begun.
Our
Friends
inhabiting beyond the
Waters,
And who were of our
Tragedies
Spectators
Now twenty years (though they perceive it not,
Or seem not to perceive it) in that
Lot
Which these have cast for us, designed are
(Or in what follows next to have a share:
For,
Haman's
PUR's on foot; not only here,
But, like wise almost every other where;
And these think, that to take them by his Gin
With most speed, is, with us, first to begin.
But, there's a
Counter mine,
which will be sprung,
To blow up them, and all their
Mines,
ere long.
Six hundred sixty six,
draws on apace,
And not one day beyond that, shall they pass:
It is the number of that MAN OF SIN,
Whereto his
Kingdom
hath confined been
By him that cannot lie: and, long ago
To many, that
Epocha
I did shows,
From whence his
Reign
begins; and, by a light,
(As I believe) which shines without deceit,
It numbers out his Reign as certainly
As women reckon the Nativity
Of Children in their wombs, which hath success
Within a very few days more or less:
And of that
Mystery,
what heretofore
I have expressed, I will here express once more;
Because, those
Nations
which may much be needed,
Cannot be too oft told, nor too well heeded.
To
former times,
this
Mystery
was dark,
And lay a long while, covered like a spark
In ashes, lest perhaps what at this time
Will comfort us, might have discouraged them
Who lived then: for, men rejoice to hear
The day of their deliverance is near:
But nothing save discomfort could they gain,
By knowing
Tyranny
so long should reign.
Herein, I circumstantially perchance
May somewhat ere through
human ignorance;
But, as to that which was essentially
To us intended by this
Mystery,
I shall not fail of; which is, to presage
That
Babylon
shall fall in this our
Age.
Sev'n
Numerals
the
Roman Empire
had,
Whereby of old they Computations made;
And in them was their
Destiny
fore-shown,
(Though to themselves perhaps it was unknown.)
These, placed singly, as they valued are,
Do truly (though misteriously) declare
How long that
Empire,
with what sprung there-from,
Should last, when to the full height it should come:
For, M.D.C.L.X. with V. and I.
Do number up, in
Chronogrammistry,
Years
Sixteen hundred sixty six;
and, that
Will be of
Roman Tyrannies
the date.
No other
Number
either more or less,
If none of these you double or displace,
Can be by them expressed. If you ask when
This
Number
did begin; I say, even then
When
Rome
declined first, from her height of pride,
Which was, when
Jesus Christ
was crucifide:
For, at that time her glory did abate.
This
Number
therefore you must calculate.
From, or about, the known time of
Christ
's
Passion,
Not from the first day of his
Incarnation.
A silence (as it were) seemed to have been
In heaven, during th' interval between
His
Death
and his
Ascension,
as if caused
By seeing that done which had much amazed
The whole Creation, when that they did see
The
LORD OF LIFE
hang dead upon a Tree.
The
Devil,
probably, at that time too,
Was at a stand, and knew not what to do.
But, soon perceiving that the snare he wrought
Was broke, to make another, straight he sought;
Which, to prevent, an
Angel
in a Chain,
(His other pow'rs, him suff'ring to retain)
Did for a
thousand years
restrain the
Devil
From setting up that Mystery of Evil,
Which in
Paul's
time he was at work upon.
But when those thousand years were fully gone,
He raised it up; and GOD permitteth him,
To manage his own
Engine
for a time,
That, Truth and Error might here for a space,
Make trial of their strengths; and, that each Grace
And virtue of the Saints, by exercise
Improv'd might be, to fit them for the prize
Prepar'd for those, who shall engage with CHRIST,
And overcome the
Dragon
and the
Beast.
A
thousand years
sharp Trials they withstood;
Yet then they struggled but with
Flesh and Blood;
And, for the most part, all their Combates then,
Were like Saint
Paul
's at
Ephesus,
with
Men
Resembling
Beasts:
but since
Iniquity
Was set up veiled with a
Mystery,
(As in these latter Times) with greater Evils
The Saints do grasp: for they contend with
Devils
In shape of men,
in temporal Confusion,
Made terrible by
spiritual delusions;
And therefore GOD allotted unto him
Who tyrannizeth now, a shorter time;
And to a certain day his reign did fix,
Which endeth at
six hundred sixty six:
And he who knows on what day it begun,
May know the day on which it will be done.
Which I believe, will visibly appear
In, or about the sev'nteenth hundred year.
And thus much only, therefore to foreknow,
(With how nigh to an end it seemeth now)
May make us hopeful, and our faith uphold,
As well, as if
year, day, and hour
were told:
Yea, and it better serves to exercise
Our
Constancy,
then if 'twere otherwise;
And if well heeded, peradventure may
Keep some upright, who might else fall away
In these
back sliding days;
wherein, they see
The
Beasts
late
deadly wound
nigh cured to be.
They on a sudden are become as jolly
As if they thought it to be cured wholly;
And, to impose their
Mark,
will now begin
To be more strict then ever they have been;
So that ere long, few men shall live in peace,
Bear
Office,
or a free Estate possess,
Where they have power, unless they marked are
In hand or forehead, with their Character.
But, if that, whereof some imperfect views
Far-off, appear, accordingly ensues,
There will, to th wart their hopes, a
New Star
blaze
Within the
West,
that shall the world amaze;
And
Influences
through the
Universe
So quickly, and prodigiously disperse,
That, aided by concurring
Constellations,
It shall have some effect, upon most
Nations,
And cause such
Changes,
as will make a stand
In those Attempts which they have now in hand.
Yet know, it will but a
Diversion
be,
Not that which must from
Bondage
set us free.
And know likewise, that this which last of all
I have expressed, is but conjectural,
And springs from
Notions
merely rational,
That possibly
may,
or
may not befall.
Those
Notions,
which may variously relate
To me and others, in our twofold state,
Are sum'd up for a
General Forewarning;
GOD, give my
Readers
spirits of discerning,
And so much
Grace
and
Meekness,
as to heed
His
Truth,
from whomsoe'er it shall proceed.
Such
Contemplations
are not in my power
At all times; for, my
Flesh
oft draws me lower;
And I am forced to please her otherwhile,
By
Strains,
that harmlesly may her beguile
With hopes of what she looks for in her mode.
Till that comes, which essentially is good.
And if these both together can maintain
My
Faith
in patence, 'tis not work in vain:
For, such so great, so many are my Foes,
(And frailties too, more then my own heart knows)
And so maliciously do they contrive
My ruin (more perhaps then some believe)
That, oft I am forced to answer (I confess)
The
Fool
according to his foolishness;
And when surprised, upon my guard to stand,
With any lawful Tool that comes to hand.
GOD, hath in bidding to the world defiance,
Preserv'd me hitherto without compliance
In any base mode (though by brining on me
Great Mischiefs, she hath now
three times
undone me;
And, I am hopeful, he is with me still
As he hath been; and therefore, to his will
And free disposure, I will all things leave
Which may to
me
or
mine
relation have:
And in contempt, of what my
foes
intend,
These
Musings,
this ensuing
Jigg
shall end;
Which blame not, if you find it somewhat long:
To shorten
Grief,
I lengthen out my
Song.
The Contented Mans Morice.
1.
FAlse World,
thy
Malice
I espy
with what thou hast designed;
And therein with thee to comply,
who likewise are combined:
But, do thy worst, I thee defy,
Thy
Mischiefs
are confined.
2.
From me, thou my
Estate
hast torn,
by
Cheatings
me beguiled:
Me thou hast also made thy
scorn;
with
Troubles
me turmoiled:
But to an
Heritage
I am born,
that never can be spoiled.
3.
So
wise
I am not, to be
mad,
though great are my
Oppressions;
Nor so much
fool
as to be sad,
though robbed of my
Possessions;
For,
Cures
for all sores may be had,
and
Grace
for all Transgressions.
4.
These words in youth my
MOTTO
were,
and mine in Age I will make them;
I neither have, nor want, nor care;
when also first I spake them:
I thought
Things would be as they are,
and meekly therefore take them.
5.
The
Riches
I possess this day
are no such
Goods of Fortune
As
King
can
give
or take away,
or
Tyrants
make uncertain:
For, hid within my
self
are they
behind an unseen
Curtain.
6.
Of my
Degree,
but few or none
were daily so frequented;
But now I am left of everyone,
and therewith well contented:
For, when I am with GOD alone,
much folly is prevented.
7.
Then why should I give way to grief?
Come,
strike up Pipe and Tabor;
He that affecteth
GOD
in chief,
and as
Himself
his Neighbor,
May still enjoy a happy life,
although he lives by labor.
8.
Not me alone have they made poor,
by whom I have been cheated;
But very many thousands more
are of their hopes defeated;
Who little dreamed heretofore
of being so ill treated.
9.
Then if my courage should be less
then their who never prized
The
Resolutions
I profess
(and almost idolized)
I well deserved in my distress
to be of all despised.
10.
Our sad
Complaints,
our
Sighs
and
Tears,
make
Meat
nor
Cloathing
cheaper:
Vain are our earthly
Hopes
and
Fears,
this
Life
is but a
Vapour:
And therefore indespight of
Cares,
I will sing, and dance and caper.
11.
Though
Food
nor
Rayment
left me were,
I would of wants be dreadless:
For then, I quickly should be there
where
Bread
and
Cloth
are needless:
And in those
Blessings
have my share,
whereof most men are heedless.
12.
I then should that attain unto
For which I now endeavor;
From my
False Lovers
thither go,
where
Friendship
faileth never:
And through a few short
pangs of Woe,
to
Joys
that last forever.
13.
For
Service
done, and love expressed,
(though very few regard it)
My
Country
owes me
Bread,
at least,
but, if I be debar'd it,
Good Conscience is a daily Feast,
and sorrow never mar'd it.
14.
My
Grand Oppressors
had a thought,
when
Riches
they bereaved,
That then, my
Ruin
had been wrought,
but they are quite deceived:
For, them the
Devil
much mis-taught
when that weak snare they weaved.
15.
If in those
Courses
I had gone
wherein they are employed,
Till such
Atchievments
had been won,
as are by them enjoyed,
They might have wager'd
ten to one
I should have been destroyed.
16.
But, Proofs have now confirmed me
how much our
Vice
offendeth,
And what small helps our
Virtues
be
to that which GOD intendeth,
Till he himself shall make us free,
and our Defects amendeth.
17.
Not one is from corruption clear;
men are depraved wholly:
Meer
Cruelties
their
Mercies
are,
their
Wisdom
is but
Folly;
And when most
righteous
they appear,
then, are they most unholy.
18.
There is no
Trust
in
Temp'ral Things,
for they are all unsteady:
That no assurance from them springs,
too well I find already;
And that even
Parliaments
and
Kings
are frail, or false, or giddy.
19.
All stands upon a tott'ring Wheel,
which never fixed abideth;
Both
Commonweals
and
Kingdoms
reel:
he, that in them confideth,
(Or trust their
Faith)
shall Mischiefs feel,
with which soe'er he sideth.
20.
This
Wit,
I long ago was taught,
but then I would not heed it:
Experience
must by
Fools
be bought,
Else they'll not think they need it.
By this means was my Ruin wrought;
Yet, they are
Knaves
who did it.
21.
When to the ground deprest I was,
our
Mushroms
and our
Bubbles
Whom neither
Truth,
nor
Wit,
nor
Grace,
but
Wealth
and
Pride
ennobles,
As
cruel
were, as they are base,
and jeered me in my troubles.
22.
And, when their hate, these had made known,
new mischiefs it beg at me,
For, every Raskal dirty Clown,
Presumed, to amate me;
And all the
CURS
about the Town,
Grinn'd, snarl'd,
and
barked
at me.
23.
Since therefore 'tis not in my power,
(though oft I fore-discern them)
To shun the
worlds
despights one hour,
thus into mirth I will turn them;
And neither
grieve
nor
pout,
nor
lowre,
but
laugh,
and
sing
and
scorn them.
24.
This
FIT,
at
sev'nty years and two,
and thus to spend my hours,
The worlds contempt, inclines me to,
whilst she my state devours;
If this be all that she can do,
A Fig for all her powers.
25.
Yet I and she, may well agree,
though we have much contended;
Upon as equal terms are we,
as most who are offended:
For, I sleight her, and she sleights me,
and there's my Quarrel ended.
26.
This only doth my mirth allay,
I am to some engaged,
Who sigh and weep, and suffer may,
whilst thus I sing incaged:
But I have a
GOD,
and so have they,
by whom that Care's asswaged.
27.
And he that gives us in these days
new Lord's
may give us
new Laws;
So that our present
Puppet-H
•
ys,
our
Whismies, Brauls,
and
Gew-gaws,
May turned be to songs of praise,
and holy
Hallelujahs.
Thus I have added some few
Ballads
more
To those, which my
Deriders
heretofore
Have scoffingly so called: and, though I please
To sing
Defiance
in such words as these,
(To make them somewhat wiser (if I might)
Who are yet wise, but in their own conceit)
'It is no revengeful or malicious scorn,
Which back upon my scorners I return.
My
Jollities,
my
Caprings
and
Advances,
Are not like those you see in
Morrice-Dances;
Nor is my
mirth
like their, who cheat their souls
With Music, Banquets, and o'erflowing Bowls:
'It is no mere outward or corporeal sense
Of
Pleasures
or
Immunities,
from whence
My
Joys
do spring: nor are they such as their
Who by
long-Suffring
stupefied are:
(For, few men living, of all
Human passions,
Have deeper sense, or of their Aggravations)
But, my
Exultings
flow from apprehension
Of that, whereto my
Faith
hath an extension;
And of those
Objects
which I make those
ends
To which my
actings
and my
suff'ring
tends,
As doth a wounded
Conqueror,
who cries,
Courage, my Mates, the day is ours;
then dies:
Or rather; like a
Martyr
on the Rack,
Who when his
Flesh
tears, and his
Sinews
crack,
Casts on the
Tyrant
a disdainful smile,
And in GOD'S Love, rejoiceth all the while.
That which is purposed by my Caresses,
And sparklings from my soul in these
Expresses,
Is partly to preserve in my own heart
Those
Resolutions,
which might else depart:
Whereat grudge not, as if you thought I heeded
That which myself concerneth, more then needed;
For, moderate
Self-love,
is that whereby
We must to others measure
Charity.
'It is partly too, for others informations
That I so oft insert Pre-occupations
Relating to myself, and to prevent
Annihilating of that good intent
Which I pursue; by taking that away
Which
prejudice
allege in private may.
If these Expressions no advantage be
To other men, they are of use to me.
'It is not amiss, least I forgetful grow,
To mind myself sometimes of what I know,
And make to others known, that they who keep
Good Consciences,
may sing themselves asleep
Amidst their greatest Foes; and without fear
Awake, when they by them alarmed are:
That, he on whom
God
makes his face to shine,
May be as glad as they, whose corn and wine
Doth still increase, and with content be crowned,
Which way soe'er the
Rowling wheel
goes round;
For, he that
acts
in
suff'rings
what he teaches,
Moves more, then when but
verbally
he preaches.
But, most men so a bound in their own sense,
And rather so incline to take offense
At such
Expressions,
then them to regard;
That much of this perhaps might have been spared.
However, neither much more pains or cost,
Can I now loose, then is all ready lost;
Since therefore what she
likes,
the world hath got
From me, I will give her what she liketh not;
For not much longer am I now to bear
Her
burdens,
or the
scorn of Fools
to hear;
And in my Grave, when I am laid asleep,
These
Mussings
will believed
memorials
keep,
Of things which to GOD'S glory shall pertain,
Till his
Trump
calls me to awake again;
For, though
Truths
will to our
posterities
Conveyed be among a heap of
Lyes,
They will to those who love them, shine as clear
As
Diamonds
which mixed with
Charcoals
are:
And therefore, till
death
quite depriveth me
Of seeing that which in the
Flesh
I see,
And
Faith
foresees; to my
eternal King
To this effect, I will Hallelujah sing.
1.
GOD
sits where he doth see and hear,
Where
Kings
and Lord's consulting are,
And heeds what is intended there:
Sing therefore
Hallelujah.
To make them better understand
His
Will,
and what he hath in hand,
He wonders acts at Sea and Land:
Sing therefore
Hallelujah.
2.
His
Mercies
here were lately shown,
They who abused them are o'erthrown,
And now by
Judgments
he is known:
Sing therefore
Hallelujah.
He sev'rall ways men's hearts hath tried,
He fools their
Wit,
he shames their
Pride,
And by their shame is glorifide;
Sing therefore
Hallelujah.
3.
To trials every man he brings,
He spares nor
Commoners
nor
Kings,
And of his deeds the whole earth rings.
Sing therefore
Hallelujah.
Such marvels as in times of old,
Have either written been or told,
We did with our own eyes behold:
Sing therefore
Hallelujah.
4.
He stirs and stils the winds and seas;
Yea,
Kings
and
Nations
can appease,
Things, oft, less tameable then those;
sing therefore
Hallelujah.
He wounds and cures, he builds and breaks,
He kills and saves, he gives and takes,
And as he finds cause, mars or makes:
sing therefore
Hallelujah.
5.
He by contention endeth firife;
By leaving helpless, gives Relief;
And, by death bringeth unto life.
sing therefore
Hallelujah.
He for well-doing and for ill,
Doth promises and Threats fulfil,
And is both just and gracious still.
sing therefore
Hallelujah.
6.
By doing Right he cureth wrongs,
Turns mournful cries to joyful songs;
To all gives what to them belongs.
sing therefore
Hallelujah.
He giveth ease, by making sore;
He makes men rich by being poor,
And losers win, by loosing more:
sing therefore
Hallelujah.
7.
To crown all this, and cure the fear
Which doth in many
Saints
appear,
His
Kingdom
now is drawing near:
Sing therefore
Hallelujah.
For
GOG
and
MAGOG
join in one,
Their
Gen'ral Musters
are begun,
And their destruction cometh on:
Sing therefore
Hallelujah.
8.
As he foretold us heretofore,
Revenge pursues the
Scarlet whore,
And she ere long shall be no more
sing therefore
Hallelujah.
The
Kings
and
Captains
of his
Foes
Shall then be Carrion for the crows,
And all who do the
LAMB
oppose;
sing therefore
Hallelujah.
9.
That we more watchful might be made,
We lately three
Probations
had;
And now he doth another add.
sing therefore
Hallelujah.
New offers of his grace mave we;
And though yet obstinate we be,
Still merciful to us is he;
sing therefore
Hallelujah.
So, farewell
Friends.
I will not say
forever;
For though I lately purposed, that I never
In this mode more would write th' Event hath shown
I had then work undone, to me unknown;
And therefore, till he thereto puts an end
Who knows my Task, his pleasure I will attend,
And prosecute it, until he shall say,
Thy Labor now is finished; COME AWAY.
Mean while, that I my SOUL may ready make,
For such a CALL, and willingly forsake
Mhis place; I will sometimes hearten her along
With this that follows, or some such-like SONG.
1.
MY
Soul,
come let us go,
In
Sodom
longer linger not;
look not behind thee so,
But call to mind the wife of
LOT.
Let nothing here
To thee be dear,
Or captive thy desires;
GOD
will thereon,
When we are gone,
Rain down consuming
Fires.
2.
Though with a glorious light,
The
SUN
thereon begins to rise,
A dreadful
Storm
ere night,
Her careless Dwellers will surprise.
Come, come away,
Without delay;
Quite cast her out of mind:
For worth thy thought
In her there's naught,
Which thou shalt leave behind.
3.
GOD's
mercies they condemn;
His
Kindness
with despights repay;
still when he speaks to them,
They turn their heads another way.
When he intreats,
Reproves, or threats,
To heed it they disdain;
Or with a scoff
They put it off,
And obstinate remain.
4.
GOD
here hath pitched his Tent;
And here, had they his counsel took,
To dwell forever meant;
But they, alas! have him forsook.
This, which a place
Like
EDEN
was,
Is now defiled with sin;
Still Fruit it bears,
That fair appears;
But 'tis all dust within.
5.
Then from this cursed
Plain
Flee, to those
Everlasting Hills,
where safe thou mayest remain,
And whereon thy
Redeemer
dwells.
here make no stay:
for though there may
In
ZOAR
safety seem,
when such
Storms
be,
secure are we
No where, except in him.
6.
This is their
fatal day,
Which day perhaps, may last a year;
and true Repentance may
Avert the
DOOM
approaching near.
but, I much doubt,
that trifled out
This
Day of Grace
will be.
Therefore in fear,
And danger here,
Our stay, will always be.
Now my last
Public work
I hope is ended;
Blessed be he that's therewith not offended:
For, whatsoe'er it seems, I shall expect
A CONSEQUENT, as this doth take effect.
My Exercise
without
me, and
within,
Afflictions
and
distractions,
long have been;
If therefore, what in hast I did indite,
When those
disturbances
were at their height,
Confus'd
appears; the better 'twill declare
What
mine,
and other men's
conditions
are.
And, if therein, ought seems to merit blame,
They who are
Candid,
will excuse the same.
G. W.
A POSTSCRIPT In answer to some cavilling Objections, made against the Author of this Considering-Glass, since the composing thereof.
I
Hear my
snarling Censurers
Object,
That, all I write, is to the same Effect;
And, that the most part of what's here expressed,
Is but
cold Dishes,
sent forth newly
dressed.
Mis-censures might be spared, though this were true.
For, where the
Matter
's old, th'
Occasion
's new:
And they will here see, if they heed it more,
Thrice Fifty Pages,
never seen before.
But were it otherwise, how much transgressed
Had I therein, more then that
Country Priest,
Who, having (or pretending it) a
Call
Such to inform, as I oft meet withal,
Preach'd but one
Sermon
many years together,
And, till they had learned that, would preach no other?
Another of their cavilling
Objections
Is this; that there are many
Contradictions
In my
Affirmatives.
This true may be
To those men paradventure, who can see
But with one eye; Or, look but on one side
Of that, whose
Verity
is to be tried:
Yet, all my
Affirmations
will be true,
When they are heeded with judicious view.
This is the same, which often such as they
Abusively, of
Holy Scriptures
say
Because they neither heed nor understand
How
Circumstances,
and the
Points in hand,
May warrantize that to be verifi'd
In some respects, which ought to be denied
In othersome: as in the
Controverse
'Twixt
FAITH
and
WORKS;
or such: which to rehearse
Would be but labor lost, by adding more,
To manifest what most men knew before.
These my
Detracting Readers,
do moreover,
A Pers'nal Vanity
in me discover
(As they think) which much levity implies.
Good Souls!
how modest are they, and how wise
I seek for, and I do assume, they say,
(At all times, in all places where I may)
Occasions to communicate and show
What I have writ, and what I seem to know,
To all men, whether
Friends
or
Foes
they be;
Wise Men
or
Fools;
of high or low degree.
Which I will confess: for, to myself alone
The harm which thereby can ensue is done:
Doth any
Prudent Man
a Book compose,
Only to teach himself, the things he knows?
Or, for their sakes alone, who learned be,
And better know those things, perhaps, then he?
Should not the weal of everyone be sought?
As well the poorest, as the rich be taught?
And do not the
Profane,
and
Fools,
as much
Good
Cautions
need, as they who are not such?
Doth any one, that's noot a Fool at least,
His
Candle
light, to lock it in a chest?
Doth any, when a Town on fire appears,
Call out for help, were he knows no man hears?
Or think it only needful to repair
At such times, to the
Aldermen
and
Major,
When two poor Laborers may do as much,
In an Emergency, as twenty such?
If there be any of this mind, who pass
For
Prudent Men,
let me thought an
ASSE.
Though in my
Pocket,
I no
Orders
carry
Like those, who Preachers are in Ordinary,
I have them in my heart; and, in my way,
Oblig'd to preach GOD's
Truths,
no less then they,
Take up my Auditors, where I can find them;
And there, in my
mode,
of their Duties mind them.
For I have oft observed (and so may these
Observe it likewise often, if they please)
That, they whom some count despicable men,
Make better use of those means, now and then,
Which to GOD's glory pertinent do seem,
(Or common good) then men of more esteem;
And that sometimes, the work of GOD we do,
By what is thought impertinent thereto.
We know, the Gospel first to them was brought
Whom
worldly wise men,
base and foolish thought:
That, very many
Publicans and Sinners
Were some of Christianities beginners:
And that the
Saints
then thought it was but reason,
To do their Duties
in, and out of Season.
These benefits are also reaped from
My reading what I write, to all that come.
Some things, I otherwhile, thereby collect
From those who neither me nor that respect:
For in discourse, before they are aware,
They let slip words which cautionary are.
To them who like my
Lines,
it
Treatments
makes
As acceptable as Ale, Wine and Cakes:
To those who like them not, they serve my turn
Their
Interruptions,
quickly to adjourn:
For, they pretending
Business
to be done,
Requiring hast (and that they must be gone)
Straight bid
Adieu;
and
Farewell
I reply:
Glad are these they are gone, and
so am I.
More might be said, to what hath been aver'd
By such as these: But little they regard
What may in reason give them satisfaction,
Whose principal designment is
Detraction:
And fruitless are all rational Replies,
To what, Pride, Hate, and Folly may devise.
THE Shepherd of BLEDONHAM HIS CASE.
Who was lately ejected out of his Possessions, by the Successors of the Flamins, and Arch-Flamins; falsely pretending a Divine Right to the said Possessions.
The said
Case
is truly stated, in a
Pastoral Prosopopeia,
by an intermixture of
Literal
and
Metaphorical Expressions.
AT
BLEDONHAM,
among malicious Clowns,
a
Shepherd
kept a Flock upon the Downs;
Belov'd as well, till there he did reside,
As any of his Rank, 'twixt
Thame
and
Tweede.
Not many in this
Isle,
were better known;
He managed few Affairs, except his own:
He was a Friend to all men, save to those
Whose
Vices
made them his
malignant Foes;
And never was his
Enmity
extended
Unto their persons, with whom he contended.
Him, their
Companions,
men of
honor
made,
And he by honest means, possessions had
Of such a fair Estate, that many more
Suppos'd him to be rich, then thought him poor:
For, he had Fields & Groves Flocks, Herds & Corn,
Enough to keep him, both from want and scorn.
But, that
Wheel
turning, which doth now & then.
O'rethrow great
Kings
as well as
Common men,
It, with a
quick whirl,
on a luckless day,
So swept his Crops, Goods, Flocks and Herds away,
That he of all, was well-near quite bereft,
And had but one good
Ewe,
and two
Lambs
left,
Which every day at his own Table fed,
And every night, lodged in, or near his bed.
As soon as this Disaster was begun,
Another forthwith followed thereupon.
A petty
Nimrod
(as with an intent
To hurtsome
Beasts of prey,
which did frequent
The Fields where these Lambs fed) attended on
By those, who, where a
Mischief
may be done,
Take most delight, did often, with his Hounds,
So much disturb their quiet in those grounds,
That having thereby much affrighted been,
The
Lambs
became unproveable ane lean.
The
Ewe
alone, still undismay'd, held out,
And being fat, well flesh'd, and very stout,
Preserv'd her own, till an uncivil rout
Of neighb'ring
Churls,
with
Cur-dogs
pulled the Fleeces
From off their backs, and tore them into pieces.
What these Lines mean, but few of those who read them,
Can know, save they who felt the wrongs, or did them
For, they were acted with more barbarousness
Then we can by this
Parable
express;
Even by that
Spirit,
which did first engage
These
Nations
into that unhappy rage
Which is not yet allayed; and will hold on
Whilst they are cherished, by whom 'twas begun.
When this befell, the Shepherd was from home,
To stop another mischief like to come;
And hearing his poor
Flock
was worride so,
A deep figh fetched; yet, since their wool might grow,
And, Time, increase their number to a greater,
(In hope things might succeed hereafter better)
Some Consolation for a while received:
But, thereof also, quickly was bereaved:
For not alone decreas'd his cattle be
From very many
hundreds
unto
three,
In perishing estate; but, seized now
Are those
Possessions
too, from whence might grow
Subsistence and increase: and (which is worse)
Not on him singly, falls this heavy curse,
But they whose
Prosecutions
made him poor,
Will make a hundred thousands Beggers more;
Whose
Poverty
may those
Oppressions
add,
Whereby that
number
double will be made.
By these
Mishaps,
this
Pastor
in one year
(And less) is made a
poor Philosopher;
Who now doth bear about him all his stock,
And to themselves, is forced to leave his
Flock,
Expecting nothing henceforth but
Oppressions
From those, who have usurped his Possessions:
For, they who on his
Livelyhood
now seize,
Successors
are to those old
Druids,
And to those
Flamins
and
Arch-flamins,
here,
Who
Prelates
of the
Pagan Priesthood
were:
And, probably, will be to him and those
Who serve his GOD, unreconciled Foes;
Because they do pretend themselves to be
Prelated above others in degree,
As
Supreme Priests and Pastors
unto PAN,
The Prince of Shepherds, and both GOD & MAN.
On that accompt, those
superstitious things,
And Heath'nish Ceremonious Trinketings,
Which in the worship of false gods were used
By them, are without warrant introduced
In to the
Christian Church,
as sanctifide;
And to maintain that
Carnal pomp
and
pride
Which these affect, they claim, and take, and hold
What's due to
Him,
as due to them of old.
This,
under color of a
Deodand
They challenge; and therein, a
Royal hand
Supports them yet, because he knows them not:
But, when such information he hath got,
Whereby they may to him be truly known,
'It is hoped that each man will enjoy his own:
In which hope, many thousands now undone,
Take up their Cross, and patienty walk on.
This
Shepherd
(not deluded by their folly)
Who heed a
Ravens croaking from the Holly
Or such like
Auguries:
foresaw by
whom
And
why,
those which now befall, are come.
He therefore, when they came, stood undismay'd,
And looking up to Heaven, thus meekly said:
GOD gives and takes, and blessed be his
Name;
Though I am not, yet he, is still the same;
And on him fixed, my trust unshaken stands
Even whilst I am in my
Oppressors
hands;
Expecting my Deliverance from
him,
And nothing but
Revenge
and
Scorns
from them.
If unto one, he shall vouchsafe to grant
But so much
Grace,
as many of them want,
I shall possess, bought at another's cost,
An
Heritage,
that never will be lost;
And ere this
Generation
is quite gone,
That, which hath long been hoped for, will be done.
Believing this, he wholly cast away
Vexatious Care,
permitting these to play
Their pranks at will, till they with cruel scorn
From
Him
and
His
their whole Estate had torn;
Yet, he no more fears their despights to him,
Then they do fear what he can do to them:
And may perhaps, yet pipe them such a strain,
As ere next
Sheepshear
will fetch back again
Some part of what is lost: for, twill be found
His late
Possessions
were but
Fairy-ground,
And not so sanctified, that all those
Who walked upon it, must
put off their shoes;
Unless there be a
Sophistry
in Schools,
That's able to turn
wise men
into
fools,
If they do merit to be credited
Who in that
Manor-house
inhabited,
From which the Shepherd's cast; they, there were frighted
With
Sounds
and
Apparitions,
when benighted;
And that therein (before that he came thither)
Zim, Jim,
with such
Hobgoblins
danc'd together.
And these perhaps, will thither come again,
As to a place which doth to them pertain
By
Tenant-Right,
now their
Old Lord's
are come
To re-admit them to their
dancing-Room.
It may be too, till by him repossest
They who intrude, may there take little rest;
Or, till they shall that
wicked charge
withdraw,
That makes a
sin,
where none is made by Law;
And impudently therewithal dare brand
Not only
purchasers
of
prelates-land
Opposed now by them, but also fling
That
Guilt,
both upon
Parliament
and
King,
In whose defense, the Shepherd doth defy
Not one alone, but all the
prelacy;
And if they prove, before an
equal Judge,
That,
purchasing their Lands,
is
Sacrilege;
Or more a sin, then marketting of Eggs,
He will resign his claim, for two
Tithe Piggs.
Nay, if of
Sacrilege
he prove them not
To be more guilty when those Lands were got,
And whilst that they in their possession were,
Then any of their
purchasers
now are,
He will submit to be
anathamiz'd
By them, and of all honest men dispis'd.
For, were a faithful Demonstration made
Of what beginning
prelacy
first had;
By what ways,
prelates
usually aspire;
How, they their large
Revenues
did acquire;
How they have been from time to time enjoyed,
How often to the
public harm
employed;
What
persons
owned them, and to what ends
Their Constitutions principally tends,
With such-like; which are left upon Records,
Whose credit doubtless evidence affords;
It plainly manifested would appear,
That, none so truly sacrilegious are;
That, few have acted more destructively
To civil peace, and real piety;
Or oftener upon
Kings
intrusions made,
By whose
Indulgence
they their being had.
They, who now heed the
posture
they are in,
And how pedantically they begin
To act their parts, since they have been new-shelld
Within those walls, from whence they were expel'd,
Do wonder much, that men of their
profession
And parts, should fail so much in their discretion:
For, their untimely
Avarice
and
Pride,
Even their best friends and favorers deride,
With fear, that their Ambition will not cease,
Till it destroys again they
common peace;
And they who love the King, begin to see,
That unto him they mischievous may be.
Most of their
Conversations
are on earth;
What is this Pars'nage, what that Vic'rage worth?
Are their chief
Queries,
or which way to make
Their Markets, and Advantages to take
Without regard, whose right they do enjoy,
How many
Families
they do destroy;
Or what disturbance or disreputation
They bring on
King, Parliament
or
Nation.
To such ends, they have bawld of
Sacrilege,
Til they have set most hearers teeth on edge,
By their continual grating on that bone
Which their own Jawes will break, ere they have done.
That
Scare-crow
now affrighteth none but fools,
Who are but lately crept out of their schools:
For, that which they have charged the people with,
Doth yet stick fast between their tongue and teeth,
And will he proved by a holy Text,
The Thirtieth day of
Fedruary
next.
If those
Revenues
we examine shall,
Which they the
Churches
patrimony call,
The great
Diana,
for which some with us
Cry out, as once they did at
Ephesus,
Is but an
Idol;
and their Out-cries made,
Are only to preserve a sordid Trade,
Whereby those
Crafts-men
seek to be enriched,
Who with their Drugs have silly men bewitched.
The
price of Dogs,
and wages of a
Whore,
Might owned have been as justly heretofore
For holy things, if offered they had been;
Yea, with less impudence, and with less sin:
For, some of them (as in despite of Heaven)
Were Merchandizings for men's souls, and given
In high contempt of him, whose heart-blood bought
That, which they to a worthless price have brought,
Yet sold too dear; because the
Buyers
lost
As well their own
safe-being,
as their cost.
Meer simple and despairing Malefactors
Were by the
Devils
Brokers and Contractors,
Abused with
Mock-pardons: Heirs
defeated
Of their
Estates; Widows
and
Orphans
cheated;
And many a poor soul with a Passport sent
To Heaven, as he thought, when to Hell he went.
This way, had those Pessessions their advance,
Which now are termed GOD's Inheritance;
And what can be a greater Derogation
From him then this? Or, what a Provocation
More daring, then for men to challenge that
As his, which he doth more abominate
Then
Dogs
or
Strumpets?
Or, what can in reason
More properly reputed then high Treason
Against the
King,
then to engage him for
And
Interest which
GOD doth so abhor?
And which insensibly may draw him in
To be a partner with the MAN of SIN
In guilt and punishment; by (to their emds)
Perverting, what he piously intends.
Let this be well observed: for, GOD doth yet
Their Prosecutions hitherto permit
But for Probation only, that he may
Try, who will turn to him; who fall away;
Who, will not unto his
Covenant
adhere;
Who, for preferment, profit, or for fear,
Will wave the same; how far forth those Pretenders
Will active be; and how far their Defenders
Will patronize them; that those things which are
Yet doubtful, may undoubtedly appear;
That, those plants which
God
planted may bear fruit,
Those which he planted not, be rooted out;
And that cost may no longer be bestowed
On fruitless plants which he did never own:
Such is the Prelacy, which did proceed
From mixture both of good and evil seed:
As may declared by their
Etraction
be;
For, this appears to be their Pedigree.
Not very long time, ofter
Noah's
Flood,
When old
Idolatries
began to brood,
The forenam'd DRUIDES, who from the
Oak
Which they much rev'renced, their name first took,
In these Parts of the world, usurped upon
Men's Consciences (as many since have done)
Even in this
Isle
(if that which may be read
In old Records be true) and being spread
Into the neighb'ring
Continent
from hence
In
France
next settling their chief residence,
Did there, an uncontrolled power retain,
Until the days of
Claudius Caesar
's reign.
The Flamin-Prelacy, which did begin
Before that time; then by degrees did win
Pre-eminence and reverenced was,
Till
Pontifical-Prelacy
took place;
From that, the
papal prelacy
derived
Their being; and a
Hierarchy
contrived,
Accommodated with a Discipline
From Gentiles, Jews and Christians hetrogene:
For, though composed of pieces patch'd together,
From all these taken, it was like to neither.
For, that the
Christian worship
might not seem
To be inglorious in the worlds esteem;
Or rather, that themselves advance they might
Unto a princely and a pompous height
In
temporal enjoyments,
they took in
Such
Pageantries
as had affected been
By carnal Worshippers, by alteration
In some things; and in some by imitation:
So, by degrees, they totally threw off
That soberness and meekness with a scoff,
Which was in true sincerity professed,
Before the birth and reign of Antichrist.
The
Spouse
of CHRIST, because she did appear
In outside poor, though rich her Linings were,
With dis-respect they turned out of door,
And, in her stead, trimmed up a painted Whore:
So, mere
will-worship
was set up at last,
And in the Throne of GOD, an
Idol
placed.
From those, the
prelates
came; & when these
Nations
Intended to reform their
Innovations,
A
carnal prudence,
dreaming, that, if they,
With their
External pomp
was took away,
(Whereby some thought
God
's worship was adornd)
Religion
and
Devotion
should be scorned;
The
Prelacy,
upon that vain surmise,
Was here continued in a new Disguise;
Till that imposture was by Providence
Made manifest; and then, it was from hence
By GOD expelled, as both dishonorable
To him, and to his Church disserviceable;
To those intending no affront at all,
Whose
Function
simply is
Episcopal.
But, this
Expulsion,
being for our sin
Revers'd, and Prelates now again brought in,
That, and a
Sacra-fames
(in Excess)
(Not thirst and hunger after righteousness)
Hath so inrag'd them, that, they all devour,
Who fall within their new-restored power,
With high contempt (at last without regard)
Of what the KING hath graciously declared.
And those whom they of their Estates despoil,
With insolent upbraidings they revile,
As meriting nor livelihood, nor place
With them; and as uncapable of Grace
From GOD or men: But, cry, are not these they
Who lately took from
Holy Church
away
Her
Dowry?
spoiled GOD'S
Houses
in the Land?
On
sacred things
laid sacrilegious hand?
And vilifide his Servants? Thus, they crow:
But, they injurious are, in doing so;
And have as much in their blasphemings failed,
On
Hezekiah:
for,
GOD,
did not own
Those
Altars
or
High-places
overthrown,
And then mis-called his; nor owneth he
For
Bishops,
those who now so termed be;
Nor those impertinent
Appurtenances,
Which
Prelates
please to term
GOD
'S
Ordinances.
And, though they should, when they see
Babel
's fall,
Their
dreadful howlings,
and their
weepings
call
The
Churches sighs and tears;
no whit availing
To them, would be their howling and bewailing.
And, though some think this constitution brings
Advantage to the Thrones of lawful
Kings,
'Twill prove, when thereinto they better look,
It strengthens them, as Ivy doth an Oak;
And, that, of Men, no one sort under Heaven,
Cause
and
Occasions
have so often given,
Of private Quarrels, Discords and Debates,
And Wars, 'twixt
Realms
&
Nations, Kings
&
States.
The
Shepherd
therefore, hopes this, will by those
Who can distinguish between
Doves
and
Crows,
Consider'd be; and manifest it then,
That,
greatest Clerks,
are not the
wisest men;
Or, that, wise men through Avarice and Pride,
By wealth and honor, may be led aside.
And, though this hope should fail him in the main,
It will not altogether be in vain;
But, for the present, shall at least suffice
To feed that part which upon Smoke relies,
Till with essential nourishment suppli'd
By that, which GOD hereafter will provide.
Yea, though this
charming
should not prove so strong
To fetch back that which doth to him belong,
Thenceforth, content, his
Ewe
and
Lambs,
and he,
To live upon the
Commons
then will be.
However, other hopes may have success,
His best hopes will be rather more then less:
For, they are built on him, who best can judge
'Twixt what is, and what is not
Sacrilege;
And if his
Judges
partially shall deal,
From them, to that great
Judge
he will appeal,
Who cannot be deceived. But no distrust
Hath he of their Uprightness, who here must
Be Judges in his Cause; for, they have seen
What did befall them who unjust have been;
And hereby now, though he be much pre-judged,
May know what on his part may be alleag'd.
That which is claimed, GOD will perhaps divide
Betwixt both
Parties
when their Claims are tried:
For, out of that which they erewhile possessed,
The
Prelates
for their
sins
were justly cast:
The
Shepherd
was for his expelled too,
By him, whose just
doom
he submits unto;
As therefore GOD shall please he is content
To share in
Mercy
and in
Chastisement,
Till he under that
Heritage
is brought,
Which at another's cost, for him, was bought;
And whereto, he vouchsafes him by his Grace
A better
Title,
in a better place.
If all be judged, which he hath purchased here
The
Prelates
due; he will take his portion
there;
For, though it be a little while delaid,
'Twill prove the better share, and be will paid.
This, is the
Shepherds Case,
and this the Course
He means to take:
pray, use him never the worse:
For, he had not expressed it in this mode,
But that the Cov'nant PRELATES to explode,
He conscientiously adheres unto,
And dares not slight the same, as others do;
Because, he can discern
Truths
from
Delusions,
And knows their late Re-entries, are
Intrusions.
FINIS.