Divine Meditations Raised from Three Leaves of Nature
The source for this document is https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A91224.0001.001
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
LOe here's the Authors Shadow, pass
it by;
These Lines his Substance, will in Part
descry.
Gaze not upon his Shade unless to see,
And learn thereby, that all Men Shadows
be.
[illustration]
All flesh is Grass, the best men vanity;
This, but a shadow, here before thine eye,
Of him, whose wondrous changes clearly show,
That GOD, not men, sways all things here below
MOVNT-ORGVEIL: OR DIVINE AND PROFITABLE MEDITATIONS, RAISED FROM The Contemplation of these three Leaves of Natures Volume, 1. ROCKES, 2. SEAS, 3. GARDENS, digested into three distinct Poems.
To which is Prefixed, a Poetical Description, of Mount-Orgueil Castle in the Isle of Jersy.
BY WILLIAM PRYNNE, Late Exile, and Close Prisoner in the said Castle.
A Poem of The Souls Complaint against the Body; and Comfortable Cordials against the Discomforts of Imprisonment, &c. are hereto annexed.
Psalm 19. 14.
Let the Words of my mouth, and the MEDITATION of my Heart, he acceptable in thy sight, O Lord my Strength, and my Redeemer.
Psalm 143. 5.
I remember the days of Old; I MEDITATE on all thy Works; I muse on the Work of thy hands.
LONDON, Printed by Tho. Cotes, for Michael Sparke Senior, and are to be sold by Peter Inch of Chester. 1641.
TO The Right Worshipful his ever Honoured worthy Friend, Sir PHILIP CARTERET Knight, Lieutenant Governor and Bailiff of the Isle of Jersy.
S
IR, Your great Favor and Humanity
To Me whiles Exile, Prisner in
Jersy,
Wholy secluded from all Friends access,
Under the angry Frownes of their Greatness
Who sent Me thither, to deprive me quite
Of worldly Comforts; challenge a just Right
To these rude
Meditations,
which there grew,
And so in Justice are your proper Due.
Accept them than, as a small Pledge of my
Thanks unto You, till Oportunity
And better Days, enable me to find,
Some other means to pay all that's behind.
Your Eternally Obliged
Friend and Servant
WILLIAM PRYNNE.
TO THE CHRISTIAN READER,
S
Hut up Close-Prisner in
Mount-Orgueil
Pile,
A lofty Castle, within
Jersie Isle,
Had
Rocks, Seas, Gardens
daily in mine Eye,
Which I oft viewed with no small delight,
These pleasing
Objects
did at last invite
Me, to contemplate in more solemn wise,
What useful
Meditations
might arise
From each of them, my soul to warm, feast, cheare,
And unto
God, Christ, Heaven
mount more near.
In which pursuit, I found such inward Joyes,
Such Cordial Comforts, as did over-poise
My heaviest Crosses, Losses, and supply
The want of all,
Foes
did me then deny;
Give me assurance of a sweet
Return
Both from my
Exile, Prison,
and mine
Urne:
Revive my cold dead
Muse,
and it inspire
Though not with
brightest,
yet with
Sacred fire:
Some
Sparkes
whereof rakt up in
Ashes
then,
I laid aside, for want of
Inke
and
Pen:
But now enlarged by the mighty hand
In sundry
Prisons, Countries,
kept me so
In health and comfort, that I met with no
One day of
Sickness, Sadness, Discontent,
(Which I relate, that all may bless his Name
For his great Mercy, and expect the same
Support and Presence of our God in all
Those sharp Afflictions which may them befall,
As I have found, by sweet experiment
To my surpassing
Solace,
and Content:)
I have blown up these buried Sparkes a new,
And here present them to thy Christian view,
(Kind Reader) to the end that thou mayst be
Refresht with those Thoughts, which refreshed me,
And Steele thy Soul with
Faith, Hope, Confidence,
Against all Carnal fears and diffidence,
With that which made Me to expect with joy,
That blest Enlargement I do now enjoy.
From my long
Durance, Censures, Banishment,
Which God hath made a fresh, sweet
Monument
Of his Almighty power,
that all thereby
In all their Troubles and Adversitie,
May learn with Faith, Hope, comfort to depend
On God, who
in due time Release will send.
Thy Comfort, Profit is all I desire,
Next to God's glory; Lord, let the sweet fire
Of thy good Spirit by these Lines convoy
Such
Flames of Love, zeal, Comfort, Grace,
&
Joy
Into each
Readers
soul, that he may see
These
Meditations
were inspired by Thee.
If any profit, fruit, thou from them gain,
O pray for him, whoever shall remain
Thy Unfained
Christian Friend
WILLIAM PRYNNE.
A POETICALL DESCRIPtion of Mount-Orgueil Castle in the Isle of Iersy, interlaced, with some brief Meditations from it's rocky, steep, and lofty Situation.
M
Ount Orgueil Castle
is a lofty pile,
Within the Eastern parts of
Jersy Isle,
Seated upon
a Rock,
full large & high,
Close by the
Sea-shore,
next to
Normandy;
Neere to a
Sandy Bay,
where boats do ride
Within a
Peer,
safe both from Wind and Tide.
Three parts thereof the
flowing Seas
surround,
The fourth (North-west-wards) is firm rocky
ground.
A proud
High-mount
it hath, a
Rampeir
long,
Four gates, four Posternes, Bulworkes, Sconces
strong,
All built with Stone, on which there mounted lie,
Fifteene cast pieces
of Artillery;
With sundry
Murdering Chambers,
planted so,
As best may fence it self, and hurt a foe.
A
Guard of Soldiers
(strong enough till war
Begins to thunder) in it lodged are;
Who watch and ward it duly night and day;
For which the King allow's them
Monthly pay.
The
Governor,
if present, here doth lie,
If absent, his
Lievetenant deputy.
The Gates each night of this high towering Rock.
The Castle's ample, Air healthy, and
The Prospect pleasant, both by Sea and Land.
Two
boisterous foes,
sometimes assault with loss
This
Fortress,
which their progress seems to
cross.
The
Raging waves below,
which ever dash
Themselves in pieces, whiles with it they clash,
The
Stormy winds above,
whose blasts do break
Themselves, not it, for which they are too weak.
For why this fort is built upon a
Rock,
Of floods and winds; which on it oft may beat,
Yet never shake it,
but themselves defeat.
Thus potent Tyrants, whiles they strive to quash.
To shivers, 'gainst the Rock Christ, upon whom
They safely founded stand what ever come.
A Rock too high for floods to reach; too strong,
Too firm for fiercest winds to shake, though long
They beat upon it, with a roaring sound,
And blustering storms, to cast it to the ground.
(Enough to puff up minds not truly great,)
Portend at first, that pride it self should dwell
Within it: or such who in pride excel;
Or Make at least a proud and haughty mind.
But though this vice in former times (perchance)
Might here reside, and her proud throne advance;
Yet now she's banishit hence with all her train,
And long be it ere she return again.
Now naught but meekness and humility
In mind and habit, mixed with charity.
And pious heart
) adorn this stately place,
Let worthless upstarts, beggars, peasants vile
Be proud and haughty: this high mounted pile,
Possest by those of better Birth, Blood, Place,
Ignoble pride shall never once Imbrace,
He forthwith goes: and thence exhorteth all
Showing hereby, that pride more oft doth dwell
This vice, and humble are in highest state.
Whence can you better learn Christ's lesson now
Than in this Mount; where
Humbleness
doth grow.
In great and small, with other virtues bright,
Which grace these walls, and to the Isle give light?
O let this Castle on a Rock Inure.
A Castle, Fortress, Bulworke, Hold and Tower
Above the reach of Foes, or human pour.
And let this Mount, up which we daily climb,
Advance our thoughts to objects more sublime;
The highest heavens, with the wings of love,
Faith, servant prayers, sighs, tears, Psalms of praise
Both day and night.
Thus spending all our days
Up which we cannot run with ease, but creep
Great crosses, losses, and a world of woes;
The top once won, is pleasant; where the
Gaine
Free from all dangers that may us annoy;
Our largest thoughts, and never know an end.
Hath purchased Heaven,
for our
Endless good.
FINIS.
ROCKES IMPROVED, COMPRISING CERTAINE POETICALL MEDITATIONS, Extracted from the contemplation of the Nature and Quality of ROCKES; a barren and harsh Soyle, yet a Fruitful, and Delightfull subject of Meditation.
By WILLIAM PRYNNE, late Exile, and close Prisoner in Mount-Orgueil Castle in the Isle of Iersy.
Psal. 18. 2. 31. 46. 2 Sam. 22. 2. 3. 32.
The Lord is my Rock and my Fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I will trust, my buckler, and the horn of my Salvation, and my high Tower; my Savior, thou savest me from violence. Who is a Rock save our God? The Lord liveth, and blessed be my Rock, and let the God of my Salvation be exalted.
Psal. 40. 1, 2, 3.
I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry: He brought me also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a Rock, and established my goings, &c.
London, Printed by T. Cotes for Michael Sparke, dwelling at the blue Bible in Green Arbor. 1641.
Courteour Reader, I shall request thee to correct these few Press errors, which have scaped in some Copies in my absence.
Errata.
Page 1. line 10. for the, read this. p. 3. l. 12. r. make. p. 18. l. 3. when whom. l. 6. them. r. him. p. 19. l. 8. to r. in. p. 32. l. 24. of, on. p. 33. l. 18. sin, weeds. p. 34. 7. they, these. p. 47. l. 5. must, much. p. 65. l. 15. be, lie. p. 71. l. 19 greatest. p. 82. l. 21. lose, close. p. 83. l. 13. others, 1. p. 93. l. 21. fined, fixed. p. 95 l 22. and, Oh. l. 23. Satan, Satin. p. 98. l. 25. them, then. l. 27. stations, passions. p. 103. l. 15. over, ever. p. 108. l. 21 thee, they. p. 119. l. 6. to. or. p. 125. l. 23 arrived, armed. l. 25. flattering. p. 149. l. 6. shall, should. p. 164. l. 1. the, then. p. 165. l. 13. the one, thine. p. 169. l. 11. prints, paints.
Printers
oft
err,
but not as other men;
Their
Errors
are
corrected
with a
Pen.
ROCKES IMPROVED. Comprising certain Poetical Meditations, extracted from the contemplation of the Nature and Qualities of Rocks; a Barren and Harsh Soyle, yet a Fruitful and Delightfull Subject of Meditation.
THE PROEME.
The ragged Rocks, which round
about it lie;
My Working thoughts begin
from thence to raise
And mine own Profit: which my heart may warm,
Yea mount to Heaven, and vain fancies charm.
Meditations of the first Ranke, Parallelling Christ and Rocks together.
ANd first, the Rocks do lively represent
A complete Image, full of sweet content,
Of Christ our Rock; since that both They and He
In Name and Nature fitly do agree.
Are they called Rocks? So he in sacred Writ
1.
The Stony Rocks no other Father know
So Christ (both God and Man) no Father knows
Men's shallow Thoughts,
and in them wonder breeds.
2.
And found such buildings as shall not decay.
But last and stand in spite of Floods, Stormes, wind,
Which may beat on them, yet no entrance find,
On which the Church is built:
On Him alone
Our Souls so safe, fast, firmly, founded lie,
That they shall stand for all eternity
Unshaken, undemolisht,
maugre all
Through Men or Devils Malice: Happy they
Who on this firm Rock, all their buildings lay.
3.
From Christ our Rock,
Men's drooping souls to cheare
And sweeten all sour Crosses which they bear.
4.
All precious Stones, and Jewels Rocks do breed:
The first, our Bodies decke, but for a space;
The first, in Mans eyes are a lovely sight;
The last in God's eyes makes us shine most bright.
O let us then, these Jewels only prize,
5.
The richest
Mines of Silver, Gold, Tin, Lead,
Whence not dig'd out with pains, they useless lie
And none are bettered, or enriched thereby.
Thus all the Mines, and
Treasures of God's Grace
Yet none do happy, rich, or wealthy grow
By these hid Treasures, though they overflow;
With Prayers, Tears, Faith, Hope, and Patience.
O let us then be ever drawing Oare
Out of our Rock Christ, in whom there's such store
May there their Souls, and Bags forever fill.
6.
The
purest, best, and pleasanist waters spring
To Man and Beast,
whose
Thirst they quench and stay,
Their bodies bathe, and wash their filth away.
Thus from our Rock Christ, and his pierced side,
(
To
save, bathe, cleanse, refresh all broken Hearts,
And quench hell flames, with Satan's, fiery Darts:)
As far surpass the purest Streames that flow,
From all the Rocks, or Fountaines here below.
Whence streams of waters gushed to redress,
And
quench the Peoples Thirst, when Moses Rod
It
smote, and pierced by command from God.
(Yea every Rock whence Cristall waters spring)
Our Rock Christ
to our Minds, and to present
Him to our eyes, and Hearts with great content:
From whose pierced Hands and side with Nayles
and Spear,
Did sweetly flow, God's wrath to quench, allay,
His people's Thirst, and wash their sins away.
We need not then a Crucifix, to bring
Christ to our Minds, since every Rock and Spring
Present Christ and his Passion to our Eyes;
Let Papists then behold their painted sticks;
Each Rock to me shall be a Crucifix,
Than all the Pictures of the Roman Whore;
7.
The scorching Sun and Storms that on Men beat;
Which sweet Refreshment to the weary brings,
And cools them more than any limpid Springs.
Against all Heates that scorch, all sins that lade
His Saints; whose weary Sin-burnt Souls can gain
That they an Heaven here on Earth possess.
O let us still abide in this blest shade,
Where-with our souls are eased, and happy made.
8.
In times of Danger, for Security;
Feet, Hands, wherein our Souls may safely hide
Themselves against all storms that Devils, Hell,
World, flesh, or Sin can raise up, them to quell.
O let us to these blessed Holes, Clifts fly
For Shelter, and in them both live and die.
Yea let each Hole and Clift which we espy
In Rocks, present Christ's wounds, Holes, to our Eye,
And so imprint them in our Hearts and Mind,
That they may still sweet Solace in them find.
9.
No changes,
while Things, Seas still ebb, and flow
About them. So our Rock
Christ lasts for aye
And still the same for all eternity,
When all things else decay, wax, old and die.
Friends, Parents, Kindred, Goods, Lands, Cities, States,
Falls, Changes, Periods;
and do pass away;
He still continues in the self-same plight,
Friend, Treasure, Portion,
who thus lasts for aye,
Then when all Friends, Helps, Stayes, Hopes
else fail,
He
Oh prize Him most who doth all else excel,
And still remains when they bid us farewell.
10.
Fort, Refuge in all Dangers:
and from hence
Most
Castles, Towns, Forts on them settled ar,
Which guard whole Kingdoms, both in Peace
and war;
To these men
in all places
use to fly
For aid and shelter in extremity,
And is not Christ our Rock, the strongest Mound,
Their Forts, strength, fafty upon Him, and
fly
To him alone in all their Miserie?
Where they in
safety
live, and dare defy
Both Men and Devils with security.
O let us then on Him alone repose
11.
Build, dwell and hide themselves:
Christ's chosen
seed
From all such Perills as shall them betide.
Let this their wisdom teach all others grace
In this Rock Christ, their Strength, Nests, Homes to
place.
12.
Him whiles they view Him but with carnal Eyes.
And yet as Rocks,
though ragged,
vile and bare
In outward form, contain within them rare
And precious Jewels, Stones, Mines, of all Kinds;
So though our Rock, Christ, unto carnal Minds
In outward show seems base; yet
in Him lie
Nought else but
Dust, Drosse, Dung, within them have.
13.
Rocks fence the Land against the raging Seas,
Which else would swallow it with speed, and ease.
Gainst Devils, Tyrants, Wolves; who else would sweep
Them clean away, and speedily devour,
If not protected by his Mighty Power.
O give Him then the praise of this sweet Grace
Who thus preserves us safe in every place.
14.
Rocks oft times Harbours make for Ships to ride
In safety both from Pirates, Stormes, winds, Tide.
Who fly to Him, and for help on him call
In all their Troubles;
where they may repose
Themselves in
safety,
maugre Stormes, or Foes.
15.
Rocks through the world near hand dispersed lie
A Rock to shield, and guard his chosen Band,
In all their Dangers, and perplexities,
Thrice happy he who in him fenced lies.
16.
God well accepted
in most grateful wise,
And by
some wonder graced the Sacrifice
And offer to him;
not on Altars gay.
Thus God
those Praises, Alms, Tears, Prayers, Cries,
Doth most regard,
and
them alone approve
Of his rich Odors, which their stink consume.
17.
And that all Altars, Offerings must proceed
From Him, or else theyle stand us in no steed.
And sure to fall,
which on Christ do not stand;
All Altars but Himself, both old and new.
18.
No lazy, fearful Persons can ascend
Their Minds, Force, Might thereto, who hardly get
Upon them but with earnest pain and sweat,
Nay falls, ofttimes, and Bruises: so all those
A Rock so Narrow, craggy, steep, Sublime
They climb upon Him, and a building rear.
O then let all who think this Rock to mount
Unto this work,
which will their pains requite.
19.
Rocks are too Hard, on which to sleep secure:
Those who intend on this Rock safe to lie,
Lest world, flesh, Devil them surprise and slay.
20.
Rocks in, or near the Seas, and waters are;
So
Christ,
our Rock, on
earth did oft reside
Neare to the Sea; yea, on it, walk and ride:
Lifting his Head above the proudest Seas,
And calming all their raging waves with ease:
Yea, prove a footstool for his
feet to tread,
All other Rocks in waters sink, Christ Sails,
Swimmes, walks upon, and over them prevails.
21.
Most, ragged Rocks contemn, neglect, forsake,
Themselves unto them for security,
And then they praise, and highly magnify
Those Rocks they held before in such disgrace,
As the most strong, sweet, best, and safest place.
Enforce them to Him, to protect and free.
Them from the Evils which they fear and flee.
And then no place so sweet, safe, delicate
As this our Rock before left desolate.
But yet as those who unto Rocks do fly,
Not out of love, but mere necessity,
So, such
whom Feares, or Perills force, and send
Depart from Him, and will no longer stay,
When as their Dangers, Troubles, Feares are gone,
And most unkindly leave Him all alone.
Hence may all Popelings Learn, that
Multitude,
22.
Rocks humble are, and never upwards tend,
Himself,
but
never sought high state or Place;
Moving from Heaven down to Earth below,
To quench all Pride, and make men humble grow.
Who then dares swell with Pride, or Haughtinesse
When Christ, Himself did thus so low depress;
Nay second Person in the Deity?
23.
Sea, Land, nay Heaven
may the better Ken.
And with delight see farther, and far more
Than they on lower ground beheld before.
Thus men high mounted on our Rock, Christ, view
And glorious Sights of God, and things above
As rap their souls, and make them sick of Love.
Thence they behold all Earthly things below
With other Eyes, and both discern and know
And very small when viewed thus from on high.
24.
They leave no tract, way, steps, that can be spide.
When that old
Serpent Satan crept upon
Our
Rock Christ,
with his strong Temptation,
Of him or his Assaults on Him took place.
25.
When
Christ our Rock for forty days and nights
Had fasted, then the Devil Him incites
Which He denide,
though then he bread did need:
Yet of his tender Mercy to Mankind,
And their poor souls, which are with hunger
pinde,
Of life, wherewith their hungry Souls are fed.
Yea, rather than his chosen, Bread shall need,
The Rocks and Stones their Souls shall fat and
feed,
Nay feast with those
sweet wafers,
which their
Mind,
Let then our Hearts be right we
need not fear
Since every Rock and Ston's a Magazine
To feed, store, feast them still with Bread Divine.
26.
When
God himself
of his abundant Grace
Shew'd forth his glorious Presence, and blest Face
To Moses and Elias;
he
them placed
With this grand Honor, Him to view.
When we
Our Souls to ravish; we must stand, and hide
Within the Clifts of our Rock, Christ's peirc'd side
Wherein we may with Comfort view God's face.
O let our Souls in these Clifts dwell and stay,
In such sweet manner, and such lively sort,
As will our Souls with Love and Joy transport.
27.
And stumble on them;
yea, oft times withal,
Themselves to bruise, maim, break, and hurt so sore,
That they expire therewith, and rise no more;
Thus
Christ
becomes to many a wicked one
Who on Him stumble, slip, and headlong fall,
And dash themselves in pieces therewithal.
O then beware how we against Him hit
28.
And supple hardest swellings, when they rage.
Heale wounds, and Ulcers; supplest
Oyles of Grace,
Proceede from Christ,
a Rock
most firm and sure.
Lord give us store of this soft Oil, that we
Our Hearts made soft, our wounds quite healed
may see.
29.
The Mines and
Treasures which in Rocks hid lie,
The Sacred
hidden Treasures
which do
dwell
Vast, boundless, endless, that
they far exceed
Saints largest thoughts and in them wonder breed.
O let us still contemplate more and more
To fill our Souls with sweetest joys,
and make
Them for the Love of these,
all else forsake.
30.
Cry, stir,
though Tempests, Seas, Winds, Axes, Rain,
Nay Sledges be at upon them, and them bruise,
Break, hew, cleave, pierce, cut, lance, & much misuse.
His Cross, wrongs, sufferings, Death without all cry,
Complainte, resistance; like a Sheep before
Her shearer, which doth never bleate, stir, roar.
Learn to bear crosses with like Patience.
31.
They still exposed are to Cold, or Heate:
Sometimes the Seas surround & drown them quite
And oft the ice and snow them hide from sight:
Floodes, Tempests, Heate, Cold, Crosses of all Kinds,
Which for a time did hide,
immerge,
at last,
Quite over-whelme Him, till the Storm was past.
From Stormes, Winds, Floods, since Christ did them
endure?
32.
The Death of this chief Rock for to lament:
Yea, to bear witness of his Deity,
That Heart is harder, worse than Rock or Stone,
Which Christ's Death cannot rent, nor cause to
moan.
In pieces, when Christ shall it shake, smite, call
By his Almighty Hand, or voice; which make
Lord let the Thoughts of thy Death quite relent
Our Rockie Hearts, and move them to repent.
33.
Free from corruption, Him for aye to praise.
O fear not then, though we return to dust,
Drosse, and Corruption; and our Corps restore
To such a State, that it shall die no more;
But live in endless Glory, and excel
34.
Rocks though they drowned be, appear again,
And fixed in their Places still remain:
So
Christ, though Dead, and laid in Grave, arose
Above the reach of Floodes;
where he on high
Here shall this
ever-living
raised Rock
35.
Our Rock Christ being dead
entombed lay
But our
dead Rock, a Rock had for his Urne:
Which Him received, and habor'd even when,
Themselves,
His bloody Passion to Lament!
And then Him in their Bosomes lodge, and placed,
When men Him slew, forsook, and most disgraced!
Who never, pity, feel, regard, bemoan
Christ's cruel Death and Passion; nor receive
Him, when the Rocks rent, and Him House-room
give!
O let us learn from hence, how hard, unkind,
More pity, harbor, love, from Rocks than we,
Untill our Hearts by Grace relented be.
And let this Thought our Hearts of Rock now
thaw,
And Floods of bitter Tears out from them draw.
36.
Intombed in a Rock; yet the third day
Rose up from thence:
it makes each Hole and Cave
We see in Rocks, no other but a Grave:
Which done, it then revives our souls again
In Grave forever; since our Savior rose
From thence again, to raise us, and all those
In endless Bliss, where he doth now remain.
Let these sweet Speculations ever cheare
Our drooping Souls, and banish all their Fear.
Thus Barren Rocks unto a pious Mind
When they in Name and Nature thus express
Unto the life, with Fruit and Pleasantnesse;
Far better than all Pictures which the Blind,
Dull Papists make, to bring them to their Mind,
The truest, best Idea that we can
Have of Him
) with each Rock, Stone they espy
Were not enough to show him to their eye,
Without those Idols, which have thrust aside
These better Pictures, and Christ from them hide.
38.
And Refuge art of thine Elected Flock,
Teach us thus sweetly to behold, and view
Thee in each Rock we see; for to renew,
Melt, change, delight, rejoice our Hearts, & make
The only Rock, where they full safe shall be.
Meditations of the second Kind, comparing Rocks and Sins together.
AGaine, Me thinks, the Rocks do typify,
the nature of those Sins which in us lie.
1.
To those who them upon their shoulders bear:
Yet Light, not ponderous to their proper place:
So, to all Hearts renu'd with saving Grace
2.
Rocks press and bruise Them sore on whom they lie,
And for mere anguish make them Roare
and Cry.
Sins do so too; when God doth once awake
Our souls, and work naught else but their distress.
Each day they sink men lower than they were,
Till by degrees they them to Hell down-bear.
And sink our Souls to Hell, without redress.
4.
All such, within whose Hearts they Lodgings take:
Beware then how such Guests we entertain,
5.
Rocks make men oft to stumble, slip, and fall;
And break their Bones, Limbs, Neckes, oft times withal:
From Slips and Break-neck-falls, we must them flee.
6.
These make Men ugly, filthy, Steril, base,
And all their Glory, Beauty quite deface;
7.
And none but God can move them thence again:
Fast centred, till God's own Almighty hand
Expell them thence.
O then let no Sins lie
Upon our Souls, but out them presently,
Within them, they are hardly dispossessed.
8.
Mine, pierce, demolish.
So let all Men speak,
We ruin, break them still with much ado.
He who doth think his Sins with ease to quell,
Shall never tame, nor from him them expel.
9.
Of Foes or Perils, and to think all sure:
Who fear no dangers till they sink to hell.
O then beware lest Sins make us secure.
No State's so ill, as that which seems most sure!
10.
Sins are so too, naught can then daunt, relent.
That they no Sin, Blush, shame, disgrace can feel.
Take heed then lest Sin, first, us shameless make,
Then Senselesse, Gracelesse, fit for Hells dread Lake.
11.
12.
And naught will spring, or grow there, till men take
Them thence:
So Rocks and Stones of
Sin decay,
No fruits of Grace will ever grow, or sprout
Up in them, till these Stones be digged out.
13.
And all both far and near may them espy.
Themselves to all both far and near descry;
Let all, but Great ones chiefly, all Sins fly;
14.
Though they their souls at last will quite destroy.
O Madness! thus in Sins to take delight,
15.
The
Steepe high Rocks, and Forts which on them stand
Much Paines, Long Seige, or Famine, which do pine,
Or starve their Men, and cause them to resign.
The steep, high, craggy Rocks and Forts of sin
But by strong hand, much cost, pains, sweat, strife, care,
Long Seige, and Easts, by which they starved are,
And forced at last for very want to yield,
Where else they would have made us leave the field.
Its then no easy thing to conquer Sin:
They must bestir them who its Forts would win.
16.
And drown those Souls which on them dash or hit;
Not in Sea-waters, but in
Lakes of fire,
Where they shall ever feel God's scorching I will.
17.
Instruct us then, O Christ, our Rock, to shun
All Sins as Rocks; and not on them to run,
For fear of ruin, and still give us Grace
To fly these Rocks of Sin in every place,
Those noted Rocks,
which thousands have destroyed;
Not once presuming to approach or hit
Against such Rocks; as others Souls have split.
Mirth, Pastimes, Pleasures, (where we least suspect,
Or fear a danger) most souls still have wreckt;
Teach us these Rocks to see, and then to fly
With chiefest care, and them not to come nigh.
Yea, since no Sea so fraught with Rocks can be,
As this whereon our Souls sail towards Thee:
O Shield us from these Rocks by thy great Power,
Which else will Split and Sinke us every hour:
That so we may at last arrive secure
In Heaven's blest Port, where Joyes for aye endure.
Meditations of the third Sort, suiting Rocks, and God's Elect together.
BEsides, these Rocks present before our Eyes
The State of God's Elect, in lively wise.
1.
With every Wind, Storm, Tempest: Even so
Adhere to Him in all their Troubles, Smarts:
No Stormes, Winds, Crosses, Changes can remove
Them from his Word, Son, Spirit, Truth or Love:
They cleave to him as to their only Stay.
3.
Rocks meekly bear and suffer Stormes that fall,
And never fret, rage, or repine at all:
Their Crosses, Losses bear most quietly;
Submitting unto God, whose Providence
All bitter Potions doth to them dispense.
4.
And of all
trusty friends, the Saints are best.
And to them in all Dangers safely fly.
6.
Yet though Rocks Outsides be but base and rude,
They richest Mines within their wombs include:
So though
Saints Outsides be but ragged, base,
7.
Stones
digged out of Rocks and hewed
square
So God's Elect,
though vile whiles that they lie
In
Natures Quarries in deformity;
Yet hew'de out thence, squar'd, polished by God's
Grace,
And laid in order in their proper Place,
And do all other structures far excel,
In worth, and glory:
Lord thus square, and lay
Us in these Sacred walls, which last for aye.
8.
Rocks for the most part lowly are and meek:
In this vain world; where they dejected lie
Till God advance them to the Starrie sky.
9.
Rocks Kingdoms, Islands guard and fortify
Gainst raging Seas, Floods, Stormes, and Enemy:
States surest Guards; Forts, both in Peace and war;
These Shield-off Judgments, Foes, Plagues, yea God's Ire,
Which else would wast, and scorch them worse
than Fire.
10.
Men's Thirst to quench, their wounds and sores to cure:
To Sin-sick Souls, and those who feel the Sting
Gripes, Torments, Flames of Hell and Conscience?
Or bind up broken, hearts, and chase from thence
All fears and horrid
Terrors? Which an Hell
On Earth oft make in those wherein they dwell?
Hence all such
wounded Souls do ever fly
Since no ungodly wretch can cheare, or ease
A Sin-sick Soul, nor aking Heart appease.
11.
Rocks most despised and neglected are,
As worthless Creatures: Thus
God's Saints oft fare
Though of Mankind the only Pearls, Stars, Grace.
12.
Themselves against them; and so break or split:
So God's Elect do never hurt, break, quash
Bruise, break, themselves against them;
who must check?
And blame themselves, not them, for this their
wreck.
13.
God
first
ingrav'd his Sacred Laws upon
Not brittle Glass, soft Paper; that they might
Out last all time:
God, still, his Laws doth write
They Time survive, and gain eternity.
The
two first Stony Tables
whereuopon
God stamped his Laws,
broke, lost were long agon:
These harder Tables of Saints Hearts remain,
And in them God's blest Laws for aye retain.
Therein thy Laws, from which it may not swerve.
And since it shall out-dure the firmest Rock,
O, this rich treasure ever in it lock!
Yea, make each Saints Stone-Heart the Treasury
Of thy sweet Laws, for all eternity.
14.
Rocks in most places thinly scatred are;
In secret Corners in obscurity;
Driven from Country, Lands, House, Home, by those
15.
Stones in all Buildings,
and them free from rent:
Yea; laid on barren Grounds where naught would
spring,
They make them fertile, and great Crops to bring:
So God's Elect, when melted by the Flame
And Stones of his Church here on Earth together,
And keep out Errors, Sects that would it sever:
Yea, sent to barren Soiles where grew no Grace,
16.
Rocks cut and polished, turn to
richest Gems
Saints squar'd and polished from their dross by
Grace,
Lord so refine me that I may be set,
A Stone, Pearl, Jewel in thy Coronet.
Amidst those Saints which thou reput'st such Gems
As far excel, out-shine all Diadems.
Sweet Jesus make me of thy Chosen Flock,
That I, like them, may be a blessed Rock.
Meditations of the fourth Classe, sampling Rocks, and Rockie Hearts, with ungodly Men, together.
YEt more, me thinks Rocks represent to all
Mans Rockie Heart, and Nature, since the fall,
In some Respects, wherein they well agree
With Stony Hearts; from which God make us free.
1.
Nought will them daunt, or cause for to relent.
Faces of Rock, which no blush, shame can feel.
No shameful Sin, Convictions, or Disgrace
Will daunt, or cause them once to hide the Face.
And vaunt of that which doth them most defame.
2.
Break, bruise, or hurt, all those on whom they fall.
And break, bruise, tear, crush, all they do oppress.
No Cries, Parts, Virtues, Merits can asswage
Their cruel Projects, nor divert their Rage.
O let me
rather fall into the Pawes
3.
The Corn we use, to make us Bread, or Beer:
Press, bruise God's Chosen,
till they be refinde
From all their Huskes of sin, and made meet
Food
For God's sweet Pallate, to their greatest Good.
4.
Some Rocks burnt in the Fornace harder grow;
Which serves to break, hew, polish, fit, and square
Rude Rocks and Stones, and Stately piles to rear:
God's fiery Fornace
Rockie Hearts makes more
Yea all its scorching Heate the which they feel,
Serves but to turn them into harder Steele,
Or Iron; for to break, hew, polish, pare
The Rocks and Stones which God lays in the
rare
And choicest Buildings of his Church: whose walls
Have in the Temples which they help to rear.
5.
The most mischievous Instruments of war
As Canons, Musquets, Bullets, Sword, Bills, Speares
With other weapons, where with Man kills, tears,
Torments, Maimes, Stabs his Brother in despite,
As if he did in naught but Blood delight:
All Mischiefes, Murders, Wars, Sins, each ill thing:
These were the Artists which did first invent
Each bloody, murth'ring, warlike Instrument;
The Shops in which they forged were, the Arms
That wield them still, & work a world of Harmes.
O cursed Hearts of Rock from whence do flow
All Evils, Mischiefes, woes we hear, see, know!
Lord free and ever keep us from such Hearts,
Which are the Cause of all our Sins, Ills, Smarts.
6.
From fear of Danger:
Stony Hearts are sure
Them in great Mischiefes ere they be aware.
Than squar'd or polished with the Axes stroke:
Men's Stony Hearts so hard and flinty are,
Them to his Rules, nor cause them to amend,
And sooner break than rent, or make them bend.
His Sacred Laws,
upon a Rockie Brest
Cannot engrave them: Lord what Hearts of Flint
Have Men, whereon thy Laws can make no Print!
And square them to the Models of God's Law.
8.
No heat of Sun or Fornace Rocks will melt,
But harden rather, and their Heat's not felt:
His fiery Fornace, and his frowning face,
Men's Rockie Hearts will neither warm, relent,
Affect, melt, change, nor move them to repent.
9.
Or Belly, that Mankind or Beasts do lack:
No Fruits of Grace, Faith, Virtue in it spring.
10.
Fruitefull in nothing, but those tares of vice,
And sin, which bar them out of Paradise.
11.
Rocks Deafe and Sencelesse are of good, and ill:
God's Word, Law, Works regard, Hear, understand;
Nor, fear his angry; kiss, his soothing hand.
12.
And though they seldom feel God's stroke or
Curse;
13.
The pleasant Showres, Drops, Dewes that on
Rocks light.
Make them not fruitful; nor in better plight:
But glide away forthwith, not sinking down
To make them Mellow, good, or sin to drown:
And frequent showers of God's blest Word; remain
Still Barren, Hard, and Sencelesse; naught will
stay
That drops upon them, but all slides away
Sinke down with speed, and freely enter in.
14.
Their Labors lost who do it, naught will grow.
Obdurate Hearts few use to Plough or Till
With Godly Precepts, Counsels; since
they still
The seed is lost
which on the Rocks doth fall.
15.
Rocks blunt, and hurt the edge of Tooles that
smite,
Or square them for good uses; yea in spite
Their Chips and Shivers dash against the Eyes,
Face, Shins of those that hew them. Loe the guise
Who check their sins, and hate them as their Foes.
Yea, let their Pastors in their Ministry
But touch their Sores, into their Face they fly:
So zealous are they for those Sins, which end
In hell, when they will not God's cause defend.
O that our zeal for God were half so much
As for our darling Crimes, when Men them touch:
Our dearest Sins; and thank, not them gain-say.
16.
Out of their Places;
nor mount up above
Down to the Center; whence they did ascend
To all that good is; prone to naught but Ill:
No Love, Heate, zeal to God within them flame;
His Cause they will not stir in for Love, nor Shame:
And never upwards Soare to view, mind, know
Of Death, Hell, Danger
up them screw or rear
Against their Wills: which past, to Earth they hie
With greater poise, and there still groveling lie.
17.
For good Discourse have neither Tongue, nor
Tone
When any fall to godly Conference.
18.
Their Nakednesse, and gross Deformitie.
Their Barenesse, vileness, wants exposed are
To all Men's view; till Christ's rich Robes of Grace
Cloath or Adorn them,
and these wants deface.
19.
No life of Grace was ever in them bred:
(Who knows how soon) and dead as Rocks
shall lie.
20.
Rocks till by force they broken be, and slit,
To build his House, Church, Temple, useless are.
21.
Since
all our Slips, Falls, Bruises, Sins proceed
From Stony Hearts, which make us take no heed.
22.
And sunken Rocks to split Ships most prevail:
Thus Rockie Hearts unless we from them fly
When neither Felt, nor Seene:
for then we run
With full-sails on them, and are quite undone.
23.
Rocks feel no Burthens, weights that on them lie;
Under the Weights and Burthens of their Crimes,
And why? because they never feel their poise
Till it them sink to Hell, and quite destroys.
24.
Not all the Men on Earth, with all their Art
Can make one Rock, or Stone; much less an Heart;
Not God:
O wonder, that Men should create
Nought but Hard Rockie Hearts which God doth
hate:
Such Hearts can none else but Men, Fathers call,
Which sink still downwards, till to Hell they fall.
25.
O then when ever we a Rock shall see,
Let these thoughts to our Minds recalled be:
By Sin and Nature: then New, soft Hearts crave,
With fervent Prayers, Grones, Sighes, Tears; so we
Our
Hearts of Rock, to flesh transformed shall see.
And if we find, feel, know by signs most sure
Our hearts thus changed, and made soft, and pure;
Let us forever in Word, Deede, Life, Thought,
Extoll and (y) praise Him who this Change hath wrought;
Over our cheating Hearts; for fear lest they
Yea turn to Rocks, and so for aye remain.
26.
And give us hearts of flesh,
we humbly pray;
And of all other Plagues, from us avert
This as the greatest, an obdurate Heart.
And since of all our Parts Thou dost
require,
Such
broken, contrite tender Hearts, as
may
Delight Thee most; and never from Thee stray.
Make our Hearts such; then happy shall we be.
Miscellanie Meditations of the fifth Kind.
TO wind up all; Rocks to our Minds present Some other useful Thoughts, with great content.
1.
Dig'd out of Rocks, and taken from the Quarres;
To build some Stately Church; whiles others stay
Still there, unwrought; though quite as good as they:
It minds us of that common Rock wherein
Mankind corrupted lay, through
Adams
Sin:
Culls out some Stones (though few) which he doth place
Within his Churches Buildings; where they lie
Fast join'd to Christ, for all Eternity:
When as all others (though
as good as they
Lye still unpolisht, in the rotten Mass,
And State of Sin, until to Hell they pass;
2.
Are broken pieces of some Rocks; I then
Behold my Tomb-stone, in each Rock I ken:
And say; Loe here's the lasting Monument
Wherein my Body must ere long be pent,
When all its Rust and Bolts shall fall away.
Which Thought digested, makes me still amend
My Life; and fits me always for mine End.
Let all revolve it oft within their Mind,
And they shall Treasure, Honey in it find.
3.
When I behold
some people dwell, live, lie
He who a Cottage wants his Head to Hide,
Shall find some Rock, or Hole where to abide;
In which he may sleep freer from fears, Foes,
And Cares, than those whom Castles, Guards,
inclose.
What need we care then here for House or Home,
If these should fail, yet Rocks will give us Roome
Have lived, and hid oft times without Complaints;
And been more happy in these caved Stones
Than greatest Monarchs in their royal Thrones.
Repine not then though Clifts of Rocks should be
Thine House or Home, since there thou mayst be
free,
Safe, blessed, cheerful, and to God more nigh
Than those who in the fairest Palace lie.
4.
Lockt up and hid in coarsest Rocks,
declare
God's dearest Saints and Jewels common Case,
And State on Earth: who thrust out with disgrace
From House and Home,
enforced are to fly
Whence driven out again by bloody Foes
(Like Gold or Jewels out of Rocks;)
they close
Untill some Flames them into Ashes fry.
Yet courage Noble Souls,
whiles thus you fare
And God's Choyce Treasures,
since you under Locke,
Thus lie, like Gold, Gems in some Casket, Rock:
Because kept closest, and not seen of many.
5.
When they beheld it, and did hide for shame,
Till they with Coates of Fig-leaves veiled the same.
Those wanton Females then that take delight,
To show to others, without Blush or shame,
In spite of God, Men, who them tax and blame:
Are rather shameless Rocks than
Adams
Race;
And for the most part void of Sence, shame, Grace;
Since most is
common
which doth
open
lie.
6.
When we behold Men with much Danger, Swet,
Paines, Trouble, vilest wrack to gather, get,
And draw from Sea-Rocks, for to burn, or dress
Their tilled Grounds, and mend their fruitfulness.
What Paines these take for Dung, whiles they
and we
Do not take half the Care, Paines, Travel, Sw
•
et
The richest Gems of Grace to dignity, fetch, get
From Christ our Rock, which would not only
cheare
And warm our Souls, and make them fruit to
bear;
That they all else as vile Dung would despise.
These richest Gemmes,
than they base wrack
to gain.
7.
When I a Rent or Clift in Rocks espy,
It minds me of the dreadful Majesty,
And mighty Power of our God which make
And duly pondered would in pieces tear
Our Rockie Hearts, & make them quake for fear
8.
When I behold Men, Tempests, Waves, Rain,
Wind,
At which though Christ (who seeks our Souls
to save)
Saints, Preachers, Motions; and oft times them smite
With sundry Judgments, Tempests, Seas, Malles, Winds
Or makes an Entrance:
nay
though many years,
He thus beats on them, yet no fruit appears:
O Hearts more hard than any Rock, Flint, Steele,
Which all these strokes upon them never feel!
With such hard hearts,
which will not melt nor tear!
9.
When I behold Rocks, Stones, most ragged, base,
Rude and deformed in their Native place,
Turn'd into goodly Structures of each Kind
Yea, set in Gold and royal Diadems.
I thence conclude, that God with much more ease
Speede, Art, can turn, when ever he shall please,
Into rich Temples, Jewels, Gemmes most rare;
Yea set them in Christ's very royal Crown
Like precious stones unto their great renown.
Most glorious Saints which Heaven doth now inclose.
Let no man then though never so mean, vile, base,
Lewd, sinful, once despair of God's free Grace,
Him from his wretched to a glorious state.
10.
And gush from stony Rocks,
me thinks they seem
From Rockie Hearts, when they once tender grow.
Through God's sweet Grace and Spirit, which
can melt
The hardest Hearts to Tears, and them relent
By streams when He them either smote or crushed.
Blessed Lord Jesus, soften, break, relent
Our Hearts of Rock, and cause them to repent,
And send forth Streames, nay Floods of Tears to
wash,
Our sins away, and all their force to quash.
11.
And from their Toppes their Prey far off espy:
God's chosen Saints whom
Scriptures oft compare
And thence they seek, find, take their sacred prey.
Lord make our Souls with Eagles wings to fly,
To this sweet Rock, and there to live and die.
12.
Which serve to moisten, soften other Things,
Make trees, herbs, grass, plants, flowers spring and
grow;
And quench the Thirst of all things here below;
Yet neither moisten, soften, fructify
The Rocks themselves, still barren, fruitless, dry:
Me thinks I view in them some Rockie Hearts,
Endew'd with rare, rich, profitable Parts
Of Art and Nature; which do good to many,
Yet to their Owners good, they do not any.
How many Preachers
others help to save
The Food of life, have starved themselves to death:
Others made Fertile, themselves barren Heath?
Except themselves, and so through folly fall:
Its hardly worth the Name of Good Art, Skill
That betters others, makes the Owners Ill.
13.
When I espy Rocks trampled on by all,
Christ's and true Christians States, to mind I call.
Throughout the world, and valu'd at no rate.
Complaine not then of any dis-respect.
No greater Honor than Ill men's neglect.
14.
Each vast, high-towering, massy Rock we eye
Presents to us the strength and Potencie
Did in a moment, both by Sea and Land
Raise up so many vast high Piles, and Packe
Such Massy Rocks on one another's back;
And them so strongly solder one to one
That all the Art, Wit, Strength, in Man's to weak
To rase these Mounts, and them in Peeces break.
A few large stones, pil'd up not very high
On one another's head,
and think it strange,
How men such ponderous Stones could rear and
range,
In such a manner, though these great stones be
But Pigmies, Pebbles to the Rocks we see.
How much more then with wonder and amaze
Should we upon those Massy high Rocks gaze
Which them so far in Bulk, weight, height exceed,
And may true admiration in us breed
Of God's Almighty Power, which could raise
Such grand, rare, lasting Trophies to his praise.
To which all Structures made by men do seem
But Mole-hills, Attomes, and of no esteem.
He who such heavy Rocks could make, lift, rear,
With greater ease
can lift and elevate
All who with Him or Them presume to clash.
15.
The very Rocks,
and them to waste, eat, tear;
Think and contemplate then, how time, age, space
All things consume, waste, weaken and deface;
How can mere Dust and Ashes think to last,
When time and age the hardest Rocks do wast?
16.
Those who in
lofty, fenced, steep Rocks dwell
Most others in these vices, slighting all,
As if no Mischiefe could upon them fall.
Whence sudden Dangers, Ruines them surprise
(To quell their Pride) from those they most despise;
Thus carnal Men advanced and fortifide
Deride all Dangers, Foes, grow so secure,
As if their Props and Stayes should still endure.
Whence God their Pride to punish and abate
Casts them down head-long by some sudden
Fate.
Which should make all, but great men specially
Beware of Pride, and gross Security,
Which them and theirs will soon to pieces mall.
17.
When as we see Men with must cost and pain
To Mine the Rocks, and Treasures thence to gain
Of sundry Sorts; where with they much increase
Their wealth, and make things meet for war
and Peace:
It forth-with minds us how with far more care,
Cost, Paines, Sweat, Labor all who Christians are,
In Christ their Rock; in whom there is such store
Of peerless Mines, and Treasures of each Kind
And store all Christians with all Things they need
In Peace and War, Life, death! Let this then breed
A Resolution in us, still to Mine,
And draw these Treasures from this Rock Divine.
18.
Whiles that we view Men Rocks to smite, pierce,
rent
With Sledges, Axes, or like Instrument;
We then should ponder, how we all each day
A fresh with those accursed Sins and Crimes
Where-with we grieve, pierce, wound Him at all times:
Which Thought should turn the Edge, and Point
of all
Our Sins from Him; upon ourselves to mall
Break, wound our Rockie hearts, because we rent,
Abuse Christ thus; and cause us to repent.
19.
When we espy Rocks dart out Sparkes of fire
When smote, or cut with Tooles of Steele or I're:
It sweetly minds us, how the
Hand of God
Should from our Hearts of Rock extract and draw
Such sacred Sparkes, yea flames as should them thaw,
Purge all their Drosse away, and them inflame
With a most ardent Love, unto his Name.
Lord when thy Rod shall ever on us lite,
Let it such Sparkes, and Flames in us excite.
20.
Springs, Quarries, Mines in Rocks, never drawn
quite dry;
Present most sweetly to each Mind and Eye
Springs, Treasures, Stores, and vastest Magazines
Of Grace and Goodness, which enclosed lie,
Within the Bosom of the Deity.
To feed, feast, fill, enrich, each hungry, poor,
Sad, pined Soul, with all their matchless store.
The very thoughts whereof our Hearts should fill
With sweetest Solace, and delight them still.
21.
In Floods, as deep as greatest Rocks;
I think
How smallest Sins are deadly, and as well,
As soon almost, as Great, sink Men to Hell.
O then beware of all sins,
since the small
Let Papists talk of Veniall sins, I trow
No sin is venial, when all sink so low.
22.
The worthless Rubbish in each Rock exceeds,
And hides the Mines and Precious stones it breeds:
Yea, richest Mines have ever greater Store
Of dross and off all, than refined Oare.
More Bad than Good: that Good Men's Ill, exceeds
Their
Goodness: that the Bad, Good Men obscure
As Rubbish hides, Surmounts
the Oare that's pure.
Hence Multitude, and visibility
Appeare ill Markes a Churches Truth to try.
23.
To pieces, or at least them bruise and quash:
To powder, upon whom he doth once fall.
O then beware how we pull on our backs
This Massy Rock which Men to pieces crackes.
24.
Upon them,
whiles such, who on Bogges, Floods,
Sand
Yea oft times drowned without special care.
Hence may we learn that those who walk, rest,
stay,
Themselves on Christ (the surest Rock) always
Stand firm, safe, stable; never sinking down;
Whiles those who on Bogges, Sands sink, stand,
and drown.
O let our feet on this Rock still abide
Then are we certain not to sink, fall, slide.
25.
But those who Scale them, hurt, bruise and offend.
Who rest upon Him, doth them safely keep.
Who dare presume Him, and them to oppose.
26.
All of the
Day of Judgment,
yet behind:
So full of dreadful Terror and Affright
Shall quake and shake for very fear; and call
Unto the Rocks and Hills on them to fall;
And into Caves, Holes, Clifts of Rocks shall fly
To hide them from the Wrath, Sight, Majesty
Of Christ our Rock, before whose dreadful face
The Rocks shall then melt, fall, quake, change their place.
Who did Himself, Word, Grace, Saints here oppose.
Shall be so daunted, stonisht, struck with fear
Till dragged perforce before Christ's Barre and Face,
Where tried, convict, condemned; with all disgrace
They shall be cast for all Eternity
Into Hels fiery Flames, there still to fry.
O let the Terror of this dismal Day,
For ever scare us from all Sin, and make
Our Stony Hearts to melt, bleed, sigh, break, ache:
And cause us now with speed to fly and hide
Our selves within the Holes of Christ's pierced side,
With joyful cheare, when others hang them
down;
Of endless Glory, in the Heavens high
O Christ (our only Rock) of thy free Grace
Advance, and bring us to this blissful Place:
And let each Rock, Clift, Stone we henceforth see
Instruct us thus, and bring us home to Thee.
The Conclusion.
WIth these sweet useful Thoughts, and
thousands more
The Barren Rocks, our Hearts, and Minds may
store
When we behold them: and if Natures Book,
And Rocks, whiles we upon them daily look,
Can teach us Nothing which our Lives may mend,
Or cause our Hearts, Minds, Thoughts up to ascend▪
To Christ their Rock, God, and the Things above,
Them to contemplate with the greatest Love;
Our Hearts are Rockie; We, quite void of Grace;
And Rocks than we, are yet in better Case.
FINIS.
A CHRISTIAN SEA-CARD. Consisting of sundry Poetical Meditations, raised from the Contemplation of the Nature and Qualities of the Sea.
BY WILLIAM PRYNNE, Late Exile and Close Prisoner in Mount-Orgueil Castle in the Isle of Iersy.
Psalm 104. 24. 25. 26.
O Lord how manifold are thy Works! in Wisdom hast thou made them all; the Earth is full of thy Riches. So is this great and wide SEA, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small & great beasts. There go the Shippes; there is that Leviathan thou hast made to play therein.
Psal. 77. 19.
Thy way is in the SEA, and thy path in the GREAT WATERS, and thy footsteps are not known.
Isaiah 43. 1. 2. 3. 5. 6.
But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee O Israel; Fear not, for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy Name, thou art mine. When thou passest through the WATERS I will be with thee, and through the RIVERS, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior, &c.
Psalm 66. 12.
Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through FIRE and through WATER, but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.
London Printed by T. Cotes, for Michael Sparke dwelling at the blue Bible in Green Arbor. 1641.
TO The Worshipful his highly Honoured Friend M rs Elizabeth Carteret, Daughter to Sir Philip Carteret, Knight, Lieutenant Governor and Bailiff of the Isle of Jersy.
T
Hat near relation wherein now you
stand
By
Habitation,
and a
Nuptiall Band,
To
Seas,
and
Sea-men;
did at first induce
Me to digest this SEA-CARD for your Use,
And his you most esteem; which in some sort
May help conduct you unto Heavens blest Port,
The only
Haven
which you now most Eye,
And strive for to arrive in when you die.
Accept it therefore (though scarce worthy view,)
As a small pledge of his Respects to you,
Who much adores your Virtues, and must deem
His
Muse
too mean to add to your esteem.
Your Engaged Friend
and Servant,
WILLIAM PRYNNE.
SIth God
Seas, Rocks,
in
Place
hath join'd together
It were unkindness them in
Verse
to sever.
And hence my
Muse,
which bates to be unkind,
Hath them, in these two
Poems,
here combinde.
A CHRISTIAN SEA-CARD. Consisting of sundry Poetical Meditations raised from the Contemplation of the Nature and Qualities of the Sea.
THE PROLOGUE.
T
His
World's
an ample
Uolume,
where
we may
And
every Creature
which it doth comprize,
A
Text
to preach him to our
Hearts
and
Eyes:
No Plant, Herb, Grass so small, so vile but can
Teach, and demonstrate God himself to Man,
With his eternal Wisdom, Goodness, Power,
Which he is blind, who seeth not in each Flower.
Look we above, beneath, or round about,
Amongst the world of Creatures which present
God to our
Thoughts,
and
Eyes
with sweet content
Me thinks the
Sea,
(oft viewed with delight,)
Shewes him most clearly to our
Minds
and
sight.
From whence a pious Heart may raise such store
Of godly Thoughts, that plenty makes it poor.
Meditations of the first Kind.
1.
The greatest Island, Mountain, Ship or Town,
As easy as the smallest, Mole-hill, Boat,
Or cottage, in its all-devouring throat;
Most sweetly represents to sinful Man
Of God's free Grace and Mercy; so profound,
That worlds of greatest sins in it are drowned;
No crimes so heinous, great, or numberless;
And quite abandon, this large sea of Grace
Shall over-whelme, wash out, and clean deface:
O sweetest solace to a broken Heart,
And sin-sick soul, desirous to convert!
What though thy horrid sins and heinous crimes,
Be greater than the world ten thousand times?
Without exception, great, as deep, as small.
O then despair not, but behold with joy
This Ocean, which shall all thy sins destroy.
Lord, let us ever Saile in this sweet Sea,
Where
Souls
are saved,
Sins
only Shipwrackt be.
2.
Length, Breadth, Depth; Bulk,
a vaster Deity
Then fear, yea fly his wrath, embrace his love;
Before all earthly Monarchs, since they be
Not by ten thousand parts so great as He;
Or as the
Sea,
that shadows to our eyes,
What Creature, danger then shall once dismay
Those, who this
Great God
make their only stay?
3.
The Sea points forth unto us every hour,
God's infinite, Almighty, Sovereign power;
When they with boisterous Tempest, roar, and swell
As high as Heaven, sink down as low as Hell:
Bounding its proudest floods with smallest Sand;
To show how great a force weak things withstand
When backed by God, since petty Sands can stay
The raging Seas fierce March, and block its way.
Such foaming bedlam Seas, and them dis-arm.
Of all their fury, strength, and them divide
Yea, dry at pleasure; to abate their pride?
And cannot he who bounds, rules, calms and quels
The boist'rous Ocean, when it roars and swells
With greatest force and fury, bridle, swage
Both men and Devils when they storm and rage?
And speed, than Seas a
potsherd,
if He please?
Their might or fury which our God still bounds?
Much less our Souls harm, or our bodies slay
Whilest we with upright hearts for his cause stand.
O sweet! sweet comfort to God's chosen Band!
All Tyrants rage, and near once fear, nor fly.
What ever comes, when God shall call us out
To fight for him, and show ourselves most stout.
4.
Besides, the Flux, and Reflux of Seas Tide
At certain constant hours, without a guide:
Its wise disposal to each shore, Port; Creeke,
Throughout the world, where men for traffic
seek:
The Earth to water, and all living things:
Of Fish and Creatures, which do live, breed, lie
Within its womb,
Men to delight and feed,
As well in times of plenty as of need.
What do they all demonstrate to our eyes
In these his wondrous works,
exceeding all
Men's Art, far more than Earth a Tennis-Ball.
O let us then in all we enterprize,
Submit our wits to him who is so wise,
Craving his aid, and giving him the praise
5.
Yea, these show forth to Men
God's Providence,
Which doth the Sea thus order, guide, dispence
All Fishes, creatures which it doth contain;
As Seas, which ever move, but never stay.
Upon God's care in all extremity:
He who each wave doth rule, and each fish feed,
6.
The Seas great depth, which few or none can
sound,
Yea, Ships, Barkes, Boates which plough the Seas
bright face,
Yet leave no footsteps by which them to trace;
God's hidden Counsels; ways, and deep decrees
Past finding out,
present to all degrees.
His paths in waters deep past man's display,
O then adore his Judgments, Counsels deep;
With prying eyes, beyond those bounds which He
In sacred writ hath fixed unto thee.
7.
It self both far and near,
to pious Heads.
And Hearts shows forth the vast immensity,
And Omni-presence of the Deity;
Yea every part of each:
O strange to tell!
Oh horrid Meditation! to the Rout
Of graceless sinners; when they go about
To hide, or fly from God; who doth fore-stall,
How can they then escape his venging hand,
Which is so near them both by
Sea
and
Land?
Yet matchless solace to God's chosen sheep,
By Sea and Land, where ere they live or go:
This makes them happy in a world of woe.
What need we then to fear a banishment
From Friends, or home, or close Imprisonment:
Can bar from us God's presence or his Grace?
Which ever make an
Heaven
where they dwell,
A
royal Palace
of the
darkest Cell.
8.
Which daunt all Hearts, spare neither Low nor High,
Bearing down all before them who withstand
Their furious progress, with a potent hand.
Against obdurate sinners;
who conspire
To break his Laws, oppose his Christ, despite
And grieve his Spirit, sinning with delight,
Him to consume them with a fatal stroke.
O let us oft consider, still fear, shun
Much less resist it,
praying
Christ to swage
The angry Floods can only drown or fright
Us for a moment; but if God's wrath light
Upon us; Soul and Body
both shall be
9.
The Sea so useful, good, and meet for Fish
And foul of all sorts that man's heart can wish:
From it
) and traffic for all things we need:
Who all this goodness in the Sea did place,
To make Men happy. Let this goodness raise
10.
Out of the Sea at first, and in it end:
Instruct us sweetly, how that everything
And therefore should by way of thankfulness
Their course, Aymes, Ends to him alone address,
Should all return to him from whom it flows,
O let us study from our Hearts to give
To render to him,
who our souls must save:
Most blessed God let us thus oft behold
Thee in this Crystal glass, the Sea, our cold
And frozen Hearts to warm, with these sweet
Rayes
Which it reflects, to thine eternal praise.
Meditations of the second Sort.
AGaine the Sea's of Christ a lively Type
And his dear blood, which doth our sins
out-wipe.
1.
For, as the Sea all filth doth cleanse away
From Bodies, Vessells, Meats, Hearbes, Fruits,
Aray,
That in it washed are:
So Christ's sweet Blood
And in God's eyes present them foul and vile,
Doth quite abolish, and so purge away
From all such souls, as on him fast hold lay
By faith unfeigned, that no filth nor stain
Of any sin, upon them shall remain
In which they shine as stars most clear and bright.
O let us prize this Blood beyond compare,
2.
By God's command; yet saved upright Noy.
When God's own people past it on dry ground
In safety,
shadow that red
Sea of Blood,
With Hellish Pharaoh, and his Hoast, so deep
Are sunk and drowned, that they never shall
Appeare again, their Souls once to enthrall.
O let our Sins in this red Sea be dround,
3.
Men to those Ports to which they would resort.
From Earth to Heaven, and eternal Joyes.
Sweet Jesus let the Sea of thy blest Blood
Conduct and lead us safely through the Flood
And Rocks of this worlds Sea, to Heavens Port,
To which thy chosen Flock with hast resort.
4.
The Seas fair, lovely, shining azure Face,
It's pleasant Calmes in Halcion-days God's Grace,
To us in Christ, (which raps into a trance
The saddest Hearts and fills them with content
And matchless joys
) most lively represent.
O then in all our grief and misery,
On God's sweet smiling Face still fixe an Eye,
Which will support our souls in all distress,
And cheare them so, that naught shall us oppress.
Sweet Jesus when the Sea we view or pass,
Present thyself thus to us in its glass:
Then if it wreck or drown us, yet shall we
Through thy Bloods Sea, escape and saved be.
Meditations of the third Ranke.
BEsides, the Sea exhibits to our sight
A lively Emblem of the State and plight
Of God's Elect, with all those sore and great
Stormes of Afflictions, which do daily beat
Upon them, whiles they pass this Sea below.
1.
Its flux and constant progress, none can stay:
Just so are God's elect, who
always move;
Till they arrive at Heavens Port in Peace.
2.
With Winds, storms, Tides:
And is not this the Case
(By sundry Tempests which they undergo)
From Coast to Coast, from Goale to Goale, to show
They Pilgrims are, and Strangers here below.
Fixt to no Certain Clime, and that their home
3.
The Sea is ever working, purging forth,
Which falls into it, and corrupt, defile
Its Crystal streams, making them foul and vile.
Those Lusts, sins, vices, which their Souls infect
With such suggestions as foul Devils cast
Into their Hearts,
them to pollute and Waste.
4.
To make them humble, and translate their love
From things on Earth, unto the things above.
5.
None dare to cross the Sea without a Card
Or Compass, which they still with care regard,
Stearing their course thereby, for fear they stray
Or miss their Port, and so be cast away:
Thus God's Elect, whilst they do sails and rove
In this worlds Sea, by Compass ever move;
For fear they miss their Harbor, or else hit
Their Souls against those Rocks, Shelves, Sands
which lie
To Cross their voyage to Eternity.
6.
The Ebbing Sea discovers to the eye
Those dangrous Rocks, Shelves, Sands, that hidden
lie
At full Sea Tides, which then oft drown and
sink
Those who approach them, when they least fear,
think
Of any danger:
So the Ebbing State,
And point out to them many Rocks, Shelves, Sands,
To shipwreck Souls, betray them to the hands
Of Hellish Pirates, which still hidden lie,
And undiscerned in prosperity.
By which they shun their danger, and commend
These Ebbes, which from such perils them defend,
Before those Full-Sea-Tides of wealth and joy,
7.
The lowest
Ebbe,
hath still the highest
Flood;
Their Floods of joy transcend their Ebbes of woe
Beyond compare, and all their griefs out-go.
8.
When Seas are at their lowest Ebbe, they then
Forth-with begin to spring and flow. So men
Belov'd of God,
when as they seem to lie
Past help, past hope in Carnal men's account,
Beyond all expectation, spring and mount
Above their Crosses, and enjoy a Flood
Of Peace, wealth, honor;
and the greast good.
If old examples fail, you may now view
The truth hereof in some yet fresh and new.
9.
Why Seas do Ebbe and flow;
not any Laws
Of Nature, Moon, or Planets:
So the will
The first chief cause, of all the Ebbes and Tides
Which here befall his Saints, naught else besides:
Men up towards Heaven:
So each storm and cross
And nearer Heaven them lifts up, and brings.
11.
The Saltest Seas the sweetest Fishes breed:
Yea, as the best and largest Fish are found
In Saltest waters: So the best, most sound,
Large, strongest Christians, which we find, or
know,
12.
The Seas salt waters cleanse and purify
Things that are filthy: Thus
adversity
Those Spots, sins; vices, which their Souls infect.
13.
Seas brinish waters pickle and preserve
To season Saints, who else would putrefy,
And rot in those foul sins, which now they fly.
14.
Augmented and intended by their Feares:
Yea, make them post to Harbours, for relief;
And bid the Sea adieu with Joy, not grief:
To God for help with greater fervency;
To God their Harbor, for security;
Whose waves and Tempests them still sore annoy.
15.
And as great blustering storms do sooner drive
Ships to the Harbours where they would arrive,
God's darlings speed, and oft times sooner send
Which calms their Sails, and makes them still to lie.
16.
The
Tempest that befell the Ship wherein
Did never slack nor cease, till he was cast
Into the Sea, which done, the storm was past:
Till Jonah be cast out, and they amend,
Which done, their Tempests cease, and calms succeed,
Unless some other
Jonah
in them breed.
17.
That fresh succeed before the first be past:
So Crosses on God's Saints so thick oft lite
Come on before the old bid them adieu.
18.
In pleasant Calmes;
thus Cross, which so fast,
So, thick press on God's Saints for many Days,
In God's due time, in sweetest Calmes of peace,
And Tides of Joy:
Blest Tempests which so cease!
O then in all thy sorrows, Troubles, still
Waite and depend on God by Faith, who will
As shall thine Heart cheare, and all storms appease.
19.
The wicked old world, and it overthrow,
Yet Righteous Noah did then escape its rage;
And landed safely when the Flood did swage.
And drown all carnal wretches which do lack
God's grace and faith to hold them up; when they
Who with true faith, their souls on God can stay
And Anchor; never sink; but swim and bear
Ariving safely, when the Stormes are past,
In Heavens Harbor, where they Anchor cast.
20.
All those who use the Sea, do
ever mind
Doth bring them nearer to it day by day
Their Joyes increase, the more sails on they lay,
Longing to end their voyage, and arrive
At that sweet Haven unto which they drive:
The Port above, to which they daily fly
With all their speed and might, and as each day
Doth bring them nearer to this happy Bay;
Their inward Joyes and Comforts still increase,
The more they long there to arrive in peace:
Mending their speed,
embracing with delight
(That which all others doth so sore affright)
Them to this Haven of Eternal Joy.
Lord, teach us Heavens Port thus still to eye
Whilst here we sails, that when we come to die,
We may attain it; and there safely ride
Free from all perrils of winds, storms, and tide.
Lord make us thine Elect, that we may gain
This Port, where all thy Saints in bliss shall reign.
Meditations of the fourth Classe.
FUrther, the Sea doth fitly Charactrize
Most wicked men's deportment, and their guise.
1.
When crossed, sick, pained storming more and more
As their afflictions grow, and multiply;
So as, their
Physic
proves their
Maladie;
And silent in the greatest storms of ill.
2.
But mire and dirt
from its dis-gorging throat:
Ungodly
men are restless in their Mind,
Much troubled, vexed; leaving naught behind
And noisome lusts;
which they cast up oft times
All places with the filth they thus eject.
3.
Within her womb,
the which she daily feeds
In wicked Hearts, and daily nourished.
4.
Moving with Wind and Tide which way they will
Direct and steare its course;
so
wicked men
They seem most firm; changing their friendship, love,
Yea Faith, Oaths, Friends; as Times, Winds, Tides
them move.
5.
Springs, Rivers, Waters, daily run and fall
Into it;
So though this worlds streams all flow
And fall into Ill men,
they never grow
The more they have, the more they cark and care.
6.
Then never make a wicked man thy Friend,
For fear he cheat, undo Thee in the end.
7.
Without remorse,
who in their mouths once fall:
Voyd of all pity, ready to oppress.
And ruin all Sorts; no worth, parts, sex, age,
Can rest exempted from their Hellish rage.
8.
Wrecke, drown ships, boates,
and men that on them
hit.
And sin, to which they others oft entice,
Amidst the which they so long sails and play,
Till both their souls be split and cast away.
9.
The Sea is harsh, tart, brinish, and naught grows
Upon those Sands and Banks it over-flows:
Unkind, at least to those who are renu'de:
Barren of goodness, grace, truth, piety;
And others make so by their company.
Where things are swayed by this wicked Rout.
10.
To all of all sorts,
like a common way:
Thus,
lewd men's Hearts do always open lie
So great, strange, horrid, but may freely sails
Within their Hearts, and over them prevail.
11.
The Seas salt waters far exceed the sweet
And pleasant streams; yea, drown them when
they meet,
Ungodly men in number much Surmount
That they oft times are hardly seen; and lie
Like wheat in chaff, hid in obscurity:
From whence we learn that Papists ill conclude
Their Church the truest, from her multitude.
12.
Or rule it, but that God that made the same:
Can break, tame, sway them, with his Iron Rod.
13.
Sea waters heated, soon grow cold again,
And always after cold, harsh, salt, remain;
So
wicked men heat with afflictions fire
Unto their former coldness, brackishnesse,
14.
We see Sea waters themselves cast and mold
Into each vessels shape, which doth them hold:
To every place, time, fashion, company;
And water like, will suite themselves full well
To any Sect, Religion, where they dwell.
15.
The Sea, with rage, the Rocks doth oft assail,
To over-turn them, yet can naught prevail,
But still with loss self doth break and split,
Not them, whiles its fierce waves against them hit:
Thus wicked men, whilst they with fury rage
Against our Rock Christ, or his Heritage,
And in the close, naught but confusion find.
O dash not then against these Rocks, which shall
Lord let us never be of this lewd crew,
But with thy grace our Hearts and Lives renew
Where they shall ever feel thy scalding Ire.
Meditations of the fifth Sort.
ONce more, me thinks the Sea (which ever
floates,
But never rests,) presents unto my thoughts
A lively Map of this vain World; (which, it.
In some respects resembles very fit;)
Yeelding them ample Sea-room, for to hale,
And chase this Theame with a delightful Gale,
Untill my roving Muse, quite tired shall
Take in her Sails, and let her Anchor fall.
1.
Now to begin this pleasing chase? the Seas
Are salt, harsh, brackish, and no Pallats please:
Through sickness, sorrows, crosses, which befall
Them in some kind or other,
for to make
Their Hearts more willing its love to forsake:
But most unpleasant is it to God's Saints
And make all salt we in it taste, or feel.
How can we then this brinish world once love,
Or be unwilling from it to remove
All sweetest Joyes, and Soul-refreshing sights!
2.
Sea waters drunk down, hurt, gnaw, fret, decay
The Entralls, and oft times take life away:
Corrodes, consumes, and at the last destroys.
Those who sippe of it, sickely grow, but such
Are past all cure, who swallow over-much.
Her poysnous cups,
which do so deadly prove.
3.
Salt waters still increase, not quench men's thirst,
He that drinks these, is dryer than at first:
This worlds salt streams men's drought can never
swage,
A cup or two, still makes them long for more;
And none so dry, as those who have most store
Of this worlds waters,
which do only feed
Not quench the dropsy; cause, not help their need.
O taste not then her streams, but them defy,
Which swage no thirst, but make men still more
dry.
4.
State, and condition,
never in one Case:
Sometimes it flows a space; then ebbs again
Forth-with; and Stormes, its Calmes still entertain.
If now it smiles, anon it frowns, foames, swells,
Ringing the changes more than any Bells:
Roving from place to place till death arrest
Our wandering Corps, and lose us in Earthes breast.
Sometimes the flowing Tydes of happiness
Mount us aloft; anon, some Ebbes depress
And cast us down; far lower than before,
As happy made, to be more vile and poor.
One space a Calme or pleasant Gale doth smile
And breath upon us; but within a while,
Tempestuous storms and whirl-winds over-take,
Tosse; tear, split, sink us, and we shipwreck make.
Ere night: in Honor and esteem this hour,
How many sailing in full streams of wealth,
Pomp, Honor, Pleasure, Favor, Greatness, Health
And all contentments which the world can give
Unto her darlings, whilst they therein live,
And dashed in pieces with a sudden fall?
Have in a moment felt such miseries,
Such fatal changes in their worldly State,
As no Heart could conceive no tongue relate?
Unconstant world (more full of changes then
The Sea or Moon) how can the sons of men
Thy sickely friendship ever will defy.
5.
Those Ships,
Barkes, Boates, that do against them
dash:
This world hath far more Rocks to wrack and
Split
The Souls of such as do against them hit.
With sundry other Rocks, are here at strife
Which shall most souls destroy,
and sink to Hell,
How dare we then approach these Rocks, or run
Upon them, which whole Millions have undone?
Or take delight this worlds ill Seas to cross,
Where most are Wreckt, none scape without some
loss?
6.
The Sea a smiling, shining azure face
And lovely outside hath her self to grace;
Wherewith she hides her savage cruelty,
Rocks, Shelves, Gulfes, and those Monsters that
do lie
Close couched in her, to wreck and to devour
All those her beauty draws within their power.
This cheating flatring world, men's souls to train
Into her deadly Snares (where they remain
Fast hampred till they perish) still presents
Her self to them, decked with such Ornaments,
Such outside, beauty, pomp, State, gaudinesse,
And seeming shows of present happiness,
Of her, and turn them from the things above.
Whereas, if they once saw, or could descry
Those horrid Monsters, Rocks, gulfs, snares that lie
Hid under her fair surface, they would shun
Her Love, and faster from, than to her run
O let us view her entrails, not her skin;
She's Gold without, but Poison, Drosse, within.
7.
Of Tempests, Crosses, Losses, Gustes, and Harmes:
How can we then lie sleeping in her Arms?
Or hope to find peace, rest, content, or bliss
In her, where we are certain all to miss?
8.
The Clouds above much darken, and obscure
The Seas bright shining face, whiles they endure:
So clouds of crosses sent from God, deface
This worlds bright Luster, much eclipse her grace;
Which in her Sun-shine, did her over prize.
9.
Those
Fogs, Clouds, Stormes,
which dark the
light-some skies
Ecclipse the Sun-shine, work much harm,
arise
Mists, fogs of sorrows which do interpose
Twixt Men and Heaven, hiding God's sweet Face
And presence from them, with his Rayes of grace,
From this worlds Seas, which naught but mischief bring.
O let us never fixe our minds or Hearts
On her, that is the cause of all our smarts!
10.
The lowest Ebbes Seas highest Tydes succeed:
Men's greatest falls from this worlds heights proceed;
Expect then when her Tydes do highest flow,
Let not then her spring Tides of happiness
Make men secure, proud, haughty, or to bless
Themselves without good cause, since none so nigh
Are to a fall, as those she mounts most high.
11.
The
Breaches which the Sea makes on the main
The Ruptures which this worlds Floods daily
make
Upon those Souls they batter, enter, take,
Their Breaches then, and them prevent with care;
Their entrance is at first with Ease debar'd
But once got in, them to repulse is hard.
12.
It empty is, and never hath its fill,
The streams of most men's Cares, thoughts, labors,
brains,
Into this worlds Sea run,
which yet remains
Nought upon that which never full will grow.
13.
Most lifeless things, as
metals, stones, dust, sand
As soon as cast into the Sea;
where drowned,
They are so lost, that they cannot be found.
Yet trees, which mount from Earth up to the sky
Whiles they are growing; and such fowls as fly
Upon the Sea,
not fearing, winds, storms, tide:
So men, deprived of the Life of Grace
Their hearts and thoughts;
no sooner launch or fall
Into this worlds Sea, but they sink down all
And in a moment swallows out of sight.
Whereas God's chosen Saints,
whose hearts and Love
And soaring upwards, safely swim and bear
Themselves above her floods, and still appear.
14.
Sea waters quench not, but increase the flame
On which men cast them. This worlds do the
same;
The more they have, the more they still desire.
Why should we then affect her floods, or store
Which never make us rich, but ever poor?
15.
These steare this World, and do her Rudder guide:
If Times, Winds, Tide, move with us,
then will she
But let them once, begin on us to frown,
She'le join with them to wreck and cast us down.
O false deceitful world, who dost forsake
All when they need thee most, and never take
Their parts but when they need thee not,
adieu:
Unconstant friends are ever false, not true.
16.
Some parts whereof by it are often drowned:
Their Souls to swallow, so that 'few swim out
Or scape her danger.
O thrice happy he
That can sails through it, and not drowned be.
17.
Sea fights of any other are most fell,
Fierce, bloody, dangerous, hot and terrible.
Against men's Souls them to destroy, or take,
Are far more dangerous, deadly, worse than those
Wherewith the Flesh, or Devil them oppose:
Her Engines, trains, assaults, theirs much exceed,
And none can scape them without special heed.
18.
As Ships built on the Land with force, toil, be
Still launched and dradge out into the Sea:
So man whence once formed in his Mothers womb
And launch'd by her into the worlds wide Sea,
Where he from winds and storms is seldom free.
As soon as borne, what he must here sustain:
Leave this worlds Sea, which doth us sore annoy:
And since we enter it with tears, cries, pain,
Its madness thus to part from it again.
What we with force, grief, sobs, first undertake;
Like ships, which gladly run themselves a shore;
Because perforce launch'd into Seas before.
Depart this world, than they it entered in,
And must by might, with groans, tears, shreekes
and cry
Be pulled out thence, and forced with woe to die.
Blessed Lord God, so steare our ships and Helme
Through this worlds Sea, which would us overwhelm,
And wreck forever, that we may at last
Gaine Heavens blest Port, and there sure Anchor
cast.
Meditations of the sixth Sort.
IN fine, the Sea suggests to each good mind
These Meditations which are yet behind.
1.
First, when we see the Sea,
it readily
Which make us Christians, and oblige us still
Quite to renounce;
and ever to obey
God's holy Laws, who washed our sins away
That we by sinning should no more offend
His Sacred goodness, but spend all our days
In just, good, holy actions, to his praise.
O then when ever we the waters see
Let these things to our minds recalled be,
To mend our Lives, renew our vows, and make
Us World, Flesh, Devil, and their Lusts forsake.
2.
Cross-Seas whose boisterous Tydes by turns oresway
Each other, and enforce their streams to stray
Quite from their proper course, and over-bear
Them so, that they their motions counter-steare
To that course they intend; in lively wise
A Newborne Christians state unto our Eyes
And meet each day, contesting without end
To over-bear each other:
Sometimes the
Floods of their fleshly Lusts prevailers be,
And over-bear the Spirits counter-tydes,
Which at the last prevail, put flesh besides
Its course and channel,
and through heavens great
might
Bear down its streams, and over-comes them
quite.
3.
The floating Sea when it invades the Land,
And drowns the Coasts that next unto it stand;
Which did the wicked old world quite destroy.
And then instructs us with all care to fly
Both Soul and Body in the fiery Lake.
This thought should move us, all sins to forsake.
4.
Into the Sea, which them doth quickly drown
So deep, that they can never rise again:
It paints forth
Hell
unto us very plain,
Men's souls and bodies, which there chained lie,
So fast, so deep, that they can never rise,
Nor swim out thence:
Which should us all advise,
To fly all sins; yea, more to fear and mind
This fiery Lake, whence none redemption find.
And since all fear in Seas for to be drowned,
How should they dread this Lake, thats more profound.
5.
The
Sands on Sea-shores, which do far surpass
Those multitudes of sins that in us breed
To make us humble.
And each flowing Tide,
Which doth the Sand both moisten, drown and
hide
From time to time, instructs us every day,
Through Faith, that they may be no more espide.
If thus we think, learn, do, by what we see,
From day today, thrice happy shall we be.
6.
The springing Tide which by degrees doth flow
To Full-Sea mark, and then by steps falls low,
With ships first built, then launch'd, next rigd, then
sent
And put to Sea, till they be wreckt or spent:
With all those Floodes, Ebbes, changes that do
lite
Upon him from the womb unto his Urne,
7.
And saved Noah,
with each Ship and boat
Which cross the Seas, and those in safety keep
That in them sails, when others in the deep
Depriv'd of these, are drowned; sweetly show
To us God's Churches State, which here below
When all without, are drowned and cast away.
Let this induce us in Christ's Church to dwell,
Live, die, for fear we drown, and sink to Hell.
8.
The Laws and Edicts, which God on its lays,
As well as smallest springs, or streams: How then
Dare greatest Monarchs; Princes, Kings, or Men
Themselves deem boundless, lawless and exceed
Let senseless Seas now teach them to contain
Within due Bounds, and not to over-strain.
9.
Or break their banks, great mischiefs, losses grow
From thence to men and Beasts, (which then are drowned)
And all such places which they do surround:
When Kings, or great ones out of Avarice,
Pride, Lust, Ambition, or some other vice
Out-swell, or break the bounds which God hath set,
Wherein they drown themselves and many more;
And then, too late, their dismal Fates deplore.
Let Kings and Grandees then take special heed,
How they their fined Bounds break, or exceed.
10.
The
Sea below doth ever flow Ebbe move,
So men on Earth,
their thoughts, words, acts should
frame
11.
Now waters ever stink or putrefy
But once removed out of their proper place,
Or let lie still, they stink, and lose their grace.
Thus men do seldom rot in sins, lusts, vice
And keep within their Compass.
But if they
Out of their fixed Stations, in short space
They rot and stink, in Sins to their disgrace.
O then beware of sleep and idleness
12.
When I perceive the Seas sweet flowing tide
Upon the dry Sands, shores to creep, steal, glide
By senseless steps, until it drown them quite:
It represents unto my thoughts, mind, sight,
On men, till they them drown and overflow.
O then let all, their first progress withstand
Nay worse; since flowing Seas still Ebbe again,
And leave the Sands dry:
Sins still flow and gain
They know no Ebbes, but flow and never give over.
13.
The Ebbing Sea which all its filth behind
Leaves on the shore; should put all men in mind
How their Ebbes, and afflictions should still make
Which being once cast up upon the shore,
14.
When I behold Our Females wash away
With water, all black spots of Inke, Soote, Clay,
Which on their faces fall by accident,
I wonder much, and cannot but lament
To see some spot their faces studiously
With Antic Patches of a Sable die;
Should God himself their visage thus bespot
They would repute it an uncomely Blot
A great dishonor, and use all their skill
To cure, or hide such black spots, Moles as ill:
How dare they then use Artificial spots
Which they, if native, would repute for blots
And deem a blemish to their beauty, nay
A sad ill Omen? May I not then say
Which make them odious to God and good Men,
Wash off, renounce these Satan-
Spots,
least He
Them
Satan's Spots
adjudge, and you to be
His marked Vassals, not his own washed train
Since such black spots upon your face remain.
What is it then to wear a spotted Face,
And that in God's own presence? Certainly
It cannot but be sin or infamy.
Which where
all's clean within, can have no place
By Christ's own verdict,
so that all
may fear
Or following great Vain Persons antique Dresse,
The Sea which hates spots, shall in judgment rise
Against all who with spots their Fronts disguise.
15.
The flowing Seas, which seem to kiss, embrace
The shore in lovely sort, yet in short space
Recoile again, and leave it naked, dry,
And faster
from
than to
it
use to fly,
Paint out in lively sort before our Eyes
Those hollow hearted friends inconstant guise
Who in the flood of Men's prosperity
Can hug, embrace, protest to live and die
Together with them, But as soon as they
Begin to Ebbe, and their estates decay,
Leaving them naked in their misery.
This is the common friendship, nowadays,
Wherein true Friends deserve both love, Crowns
praise,
And then draw nearest when all others fly.
16.
Few put to Sea, or come a shore, but when
It flows, not Ebbes, which Character, that
Men
And flowing streams, shunning adversity,
And virtue, which in full Seas scarce find place:
For as the flowing Sea still runs amaine
Towards the Earth, and never turns again
Till Ebbes recall it: So prosperities
Encreasing Flood, men's hearts, minds, loves, carries
Drowning all Graces, virtues that should grow
Within them; till some cross Ebbes which befall
From Earth and worldly things, to things above
Turning the stream of their desires, hearts love
To God and grace above, the Port, But, End
To which our Thoughts, Acts, motions should still
tend.
And them translate from Earth above the sky:
Were it not for these Ebbes, few would arrive
At heavens blest Port, to which they most men
drive.
17.
When tis full Sea at one place, it is then
Low Ebbe at others, Its Just so with men:
Somes wealth, flood, greatness, others make poor,
low.
And these their Ebbes, cause them to spring, rise,
flow.
It is never full Sea at once in all climes,
Nor in all men's Estates, which have their times
Be happy here; when some rise, some must fall.
Yea, those who have the highest worldly Flood,
Have oft with it the lowest Ebbes of good:
Strange Ebbes of Grace, and make them God neglect.
18.
The Sea in Calmes, and where no Rocks, Shelves
lie,
To cross its course, runs smooth without waves,
cry;
But crossed by winds, storms, rocks, sands, instantly
It swells, roars, fumes, and rageth furiously
Beyond all measure, caring not to split
And break it self 'gainst Rocks that hinder it:
Thus many men who seem mild, meek and sweet
Of Nature, whiles they with no winds, rubs
meet
Storm, and all rules of reason quite forget.
Oft in a moment, when crossed in their will
Aymes, Endes, Lusts, Causes, whether good or ill;
And like some furious, Bedlams, void of wit,
Will in their fits of cholor rather split
And wreck themselves forever, than not have
Their wills in all things, which they seek or crave.
This Bedlam fury doth too oft undo
Those it possesseth, if not looked unto
In time, and quite subdude, especially
Great men, or those who would be climbing high.
Let all them fly it: 'tis men's shame to be
As mad, rash, raging, as the Sencelesse Sea;
And to permit their stations to transport
Them past the bounds of reason, in this sort.
19.
When I behold men with much toil to row,
And beat the Seas ofttimes when cross winds
blow,
Or tydes against them run till they with pain
Their wished Haven at the last obtain.
It minds me how all Christians while below
Against all winds, Tydes, Stormes, which cross or
drive
Them from Heavens Port, till they therein arrive
In safety: which blest Harbor none can gain
20.
Its dangerous crossing of the Seas at night;
When neither Sun, Moon, Stars yield any
light.
Hence most ships in the night are cast away
For want of light, when few are wreckt by day;
This worlds Seas are most dangerous, specially
In darkest Nights, when no light from on high
Within men's souls, whereby their course to steare.
Needs must men perish then for want of light
To shun Rocks, Shelves, and guide their ships aright.
We should then for this light of Grace more pray
21.
The deepest Seas run silent without noise
When as the shallow, roar, lift up their voice;
With horrid rage and out-cry. So we see
The deepest, wisest men most
silent be,
Under all storms and Crosses quiet lie.
The greatest noise, brags, and most on them take;
And being crossed, pinched with adversity,
To brag, vaunt, rage, foam, chafe and over-prate,
Is a sure Symptom of a shallow Pate.
22.
Whiles that the Sun-beams on the Sea shine bright
They make her shine so, that she bleares the sight
And eyes of men, with those mere borrowed
Rayes
Which she reflects, and so to them conveys:
But let the Sun set, or a cloud it hide,
Her shining Luster's gone, and not espide;
When as the Sun-shine of prosperity
Of Carnal men, and makes her shine so bright
That naught to them seems half so clear, or
light,
Though all her Luster be but borrowed Rayes,
As soon as Clouds or Crosses hide this Sun,
Her glory fades, and all her splendor's gone;
O dote not then upon her hired light,
23.
The Sea is liquid, and
whiles men do think
Unfaithfull friends are like; whiles we rest, stay
On them, we fall, sink, and are cast away.
Who are mere flesh, but upon God alone:
And true Friends die, or cannot help at all.
24.
When we behold Seas constantly to flow
In spite of winds & storms which on them blow,
Twice every day; It minds us how
each day
Maugre all Winds, Stormes, Sports, Works, Company,
That would us hinder from this piety.
Of old each day, did paint forth to our eyes:
And as Sea-waters always jointly flow,
Twice every day together, whence they grow
More strong and great:
So every family
Or gifts of grace reside, should twice each day
Morning and Evening, to God jointly pray,
As well as privately; that so their Tears,
Sighes, Cries might sound more loud, sweet, in
God's ears,
Who with pure Hearts to God thus daily pray.
25.
When we espy ships driven quite besides
Their course and Compass, with storms, Winds,
and Tydes,
In darkest nights, and tempests for to cross,
Saile, pass in safety, without wreck, bruise, loss,
Amidst unknown most dangerous, Rocks, Shelves
when
Since diverse ships have there been cast away
Though steered by skillful Pilots, at mid-day
In Calmes and fairest weather: we must thence
(The best and only Pilot)
did direct
Their Helme, and them from Shipwrackes thus protect.
And learn that human skill, Art, naught avayles
Unless God steares the Rudder, guides the Sails.
No matter then what ere the Pilot be,
If God us guide, we shall from wreckes be free.
Our Helmes,
then we no Rocks, wreckes, need to
fear,
And shall sails safe, whiles others who rely
Upon their skill, not God, wreck, split, drown,
die:
26.
When I behold sweet pleasant streams to fall
Into salt Seas at last, which drown them all.
I thereby learn, how
worldly jollity,
In Seas of brinish tears, in floods of grief,
Fly then these pleasant streams which ever end
In saltest Seas, and men post to Hell send.
27.
When Mariners or Passengers long lie
Waiting for Wind, and opportunity
To cross the Seas to those Ports, Towns, Countries
To which they bound are, they will in no wise
Let slip, but take the first good Gale; which lost
May quite undo, or put them to great cost.
Their Wisdom should instruct all those who lie
On Earth below, for passage to their high
And Heav'nly Country,
never to omit
But whiles Life, Time, and means of Grace endure
And breath upon them, to make heaven sure,
And post on to it, with full Sayles each day;
One Gale of Grace or opportunity
Neglected, may lose us eternity.
Must not be slighted, but observed still:
And once departed, returns not agen.
28.
Sea waters in their Channels, are but light;
Under them all a Child may stand upright:
But taken thence, they very ponderous prove,
A Pipe or two, no Giant can remove;
On carnal Hearts, who never feel their weight:
Whereas to humbled Souls, the smallest
Crimes
Wherewith their Souls, are burdened, and oppressed,
More than if Mountains lay upon their breast.
The reasons plain; in one, sins in its place;
Try then thy State hereby: if sins weigh light
In thy Souls Seals, thy case is ill, not right.
29.
Pil'd up in Heapes, as in God's Treasury,
Or Common storehouse; who doth thence disperce
Them to all Places of the Universe,
Where they are needful:
Which in lively wise
Paints out most sweetly to our Hearts and Eyes,
Of goodness, grace, with all those golden Mines
Laid up in God and Christ, who day by day
These precious stores, to every living thing
Throughout the world,
and to their Homes them
bring.
How should the thought of their vast stores, feast,
cheare
Our hungry Souls, and banish all their fear?
Quite up, then these stores of the Diety
Faile, or diminish,
which still open stand
All needful things to yield us out of hand.
30.
When I consider how the Seas did stand
Till God confined them within Banks; whence they
If but permitted, would soon scape away,
And in a moment drown the world again:
Me thinks it points out to us very plain
Of our sweet God, who keeps them in their place,
To let them loose, to drown us, sundry times.
And then instructs us, him not to offend,
Who can at will whole Seas against us send,
Us, if not held off by his mighty Power.
31.
This world on Seas and floods,
•
s on its ground;
And all the things that We therein possess.
For how can ought be stable, firm or stayed,
That on unstable, floating Seas is laid?
Or Treasure, since it floates and swims away.
32.
The Sea is Homogeniall, and each small
Drop in it, hath the nature of it all,
With strange or foreign things, but them oppose:
Which should instruct all Christians, to agree,
Who in Faith, Life, works do not with them close.
33.
The Sea retains in every coast and place,
Her Native Colours, and sweet azure face.
A check and shame to that phantasticke crew
Can suite themselves to every Sect, Place, Clime;
In truth
are nothing,
and the worst of all.
34.
They foam, rage, roar, yea raise storms in fair weather
And toss, wreck, or endanger all that sails
Or pass their race, and over them prevail.
When Potent Neighbor Princes, strive, war, fight
One with another, with great force and might,
Stormes, perils to their Subjects still arise,
Which wreck, consume their Fortunes, Goods, Lands,
Lives.
And of all worldly blessings them deprives.
O Let us then be thankful for our peace:
35.
The Sea and Skies in color both agree,
When as in most things else they different be.
Those who thus do, shall oft times err and slide.
36.
Into the Ocean whence they first proceed:
And speed, our courses to the grave address?
By God's decree to dust and ashes fall?
If for the grave we still prepared be:
The only Harbor where we rest secure,
From all those Tempests, we did here endure.
36.
Nor need we fear; since we shall not remain
For, as the Ebbing Sea when it sinks low,
And seems quite lost, and never like to flow;
Yet in short space returns, and springs a fresh
As high as ever;
So our Corps, and flesh,
Though turned to dust and rotted in the Grave,
A spring, and rich return from thence shall have
With great advantage;
rising up again
And imperfection, in such glorious plight,
That Sun, Moon, Stars, shall not shine half so bright.
(Join'd to our Souls, and never more to die,)
In perfect bliss, for all eternity?
Whiles we here sails in this Seas dangerous race:
That thou wilt us from grave, to Heaven raise
〈1 page duplicate〉
〈1 page duplicate〉
Where we
more Bliss and glory shall receive
Mine own, and others Souls to thee convert,
And rap them into such sweet Extasies
The Epilogue.
IF all who use, cross, view the Sea, would raise
Such Meditations from it, to the praise
Of its Creator, spending day by day
Some vacant time, and pious thoughts this way;
What Floods and streams of grace? what tydes of Joy
Those sins, lusts, vices, which now taint, defame
Amidst all winds and storms?
what great increase
Of Faith Love, knowledge, zeal, and each sweet
Grace
Might thee enjoy, whiles they the Ocean trace?
When as their ships sink and their bodies die?
What change of Heart and Life would it effect
In those, who now God, and their Souls neglect?
If they the Sea would thus divinely see?
O! as they love their Souls, let me request
Them, and all others, as they would be blest,
Hence-forth at vacant times to lay aside
All sins, Lusts, Vices, which their Souls mis-guide;
(With worldly works, thoughts, cares) and then
address
Their Hearts and Minds in Sacred earnestness
Their drooping Hearts, their wicked Lives amend,
If any want instructions to direct,
Or help them in this kind, let them reflect
On this rude
Christian-Sea-Card,
which may guide
Them, till some better
Card
thrust it aside;
By which if they their course shall henceforth
steare,
They need no Rocks, Shelves, Gulfes, Stormes,
Wreckes to fear.
FINIS.
A CHRISTIAN PARADISE: OR A Divine Posy, Compiled of sundry Flowers of Meditation, gathered from the Sweet and Heavenly Contemplation of the Nature, Fruits, and Qualities of Gardens.
BY WILLIAM PRYNNE, late Exile and Close Prisoner in the Isle of Iersy.
Isaiah 61. 10. 11.
I Will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my Soul shall be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me with the Garments of Salvation, he hath covered me with the Robe of Righteousness: as a Bridegroom decketh himself with Ornaments, and as a Bride adorneth her self with her Jewels. For as the Earth bringeth forth her bud, & as the GARDEN causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord will cause Righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the Nations.
Cant. 5. 1.
I am come into my GARDEN my Sister, my Spouse; I have gathered my Myrrh with my Spice; I have eaten my Honey-comb with my Honey, I have drunk my Wine with my Milk. O Friends, drink and be drunken with love, O beloved.
Isaiah 58. 11.
And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy Soul in drought; and make fat thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered GARDEN, and like a Spring of Water, whose waters fail not.
London Printed by T. Cotes, for Michael Sparke dwelling at the blue Bible in Green Arbor. 1641.
TO The Worshipful his ever Honoured Kind Friends, M rs Douse, and M rs Margaret Carteret, Daughters to Sr Philip Carteret Knight, Lieutenant Governor and Bailiff of the Isle of Jersy.
S
Weetenesse
and
Beauty,
two chief Qualities
Of
Gardens,
shine forth in such radiant
wise
In you sweet
M
rs
Douse,
fair
Margaret
Prime
Flowers
of the House of
Carteret,
That 'twere Ingratitude, nay Injury
For me in silence here to pass You by,
And not inscribe this PARADISE to You,
To whom it is in all respects most Due.
Deigne then to own this little Testimony
Of Thanks, for all your Love and Courtesie
To me an Exil'd Prisner, in Jersy,
Who shall endeavor to be till I die,
Your Devoted Friend
and Servant,
WILLIAM PRYNNE.
A CHRISITAN PARADISE. OR A Divine Posy, Composed of sundry Flowers of Meditation, gathered from the sweet and Heavenly Contemplation of the Nature, Fruits, and Qualities of Gardens.
THE PREFACE.
S
Oare up my
Muse
upon the Eagles
Wings,
Above the Clouds, and screw up all thy
strings
Unto their Highest Straines, with Angels Lays
Men's Souls to ravish, and their Hearts to raise
From Earth to Heaven, with those sweetest Notes
Which
Gardens
tender to thy plodding thoughts.
A Theame of Meditation,
so Divine,
Rich, pleasant, useful, that no golden Mine,
No Honey-Comb may once with it compare;
Lord Feast our Souls with its Coelestiall fare,
Fruits, pleasures in such wise, that they may still
Loath this worlds Cates, with all things that are Ill,
Tasting no Pleasure but in Things above,
The only Dainties which they ought to love.
A brief Character of a Garden.
A
Garden
is an Earthly
Paradise,
No mortal Creatures, but God's own devise,
At the Creation;
God then binding
Man,
To Keep and Dresse the Garden he had made:
This was Mans first employment;
so as He
In this Respect a
Gardner
stilled may be;
Of the forbidden fruit hath much debast,
And with it
Gardens
too, which thereby lost
Much of their Pleasure, to our Paine and cost.
Yet in this doleful State of sin, and vice;
Yeelding not only Profit, but delight.
Food, Cates, Salves, Physic, Pleasures to the sight,
And other Senses; solacing the Mind
With sundry Objects which it there may find,
It, and the Body to refresh and cheare,
When as they tired, vexed, grieved are.
But this is naught to those Soul-ravishing,
Sweet, heavenly Meditations which do spring
From Gardens, able to rap and inspire
The
coldest Muse,
with
a Coelestiall fire;
Yea melt the flintiest Heart, and it advance
Above the Spheres in a delightful Trance?
These make an
Eden
of each
Garden-Plot,
And here are fallen to my
Muses
Lot.
Meditations of the first Kind.
1.
FIrst then, a garden paints out to our Eyes
In every Tree, Plant, Herb, Flower which our sight
Beholds in Gardens;
whose variety.
In smell, taste, color, form, fruit, quality,
And useful virtues for all maladies,
Wounds, Ulcers, Aches, stripes, Infirmities
Of Man and Beast, (so many that Mans Art
Hath not as yet found out the thousand part
From
Adams
fall till now,) at large descry
God's matchless Art and wisdom to each eye.
View we the goodly Colours, Beauty, Frame,
Embroidry, carving, fruits, leaves, roots (which
shame
And pose all Artists) with the Joynts, and sweet
Proportion of those Parts, which in them meet;
Who these rare pieces did at first devise,
Without a Pattern; and doth daily raise
Such worlds of goodly Fabrickes to his praise.
O let our Hearts, words, works, still celebrate
2.
That most transcendent Beauty which we see
With daily admiration in each Tree,
Plant, Herb, Carnation, Lily, Tulip, Rose,
With worlds of other Flowers, which the
Nose
The Earth and Gardens,
more than stars the sky,
Shining with rarest Colours of each kind,
So fresh, mixed, sorted, that they rap the Mind
Into amazement; sweetly manifest,
In some dark measure, to each pious Breast,
The Noone-day Suns more dark than any Night.
Why do we then like doting Fools admire
A comely Face, neck, hand, bush, brave Attire,
Or wax proud of them? (as most do,) since
grass,
The fairest Kings Queen's, Ladies, whose hands, face
And rich Array, compared to these, are base.
O! if we dote on Beauty, let the Rayes
And Comprehension,
pierce,
melt, rap, transport
That they may ever burn with its sweet flame,
And deem all Beauty else not worth the Name;
Not half so lovely, comely as a flower.
3.
Each
Plant, Herb, Roote, Grass, Flower which doth
grow,
Since all the Monarchs, Artists, Men that live,
With all their might, wit, skill, can never give
Life to existence to the smallest flower.
Much less an Essence: O what little power
Is there in greatest Kings; who cannot make
One Grass, Herb, Plant, though
Nestors
years
they take
To do it! O, what wondrous Potency
Create all Creatures, Herbs, Trees, Plants that grow,
In Gardens, Orchards, Woods, Fields here below?
O let our Minds, when we these Creatures see,
Plants, Herbs, and Flowers, spring by sweet degrees
Out of the vilest dust;
can likewise raise
Us from the very grave, his power to praise.
Take courage,
God can mend them when he will;
And in due season make us spring again,
Like withered Plants, Herbs, Flowers, after rain.
4.
Which he who seeth not in them, is quite blind.
For, doth not that great, sweet, variety
Of garden Plants, Fruits which delight the Eye
And other Senses; ease, help, and redress
All pains, wounds, sores, diseases that oppress
Both Man and Beast; yielding them Physic, Food,
Salves, Sauce, Cates, Cordials, Fumes, Clothes, all
that's good
God's gracious Bounty to each Man and Beast?
Are due from Man unto his God above?
Who hath thus stored Gardens, fields, each place,
With such great plenty of these gifts of grace?
O, let us blush that we serve, love, no more
God, who hath blest us with this happy store.
And hence conclude in our Necessity,
He who our Gardens doth with these things store,
Our Bodies, Souls, will feed, feast, fill much more.
5.
Reflects most clearly,
to the dullest sense;
Who for Mans use and Service in each Clime,
Which are most useful, fit to ease, heal, feed,
And help those in the countries where they breed.
And placed near him great variety
Of
Herbs, Salves, Physic, for each Malady,
Both easy, cheap and ready still at hand,
If He their virtues did but understand.
Thus to provide for each disease that can,
Or doth befall him,
such cheap, ready Cures!
And since that He our wealth doth so respect,
Of what may to our Health, or ease conduce.
Lord, when we walk in Gardens to delight
Our minds, or senses, let the sweetest sight
Of Thee, and these thy Attributes, which they
Present most clearly to us day by day;
Rap up our Souls into such Extasies,
That they naught else but Thee; may love or prize.
Meditations of the second Ranke.
MOreover Gardens lively represent
Christ to our Eyes and Minds, with blest
content.
1.
And pleasant Objects to delight the Eyes
And other Sences; so all pleasant, sound
Our Hearts to solace; whence
most sweetness springs
When we taste naught but Gall in other things:
O blessed Jesus such Soul ravishing
To cheare our drooping Souls in all distress,
And more than Honey sweetness, they would be
O let me
feel how good, how sweet thou art.
Then thou alone shalt feast, fill, have mine Heart.
2.
Again, as fruitful
Gardens bring forth store
Wound, Ulcer, Ache
that happeneth to Mankind.
A Sovereign Herb, Balm, Salve for to appease
Help, heal, each sore, wound, ulcer, ach, disease
That doth or can them any times annoy,
Grieve, pain, perplex, or threate them to destroy:
Are then our Souls sick, wounded, like to die
With any sin, or deadly Maladie;
For Herbs, Salves, Physic, all else that we need;
All Souls which from it help, health, Physic crave.
3.
And rich perfumes;
Christ doth them far excel
Into God's Sacred Nostrells, to amend
Perfume and sweeten, all those stinking, sour,
Unsavory Prayers, which to God we pour,
In Christ's sweet Name; whose horrid sent and stink
(More Loath-some than the vilest kennel, sink,)
That he both it, and his Ears too would close
Where now these Odors make them gracious,
Be found out, to delight the Nose of Man.
And as Christ's fragrant perfumes far excel
The sweetest Incense, in his Fathers smell,
So do they likewise in the sent of those
Whom he hath chosen; to whose
Sacred Nose
And more unsavory than the foulest sink:
Sweet Jesus let thy
pleasant perfumes move,
And ravish all our Souls, with thy sweet Love.
4.
Our bodies bathe, and wash their filth away,
Yea quench our thirst, our heats cool, and revive
Those Trees, Herbs, Plants that fade, and make
them thrive.
Of sweet and living waters, that excel
All others, springing in him,
where we may
Bathe,
cool, refresh our Souls, and wash away
The filth of all our sins; and eke revive
Our withering Graces,
and them cause to thrive.
Lord ever ba the our Souls in this blest spring,
Which will both Health, Joy, safety to them bring.
5.
To feed and feast men's Pallats:
Such fruits flow,
As far surpass all Cates that Gardens bear;
No Honey,
Marrow, Manna may compare
With his rare sweet-meats,
and Coelestiall Fare.
Then will we long to feast with
None but He.
6.
Cooles and repels Heate, storms
which would invade,
Against all scalding Heates, all storms we meet,
Yea from his Fathers burning Wrath and Rage,
Which none but he can quench, cool, or asswage:
O then in all such scorching Flames still fly
To Christ's sweet shade, for ease and remedy.
7.
And so is Christ
in all his chosen's sight;
In whom
we naught but comeliness can see.
In all our Soul, as never shall expire;
And may consume all flames of lustful Love,
Wedding us only unto Christ above.
8.
Gardens are ever rich and fruitful ground;
In whom alone all good things we may find
At any season, in such copious store,
As will suffice mankind for evermore.
We want, in whom all good things grow and spring.
9.
The
Seedes, Plants, Rootes
which we would have to
grow.
Which
Jury only did confine before,
But now the world,
which scarce contains his store.
10.
Christ, here on earth did
Gardens
highly grace
He was betrayed, entomb'd, raised up, and then
First there appeared to
Mary Magdalene.
Each Garden then we see, should still present
Christ to our sight, minds, thoughts, with sweet
Content;
Wherein with Eyes of Faith, we may behold
With his Disciples,
to instruct, joy, cheare,
Our blind, sad Hearts, and banish all their fear:
With feigned kisses; and thence lead away
With Bands of Catch-poles, armed with, Swords, Bills,
staves;
To teach us to beware such flattering Knaves,
Who are most treacherous when they seem most
kind:
And that a
Judas
we shall ever find
Amidst Christ's choice Apostles; who for gain
Will both betray Christ, and his chosen train,
And them in their sweet Gardens trap, surprise,
Where they no danger saw, nor could devise:
To sweeten death,
and all our graves perfume.
To conquer Death, and take his sting away,
Leading him Captive in triumphant wise
That we might learn his terrors to despise,
Who kills us once to live eternally.
And turned to Dust, by Christ raised up again
In glorious state, to live in Endless Joy
Above Deathes reach,
and all them can annoy.
Here may we find our Savior still appear
From day today, our drooping Hearts to cheare,
In each root, seed, plant, herb, which shall arise
What need of Popish Pictures then to bring
Christ to our Eyes, minds, thoughts? since everything,
Plant, Herb that in our Gardens sprouts, lives, grows,
His life, Death, rising, far more clearly shows?
Christ nowhere else will ever seek, view, see
We only can behold him, without sin;
And when we long him, or his Acts to Eye,
If Bibles fail, each Garden will descry
Them to us, in more sweet and lively wise,
Than all the Pictures Papists can devise.
Blessed Lord Jesus when we ever walk
Within a Garden, Let us with thee talk,
In such sweet Contemplations, and delight
Our Souls, Eyes, Senses with thy blessed sight,
Which every Garden Tree, Plant, Herb, Flower,
Grass,
Reflects more clearly than a Crystal Glass:
Then shall each Garden which we view or see,
Meditations of the third Classe.
A Garden is a Map of Paradise,
Compar'd, they suite, and make an Harmony,
Which cheers our Souls with its sweet melody.
1.
With choicest Trees, Herbs, Fruits;
so men do still
And more enrich, than any other place.
2.
Of goodly Trees, Flow'rs, Fruits
to please the sight,
Most pleasant objects
both for Eye, Mouth, Mind.
4.
And watered with their Crystal streams and tides;
Become more fruitful, pleasant, green, fresh, gay.
5.
Was bound by God this task to undergo.
Those pleasant Gardens which we here possess?
Beasts, Horses, Oxen, help to till our ground,
Fit to dress Gardens, only Men are found.
In all estates, who ought still to address
Themselves to some good honest work, Art, trade,
Though the sole Monarch of the world, and all
The Creatures in it;
which before the fall
Were at his mere Command, and did afford
6.
God had no sooner
Adam made, but He
As in the choicest, fruitefulst, pleasant'st plot
This lower world could unto him alot.
The only Edens where they would abide:
Whence all who have but one small piece or plot,
7.
O let us think of this, when we begin
Our Garden doors to enter, that we may
And daily strive to be as Innocent
As
Adam,
when he into
Eden
went.
8.
The
Tree of Knowledge
(which did typify
Christ, or his Sacred Word to
Adams
Eye,)
Which we in midst of Gardens chance to see,
Christ and his Sacred Word in lively wise
Present, show, point out to our minds and Eyes.
9.
First
Eve,
then
Adam,
and them cast away
By his Temptations, their Credulity.
No wonder then if we sometimes espy
Not only Weedes, but Serpents, Adders, Snakes,
Toads, & such vermin (whose mere aspect makes
Most men to tremble) in our Garden-plots,
Betrayes, and stings us still through pleasures, vice.
As he did Adam in old Pardise:
O let us then in no place rest secure;
Since he in
Eden
did Man first allure.
Tempts Men and Women oft times unto ill:
10.
Sins, mischiefs spring, was hatched in Paradise:
Here Father
Adam
caught that break-neck fall,
Which in a moment quite undid us all.
O let our Gardens put us still in mind
Of this great sin, whose relics we still find
Remaining in us: and let every weed
We see in Gardens, cause us to take heed
That no one sin within us ever spring,
To work our ruin, or our souls to sting.
11.
Him out of Eden, and then laid it waste;
Cursing the Earth with thorns, Weeds, Barrenness
For his offense, which he before did bless:
When then our Gardens, weedy, barren grow
Think of the cause from whence these evils flow,
(Our sin; God's curse:) and when we enter in,
Or issue out of Gardens, let that sin
Which moved God man-kind first to exclude.
From
Edens
bliss, with tears be of us rude.
We cannot over-ponder or lament
That sin which Man out of his
Eden
sent.
And learn from hence, that none gain ought by
vice,
12.
Man banishit Eden for his willful sin,
Again, by a bright sword with fiery flame
Which turned every way to guard the same.
The hedges, pales, walls, doors, that close and fence
Our gardens, to keep Men and beasts from thence,
Should ever mind us of this sword, that vice,
Which thrust and kept man out of Paradise:
And teach us with all care, pains, industry,
Since we are thus excluded this below,
The very place whereof none this day know;
13.
Mans loss in Edens Garden, might affright
Us all, and damp the joy, mirth, and delight,
Which Gardens yield; yea had not Christ repaired,
What man there lost, we should have quite despaird.
But now take courage and no more complain;
Christ in a garden hath restored again
What
Adam
therein lost; that we might all
Be there repaired, where first we caught our fall:
Which that I may with sweeter fruit declare,
I will Christ with
Adam;
place with place compare.
1.
And trapit by those snares which the Serpent laid.
Christ in a Garden was betrayed, and snar'd
2.
Which in a moment did undo us all:
Into the grave, which raised and made us all.
3.
And wreckt us all, by this his prime offense:
To make us guiltless, and our state exalt.
6.
Christ's fall him raised, with all his chosen crew.
8.
Unto himself, and all who from him spring:
Corruption, and all his did from it free.
9.
Of which he ate, allured by his wife:
Of life, Christ Jesus, are thereby made free
From death and hell,
who planted was,
and lay
11.
Christ all his chosen thither to restore,
And there entomb'd,
as soon as he was slain.
12.
Here he arose again from death: and then
Appear'd there first to
Mary Magdalene.
Winning the field of Deaths, Sins, Devils Host,
In that same place where
Adam
first it lost:
And there triumphed over all this Sect,
Where they their Trophies did at first erect.
Needs must our Gardens then be very sweet,
And pleasant, where these acts of Christ all meet:
Which rightly pondered by us, in a trice,
Would change each Garden to a Paradise,
And make us see, that we by Christ gain more
In Gardens now, than
Adam
lost before.
Sweet Jesus when a Garden we espy
Rap thou our souls into an ecstacy.
With these, or such like pious Thoughts; that we
An Eden in each Garden-plot may see;
And feel a blessed Heaven still to grow,
Within our souls, whiles we are here below.
Meditations of the fourth Classe.
AGaine; me thinks a Garden God's blest Word
Doth well resemble, and therewith accord.
1.
Its rich perfumes, and odors still entice
Of it's sweet
odors, which all else excel.
2.
Herbs, sallads, cordials, fit for all estates,
To feed, feast, please their pallats, and to cheare
Their drooping hearts,
oppressed with pain, grief, fear.
Which feed, feast, cheare, the hearts of all degrees:
And are more pleasant, cordial, sweet, and dear
To drooping souls, than all this worlds best cheare.
O let us daily solace, fat, feast, fill,
Our souls with these blest cates, & cheare them still.
3.
As Gardens so the Scriptures yield great store,
Wound, sickness, grief, which men's souls can affect,
No hope of health, for those who them neglect.
O let us prize these balms, which souls can cure,
If they be healed the bodies safe and sure.
4.
Of flowers, herbs, fruits which delight the eye.
And bring most sweet refreshment and content,
To such as are to meditation bent,
Yea all of all sorts: So God's sacred word
To all of all ranks, can and doth afford
A copious store, and sweet variety
Dispersed in it,
to refresh, joy, ease
All sad dejected souls, and them appease.
O with what pleasure, joy, and blest delight,
May tired drooping souls, both day and night
Walk in the midst of this sweet Paradise,
Where all refreshing comforts grow and rise?
Which all our griefs, fears, sins will chase away.
5.
To tired bodies, spirits:
So God's word
With grief, yields sweet refreshment and content:
Here may they find blest rest, repose, and ease,
When naught else can them comfort or appease.
O let our souls forever dwell and rest
In its refreshing shade, which makes them blest.
6.
To seek and find it;
since the Church doth keep,
And show the Scriptures to Christ's chosen sheep;
But not confirm or give authority
7.
To all of all sorts:
So the Scriptures door
Degrees of men: to rich, poor, great, and small.
In this rich Garden, than the greatest that are.
8.
That men in season in them plant, or sow:
Grow, thrive in grace, and much fruit
forth to bring.
9.
Gardens most sweetly picture to our eyes
Minds, thoughts, God, Christ, and man in livelywise:
And perfect colors paint them to our sight.
He who would these exactly know and see,
Must on the Scriptures always looking be.
10.
Gardens are full of objects, whence we may
To make us better, and translate our love
So are the Scriptures. O thrice
happy they
To mend their lives, hearts, souls, and elevate
Them from an earthly, to an heavenly state.
And leave the soul but in a damned case.
Only the Scriptures make us truly blest,
And guide our souls unto eternal rest.
11.
Lord let us daily more and more descry
The sacred Scriptures worth and dignity;
Our souls to cheare, feast, ravish with their love,
That we our words, thoughts acts may guide and move,
As they direct, and let each Gardens sight
Present them to our thoughts with sweet delight.
That while we view this leaf of natures book,
We may more clearly into God's book look;
And both conjoin'd, will yield more sweet delight.
Meditations of the fifth Sort.
AGaine, in Gardens we may view and find
A lively map and picture of mankind;
And day by day both in them read and see
The story of ourselves, and what we be.
1.
And bury in their wombs that they may grow,
And spring up thence: present unto our eyes
And sprout: at first sown, planted in the womb,
And there inter'd, as in a Garden tomb,
Till it be quickened formed and made fit
To come into the World, and break from it.
2.
Each seed, root, plant we see in Gardens spring,
And peep out of the earth, doth sweetly bring
Unto our minds, and shadows to our eyes
Mans birth into this world, in lively-wise:
Like seed out of the earth, that he may come
Into this wretched world, whose misery
As soon as borne, still makes him weep and cry.
3.
The weak young tender blades, and sprouts that
grow,
Up first from seeds, roots, plants, do lively, show
Unto our eyes and thoughts, man's infancy
Upon the ground,
like blades, grass, sprigs new thrust
Out of the earth, which lean, lie on the dust.
4.
Their further growth in strength, height, breadth,
each day;
Untill his youth out-grows his infancy,
By senseless steps, and make him sprout up high.
5.
Their progress till they blossom and forth bring
Gay, goodly, lovely, sweet flowers in the spring,
And Summer season, aptly typify
Makes us as comely, lovely, fresh, and gay,
As garden-trees, flowers in the month of May;
Oft cropped and withered in less than one hour.
6.
Their next succeeding fruits and seeds, express
Our riper years, and age of fruitfulness;
Of any science, calling, trade, skill, art,
Or public office in the Church, or State:
For which our youth's too soon, our age too late.
7.
Unto the earth at last; may mind us all
His strength, teeth, senses, parts, which fall away
As leaves, seeds, fruits in autumn:
and him make
Like withered stalkes, which leaves, seeds, fruits
forsake;
Before his aged shriv'led Body dies,
Whilst it weak, bed-rid, senseless, half-dead lies.
8.
Unto the earth at last; most lively shows,
At last, and make us dead to earth to fall,
Though near so healthy, wealthy, mighty, strong:
Will do it:
a disease which none can cure:
If others scape, old men to die are sure.
9.
The buring of these old stalkes, leaves again,
When fallen down on the earth, shows forth most
plain,
Before our eyes, our funerals, when we
Darke womb, from whence at first we had our births.
10.
Their rotting there, and turning into dust;
Instructs us how the grave shall rot and rust
Since God such sentence hath against them past.
11.
The seeds which drop into the
earth, and there
And spring afresh, more glorious than before,
And by their rising much increase their store:
Demonstrate to us in most pregnant wise,
How our dead rotten Corps again shall rise
Out of the dust, and graves wherein they lie,
In greater vigor, glory, dignity.
Then ever they enjoyed; and gain far more
By rising, than by death they lost before.
O let this arm us against all the fear
Of death or grave, and still us joy and cheare.
12.
Nipt with the frost, winds, storms, to fall and fade
So soon as shot forth:
we may learn thereby
As soon as borne, yea sometimes in the womb
Are nipped and cropped by death, and to their Tomb
Depart from hence
so soon, so suddenly,
As if they were borne only for to die.
Let younglings then, as well as old prepare
13.
Cropt, blasted, withered, vanished in few hours:
We may therefrom contemplate,
how that we
By sudden death oft blasted, withered be,
Cropt off, consumed in few minutes space,
Even in the flower, prime, pride, choice, vigor, grace
The farthest off, and we did not once dream
Of its approach.
A truth we daily see,
Which should teach youth, for death prepard to be.
14,
The ripe fruits, seeds which we in gardens view,
Pluckt off, and gathered; clearly to us show
Pul'd off by death,
and so should look to die,
At least as soon as ripe, if not before,
Since then they stand near unto grim deaths door,
Whom if he spare to pull or shake down, they
Will of themselves in short space fall away,
And drop into his mouth. Let then all such
15.
Each seed, fruits, leaf, flower,
blossom we see fall,
Mankind must fade, fall, rot, and die like these
Each in his time, and perish by degrees;
And that no age, sex, calling, state is free
From death, to which they ever subject be:
Their last,
wherein they look to pass away.
16.
Each Garden in the years four seasons paints
Forth to our eyes, and us full well acquaints
With man's four ages, which do comprehend
The whole race of his life, until it end.
And younger years: in summer they descry
Our youthful flowring age.
In Autumn they
Our riper years, and drooping age display;
And all amort, decayd: they then declare
Our old decrepit, withered, dying years,
When, all within us, dead, naught fresh appears,
We can no time then in our gardens be,
But we ourselves may there read, know, view, see,
By contemplation, in more complete wise
Than in all pictures painters can devise.
O let us view ourselves in this bright glass
And slit away,
until we wither, die;
17.
Besides, by meditation we may hence
Behold, mind, know our state of innocence
In Edens garden, in a state of Grace,
And Innocence, it both to keep and dress,
Where he not long enjoyed this happiness.
18.
Yea, in our Gardens we may read and eye
Our fall and state of sin and misery,
Through Adams sin, which did undo us all,
Of sin, and vice, as makes God us to hate;
Of horrid sins, and monstrous wickedness;
Us naught but fuel for that fiery Lake,
A dismal state indeed, whose thought should rent
Our stony hearts, and cause them to relent.
19.
But not despair, since in this very place
Christ hath restored us to a state of grace,
Of which it minds us, all sad hearts to cheare,
And us from our collapsed state help rear.
And dead, there in a new sepulcher laid,
So did he there from death rise up again,
And thereby raised up all his chosen train,
From their lost, lapsed, to a blessed state
Of grace and glory.
O then celebrate,
And ever bless, praise, love, serve Christ,
who thus
Hath raised, redeemed, restored, exalted us:
And let each Garden put us still in mind
Of these three states belonging to mankind,
Without whose perfect knowledge, view, and sight,
We cannot know God, nor ourselves aright.
20.
Each
weed
which we in gardens see to grow,
Our sinful state, and seeds of vice us show,
21.
We see the fattest Garden ground still breeds
So greatest sins, crimes, vices usually,
In men of greatest parts, wit, dignity,
And in the richest persons, Natures grow,
Not in the vulgar meaner sort below.
The pregnant wits, best Natures void of grace,
Are greatest sins, crimes, vices common place.
Which if true grace control not, are but fit
To breed those rankest weeds,
which overgrow
Them in short space, and work their overthrow.
22.
Of good and useful fruits, plants, herbs we eye
Those useful virtues, graces they express,
Which should still grow, and flourish in mankind,
In whom, alas, we them most rarely find.
What? shall our gardens, fruitful, useful be,
Stor'd with all good fruits, herbs, roots? and
yet we
Be barren, fruitless, void of virtue, grace,
And naught but lust, vice, weeds in us have place?
O shame! O sin! let gardens teach us then,
Now to prove fertile, good and gracious men.
23.
Gay, prosperous worldly State, which carnal eyes,
And hearts, most part, do over love and prize,
It ofttimes fades, and withers like a flower.
How many see we great, rich, in good plight,
At morning; base, poor, wretched, dead, ere night?
In thrones today, adorned with a Crown;
In chains ere morning, slain, or quite put down?
All times and stories seal this truth; be wise
Then now, and learn this worlds pomp to despise.
24.
The sudden blasts and winters which befall
Their luster, beauty, flowers, fruits, represent
Unto our eyes and minds; that discontent,
Diseases, crosses, losses, which oft blast
Decay, consume, dry up, spoil, and lay wast
Men's bodies, fortunes, states, and in short space
A truth we daily see. Let none then bless
Himself, or trust in worldly happiness,
Which every cross, storm, sickness will decay;
And when our winter comes will fade away.
25.
The Garden flowers we see, each
year to die
Of man's frail, life, demonstrates to our sight
In lively sort,
and should each day and night,
And all vain thoughts of long life chase away.
Within their garden,
where they did behold
So many pictures of mortality,
From day today, and sommons still to die;
For fear their Garden pleasures and delights,
Should chace away death from their thoughts or
sights.
Our pleasures, pastimes death to mind to call.
But chiefly when we in our Gardens walk,
Where we still view him in each leaf, flower, stalk,
That fades, falls, withers. So that we are blind,
Yea sottish, if we there death do not mind.
26.
Spring up in place of those that withered be,
From their seeds, roots;
most sweetly to us show,
Out of the seed and loins of those who die,
Whose vacant places they fill and supply.
27.
When we behold those garden flowers, herbs,
trees,
Which seemed quite dead in winter, by degrees
And flourish more than they did formerly:
It sweetly shows, minds, learns us, when as we
With sickness, crosses, losses, withered be,
Faith, prayer, hope and steadfast confidence
We wait on God, we shall revive, grow, spring,
In his due time, and gain a flourishing,
Far better state, than we enjoyd before;
As
Job
with others have done heretofore.
Be then our crosses, cases what they will,
Let us with cheerful, joyful hearts rely,
And wait on God for help; who certainly
Will in best time, our winter season end,
And us a joyful Spring and Summer send:
Wherein we shall revive, grow, flourish more,
And happier be than ever heretofore
God, who our fields and gardens makes to spring,
Which well digested, would us cheare and joy
Amidst all crosses, which could us annoy:
To endless glory,
which each gardens spring,
Unto our minds and eyes, with joy shall bring.
28.
The diverse sorts of herbs, flowers, plants, roots,
trees,
Of different Natures, Qualities, Degrees,
We see grow in our Garden, without jar,
Or discord, close together, or not far
Asunder: To us aptly represent,
There ought to be 'twixt men, although they be
Of different natures, callings, minds, degree,
When planted in one Country, City, place,
Church, household, or dis-join'd some little space.
And greedy men, who are to discord bent;
And never rest content with what they have,
Enduring none to live in quietness
Neare them, that they alone might all possess.
5.
When as we see weeds Gardens overgrow,
Deface, kill herbs, flowers, fruits that in them
blow,
Through mere neglect, and want of weeding; we
As in a map or glass, may thereby see,
Disgrace, deturpate, kill, and overthrow,
For want of timely weeding: and deface,
Choake all their parts, wits, virtues, gifts of grace:
And so should teach us with all care to weed
Them out, as fast as they within us breed:
Which, if neglected will in short time gain
Untill they over-run, kill, quite decay
Our virtues, parts, and cast our souls away.
30.
Chief, primate, Lord of all God's works:
which high
Advancement and surpassing dignity,
All else in goodness, graces, living well;
As men devoyd of goodness, virtue, grace;
The vilest toads, or creatures we behold
Are better than such men ten thousand-fold.
For shame then let our graces, lives, express,
Grace, Crown that state of honor, we possess.
31.
Those Gardens, Orchards which they here possess
To make them fruitful, pleasant:
should excite
Us all with greater care, pains and delight,
That they in fruits of grace, and pleasantness,
May more abound;
it being to no end
Those, not ourselves, to fence, soil, dress, & mend.
32.
When we behold small Gardens fraught with store
Of rarest flowers, herbs, fruits, and yielding more
Of these than greatest Gardens, commonly
Made more for pleasure, than commodity:
We may contemplate, how some men of small
And little stature, oft excel the tall,
Great, vastest, men of bulk, in gifts, wit, parts,
True valor, learning, wisdom, skill in Arts:
Oft times transcend in wisdom, parts, arts, grace
In rarest gifts, and virtues of each kind
The Greatest Nobles, Peers, in whom we find
Too oft more show than substance, less within
Than in a russet coat, or courser skin:
It is not greatness, honor, wealth, place then
That make us fruitful, good, or better men
Than others: but our goodness, virtue, grace,
What ever he their births, states, dignities
The greatest Kings in whom they do not dwell.
33.
Lord, make each
Garden,
I shall henceforth see,
A Crystal looking-glass, and book to me,
Wherein I may mine own Mortality
And human state so clearly view, descry,
Read, and contemplate, as each day to mend
My sinful life, and fit me for my end;
Still walking worthy of that human state
Wherein thou madest me, till thou shalt translate
Mee to a better in the heavens high,
Where I with thee shall live eternally.
Meditations of the sixth Ranke.
ONce more, a Garden paints forth to our view,
The state of God's Church, and his chosen
crew.
1.
From other common grounds that lie about,
And sequestered from them for special use:
So God his Church and Saints doth call, and choose,
For special use, and his own dwelling place.
2.
Hedges, dikes, and more fenc'd than other grounds:
And fence with walls, pales, dikes against all foes,
Boars, beasts that would annoy, or root them out,
And none so safe as they are fenc'd about.
3.
And them to plant, sow with good fruits, roots, seeds
Of all sorts,
which else would not there spring, grow:
So God's elect, and Church, whiles here below
By foes, and crosses which God on them lays,
Their weeds of sin, vice, error for to kill,
And them with all good plants, roots, fruits to fill;
Untill dig'd up, and made God's arable.
O let us never murmur, nor complain
Our sins to root up,
and in us to plant
Instead of them, all graces which we want.
4.
To make them fertile, and more fruits to bear:
God's
Church and chosen are still dung'd, soyld, fed,
To make them useful, fruitful, fat, rich soil,
No fruits of grace would in them grow or spring.
O let us answer God's great cost, pains, care!
If after these we
barren, fruitless are,
To root us up, and lay us ever waste:
5.
No choice seeds, roots, plants, herbs in gardens grow,
Spring up and grow without our cost, pains, care:
No choice rare plants, roots fruits of saving grace
Will spring or grow, in any Church, Saint, place,
When all by nature weeds, and ill fruits bear,
And common Morrall virtues; which are found
In very Pagans, heathens, common ground.
Lord plant and store our souls with grace, that we
May sweet and fruitful Gardens be to thee.
6.
With great increase, which men within them sow:
Sowne in their hearts, a large increase doth breed,
Though more in some than others:
Happy we
If such a large increase God in us see.
7.
And of its own accord, brings forth some weeds,
Which not plucked up with care would overflow,
And quickly kill the fruits that in it grow:
From weeds of sin, vice, errors are not free,
Which do and will still in them daily grow
Up of themselves, whiles they are here below.
Much pains, would soon hide, kill, choke all their rare
Resplendent virtues, graces:
O then still
Be rooting up these weeds that be so ill.
8.
And though we cannot hinder them to spring
Up there, yet still we root them up with speed,
And not permit them there to grow root, seed:
Weeds of corruption, error, sin that rise
Up in the Church, or Saints, to God's pure eyes,
Against them, never suffering them to dwell,
Roote, breed within them, but with care expel,
And keep them under, that they never reign
Within them, though their relics there remain:
That Church, man then is but in evil plight,
Which doth not thus against sin daily fight;
Which should by far more loathsome to us be,
Than all the weeds we in our gardens see.
9.
With all the fruits, herbs, plants, of grace most rare,
Rich, useful: here alone we may view, find
All graces, virtues, of what ever kind;
Whose shining luster and variety,
Make them most lovely in each sacred eye.
10.
Alluring men in them to walk, live, dwell,
God's Church and chosen Saints are like: no place
Or company to all indu'd with grace
Wherein, wherewith they long to be, dwell, stay
Within God's house, than men of best degree,
Or Kings without it: finding more content
And sweetness in one day or hour well spent
Within it, than in thousand years, weeks, days,
Past else where in the pleasant'st feasts,
maskes, plays.
Those who in God's Church, Saints, no such delight,
Or sweetness find, may judge, their states not right.
11.
In pleasant gardens,
which they like full well:
Lives, dwells, and in no place on earth abides,
Delights or joys, so much as in them:
where
He feeds, feasts, rests, and doth his palace rear.
Sweet Jesus let my soul thy garden be,
That thou mayest still delight, walk, dwell in me.
12.
Unless the Sun shine on them from on high,
And clouds drop rain, dew on them to revive
Their withered fruits, and make them sprout, grow, thrive:
Unless the rays of God's most blessed face,
And Christ's (the Son of righteousness) bright beams,
Shine on them: and their sweetest showers, dew streams,
And influence from heaven on them drop,
To make them bear a rich and ample crop.
Lord let thy Church and chosen ever be
Blest with these rays, showers, streams which flow
from thee:
And store of fruits of grace to thee forth bring.
13.
Gardens have in them all sorts of herbs, trees,
And ranks of men within her, high, and low,
Rich, poor, old, young, good, bad, here in her grow.
And is a truth apparent to each eye.
From hence the Church hath gained the style and
name
Comprised are. Let no men then seclude
Themselves from her, who doth all sorts include.
14.
Rich, precious fruits, to water day by day,
Which else would fade, and wither quite away:
The living waters, springs, streams of Christ's blood,
Word, spirit, grace, prepared for their good;
Still by or in them glide, run, flow, and spring,
To make them
sweet, green, pleasant fruits to bring
If under these we withered, barren be.
15.
Them root up, wast, deface, and much decay:
Break in upon God's Church, or Saints, they mine,
Roote up, spoil, wast them, unless God asswage,
Restraine, divert, or quell their spiteful rage.
Against all foes,
who seek to root them out;
And when thou shalt permit them to break in,
Oh then, let them root naught out but their sin.
16.
As ripe
seeds
shook down, with winds, storms or
rain,
With great increase; where every little seed
A new great plant, and more stalkes, seeds doth breed:
Of Martyrs blood there shed, brings forth a crop,
The places where their foes their blood did spill,
To their great grief and shame:
who thought thereby
Quite to prevent and kill their progeny;
Which they mean while did only plant and sow,
And by that blood they shed made these to grow.
Yea, as some Garden plants, herbs often cropped
Spring up more thick: So God's Church, Saints
oft lopped,
Cut down, cropped, (nay destroyed in carnal eyes
Conceit) by cruel Tyrants;
sprout, arise,
And grow more thick, great; numerous thereby,
Which gained, increased, not lost by tyrants rage.
O let us then be willing thus to sow
Our blood, that thence new troops of Saints may grow,
To store Christ Church, mantaine his cause when we
Are turned to dust, consumed and cease to be.
17.
In winter, when hid under earth they lie
Within their Rootes or Seeds, yet spring again,
When winter ends, through Summers heat and rain,
And show that they were neither dead, killed, lost,
But only nipped and hid by winters frost;
Because they thus in summer spring, revive,
And show themselves to every eye alive:
Most sweetly, clearly to us demonstrate,
God's chosen Saints and Churches winter-state,
In their temptations, and so buried lie
Within their seeds, roots, that they want the sense,
Fruits, comforts of them: and conclude from thence,
That they no doubt are quite dead, killed, spoil'd, lost
And they undone, by their sharp winters frost.
But yet when these their boisterous storms are past,
To their great comfort, and so sprout, grow, thrive
A fresh, that all see, they were still alive;
And only hid, benumbed for that space.
O then let all indu'd with saving grace
Learn hence their drooping souls to comfort,
cheare,
In all temptations, cases, where they fear
In safety in them, and shall spring again.
What though they cannot now them feel or eye;
Wait but a while, and they shall them descry.
If not before, yet then they will appear,
In greater luster, vigor than before.
Lay up this blessed cordial then in store,
Against all evil days which will us cheare,
When as our graces hide, and disappear.
18.
Hence may we likewise
Popish sots
refell,
In glorious sort,
as if she always grew
In summer Islands, and no winter knew:
When as each true Church, Saint, whiles here below
Oft feel, and find such winters, storms, frost, snow.
Yea make them seem dead, lifeless for a space,
Both in their own and others sense;
as I
By sundry stories might exemplyfie,
Did not each gardens winter quarter teach
This truth, and it unto our senses preach.
19.
Hence may each Church, S
t
further learn to cheer;
Steele, arm themselves against all future fear
Of winter storms, blasts, trials which may shake
Their leaves, fruits, stalks down to the earth, & make
Them in appearance lifeless, void of grace,
And in a wretched, helpless, hopeless case,
Like Gardens in cold winters: But yet shall
This daunt their faith, or make their hope quite fall?
O no! this winter lasts but for a space,
And then succeeds a blessed spring of grace;
Which shall revive, refresh, repair, restore;
Yea much increase, what seemed dead, lost before,
His first estate in bliss did far transcend:
Wait, rest on God with faith, hope, constancy,
Who far beyond thy thoughts will thee translate,
In his due season, to a blessed state:
He who makes each grass, plant, herb, grow and spring,
Will make his Church, Saints much more sprout,
laugh, sing.
20.
Hence may all raging Persecutors see,
That their attempts against Christ's Church, Saints, be
The very end and scope of their intent,
Making them more to thrive, increase, and grow,
Instead of working their wishit overthrow.
O what a wise, sweet, gracious God have we
And makes the malice of our enemies,
The spring from whence our greatest Comforts rise?
O what besotted, senseless fools are those
Who God's true Church, & chosen Saints oppose!
They think to crush, but raise them: they intend
To work their ruin, yet their states amend.
With others, whose attempts still overthrew
Themselves at last, but made God's chosen crew.
21.
In winter season we can hardly know,
Dead Garden plants from living; since in show
They both seem dead and withered to the eye;
But when as Summer comes, we presently
Discerne the dead from those that are alive,
Benummes God's children's graces, or them cast
Into a swooning fit, or Lethargy,
Themselves or others hardly can descry
Them from dead Christians: but when means of
Grace,
And summer once begin to come in place,
Revive, and goodly fruits of grace forth bring:
The other spring not, or else fruitless are;
Their inward state of life, and grace hereby.
23.
With weeds or thorns, they are then open thrown,
Pull'd up, laid wast:
So when a Church with
weeds
Is over-run,
and naught but errors breeds,
Her walls, pales down, and forthwith lays her wast.
Thus doth he deal with private Christians too,
Who by their barrennesses, sins, Lusts undo
Themselves, provoking God them off to cast,
Pull down their hedge, and lay them ever wast.
O let each Church and Christian then take heed
How they prove barren, or sins in them breed.
If
God's Bill of devorce be once out su'd,
23.
In Gardens oft the shade and neighbourhood
Of weeds or poisonous Plants, corrupt the good;
Kill, blast, or harm them more or less: So ill
Lewed men of all sorts in the Church, do still
Hath blasted many, and them worser made.
There's no such Quench-coal, Plague, or bane of
grace
As wicked Consorts, who it most deface.
With chiefest Care, all ill Men's Company.
24.
Some stinking weeds ill favor oft devours,
Unsents the Perfumes of the sweetest flowers
Of Saints and Churches vices oft consume,
Out-smell the richest Odours of their Grace;
Which in God's Nose, and Men's then find no place,
Whiles that the stinking savor of their weeds
Thus drowns their virtues sent, and it exceeds.
O then root out these nasty Plants, which sink
Our sweeter fumes, and turn them into stink.
25.
Sweet Garden Herbs, Flowers, Spices Bruis'd, intend
Their fragrant Odors, and their sents amend;
When chrusht, the sweeter, and
their smell grows
treble,
Thus God's dear Church and Saints, when pounded,
broke
Within Afflictions Morter, by the stroke
And more disperse their rich and fragrant sent:
Their fumes, but weak, and scarce discerned before,
Grow ten-fold stronger, and increased in store:
Sending their fragrant Odors far and nigh,
Before scarce smelt by those who stood close by.
I will not then repine, nor be offended
At that whereby my sent's so much amended:
Yea, so dilated, that its incense flies
Throughout the Earth, and mounts above the
skies:
Perfumes the Heavens, and is God's delight:
26.
In every Clime,
graced through variety:
Their graces, virtues sweet variety
Fills up their Consort, crowns their Harmony.
27.
To dwell in Person, or some time to spend,
And most part only on their proper Fee,
That they to them and theirs entailed may be.
God never planted Church in any Nation,
At least for lives or years, most usually
Those for his
Common,
these his
Proper place.
Lord plant me as a Saint, that I may be
To Thee, and Christ, the one Heir, Eternal Fee.
28.
Of fruits alike;
some fewer, some yield more,
Some Plants thrive best in one, some in another,
What wants in one, is still supplied by the other,
No one abounds with all things; all combined,
In some or other we may all fruits find;
With all perfections: nor do all afford
The selfsame Measure, or degree of grace,
Their gifts, fruits, Omers,
vary as their place.
In truth thereof, yet differ in degree;
Yet all divided in this unity:
All one in substance, diverse in th' Increase.
Each one his share hath; but the whole not any;
Let none then think they have no grace at all,
Because not all kinds equal; or those small
Infants are perfect Men, though small, weak, young,
Compleate in All their parts,
though All not viewed
At first, nor like in shape, strength, magnitude.
29.
And plant them near unto their Palace site:
Here upon Earth, his Church and Godly men,
Wherein he walks, dwells, much delights, and feeds,
And plants them with all useful fruits, herbs, seeds.
He doth no other Garden claim or know
But his true Church, and chosen Saints only:
30.
When as I view some Garden Plants, Herbs, Trees
(Exceeding others in their heats degrees)
When colder Plants
Leaves, greenness, fruits are lost;
I do therein contemplate and behold
Three sorts of Christians, whose sad winter Fates
In persecutions, differ like their states.
The strongest Saints, hot in the fourth degree,
[ 1]
From Winters Nips, Blasts, frosts, which though they beat
Full sore upon them, cannot chill their heat:
Their inward fire still keeps them warm, fresh,
green;
When others fade, their Graces most are seen.
Martyrs were hottest, greenest, fruitefulst when
Frosts hid, chil'd, killed, most shriveled other men.
The weaker, younger true Saints, hot but in
[ 2]
Their heat, sap, vigor from their outward parts
Unto the Roote and Center of their hearts,
When winter storms approach, so as their green
Leaves of Profession fade, fall, are scarce seen
Till winters past: mean while their graces lie
Hid for the most part in obscurity,
Like Rootes in Earth, good corn in chaff, or fire
In ashes; and as heat is low, or higher
Within, or frost without, so more or less
They chill, fade, shrink, profess or not profess:
The hearts not frozen, shrivel'd, but the skin:
When springs approach cold storms hath chas'd
away,
They soon peep up in fresh, green, bright array.
The Common Christians, who have no degree,
[ 3]
And froze to death
with persecutions frost,
Their heat before was borrowed, now its lost:
It was the sun’s not theirs, all foreign fire;
And summer fruits in Winter quite expire,
Nor will the spring or summer them revive,
31.
Rootes, Plants, whiles they in Garden-Earth fast
lie,
Wherein he lives, grows, thrives;
if from it rent,
Disjoyn'd, we soon fade, wither, quite expire,
We have no life, but in the true Church fire.
32.
The plucking up, and casting out of weeds
From Gardens, lest they should good Herbs, Plants
Seedes
Corrupt and over-grow; instruct and show,
By sacred Censures, all lew'd wicked, vile
Notorious sinners, lest they should defile,
Deprave the good, and her quite over-grow,
At last, by steps, and work her over-throw.
33.
All Garden-Flowers, Herbs, Plants
contented rest
Abhorring Artificial varnish paints:
Content;
Use no
Arts, Paints, to make them fair.
A
counterfeit
Complexion, Bush, Face, Paint.
Its ten to one all's false, naught, foul within:
Pride, Lust, Vain-glory, Chambring, Wantonness,
Or Vanity at least, such souls possess.
The roots from whence these spots, prints, first arise,
Enough to make all Christians them despise.
34.
With fruits Herbs, Plants, and are the richest ground:
And God in them delighteth most to dwell.
Lord always decke me with humility
Which makes men fruitful, lovely in thine Eye.
35.
Gardens have strait, sweet, pleasant walks for
men,
They tired, grieved, sick, perplexed are:
So God's Church, Saints, have many pleasant, rare,
Wherein to walk, run pass on, all their days;
Yea, all their cares, griefs, pressures make more light
And easy,
if not totally expel:
O let us in these walks still walk, run, dwell.
36.
And spring out of vile earth, or dung below,
Which have no beauty, splendor, comeliness
Within them; but mere stink and rottenness.
Me thinks I see thereby, how God's great power,
Vile earthly, rotten, stinking, sinful hearts
And Natures (when he us to him converts;)
Wherein naught but sins, vices, lusts did spring
Before; and no one grace, nor one good thing:
O let none then despair of having grace
Because his nature, heart are sinful, base,
Corrupt and loathsome; since God makes stinking.
Vile Earth, dung, sweet, fair, goodly flowers
forth-bring.
All his sweet graces, shall in thee spring out
In his due time;
then neither fear, nor faint;
And though
flowers beauty, and men's too which spring
Yea soon decay, and turn to dust again;
And last without decay, because they spring
Not out of dust, but from Christ our head, King.
Who doth preserve them always from decay,
And keep Saints that they never fall quite away
From saving Grace.
Nay, when as our Bodies
Out of the dust, like flowers in the Spring,
And to the state of endless glory bring.
O sweet, sweet solace to each pious breast;
Lord let each Garden which we henceforth eye
Or walk in, such divine Thoughts instantly
Bring to our Minds, to raise our Souls to Thee,
And make us better by what there we see.
The Epilogue.
O That all Christians by this Posy, I
Have here collected would learn instantly
When as they in their pleasant Gardens walk,
By pious Meditations, from what they
Behold within their Gardens day by day.
How sweet then would their walks and Orchards
prove?
How would their Souls be fired with God's Love?
Each Garden then would be a Paradise,
A second Eden to the godly-wise:
Ist not a Sinnefull, Shamefull, beastly thing
For Christians to toil, walk, talk, laugh, feast, sing,
Play, sport themselves, or meditate only
Of worldly things, in Gardens constantly;
And in the mean time scarce to have one sweet;
Or pious thought from objects they there meet,
Of God, Christ, Heaven, Mans Mortality,
Presented to them in each Herb they Eye?
For shame then let us all this fault amend
Hereafter, and our Hearts, Minds, fully bend
To godly Meditations, whiles we pass
Our time in Gardens, where each flower, herb,
grass
And Creature we behold, will soon suggest
Some useful Thoughts to every pious Breast,
It to amend, and with sweet Extasies
To elevate above the starry skies.
If any want help in this kind, they may
Till better come, make use of this Essay.
FINIS.
THE SOULS COMPLAINT against the BODIES ENCROACHMENTS ON HER: And the General Neglect she finds with Most.
BY WILLIAM PRYNNE, above four years Prisoner in the Tower of London; and since that, above three years Close Prisoner in Carnarvan in North-Wales, and in Mount-Orgueil Castle, in the Isle of Iersy.
Matthew 16. 26.
For what is a man profitted, if he shall gain the whole World, and lose his own Soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul?
Isaiah 55. 2. 3.
Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not Bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your SOUL delight it self in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto me, hear and your SOUL shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure Mercies of David.
1 Peter 2. 11.
Dearely beloved, I beseech you as Pilgrims and Strangers abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the Soul.
1 Peter 3. 3. 4.
Whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel: But let it be the hidden man of the Heart, in that which is not corruptible; even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
London Printed by T. Cotes, for Michael Sparke dwelling at the blue Bible in Green Arbor. 1641.
TO The Right Worshipful his highly Honoured good Friend, the Lady ELIZABETH BALFOVRE, Wife to S r William Balfoure, Knight, Lieutenant of the Tower of LONDON.
M
ADAM, Your Noble Favors whiles that I
Did in the
Tower of London
Prisner lie
For sundry years; may now in Justice call
For some expression of my Thanks, though small.
Having no better means to testify
My gratitude, than this small Poesie,
Devoted to your Service, Use and Name;
I crave your Kind Acceptance of the same,
And those thereto annexed; fruits of my
Imprisonment; who shall both live and die.
Your Obliged Friend
and Servant,
WILLIAM PRYNNE.
THE SOULS COMPLAINT AGAINST THE BODIES ENCROACHMENTS ON HER: And the General Neglect She finds with most.
The Master-piece of God and Natures Art;
No tongues of Men or Angels can descry,
Must here with brinish Tears, and Sobs relate
My Scorned, Slighted, and Neglected State,
Since all my Vassels, made Me to attend,
Make Me their slave, enforce Me still to bend
To their unjust Commands, quite robbing Me
Of their due Homage, my Regalite.
Is not this Body wherein now I dwell,
That it might not usurp my supreme place:
Yet loe this Rebell Slave dethrones me quite,
No Part thereof but Robs me of my Right;
From most,
than I do, though a Gemme most rare:
How many hundred Trades, what Worlds I pray,
Of Men by Sea and Land, both Night and Day
Are set on work to Cloath the Back, and feed
The all-devouring Paunch, with more than
need?
Have not the Head, Hands, Feet, Legges, Necke,
nay Haire
Yet I poor Soul, among the Numberlesse
Vocations which these Baser Parts Possess,
Least minded, least imployd of all the rest:
Of death, or Hell stand pressed me to devour.
A Member bruised, hurt with Sword, Knife, prick:
Do head, teeth, Stomacke, Arms, Legges, Fingers
Ake,
Forthwith some good receipt Men seek and take
To ease and cure them, making no delays,
And think no Cost, Paines, Care mis-spent these ways:
Yet I (Alas!) not days but years oft lie
Through many fostred ulcers, wounds, cares, sores,
Seekes out for cures, or once hasts to apply
A salve to these my sores, through which I die,
Yea, all the time, pains, care and little cost
If but a little spot, dirt, dust, or fly
Light on the face, hands, clothes, men presently
Wash, rub, or wipe it off with much disdain,
Although it put them to some toil, cost, pain:
But I (O wretch) defiled, stained, drenchit throughout
And make me loathsome in the sacred Eyes
Till Hell surprise and sweep us clean away.
My varlet flesh, it's Pallate to delight,
Repast must have each morning, mid-day, night,
Sweet meats, vines, waters, drinks, all heart can wish,
Feed worms at last,
and molder into dust;
Mean while, poor I, for want of food divine
To feed, refresh Mee, quite consume, starve, pine;
Or if I Word and Sacraments enjoy,
Not fat and nourish as they ought;
whereby
Of Velvits, Silks, Stuffes, Tissues, Sattins, brave
And new:
Old Clothes, Ragges, Course, or mean
Aray
It scorns, and will be well clad every day:
Of all the Robes of Grace to hide my shame,
Clad only with the filthy weeds of Vice,
And
Adams
old Rags, which lost Paradise.
Which may adorn me,
in so long a space,
Are not once thought on, nor till back and I
Surpriz'd by death, in hell stark naked lie.
What vast expenses, labor, thoughts, time, care,
Have back and belly? as if all things wear
Created for them, and man only made
And perish:
yet how little time, pains, cost
Are spent on Mee, by which all's saved or lost?
In Eating, Drinking, Feasting, Complement,
Vain Chat, Sports, Visits, Pleasures of each kind,
The flesh to pamper?
whereas I scarce find
Admist all these diversions, one days space,
Or hour to fast, pray, weep, read, sue for grace.
How many daily the whole morning pass,
And vainly spend, between the Comb and Glass,
In combing, frizling, powdring of their hair,
And wanton locks, to make them seem more
fair?
No Locke, or hair must out of order stand,
But sit in Print, and oft be viewed, curl'd, scand.
Nay, which is strange, more cost, time, now is
spent
Upon false Bushes of bought excrement,
(Which some prefer before their native fleece,)
Than upon me, man's honor, Master-piece;
When this is done, the Back, Necke, Feet, Hands,
Face,
And other parts must have their several space
For to adorn them, so as half che day
Is spent well nigh, the body to array:
And that but until n
•
ght, when all this pride,
Attire is quite stripped off, and laid aside,
As if it never were. O fools to waste
Time in these toys, which not one days space last!
Yet I neglected soul, whom to adorn
And daily decke with grace mankind was borne,
Untrimmed lie, no cost, time, pains are spent
In decking me, man's only ornament.
My spots, stains, filth, and gross deformity,
Them to redress, and help men to array
Me with all Robes of grace which make me gay,)
Is most part shut close, seldom looked into
For these good ends, and if that any do
Behold it now and then for custom sake,
And though my sacred beauty, robes, array,
Do never fade, wax old, but last foc aye:
Yea add more luster to my Baser part,
The Flesh, then either nature or man's art
Of brightest glory,
which shall last always:
Yet few or none spend half the time to dress,
Adorn Mee, which they wast with greediness
Upon their bodies, faces, heads, locks, back,
Themselves and Mee, without God's grace, to
wrack.
This being now my rueful state; O let
Me here beseech all who have souls, to set
Some tine apart to Ponder my complaint
Thus tendered to them, under which I faint.
And that you may just Judges twixt us prove,
Hear but a word or two, as you me love.
What is the body, but
a loathsome Mass
Soone cracked and turn to rottenness dung, clay,
Though fed with dainties, c
••
d with rich array?
Which sundry chances blast within one hour,
And so deform, that we abhor the sight
Of that mar'd face which was our chief delight:
Which sickness, Crosses, Age still cause to fade.
What are our locks, our curled brayds of hair,
But excrements at best? not half so fair,
As plumes of sundry birds or peacocks tails,
Though frizled, poudred, decked with pearls, knots,
veils.
And yet how many more proud, careful are
Of these vain bushes, than their souls welfare?
How many purchase heads of others hair,
To mend God's work, and make them seem more
fair?
Spending more time, cost, thoughts on excrement,
Than upon Mee man's only ornament.
What is the belly but a filthy sink,
Jakes which engenders naught but dung and stink?
So noisome, that its sent offends the smell,
Corrupts the air, even when the body's well.
What are the other members (head, hands, feet)
But skin and bones? without my help unmeete
For any use, yea let me once withdraw
My self from the most fair corps, eyes ere saw,
Is turned,
and all abhor it's loathsomeness.
What hath the flesh or body worthy love,
Or praise, but that which from me first doth move?
Let me desert them, all their worth is lost,
And withered like grass nipped with winters frost.
Why should you then, (O fools, bereft of sense)
From day today, bestow so much expense,
Time, pains, thoughts, Care on these things which
so base,
Mean, fading are, neglecting Mee and grace?
In which your chiefest good, yea, all your bliss
Comprized are. If you judge not amiss.
If this prevail not, but you still proceed
Mee to neglect, the flesh to decke, serve, feed;
Tell Mee, I pray you, when the dismal day
Of sickness, death, or judgment, take away,
And cite you to account, how you have spent
Your golden days, for my use to you lent,
What joy or comfort can you reap from all,
Or any of those days, hours, which you shall
Have thus misspent on belly, back, head, face,
Haire, feasting, pastimes, pleasures void of grace;
Or in the flesh or bodies servitude?
Which then will too too late be of you ru'd.
Shall ye not then with sighs and tears lament,
(And that in vain) the time you thus misspent;
Offering to give ten thousand worlds, that you
Had not bereft Mee, of the time, care, due
To Mee alone, to fit Mee for that place,
Of endless bliss, which I for want of grace,
Shall then be thrust from, and cast into hell,
Will not you then wish, you had never seen
This flesh, this body, which to me have been
So traitrous, so unkind, Mee to enthrall
Unto their lusts, and spurr Mee into All
That might undo, damn, both them Mee, and
you,
And we shall in hells flames forever rue?
If this be true: O then whiles life, time, space,
Are left you to repent and seek for grace;
Bewaile what's past, and henceforth learn to be
More loyal, kind, respectful unto Mee.
Save Mee, save all; lose Mee, and all is lost,
For ever with Mee; spend then all your cost,
More bright than Stars, Moon, Sun, with rays
divine
In Christ's own kingdom,
where you shall possess
Such
endless joys, as no tongue can express.
If this will not persuade you to amend,
I will cease my
Plaint,
and here in
silence
end.
FINIS.
Imprimatur
Feb. 1. 1640.
Tho. Wykes.
COMFORTABLE CORDIALS, AGAINST DISCOMFORTABLE Feares of Imprisonment, and other sufferings in good causes. Containing some Latin Verses, Sentences, and Texts of Scripture, written by M r . WILLIAM PRYNNE on his Chamber walls in the Tower of London, during his Imprisonment there; since Translated by him into English VERSE.
2 CORINTHIANS 1, 2, 3 4 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.
Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any troubles by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation, & salvation which is effectual in enduring of the same sufferings, which we also suffered: or whether we be comforted it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope of you is steadfast; knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you shall be of the consolation. For we would not, Brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure above strength, in so much that we despaired even of life. But we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in ourselves but in God which raiseth the dead: who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver, in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us: you also helping together by Prayer for us that for the gift bestowed upon us, by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf.
Printed Anno. 161 • .
TO THE RIGHT WORShipfull his very Noble and highly Honoured good Friend, SIR WILLIAM BALFORE Knight, Lieutenant of the Tower of LONDON.
SIR, it were Ingratitude and Injury,
For me in silence here to pass you by,
And not present these Cordials unto you,
Since they, and all my service are your due,
For all your Noble Favors in the Tower,
Which have engaged me to my utmost power,
To be your eternally devoted
poor Friend and servant,
WILLIAM PRYNNE.
COMFORTABLE CORDIALLS, OR Latin Verses and Sentences, written by Mr. William Prynne on his Chamber Walls in the Tower of London, during his Imprisonment there; Since translated into English by him.
1.
T
Ranslulit in
Coelum
Christi praesentia
Claustrum:
Quid faciet
Coelo,
quae
Coelum
jam creat
Antro?
Christ's presence hath my Prison turned into
A blessed Heaven; what then will it do
In Heaven hereafter, when it now creates
Heaven in a
Dungeon?
Goales, to
Courts
translates?
2.
Stigmata Christicolis, splendentia sidera; sanguis,
Purpura regalis; mutilataque Membra, Decorum;
Vincula, gemmatus Torques; Opprobria, plausus;
Vulnera, Martyrium; Mors; Vita; Gravamina, Lucrum.
Optima cuncta piis, Tristissima sola ministrant;
Vnica Crux sanctis, Via, Ianua, summa salutis.
Brands, unto Christians are bright Stars; Blood
spent,
A Royal Purple; Maym'd Limbes, Ornament;
Bonds, Chaines of Pearl; Reproaches, Praise (no
stain)
Wounds, Martyrdom; Death, Life; Oppressions,
Gaine.
To godly men the saddest fates only
All best things bring, and their joys multiply;
The Cross alone to Saints is the high way,
Gate, sum of safety, Means of endless Joy:
3.
Christus ubique pium comitatur; Carceris Antrum
Ingreditur: Turres, Densissima Maenia, Rupes,
Fossas, Ferratas Portas, Obstacula, Flammas
Permeat intrepidus; socius solamen, Amicus,
Deliciis superum sitientia Corda suorum,
Discipulis foribus clusis intravit amaenus,
Christicolis clausis habit at conviva perennis.
O fortunatus, cui Con-captivus
Iësus,
Laetificans radiis tristissima Claustra supernis;
Vincula non illum, Tormenta, gravamina moestum
Efficiunt, animum retinentem utcunque serenum.
Christ everywhere accompanies good Men;
He goes with them into the Prisons Den;
The Towers, thickest Walls broad ditches, Gates,
Of Iron, Barracadoes, Flames and Grates
Doth boldly pass through; proves Companion,
Friend, solace, all things of himself alone;
Unto close Prisoners and fills plenteously
The thirsty souls of his, with heavenly
To his Disciples, them to comfort;
but
With godly prisoners he's a constant guess
Resides; O happy he who doth possess
Christ for his Fellow-prisoner, who doth glad
With heavenly Sunbeames, Goales that are most sad,
Bonds, Torments, Prisons, make not him sad; he
Retaines a quiet mind how ere things be.
4.
Nullatenus vinctus Christi virtute solutus;
Permanet immunis, clusus vel Carcere Vinclis.
Liber ubique, pius, placidus, benedictus, amoenus,
Indomitus; tacitum circumfert pectore Coelum:
Tristia Laetificans, Moestissima cuucta serenans;
Vincula discutiens, arctissima claustra recludens.
He is not bound whom CHRIST hath made free; he
Though shut close Prisoner, chaind, remains still free,
A godly Man's at large in every place,
Still cheerful, well content, in blessed case,
Vnconquer'd; he a secret Heaven still bears
About within his breast, which sad things cheers,
Dispells his blackest clouds of grief, off shakes
His chains; and closest prisons open makes.
5.
Vincula non Animam cohibent, haud carcere clusam:
Sidera transvolitat, Terram, Mare, cuncta pererrat
Alipes, immensi fines transcendit Olympi;
Limitis impatiens, arctari nescia Mundi
Cancellis; tantum requiescens Numine vasto;
Securus, placidusque Piis, vel turbine, Portus;
No bands the soul of Man can once restrain;
No Prison it inclose, nor yet contain;
It soars above the Stars, and swiftly flies
O're Earth, Sea, all things; mounts beyond the skies,
And bounds of the vast Heavens, impatient
Of Limits, ignorant how to be pent
Within the Rayles of this whole world; only
Resting within the boundless Deity;
A secure, pleasant harbor to Godly
Men, even in a storm of Misery.
6.
Vincula quid trepidas? quid tela minantia? Flammas,
Vulnera? quid rabidi Tormenta, Crucesve Tyranni?
Vincenti Statuit, Lignique cruore paravit.
Scenicaturba Choros, spectacula, Tympana, Mimos,
Ludicra stuprosis celebret, spectetque Theatris;
Vincula Christicolae, Mutilatio, stigmata, Furcae
Gaudia plura ferunt, cumulataque Praemia condunt.
Histrio, Scena, Iocus, saltatio, Mascara, Cantus,
Risus Sardonicos generant, fictosque Cachinnos.
Cordolium verum, gemitus morsusque perennes:
Dulcia post tristant, peramara salute coronant.
Why fearst thou Bonds? why threatenings? Weapons?
Fires?
Wounds? why the torments, Crosses or the Ires
Of raging Tyrants? since the sharpest things
We undergo for
Christ,
most sweetness brings.
who hath prepared
and purchased for him
By the Blood of his Cross.
Let then the Crue
Of stage Frequenters celebrate, and view
Plays, Dances, Pastimes, Players, sports in base.
And filthy Theaters, where grows no grace.
Chaines, Mutilations, Pilories, Brandes bring,
To godly Christians far more joys, heaping
Most large rewards upon them. Players, Plays,
Jests, Dancing, Maskes, Songs, generate always
Sighes, lasting gripes of Conscience,
past relief.
7.
Aulicus imbellis gemmis, Dominaeque Capillis
Auriculas onerat magnoque decore venustat,
Stigma, Cicatrices, mutilatio pulchrius Aures
Christigenae decorant, radiisque micantibus ornant,
O Decus eximium referentia Vulnera Christum:
Talibus insignis superis peramatus abibis.
Th'unmanly Courtier with his Mistress Haire,
And Jewels, lades his ears, to make them fair.
When as Brands, Scarres, and Croppings far more
dight
A Christians ears, and make them shine more bright.
O Matchless Glory, Woundes which
Christ
express!
Adorn'd with these,
God's
love thou shalt possess.
8.
Passio Coelipetis Alpha, at Solamen Omega:
Principium Lachrymis decoratur; Meta, Triumphis.
Suffering's their▪
Alpha
who to Heaven tend;
But Joy is their
Omega,
final end;
Their Entrance is adorned with tears of Woe,
Their end with Triumphs, which their griefs outgo.
9.
Nil Crus sentit in Nervo, si Anima sit in Coel
•
.
The Legg feels nothing in the stocks, if the
Soul, mind, Affections in Heaven placed be.
10.
Non timet is carcerem, qui scit contemnere Libertatem,
Vitam, voluptatem, Famam: cui Mundus Ergastulum,
Terra Exilium, Deus habitaculum, Mors Solatium.
He fears no prison who knows to despise
Freedom, Life, pleasure, Fame, which others prize:
To whom this world's a prison; Earth, a place
Of Exile,
God,
a Mansion; Death, Solace.
11.
Servus Christi etiam in vinculis, Liber.
Servus Peccati etiam in summa Libertate captivus.
Christ's Servants even in prison are still free:
Sins, in the greatest freedom, captives be.
12.
Nil corpus patitur in Ergastulo, si Animus sit in Coelo.
The body suffers naught in prison, when
The mind it self is lodged in Heaven.
13.
Quid Coelum sine Deo, nisi Barathrum?
Quid Barathum eum Deo nisi Coelum?
What's Heaven without
God
but a very Hell?
What's Hell but a Heaven, if
God
once there dwell?
14.
Nullibi incarceratur, qui ubique in Christo liberatur:
Nunquam dejicitur, qui semper à Jehovah sustentatur.
He in no place can once imprisoned be,
Hath great Jehovah for his prop and stay.
15.
Nusquam solus qui ubique cum Deo;
Nunquam Miser quisemper cum Christo,
He never is alone, who everywhere
Hath God himself, him company to bear,
He never can be miserable, who
Is always with Christ, who doth with him go.
16.
Vbi Deus adest, ibi non est Carcer, sed Paradisus; Non
Ergastulum,
Sed Palatium; non Barathrum, sed Coelum.
Where God is present, there no
Prison
is,
But a sweet
Paradise
of Joy and bliss;
No
Bridewell,
but a
Palace;
no dark
Cell,
But a bright
Heaven,
where all comforts dwell.
17.
Carcer probat Ami
•
es, detegit Iuimicos;
Excludit Mundum, includit Deum:
Alit virtutes, extinguit Libidines,
Edocet Temperantiam; cohibet Luxuriam;
Mortificat earnem, sanctificat hominem;
Ingenerat gratiam, the saurizat Gloriam.
A prison tries▪ Men's friends, detects their Foes,
Shuts out the world,
God
to men doth inclose;
Nourisheth virtues, Lusts extinguisheth;
Temperance teacheth, Riot restraineth,
Quite kills the flesh, but makes the Man holy;
1
Turris Christiaenos fideles ficte incarcerat, vere liberat, Vnicum Dulcissimum Christi, Iugum, [cui subjugari est perfect manumitti] Imponendo • multiplicia gravis simaque Carnis peccati, Mundi, Diaboli vincula [quibus ill • queari, est certissime captivari,] discutiendo.
The Tower true faithful Christians feinedly
Imprisons, but them sets free verily,
By putting on them Christ's sweet yoke only,
To which to be subjected, is truly
To be enfranchised; by shaking off
The manifold, and most heavy chains of
The flesh, sin, World, Di'le; in which for to lie
Insnarde, is to be captiv'd certainly.
19.
Turris plurimis Spectaculum, multis habitaculum: nonnullis Refugium; aliis divers • rium; Regi Palatium; Regno Gazophylacium, Armamentarium, Propugnaculum, Monetarium: Vinctis piis, Oratorium; Papisticis, Purgatorium; Clausis, Monasterium; Innoxiis, Hospitium; Reis, Ergastulum; Literatis, Musaeum; Ebriosis, Oenopolium; proditoriis, Macellum.
The Tower is to most, a Spectacle;
To many its a house, wherein they dwell;
To some a refuge; Others, a lodging;
A Royal Palace, it is to the King;
Unto the Kingdom it's a Treasury,
Armory, Bulwark, Mint': an Oratory
To Godly prisoners; but a purgatory
To popish; to close ones, a Monast'ry;
To guiltless ones, it's an Inn; to guilty
A
Bridewell;
to learned ones, it's a study;
To idle ones a Dormitory; to
Drunkards, a tippling-house them to undo;
To Traitors it's a shambles, where their head
And Quarters hang, when they are butchered.
On his Exile into Iersy Isle.
Since this whole
World's
a place of
Banishment?
And men as truly
Exiles
are at
home,
As in the
strangest Clime
to which they come?
Are not
God, Christ, Grace,
Heaven to us as nigh
In foreign Parts, as in our own Country?
Yea; and oft times more near: this true to be
I will not then fly, fear my Banishment,
But in it joy, and take most sweet content,
Or else translate to Heaven, with him to reign,
Shall live a
Free-man
for eternity,
In spite of my
Arch-foes;
whom I shall see
20. Deus Turris etiam in Turre:
-
Turris
- Libertatis
- Consolationis
- Quietis,
- Foelicitatis
- Honoris
- Splendoris
- Securitatie
- Salutis
- Spei
- Gaudii
- Pacis
- Protectionis
- Gratiae
- Vitae
-
Gloria
-
in Turre
- Angustiae;
- Tristitiae;
- Molestiae;
- Miseriae;
- Dedecoris,
- Obscuritatis;
- Perturbationis,
- Perditionis,
- Desperationis
- Afflictionis,
- Belli;
- Periculi,
- Peccati;
- Mortis,
- Perpessionis.
-
in Turre
God is a Tower in the Tower.
A Tower of Liberty,
In the Tower of Restraint; a Tower
Of Comfort, Jollity
In the Tower of Sadness; a Tower
Of sweetest Quietnesse
In the Tower of Trouble; a Tower
Of blessed Happiness,
In the Tower of Misery; a Tower
Of Honor, Dignity
In the Tower of disgrace; a Tower
Of bright Excellency
In the Tower of darkness; a Tower
Of strong security
In the Tower of danger; a Tower
Of health and true safety
In the Tower of Sickness; a Tower
Of hope and good success
In the Tower of Despair; a Tower
Of joy and cheerfulness
In the Tower of sorrow; a Tower
Of peace and union
In the Tower of fierce war: a Tower
Of safe Protection
In the Tower of peril; a Tower
Of Grace and Piety
In the Tower of vile Sin; a Tower
Of Life, eternity
In the Tower of grim death; a Tower
Of Glory and great praise,
In the Tower of suffering: such Tower
God proves to his always.
21. Deus Turris.
|
|
|
Mortalium proculdubio Beatissimus, qui Mundi Exul, Christique Captivus, Turri isti tutissima, jucundissima, optimae, maximae perpetuo (dum vixerit) adjudicatur Salvo certe custoditur, quinon solùm à Deo, sed in Deo conservatur: arctari non potest, qui ipsa Dei infinitate (incarceratus) spatiatur. Ita ominatur Gulielmus Prynne: Martij 3. 1633.
God is a Tower by protecting all
His Saints from Ills, in Ills which them befall;
Against, amidst ill men in every place,
Most safely, strongly out of his mere grace;
By comforting them in adversity
Always, most sweetly, most abundantly:
By freeing them from evils speedily,
In the best time, and that most potently:
No doubt he is the happiest man alive,
Who this worlds Exile, and
Christ's
dear Captive,
Is during life adjudged perpetually
In this most safe, sweet, best greatest Tower to lie.
He is truly kept safely, who both by
And in
God
is preserved continually:
He cannot straitened be, who walks freely
(Whiles prisoner) in
God's
vast Infinity.
Of this opinion WILLIAM PRYNNE was the
Third day of
March,
six hundred thirty three.
Sentences of Scriptures there likewise written.
PSAL. 69. 33.
The Lord heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners.
PSAL. 146. 7, 8.
The Lord looseth the prisoners; the Lord raiseth those that are bowed down.
PHIL. 4. 11, 12, 13.
I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content, I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere, and in all things I am instructed, both to be full, and to be hungry; both to abound, and to suffer need: I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheth me.
PSAL. 34. 17. 19. 22.
The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all; the Lord redeemeth the soul of his Servants, and none of them that trust in him, shall be desolate.
PSAL. 37. 23, 24, 37, 38, 39, 40.
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way: Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand: Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: For the end of that man is peace. But the transgressors shall be destroyed together, the end of the wicked shall be cut off: But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord, he is their strength in the time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him.
PSAL. 71. 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24.
Thy righteousness also O God, is very high, who hast done great things, O God who is like to thee? Thou which hast shown me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth. Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side. I will also praise thee, with the Psaltery even thy truth: O my God unto thee will I sing with the Harp, O thou holy one of Israel: My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee: and my soul which thou hast redeemed: my tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long: for they are confounded, for they are brought unto shame that seek my hurt.
MICAH: 7, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
A man's enemies are the men of his own house: Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation, my God will hear me: Rejoice not against me ô mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise: when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause and execute judgment for me, He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness. Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, where is the Lord thy God? mine eyes shall behold her, now shall she be trodden down, as the mire of the streets.
On his Suffrings on the Pillory.
From Hell and endless Torments; suffered on
Alacrity, joy, promptitude: And shall
I not for his sake then most cheerfully
Both stand, and suffer on the Pillory,
Without all blush, or fear? since 'tis no shame,
Verses made by W. PRYNNE, as he returned by Water to the Tower after his last sufferings, upon his Stigmatizing.
S. L. Stigmata Laudis.
Stigmata
Maxillis referens, Insignia
Laudis,
Exultans remeo, victima grata Deo.
Bearing
Lands Stamps
on my Cheekes, I retire
Triumphing,
God's
sweet Sacrifice through fire.
On his return from Exile.
Foes sent me hence, but
God,
and his Saints cries
Have brought me back, 'tis wondrous in all Eyes.
No Exiles, Prisons, Chaines, powers can detain
Those whom
God
will recall, free, raise again.
ISAY. 51. 11. 14. c. 41. 5, 6.
The redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their head; they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. The CAPTIVE EXILE hasteneth, that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail. Fear not, for I am with thee, I will bring thy seed from the East, and gather thee from the West, I will say to▪ the North, Give up; and to the South, keep not back; bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the Earth.
FINIS.
ERRATA.
IN the Epistle v. 1. it were, r. towere p. 2. l. 32. The r. He p. 3. l. 8. He's, r he The verses p. 9. of his Exile into Jersy, should have come in p. 15. after Stigmata Laudis.
Courteour Reader, I shall request thee to correct these few Press errors, which have scaped in some Copies in my absence.
Errata.
Page 1. line 10. for the, read this. p. 3. l. 12. r. make. p. 18. l. 3. when whom. l. 6. them, r. him. p. 19. l. 8 to r. in. p. 32. l. 24. of, on. p. 33. l. 18. sin, weeds. p. 34. 7. they, these. p. 47. l. 5. must, much. p. 65. l. 5. be, lie. p. 71. l. 19 greatest. p. 82. l. 21. lose, close. p. 83 l. 13. others, l. p. 93. l. 21. fined, fixed. p. 95 l 22. and, Oh. l. 23 Satan, Satin. p. 98. l. 25. them, then. l. 27. stations, passions. p. 103 l 15. over, ever. p. 108. l. 21. thee, they. p. 119. l. 6. to. or. p. 125. l. 23 arrived, armed. l. 25. flattering. p. 149. l. 6. shall, should. p. 164. l. 1. the, then. p. 165. l. 13. the one, thine. p. 169. l. 11. prints' paints.
Printers
oft
err,
but not as others men;
Their
Errors
are
corrected
with a
Pen.