CHRIST'S Bloody Sweat, or the SON OF GOD in his AGONY. By. I. F.  
LONDON. Printed by Ralph Blower, and are to be sold at his house upon Lambert hill. 1613.   

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, WILLIAM Earl of PEMBROKE, etc. One of his majesties most Honourable privy Counsel, and Knight of the Noble Order of the Garter, etc.  
RIGHT HONOURABLE, as your Titles do ennoble your Virtues, so( in the judgement of those that know you) your Virtues do as much more entitle your Nobleness: which two, in this age, do so seldom meet in one, as most usually to be Great, and to be Good, is required a double person. It is not so( and it is not so reported) in you; being reputed therein to deserve the Honours you possess, for chiefly loving the desertful. These assurances, have encouraged me, to offer to your judicious view, this little labour, which contains but a Summarie of the Son of God's sorrows; Wherein, let me crave this favour from your Noble bounty, to measure, with the defect in writing, the sweetness of what is written: the effect of that sweetness, and the benefit of that effect. And as for me( my good Lord) I shall take comfort in my pains, if you to whom they are devoted,( being won here to by the general commendation of your merit) please to allow your Patronage to one, who offers, what he offers, in the perfect nakedness of perfect simplicity, Resting  
A lover of your person, for your Noble worthiness. I. F.   

¶ To such as shall peruse this Book.  
POETRY is so every way made the Herald of wantonness, as there is not now any thing too unclean for lascivious rhyme; which among s●me( in whose hearts God hath wrought better things) hath been the cause, why so general an imputation is laid upon this ancient and industrious Arte. And I, to clear( as I might) verse, from the soil of this unworthiness, have he●ein( at least) proved that it may deliver good matter, with fit harmony of words, though I have erred in the latter. The way to Do well, is not so doubtful, as not to be sought; neither so dark, but it may be found. I confess, I have, touching my particular, been long carried with the doubts of folly, youth and opinion, and as long miscarried in the darkness of unhappiness, both in invention and action. This was not the path that led to a contented rest, or a respected name. In regard whereof, I have here set forth the witness that may testify what I desire to be. Not that many should know it, but that many should take comfort by it. And ( Kind Reader) this is my request, that faults in Printing may be charitably corrected; that the sense of the matter may be wisely( and herein truly) construed, and so shall ye both approve your own judgements, and right the Author in his hopes.  
Farewell.   


A Lord of Glory, Prince of Heaven and Peace,  
An elder brother of the sons of rest,  
An Heir of promise, that with large increase,  
A Kingdom and an Empire hath possessed:  
Whereby those poor weak souls in earth cast down,  
Like Kings in Heaven, shall all support a Crown.   

Such thoughts as those, whiles in a ravished spirit,  
Fair meditations Summoned to appear,  
Before the Ark, and mercy-seat of mer●it,  
A sacred flame mixed with an holy fear,  
As if God's voice had spoke, seemed to invite,  
My heart to prompt, my ready hand to write.   

Thou( quoth it) that hast spent thy best of days,  
In thirstlesse ●imes( sweet baits to poison Youth)  
Led with the wanton hopes of laud and praise,  
Vain shadows of delight seals of untruth,  
Now I impose new tasks upon thy Pen,  
to show my sorrows to the eyes of Men.   

Set then the tenor of thy doleful song,  
To the deep accents of my bloody sweat?  
Sweet strains of Music, sweetly mixed among,  
The discord of my pains, the pleasure great,  
The comforts lasting that the world hath got,  
By the delightful sound, of his sad note.   

Here then unclasp the burden of my woes,  
My woes, distilled into a stream of tears,  
My tears, begetting sighs, which sighs disclose  
A rock of torment, which affliction bears:  
My griefs, tears, sighs, the rock, seas, winds unfeigned  
Whence shipwrecked souls, the Land of safety gained.   

For whiles encompassed in a fleshly frame,  
A cloud of dark mortality I lived:  
I lived the subject both of scorn and shame,  
Banished from mirth, 
Esay. 53. 3.  of comforts all deprived:  
Horrors with scandal, cares with cares did strive,  
And ever as I lived, I died alive.   

Tears in mine eyes, division in my heart,  
Disgrace upon my name, plaints in my breast,  
Thirst in my sufferance, 
Mat. 4. 2.  hunger in my smart,  
Naked and cold, imprisoned and oppressed:  
Troubled within, 
Luke. 9 58.  tempted without, my Head  
Uncertain, where to lead me to my bed.   

Poor and forsaken ever day in danger  
Of wrath and Treason, lesser prized then dust,  
Of all abhorred, enen to mine own a stranger,  
No man my friend, in any friend no trust:  
My miracles termed devilish, 
Psal. 41. 9  and my prayer  
Hypocrisy, 
Mat. 12. 24.  my sorrows held despair.   

This entertainment in the world I had,  
Yet for the world exposed myself to all:  
All more than this though this be all to sad,  
But here to did my Fathers will me call:  
Which most above the rest his with pain,  
Did cleave my soul, all woe-begon in twain.   

The charge of whose hot wrath so fearful was,  
As against Nature changed my sweat to blood:  
Which trickling down my cheeks upon the grass, 
Luke. 22. 44   
Well ●ould the agony wherein I stood:  
An agony indeed, whose trembling heat,  
Poured out the wonder of a bloody sweat,   

Which bloody Sweat, for that it is a theme,  
( The happy matter of a moving style)  
That now I challenge from thy sacred dream,  
And meditations( in that dream) the while,  
Thou undertake, to Register that part,  
And with my spirit, I will guide thy heart.   

Remember first the sorrows thou hast passed,  
The shame thou hast escaped, what thou hast felt,  
How I have ever succoured thee at last,  
How gently, with thee and thy sins I dealt,  
Think on the griefs, have made thy pride decline,  
For by thine own, thou mayst conceive of mine.   

For as the Sun exceeds the smallest Star,  
In height of glory, in his golden Spheres:  
Whiles as I was with men, a man so far,  
And much more, did my horrors exceed theirs:  
But thou begin, and where thy sacred fires  
Wax dim, my breath shall quicken thy desires.   

Thus than I soon obeyed the Heavenly voice,  
And wrote; the weight of vengeance now increased,  
From God the Father on his son, whose choice  
Would not from that injunction be released:  
But he must feel, the curse and scourging rod,  
Of our and his( through us) offended God.   

No sacrifice or incense could appease,  
Or reconcile the Majesty above:  
No Customary Rites, no Tribute please,  
No law redeem the breach of his dear love:  
His most just justice, would no mercy give,  
But God as man must die, that men may live.   

The holy and inviolate decree, 
Acts. 2. 23.   
In his unchaunging wisdom had appointed,  
That the true way to happiness should be  
Found out in blood, and blood of his anointed:  
Whose pure Vermilion red, 
john. 1. 29. 36.  did fairly gild,  
sin's black as night, for whom this lamb was killed   

Meek and unfriended to the world he came, 
Reue 5. 8. 9   
Lowly, 
1. Zech: 9 9  sad, patient, in his humbled looks  
The Mirror of humility; 
Mat 2. 5.  so ●ame,  
As if his forehead had been sorrows books: 
Mat. 11. 29.   
Thus whiles the jews hopes, 
Mat. 12. 18. 19 20.  with ambition winged,  
Flew through the earth, their Saviour cames unkinged.   

un-kinged good man, so far from any grace  
Of earthly majesty, 
Mar. 6. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.  of Crowns of state:  
As he was set much lower than the base, 
Luke. 4. 22. to 31.   
Beneath the sight of pity or of hate:  
Yet this is that Messiah, he who brings  
Life in his death, 
john. 1. 41.  makes men saints, Saints as Kings.   

What eye did ever see him laugh? what ears  
Have heard him speak the languages of pleasure? 
john. 11. 33. 35. 38.   
But every eye that saw him, saw his Tears,  
All Ears that heard him, 
Mar. 8. 12.  heard him speak in measure:  
For still his words, 
Luke. 19 41 42.  with grief such measure kept,  
His speech was sighs, and as he spoke, he wept.   

No hand did lend on little Cloth to dry, 
Lam. 1. 12   
The rivers on his cheeks, no thought bewailed  
His solitary Cares, but all past by  
Those unrespected griefs, his heart assailed  
Himself he seemed, as if he meant to crave,  
But of himself, to bear him to his grave.   

His precious head, crowned with a goodly fleece,  
Of hairs more precious, then are golden threads,  
Appears but as an Artist's Master piece  
Scarce worth to view his locks him over-spreads  
untrimmed: 
Mat. 27. 29.  as if they ought that head no duty,  
So much his daily woes had changed his beauty.   

His face in which the Rose did with the lily, 
Esay. 53. 2.   
Strive curiousty for change in little space,  
Through many untaught sighs, appeared so silly,  
As it was but like the ruins of a face:  
Never was man, so excellently named,  
For shape, whom sadness had so soon unframed.   

And now the fullness of the time drew on, 
john. 13. 1.   
When he should pay the ransom of his death, 
Gal. 4. 5.   
To make oblation of his blood alone, 
Eph. 1. 10.   
Offering the last gasp of a guiltless breath:  
As if his only arrant from the womb.  
Were but to run a race unto his Tomb.   

When with the small remainder of his stock, 
Mat. 26. 37   
A remnant of the worlds unnumbered son's,  
A little remnant, a poor simple flock,  
This pastor with those sheep together runs,  
To sequester them and himself apart, 
Luk. 21. 37   
That he might offer up to God his heart.   

Not far from the Holy City stood,  
The mount of Olivet, 
Mat. 21. 1. et 24. 3.  at whose steep Base  
Ceadron the river, with a gentle flood,  
Made Music to the silence of that place: 
john. 18. 1.   
Near which was Gethsemane, 
Mar. 14. 32.  whereto say,  
He often came and often used to pray.   

Retired from out the clamours of the day,  
Our Saviour with his chosen thither came:  
That with more leisure he might freely pray, 
Luke. 22. 4   
Before the hour that must dissolve the frame  
Of his mortality, the curse and scourge  
He was to bear, from sinner's sin to purge.   

And feeling now th'approaching horrors near,  
Of God's enkindled wrath, the time at hand  
Of coming vengeance, trembling in his fear,  
( Which being man he knew not to command) 
john. 8. 59   
His soul was heavy to the death, 
Mat. 26. 28  his heart  
Through wounded, ere he felt his wounds to smart.   

Burst with the burden of tormenting anguish, 
Esay. ●2. 4. 7.   
Wasted with bitter throbs, his hastening pain  
Did make his Manhood quake, and sadly languish  
In agonies so heavy to sustain,  
As but the jewish malice was to heady,  
New death's were needless, he was dead already.   

In terrors buried quick, he strove to hast  
To the prepared Sepulchre of shame:  
Dreading the judgement, heaven had over past  
Upon his humane frailty hell to tame:  
His flesh and Godhead striven, but he the while,  
Meek in his sufferance, did both weep and smile:   

His Godhead smiled to see his manhood weep,  
Remembering what his Godhead had decreed:  
His manhood did a sure full reckoning keep,  
Of every sorrow, that could sorrow breed:  
And fain he would as man from death, be-losed  
which on himself as God, himself imposed. 
john. 10. 18    

Father he prayed, 
Mat. 26. 39  and lifted up his eyes,  
( For in his eyes he had enthroned his heart)  
Father? ah that those terrors might suffice?  
Ah that this deadly banquet might depart?  
In which without thy wrath, I might not sup,  
The health of sick souls, in a poisoned Cup.   

And if it may be possible? But Oh?  
Let not my prayers disannul thy will? 
Mar. 14. 36   
If thine eternal counsel order so,  
That I must thy, severe decree fulfil?  
Father, so it let be? though death hath won  
gain on my flesh, 
Luke. 22. 42  yet O thy, 
Phil. 2. 8.  thy will be done.   

here sinking down, for being fore oppressed,  
With all the worlds innumerable sins,  
Assaulted in that conflict, and distressed, 
Heb. 2. 9   
An Angel comforts him, and he begins  
To shake of those his fears in which he stood, 
Luke. 22. 43   
Which from his passions drew a sweat of blood. 
Verse. 44. ibid.    

Dear eye whatsoever thou be that shall peruse,  
The Lurthen of those lamentable lines?  
An holy meditation may infuse,  
A-mazement to thy soul by those fair signs:  
here stay thy wandering gaze, and faintly hear  
( Ere thou read more) thou mayst let fall a tear?   

And think it not a labour all unmeete,  
To spend a sigh on this unhappy view?  
Woeful the subject, but the gain is sweet,  
By which all serve no more, but reign a new:  
For every tear of water thou canst shed?  
The heart of Christ, a tear of blood hath bled.   

He sweat not drops of blood for his own cause, 
Psal. 18. 23.   
For he unblemished lamb was innocent: 
1. Pet. 2. 22.   
He had obaied no God, 
Esay. 53. 9  he broke no Laws,  
He harboured no deceit, no falsehood meant,  
He never wronged his friend by secret stealth,  
Nor by oppression sought to purchase wealth.   

His tongue for gain was never heard to lie,  
Or tu'nd to swear, or flatter, curse, or fawn,  
Lust could not train his heart, or love his eye,  
No wanton baits of pleasure could impawn  
His chaste desire, to forfeit to delight  
The lawless issues of a baneful night.   

His meekness thirsted notrevenge, his mind  
Was never set on wrath, no fruitless pride  
Travailed new fashions curiously to find,  
He only cared his naked waist to hide: 
Luke. 8. 2. 3   
He never sought to be reputed brave,  
So he had clothes, yet clothes, could scarcely have.   

Heloued not sloth( unprofitable rest)  
Which eats, and feeds, and only feeds and eats:  
Excess of feeding he hath not professed,  
To surfeit in variety of Meats.  
His diet was not change, 
Mat. 14. 19  or choice: his dish  
Sometimes a Barley loaf, sometimes a fish.   

No Wines of mixture, or new drinks to drown  
His soul he used: he was, as Nature made him,  
A drinker, 
john. 47.  but no drunkard: to uncrown  
His innocence no friendship should persuade him: 
Mat. 11. 19   
His voice unfee'd, 
Luke. 4. 21.  spoke to a Nation dull,  
And fed the sheep, 
Mar. 6. 6  but would not share the Wool.   

He did not stop his ears against the cries  
Of harmless suitors, to do justice right;  
He envied not the great, nor did despise  
The broken hearted poor, 
.1 john. 3. 5.  borne down by might:  
But without doing evil, 
Mat. 8. 17.  all to win  
He lost his life; and yet he knew no sin.   

He knew no sin, than needed not to sweat  
The liquid moisture of dissolved blood,  
For his own faults, but ours; our faults so great,  
As scant is one amongst a thousand good  
And yet that one of thousands, if the letter  
Of life were surely scanned, might be much better.   

This was that Pelican indeed, retired  
Into the desert of a troubled breast,  
Who for to pay the ransom long desired,  
Consumed himself to give his people rest:  
A Pelican indeed, that with her blood  
Pulls out her heart, to give her Chickens food.   

He like the Phoenix burning in the Sun,  
That from his ashes may spring up a younger,  
Doth beat himself to death, and will not shun  
The fire, that weak men may in him grow stronger:  
A perfect Phoenix, that most gladly dies,  
That many in his only death may rise. 
Heb. 9 28.    

In every sex, and some of all degrees,  
He saw the misspent riot of their Talon:  
No sin escaped the eye of his decrees,  
But he beheld how apt men were to fall in't:  
For so is prone mortalyty accursed,  
As still it strives to plot and work the worst.   

This man of men did in his troubled spirit  
Into a stream of soft compassion melt  
His scye blood, that frailty might inherit  
The sun of comfort, by the griefs he felt:  
Each drop of blood he shed, 
Levi. 17. 11.  he, shed it then  
To wash a several sin from several men. 
Heb. 19 22    

Here saw he Princes in the awful throne  
Of eminency, 
as happened by Herod.  how wanton they strove  
For thirst of glory, 
Mat 2. 8.  to protect alone  
Religious name, not for religious love: 
Luke. 3. 1.   
Graceing the graceless, in whom grace was lost, 
Acts. 12. 21 22.   
Such Parasites as knew to flatter most.   

For those he sweated blood: 
john. 18. 22.  that they whom Heaven  
Created God's, 
Psal. 82. 1. 6  on earth, should so profane  
By courses indirect and laws un-even,  
Of will and sensual lust, 
Reu. 17. 2  the law first drawn  
By that eternal royalty, who stood  
To watch their faults: for Kings he sweated blood.   

Here saw he such, who under those were placed  
In seats of greatness and commands of state:  
How fond in their madness they did waste  
Their greatness in ambition and debate: 
Luke. 23. 12.   
Aiming not to support, but scorn the good, 
Acts. 23. 4. 5.   
By unjust force, for such he sweated blood.   

Here saw he how in Moses chair thereraigned  
Scribes clothed in wool of Lambs, 
Mat. 7. 15.  and speaking well, 
Mat. 23. 2.   
But Wolves in nature, 
Mat. 7. 3.  so coruptly stained,  
As if they were but messengers of hell: 
john. 8. 44.   
Abusing unlearned souls and levites power, 
Mat. 23. 13   
More ready, 
Mar. 12. 40  then to cherish, to devour.   

Those whom the breath of God at first inspired  
To shine as Lamps, 
Mat. 5. 14.  and speak the Heavenly sound,  
With Angel's tongues, 
Eze. 22. 25.  were silent, 
Mat. 15. 9  if not hired,  
More studying with the scriptures to compound  
Their own traditions, 
Mar. 7. 7.  and for those indeed,  
In heavy drops the sweat of Christ did bleed.   

Here saw he Lawyers soberly engouned, 
Luke. 11. 46 52.   
Wanting the rob of justice: not regarding  
The poor man's right, 
Luk. 18. 2. 3  nor where the case was sound,  
But giving judgement, as he felt rewarding: 
Pro. 29. 4.   
Whose tongue was bought, against that side was weak,  
Most times aswell to hold his peace, as speak:   

For them he sweated blood, and here he saw  
Intrused jurisdiction overswayed  
By partial favour, 
john. 12. 43  above form of Law,  
Cold Conscience, by which Conscience was betrayed:  
For those condemning, 
Luke. 6. 37.  were condemned to much,  
As they condemned, 
Mat. 7. 1. 2.  He sweated blood for such,   

here saw he soldiers toiling in the heat  
Of cruelty, 
Luke. 3. 14.  not measuring the right,  
Why they bore Arms, but to content the great  
And their own lawless hate prepared to fight,  
For prey and spoil adventuring to rend  
Their lives & souls, for those his blood He spent.   

here saw he others that did keep the sword  
Of office and authority, 
as in Annas & Cayphas john. 18. 13. 14.  in peace, 
Pro. 29. 2.   
Compacted in a knot, not to accord  
Or set at unity strifes, but increase:  
Wounding or sparing with a watchful hand,  
As some superior person should command.   

For them he sweated blood: here with much grief  
He saw how Scholars, 
Eccle. 10. 1. 2.  trained with strength of wit,  
Enriched with knowledge, and of men the chief,  
For knowing more than men, with strains unfit  
Did boast their pride, which wisdom disallowed, 
Mat. 11. 19   
For being still both needy and yet proud: 
Pro. 14. 6.    

Scholars he saw, how foolishly they strove,  
With terms of Art and smooth beguiling rhymes,  
To paint the grossness of unlawful love, 
james. 3. 15   
And prove the sins that did corrupt the times, 
Acts. 19 19   
Maintaining upstart sects which all withstood  
Truths precious light: 
Mic. 2. 1.  for those He sweated blood. 
Gal. 5. 20.    

here saw he some, whose servile baseness waited 
1. Tim. 1. 4.   
Upon such vices as attend the great, 
as the Herodians●   
Whom Hell with all it's nimble turning baited  
To usher lusts, by many a subtle feat, 
Mat. 22. 16.   
Those make good clothes their God, 
Luke. 4 25.  & pay the fees  
Of lewdness, with fair words and supple knees, 
Mat. 11. 7.    

For those did jesus sweat in blood: with those  
here saw he some, that were in nature skilled,  
Searching the rules of Physic, 
Mar. 15. 26.  to disclose  
The treasure that the help of Art could yield,  
How Gold did prompt them, & the thirst of wealth,  
To hasten death, or to recover health.   

Much mischief and abuse he saw in such,  
How they would cocker lust, and stir up heat  
Of wanton blood, concealing shame too much,  
With many sins, too many to repeat:  
For those and their iniquities, Christ's grief  
Did sweat in blood, to give their soul's relief.   

here saw ●he men, whose winged vessels brought  
From lands far off, the Merchandise of profit,  
How by their factors, 
Ren. ●●. 23.  all the world was sought,  
For Precious wares such as made plenty of it: 
Hos 12. 7. 8   
And yielded to their greedy hopes such treasure, 
Mic. 6. 10. 11. 12.   
As they had heaped, by subtle weight and measure.   

Thus did they wast the poor, 
1 Cor. 6. 8.  and purchase wealth  
By falsehood in extremities retiring  
As they pretend, 
1. Thes. 4. 6  for benefit of health,  
To their full garners: greedily conspiring  
How they might starve the hungry, 
reve. 18. 3. 11.  and still keep  
Their gold, for those his bloody sweat did weep.   

here saw he others, 
such as was Achab to Naboth.  cursed with large posessions  
Hard Landlords, raising rents, who still would grudge  
The bread of honest gayve, by stern oppressions,  
Wrangling for earth, 
1. Kin. 21. 2  till earth they had too much,  
For those the Lord, 
Psal. 83. 5.  now being man was driven,  
To sweat in blood; 
1. job. 9 24  that those might be forgiven.   

here saw he yet a worser sort, 
Eze. 18. 12. 13.  provoking  
The wrath of God, 
〈◊〉 22. 12. 13.  who living still in plenty,  
And cunning in Arethmeticke, lay soaking  
The needy: 
Pro. 22. 23.  gaining on the hundred twenty:  
Unconscionable usurers, 
Rom. 2. ●. 2. Pet. 3. 9  not contented  
With ten to one? 
james. 5. 3.  nor one of ten repent.   

For them he sweated blood, 
Gen. 6. 2.  here saw he Creatures  
In face as sweet as Angels, died in grain,  
Of nature's Art, fair Miracle of features.  
Wonder of beauty, loves delicious train,  
Adorned with seeming graces that did shine  
So glorious, as they were esteemed divine.   

Women they were, Saints to behold, in view  
chaste Matrons, but( O frailties cursed) in trial  
More vain than vanity, 
Pro. 31. 30.  and more untrue  
Than falsehood: 
Pro. 7. 10.  only; only cunning in denial:  
In whose denial virtue was so scant,  
As when they not denied, they most will grant.   

Words, 
Ecclc. ●. 7. 28.  wit, and fairness, or the smiling gins  
Wherewith they catch ensnared men: where to heaven  
Bestowed for blessings, are but bands to sins  
Abused; whom God made strait, those make even:  
Of whom the most are worst, 
Ibid. 30.  the fewer good,  
The good not free, for all he sweated blood.   

No sex was uncorrupt, but all in all,  
In every fashion, and in each degree,  
Drew comfort from the sower-bitter Gall  
Of his afflictions, therein to set free  
That souls from bondage, and to cool that heat  
of just damnation, in his bloody sweat.   

The tide of kill Sins was swollen high,  
And could not be abated to an ebb. 
Rom. 3. 23. ●4.   
Before the blessed Son of God must die,  
Undoing by his death the painful web,  
The web of endless pains that Satan laid,  
In which the Souls of sinners were betrayed.   

Even as a man that treads a weary pace,  
In labyrinths, continually in doubt  
To find the centre of the curious trace,  
Once entered, still uncertain to get out,  
Before some skilful master by a twist,  
Doth guide him, in or out, or as he list.   

Or as some Christian Merchant by a Turk  
Surprised, and chained, is made a galleyslave,  
Whipped every day, and forced to toil and work,  
Consumed with grief, still living in a grave,  
Until some one more strong, doth free his pain,  
And set's him in his wont state again:   

So men, that in a maze of deathful error  
Did tread the paths of miseries and woe, 
1. Tim. 2. 26   
Bound by that Turk the Devil, 
Deu. 6. 21.  slaved to that terror  
Of condemnation, laboured to and fro:  
Till Christ by death, 
Gal. 3. 26.  did lead them out of sin,  
And freed them from the bondage they were in.   

The Devil could not with his active might  
Prevail against the Lord, 
Mat. 12. 28. 29.  but he abates  
His policy and strength; 
Mar. 3. 27.  and skilled in fight,  
Conquer's the sting of Death, 
Hose 13. 14  cast down hell gates,  
Triumphs on sin, 
Mat. 16. 18. 2. Cor. 15. 55. 56.  kept dark confusion under,  
Breaking the cursed Dragon's head a sunder.   

Captivity, 
Gen. 3. 15.  led Captive, doth unmask  
The hideous visor of his dismal smiles,  
And all the world shakes off the irksome task  
It had sustained, and see's the deadly guiles,  
The sugared bane, the draft it had sucked up  
Of spiced pleasures in a damned cup.   

A damned cup, a cup of God's fierce wrath,  
Of fornications, 
Reu. 18. 3.  of consuming wine,  
A cup, such as restoratives none hath,  
But mere consumptions, no way to refine  
New blood as Cordials, but to overcloy  
The Diet of the Soul, and Soul destroy.   

All those hath Christ's dear bloody sweat laid opens  
( For even his death was but a sweat in blood)  
Offering to all in heart contrite and broken,  
The benefit of life and living food:  
Not foo●e not Manna, 
john. 6. 31. 35.  that shall perish, waste,  
Or stink, but bread that shall for ever last.   

For ever last? O who would spend his days,  
In transitory follies of delight?  
Such as pass soon away, and soon decays,  
Vanish assoon as thought forgotten quite?  
When they beyond all term of time or date  
might reign as Kings, but in a happier state?   

This did the Lecher sleeping in the sheets  
Which reek with lust, but think on, he would weep;  
This did the Drunkard reeling in the streets  
( Then only wise when he doth only sleep)  
Consider, he might sigh; and not incline  
To vomit out his soul in streams of wine.   

This did the Miscreants( Gallant's called) who boldly,  
Tear Gods eternal name, with liberal oaths,  
Remember, they would pray, and not so coldly  
Quench zeal, by warning pride in costly clothes:  
For zeal doth last, when clothes are worn & rotten,  
Men great; once seen in rags, are soon forgotten.   

This did the gamesters, spending nights and days,  
In losing what they gain( such gain is loss)  
For-cast, they would repent, and have such plays,  
Reputing money( as it is but dross:  
They, whiles other cheat, in hope of slime,  
Ill-gotten thrift, do cheat their selves of time.   

This did the lo●-sicke musicke-straining wanton,  
Who leads his life in sonnetting some Ay-mees:  
Ponder, he'd cease, and then there would be scant one  
Enamoured on so many lisping Shces:  
But changing better notes, they would take pity  
On their own souls, and sing a sweeter ditty.   

This did the bloody-minded butcher mildly,  
Conceive, he would not be so fleshed in strife,  
He would not over-given be so wildly,  
To stab, to fight, to scorn the weight of life:  
Who seeks a name by murder, and doth prise it,  
Being termed a true brave Spirit hardly buys it.   

This did the mockers of th'elect and holy,  
Whom God hath set on earth to do his will,  
Regard they could not be so cursed in folly, 
2. kin 2. 23.   
As to persever in their miscniefe still: 
Acts 2. 13.   
Despising Preachers, 
Mat. 10. 22.  and nick naming those,  
With malice whom the holy ghost chose.   

This did the women of much shame and badness,  
Who prostitute their bodies do disgrace.  
In penance, and a feeling tuch of sadness  
But look into, they would not be so base,  
To gain diseases, but with hearts all rent  
Redeem the unchaste hours, 
joh. 8. 11.  they have misspent.   

He that doth most addict himself to sin,  
Did he but bathe his thoughts and once a day  
Wash through his earnest meditations, in  
The bloody sweat of Christ, and truly pray  
To be made clean, by sorrows strongly urged,  
Soon should he hate his faults, & soon be purged   

But this to flesh and frailty is so strange,  
So hard to think, so difficult to do,  
As 'tis almost impossible to change,  
From bad to good though God in mercy woe  
Mortality, to taste of mercy's treasure,  
Yet O, 'tis hard to leave the baits of pleasure.   

O thou that dalliest in secure content?  
And dost not feel the sins that overpresse thee?  
Think on his bloody sweat and strait repent,  
Before a heavier judgement do distress thee?  
And then alas, in that un-hopefull state,  
The time is past thou wilt repent too late.   

Christ's bloody sweat, was that distilling river,  
The comfortable jordan, 
2. kin. 5. 14.  whose fair streams  
Did cleanse the Syrian Naaman, and deliver  
His body from the leprosies extremes:  
We all are Naamans' leprous, but more foul,  
Till in his bloody sweat he purge our soul.   

Christ's bloody sweat that precious pool is, 
joh. 5. 2.  truly  
Bethesda called, where he that was diseased  
For eight and thirty years, did wait most duly  
To be put in, thereby to be released:  
We all are sick, and languishingly hover,  
Till in his bloody sweat, we health recover.   

Christ's bloody sweat, that Siloam is, where he  
Must strive to wash his eyes, 
joh. 9 7.  who was borne blind,  
In which pure laver, he attained to see  
With eyes of body, and with eyes of mind:  
So must we wash, our blessedness is so great,  
In the fresh fountain of his bloody sweat.   

These are the waters of eternal life, 
Esa. 12. 3.   
And he that drinks them shall not thirst again; 
john. 4. 14.   
Not springs of Meribath, 
Nu. 20. 13.  or floods of strife,  
To move contentions, or produce disdain,  
For such as taste this liquor, shall possess  
Sure peace of conscience, perfect happiness.   

Doth any love to be in love with beauty?  
Come hither, in those drops he shall behold  
Water and blood, both in their proper duty,  
So lively as Art's s●lfe would have extolled:  
In curious figures, shadowing delight,  
Blood like to red, and Water like to white.   

Doth any covet time, beginning song?  
Come h●ther, hear is music in this sweat;  
Words sung to God, spoke with a zeal so strong,  
As that it doth his bloody sweat beget.  
This must enchant the senses, and impart,  
Not solace to the ear, but to the heart. 
Ephe. 5. 19    

Doth any wish for costly fare or diet?  
Come hither, banquet in his sacred passion.  
Here's comfort for the foul, and perfect quiet,  
Such food as Christ himself had in like fashion,  
When talking with the woman at the well,  
He eat what no man but himself could tell. 
joh. 4. 32.    

Doth any hope for Honour or promotion,  
Come hither, let him meditate on this,  
And with the sacrifice of true devotion,  
Lift up his voice to ask continuing bliss.  
And to him shallbe given with increase, 
1. Pet. 5. 4.   
A crown of glory, a firm throne of peace. 
2. Tim. 4. 8.    

Doth any take content in strength and might,  
Come hither from this blood recover trust,  
And he shall put the devils force to flight,  
Rebate the darts of Hell and judge the must: 
1. joh. 2. 14   
And bear the Cross and conquer in like manner, 
jam. 4. 6.   
Safe Soldiers fight under Christ his banner.   

It is an honour in the eyes of men.  
If when the King in person is in field,  
Some forward spirit desperately then:  
Assault his foe, and force him for to yield.  
For which attempt, if such a one by right,  
Under the standard royal be made Knight.   

It is an honour, and to times succeeding,  
This banneret shall purchase lasting fame,  
What honour is it then if one lie bleeding,  
Under the wounds of Christ and in his name?  
By Christian combat, level in the dust  
The world's aspiring sins devoting lust.   

He that doth overcome himself and see,  
His guerdon by the holy written word,  
Is a fair man at arms more strong than he,  
Who ploughs up Kingdoms with his threatening sword  
For greater enemies encamp about,  
Mans own weak heart, than any are without.   

Here lurks adulteries, fornication, rapes,  
Murders, 
Mat. 15. 19  false testimonies, slanders pride,  
Treason, 
Mar. 7. 21. 22.  backbiting, evil thoughts escapes,  
Thefts, foolishness, affections fond e●'de,  
Uncleanness, covetousness, deceits and all,  
Which brings the poor captived foul in thrall.   

Turn then thy weapons on thyself, O man,  
And fight against those enemies within thee,  
Beat down thy proper strength, sincerely scan  
The horror of those foes that aim to win thee:  
Put plates of righteousness upon thy breast. 
Eph 6. 14.   
And have thy feet shod with the Gospel's rest. 
Vers. 15.    

Gird on thy loins with verity, 
Vers. 14.  and take  
Salvations helmet to secure thy head, 
Vers. 17.   
Bear up the shield of faith and hourly shake 
Vers. 16.   
The spirits sword and on thy watchful bed 
Ibid.   
Keep sentinel when all thy powers retreat  
Then come and bathe thee in his bloody sweat. 
Colos. 4. 2.    

For as the Hart long hunted on the mountains, 
Psa. 42. 1.   
Breathless doth pant for life but all in vain,  
Until revived in the lively fountains,  
He doth recover strength and breath again:  
So we of breath, of life, are all deprived.  
Till in his bloody sweat we be reviv'd.   

The curse on man from God when first he fell  
From the free comforts of possessed grace,  
Was danger of a second death and hell  
Ecating his bread with sweat upon his face,  
Then all his sweat his sorrows did decree him, 
Gen. 3. 19   
This bloody sweat should from his sorrows free him.   

Sweat was ordained to get us bread, which bread  
Achab the king did to Michaiah give  
When to the prison causing to be led,  
He did ordain the prophet to relieve  
With bread, which showed his cruel jurisdiction  
In giving bread, 
1. ●in. 22. 21  but bread 'twas of Affliction.   

In sweat we eat our bread, 
1. Sam. 13. 14.  such bread as David  
A man of God, and chosen to his heart,  
Cried out he had, when doubting to be saved  
He bore the weakness of the Church's smart.  
Bread 'twas indeed, so kneaded up in fears,  
As well he witnessed 'twas the bread of tears. 
Psa. 80. 6.    

In sweat we eat our bread, such bread so scant,  
As Esay promised to the faithless jews,  
Who being pierced with famine, starved with want,  
Sought stranger gods and did the known refuse.  
Such bread is our bread, and be sweated so,  
Bread of adversity, 
Esa. 30. 20.  and bread of woe.   

As then the sweat in getting of our bread,  
Did set before our eyes the curse we live in,  
So may this bloody sweat abandon dread,  
In only which we know we are forgiven:  
Then let us in those sweats redeem time past,  
Feeling the first, still have in mind the last.   

And still as often as our heart presents us  
The memory of our unhappy fall,  
By sweeting for that bread which discontents us  
So often, let us call to mind withal  
This sweat of comfort, that doth hourly bleed  
Our woeful souls with bread of l●fe to feed.   

Let not the pleasures of uncertain taste,  
Beguile ourp●iates to deceive our hearts:  
Let not the momentary hopes that wast,  
Invite to folly that too soon departs: 
joh. 10. 7. 9   
But let us look on Christ the way and door,  
That all must tread as he hath gone before.   

Peter and Andrew, james and john, whom first  
The Lord elected to be great on earth, 
Mat. 4. 19   
From men with men in rank of men the worst,  
The meanest in degree of baseft birth,  
When they were clad God's glory for to see,  
The only words he used, were follow me.   

Matthew surnamed Levy who to raise  
His estate to wealth and honour sat and took  
Custom, and tallage till his better days,  
Approached when the time was he forsook  
Vain trust, and was God's glory called to see,  
The only words Christ used, 
Mar. 2. 14.  were follow me.   

The rich man that to justify himself,  
By keeping whole the fire-condemning law,  
He that was sad to leave his worldly pelf  
When the true man to righteousness he saw:  
To him than called God's glory for to see  
The only words he used, 
Mar. 10. 21.  were follow me.   

To him that would be just, 
Luke. 9 61.  but first had rather  
To bid his guests at home farewell and he,  
Who chose to lay into his grave his father, 
Mat. 8. 22.   
Before he meant a Nazuarite to be:  
When they should come God's glory for to see.  
The only words he used, 
Ibid. 22.  were follow me.   

Philip when yet redemption was not known,  
To be on earth found such a saving favour,  
As that the Lord did chose him for his own,  
By calling him unto the precious savour:  
Of life, to life, God's glory for to see,  
Yet all the words he used, 
john. 1. 43.  were follow me.   

Which follow me, must not be understood  
In fasts of Miracle, or earthly pleasure,  
Nor striviug, as he did in sweeting blood,  
To know no sin, but to attain the treasure  
Of never-fading joys, of true salvation,  
By holding worldly pomp in detestation. 
Io. 2. 15. 16    

For he who follows Christ must not respect  
Promotion, money, glory, ease delight:  
But poverty, 
Ro. 13. 14.  reproof, and selfe-neglect  
Disgrace, 
Mat 10. 37  tears, hunger, cold, thirst, scorn, despite,  
Friends, 
Mat. 19 29.  father, mother, brethren, children, wife,  
Must be foregone, yea lands and goods and life.   

His Cross must be took up and as he was  
In meekness, 
Luk. 9 23. 1. Pet. 2. 21. 22.  sufferance, patience, and sobriety,  
Such must we be, thus must we over pass  
The wars of frailty, lust's satiety,  
We must lay down our lives, and gain the crown  
Of life indeed, as life we do lay down.   

Unto the simple was the Lord revealed,  
To men obscure, 
Mat. 10. 39  disdained, and unlearned,  
His mercy from the mighty is concealed, 
1. Cor. 1. 27 28.   
He only of the poor will be discerned,  
That they who to the world are poor in show, 
joh. 21. 3. 4.   
Might teach the world, 
Mat. 5. 3.  and greatness overthrow.   

When to the bar of judgement we shall plead,  
And hold up guilty hands, and sue for grace,  
A book shall be brought forth thereon to read  
A miserere mei, 
Psal. 51. 1.  but our case  
willbe so hard, our sins will so deprave us,  
As than our book will come too late to save us.   

For than our booke● the book that doth contain,  
The words of life, Christ's bloody sweat and passion,  
That book will witness how we did disdain  
His love, and drive us to a desperation,  
And then not every one that cries Lord, Lord,  
shallbe received, 
Mat. 1. 2.  for scorning of his word.   

Then shall the Lord reply, for you I sweated  
Sad drops of blood, and yet you would not love me:  
For you in agony, my heart was heated,  
My wounds did cry, yet would ye not approve me:  
I know ye not, 
Mat. 25. 4.  ye cursed creatures go  
Where damned souls do feel eternal woe. 
Psa. 6. 8.    

Never may day give comfort to your cries,  
But over-cloud you in perpetual night:  
Never hence forward may your hopes arise,  
For to behold my life-restoring sight:  
Let death and devils torture you for ever,  
For you shallbe released never, never.   

Here shall the wantoness for a downy bed,  
Be racked on pal●ets of stil-burning steel:  
Here shall the glutton, that hath daily fed,  
On choice of dainty diet, hourly feel  
Worse meat than toads, & beyond time be drenched  
In flames of fire, that never shallbe quenched.   

Each moment shall the killer, be tormented  
With stables, that shall not so procure his death:  
The drunkard that would never be contented  
With drinking up whole flagons at a breath,  
shallbe denied( as he with thirst is stung)  
A drop of water for to cool his tongue.   

The mony-hoording Miser in his throat  
Shall swallow molten lead: the spruce perfumed  
Shall smell most loathsome brimstone: he who wrote  
Soul-killing rhymes, shall living be consumed  
By such a gnawing worm, 
Mar. 9 44.  that never dies,  
And hear in stead of music hellish cries.   

No sin that is not washed in true repentance,  
Shall scape in every sense to be perplexed:  
But every sin● and sinner shall have sentence,  
To be without all end with horrors vexed. 
Rom. 6. 23.   
And that not for a day, a month, a score  
Of years, or term, or time, but evermore.   

For as the God whom such have once offended,  
Is infinite in majesty and power:  
So shall their tortures be to them extended  
Most infinite, and ceased not to devour:  
And after thousand thousand years, their sin  
Is no more free than when it did begin.   

Lo here the view of souls condemned to hell,  
Yet here is not the worst of their endurance,  
Their greater torments are for that they fell  
From everlasting joys, and known assurance  
Of God's great glory: which so long remains:  
As dateless as are their all-scorning pains.   

Unto the blessed shall he change his voice,  
And with as much grim horror as he spoke,  
The curse of wrath: so sweet shallbe the voice,  
That with a gracious mildness shall provoke  
Laughter and comfort to the long distressed, 
Luke. 6. 21.   
When he shall call them to his quiet rest.   

Come( will he say) ye blessed of my Father,  
Unto the kingdom he hath chosen for you: 
Mat. 25. 34   
Since in the time of frailty ye had rather  
Than serve as worldlings, have the world abhor you:  
You groaned, and sighed, and mortified the flesh,  
Waiting till I, your sorrows do refresh.   

My Bloody sweat won pity in your eyes,  
And you poor souls did love me in my griefs,  
My base reproof you no way did despise.  
Hungry, cold naked, thirsty, your reliefs  
Did cheer my dying heart: for which regard  
Take life eternal, for your due reward.   

Here shall the Martyrs slain upon the Altar  
Of persecution, 
Reu. 6. 10.  for his glorious sake  
By banishment, the sword, the axe, the halter,  
The water, rack, the whip, the fiery stake,  
No longer cry, how long? but rest in peace,  
And have such pleasures as shall never cease.   

Here shall the meek in spirit be exalted,  
The naked clothed, 
Ibid. 11.  in perfect robes of white:  
The poor that felt no taste of sin, be salted  
With savours of exceeding great delight:  
The hungry fed, the sick relieved, the chaste  
With honours, that shall never fall be graced.   

Those when the Trumpet from the flaming skies,  
Shall sound a summons to the day of doom, 
Mat. 24, 31   
Herd shrill even from the simple to the wise, 
1. The 4. 17   
Shall with the Lord of glory fairly come,  
And stand as witnesses, 
Psa. 50. 3.  then to provoke  
The Lord to judgement, 
joel. 2. 34.  whiles the heaven ● smoke   

Here Dives from the flames he suffers in, 
Luk. 13. 23   
Looks up, and faintly, on the Lords right hand,  
( Who comes to pay the wages of his sin)  
Beholds poor Lazarus in triumph stand  
And then his conscience prompts him, telling how  
As he did once scorn him, he scorns him now.   

What boots complaints? or whither can he run  
To hide him from that presence? all in vain  
He calls to mind the follies he hath done,  
But cannot ransom back his time again;  
justice pronounceth, as it justly fitted:  
Sin showed no pity, sin must not be pitied.   

Unto this Audit and severe account,  
How we have lived? what words we spoke, what prayer  
We made? what thoughts we thought? how we surmount  
In goodness? how the poor we did repaire●  
What can we answer? but in meek accord  
Confess us guilty, and cry mercy Lord?   

A sparrow cannot fall unto the ground  
Without the providence of God above: 
Mat. 10. 29   
Our hairs are numbered, 
Ibid. 30.  and we shallbe found.  
The heirs of promise, as we hate or love:  
The secrets of our hearts are not our own, 
2. Cor. 4. 5.   
Our hearts and secrets than will both be known.   

Before the issue of which doleful day,  
When no excuse will be admitted there,  
A time is given, and a tongue to pray,  
O who will then that precious time defer?  
But whiles the sufferance of our God is great,  
Fly to the safety of his Bloody sweat.   

His bloody sweat the comfortable matter,  
That must renew us in the time of need,  
Both meat and drink ● blood, meat, & drink, the water,  
The last to quicken, 
Eph. 5. 26.  and the first to feed:  
Water the seal of Baptism doth present, 
john. 6. 55   
And blood his supper each a sacrament.   

See here in earnest meditations, now  
The mystery of all salvation, 
Eph 1. 9 10   
How orderly God hath ordained, and how  
He wisely wrought it from the first creation,  
So good this gracious God is to defend us,  
As he fore-thinks the means that must commend us.   

When Christ prepared himself to die, and bear  
The wrath of God that we in him might live:  
The time of his sour passion drawing near,  
In which he was his life for us to give,  
Retired alone his father to entreat,  
His agonies brought forth a bloody sweat.   

So when upon the cross he had endured  
The bitter pangs of hell, and breathed the last,  
Confounding death that had his death procured  
When all the tide of cruel griefs was past,  
A soldier with a spear did pierce his side,  
When blood with water gushing was espied. 
joh. 19 34.    

Water and blood what could it else intent  
Or whereunto so likened could it be  
But to the bloody sweat his soul did send  
Before his death oppressed in agony  
That as the first before his death diminished  
Death of the soul this in his death that finished.   

He died indeed not as an actor dies  
To die to day, and live again to morrow,  
In show to please the audience, or disguise  
The idle habit of enforced sorrow:  
The Cross his stage was, and he played the part  
Of one that for his friend did pawn his heart.   

His heart he pawned, and yet not for his friend,  
For who was friend to him, or who did love him?  
But to his deadly foe he did extend, 
Colos. 1. 21   
His dearest blood to them that did reprove him,  
For such as took his life from him, he gave  
Such life, as by his life they could not have.   

Great miracle of love, redemptions wonder,  
Where he that should be sued to, sues to those:  
Who would not sue to him, but still kept under  
That better part which he in mercy chose:  
Rare precedent of value, which discovers  
How love is scant, where plenty is of lovers.   

If we but look into the little home,  
The home of our own selves, we may espy  
How many pirates still make haste to come  
To wreck our souls, whom whiles we do defy  
We entertain, and freely, but unsought,  
Make merchandise of what we never bought.   

The pearl and the treasures which the Lord  
Did witness, 
Mat. 13. 44 45. 46.  were of an unvalued price:  
jesus did purchase of his own accord  
To free us from our death deserving vice,  
And left us for an heritage, the gain  
Of life immortal ever to remain.   

Hell's gaping womb which every minute sunk  
Millions of souls, 
Pro. 27. 20.  and would not be content  
With streams of blood, which greedily it drunk,  
But still cried more, his mercy did prevent,  
For he shut up the laws, and did acquit  
The ravenous gorge of that devouring pit.   

The ever empty swallow of the grave  
And bottomless confusion of the deep  
His blood hath made in vain, and this doth save  
From dangers, such as dangers daily keep.  
Death's sting it hath rebated and un-edged  
Such souls as were in sorrows bondage pledged.   

What should a sinner do? or whither fly  
To hide him from his shame that ever wakes?  
Poor man less than a man who cannot die,  
Nor cannot live so much his Care mistakes,  
And still he draws destruction with his breath,  
As 'tis all one to suffer life or death.   

Sad thoughts like burning furies still pursue him,  
And seek his life who them alive doth cherish,  
Fond thoughts whose inward eyes nosooner view him  
But kill that Master, who once dead, they perish:  
His thoughts do tell his conscience of his thrall,  
His conscience makes him think that he must fall.   

What shall he cry to mountains to conceal him?  
Or shall he beg, 
Luk. 23. 30  the seas to over-drench him?  
The mountains are removed and cannot heal him  
The Seas are dry, 
Psa. 139. 9  and they cannot entrench him, 
Reu. 6. 14.   
But ever as he hopes the light to shun,  
In groping for the night he finds the sun.   

A Son whose glory doth disclose abroad  
The secrets of his hearts, and lays all open,  
Lines out the sundry paths that he hath trodden,  
Unfolds the several treasons he hath spoken:  
The inside of his bosom is apparent, 
1. joh. 3. 20   
And he hath none excuse to plead his warrant.   

What can he now resolve, but to retire  
Unto the sweat of Christ, and cleft in mind.  
Humbled in meek astonishment, desire  
Comfort in this his bloody Bath to find:  
Which bloody sweat, when every help doth fail  
To cure the soul, that only doth avail.   

Pure distillations are but vain receipts.  
Curious to drain, but comfortless in taste,  
Compounded Cordials are unwise deceits,  
Whose virtue doth but with the present last:  
Christ's body is the Limbeck that must yield  
Distilled blood, our souls from death to shield.   

If pleasures, honours, money, gifts promotion,  
Physic, restoratives repasted diet,  
Ease, cost, delights, cold heat, profane devotion,  
Drinks, purges, observation, courtly quiet,  
Or one, or all, the soul's spots could expel,  
Great Kings had never ran so fast to hell.   

The Princes of the Sodomites, the chiefs  
Of Egypt, Achab, Eserod, and the rest,  
Had never felt the terrors of their griefs,  
If art could have a remedy expressed,  
But therefore died they, cause they know no good,  
To purge them in the stream of Christ his blood.   

The woman's painting jesabel, the whore  
Of th' Israelitish monarch, 
2. Kin. 9 30  could not hide  
Her sins from God but as herself was poor  
In virtue, so she died in naked pride:  
O had she fe●ne Christ's bloody sweat cont●i●'d  
In his Eliahs' grief, she might have li●'d. 
1 Kin. 19 ●● 4 5.    

But they whom worldly pleasures wrap in woe,  
Esteemed this sweat a fancy or a fable,  
Which one day they will find was nothing so,  
When to recall again they are not able:  
And their this blood which hath procurda crown  
shallbe a flood, not to refresh but drown.   

What is a man but dust made up in form?  
Frail, 
Gen. 3. 19  weak, corrupted: keeping ti●e in motion,  
A ship at sea, o'erturned with every storm:  
Eats, sleeps, and dies, unsettled in devotion:  
In health unbridled, in his years a span,  
A sading bloom, 
1. Pet. 1. 24.  and such a thing is man.   

Man's beauty but a frame made up in snow,  
Immixed with wax, which melts with every Sun,  
Even so experience teacheth men to know,  
How soon this work of frailty is undone:  
A winter's frost, or summer's parching heat,  
Doth soon this pictures ornament defeat,   

Yet as a cunning firework lighted glows,  
Spits and with hissing wonders dares the skies,  
Till being wasted, down it fall, and shows  
No more; his matter spent it weakly dies,  
And vanisheth to air and smoke, so men  
In health are strong, but dying vanish then.   

Man as a cunning firework in his power,  
Dares God and heaven, 
Psal. 12. 4.  and kicks against the Lord,  
Till all his force be spent, then in an hour  
Abates, decay, falls of his own accord:  
Being indeed as nothing, in dcspaire  
Of doing ill, fumes into smoke and air.   

But here is not the end of all his ilse  
His greater souls vexation is behinds  
A death which both the soul and body kills,  
To which the miserable are confined: 
Reu. 14. 18.   
And then too late they wish to co●●e the heat,  
Of flames and brimstone, in Christ's bloody sweat.   

If one condemned for some notorious fact,  
Labour his pardon, and doth surely think  
His life is safe: forgets his former act,  
Doth revel, swear, profane, carouse and drink,  
Whiles thus his jolly time he doth apply,  
One says that he within an howe● must die.   

How cold that news strikes to his heart? his checks  
How soon they change their merriment? and he  
With what submission pensive, humbly seeks  
For grace to alter that un●op't decree?  
How would he promise, beg, protest, o● give  
All that he had, or could procure to live.   

Such is the case, who till the day draw near,  
Wherein we must 〈◊〉 ●p the right●  
We hold of living: do our souls appear  
Slaves to disorder, servants to delight:  
But when we are arrested to depart,  
Then we can feel the dolours of our heart.   

Yet Christ is not regarded, who stood up  
And in the last day of the feast cried out,  
H● come to me, 
Io. 7. 31. 38  all ye who thirst, and sup  
Rivers of life, drink freely round about:  
And if there come a scarcity of food, 
joh. 6. 5.   
My flesh shallbe your bread, your drink my blood. 
Ibid. 54.    

Dull ears who will not listen to this call?  
Dull eyes who will not see this fount of ease?  
Dull heart that will not shun temptations gall?  
Dull soul that will not seek this God to please?  
Dull ears, dull eyes, dull heart, dull soul, whose strife  
Nor hears, nor sees, nor thinks, nor seeks for life.   

Life may be freed from everlasting wrath,  
Which is prepared for those which will not live,  
If they but aim to bathe them in the bath  
Of Christ his blood, which he doth frankly give  
To cleanse and wash away each leprous spot,  
That use of sin doth feed as sin begot.   

Besieged mankind when the foe assaults,  
Of numberless temptations, shrieks or fears,  
Mewed up in care, and yieldeth to the faults,  
Whom as a weighty burden still he bears:  
And ere h● lose the honour of the field,  
Doth like a turncoat, to his weakness yield.   

Where now is faith? where is that courage now  
Which prou● mortality prefumes it hath?  
Base servile frailty doth despairing bow  
To wear the fetters of consuning wrath,  
So cowards boast in time of peace, but fly  
When wars increase, and unremembered die.   

Others there are, who smooth the front of sin,  
And mask his ugly forehead with the colour  
Of lust, engendered novelties, to win  
Grace to their arts by making art seem fuller:  
And they their foolish wits with pride to prove,  
Will strive forsooth to make a God of love.   

They are the devils secretaries right,  
Whose rules have drawn whole troops of souls to hell  
That might have else been saved, they day and night  
Toil out their brains, that mischief might excel,  
They feel the whips whiles as they kiss the rod,  
By making lust the devil, and the god.   

Love is no god, as some of wicked times  
( Led with the dreaming dotage of their folly)  
Have set him forth in their lascivious rhymes,  
Bewitched with errors, and conceits unholy:  
It is raging blood affections blind,  
Which boils both in the body and the mind.   

But such whose lawful thoughts, and honest heat,  
Doth temperately move with chaste desires,  
To choose an equal partner, and beget  
Like comforts by alike enkindled fires:  
Such find no doubt in union made so even,  
Sweet fruits of succours, and on earth a heaven.   

Such find the pastures of their souls and hearts,  
Refreshed by the soft distilling dew,  
Of Christ's dear bloody sweat, which still imparts  
Plenty of life and joys so surely true,  
As like a barren ground they drink the pleasure,  
Of that in estimable shower of treasure.   

If every word we write, and speak, 
Mat. 12. 36  or thought  
We think, or deeds we do, or hour we spend,  
Shall one day to adstrict account be brought,  
When shall be made a whole and final end,  
Then all in vain we shall condemned that wit,  
Which hath in sin or thought, 
Act. 8. 22.  or spoke, or writ.   

Those Angels who as Porters, guard the gate  
Of God's eternal kingdom, will control  
All entrance there and curiously debate  
Questions of quarrel with the trembling soul,  
And like some churlish officer at court,  
Keep back the press of all the worse fort.   

Here now the soul is baffled whiles they chide,  
What are ye? soul's oppressed: but whither press ye?  
Into the court of God here to abide,  
What sick? yes sick: whom seek ye to dress ye?  
Christ our physician: 
Mar. 2. 17.  who hath sent ye to him?  
Our faith; what faith? such faith as comes to woe him   

Woe him for what? for life: where are your seals  
Of piety and truth? lost: O fools  
Get hence? 
Mat. 22. 11.  our wounded care appeals  
To mercy, promised in the sacred schools:  
To justice? no to mercy we behave us:  
justice condemns you? yet will mercy save us.   

Have you then bathed your sins? in what: in sweat?  
What sweat? his bloody sweat: we have not know● it:  
Ah have you not? no: than you are to great  
In sins, sins? sins, and those have overthrown it:  
Hence souls away, ye are too late deluded,  
Thus are the wicked souls from heaven excluded.   

Thus are the wicked souls from heaven excluded,  
And tortured in the horror of their fears,  
heavens gate is shut, when they would have intruded,  
And all because they were too slack in tears:  
Which are the ready tokens Christ hath lent,  
His bloody sweat on earth to represent.   

Never was tear from any heart let fall, 
Mat. 5. 4.   
In true repentance, but the Lord of grace,  
Hath seen and bottled up, and kept it all  
For such as must his saving health embrace:  
This is a rule in text for certain given,  
An eye still dry doth seldom come to heaven.   

He who can gush out tears as 'twere a flood,  
Of crystal sorrows, and a zeal unfeigned,  
D●th purge his faults in Christ his sweat of blood,  
And with his faults shall never more be stained,  
Stars in their brightness shall not shine so glorious,  
Nor all the Kings on earth be so victorious.   

'tis not enough to read the Bible over,  
Here to fold down a leaf, and there to quote it,  
Now to behold the Lord in blood, then hover  
And range: but freely in thy heart to note it:  
For where the Word doth tell us Christ did bleed,  
And sweat, there must our thoughts both drink & feed   

Did but a King before a public view,  
Embrace and kiss his subject, how would fame  
Speed such such a favour, how would people sue,  
To grace their service by his only name: 
Pro. 22. 23. 26.   
So here doth Christ a much more grief impair,  
And cries to all, My son give me thy heart.   

My son give me thy heart, 
Can. 1. 1.  and in exchange  
Take mine, I both will kiss thee and embrace thee:  
What heavenly words are in this voice? O strange?  
See sinner how the God of love doth grace thee,  
My son give me thy heart, but give me thine  
And I will sweat in blood, to pawn thee mine   

God knocks, then let us open: let not hell  
Bar out the King of mercy: he entreats,  
Let not the devil distwade: God comes to dwell  
With men, let men him entertain: he sweats  
For us, let us for him like duty keep:  
He sweated blood, let us in sorrow weep.   

A man that lives in pleasures, as his days  
Increase, the days passed over seem a dream:  
Still newer joy, more hope of joy bewrays,  
And as he lives, he lives still in extreme:  
He wakes to sleep, and sleeps in hope to wake:  
So here is all the pleasure he can take.   

Is this a life? O what a life is this?  
To covet age, which being come is hated:  
Whose end is death, which death the utmost is  
Of every lease that in the grave is dated:  
They that enjoy what their own hearts can crave  
Crave only time, which brings them to the grave.   

And here they die, and dying once die all,  
Die all as they unworthily have lived,  
No part of them survives, but feels the thrall  
Of life in death, and death of life deprived:  
Thus than the promise of all the world's desire,  
Bears life to die, then dies in life to tyre.   

Weary unrest, and restless weary woe,  
That leads to pleasures in their birth abortive:  
How much more better were it to forego  
A life so grievous, and a death so sportive?  
And rest the griefs so numberless and great,  
In the sweet slumber of his bloody sweat?   

When Pharaohs heart was hardened, and denied  
Freedom to Israel, 
Exo 8. 3.  the Lord to scourge  
Pharaohs ambition and detested pride,  
Which mercy could not win, nor mildness urge; 
Ibid. 19 20:   
Commanded Aaron when he touched the flood,  
Th' Egyptian waters all were turned to blood.   

Water was turned to blood, but in this sweat  
Here blood is turned to water: as the first  
Betokened plagues for sins, the last doth treat  
Redemption from those sins, who were accurs●:  
The first his wrath, the lass doth show his love,  
His justice this did, that his mercy prove.   

By blood offences in the written law,  
Unto the law of grace were reconciled;  
By blood offences must redemption draw, 
Heb: 9: 13: 18:   
From blood; which blood the Gospel now is styled:  
The law, the blood of Goats and bulls desired,  
The Gospel hath the blood of Christ required.   

A surety for his friend that is arrested,  
Kept close in prison, bound in iron chains,  
Is hungry, cold, and weary, sick, and wrested  
To change of inward griefs, and outward pains:  
Deserves from him for whom he asseast,  
If not a full reward, yet thanks at least.   

So he, who in the absence of his friend,  
Whom malice hath upbraided with abuse,  
Doth undertake his quarrel to defend,  
Clearing the imputation with excuse,  
Fights and is wounded; being wounded dies,  
May justly claim the tribute of his eyes.   

jesus, the son of God was at our su●e  
A rested, and imprisoned in the frame  
Of flesh; 
joh. 1. 14  was fettered, and of no repute,  
Tired with his griefs, the byword of defame,  
All this he was, and did, yet to relieve him,  
We scarce can in our hearts find thanks to give him.   

He undertook our quarrel with the Devil, 
Reu. 12. 7. 8   
When we were all unable to resist, 
Luk. 1. 7●.   
And in that quarrel to discharge our evil,  
Was wounded to the death, yet we persist  
Too obstinate in malice, and forbear  
Upon his bleeding wounds to shed one tear.   

We see upon his furrow-drowned face  
The print of sorrows stamp, yet not regard him;  
We see his honour levelled with disgrace,  
Yet with our only thanks will not ●eward him:  
'Tis bad to sin; sin 'tis to be ungrateful,  
Sin is abhorred, unthankfulness is hateful.   

Go then Remembrance, tell that Queen of Reason  
( Fair bride to Christ) the Sou●e her lover comes, 
Mat. 25. 1.   
Decked in his wedding robes, 
Reu. 21. 9  and courts the season  
With choice of pleasures, and with many sins  
Of sure deserts, invites this wandering Queen,  
To be as true as he to her hath been.   

Lady( quoth he) thy fortunes have not won  
My heart to love, thy beauty cannot force me  
To wanton dotage, what my care hath done,  
No time shall alter, no reports divorce me:  
For to my chaster flames thy zeal gave fuel,  
And I will guard thee, if thou be not cruel.   

No dower from thy treasuries I crave,  
No wanton dil●●ance in a bed of lust,  
Thy pureness is the portion I would have,  
Artless simplicive and steady trust: 
Rom. 16. 19   
And if thou prove but constant to implore,  
Virtue with goodness, I will ask no more.   

Heer● vows the soul virgini●v, 
Cant, 2. 16.  and swears  
She will be only his, and means to do it,  
Until distracted in her fleshly fears,  
She shrinks from her first troth when she comes to it,  
And like a strumpet false, she here forswore,  
That plighted promise she had made before.   

Simplicity was wooed by youthful Just,  
And would not yield; young Just did fee old sin,  
Old sin assaults simplicity whose trust  
Thus to make less she trimly doth begin:  
Fair daughter ●●●●en, time will come when thou  
Shalt change thy hue, and be as I am now.   

Vnhealthie, old, forsaken, and despised,  
I lead a life, who was adored then;  
Beauty amidst the ●roppe is only prized,  
Fair souls, in youth, are chief liked of men:  
But when my time did court me I for-went it,  
And lost my days, and now I do repent it.   

Daughter wilt thou alone live unpossessed,  
Of youth's best ornaments and natures joys?  
Wilt thou deny to be a mother blest,  
In pretty daughters and more pretty boys?  
O no, had not our mothers took their lot,  
We had been yet unborn and unbegot.   

Heaven hath ordained thee to be sweet on earth,  
Both love and youth do-homage to thine eyes,  
And wilt thou curb thyself of pleasures mirth?  
By vainly striving how to be precise?  
She that hath fairness were as good have none,  
If foolishly she keep it all for one.   

Yet you forsooth young mistress in the folly,  
Of standing on some pleasure threatening text,  
Dream of some great renown, in being holly,  
Read this, and that, and that, and what is next:  
I know not what, and ever vainly plod,  
In hope to marry with the Son of God.   

No doubt: come yet, I'll tell a safer way,  
If you will needs to that ambition clime,  
Do it at last, bu●spend thy youth in play,  
Revel, enjoy the freedom of the time:  
And when y'are old, unfit for sport, bereaven  
Of youth and joys, than you may think on heaven   

Tush daughter, 
Eze: 18. 21. 22.  God respects thee in thine age,  
As well as in thy prime, and he will bear  
With flesh and blood, then seek not to engage  
Best of delight, before delights do wear:  
And thou to God mayst be( my words are truth)  
As welcome in thine age, as in thy youth.   

Won is the soul with this, or rather lost,  
Sins sweet temptation hath undone the zone  
Of Maiden chastity, the field is lost,  
Lust hath prevailed and Christ is left alone.  
For now the soul resolves that sports unfold  
Law to the young repentance fits the old.   

Yet thus that kind good God will not give over,  
But once again by parley doth attempt,  
To court this per●u●'d dame: and like a lover  
Scorned of his Lady from all hope exempt,  
Pittyes the shipwreck of her taiuted name,  
And yet by Manage would recure her fame,   

I know( quoth Christ) ay love thee, else I would not,  
Haue●●●●nd unto thee in a Sea of blood:  
More testify my love thou knowst I could not,  
Long have I strove to bring they soul to good:  
And witness here this crimson sweat, how I,  
( O soul of man) do for thy whoredoms die.   

How often in my bosom did I sue  
To have thee lodged, 
Luk. 13. 34.  how often did I call thee  
From strange embracements; from affections new,  
Whose only surfeit did too soon enthrall thee?  
And yet thou wouldst not come, till age bereft thee,  
Then I must take thee when all else have left thee:   

When years have made thee all unfit for action,  
When lust hath sucked thy Marrow dry, and those  
With whom thou hadst conspired in trothless faction,  
Shall shun thy lewdness, and deride thy woes:  
To me thou then wilt come and I must hide  
The known defects of thy declined pride:   

Call but to mind what 'tis to be a whore,  
A whore, the worst of creatures, trades her pleasures  
With all diseases, lives till she be poor;  
Sells all to buy damnation, never measures●  
Or shame, or health, but makes her body's mart  
Her soul's confusion; such an one thou art. 
Heb. 13. 4.    

And though perhaps temptation might persuade thee,  
That even the winter of thine age shall find,  
If thou repent, mercy from him that made thee,  
Be not secure, for thou shalt feel thy mind  
So far divided, so currup●ly bend,  
As than thou canst not if thou wouldst repent.   

Redeem the poor remainder of thy days,  
Deaden the life of thy lascivious lust,  
Take pity on thyself, 
Fze. 18. 31.  forsake thy ways  
Of irish bondage, hate what is unjust,  
Be true to my desires, when sin assaults,  
And I'll forget thy wrongs, forgive thy faults.   

Did ever man speak thus! was ever crcature  
In such a language courted, when the heat  
Of wilful madness wrought the soul's defeature,  
The God that should have punished doth entreat:  
He in whose power it is to scourge the sinner,  
With words of mildness doth assay to win her. 
Mat. 11. 28.    

Read in this moral, if it may be termed so,  
Christ's love, the soul's infection, this is willing,  
That wilful, and eschews to be confirmed so●  
That from his love she may behold distilling,  
A sweat of blood, as if his blood complains  
To tell her of the horrors he sustains.   

Gild reads a lecture of her foul misdeeds,  
And bids her look upon this stream of red,  
Lays to her view the speaking sweat that bleeds,  
When she lies gasping on her death full bed:  
And then her conscience summoned to the doom  
Of judgement, hastes unto her tomb.   

When now( O God she cries) and have Iliued,  
Ah shall I live no more? Is grace and beauty  
Vanished so soon, of all respect deprived?  
Must pomp and state renounce her wont duty?  
Must my divided soul contemned and lost,  
Surrender up my short appalled Gh●st?   

Inconstant fate, and wilt thou change thy course,  
And leave me to the terrors of my dread?  
Can gold prolong no life? Must life by force  
Be shadowed with the ruins of the dead? 
joh. 8. 9   
'Tis bad to die; 
Rom. 2. 15.  but oh, I feel the curse  
Of my own conscience doth accuse me worse.   

Oh, had I twenty thousand mints of treasure,  
Kingdoms to mortgage, worlds within my power,  
I would give all, but for a little leisure,  
A little little minute, one small hour,  
That I might sue for grace from grace cast down,  
But oh, I see my anger, God doth frown.   

Be not, O be not moved thou glorious son,  
Time was when thou didst sue to me, I crave  
Thy bounty of thy bloody sweat; and run  
With confident assurance to my grave: 
Psal. 45. 2.   
Thou art my spouse, I am thy bride, esteem me,  
None but my Christ, none did but he redeem me.   

Hear I disclaim the follies of my will,  
Hear I return the sins my frailties gave me:  
Hear I forsake my heart-inueigling ill,  
Hear fly I to his o●lie blood did save me:  
Mercy, O mercy, I commend as even  
My whoredoms to the dust, my soul to heaven.   

Christ is appeased, and where the soul is priest  
With sense of knowing she hath done amiss,  
Ask for grace, she is with grace redressed,  
Her case is pitied she for given is, 
Mat. 7. 7.   
But this so seldom happeneth and so rare,  
Scant two such souls amongst amillion are.   

Presumption leads the ready path to hell,  
For whilst we look on mercy we forget  
The equallnes of justice, and compel  
Our souls to run into a greater debt,  
That God is merciful 'tis true, 
Pro: 13. 10.  so must  
Our boldness eke remember he is just. 
Rome 11. 20.    

Ost hath been seen a woman who hath loved  
Some constant friend who black mischance hath slain  
How looking on his wounds she hath been moved  
To rend her hair and fatally complain,  
Cursing her birth and life, refraining food,  
Kissing the silent murmur of his blood.   

Weeping upon his body, as if tears  
Could make the gaping windows that let in  
Vngentell Death close up, and then infers:  
Wrech, wretched villain! could not such looks win  
Remorse in thy hard heart! with many words  
Which then against the butcher grief affords.   

Can this a woman do? And should the ●ule,  
Behold her lover, Christ slain, not lamenting,  
Or should she entertain a thought so foul,  
As to gaze upon his wounds without repenting:  
Should wanton carnal love so much deplore,  
And shall not true religion do much more?   

A Soul which in the Gospel reads the Story  
Of Christ's most bloody sweat, and deadly wounds,  
Cannot, in rules of zeal, but be most ●orie,  
Whilst sorrow mingled with remorse confounds  
Reason and sense, 
joh. 20. 2.  that spectacle to pity,  
Whilst both sigh out this lamentable ditty.   

And art thou dead! and must mine eyes behold,  
The Lord of glory crucified for me  
And is he dead, is his sweet body cold●  
Made earth with earth and do I live to ●●e,  
The great acquittance of my debt discharged,  
Sealed with his blood, that I might be enlarged.   

Unhappy hand that gave the fatal stroke,  
Which wrought the subject of my weeping eyes,  
But most unhappy me, who did provoke  
With blushless sins, 
Gal. 2. 1.  the cause for which he dies:  
But I, if it were possible, would 〈◊〉,  
With kissing of his wounds, fetch life again.   

Take here ●he tribute of my mourning heart,  
A poor weak widowed souls complaints remaining,  
Fit earnest of my death desiring 〈◊〉,  
Smarting in death, 
Psal. 22. 16.  and dying in complaining:  
As my offences did my Saviour 〈◊〉,  
So with my sorrows will I dec●●e his hea●●e.   

First, I abjure all sin-contriving thoughts,  
here I renounce each sin-inuiting word,  
Then every sin-effecting act which dotes  
On flesh, I will no more: let Heaven record  
My fast indissoluble vows, I strive  
For Christ alone, his votary to live.   

His wounds shall be my cloister, here immured,  
I'll sequester my solace from the living:  
His drops of blood my beads, 
1. Pet. 2. 24.  with which secured  
I'll score the prayers of my heart mis-giving:  
My waxen Taper, whose clear light applies  
Light to my blindness, shall be his fair eyes.   

My book, the Legend of his Story; Zeal,  
The incense I will offer up; Contrition  
My penance; the confession I reveal,  
My guilt; my Hope the comforts of fruition;  
His Spirit my Confessor; Faith the gift,  
Which must absolve me, and his Love my shrift.   

Whiles on the Altar of his Innocence,  
I'll lay the poor oblation of my heart:  
His Death shall be the Pardon to dispense  
With all my sins, set free in every part:  
My tears the holy water, and the fires  
To burn this sacrifice, my chaste desires.   

And now, my God, no day shall overslip me,  
But I will meditate on thy great passion;  
Myself accusing conscience shall so whip me,  
As I will need no other condemnation:  
Be thou but pleased to pity those my fears,  
And every day I'll wet thy tomb with tears.   

This, if a man can pick out time to do,  
His conscience may assure him that he is  
A sanctified creature, and called to 〈◊〉  
The happy tidings of eternal bliss:  
And thus he may be sure that for Christ's sake,  
Chists bloody sweat, he doth indeed partake.   

So is he purged with water, fed with blood,  
Regenerate in Baptism, and made whole  
By eating the Lords Supper, tasting good  
In the repasted diet of his soul:  
Where by those bloody streams of sweat did stain  
The cheeks of Christ, were not all spent in vain.   

God will not think the heaviness he ●e●●,  
Even to the death, when he was man with us,  
Pains castaway: but as in love he dealt  
With soule-endangered men by suffling thus:  
Yet will he not repent, when he shall know  
What thankfulness in heart we do bestow. 
Psal. 50. 14.    

The crimson dye of his carnation red,  
Hath washed the soul in purity of white, 
Esay 2. 18.   
The conduit of the water that he bled,  
Hath died the soul in grain of wish● delights  
Water hath died, and blood hath washed, 'tis strange,  
But true; his virtue hath procured this change.   

Nor is it strange since the most curious eye  
That saw him lead his sol●ary life,  
Whiles he was man on earth, could not espy  
One blemish in his actions, prone to strife,  
Bufall he spoke, or did, was wonders theme,  
For even the coat he wore was without s●ame. 
Ioh 19 23.    

For even the co●● he wore was without seam,  
Implying his sincerity and truth,  
Unmoved in joy, vnda●●●●d in extreme,  
Nor fearing age, nor ●ainly spending youth:  
Loving where he was hated, aiming still  
To save from death, such as were bend to kill.   

To save from death, such as were bend to kill,  
Men, bloodiest in the f●st●s of cruel hate,  
Of hateful cruelty, and to fulfil  
The wrath and measure of a woeful state:  
Yet those with gentle sighs, and tears, his aim,  
strove from the day of vengeance to reclaim.   

strove, from the day of vengeance to reclaim,  
A day of vengeance, when they shall behold  
His wounds, to whom they gave a deadly maim,  
Crying Revenge, 
Zech. 13. 6.  and they the● selves be fold  
Unto an heavy doom, yet Christ, who saw it  
With 〈◊〉 persuasions laboured to withdraw it.   

With meek persuasions laboured to withdraw it, 
1. Pet. 2. 21.   
And taught them by example how to shun  
Death, whiles they lived, who would not over awe it,  
But headlong to their own destruction run:  
Yet He, when no invitement could entreat,  
Wept for their errors in his bloody sweat.   

Wept for their errors in his bloody sweat,  
His bloody sweat, that crucified delight,  
Delight, which all was smothered in a heat,  
An heat of passion an unsolaced sight:  
Vn●ollac't sight, when he with griefs replete,  
Wept for sins error in his bloody sweat.   

Eyes were the Instruments ordained to weep,  
But eyes in such a case must not suffice;  
For his whole body did due order keep,  
It undertook the office of his eyes,  
That as his eyes his precious tears did waste,  
So did his heart, bleed tears of blood as fast.   

Wherein his sorrows sadly did abound,  
Not measured by compulsion, but free will,  
That as his eyes, so might his heart be drowned,  
Surcharged with burdens of amazing ill:  
And if his shedding tears his blood did pain,  
His drops of blood, paid back his tears again.   

His eye was but an echo to his heart,  
Which answered every accent of his woe,  
While both his eye and heart did bear a part,  
As said the one, the other echoed so:  
Was ever man as I am? 
Lamen. 3. 1. ( quoth his eyes)  
I am,( alas, his heavy heart replies.   

His Eyes cry out in tears, O cruel pain!  
O cruel pain his Heart says!( quoth his Eyes)  
And must I then be flaire? I must be slain  
Answers his Heart, his eyes, Ah let me die,  
Me die, his Heart; his Eyes die die content,  
I die content, his Heart, thus both consent.   

Not like the fawning of some subtle quean,  
Some Dalilah, 
judg. 6. 4.  that flatters and beguiles,  
Knowing Arts rule, how to abuse the mean,  
To laugh in tears, and both to weep in smiles●  
Christ could not do so, he wept tears in deed,  
Such tears as 'twas all one to weep or bleed.   

He wept not to deceive, but to revive;  
He bleeded not in show, but bled in proof:  
Not like the Crocodile, life to deptive,  
But gave such life, as near was; not aloofe●  
He wept, he bled, he bled, he wept a flood,  
Blood in his tears, and water in his blood.   

Weeping and bleeding for offending men,  
His bloody sweat in agonies so fitted,  
As for his enemies he groved then,  
So for his own, and sins by both committed:  
His enemies conceived a fatal loathing,  
His own perceiving all, conceived nothing.   

Those few Apostles who had heard him teach,  
And knew him to be Gods begotten son,  
They amongst whom he every day did preach,  
Seeing the miracles that he had done:  
Were weak in faith, in understanding dull,  
Poor in their plenty, starved with being full.   

Blindness so far their ignorance did tempt,  
With weakness of belief( ambitions feast)  
As knowing Christ was come, yet still they dreamt  
Of petty Kings, or being Dukes at least:  
Supposing Christ's spiritual Kingdoms mirth  
Contained a goodly Kingdom here on earth.   

And as the Anti-christian throne is now  
Propped up with scarlet robes and triple crowns,  
To vassail● Princes rights, and to allow  
All as it likes, or hates, with smiles or frowns:  
Commanding, forcing, with his proud decree,  
Such did they hope the throne of Christ should be.   

For when the Lord had finished now his errant,  
Returning to his Father that had sent him●  
Sealing his power with his deaths strict warrant●  
When neither Hell nor Satan could prevent him:  
Yet dreamt they on, 
Acts 1. 6.  and said Lord( as before)  
Wilt thou thy Kingdom now to us restore?   

Could this but breed his grief, when he foresaw  
Peter's denial, his Apostles scattered?  
His own to feel the rigour of the Law, 
Luk. 22. 57   
Zeal cold, 
joh. 16. 32.  Faith dead, Hope lost, frailty batter'd●  
divisions breeding, Kings aspiring great?  
All these, and such like brought his bloody sweat.   

For shortly he beheld the coming curse,  
Upon the sacred Scriptures Commentaries,  
How, though the jews were nought, a people worse,  
Whose studies are the Deu●ls Seminaries,  
Should make the name of jesus, 
Mat. 24. 23 24.  the disguise  
Of countenancing impudence and lies.   

Such, like a nose of wax, do wrest the word  
To colour sin, and hellishly● pervert  
Christ's sacred Gospel, whiles with one accord  
They boast the glory of their own desert:  
Damning the s●mpe and the poor in mind,  
As serves their lusts, Blind guides to lead the blind.   

All those the Lord foresaw, and groaned in Spirit.  
Sweated in blood, was heavy to the death,  
That so his precious passion, blameless merit,  
Should be abused, that he had given his breath,  
His life, his ghost, his soul, yet could not win  
Such wretched creatures, from enchanting sin.   

Enchanting sin, that with its cunning charms  
Lulls men in deathful sleeps, and slily makes  
Impostumed ulcers of unsenced harms,  
Rocks them in Lethargies, 
Prou. 2. 10.  and never wakes  
Reason, to feel the bane-impotioned wrath,  
Which by such dead security it hath.   

This was the cause that from our Saviour drew  
A bloody sweat, so grievous to be borne,  
As did the eyes of cruel men but view,  
How with this bloody tempest he was worn,  
human compassion could not choose but melt,  
To think upon the sorrows which he felt.   

No measure did his pained soul acquaint  
With case or respite, no Arithmetic  
Cast up the sum of his unheard complaint,  
No heart conceive the dolours that did prick  
With fiery stings, his manhood, and appall  
His face with streams, which burst in twain his gall   

For as a River running in a round,  
Having no vent or sluice to slide away,  
Will make, by force, eruptions in the ground,  
Drown all the neighbour-land, and never stay,  
Till with a violent course and headlong rage,  
It slack his strength, and of itself assuage.   

Even so the tide of many griefs abounding,  
Swelled in the bosom of the Son of God,  
Still growing to a head, and still confounding  
His frail mortality( deep horrors rod)  
Till bursting forth with might and fury great,  
It drowned his body in a bloody sweat.   

Who ever saw( as often hath been seen)  
A shower of blood, but thought it did portend  
Some doom of judgement, or some angry teen  
Of heavens-incensed King? So here the end  
Of this strange bloody rain, doth show in brief,  
How shortly Christ was to be wrapped in grief.   

The pangs of death, th'intolerable pains,  
Which woeful creatures were to undergo;  
The man Christ jesus, in this sweat sustains,  
Consuming wrath, and soule-devouring woe  
He felt, that he, us men might timely free,  
From God's unchanging, and divine Decree.   

Not that his death could abrogate the will  
Of his great Father, for he aimed not to it;  
But that, in death, he wholly might fulfil  
The eternal justice, as he came to do it:  
Who as he, death from men for sin required,  
Had in his Son's death, more than death desired.   

Yet neither did the Death or Bloody sweat  
Of Christ, extend to souls ordained to Hell:  
But to the chosen, 
Mat. 9 3.  and elect, 
1. Tim. 1. 13.  beget  
A double life, although the Scriptures tell  
How this meek Lamb of God did chiefly come  
To call the lost sheep, and the strayers home.   

Look how the blessed do partake the good  
( Sweet pledge of bounty, precious Seal of joys)  
Which issues from his Water and his Blood,  
So both alike the Reprobate destroys:  
Gods mercies to the Righteous, to his foes  
Are justice, to augment their endless woes.   

When Isack's seed fled from th'Egyptian force,  
And through the Red Sea took the ready way,  
The waters stood on heaps, and slaid their course,  
Both waves and winds the passage did obey: 
Psal. 78. 13.   
And in those waters safely paston ground,  
In which, 
Exo. 14. 28.  whiles Pharaoh followed, he was drowned.   

Whereby, as water saved the Lords Elect,  
And led them through the terrors of the deep,  
So water, to them of a deulish sect,  
Proved sudden death, and never-waking sleep:  
Christ's bloody sweat is that Red Sea, 
1. Cor. 10. 1. 4.  whose power  
Secures the good, and doth the bad devour.   

The Cloud and fiery ●ille● that gave light●  
Unto the children, in the desert plainest  
The one by day, the other shined by night,  
Guiding their journeys, 
Exo. 13. 21.  comforting their pains;  
Were to the Host of Egypt, 
Exo. 14. 20.  mists obscure  
To blind their eyes, and certain death procure.   

Which burning Pillar, and which shining Cloud,  
Is Christ, 
1. Cor. 10. 4.  unto whose blood such are baptised,  
As by the Holy Spirit are allowed,  
When otherwise, all such as are despised  
Are darkened in the comforts of their sight,  
And lose the glory of this holy light.   

A greater light more holy and Divine,  
Surpassing all the splendour of the Sun,  
Could never to the eyes of mortals shine,  
Then this most sacred Blood, which hath undone,  
And laid to public view the Mount of Evil,  
Which both was framed, and coloured by the Devil.   

In aftertimes, when in the winter's cold,  
Folks use to warm them by their nightly fires;  
Such Parents as the time of life terms old,  
Wasting the season, as the night requires:  
In stead of tales may to their children tell,  
What to the Lord of glory once befell.   

Once, may they say,( my child) a time there was,  
When men were beasts, so cruelly they lived,  
As they did nights and days in pleasure pass,  
Like some of Reason and of Sense deprived:  
Not fearing God, or loving man, given over  
To Lust and Will, as beasts could do no more.   

The naughty Devil slily did entice,  
By sensual sports and pitiless deceits,  
Our weak forefathers to ensnaring vice;  
Masking his tyranny with wanton baits:  
And we, in them, did every thing he wiled us,  
Till the foul fiend( my child) had almost killed us.   

But strait, when our good God almighty saw,  
How near unto the Pit-hole we were brought,  
For being not obedient to his Law,  
He forthwith of a remedy bethought:  
And he, 
Eph. 1. 9 10.  to save us from this wicked Fiend,  
His only Son into the world did send.   

A lovely Son( my child) a dainty boy,  
Who had a cheek as red as any cherry,  
Sweet baby, was his mother's only joy,  
And made her heavy heart full often merry:  
Who, though he were God's Son, yet like a stranger,  
He in a Stable borne was, 
Luk. ●. 7.  in a Manger.   

And poor, God knows he was,( my child) not fine,  
Or like a gentleman in gay attire:  
But simple clothes he had, which was a sign,  
How little to be proud, he did desire:  
Yet if he would have sought for worldly grace,  
He might have gone in silk, and golden lace.   

When he was twelve years old( mark this my child)  
He was a perfect Scholar, and did pose  
Great learned clerks, 
Luk. 2. 46.  and Doctors, but so mild  
As he would never chide, but rather chose  
To teach then anger, and one might persuade him  
To do whats'uer any body bade him.   

Thirty good years and odd, this blessed man,  
Lived on the earth; in all which time he seemed  
So comfortless, with looks so pale and wan,  
As if he had not been by men esteemed,  
Full many an hungry meal he made, 
Luk. 8. 23.  and lay  
Bare legged and barefoot many a day.   

He never laughed, but he did evermore  
Weep, weep continually; and( O my child)  
He never did none harm; he holpt the poor,  
Cured that diseased, and such as were beguiled  
With witches, and with wicked things( God bless us)  
He drove them from us when they would oppress us.   

And he made much of children, and did good  
To every one, 
Mat. 19 14.  yet wicked men did strive  
To take away his life, and shed his blood,  
Whiles yet this blessed jesus was alive;  
And on a time, he was so much dismayed,  
He sweated blood, 
Luk. 22. 44.  as he his prayers said   

But what is worse than this,( hard-hearted jews)  
Did hang this good goodman upon the cross,  
nailing his feet and hands, and did misuse  
This gentle soul, whom they did fiercely toss  
From post to pillar, and would not be stilled,  
Until they had this, our Redeemer killed.   

here now, may be, the pretty child will weep,  
And ask his parents why they used him so;  
To which they may reply, that God did keep  
His soul alive, though life he did forego:  
For Christ( my child) so died, then may they tell,  
That every one might be redeemed from hell.   

Much might be added more, to spend the hours,  
In better leisure than an antic tale;  
Teaching the silly hearers how the powers  
Above reserved us from the devils sale:  
Whom had not Christ his blood regained the wrath  
Of life, all us lost sin had sold to death.   

Come then, sad Patron of this bloody sweat,  
And with thine everlasting comforts cherish,  
Unfenced Faith, which daily is beset  
With treasons, which entice the soul to perish:  
In the delicious Bath of Blood and Water.  
Cleance leprous Souls, and Hell's dominion batter.   

And here, my God, the glorious Son of peace,  
I close the music of my weeping song;  
And further to enlarge, thy sorrows cease,  
Beseeching that thy Spirit may be strong,  
To move my heart, and gently to commit  
to meditations, all the lines I writ.   

Let not the frailty of my youth misled, 
Psal. 55. 7.   
Be once remembered in the day of grace;  
Let not the bloody drops which thou hast bled,  
Condemn me guilty; let thy wounds deface  
The wounds of mine infection, now begin  
thoroughly to wash me from mine odious sin. 
Psal. 51. 2.    

The hours and days which I have spent in vain,  
In fruitless studies, and inventive pleasure,  
Redeem, O Christ, and call them back again,  
Do not, in judgement, mine offences measure:  
But, in thy mercies, hide my faults; protect  
My sighs, let thy love cover my defect.   

here, Saviour of the world, work that I may  
Begin to live anew, and in this theme  
Of thy sad bloody sweat, learn out the way  
Of life indeed, and wake me from the dream  
Wherein my Soul long slept, and felt the terror,  
Of double two Apprenticeships to error.   

And now my God, if I discharged have,  
This imposition of thine heavenly task,  
Some token of thy●being pleased I crave, 
jud. 6. 37.   
Some certain knowledge of thy will I ask:  
For Heaven, and Angels with my soul record,  
Ino way have traduced the written word.   

No malice to detract from ruses of State,  
No singular conceit to purchase fame,  
No pointing at some person, neither hate  
To any privare wrongs, have made me name  
The Pleurisies of sin; but as thy Sweat  
All sins hath purged, all sins I did repeat.   

For which, as first thy Spirit did invite,  
In holy raptures to advance my mind,  
From earthly slime, of holy things to write;  
So having written, likewise let me find  
Of thy most precious privilege, some token  
To grace the truth of all that hath been spoken.   

here, in the pensive solace of my Soul,  
methought, a soft cool wind did gently breath,  
As if my spirit were now transported whole,  
Unto another life, from carnal death:  
When strait a shining light perfumed the room,  
Out of which light, a whispering voice did come.   

Rest there( it said) and toil thee now no more,  
Knit up the period of thy trembling Style;  
And learn to live, not as thou didst before,  
But in a smother course; and I the while,  
Will teach thee how thou shalt attain the place,  
Where quiet souls do end their happy race.   

For since thou hast with such a modest care,  
( Although thy verse do want the grace of words)  
Limned out my wounds, and told them as they are,  
So lively as thy simple skill affords;  
I'll take thy meaning in the better part, 
Mar. 22. 43.   
And for thine offering will accept thy heart.   

May be, some wandering eye that shall survey  
This wonder of my Sweat, in those thy numbers,  
Will take a truce with time, and shake away  
Fron●●ff his Soul, the lusts wherein it slumbers:  
Then hast thou hid a multitude of sin.  
If all thy pains, 
●am. 5. 20.  one Soul from ruin win.   

And blessedly hereafter shall succeed,  
Thy studies and thy labours, if thou shun  
The path that thou hast ●rode, and wilt take heed  
To undo the many follies thou hast done:  
For if thou have respect unto my Laws,  
Before my Father I will plead thy cause.   

But thou, mark well these words; A time shall be  
When Reason shall beat down the force of might,  
And Nature's Sons shall wish for peace, but see  
Th'effects of blood, and feel the scourge of fight:  
Now unrespected, and not felt: but men  
Shall, what they had unpraised, remember then.   

Happy the soul that sleeps in peace, and thou,  
Provide against such days, watch, fast, and crave  
A dissolution, 
Phil. 2.  and prepare thee how  
Thy conscience may be furnished for thy grave:  
Nor do repute it for a fabling ●este,  
Which says; Good conscience is a daily feast.   

Feast on in that, and henceforth be secure  
In strength of Faith: let all thy cares be ●as'd  
By bathing in my Blood, and fountain pure  
Of this my Sweat, and I in this am pleased:  
Rest thou for lo, the Angels in their ranks  
Wait my return; thy labour be thy thanks.   

Up flew the light, and silence show'd the voice  
Retired to stillness; which deprived my sense  
Of all the glory of that heavenly noise,  
Which with such sweet content departed thence:  
Forthwith, my Soul, her wont babit took,  
And Healed up my comforts in a book.   
FINIS.