A FEAST FOR WORMS. SET FORTH IN A POEM OF THE HISTORY OF JONAH. By FRA. QVARLES.  
ad hoc.  
ab hoc.  
per hoc.  

This Naked Portraiture before thine Eye,  
Is Wretched, helpless MAN, MAN borne to Die:  
On either side, an ANGEL doth protect him  
As well from EVIL, as to GOOD direct him:  
Th' one points to DEATH, the tother to a CROWN;  
Who THIS attains, must tread the OTHER down:  
All which denotes the Brief of MAN'S Estate,  
That he'S to go from HENCE, by THIS, to THAT.   
AT LONDON. Imprinted by Felix Kyngston, for Richard Moor, and are to be sold at his shop in Saint Dunstan's Churchyard, in Fleetstreet. 1620.   

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, ROBERT, LORD SIDNEY, Baron of Penshurst, Viscount Lisle, Earl of Leicester, Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter.  
SIR: two things more especial have made me industrious to do your Lordship service: The one is, the love you did bear to my (long since) deceased Father; whom (dead) your Lordship did please to honour with your Noble remembrance. The other is, your undeserved Favours, and Honourable Countenance towards me in your passage thorough Germany, where you have left in the hearts of men, a Pyramid of your Worth. As for the first, I am heir to that service, which my Father, (always observant to your Honour) was ready to perform. As for the second, myself, in more particular stand obliged. In respect of both, here I dedicate myself, and these few leaves to your truly-Noble Self, hoping your Lordship will veil my boldness in your good acceptance, and crown my labours with your approbation:  
SIR, Your Lordships truly observant, FRA. QVARLES.   

TO THE READER.  
Reader, I fairly salute thee:  
I List not to tire thy patient ears with unnecessary language (the abuse of compliment.) My mouth's no Dictionary: it only serves as a needful Commentary, upon the obscure Text of my meaning.  
I have here sent thee the first fruits of an abortive Birth. It is a dainty subject, not Fabulous, but Truth itself.  
Wonder not at the Title, (A FEAST FOR WORMS:) for it is a Song of Mercy: What greater FEAST than Mercy? And what are Men but WORMS?  
Moreover, I have gleaned some few Meditations, obvious to the History; Let me advise thee to keep the Taste of the History, whilst thou readest the Meditations, and that will make thee Relish both, the better.  
Understanding Reader, favour me: Gently expound, what it is too late to correct.  
He le va de Golpe, Dios sea con ella.  
Farewell.   

THE PROPOSITION OF the whole Worke.  
'TIs not the Record of Great HECTOR'S Glory,  
Whose matchless Valour makes the World a Story;  
Nor yet the swelling of that Romans Name,  
That only Came, and Looked, and Overcame;  
Nor One, nor All of those brave Worthies Nine,  
(Whose Might was Great, and Acts almost Divine,  
That lived like Gods, but di' de like Men, and gone)  
Shall give my Pen a Task to treat upon:  
I sing the praises of the KING of Kings,  
Out of whose mouth, a two-edged Smiter springs,  
Whose Words are Mystery, whose Works are Wonder,  
Whose Eyes are Lightning, and whose Voice is Thunder,  
Who like a Curtain spreads the Heavens out,  
Spangled with Stars, in Glory round about:  
'Tis HE that cloven the furious waves in twain,  
Making a Highway passage through the Main:  
'Tis He that turned the waters into Blood,  
And smote the Rocky stone, and caused a Flood:  
'Tis HE, that's justly Armed in his Ire,  
Behind with Plagues, before with flaming Fire:  
More bright than midday Phoebus, are his Eyes,  
And whosoever sees his Visage, Dyes..  
I sing the Praises of Great Iudah's Lion,  
The fragrant Flower of jesse, the Lamb of Zion,  
Whose Head is whiter than the driven Snow,  
Whose Visage doth like flames of Fire Glow:  
His Loins begirt with Golden Belt, His Eyes  
Like Titan, riding in his Southern Shine,  
His Feet like burning Brass, and as the noise  
Of surgie Neptune's roaring, is his Voice.  
This is that Paschall Lamb, whose dearest Blood  
Is sovereign Drink, whose Flesh is saving Food:  
His precious Blood, the Worthies of the Earth  
Did drink, which (though but borne of Mortal birth)  
Returned them Deities: For who drinks THIS,  
Shall be received into Eternal Bliss:  
Himself the GIFT, which HE himself did give,  
His Stripes heal us, and by HIS Death we live:  
HE acting GOD and MAN in double Nature,  
Did reconcile Mankind, and Man's Creator.  
ay, here's a TASK indeed; if Mortals could  
Not make a Verse, yet Rocks and Mountains would:  
The Hills shall dance, the Sun shall stop his Course,  
Hearing the subject of this high Discourse:  
The Horse, and Gryphin shall together sleep,  
The Wolf shall fawn upon the silly Sheep,  
The Crafty Serpent, and the Fearful Hart  
Shall join in Consort, and each bear a part,  
And leap for joy, when my URANIA sings,  
She sings the praises of the KING of Kings.   

THE INTRODUCTION.  
¶ THat 
* Assyria  Ancient Kingdom, that old Assur swayed,  
Showed two great Cities. Ah! but both decayed,  
Both mighty Great, but of unequal growth;  
Both Great in People, and in Building, both;  
But Ah! What hold is there of Earthly Good?  
Now Grass grows there, where these brave Cities stood.  
The name of one, Great Babylon was height,  
Through which the rich Euphrates takes her flight  
From High Armaenia to the ruddy Seas, 
Diodor, Siculus, lib. 3. rerum antiqu. 6.4.   
And stores the Land with rich Commodities.  
¶ The other Ninus, Niniveh the Great,  
So huge a Fabric, and well chosen Seat, 
Pliny, lib. 6. cap. 26.   
Dan Phoebus fiery Steeds (with Manes becurld, 
Strabo, lib. 16. princip.   
That circundates in twice twelve hours the World)  
Ne'er saw the like: By Great King 
* Assur. Genes. cap. 10.11. St. August lib. 15. de civet. Dei. Diod. Sic. cap. 1. rerum antiqu. The situation of the City. The height of the Walls. The Breadth.  Ninus hand, 
Ptolimaeus, lib. 6. Geograph. cap. 1.   
'Twas raised and builded, in th' Assyrians Land,  
Which he subdued: 'Twas placed 'twixt rivers twain,  
Licus, and swift Tigris that runs amain:  
Begird she was with Walls of wondrous might,  
Creeping twice fifty foot in measured height.  
Upon their breadth, (if ought we may rely  
On the report of Sage Antiquity)  
Three Chariots fairly might themselves display,  
And rank together in a Battell-ray:  
The Circuit that her mighty Bulk embraces, 
The Circuit of the City.   
Contains the meet of sixty-thousand paces:  
Within her well-fenced- walls you might discover  
Five hundred stately Towers, 
The number of her Towers. Diod. Siculus cap. 3. rerum antiquarum.  thrice told over;  
Whereof the highest draweth up the eye,  
As well the low'st, an hundred Cubits high;  
All rich in those things, which to state belong,  
For beauty, 
Her beauty and strength.  Brave, and for munition, Strong:  
Duly, and daily this Great work was tended  
With ten thousand Workmen; 
The number of her workmen. Radulf. Volateranus.  Begun, and ended  
In eight years' space; How beautiful! How fair  
Thy Buildings! And how foul thy Vices are!  
¶ Thou Land of Assur, double then thy pride, And let thy Wells of joy be never dried,  
Thou hast a Palace, that's renowned so much,  
The like was never, is, nor will be such.  
¶ Thou Land of Assur, treble then thy Woe,  
And let thy Tears (do as thy Cups) overflow;  
For this thy Palace of so great renown,  
Shall be destroyed, 
Nab. 3.15.  and sacked, and battered down.  
But cheer up, Niniveh, thine inbred might,  
Hath means enough to quell thy Foeman's spite:  
Thy Bulwarks are like Mountains, and thy Wall  
Disdains to stoop to thundering Ordnance call:  
Thy watchful Towers mounted round about,  
Keep thee in safety, and thy Foeman out:  
I, but thy Bulwarks aid, cannot withstand  
The direful stroke of High Almighty's hand;  
Thy Wafer-walles at dread jehovah's blast  
Shall quake, and quiver, and shall down be cast:  
Thy watchful Towers shall asleep be found,  
And nod their drowsy heads down to the ground:  
Thy Bulwarks are not Vengeance-proofe; thy Wall,  
When justice brandisheth her Sword, must fall:  
Thy lofty Towers shall be dumb, and yield  
To High Revenge; Revenge must win the field;  
Vengeance cries loud from heaven, she cannot stay  
Her Fury, but (impatient of delay)  
Hath brimmed her Vials full of deadly Bane:  
Thy Palace shall be burnt, thy People slain:  
Thy Heart is hard as Flint, and swollen with pride, 
The sins of Niniveh.   
Thy murderous Hands with guiltless blood are died;  
Thy silly Babes do starve for want of Food,  
Whose tender Mothers thou hast drenched in Blood:  
Women with child, lie in the streets about,  
Whose Brains thy savage hands have dashed out:  
Distressed Widows weep, (but weep in vain)  
For their dear Husbands, whom thy hands have slain:  
By one man's Force, another man's devoured,  
Thy Wives are ravished, and thy Maids deflowered,  
Where justice should, there Tor● and Bribes are placed:  
Thy ' Altars defiled, and holy things defaced:  
Thy Lips have tasted of proud Babel's Cup,  
What thou hast left, thy Children have drunk up:  
Thy bloody sins, thine Abel's guiltless blood  
Cries up to heaven for Vengeance, cries aloud:  
Thy Sins are ripe, and ready for the Sickle.  
here rouse thyself, my Pen, and breathe a little.   

THE ARGUMENT OF THE HISTORY.  
GOd 
a Chap. 1. 1.2.  sent jonah the Prophet, to the Ninevites, to denounce his judgements against them for their sins: 
b 1.3.  but jonah took shipping, intending to fly to Tarshish: 
c 1.4.  God raised a Storm, which endangered the Ship: 
d 1.5.  Whereupon the Mariners (perplexed) 
e 1.6.  did cast Lots, to see for whose sake the Tempest was: The Lot fell upon jonah, 
f 1. 1●.  They all consented, and cast jonah into the Sea: 
g 1.17.  But God provided a Whale, which received jonah, and swallowed him, in whose Belly he continued three Days, and three Nights: Where (
h Chap. 2.2.  He praying to God) 
i 2.10.  God at length spoke to the Whale, and the Whale did cast him upon dry Land safe and sound: 
k Chap. 3.1.2.  So God commanded jonah the second time, to go and denounce his judgements against the Ninivites. 
l 3.3.  So jonah went to Niniveh 
m 3.4.  and prophesied, that (upon the expiring of forty days) Niniveh should be destroyed: 
n 3.5.  Whereupon the Ninivites believed; 
o 3.7.  And the King caused a Fast to be proclaimed, 
p 3.10.  so that God likewise repent of the Evil that He had intended to have done them; 
q Chap. 4. ●.  Upon which, jonah was discontended, 
r 4.5.  Desired to die, 
s 4. ●.  Went out of the City, & lay without the Gate, to see what would become of Niniveh after the forty days: 
t 4. ●.  There he made him a Booth of reeds and houghes, to guard him from the extremity of the heat of the Sun, and Wind: But the heat of the Sun, and the fervency of the Wind straight withered it: 
u 4.6.  Whereupon God raised up a Gourd, which gave him much content. 
* 4.7.  But the next morning, God sent a Worm which did eat it to the ground: 
x 4.8.  So jonah grew again into passion, for the loss of the Gourd, wished to die, 
y 4.9.  And justified his Anger: 
z 4.10.  Whereupon God deputes with jonah, framing his argument, à minore ad maius, viz. That if thou (jonah) hadst so much compassion, and grieved so much for the loss of a trifling Gourd, 
* 4.11.  Should not I (that am the God of mercy) take Compassion upon so Great a City?   

TO THE MOST HIGH: HIS HUMBLE SERVANT IMPLORES HIS FAVOURABLE ASSISTANCE.  
O All-sufficient God, Great Lord of Light,  
Without whose Gracious aid, & constant Spirit,  
No labours prosper (howsoe'er begun)  
But fly like Mists before the morning Sun:  
O raise my thoughts, and clear my Apprehension,  
Infuse thy Spirit into my weak Invention:  
Reflect thy Beams upon my feeble Eyes,  
Show me the Mirror of thy Mysteries;  
My Artless Hand, my humble Heart Inspire,  
Inflame my frozen Tongue with holy Fire:  
Ravish my stupid Senses with thy Glory;  
Sweeten my Lips with sacred Oratory:  
And (thou O FIRST and LAST) assist my Quill,  
That first and last, I may perform thy Will:  
My sole intent's to blazon forth thy Praise;  
My Ruder Pen expects no Crown of Bayes.  
Suffice it then, Thine Altar I have kissed:  
Crown me with Glory ', and take the Bays that list.   

A FEAST FOR WORMS.  

THE ARGUMENT.  
The Word of God to jonah came, 
Historia jonae incipit.  Commanded jonah to proclaim, The vengeance of his Majesty, Against the sins of Ninevy.  
Sect. 1  
THe Dreadful Word of God, his high Decree, 
Chap. 1. vers. 1.   
That aye remains, and cannot frustrate be,  
Came down to jonah, from the heavens above,  
Came down to 
* Jonah interp. is a Dove.  jonah, heaven's anointed Dove,  
jonah, the flower of old Amittais youth,  
jonah, the Prophet, Son, and Heir to 
* Amittai interp▪ is Truth.  Truth,  
The blessed Type of him, that di' de for us,  
That Word came to him, and bespoke him thus,  
" Arise, truss up thy joins, make all things meet, 
Vers. 2. God's charge to jonah.   
" And put thy Sandals on thy hasty feet,  
" Gird up thy reynes, and take thy staff in hand,  
" Make no delay, but go, where I command;  
" Me pleases not to send thee (jonah) down,  
" To sweet Gath-Hepher, thy dear native Town,  
" Whos's tender paps, with plenty overflow,  
" Nor yet unto thy brethren shalt thou go,  
" Amongst the Hebrews, where thy spredden fame  
" Foreruns the welcome of thine honoured name.  
" No, I'll not send thee thither: Up, Arise,  
" And go to Nineveh, where no allies,  
" Nor consanguinity preserves thy blood,  
" To Nineveh, where strangers are withstood:  
" To Nineveh, a City far removed  
" From thine acquaintance, where thou'rt not beloved:  
" I send thee to Mount Sinai; not Mount Zion,  
" Not to a gentle Lamb, but to a Lion:  
" Ne yet to Lydia, 
jer. 20.3.  but to bloody * Passur,  
" Not to the land of Canan, but of Assur,  
" Whose language will be riddles to thine ears,  
" And thine again will be as strange to theirs;  
" I say, to Nineveh, the world's great Hall,  
" The Monarch's seat, high Court Imperial:  
" But terrible Mount Sinai will affright thee,  
" And Pashurs' heavy hand is bend to smite thee:  
" The Lion's roar, the people's strong and stout,  
" The Bulwarks stand affront to keep thee out.  
" Great Ashur minaces with whip in hand,  
" To entertain thee (welcome) to his land.  
" What then? Arise, be gone; stay not to think:  
" Bad is the cloth, that will in wetting shrink.  
" What then, if cruel Pashur heap on strokes?  
" Or Sinai blast thee with her sulphurous smokes?  
" Or Ashur whip thee? Or the Lions rend thee?  
" P'sh; on with courage; İ, the Lord have sent thee:  
" Away, away, lay by thy foolish pity,  
" And go to Niniveth that mighty City:  
" Cry loud against it, let thy dreadful voice  
" Make all the City echo with the noise:  
" Not like a Dove, but like a Dragon go,  
" Pronounce my judgement, and denounce my Woe:  
" Make not thine head a fountain full of tears,  
" To weep in secret for her sins: Thine ears  
" Shall hear such things, will make thine eyes run over,  
" Thine eyes shall smart with what they shall discover:  
" Spend not in private, those thy zealous drops,  
" But hew, and hack; spare neither trunk, nor lops:  
" Make heaven, & earth rebound, when thou discharges,  
" Plead not like Paul, but roar like Boanarges:  
" Let not the beauty of the buildings blear thee,  
" Nor let the terrors of the Rampires fear thee:  
" Let no man bribe thy fist, (I well advice thee)  
" Nor foul means force thee, nor let fair entice thee:  
" Ram up thine ears: Thy heart of stone shall be;  
" Be deaf to them, as they are deaf to thee:  
" Go cry against it. If they ask thee, Why?  
" Say, God of heaven commanded thee to cry:  
" In stead of prayers, and duties they should do me,  
" Behold, their wickedness is mounted to me:  
" The fatness of their fornication fries  
" On coals of raging lust, and upward flies,  
" And makes me sick: I hear the mournful groans  
" And heavy sighs of such, whose aching bones  
" Th' oppressor grinds: Alas, their groans implore me,  
" Their prayers, and their oppressions come before me:  
" Behold, my children they have slain, and killed,  
" And bathed their hands within the blood they spilled:  
" The steam of guiltless blood makes suit unto me,  
" The voice of many bloods is mounted to me;  
" The vile profaner of my sacred Names,  
" He tears my titles, and mine honour maims,  
" Makes Reth'rick of an oath, swears, and forswears,  
" Recks not my Mercy, nor my judgement fears:  
" They eat, they drink, they sleep, they tire the Day  
" In wanton dalliance, and delightful play.  
" Heaven's winged Herald jonas, up, and go  
" To mighty Niniveh, Denounce my woe;  
" Advance thy voice, and when thou hast advanced it,  
" Spare Shrub, nor Cedar, but cry out against it:  
" I come myself with plagues, 
Explicit Hist.  Go thou afore me,  
" For all their wickedness is come before me.  

Apolog. Authoris.  
IT was my morning Muse; And for her sake  
I thus apply myself to undertake  
This serious task, (A task for Doctor's Muse  
To spend upon) Then let me plead excuse:  
For as good Physic will not bate his force,  
And (being well applied) prove ne'er the worse,  
Though given by hands, that could nor read, nor write,  
That skill not how, nor need not know t'applyed:  
So this (perchance) may make another keen,  
Though I, and it be blunt (as whetstones been.)   

Applicatio.  
TO thee (Malfido) now I turn my Quill,  
That God is still that God, and will be still.  
The painful Pastors take up Iona's room:  
And thou the Ninivite, to whom they come.   

Meditatio prima.  
HOw great's the love of God unto his creature?  
Or is his Wisdom, or his Mercy greater?  
I know not whether: O th' exceeding love  
Of highest God that from his Throne above,  
Will send the brightness of his Grace to those  
That grope in Darkness, and his Grace oppose:  
He helps, provides, inspires, and freely gives,  
As pleased to see us ravel out our lives.  
He gives us from the heap, He measures not,  
Nor deals (like Manna) each his stinted lot,  
But daily sends the Doctors of his Spouse,  
(With such like oil as from the Widows cruse  
Issued forth) in fullness, without wasting,  
Where plenty may be had, yet plenty lasting.  
ay, there is care in heaven, and heavenly sprights,  
That guides the world, & guards poor mortal wights.  
There is; else were the miserable state  
Of Man, more wretched and unfortunate  
Than savage beasts: But O th' abounding love  
Of highest God whose Angels from above  
Dismount the Tower of Bliss, fly to and fro,  
Assisting wretched man, their deadly foe.  
What thing is Man, that God's regard is such?  
Or why should he love reckless Man so much?  
Why? what are men? But quickened lumps of earth?  
A feast for worms, A bubble full of mirth,  
A lookingglass for grief, A flash, A minute,  
A painted Tomb, with putrefaction in it:  
A map of Death; A burden of a song:  
A winter's Dust; A worm of five foot long:  
Begot in sin; In darkness nourished: Borne  
In sorrow, Naked, Shiftless, and forlorn:  
His first voice (heard) is crying for relief.  
Alas! He comes into a world of grief:  
His Age is sinful, and his Youth is vain,  
His life's a punishment, his Death's a pain:  
His life's an hour of joy, a world of Sorrow,  
His death's a winter's night, that finds no morrow:  
Man's life an Hourglass, which being run,  
Concludes that hour of joy, and so is dun.  
¶ jonah must go: Nor is this charge alone  
To jonah given, but given to every one.  
You Magistrates, arise, and take delight.  
In dealing justice, and maintaining right:  
There lies your Nineveh. Merchants, arise,  
Away, and to your Ships, and Merchandise.  
Artificers, arise, and ply your shops,  
And work your trade, and eat your meat with drops.  
Paul, to thy Tents, and Peter, to thy Net,  
And all must go that way which God hath set.  
¶ Grant, liefest Lord, for our Dear Borrow sake,  
Thy love, in sending to us, never slake:  
Increase succession in thy Prophet's lieu,  
For lo, thy Haruest's great, and Workmen few.    

THE ARGUMENT.  
But jonah toward Tharsis went,  
A Tempest doth his course prevent:  
The Mariners are sore oppressed,  
While jonah sleeps, and takes his rest.  
Sect. 2  
But jonah thus bethought: The City's great, 
Hist. Chap. 1. vers. 3.   
And mighty Ashur stands with deadly threat,  
Their hearts are hardened, that they cannot hear:  
Will green wood burne, when so vnapt's the seire?  
Strange is the charge: Shall I go to a place  
Unknown and foreign? Ay me! hard's the case,  
That righteous Isr'el must be thus neglected,  
When Miscreants and Gentiles are respected: 
Prima occasio fugae.   
How might I hope my words shall there succeed, 
2. Occasio.   
Which thrive not with the flock I daily feed?  
Moreo're I weet, the Lord is wondrous kind, 
3. Occasio.   
And slow to wrath, and apt to change his mind  
Upon the least repentance: Then shall I  
Be deemed as false, and shame my Prophecy.  
O heavy burden of a doubtful mind!  
Where shall I go, or which way shall I wind?  
My heart like janus, looketh to and fro:  
My Credit bids me, Stay; my God bids, Go:  
If Go; my labour's lost, my shame's at hand:  
If Stay; Lord! I transgress my Lords command:  
If go; from bad estate, to worse, I fall:  
If stay; I slide from bad, to worst of all.  
My God bids go, my credit bids me stay;  
My guilty fear bids fly another way.  
So jonah strait arose, himself bedight  
With fit acoutrements, for hasty flight:  
In stead of staff, he took a Shipman's weed;  
In stead of going, lo, he flies with speed.  

Simile.  Like as a Hawk (that ouermatcht with might,  
Doing sad penance for th' unequal fight,  
(answering the Falconer's second shout) does flee  
From fist; turns tail to Fowl, and takes a tree:  
So jonah baulks the place where he was sent  
(To Nineveh) and down to 
* Civitas Palest  jaffa went;  
He sought, enquired, and at last he found  
A welcome Ship, that was to Tharsis bound,  
Where he may fly the presence of the Lord:  
He makes no stay, but straightway goes aboard,  
His hasty purse for bargain finds no leisure,  
(Where sin delights, there's no account of treasure:)  
Nor did he know, nor ask, how much his Fare:  
He gave: They took; all parties pleased are:  
(How thriftless of our cost, and pains, are we,  
O blessed God of heaven, to fly from thee!)  
Now have the Pilots drunk their parting cup,  
And some (with Sailors tune) are hoisting up,  
Others the while, the faithful Anchor weigh,  
The Ship, (as loath to leave her quiet key,)  
Creeps easily off, and (with directed course)  
She glides along the shore with gentle force;  
And now the whistling wind begins to dally  
With Aura's fan: Now stronger gusts do fally  
Forth, rudely playing on the hollow sail,  
And from the Mountains blows a lusty Gale:  
She mounts the billows with a lofty grace,  
And now she cuts the Deep, and scuds apace  
From land; from whence (unwilling) she was driven, 
The Tempest   
Nothing's perceived now but Sea, and heaven;  
Betwixt them both, the blustering winds do play:  
The waves know not which Master to obey:  
For now the East wind mutin's with the West,  
And now the West wind counterbuffs the East,  
And now the hollow Boreas roars amain,  
And vexed Notus thwarts the North again:  
Thus crossly crossed, they threaten in revenge,  
To force the world from off his steadfast hinge.  
The Guide's perplexed, and knows not what to do,  
His Art's amazed, in such a maze of woe:  
The Welkin storms, and rages more and more,  
The Rain power▪ s down, the Heavens begin to roar,  
As they would split the massy earth in sunder,  
From them that live above, to those live under:  
The restless waves, and rolling billows beat,  
As they would shoulder Neptune from his feat;  
The billows seem to mount the clouds, (or higher)  
The dusky clouds did flash with often fire:  
Now doth the Ship as high as heaven swell,  
And now (overwhelmed with waves) as low as hell;  
The Bark no less doth yield to Neptune's sway,  
Than lofty towers, when thundering Ordnance play.  
The hardy Mariners begin to quail: 
Vers. 5.   
They vere their main sheet, and they strike their sail:  
Their hair, bolts up, pale Death usurps their cheeks,  
Their mouths are full of cries, their tongues of shrieks:  
They sound with endless line, and sound again:  
They pump, and still they pump, but all in vain:  
They row, and break their Oars: At last th' assay  
Each Mariner unto his god to pray.  
They prayed, but winds did snatch their words away,  
And lets their prayers not go to whom they pray:  
But still they pray, but still the wind, and weather  
Do turn both prayers, & sails they know not whither:  
Their gods were deaf, their danger waxed greater,  
They cast their wares out, and yet ne'er the better:  
But all this while was jonah drowned in sleep,  
And in the lower Deck was buried deep. 
Explicit Hist.   

Meditatio secunda.  

Object.  But stay: This was a strange and uncouth word:  
Did jonah fly the presence of the Lord?  
What mister word is that? He that repleats  
The mighty Universe, whose lofty seats  
Th' imperial Heaven, whose footstool is the face  
Of massy Earth? Can he from any place  
Be spared? or yet by any means excluded,  
That is in all things? (and yet not included,)  
Could jonah find a resting any where  
So void, or secret, that God was not there?  
I stand amazed and frighted at this word:  
Did jonah fly the presence of the Lord?  
Mount up to heaven above, 
Deus regnat in Coelis per gloriam.  and there he is,  
Swaying the Sceptre of his Kingly bliss: 
In terris per gratiam.   
Bestride the earth beneath (with weary pace)  
And there he bears the Olive branch of Grace: 
Apud inferos per institiam.   
Dive down into th' extreme Abyss of Hell,  
And there in justice doth th' Almighty dwell.  
What uncouth Cloister could there then afford  
A screen 'twixt faithless jonah, and his Lord?  
¶ jonah was charged, to take a charge in hand; 
Resolve.   
But jonah turned his back on God's command;  
shook off his yoke, and wilfully neglected,  
And what was strictly charged, he quite rejected:  
And so he fled the power of his Word;  
And so he fled the presence of his Lord.  
¶ Good God how poor a thing is wretched man?  
So frail, that let him strive the best he can,  
With every little blast he's overdon.  
If mighty Cedars of great Libanon,  
Cannot the danger of the Axe withstand,  
Lord! how shall we, that are but Bushes, stand?  
How fond, corrupt, and senseless is mankind?  
How feigning deaf is he? How wilful blind?  
He stops his ears, and sins: he shuts his eyes,  
And (blindfold) in the lap of danger flies:  
He sins, despairs; and then, to stint his grief,  
He chooses death, to balk the God of life.  
¶ Poor wretched sinner, travel where thou wilt,  
Thy travel shall be burdened with thy guilt:  
Climb tops of hills, that prospects may delight thee,  
There will thy sins (like Wolves & Bears) affright thee:  
Fly to the Valleys, that those frights may shun thee,  
And there like Mountains they will fall upon thee:  
Or to the raging seas (with jonah) go;  
There will thy sins like stormy Neptune flow.  
Poor shiftless Man! what shall become of thee?  
Wher'ere thou fliest, thy groping sin will fly.  
¶ But all this while the Ship, where jonah sleeps,  
Is vexed sore, and battered on the Deeps,  
And well-nigh split upon the threatening Rock,  
With many a boisterous brush, and churly knock:  
God send the comfortless, an happy hour,  
And shield all good men from such stormy stowre.    

THE ARGUMENT.  
The Pilot thumps on Ionah's breast,  
And rouseth jonah from his Rest:  
They all cast Lots, (being sore affrighted:)  
The sacred Lot on jonah lighted.  
Sect. 3.  

Hist. Chap. 1. vers. 6.  THe hapless Pilot finding no success,  
(But that the storm grew rather more than less,  
For all their toilsome pains, 
The Pilot awakes jonah.  and needless prayers,  
Despairing both of life, and goods) repairs  
To jonahs' drowsy cabin; mainly calls;  
Calls jonah, jonah; and yet louder yawles;  
Yet jonah sleeps; and gives a shrug, or two,  
And snores, (as greedy sleepers use to do.)  
The woeful Pilot iogs him, (but in vain.)  
(Perchance he dreams an idle word, or twain;)  
At length he tugs and pulls his heavy course,  
And thunders on his breast, with all his force.  
But (after many yawns) he did awake him,  
And (being both affrighted) thus bespoke him:  
" Arise, 
The Pilots speech to Jonab.  O Sleeper, O, arise, and see,  
" there's not a twiny third, 'twixt death, and thee:  
" This darksome place (thou measur'st) is thy grave,  
" And sudden Death rides proud on yonder wave;  
" Arise, O Sleeper, O, arise and pray,  
" Perchance thy God will hear, and not say, Nay:  
" Perchance thy God's more powerful than ours:  
" Arise, Arise, and pray with all thy powers,  
" If so be, God will have compassion on us,  
" And turn away this mischief he hath done us,  
The sturdy Sailors (weary of their pain, 
Verse 7. )  
Finding their bootless labour lost, and vain,  
Forbore their toilsome task, and wrought no more,  
But wished for Death, for which they looked before;  
They call a parley, and consult together,  
They count their sins, (accusing one another)  
That for his sin, or his, this evil was wrought:  
In fine, they all prove guilty of the fault;  
But yet the Question was not ended so:  
One says, 'Twas thine offence, but he says, No,  
But 'twas for thy sake, that accuses me;  
Rushed forth a third (the worse of the three)  
And swore it was another's, which (he hearing)  
Denied it flat, and said, 'Twas thine for swearing:  
In came a fifth, accusing all; (replying  
But little else) they all chid him for lying;  
One said it was, another said 'twas not:  
So all agreed, to stint the strife by Lot:  
Then all was whist, and all to prayer went;  
(For such a buis'nes, a fit compliment)  
The lot was cast; 't pleased God, by Lots to tell.  
The lot was cast; The lot on jonah fell. 
Exp. Hist.   

Meditatio tertia.  
O Sacred Subject of a Meditation!  
Thy Works (O Lord) are full of Admiration,  
Thy judgements all are just, severe, and sure,  
They quite cut off, or else by lancing cure  
The festering sore of a Rebellious heart,  
Lest foul infection taint th' immortal part.  
How deep a Lethargy doth this disease  
Bring to the slumbering Soul through careless ease!  
Which once being waked, (as from a Golden Dream)  
Looks up, and sees her griefs the more extreme.  
How seeming sweets the quiet sleep of sin?  
Which when a wretched man's once nuzz'ld in,  
How sound sleeps he, without fear, or wit?  
No sooner, are his arms together knit  
In drowsy knot, athwart upon his breast,  
But there he snorts, and snores in endless rest;  
His eyes are closed fast, and deaf his ears,  
And (like Endymion) sleeps himself in years;  
His sence-bound heart, ne answers to the voice  
Of gentle warning, no, nor does the noise  
Of strong reproof awake his sleeping ear,  
Nor louder threatenings thunder makes him hear;  
So deafe's the sinner's ear, so numbed his sense,  
That sin's no corrosive, nor no offence;  
For custom breeds delight, 
Consuetudo peccandi tollit seasum peccati.  deludes the heart,  
Beguiles the sense, and takes away the smart.  
¶ But stay; Did one of God's elected number,  
(Whose eyes should never sleep, nor eyelids slumber)  
So much forget himself? Did jonah sleep,  
That should be watchful, and the Tower keep?  
Did jonah (the selected mouth of God)  
In stead of roaring judgements, does he nod?  
Did jonah sleep so sound? Could he sleep then,  
When (with the sudden sight of Death) the men  
(So many men) with yelling shrieks, and cries,  
Made very heaven report? and shook the skies  
So uncouth, that the ship it might have riu'n?  
Hard must he wink, that shuts his eyes from heaven.  
O righteous Isr'el, where, O, where art thou?  
Where is thy Lamp? thy zealous Shepherd now?  
Alas! the ravenous Wolves will worr' thy Sheep;  
Thy Shepherd's careless, and is fallen asleep;  
Grim dogs will rouse thy Flock, and rule the roast;  
Thy Sheep are scattered, and thy Shepherd's lost;  
Ah welladay! whose words beseem the Altar,  
Their works descent, and first begin to falter;  
And they, that should be Watchlights in the Temple,  
Are snuffs, and want the oil of good example;  
The chosen Watchmen, that the Tower should keep,  
Are waxen heauy-eyed, and fallen asleep.  
¶ Lord, if thy Watchmen wink too much, awake them;  
Although they slumber, do not quite forsake them;  
The flesh is weak, say not (if dulness seize  
Their heavy eyes) Sleep henceforth: Take your ease: 
Math. 13.41.   
And we poor weaklings, when we sleep in sin,  
Knock at our drowsy hearts; and never lin,  
Till thou awake our sinne-congealed eyes;  
Lest (drowned in sleep) we sink, and never rise.    

THE ARGUMENT.  
They question jonah, whence he came,  
His Country, and his people's Name,  
He makes reply: They moon their woe,  
And ask his counsel what to do.  
Sect. 4.  

Histor. Cap. 1. v. 8. Simile.  AS when a Thiefe's appr'ended on suspect,  
And charged for some supposed malifact,  
A rude concourse of people, straight accrues,  
Whose itching ears even smart, to know the news,  
The guilty prisoner (to himself betrayed)  
He stands dejected, trembling and afraid:  
So jonah stood the Sailors all among,  
Enclosed round amid the ruder throng.  
As in a Summer's Evening you shall hear  
In Hive of Bees (if you lay close your ear)  
Confused buzzing, and seditious noise,  
Such was the murmur of the Sailor's voice.  
" What was thy sinful fact, 
The Mariner's speech to jonas.  that causes this  
" (Says one) wherein hast thou so done amiss?  
" Tell us, What is thine Art (another says)  
" That thou professest? Speak man, Whence aways,  
" From what Confines cam'st thou? (A third replies)  
" What is thy Country? And of what allies?  
" What, art thou borne a jew? or Gentile? Whether?  
" (Ere he could lend an answer unto either)  
A fourth demands: Where hath thy breeding been▪  
All what they asked, they all asked o'er again.  
In fine, their ears (impatient of delay)  
Becalmed their tongues, to hear what he could say.  
So jonah (humbly rearing up his eyes)  
Breaking his long kept silence, thus replies: 
jonahs' speech to the Mariners.   
" I am an Hebrew, son of 
* Hebraei quasi Abrahaei, S. Aug lib. 1. super Gen.  Abraham,  
" From whom my Land did first derive her name,  
" Within the Land of jury was I borne,  
" My name is jonah, reckless, and forlorn:  
" I am a Prophet: ah! but woe is me,  
" For from before the face of God I flee,  
" From whence (through disobedience) I am driven;  
" I fear jehovah, mighty God of Heaven:  
" I fear the Lord of Heaven, whose glorious hand  
" Did make this stormy Sea, and massy land.  
So said, their ears with double ravishment, 
Verse▪ 10.   
Still hung upon his melting lips, attended,  
Whose dreadful words, their hearts so near impierced,  
That from themselves, themselves were quite deuersed.  
Like as in a hot Summer's eventide, 
Simile.   
(When lustful Phoebus re▪ salutes salutes his Bride,  
And Philomela begins her carolling:)  
A heard of Deer are browzing in a spring,  
With hungry appetite, misweening nought,  
Nor in so deep a silence fearing aught:  
A sudden crack, or some vnthought▪ of sound,  
Or bounce of Fowler's Piece, or yelp of Hound,  
Disturbs their quiet peace with strange amaze,  
Where (senseless half) through fear, they stand at gaze:  
So stand the Seamen, (as with Ghosts affrighted,)  
Entraunced with what, this man of God recited.  
Their (whilom sturdy) limbs wox faint, and lither,  
Their hearts did earn, their knees did smite together:  
Congealed blood usurped their trembling hearts,  
Which coldly crawled about in all their parts:  
Who (trembling out some broken language,) thus:  

The Mariner's speech. " Why hast thou brought this mischief upon us?  
" What humour led thee to a place unknown,  
" To seek a foreign land, 
Interrogatio.  and leave thine own?  
" What faith hadst thou, 
Admiratio.  by leaving thine abode,  
" To think to fly the presence of thy God?  
" Why hast thou not obeyed (but thus transgressed)  
" The voice of God, 
Neprehensio.  whom thou acknowledgest?  
" Art thou a Prophet, and dost thou amiss?  
" What is the cause? And why hast thou done this?  
" What shall we do? The tempest lends no ear  
" To fruitless chat, nor do the billows hear,  
" Or mark our language: waves are not attended,  
" Our goods they float, and all our pains are spent:  
" Our Barks not weatherproof, for aye to last;  
" (No Fort so strong, but daily siege will waste.)  
" The Lot accuses thee, thy words condemn thee,  
" The waves (thy deathsmen) strive to overwhelm thee:  
" What shall we do? Thou Prophet, speak, we pray thee:  
" Thou fearest the Lord; Alas! we may not slay thee:  
" Or shall we save thee? No, for thou dost fly  
" The face of God, and so deservest to dye:  
" Thou Prophet, 
Expl. Hist.  speak, what shall we do to thee,  
" That angry seas may calm, and quiet be?  

Meditatio quarta.  
Give leave a little to adjourn your story,  
Run back a step, or twain, and look afore ye:  
Can he be said to fear the Lord, that flies him? 
Object.   
Can Word confess him, when as Deed denies him?  
My sacred Muse hath rounded in mine ear, 
Resolutio.   
And read the mystery of a twofold fear:  
The first, a servile fear, for judgements sake;  
And thus the damned Devil's fear and quake.  
Thus Adam feared, and fled behind a tree:  
And thus did bloody Kain fear and flee.  
Unlike to this, there is a second kind  
Of fear, extracted from a zealous mind,  
Full fraught with love, and with a conscience clear  
From base respects: It is a filial fear;  
A fear whose ground would just remain, and level,  
Were neither Heaven, nor Hell, nor God, nor Devil.  
Such was the fear that Princely David had;  
And thus our wretched jonah feared, and fled:  
He fled ashamed, because his sins were such;  
He fled ashamed, because his fear was much.  
He feared jehovah, other feared he none,  
Him he acknowledged; Him he feared alone:  
Unlike to those men, that (befoold with error)  
Frame many gods, and multiply their terror.  
Th' Egyptians, God Apis did implore,  
God Assas the Chaldaeans did adore:  
Babel to the Devouring Dragon seeks,  
Th' Arabians Astaroth; juno the greeks;  
The name of Belus, the Assyrians hollow,  
The Troyans', Vesta; Corinth, wise Apollo;  
Th' Arginians sacrifice unto the Sun;  
To Lightfoot Mercury bows Macedon;  
To god Volunus, lovers bend their knee:  
To Pavor, those that faint, and fearful be:  
Who pray for health, and strength, to Murcia those;  
And to Victoria, they that fear to lose:  
To Muta, they that fear a woman's tongue:  
To great Lucina, women great with young:  
To Esculapius, they that live oppressed:  
And they to Quies, that desire rest.  
O blinded Ignorance of antique times,  
How blended with error, and how stuffed with crimes  
Your Temples were! And how adulterate!  
How clogged with needless gods! How obstinate!  
How void of order, and how inconfuse!  
How full of dangerous and foul abuse!  
How sandy, were thy grounds, and how unstable!  
How many Deities! yet how unable!  
Implore these gods, that list to howl and bark,  
They bow to Dagon, Dagon to the Ark:  
But he to whom the seal of mercy's given,  
Adores jehovah, mighty God of Heaven:  
Upon the mention of whose sacred Name,  
Meek Lambs grow fierce, and the fierce Lions tame:  
Bright Sol shall stop, and heaven shall turn his course:  
Mountains shall dance, and Neptune slake his force:  
The Seas shall part, the fire want his flame,  
Upon the mention of jehovah's Name:  
A Name, that makes the roof of Heaven to shake,  
The frame of Earth to quiver, Hell to quake:  
A Name, to which all Angels blow their trumps;  
A Name, puts frolic man into his dumps:  
(Though ne'er so blithe) A Name of high renown,  
It mounts the meek, and beats the lofty down;  
A Name, divides the marrow in the bone;  
A Name, which out of hard, and flinty stone,  
Extracteth hearts of flesh, and makes relent  
Those hearts that never knew what mercy meant.  
O Lord! how great's thy Name in all the Land?  
How mighty are the wonders of thy hand?  
How is thy Glory placed above the heaven?  
To tender mouths of Sucklings thou hast given  
Coercive power, and boldness to reprove,  
When elder men do what them no'te behoove.  
O Lord! How great's the power of thy hand?  
O God How great's thy Name in all the Land?    

THE ARGUMENT.  
The Prophet doth his fault discover,  
Persuades the men to cast him over:  
They row, and toil, but do no good,  
They pray to be excused from blood.  
Sect. 5.  
SO jonah framed the speech to their demand; 
Chap. 1. ve. 12. Iona's last will.   
" Not that I seek to traverse the command,  
" Of my dear Lord, and out of mind perverse,  
" T' avoid the Ninivites, do I amerce  
" My self; Nor that I ever heard you threat,  
" (Unless I went to Niniveh, (the great)  
" And do the message sent her from the Lord)  
" That you would kill, or cast me over board,  
" Do I do this; 'Tis my deserved fine:  
" You all are guiltless, and the fault is mine:  
" 'Tis I, 'tis I alone, 'tis I am he:  
" The tempest comes from heaven, the cause from me;  
" You shall not lose a hair for this my sin,  
" Nor perish for the fault that mine hath been;  
" Lo, I the man am here: Lo, I am He  
" The root of all; End your revenge on me;  
" I fled from God of Heaven; O, let me then  
" (Because I fled from God) so fly from men;  
" O, take me, (for I am resolved to die)  
" As you did cast your Wares, so cast in Me;  
" I am the man, for whom these billows dance,  
" My death shall purchase your deliverance;  
" Fear not to cease your fears; but throw me in;  
" Alas! my soul is burdened with my sin,  
" And God is just, and bend to his Decree,  
" Which certain is, and cannot altered be;  
" I am proclaimed a Traitor to the King  
" Of heaven, and earth: The winds with speedy wing  
" Acquaint the Seas: The Seas mount up on high,  
" And cannot rest, until the Traitor die;  
" Oh, cast me in, and let my life be ended;  
" Let Death make justice mends, which Life offended;  
" Oh, let the swelling waters me embalm:  
" So shall the Waves be still, and Sea be calm.  
So said, 
Vers. 13.  the Mariners grew inly sad,  
(Though rude, and barbarous) and much ydrad,  
As moved to see a Stranger (for their good)  
Lay down his life, which offer they withstood,  
Till they had sought with all their power and skill,  
To save the man, and not the Ship to spill:  
They digged, and deeply delude the surrowed Seas,  
With brawny arms they ploughed the watery Leas,  
Hoping (in vain) by toil to win the shore,  
And wrought more hard, than erst they wrought before.  
Alas! their strength now fails, and wears away,  
(For bodies wanting rest, do soon decay)  
The Seas are angry, and the waves arise,  
Appeased with nothing, but a Sacrifice:  
God's vengeance stormeth like the raging Seas,  
Which nought but jonah (dying) can appease.  
" Bootless it is, to think by any deed  
" To alter that, which God of heaven decreed:  
" jonah must die, 'tis folly to say, No;  
" jonah must die, or else we all die too;  
" jonah must die, that from his Lord did fly;  
" The lot determines, jonah then must die;  
" His guilty word confirms the sacred lot,  
" jonah must die then, if we perish not.  
" If justice than it be, that he must die,  

Vers. 14. The Mariner's prayer. " And we sad Actors of his Tragedy;  
" (We beg not (Lord) a warrant to offend)  
" O, pardon bloodshed, that we must intend.  
" Though not our hands, yet shall our hearts be clear:  
" Then let not stainelesse Consciences bear  
" The ponderous burden of a Murders guilt,  
" Or voice of harmless blood, that must be spilt;  
" For lo, (dear Lord) it is thine own Decree,  
" And we sad ministers of justice be. 
Expl. Hist.   

Meditatio quinta.  

Object.  But stay awhile, this thing would first be known:  
Can jonah give himself, and not his own?  
That part to God, and to his Country this  
Pertains, so that a slender third is his;  
Why then should jonah do so great a wrong,  
To deal himself away, that did belong  
The least unto himself? or how could he  
Teach this, (THOU SHALT NOT KILL) if jonah be  
His lifes own Butcher? What, was this a deed  
That with the Calling he professed, agreed?  
The purblind age (whose works (almost divine)  
Did merely with the oil of nature shine,  
That knew no written Law, ne yet no God,  
To whip their conscience with a steely Rod,)  
How much did they abhor so foul a fact?  
When (led by Nature's glimpse) they made an Act,  
That what man e'er is so unnatural  
To kill himself, 
Homicida in se, insepultus abijciatur. Seneca.  should want a burial;  
Can such do so, when jonah does amiss?  
What, jonas, Isr'els' Teacher! and do this?  
The Law of charity doth all forbid, 
Resolu. Non ideo sine scelere facit alter, etc. S. Aug. lib. 1. de civitat, Dei. cap. 26. judg. 16.30.   
In this thing to do that, which jonah did;  
Moreo're, in charity, 'tis thy behest,  
Of dying men to think, and speak the best;  
The mighty Samson did as much as this;  
And who dare say, that Samson did amiss,  
If heavenly Spirit whispered in his ear  
Express command to do ' t? 
Spiritus latenter hoc iusserat. S. Aug.  then likewise hear,  
Who knows of jonah, whether, yea, or no,  
A secret Spirit willed him to do so? 
Cum Deus iubet se iubere sine ullis ambagibus intimat, quis inobedientiam in crimen vocat? S. Aug.   
¶ Sure is the knot that true Religion ties,  
And Love that's rightly grounded, never dies;  
It seems a Paradox, beyond belief,  
That men in trouble should prolong relief;  
That Pagans, (to withstand a Stranger's Fate)  
Should be neglective of their own estate,  
Trusting their lives upon a twyny thread,  
And (dauntless) dance about in dangers dread.  
Where is this Love become in later age?  
Alas! 'tis gone in endless Pilgrimage  
From hence, and never to return (I doubt)  
Till revolution wheel those times about;  
I'll breasts have starved her here, and she is driven  
Away; and with Astraea fled to heaven:  
Charity, that naked Babe is gone, 
Caritas est infans sine pannis, dans mel api sine pennis.   
Her hony's spent, and all her store is done,  
Her winglesse Bees can find out ne'er a bloom,  
And crooked 
* Dea Litis.  Ate doth usurp her room;  
Nepenthe's dry, and Love can get no drink,  
And cursed Ardenne flows above the brink:  
Brave Mariners, the world your names shall hollow,  
Admiring that in you, that none dare follow;  
Your friendship's rare, and your conversion strange:  
From Paganism to Zeal? A sudden change!  
Those men do now the God of heaven implore,  
That bowed to Puppets, but an hour before.  
Their Zeal is fervent (though but new begun)  
Before their egge-shels were done off, they run,  
As when bright Phoebus, in a Summer tide, 
Simile.   
(New risen from the pillow of his Bride)  
Enueloped with misty fogs, at length  
Breaks forth, displays the mist, with Southern strength;  
Even so these Mariners (of Peerless mirror)  
Their faith b'ing veiled within the mist of error,  
At length their Zeal chased ignorance away,  
They left their Paganism, and began to pray.  
¶ Lord, how unlimmited are thy Confines,  
That still pursuest man in his good designs!  
Thy mercy's like the dew of Hermon hill,  
Or like the Ointment, dropping downward still  
From Aaron's head, to beard; from beard, to foot:  
So do thy mercies drench us round about:  
Thy love is boundless; Thou art apt, and free,  
To turn to Man, when Man returns to thee.    

THE ARGUMENT.  
They cast the Prophet over board:  
The storm allayed: They fear the Lord;  
A mighty Fish him strait devours,  
Where he remained many hours.  
Sect. 6.  
EVen as a member, 
Hist. Chap 1. ve. 15. Simile.  whose corrupted sore  
Infests, and rankl's, eating more and more,  
Threatening the body's loss (if not prevented)  
The Surgeon (after all fair means attempted)  
Cuts off, and with advised skill doth choose,  
To lose a part, than all the body lose;  
Even so the Mariners perceiving all  
Their labour spent, and the effect but small,  
And of necessity that all must dye,  
If jonah leave not their society,  
They took up jonas, and with one accord,  
And common aid, threw jonas over board;  
Whereat grim Neptune wiped his foamy mouth,  
Held his tridented Mace upon the South;  
The winds were whist, the billows danced no more,  
The storm allayed, the heavens left off to roar,  
The waves (obedient to their behest)  
Gave ready passage, and their rage surceased:  
The sky grew clear, and now the glorious light  
Begins to put the gloomy clouds to flight:  
Thus all on sudden was the Sea tranquil,  
The heavens were quiet, and the Waves were still.  
As when a friendly Creditor (to get  
A long forborn, 
Simile.  and much-concerning debt)  
Still plies his willing debtor with entreats,  
Importunes daily, daily thumps, and beats  
The battered Portals of his tired ears,  
Bedeafing him with what he knows, and hears;  
The weary debtor, to avoid the sight  
He loathes, shifts here, and there, and every night  
Seeks out Protection of another bed,  
Yet nevertheless (pursued and followed)  
His ears are still laid at with louder volley  
Of harder Dialect; He melancholy,  
Sits down, and sighs, and after long foreslowing,  
(T' avoid his presence) pays him what is owing;  
The thankful Creditor is now appeased,  
Takes leave, and goes away content, and pleased.  
Even so these angry waves, with restless rage,  
Accosted jonas in his pilgrimage,  
And thundered judgement in his fearful ear,  
Presenting Hubbubs to his guilty fear:  
The Waves rose discontent, the Surges beat,  
And every moment's death, the billows threat;  
The weather-beaten Ship did every minute  
Await destruction, while he was in it:  
But when his (long expected) corpse they threw  
Into the deep, (a debt through trespass due)  
The Sea grew kind, and all her frowns abated,  
Her face was smooth to all that navigated.  
'Twas sinful jonah made her storm and rage,  
'Twas sinful jonah did her storm assuage.  
With that the Mariners astonished were, 
Vers. 16.   
And feared jehovah with a mighty fear,  
Offering up Sacrifice with one accord,  
And vowing solemn vows unto the Lord.  

Vers. 17.  But God (whose breath can make the heavens shake,  
And in an instant, all that force can slake,  
Whose powerful word can make the earth's foundation  
Tremble, and with his word can make cessation,  
Whose wrath doth mount the waves, & toss the Seas,  
And make them calm, and whist when ere he please:  
This God, (whose mercy runs on endless wheel,  
And pulls (like jacob) justice by the heel)  
Prepared a Fish, prepared a mighty Whale,  
Whose belly should be prisonhouse, and bail  
For reckless jonah. As a Garner door  
Opens his double leaf, to take the store,  
Wherewith the harvest quits the Ploughman's hope,  
Even so the great Leviathan set open  
His beam-like jaws, (as glad of such a boon)  
And at a morsel, swallowed jonah down.  
Till Rosy-cheeked- Aurora's purple dye  
Thrice dappled had the ruddy morning sky,  
And thrice had spread the Curtains of the morn,  
To let in Titan, when the Day was borne,  
jonah was Tenant to this living Grave,  
Embowelled deep in this stupendious Cave. 
Explicit Hist.   

Meditatio sexta.  
LO, Death is now, as always it hath been,  
The just procured stipend of our sin:  
Sin is a golden Causey, and a Road  
That's level, pleasant, that is even, and broad,  
But leads at length to death, and endless grief,  
To torments and to pains, without relief.  
justice fears none, but maketh all afraid,  
And then falls hardest, when 'tis most delayed.  
But thou reply'st, Thy sins are daily great,  
Yet thou sittest, uncontrolled upon thy seat:  
Thy wheat doth flourish, and thy barns do thrive,  
Thy sheep increase, thy sons are all alive,  
And thou art buxom, and hast nothing scant,  
Finding no want of any thing, but want,  
Whilst others, whom the squint-eyed world counts holy,  
Sat sadly drooping in a melancholy,  
With brow dejected, and downe-hanging head,  
Or take of alms, or poorly beg their bread:  
But Young man, know, there is a Day of doom,  
The feast is good, until the reckoning come.  
The time runs fastest, where is least regard;  
The stone that's long in falling, falleth hard;  
There is a Day, a dying Day (thou fool)  
When all thy laughter shall be turned to Doole,  
Thy robes to torturing plagues, and fell tormenting,  
Thy whoops of joy, to howls of sad lamenting:  
Thy tongue shall yell, and yawl, and never stop,  
And wish a world, to give for one poor drop,  
To flatter thine intolerable pain;  
The wealth of Pluto could not then obtain  
A minute's freedom from that hellish rout,  
Whose fire burns, and never goeth out;  
Nor house, nor land, nor measured heaps of wealth,  
Can render to a dying man his health:  
Our life on earth is like a third of flax,  
That all may touch, and being touched, it cracks.  
¶ As when an Archer shooteth for his sport, 
Simile.   
Sometimes his shaft is gone, sometime 'tis short,  
Sometimes o'th' left hand wide, sometimes o'th' right,  
At last (through often trial) hits the White;  
So Death sometimes with her uncertain Rover,  
Hits our Superiors (and so shoots over)  
Sometimes for change, she strikes the meaner sort,  
Strikes our inferiors (and then comes short)  
Sometimes upon the left hand wide she goes,  
And so (still wounding some) she strikes our foes;  
And sometimes wide upon the right hand wends,  
There with impartial shafts, she strikes our friends;  
At length, (through often trial) hits the White,  
And so strikes us into Eternal night.  
¶ Death is a Calendar composed by Fate,  
Concerning all men, never out of Date:  
Her days Dominical are writ in blood;  
She shows more bad days, than she showeth good;  
She tells when days, and months, and terms expire,  
And shows thee strange aspects of fearful fire.  
¶ Death is a Pursuivant, with Eagles wings,  
That knocks at poor men's doors, and gates of Kings.  
Worldling, beware; for, lo, Death skulks behind thee,  
And as she leaves thee, so will judgement find thee.    

THE ARGUMENT.  
Within the bowels of the Fish,  
jonah laments in great anguish;  
God heard his prayer, at whose command,  
The Fish disgorged him on the Land.  
Sect. 7.  
THen jonah turned his face to heaven, 
Hist, Chap. 2. ver. 1.  and prayed  
Within the bowels of the Whale, and said,  
" I cried out of my baleful misery  
" Unto the Lord, and he hath heard my cry, 
Verse 2. The prayer of jonas out of the Whale's belly.   
" From out the paunch of hell I made a noise,  
" And thou hast answered me, and heard my voice:  
" Into the Deeps and bottom thou hast thrown me, 
Vers. 3.   
" Thy Surges, and thy Waves have passed upon me.  
" Than Lord (said I) from out thy glorious sight  
" I am rejected, and forsaken quite, 
Vers. 4.   
" Natheless while these my wretched eyes remain,  
" Unto thy Temple will I look again.  
" The boisterous waters compass me about, 
Verse 5.   
" My body threats, to let her prisoner out,  
" The boundless depth enclosed me, (almost dead)  
" The weeds were wrapped about my fainting head,  
" I lived on earth rejected at thine hand, 
Verse 6.   
" And a perpetual prisoner in the Land;  
" Yet thou wilt cause my life t'ascend at length,  
" From out this pit, O Lord, my God, my Strength;  
" When as my soul was overwhelmed, 
Vers. 7.  and faint,  
" I had recourse to thee, did thee acquaint  
" With the condition of my woeful case,  
" My cry came to thee, in thine holy Place.  

Vers. 8. " Whoso to Vanities themselves betake,  
" Renounce thy mercies, 
Vers. 9  and thy love forsake.  
" To thee I'll sacrifice in endless days,  
" With voice of thanks, and ever-sounding praise,  
" I'll pay my vows; for all the world records  
" With one consent, Salvation is the Lords.  

Vers. 10.  So God (whose Word's a deed, whose Breathes a law,  
Whose just command implies a dreadful awe,  
Whose Word prepared a Whale upon the Deep,  
To tend, and wait for Iona's fall, and keep  
His out-cast body safe, and soul secure)  
This very God, (whose mercy must endure  
When heaven, and earth, and sea, and all things fail)  
Disclosed his purpose, and bespoke the Whale,  
To redeliver jonah to his hand;  
Whereat the Whale disgorged him on the Land. 
Explicit Hist.   

Meditatio septimu.  
I Well record, a holy Father says,  
" He teaches to deny, that faintly prays: 
Quitimidè ora●▪ docet negare.   
The suit surceases, when desire fails,  
But whoso prays with fervency, prevails;  
For Prayers the key that opens heaven gate, 
Luke 11.9.   
And finds admittance, whether earl' or late,  
It forces audience, it unlocks the ear  
Of heavenly God, (though deaf) it makes him hear.  
Upon a time 
* The Commonwealth.  Babel (the World's fair Queen,  
Made drunk with choler, and enraged with Spleen)  
Through fell Disdain, derraigned War 'gainst them  
That tender Homage to jerusalem: 
* The Church.   
A Maiden fight it was, yet they were strong  
As men of War; The Battle lasted long,  
Much blood was shed, and spilt on either side,  
That all the ground with purple gore was died:  
In fine, a Soldier of jerusalem,  

* Charity.  Charissa hight, (the Almoner of the Realm)  
Chilled with a Fever, and unapt to fight,  
Into Iustitia's Castle took her flight,  
Whereat great Babel's Queen commanded all,  
To lay their siege against the Castle wall;  
But poor 
* Fear  Tymissa (not with war acquainted)  
Fearing Charissa's death, fell down, and fainted;  
Dauntless 
* Wisdom  Prudentia reared her from the ground,  
Where she lay (pale, and senseless) in swound,  
She rubbed her temples (lost in swouny shade)  
And gave her water, that 
* Faith.  Fidissa made,  
And said, Cheer up, (dear Sister) though our foe  
Hath ta'en us Captives, and enthralled us so,  
We have a King puissant, and of might,  
Will see us take no wrong, and do us right,  
If we possess him with our sad complaint,  
Cheer up, we'll send to him, and him acquaint.  
Timissa (new awaked from swound) replies,  
Our Castle is begirt with enemies,  
And clouds of armed men besiege our walls,  
Then sure Death, or worse than Death befalls  
To her, (who ere she be) that stirs a foot,  
Or dares attempt, this place to sally out:  
Alas! what hope have we to find relief,  
And want the means that may diuulge our grief?  
Within that place, a jolly Matron won'd,  
With fiery looks, and drawen-sword in hand,  
Her eyes, with age, were waxen wondrous dim,  
With hoary locks, and visage stern, and grim;  
Her name 
* justice.  justitia height; to her they make  
Their moan, who (well advised) them thus bespoke:  
" Fair Maidens, well I wot; ye are ill bedight,  
And rue the sufferance of your woeful plight,  
But pity's fond alone, and rankles grief,  
And fruitless falls, unless it yield relief:  
Cheer up, I have a Messenger in store,  
Whose speed is much, but faithful trust is more,  
Whose nimble wings shall cleave the flitting skies,  
And scorn the terror of your enemies,  

* Prayer  Oratio hight, well known unto your King,  
Your message she shall do, and tidings bring,  
Provided that 
* Math. 21.21.  Fidissa travail with her,  
And so (
* John 15.16.  on Christ's name) let them go together.  
With that, Fidissa having ta'en her errant,  
And good Oratio, with Iustitia's Warrant,  
In silence of the midnight, took their flight,  
Arriving at the Court that very night;  
But they were both as any fire hot, 
Oratio feruens, velox.   
For they did fly as swift, as Cannon shot,  
But they (left sudden cold should do them harm)  
Together clung, and kept each other warm: 
Oratio & fides comites individui.   
But lo, the Kingly gates were sparred, and locked,  
They called, but none made answer, than they knocked,  
Together joining both their force in one,  
They knocked amain; Yet answer there was none;  
But they that never learned to take denial,  
With importunity made further trial:  
The King heard well, although he list not speak,  
Till they with strokes the gate did welnie break.  
In fine, the brazen gates flew open wide;  
Oratio moved her suit: The King replied,  
Oratio was a fair, and welcome guest;  
So heard her suit; so granted her request.  
Frail Man, observe, In thee the practice lies,  
Let sacred Meditation moralise.  
Let Prayer be fervent, and thy Faith entire,  
And God will grant thee more than thy desire.    

THE ARGUMENT.  
The second time was jonah sent  
To Ninivy: so jonah went:  
Against her crying sins he cried,  
And her destruction prophesied.  
Sect. 8.  
ONce more the voice of heau'ns-high-commander  
(Like horrid claps of heau'ns-diuiding-thunder, 
Hist. Chap. 3. ver. 1.   
Or like the fall of water's breach (the noise  
B'ing heard far distant off) such was the voice)  
Came down from heaven, to jonah new-borne-Man,  
To rebaptized jonah, and thus began;  
Am I a God? Or art thou ought but Dust?  
More than a man? Or are my Laws unjust?  
Am I a God, and shall I not command?  
Art thou a man, and dar'st my Laws withstand?  
Shall I (the motion of whose breath shall make  
Both Earth, and Sea, and Hell, and Heaven quake)  
By thee (fond man) shall I be thus neglected,  
And thy presumption scape uncorrected?  
Thy Faith hath saved thee (jonah:) Sin no more,  
Lest worse things happen after, than before;  
Arise; 
Vers. 2. God's second charge to jonah.  let all th' assembled powers agree  
To do the message I impose on thee;  
Trifle no more, and, to avoid my sight,  
Think not to balk me with a second flight.  
Arise, and go to Ninivy (the great)  
Where broods of Gentiles have ta'en up their seat,  
The Great-Queene-regent-mother of the Land,  
That multiplies in people like the sand;  
Away, with wings of time, (I'll not essoine thee)  
Denounce these fiery judgements, I enjoin thee.  
Like as a youngling that to school is set, 
Simile. vers. 3.   
(Scarce weaned from his dandling mother's tet,  
Where he was cockered with a stroking hand)  
With stubborn heart, denies the Just command  
His Tutor will's: But being once corrected,  
His homebred stomach's curbed, or quite ejected,  
His crooked nature's changed, and mollified,  
And humbly seeks, what stoutly he denied;  
So Iona's stout, perverse, and stubborn hart,  
Was hardened once, but when it felt the smart  
Of God's avenging wrath, it straight dissolved,  
And what it once avoided, now resolved  
T' effect with speed, and with a careful hand  
Fully replenished with his Lords Command,  
To Niniveh he flieth like a Roe,  
Each step the other strives to overgo;  
And as an arrow to the mark does fly,  
So (bend to flight) flies he to Ninivy.  
(Now Ninivy a mighty City was,  
And all the Cities of the world did pass,  
A City which o'er all the rest aspires,  
Like midnight▪ Phoebé 'mong the lesser fires,  
A City which (although to men was given)  
Better beseemed the mighty King of Heaven,  
A City Great to God, whose ample wall,  
Who undertakes to meet with paces, shall  
Bring Phoebus thrice a-bed, ere it be dun,  
(Although with dawning Lucifer begun.)  
When jonas had approached the City gate, 
Vers. 4.   
He made no stay to rest, ne yet to bait,  
Nor yet with oil, his fainting head he 'noynts,  
Nor stays to bathe his weatherbeaten joints,  
Nor smoothed his countenance, nor slicked his skin,  
Ne craved he the Hostage of an Inn,  
To ease his aching bones (with travel sore)  
But went as speedy, as he fled before,  
The City's greatness made him not refuse,  
To be the trump of that unwelcome news  
His tongue was great with; But (like thunder's noise)  
His mouth flew open, and out there rushed a voice.  

Iona's prophecy to the Ninivites.  When dewy-cheeked Aurora shall display  
Her golden locks, and summon up the Day  
Twice twenty times, and rest her drowsy head  
Twice twenty more, in aged Tithonus' bed,  
Then Niniveh this place of high renown,  
Shall be destroyed, and sacked, and battered down.  
He sat not down to take deliberation,  
What manner people were they, or what Nation,  
Or Gent, or savage, nor did he inquire  
What place were most convenient for a Crier,  
Nor like a sweet-lipt Orator did steer,  
Or tune his language to the people's ear,  
But bold, and rough (yet full of majesty)  
Lift up his trumpet, and began to Cry,  
When forty times Dan Phoebus shall fulfil  
His journal course upon th' Olympian Hill,  
Then Niniveh (the World's great wonder) shall  
Startle the World's foundation with her fall.  
The dreadful Prophet stands not to admire  
The City's pomp, or people's acquaint attire,  
Nor yet (with fond affection) doth pity  
Th' approaching downfall of so brave a City:  
But freely lifts his dismal voice on high,  
Not caring who excepts against the Cry,  
When forty Days shall be expired, and run,  
And that poor Inch of time drawn out and dun,  
Then Niniveh (the World's Imperial throne)  
Shall not be left a stone, upon a stone. 
Explicit Hist.   

Meditatio octava.  
But stay; Is God like one of us? Can he, 
Object.   
When he hath said it, alter his Decree?  
Can he that is the God of Truth, dispense  
With what he vowed? or offer violence  
Upon his sacred justice? Can his mind  
Revolt at all? or vary like the wind?  
How comes it then to pass? How might it be,  
That having limited his just Decree  
Upon the expiring date of forty days,  
He than performs it not? But still delays  
His plagues denounced, and judgement still forbears,  
And stead of forty Days gives many years?  
Yet forty Days, and Niniveh shall perish?  
Yet forty years, and Niniveh doth flourish:  
A change in man's infirm; in God 'tis strange;  
In God, to change his Will, and will a Change, 
resolute. Aliud mutare voluntatem; aliud velle mutationem. Aquin. 1. quaest. 19 art. 7.   
Are diverse things: When God reputes from ill,  
He wills a change; he changes not his Will;  
The subject's changed, which secret he kept close,  
But not the mind, that so did it dispose;  
Denounced judgement God doth oft prevent, 
Mutat sententiam, sed non mutat consilium, lib. 20. mor. c. 29   
But neither changes counsel, nor intent:  
Moreo're He seldom threatens a perdition,  
But with express, or an implied condition:  
So that, if Ninivey do turn from ill,  
God turns his hand, he doth not turn his Will.  
¶ The stint of Ninivey was forty days,  
To cry for grace, and turn from evil ways;  
To some the time is large; To others small,  
To some 'tis many years; And not at all  
To others; Some an hour have, and some  
Have scarce a minute of their time to come:  
Thy span of life (Malfido) is thy space, 
Tempus vitae, tempus poenitentiae.   
To call for mercy, and to cry for grace.  
¶ Lord! what is man, but like a worm that crawl's,  
Open to danger, every foot that falls?  
Death creeps (unheard) and steals abroad (unseen)  
Her darts are sudden, and her arrows keen,  
Uncertain when, but certain she will strike,  
Respecting King, and beggar both alike;  
The stroke is deadly, come it earl', or late,  
And once being struck, repentings out of date;  
Death is a minute, full of sudden sorrow:  
" Then live to day, as thou mayst dye to morrow.    

THE ARGUMENT.  
The Ninivites believe the Word;  
Their hearts return unto the Lord;  
In him they put their only trust:  
They mourn in Sackcloth, and in dust.  
Sect. 9  
SO said; the Ninivites believed the Word, 
Hist. Chap. 3. ver. 5.   
Believed jonas, and believed the Lord;  
They made no pause, nor jested at the news,  
Nor slighted it, because it was a jew's  
Denouncement: No, Nor did their gazing eyes  
(As taken captives with such novelties)  
Admire the stranger's garb, so acquaint to theirs,  
No idle chat possessed their itching ears,  
The whilst he spoke: nor were their tongues on fire,  
To rail upon, or interrupt the Crier,  
Nor did they question whether true the message,  
Or false the Prophet were, that brought th' embassage:  
But they gave faith to what he said; relented,  
And (changing their miswandred ways) repent;  
Before the searching Air could cool his word,  
Their hearts returned, and believed the Lord;  
And they, whose dainty palates cloyed whileare  
With cates, and viands were, and luscious cheer,  
Do now enjoin their lips, not once to taste  
The offal bread, (for they proclaimed a Fast)  
And they, whose wanton bodies once did lie  
Wrapped up in Robes, and Silks, of princely Dye,  
Lo now, in stead of Robes, in Rags they mourn,  
And all their Silks do into Sackcloth turn.  
They read themselves sad Lectures on the ground,  
Learning to want, as well as to abound;  
The Prince was not exempted, nor the Peer,  
Nor yet the richest, nor the poorest there;  
The old man was not freed, (whose hoary age  
Had e'en almost outworn his Pilgrimage;)  
Nor yet the young, whose Glass (but new begun)  
By course of nature had an age to run:  
For when that fatal Word came to the King, 
Vers. 5.   
(Conveyed with speed upon the nimble wing  
Of flitting Fame) He straight dismounts his Throne,  
Forsakes his Chair of State he sat upon,  
Disrobed his body, and his head discrowned,  
In dust and ashes grovelling on the ground,  
And when he reared his trembling corpses again,  
(His hair all filthy with the dust he lay in)  
He clad in pensive Sackcloth, did depose  
Himself from state Imperiall, and chose  
To live a Vassal, or a base thing,  
Then to usurp the Sceptre of a King:  
His golden cup of Honour and Authority,  
Made him not drunk, and so forget mortality,  
(Respectless of his pomp) he quite forgot  
He was a King, so mindless of his State,  
That he forgot to rule, or be obeyed;  
Nor did he wield the Sword, 
〈◊〉 Hist.  nor Sceptre swayed.  

Meditatio nona.  
¶ IS fasting then the thing that God requires?  
Can fasting expiate, or slake those fires  
That Sin hath blown to such a mighty flame?  
Can sackcloth cloth a fault? or hide a shame?  
Can ashes cleanse thy blot? or purge thy ' offence?  
Or do thy hands make God a recompense,  
By strowing dust upon thy bryny face?  
Are these the tricks to purchase heavenly grace?  
No, though thou pine thyself with willing want;  
Or face look thin, or Carcase ne▪ r so gaunt,  
Although thou worse weeds than sackcloth wear,  
Or naked go, or sleep in shirts of hair,  
Or though thou choose an ash-tub for thy bed,  
Or make a daily dunghill on thy head,  
Thy labour is not poised with equal Gains,  
For thou hast nought but labour for thy pains:  
Such idle madness God rejects, and loathes,  
That sinks no deeper, than the skin, or clothes;  
'Tis not thine eyes which (taught to weep by art)  
Look red with tears, (not guilty of thy hart)  
'Tis not the holding of thy hands so hie,  
Nor yet the purer squinting of thine eye;  
'Tis not your mimic mouths, nor Antic faces,  
Nor Scripture phrases, nor affected Graces,  
Nor prodigal up-banding of thine eyes,  
Whose gashfull balls do seem to pelt the skies;  
'Tis no: the strict reforming of your hair  
So close, that all the neighbour skull is bare;  
'Tis not the drooping of thy head so low,  
Nor yet the lowering of thy sullen brow,  
Nor howling, wherewithal you fill the air,  
Nor repetitions of your tedious prayer:  
No, no, 'tis none of this, that God regards;  
Such sort of fools their own applause rewards; 
Matth. 6   
Such Puppit-playes, to heaven are strange, and acquaint,  
Their service is unsweet, and foully taint,  
Their words fall fruitless from their idle brain;  
But true Repentance runs in other strain;  
Where sad contrition harbours, there thy hart  
Is first acquainted with an inly smart,  
And restless groans within thy mournful breast,  
Where sorrow finds herself a welcome guest;  
It throbs, it sighs, it mourns in decent wise,  
Dissolu's, and fills the Cisterns of thine eyes;  
It frights thy pensive soul, with strange aspects  
Of crying sins committed; It detects  
Thy wounded conscience; It cries amain,  
For mercy, mercy, cries, and cries again;  
It vows, it sadly grieves, and sore laments,  
It yernes for grace, Reforms, Returns, Reputes;  
I; this is Incense, whose accepted savour  
Mounts up the heavenly Throne, and findeth favour:  
ay; this is it, whose valour never fails,  
With God it stoutly wrestles, and prevails:  
ay; this is it, that pierces heaven above,  
Never returning home (like Noah's Dove)  
But brings an Olive leaf, or some increase,  
That works Salvation, and eternal Peace.    

THE ARGUMENT.  
The Prince and people fasts, and prays;  
God heard, accepted, liked their ways:  
Upon their timely true repentance,  
God reversed, and changed his sentence.  
Sect. 10.  
THen suddenly, with holy zeal inflamed, 
Hist. Chap. 3.7.   
He caused a General act, to be proclaimed,  
By good advice, and counsel of his Peers;  
Let neither Man, nor child, of youth, or years, 
The Proclamation of the Ninivites.   
From greatest in the City, to the least,  
Nor Herd, nor pining Flock, nor hungry beast,  
Nor any thing that draweth air, or breath,  
On forfeiture of life, or present death,  
Presume to taste of nourishment, or food,  
Or move their hungry lips, to chew the cud;  
From out their eyes let Springs of water burst,  
With tears (or nothing) let them slake their thirst: 
Vers. 8.   
Moreo're, let every man (what e'er he be)  
Of high preferment, or of low degree,  
D' off all they wear (excepting but the same)  
That nature craves, and that which covers shame)  
Their nakedness with sackcloth let them hide,  
And move the vest'ments of their silken pride;  
And let the brave careering Horse of war,  
(Whose rich Caparisons, and Trappings are  
Of sumptuous beauty, and of glorious show)  
Let him disrobe, and put▪ on sackcloth too;  
The Ox (ordained for yoke) the Ass (for load)  
The Horse (as well for race, as for the road)  
The burthen-bearing Camel (strong and great)  
The fruitful Kine, and every kind of Neat,  
Let all put sackcloth on, and spare no voice,  
But cry amain to heaven, with mighty noise;  
Let all men turn the Bias of their ways,  
And change their fiercer hands, to force of praise:  
For who can tell, 
Vers. 9  if God (whose angry face  
Hath long been waning from us) will embrace  
This slender pittance of our best endeavour?  
Who knows, if God will his intent persever?  
Or who can tell, if He (whose tender love,  
And mercy ' extends his judgements far above)  
Will change his high Decree, and turn his sentence  
Upon a timely, and unfeigned Repentance?  
And who can tell, if God will change the lot,  
That we, and ours may live, and perish not?  
So God perceived their works, and saw their ways,  
Approved the faith, 
Vers. 10.  that in their works did blaze,  
Approved their works, approved their works the rather,  
Because their faith, and works went both together;  
He saw their faith, because their faith abounded,  
He saw their works, because on faith they grounded,  
HE approved their faith, because their faith was true,  
HE approved their works, because on faith they grew;  
He saw their faith, and works, and so relented,  
H● approved their faith, and works, and so repent;  
Repent of the plagues, they apprehended;  
Repent of the Evil, that he intended:  
So God the vengeance of his hand withdrew,  
He took no forfeiture, although 'twere due;  
The Evil, that once he meant, he now forgot,  
Cancelled the forfeit bond, and did it not. 
Explicit Hist.   

Meditatio decima.  
¶ LO, into what an ebb of low estate  
The Soul, that seeks to be regenerate,  
Must first decline; Before the Ball rebound,  
It must be thrown with force against the ground;  
The Seed cannot increase in fruitful ears,  
Nor can she rear the goodly stalk she bears,  
Unless bestrowed upon a mould of earth,  
And made more glorious, by a second birth:  
So fares with Man; Before he can bring forth  
The brave exploits of truly noble Worth,  
Or hope the granting of his sin's remission,  
He must be humbled first in sad contrition;  
The plant (through want of skill, or by neglect)  
If it be planted from the Suns reflect,  
Or lack the dew of seasonable showers,  
Decays, and beareth neither Fruit, or Flowers;  
So wretched Man, if his repentance hath  
No quickening Sunshine of a lively Faith,  
Or not bedewed with showers of timely tears,  
Or works of mercy (wherein Faith appears)  
His prayers, and deeds, and all his forged groans,  
Are like the howls of Dogs, and works of Drones:  
The skilful Surgeon, first (by letting blood)  
Weakens his Patient, ere he does him good;  
Before the Soul can a true comfort find,  
The Body must be prostrate, and the Mind  
Truly repentive, and contrite within,  
And loathe the fawning of a bosom Sin.  
But Lord! Can MAN deserve? Or can his Best  
Do justice equal right, which he transgressed?  
When Dust and Ashes mortally offends,  
Can Dust and Ashes make Eternal mends?  
Is Heaven unjust? Must not the Recompense  
Be full Equivalent to the Offence?  
What mends by mortal Man can then be given  
To the offended Majesty of heaven?  
O Mercy! Mercy! on thee my Soul relies,  
On thee we build our Faith, we bend our eyes;  
Thou fill'st my empty strain, thou fil'st my tongue;  
Thou art the subject of my Swanlike song;  
Like pinioned prisoners at the dying Tree,  
Our lingering hopes attend, and wait on thee;  
(Arraigned at justice bar) prevent our doom;  
To thee with joyful hearts we cheerly come;  
Thou art our Clergy; Thou that dearest Book,  
Wherein our fainting eyes desire to look;  
In thee, we trust to read (what will release us)  
In bloody Characters, that name of JESUS.  
¶ What shall we then return to God of Heaven?  
Where nothing is (Lord) nothing can be given;  
Our souls, our bodies, strength, and all our powers,  
(Alas!) were all too little, were they ours:  
Or shall we burn (until our life expires)  
An endless Sacrifice in Holy fires?  
¶ My Sacrifice shall be my HEART entire,  
My Christ the Altar, and my Zeal the Fire.    

THE ARGUMENT.  
The Prophet discontented prays  
To God, that he would end his days;  
God blames his wrath so unreprest,  
Reproves his unadvised Request.  
Sect. 11.  
But this displeasing was in Iona's eyes, 
Hist. Chap. 4.1.   
His heart grew hot, his blood began to rise,  
His eyes did sparkle, and his teeth struck fire,  
His veins did boil, his heart was full of ire;  
At last broke forth into a strange request,  
These words he prayed, and mumbled out the rest:  
Was not, O was not this my thought (O Lord)  
Before I fled? Nay, was not this my Word, 
Vers. 2. jonas speech to God.   
The very Word, that these my lips had shaped,  
When this mishap might well have been escaped?  
Was there, O was there not a just suspect,  
My preaching would procure this effect?  
For lo; I knew of old, they tender love;  
I knew the power, thou gav'st my Tongue, would move  
Their Adamantine hearts; I knew 'twould thaw  
Their frozen spirits, and breed relenting awe;  
I knew moreo're, upon their true repentance,  
That thou determin'dst to reverse thy sentence;  
For lo, I knew, thou wert a Gracious God,  
Of long forbearance, slow to use the Rod▪  
I knew the power of thy Mercies bend,  
The strength of all thy other works outwent;  
I knew thy tender kindness; and how loath  
Thou wert to punish, and how slow to wrath;  
Turning thy judgements, and thy plagues preventing,  
Thy mind reversing, and of Eu'll repenting:  
Therefore (O therefore) through this persuasion,  
I fled to Tarsish, there to make evasion;  
To save thy credit (Lord) to save mine own:  
For when this blast of zeal is overblown,  
And sackcloth left, and they left off to mourn,  
When they (like dogs) shall to their vomit turn,  
They'll vilipend thy sacred Word, and scoff it,  
Saying, Was that a God, or this a Prophet?  
They'll scorn thy judgements, & thy threats despise,  
And call thy Prophets, Messengers of lies.  

Vers. 3.  Now therefore (Lord) bow down attentive ear,  
(For lo, my burden's more than I can bear)  
Make speed (O Lord) and banish all delays,  
T' extinguish (now) the taper of my days:  
Let not the minutes of my time extend,  
But let my wretched hours find an end;  
Let not my fainting spirit thus long abye  
In her frail mansion of mortality:  
The thrid's but weak, my life depends upon,  
O cut that third, and let my life be done;  
My breast stands fair, O strike, and strike again,  
For nought, but dying, can assuage my pain:  
For liefer 'tis to dye, then live in shame,  
For better 'tis to leave, and yield the game,  
Then toil for what at length must needs be lost;  
O kill me, for my heart is sore embossed;  
This latter boon unto thy servant give,  
For better 'tis for me, to dye then live.  
So wretched jonah; But jehova thus;  
What boot it so to storm outrageous? 
Vers. 4.   
Does it become my servant's heart to swell?  
Can anger help thee, jonah? Dost thou well? 
Explicit Hist.   

Meditatio undecima.  
¶ HOw poor a thing is man! How vain's his mind!  
How strange, & base! And wavering like the wind!  
How uncouth are his ways! How full of danger!  
How to himself, is he himself a stranger!  
His heart's corrupt, and all his thoughts are vain,  
His actions sinful, and his words profane,  
His will's depraved, his senses all beguiled,  
His reason's dark, His members all defiled,  
His hasty feet are swift, and prone to ill,  
His guilty hands are ever bend to kill,  
His tongue's a sponge of venom, (or of worse)  
Her practice is to swear, her skill to curse;  
His eyes, are fierballs of lustful fire,  
And outward spies, to inward foul desire,  
His body is a well erected station,  
But full of filth, and foul corrupted passion,  
Fond love; and raging lust, and foolish fears, 
Virgil▪ Aeneid. 8. Hinc metuunt, cupiunt, dotent, gaudentque, nec auras Respiciunt, clausae tenebris, & carcere caeco.   
Excessive joy, and grief overwhelmed with tears  
Immoderate; and covetous Desire,  
And sinful anger, red, and hot as fire;  
These daily clog the soul, that's fast in prison,  
From whose increase, this luckless brood is risen,  
Respectless Pride, and lustful Idleness,  
Fowl ribald talk, and loathsome Drunkenness,  
Fruitless Despair, and needless Curiosity,  
Odious Ingratitude, Double Hypocrisy,  
Base Flattery, and haughty-eyed Ambition,  
Heart-gnawing Hatred, and squint-eyed Suspicion,  
Self-eating Envy, Envious Detraction,  
Hopeless Distrust, and tootoo sad Dejection,  
Revengeful Malice, Hellish Blasphemy,  
Idolatry, and light Inconstancy;  
Daring Presumption, wry-mouthed Derision,  
Fearful Apostasy, vain Superstition.  
¶ What heedful watch? And what contin'all ward?  
How great respect? and hourly regard,  
Stands man in hand to have, when such a brood  
Of furious hellhounds seek to suck his blood?  
Day, night, and hour, they rebel, and wrestle,  
And never cease, till they subdue the Castle.  
¶ How sleight a thing is man? How frail and brittle?  
How seeming great is he? How truly little?  
Within the bosom of his holiest works,  
Some hidden Embers of old Adam lurks;  
Which oftentimes in men of righteous ways,  
Burst out in flame, and for a season blaze.  
¶ Lord teach our hearts, & give our soul's directions,  
Subdue our Passions, Curb our stout Affections,  
Nip thou the bud, before the Bloome begins;  
Lord, keep all good men from presumptuous sins.    

THE ARGUMENT.  
A Booth for shelter jonah made;  
God sent a Gourd for better shade;  
But by the next approaching light,  
God sent a Worm consumed it quite.  
Sect. 12.  
SO jonah (sore oppressed, 
Hist. Chap. 4. ver. 5.  and heavy-hearted)  
From out the City's circuit strait departed,  
Departed to the Eastern borders of it,  
Where sick with anguish sat this sullen Prophet;  
He built a Booth, and in the Booth he sat,  
(Until some few days had expired their date  
With over-tedious pace) where he might see,  
What would betide to threatened Niniveh;  
A trunk that wanteth sap, is soon decayed;  
The slender Booth of boughs and branches made,  
Soon yielded to the fire of Phoebus Ray,  
So dried to Dust, consuming quite away:  
Whereat, the great jehova spoke the word,  
And over Iona's head there sprang a Gourd, 
Vers. 6.   
Whose roots were fixed within the quickening earth,  
Which gave it nourishment, as well as birth;  
God raised up a Gourd, a Gourd should last,  
Let wind, or scorching Sun, or blow, or blast;  
As coals of fire raked in Embers, 
Simile.  lie  
Obscure, and undiscerned by the eye;  
But being stirred, regain a glimmering light,  
Revive, and glow, burning afresh and bright;  
So jonah began to cheer through this relief,  
And joyful was, devoyded all his grief:  
He joyed to see, that God had not forgot  
His drooping servant, nor forsook him not;  
He joyed, in hope the Gourds strange wonder will  
Persuade the people, he's a Prophet still;  
The fresh aspect did much content his sight,  
The herbal savour gave his sense delight;  
So jonah much delighted in his Gourd,  
Enjoyed the pleasures, that it did afford:  
But Lord! 
Verse. ●.  what earthly thing can long remain?  
How momentary are they! and how vain!  
How vain is earth, that man's delighted in it!  
Her pleasures rise; and vanish in a minute:  
How fleeting are the joys, we find below!  
Whose tides (uncertain) always ebb, and flow;  
For lo! this Gourd (that was so fair, and sound)  
Is quite consumed, and eaten to the ground;  
No sooner Titan had vp-heaued his head,  
From off the pillow of his Saffron bed,  
But God prepared a silly, silly worm,  
(Perchance brought thither, by an Eastern storm)  
The worm that must obey, and well knew how,  
Consumed it quite, ne left it root, nor bow;  
Consumed it strait, within a minut's space,  
Left nought, 
Explicit Hist.  but (sleeping) jonas in the place.  

Meditatio duodecima.  
¶ THe Pleasures of the world, (which soon abate)  
Are lively Emblems of our own estate,  
Which (like a Banquet at a Funeral show)  
But sweeten grief, and serve to flatter woe.  
¶ Pleasure is fleeting still, and makes no stay, 
Voluptas.   
It lends a smile, or twain, and steals away.  
¶ Man's life is fickle, full of winged haste, 
Vita.   
It mocks the sense with joy, and soon does waste.  
¶ Pleasure does crown thy youth, and lulls thy wants, 
Voluptas   
But (sullen age approaching) strait avaunts.  
¶ Man's life is joy, and Dolour seeks to banish, 
Vita.   
It doth lament, and mourn in age, and vanish.  
¶ The time of pleasure's like the life of man;  
Both joyful, both contained in a span;  
Both highly prized, and both on sudden lost,  
When most we trust them, they deceive us most;  
What fit of madness makes us love them thus?  
We leave our lives, and pleasure leaveth us:  
Why what are Pleasures? But a golden dream, 
Voluptas, quale   
Which (waking) makes our wants the more extreme?  
And what is Life? A bubble full of care, 
Vita, quale.   
Which (pricked by death) strait empties into air:  
The flowers (clad in far more rich array,  
Then erst was Solomon) do soon decay;  
What thing more sweet, or fairer than a flower?  
Nath'les, it blooms, and fades within an hour;  
What thing more pleasing than a morning Sun?  
And yet this pleasure every Day is dun:  
But thou art heir to Croesus, and thy treasure  
Being great, and endless, endless is thy pleasure;  
But thou (thou Croesus' heir) consider must,  
Thy wealth, and thou, came from, and goes to dust;  
Another's noble, and his name is great,  
And takes his place upon a lofty seat;  
True 'tis, but yet his many wants are such,  
That better 'twere he were not known so much.  
Another binds his soul in Hymen's knot,  
His Spouse is chaste, and fair withouten spot,  
But yet his comfort is bedashed, and done,  
His grounds are stocked, and now he vows a son.  
¶ How fickle, and vnconstant's man's Estate!  
Man fain would have, but then he knows not what;  
And having, rightly knows not how to prise it,  
But like the foolish dunghil-cock imploy's it:  
But who desires to live a life content,  
Wherein his Cruze of joy shall ne'er be spent,  
Let him consider what may be desired, 
Boctius Philos. consol.   
The date whereof is not to be expired:  
For that's not worth the craving, to obtain  
A happiness, that must be lost again;  
Nor that, which most do covet most, is best;  
Best are the goods, mixed with contented rest;  
Gasp not for 
* Folia vanitatis.  Honour, wish no blazing glory,  
For these will perish in an age's story;  
Nor yet for power, for that may be conferred  
On fools, as well, as thee, that hast deserved.  
Thirst not for Lands, nor Money; wish for none,  
For 
* Lil●a terrae.  Wealth is neither lasting, nor our own;  
Riches are fair enticements, to deceive us;  
They flatter, while we live, and dying, leave us.    

THE ARGUMENT.  
jonah desires to dye, The Lord  
Rebukes him, He maintains his word,  
His anger he doth justify,  
God pleads the Cause for Niniveh.  
Sect. 13.  
WHen ruddy Phoebus had (with morning light)  
Subdued the East, and put the stars to flight, 
Hist. Chap. 4. ●.   
The Lord prepared a fervent Eastern wind,  
Whose drought together with the Sun combined,  
Each adding fire to the others heat,  
(With strong united force) amain did beat,  
And sore reflect upon the helpless head  
Of fainting jonah (that was well-nye dead)  
Who turning oft, and tossing to and fro,  
(As they that are in torments use to do)  
And (restless) finding no success of ease,  
But rather, that his tortures still increase;  
His secret passion to his soul betrayed,  
Wishing with all his heart to dye, and said;  
O kill me (Lord) or lo, my heart will rive;  
For better 'tis for me to dye then live:  
So said, the Lord did interrupt his passion, 
Vers. 9 God's speech to jonah.   
Saying, How now? Is this a seemly fashion?  
Doth it become my servant's heart to swell?  
Can anger help thee? jonah, dost thou well?  
Is this a fit speech? or a well-placed word?  
What, art thou angry (jonah) for a Gourd?  
What, if th' Arabians with their ruder train  
Had killed thine Oxen, 
job. 2  and thy cattle slain?  
What, if consuming fire (fall'n from heaven)  
Had all thy servants of their lives bereaven,  
And burned thy Sheep? What, if by strong oppression  
The Chaldees had usurped unjust possession  
Upon thy Camels? Or had Boreas blown  
His full-mouthed blast, and cast thy houses down,  
And slain thy sons, amid their jollities?  
Or hadst thou lost thy Vineyard full of trees? 
●. King. 21.15.   
Or been bereaved of thine only Sheep, 
2. Sam. 12.3.   
That in thy tender bosom used to sleep?  
How would thine hasty spirit then been stirred,  
If thou art angry, jonah, for a Gourd?  
So jonah frames his answer thus, 
jonahs' answer.  and saith,  
Lord, I do well to vex unto the death;  
I blush not to acknowledge, and profess  
Deserved rage, I'm angry, I confess;  
'Twould make a spirit that is thorough frozen,  
To blaze like flaming Pitch, and fry like resin:  
Why dost thou ask that thing, that thou canst tell?  
Thou knowst I'm angry, and it beseems me well.  
So said, 
Vers. 10.  the Lord to jonah thus bespoke;  
Dost thou bemoan, and such compassion take  
Upon a Gourd, 
God's reply.  whose seed thou didst not sow,  
Nor moved thy skilful hands to make it grow,  
Whose beauty small, and profit was but slight,  
Which sprang, and also perished in a night?  
Hadst thou (O dust and ashes) such a care,  
And inbred pity, a trifling plant to spare?  
Hadst thou, (O hard and incompassionate,  
To wish the razing of so brave a State)  
Hadst thou (I say) compassion, to bewail  
The extirpation of a Gourd so frail?  
And shall not I (that am the Lord of Lords)  
Whose fountaines never dry, 
Vers. 11.  but still affords  
Sweet streams of mercy, with a fresh supply,  
To those that thirst for grace? What shall not I,  
(That am the God of mercy, and have sworn  
To pardon sinners, when soe'er they turn?  
(I say) shall I disclaim my wont pity,  
And bring to ruin such a goodly City,  
Whose hearts (so truly penitent) implore me,  
Who day and night pour forth their souls before me?  
Shall I destroy the mighty Niniveh,  
Whose people are like sands about the sea?  
'Mong which are sixscore thousand souls (at least)  
That hang upon their tender mother's breast?  
Whose pretty smiles did never yet descry  
The dear affection of their mother's eye?  
Shall I subvert, and bring to desolation  
A City, (nay, more aptly termed a Nation)  
Whose walls are wide, and wondrous full of might?  
Whose hearts are sorrowful, and souls contrite?  
Whose infants are in number, so amounting?  
And beasts, and cattle, endless, without counting?  
What, jonah, shall a Gourd so move thy pity?  
And shall not I spare such a goodly City? 
Explicit Hist▪   

Meditatio ultima.  
¶ MY heart is full, and knows not how to vent;  
My tongue proves traitor to my poor intent;  
My mind's in labour, and finds no redress;  
My heart conceives, My tongue cannot express;  
My organs suffer, through a main Defect;  
Alas! I want a proper Dialect,  
To blazon forth the tithe of what I muse;  
The more I meditate, the more accrewes;  
But lo, my faltering tongue must say no more,  
Unless she step where she hath trod before.  
What? shall I then be silent? No, I'll speak,  
(Till tongue be tired, and my lungs be weak)  
Of dearest mercy, in as sweet a strain,  
As it shall please my Muse to lend a vain;  
And when my voice shall stop within her source,  
And speech shall falter in this high discourse,  
My tired tongue (unshamed) shall thus extend,  
Only to name, Dear mercy, and so end.  
¶ Oh high Imperial King, heaven's Architect!  
Is man a thing, befitting thy Respect?  
Lord, thou art wisdom, and thy ways are holy,  
But man's polluted, full of filth, and folly,  
Yet is he (Lord) the fabric of thy hand,  
And in his soul he bears thy glorious brand,  
Howe'er defaced with the rust of sin,  
Which hath abused thy stamp, and eaten in;  
'Tis not the frailty of man's corrupted nature,  
Makes thee ashamed, t'acknowledge man, thy creature;  
But like a tender father, here on earth,  
(Whose child by nature, or abortive birth,  
Doth want that sweet and favourable relish,  
Wherewith, her creatures, Nature doth embellish)  
Respects him nevertheless; so stands the case,  
'Twixt God, and sinful man: Though sin deface  
The glorious portraiture that man did bear,  
Whereby he loathed, and ugly doth appear,  
Yet God (within whose tender bowels are  
Deep gulfs of mercy, sweet beyond compare)  
Regards, and loves, (with reverence be it said)  
Nay seems to dote on man; when he hath strayed,  
Lord, thou hast brought him to his fold again;  
When he was lost, thou didst not then disdain  
To think upon a vagabond, and give  
Thine only Son to dye, that he might live.  
How poor a mite art thou content withal,  
That man may scape his downe-approching fall?  
Though base we are, yet didst not thou abhor us,  
But (as our story notes) art pleading for us,  
To save us harmless from our foeman's jaws;  
Art thou turned Orator, to plead our cause?  
¶ How are thy mercies full of admiration!  
How sovereign! How sweet's their application!  
Fattening the soul with sweetness, and repairing  
The rotten ruins of a soul Despairing.  
¶ Lo here (Malfido) is the feast prepared;  
Fall too with courage, and let nought be spared;  
Taste freely of it, Here's no Miser's feast;  
Eat what thou canst, and pocket up the rest:  
These precious viands are Restority,  
Eat then; and if the sweetness make thee dry,  
Drink large Carouses out of Mercies cup,  
The best lies in the bottom, Drink all up:  
These cates are sweet Ambrosia to thy soul,  
And that, which fills the brim of Mercies bowl,  
Is dainty Nectar; Eat, and drink thy fill;  
Spare not the one, ne yet the other spill;  
Provide in time: Thy Banquet's now begun,  
Lay up in store, against the feast be done:  
For lo, the time of banqueting is short,  
And once being done, the world cannot restored;  
It is a feast of Mercy, and of Grace;  
It is a feast for all, or hie, or base;  
A feast for him that begs upon the way,  
As well for him that does the Sceptre sway;  
A feast for him that hourly bemoanes  
His dearest sins, with sighs, and tears, and groans;  
A feast for him, whose gentle heart reforms;  
A feast for MEN; and so a FEAST FOR WORM'S  
¶ Dear liefest Lord, that feast'st the world with Grace,  
Extend thy bounteous Hand, thy Glorious Face:  
Bid joyful welcome to thy hungry guest,  
That we may praise the Master of the Feast;  
And in thy mercy grant this boon to me,  
That I may dye to sin, and live to thee.  
FINIS.  S. AMBROSE. Misericordia est plenitudo omnium virtutum.    

THE GENERAL USE OF this History.  
¶ WHen as the Ancient world did all embark  
Within the compass of good Noah's Ark,  
Into the new-washt world a Dove was sent,  
Who in her mouth returned an Olive plant,  
Which in a silent language this related:  
How that the waters were at length abated:  
Those swelling waters, is the wrath of God,  
And like the Dove, are Prophets sent abroad:  
The Olive leafe's a joyful type of peace,  
Whereby we note God's vengeance doth decrease;  
They salve the wounded heart, and make it whole,  
They bring glad tidings to the drooping soul,  
Proclaiming grace to them that thirst for Grace,  
Mercy to those that Mercy will embrace.  
¶ Malfido, thou, in whose distrustful breast  
Despair hath brought in sticks to build her nest,  
Where she may safely lodge her luckless brood,  
To feed upon thy heart, and suck thy blood,  
Beware betimes, lest custom and permission  
Prescribe a Right, and so she claim possession.  
¶ Despairing man, whose burden makes thee stoop  
Under the terror of thy sins, and droop  
Through dull despair, whose tootoo sullen grief  
Makes Heaven unable to apply relief,  
Whose ears are dulled with noise of whips & chains,  
And yells of damned souls, through tortured pains,  
Come here, and rouse thyself; unseele those eyes,  
Which sad Despair closed up; Arise, Arise,  
And go to Ninivey, the world's great Palace,  
Earth's mighty wonder, and behold, the ballast,  
And burden of her bulk, is nought but sin,  
Which (wilful) she commits, and wallows in;  
Behold her Images, her fornications,  
Her crying sins, her vile abominations;  
Behold the guiltless blood that she did spill,  
Like Spring tides in the streets, and reeking still:  
Behold her scorching lusts, and taint desire,  
Like Sulphurous Aetna blaze, and blaze up hire;  
She rapes, and rents, and thieves, and there is none  
Can justly call the thing he hath; his own;  
That sacred Name of God, that Name of wonder,  
In stead of worshipping, she tears in sunder;  
She's not enthralled to this sin, or another,  
But like a Leper's all infected over;  
Not only sinful, but in sin's subjection,  
She's not infected, but a mere infection.  
No sooner had the Prophet (Heavens great Spy)  
Begun an onset to his greater Cry,  
But she repented, sighed, and wept, and tore  
Her curious hair, and garments that she wore,  
She sat in ashes, and put sackcloth on,  
All drenched in briny grief, all woe▪ begun;  
She calls a Fast, proclaims a Prohibition  
To man, and beast; (sad tokens of contrition)  
No sooner prayed, but heard; No sooner groaned,  
But pitied; No sooner grieved, but moaned;  
Timely Repentance speedy grace procured,  
The sore that's ta'en in time, is quickly cured:  
No sooner did her trickling tears, or'-flow  
Her blubbered cheeks, (sly messengers of woe)  
But straightway heaven wiped her suffused eyes,  
And gently stroked her cheeks, and bid her rise;  
No faults were seen, as if no fault had been,  
Dear Mercy made a Quittance for her sin.  
¶ Malfido, rouse thy leaden spirit, Bestir thee,  
Hold up thy drowsy head, Here's comfort for thee;  
What if thy Zeal be frozen hard? What then?  
Thy Saviour's Blood will thaw that frost again:  
Thy prayer's that should be fervent, hot as fire,  
Proceed but coldly from a dull Desire;  
What then? Grieve Inly, But do not dismay,  
Who here's thy prayers, will give thee strength to pray:  
Though left awhile, thou art not quite given o'er,  
Where Sin abounds, there Grace aboundeth more:  
¶ Alas, this is all the good that I can do thee,  
To ease thy grief, I here commend unto thee  
A little Book, but a great Mystery,  
A great Delight, A little History;  
A little branch slipped from a saving tree,  
But bearing fruit as great, as great might be;  
A small abridgement 'tis of God's great love;  
A Message sent from heaven by a Dove:  
It is a heavenly Lecture, that relates  
To Princes, Pastors, People, all Estates  
Their several duties.  
¶ Peruse it well, and bind it to thy breast,  
There rests the Cause of thy Defective rest:  
But read it often, or else read it not:  
Once read, is not observed, or soon forgot,  
Nor is't enough to read, but understand,  
Or else thy tongue, for want of wit, 's profaned,  
Nor is't enough to purchase knowledge by it;  
Salve heals no sore, unless the party apply it:  
Apply it then; 'Tis hard, and much pains,  
Do what thou canst, 
Fac quod potes, & quod non pates, pete.  and pray for what remains.  

The particular application.  
¶ THen thou, that art oppressed with sad Despair,  
Here shalt thou see the strong effect of Prayer:  
Then pray with faith, 
jonah, Chap. 2. & chap 3.10. Application.  and (fervent) without ceasing  
(Like jacob) wrestle, till thou get a blessing.  
¶ Here shalt thou see the type of Christ, 
Chap. 1.17.  thy Saviour;  
Then let thy Suits be through his name, 
Application.  and favour.  
¶ Here shalt thou find repentance and true grief  
Of sinners like thyself, 
Chap. 3.5.  and their belief;  
Then suit thy grief to theirs, 
Application.  and let thy soul  
Cry mightily, 
Chap. 3.10.  until her wounds be whole.  
¶ Here shalt thou see the meekness of thy God,  
Who on Repentance turns, and burns the Rod;  
Reputes, of what he meant, 
Chap. 4.  and seemeth sorry;  
Here mayst thou then behold him pleading for ye:  
Then thus shall be thy meed, 
Application.  if thou repent,  
In stead of plagues and direful punishment,  
Thou shalt find mercy, love, and heaven's applause,  
And God of heaven (himself) will plead thy cause.  
¶ Here hast thou then compiled within this Treasure,  
First, 
Chap. 1.2.  the Almighty's high, and just displeasure  
Against foul sin, or such as sinful be,  
Or Prince, or poor, or high, or low degree.  
¶ Here is descried the beaten Road to Faith: 
Chap. 3.4.   
¶ Here mayst thou see the force that Preaching hath: 
Chap. 3.5.   
¶ Here is described in (brief but) full expression, 
Chap. 3.6.   
The nature of a Convert, and his passion:  
His sober Diet, which is thin, and spare,  
His clothing, which is Sackcloth; and his Prayer  
Not faintly sent to heaven, nor sparingly,  
But piercing, fervent, and mighty cry: 
Chap. 3.10.   
¶ Here mayst thou see, how Prayer, and true Repentance  
Do strive with God, prevail, and turn his sentence,  
From strokes to stroking, and from plagues infernal,  
To boundless Mercies, and to life Eternal.  
¶ Till Zepher lend my Bark a second Gale,  
I slip mine Anchor, and I strike my sail.  
FINIS.  
O Dulcis saluator Mundi ultima verba quae tu dixisti in Cruse, sint ultima mea verba in Luce; & quando amplius affare non possum, exaudi tu cordis mei desiderium.    

A Hymn to God.  

WHo gives me then an Adamantine Quill?  
A Marble tablet? And a David's skill?  
To blazon forth the praise of my dear Lord  
In deep graven letters, aye upon Record  
To last, for times eternal process, sure,  
So long, as Sun, and Moon, and Stars endure:  
Had I as many mouths, as Sands there are,  
Had I a nimble tongue for every Star,  
And every word I speak, a Caractere,  
And every minute's time ten ages were,  
To chant forth all thy praise it nought avail,  
For tongues, and words, and time, and all would fail:  
Much less can I poor Weakling tune my tongue,  
To take a task befits an Angel's song;  
Sing what thou canst, when thou canst sing no more,  
Weep then as fast that thou canst sing no more,  
Be blur thy book with tears, and go thy ways,  
For every blur will prove a book of praise.  
Thine Eye that views the moving Spheres above,  
Let it give praise to him that makes them move:  
Thou riches hast; Thy Hands that hold, and have them,  
Let them give praise to him, that freely gave them:  
Thine Arms defend thee, then for recompense,  
Let them praise him, that gave thee such defence:  
Thy Tongue was given to praise thy Lord, the giver,  
Then let thy Tongue praise highest God for ever:  
Faith comes by hearing, and thy faith will save thee;  
Then let thine Ears praise him, that hearing gave thee:  
Thy heart is begged by him that first did make it,  
My son, give me thy heart; Lord, freely take it:  
Eyes, hands, and arms, tongues, ears, and hearts of men,  
Sing praise, and let the people say, Amen.  
¶: Tune you your Instruments, and let them vary, 
Psal. 150.   
Praise him upon them in his Sanctuary,  
Praise him within the highest Firmament,  
Which shows his power and his government,  
Praise him, for all his mighty Acts are known,  
Praise him according to his high Renown,  
Praise him with Trump victorious, shrill, and sharp,  
With Psaltry loud, and many-stringed Harp,  
With sounding Timbrel, and delightful Flute,  
With (Music's full Interpreter) the Lute,  
Praise him upon the Maiden Virginals,  
Upon the clerick Organs, and Cymbals,  
Upon the sweet majestic vyals touch,  
Double your joys, and let your praise be such;  
Let all, in whom is life and breath, give praise  
To mighty God of Hosts, in endless days;  
Let every Soul, to whom a voice is given,  
Sing Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of heaven;  
For lo, a Lamb is found, that undertook  
To break the seven-fold-seale, and open the Book:  
¶ O let my life add number to my days,  
To show thy Glory, and to sing thy praise;  
Let every minute in thy praise be spent,  
Let every head be bare, and knee be bend  
To thee (dear Lamb;) Who ere thy praises hide,  
O let his lips be closed, and tongue for ever tied.   

Halelujah:  
Gloria Deo in excelsis.    

Eleven Pious Meditations.  

1  
¶ WIthin the holy Writ I well discover  
Three special Attributes of God; His Power,  
His justice, and his Mercy, All uncreated,  
Eternal all, and all Vnseparated  
From God's pure Essence, yet from thence proceeding  
All very God, All perfect, All exceeding;  
And from that selfsame Text three names I gather  
Of Great jehova; Lord, and God, and Father;  
The first denotes him mounted on his Throne,  
In Power, Majesty, Dominion;  
The next descries him on his Kingly Bench,  
Rewarding Evil with dreadful punishments;  
The third describes him on his Mercy-seat,  
Full great in Grace, and in his Mercy great;  
¶ All three I worship, and before all three  
My heart shall humbly prostrate, with my knee;  
But in my private choice, I fancy rather,  
Then call him Lord, or God, to call him Father.   

2  
¶ IN Hell no Life, in Heaven no Death there is,  
In Earth both Life, and Death, both Bale, and Bliss,  
In heaven's all Life, no end, nor new supplying;  
In Hell's all Death, and yet there is no dying;  
Earth (like a partial Ambidexter) doth  
Prepare for Death, or Life, prepares for Both;  
Who lives to sin, in Hell his portion's given,  
Who dies to sin, shall after live in Heaven.  
¶ Though Earth my Nurse be, Heaven, be thou my Father;  
Ten thousand deaths let me endure rather  
Within my Nurse's arms, than One to Thee;  
Earth's honour, with thy frowns, is death to me:  
I live-on Earth, as on a Stage of sorrow;  
Lord, if thou pleasest, end the Play to morrow:  
I live on Earth, as in a Dream of pleasure,  
Awake me when thou wilt, I wait thy leisure:  
I live on Earth, but as of life bereaven,  
My life's with thee, for (Lord) thou art in Heaven.   

3  
¶ NOthing that e'er was made, was made for nothing:  
Beasts for thy food, their skins were for thy clothing,  
Flowers for thy smell, and Herbs for Cuer good,  
Trees for thy shade, Their Fruit for pleasing Food:  
The showers fall upon the fruitful ground,  
Whose kindly Dew makes tender Grass abound,  
The Grass is made for beasts to feed upon,  
And beasts are food for Man: But Man alone  
Is made to serve his Lord in all his ways,  
And be the Trumpet of his Maker's praise.  
¶ Let Heaven be then to me obdure as brass,  
The Earth as iron, unapt for grain, or grass,  
Then let my Flocks consume, and never steed me,  
Let pinching Famine want, wherewith to feed me,  
When I forget to honour thee, (my Lord)  
Thy glorious Attributes, thy Works, thy Word.  
O let the Trump of thine eternal Fame,  
Sound ever, Ever hallowed be thy Name.   

4  
¶ GOd made the World, and all that therein is,  
Yet, what a little part of it is his?  
Quarter the Earth, and see, how small a room  
Is styled with the name of Christendom;  
The rest (through blinded ignorance) rebels,  
O'errun with Pagans, Turks, and Infidels:  
Nor yet is all this little Quarter his,  
For (though all know him) half know him amiss,  
Professing Christ for lucre, (as they list)  
And serve the triple Crown of Antichrist;  
Yet is this little handful much made lesser,  
there's many Libertines, for one Professor:  
Nor do Professors all profess aright,  
'Mong whom there often lurks an Hypocrite.  
¶ O where, and what's thy Kingdom? (blessed God)  
Where is thy Sceptre? where's thine iron Rod?  
Reduce thy reckon to their total sum,  
O let thy Power, and thy Kingdom Come.   

5  
¶ MAN in himself's a little World, Alone,  
His Soul's the Court, or high Imperial Throne,  
Wherein as Empress, sits the Understanding  
Gently directing, yet with awe Commanding:  
Her Handmaid's WILL: Affections, Maids of Honour,  
All following close, and duly waiting on her:  
But Sin, that always envied man's Condition,  
Within this kingdom raised up Division;  
Withdrawn man's Will, and bribed his false Affection,  
That This, no order hath, nor That, Election;  
The Will proves traitor to the Understanding;  
Reason hath lost her power, and left commanding,  
She's quite deposed, and put to foul disgrace,  
And Tyrant Will, usurps her Empty place.  
¶ Vouchsafe (Lord) in this little World of mine  
To reign, that I may reign with Thee in thine:  
And since my will is quite of good bereaven,  
Thy will be done in earth, as 'tis in heaven.   

6  
¶ WHo live to sin, they all are thieves to Heaven,  
And Earth; They steal from God, & take ungiven;  
Good men they rob, and such as live upright,  
And (being bastards) share the freeman's Right;  
They're all as owners, in the owner's stead,  
And (like to Dogs) devour the children's bread;  
They have, and lack, and want what they possess,  
They're most unhappy, in their most happiness:  
They are not goods, but riches, that thou hast,  
And not being goods, to eu'ls they turn at last.  
¶ (Lord) what I have, let me enjoy in thee,  
And thee in it, or else take it from me;  
My store, or want, make thou, or fade, or flourish,  
So shall my comforts neither change, nor perish;  
That little I enjoy, (Lord) make it mine,  
In making me (that am a Sinner) thine;  
'Tis thou, or none, that shall supply my need,  
O Lord; Give us this day our daily bread.   

7  
¶ THe quick-conceited Schoolmen well approve  
A difference 'twixt Charity, and Love;  
Love is a virtue, whereby we explain  
Ourselves to God, and God to us again:  
But Charity's imparted to our Brother,  
Whereby we traffic, one man with another:  
The first extends to God; The last belongs  
To man, In giving right, and bearing wrongs;  
In number, they are twain, In virtue, One;  
For one not truly being, t' others none.  
¶ In loving God, if I neglect my Neighbour,  
My love hath lost his proof, and I my labour:  
My Zeal, my Faith, my Hope that never fails me,  
(If Charity be wanting) nought avails me.  
¶ (Lord) in my Soul, a spirit of Love create me,  
And I will love my Brother, if he hate me:  
In nought but love, le's me envy my betters;  
And then, Forgive my debts, as I may debtors.   

8  
¶ I Find a true resemblance in the growth  
Of Sin, and Man; Alike in breeding, both;  
The Soul's the Mother, and the Devil Syer,  
Who lusting long in mutual hot desire,  
Enjoy their wills, and join in Copulation;  
The Seed that fills her womb, is foul Tentation;  
The sin's Conception, is the Souls Consent;  
And than it quickens, when it gives content;  
The birth of Sin is finished in the action;  
And Custom brings it to its full perfection.  
¶ O let my fruitless Soul be barren rather.  
Then bring forth such a Child, for such a Father:  
Or if my Soul breed Sin, (not being wary)  
O let it either dye, or else miscarry;  
She is thy Spouse (O Lord) do thou advise her,  
Keep thou her chaste, Let not the Fiend entice her:  
Try thou my heart, Thy Trials bring Salvation,  
But let me not be led into Temptation.   

9  
¶ FOrtune (that blind supposed Goddess) is  
Still rated at, if ought succeed amiss;  
'Tis she (the vain abuse of Providence)  
That bears the blame, when others make th' offence;  
When this man's barn finds not her wont store,  
Fortune's condemned, because she sent no more;  
If this man dye, or that man live too long,  
Fortune's accused, and she hath done the wrong;  
Ah foolish Dolts, and (like your Goddess) blind!  
You make the fault, and call your Saint unkind;  
For when the cause of Eu'll begins in Man,  
Th' effect ensues from whence the cause began;  
Then know the reason of thy discontent,  
The eu'll of Sin, makes Eu'll of punishment.  
¶ (Lord) hold me up, or spur me, when I fall;  
So shall my Eu'll be just, or not at all:  
Defend me from the World, the Flesh, the Devil,  
And so thou shalt deliver me from Evil.   

10  

¶ THe Priestly skirts of A'rons holy coat  
I kiss; and to my morning Muse devote:  
Had never King, in any age, or Nation,  
Such glorious Robes, set forth in such a fashion,  
With Gold, and Gems, and Silks of Princely Dye,  
And Stones, befitting more than Majesty:  
The Persian Sophies, and rich Shaeba's Queen  
Had ne'er the like, nor e'er the like had seen;  
Upon the skirts (in order as they fell)  
First, a Pomegranate was, and then a Bell;  
By each Pomegranate did a Bell appear;  
Many Pomegranates, many Bells there were;  
Pomegranates nourish, Bells do make a sound;  
As blessings fall, Thanksgivings must abound.  
¶ If thou wilt cloth my heart with A'rons tire,  
My tongue shall praise, as well as heart desire:  
My tongue, and pen, shall dwell upon thy Story,  
(O Lord) for thine is Kingdom, Power, Glory.   

¶ THe Ancient Sophists, that were so precise,  
(And oftentimes (perchance) too curious nice)  
Auerre, that Nature hath bestowed on Man  
Three perfect Souls: When this I truly scan,  
Me thinks, their Learning swathed in Error, lies;  
They were not wise enough, and yet too wise,  
Too curious wise, because they mention more  
Than one; Not wise enough, because not four;  
Nature, not Grace, is Mistress of their Schools;  
Grace counts them wisest, 
Sapere est insipere.  that are veriest Fools:  
Three Souls in man? Grace doth a fourth allow,  
The Soul of Faith: But this is Greek to you:  
'Tis Faith that makes man truly wise; 'Tis Faith  
Makes him possess that thing he never hath.  
¶ This Glorious Soul of Faith bestow on me,  
(O Lord) or else take thou the other three: Faith makes men less than Children, more than Men,  
It makes the Soul cry, Abba, and Amen.    
FINIS.   

PENTELOGIA: Or THE QVINTESSENCE OF MEDITATION.  
Mors tua, Mors Christi, Fraus Mundi, Gloria Coeli, Et Dolor Inferni, sunt meditanda tibi.  
Thy Death, the Death of Christ, the World's Tentation, Heaven's joy, Hell's Torment, be thy Meditation.  
AT LONDON, Imprinted by Felix Kyngston, for Richard Moor, and are to be sold at his shop in Saint Dunstan's Churchyard. 1620.   

Mors tua. 1  
¶ ME thinks, I see the nimble-aged Sire  
Pass by amain, with feet unapt to tire,  
Upon his head an Hourglass he wears,  
And in his wrinkled hand, a scythe he bears,  
(Both Instruments, to take the lives from Men,  
Th' one shows with what, the other showeth when.)  
Me thinks, I hear the Dolefull Passing-bell,  
Setting an onset to his louder knell;  
(This moody music of impartial Death  
Who dances after, dances out of breath.)  
Me thinks, I see my dearest friends lament,  
With sighs, and tears, and woeful dryriment,  
My tender Wife, and Children, standing by,  
Dewing the Deathbed, whereupon I lie.  
Me thinks, I hear a Voice (in secret) say,  
Thy Glass is run, and thou must dye to day.   

Mors Christi. 2  
¶ ANd am I here, and my Redeemer gone?  
Can He be dead, and is not my life done?  
Was he tormented in excess of measure?  
And do I live yet? And yet live in pleasure?  
Alas! could Sinners find out ne'er a one,  
More fit than Thee, for them to spit upon?  
Did thy cheeks entertain a Traitor's lips?  
Was thy dear body scourged, and torn with whips,  
So that the guiltless blood came trickling after?  
And did thy fainting brows sweat blood and water?  
Wert thou (Lord) hanged upon the Cursed Tree?  
O world of Grief! And was all this for me?  
¶ Burst forth, my tears, into a world of sorrow,  
And let my nights of grief ne'er find a morrow;  
Since thou art dead (Lord) grant thy servant room,  
Within his heart, to build thy heart a Tomb.   

Fraus Mundi. 3  
¶ WHat is the World? A great Exchange of ware,  
Wherein all sorts, and sexes cheapening are,  
The Flesh, the Devil sit, and cry, What lack ye?  
When most they fawn, they most intent to rack ye;  
The wares, are Cups of joy, and Beds of Pleasure,  
There's goodly choice, down weight, and flowing measure;  
A Soul's the price, but they give time to pay,  
Upon the Deathbed, on the dying Day.  
¶ Hard is the Bargain, and unjust the Measure,  
When as the Price so much outlasts the Pleasure:  
The joys that are on earth are Counterfeits;  
If ought be true, 'tis this, Th' are true Deceits;  
They flatter, fawn, and (like the Crocodile)  
Kill where they laugh, and murder where they smile:  
They daily dip within thy Dish, and Cry,  
Who hath betrayed thee? Mastre, Is it I?   

Gloria Coeli. 4  
¶ WHen I behold, and well advise upon  
The Wiseman's speech, 
Eccles. 1.  There's nought beneath the Sun,  
But vanity, my Soul rebels within,  
And loathes the Dunghill-prison she is in:  
But when I look to new jerusalem,  
Wherein's reserved my Crown, my Diadem,  
O what a Heaven of bliss, my Soul enjoys,  
On sudden rapt into that heaven of joys!  
Where ravished (in the depth of meditation)  
She well discerns, with Eye of Contemplation,  
The Glory of God, in his Imperial Seat,  
Full strong in Might, in Majesty complete,  
Where troops of Powers, Virtues, Cherubins,  
Angels, Archangels, Saints, and Seraphins,  
Are chanting praises to their heavenly King,  
Where Halelujah they for ever sing.   

Dolour Inferni. 5  
¶ LEt Poets please to torture Tantalus,  
Let groping Vultures gnaw Prometheus,  
And let Ixion turn his endless Wheel,  
Let Nemesis torment with whips of Steel;  
They far come short, t' express the pains of those  
That rage in Hell, enwrapped in endless woes;  
Where time no end, nor plagues find no exemption; 
Ex infernis nulla redemp.   
Where cries admit no help, nor place redemption;  
Where fire lacks no flame, the flame no heat,  
To make their torments sharp, and plagues complete;  
Where wretched Souls to tortures bound shall be,  
Serving a world of years, and not be Free;  
Where nothing's heard, but yells, and sudden cries;  
Where fire never slakes, nor Worm e'er dies:  
But where this Hell is placed (my Muse)) stop there,  
Lord, show me what it is, but never where.   

1 Mors tua.  
¶ CAn he be Fair, that withers at a Blast?  
Or he be Strong, that Eyrie Breath can cast?  
Can he be Wise, that knows not how to live?  
Or he be Rich, that nothing hath to give?  
Can he be Young, that's Feeble, Weak, and Wan?  
So Fair, so Strong, so Wise, so Rich, so Young is Man:  
So Fair is Man, that Death (a parting Blast)  
Crops his fair Flower, and makes him Earth at last;  
So Strong is Man, that with a Gasping Breath  
He totters, and bequeathes his Strength to Death;  
So Wise is Man, that if with Death he strive,  
His Wisdom cannot teach him how to live;  
So Rich is Man, that (all his Debts b'ing paid)  
His wealth's the Winding-sheet wherein he's laid:  
So Young is Man, that (broke with Care and Sorrow)  
he's old enough to Day, to Die to Morrow:  
Why bragg'st thou then, Thou Worme of Five foot-long?  
The art neither Fair, nor Strong, nor Wise, nor Rich, nor Yong.   

2 Mors Christi.  
I Thrust; And who shall quench this Eager Thrust?  
I Grieve; And with my grief my Heart will Burst;  
I Grieve, because I thirst without Relief;  
I Thrust, because my Soul is burnt with Grief;  
I thirst; And (dried with Grief) my Heart will Die;  
I Grieve, and thirst the more, For Sorrow's dry:  
The more I grieve, the more my thirst appears:  
Would God I had not grieved out all my tears;  
I Thrust; And yet my Griefs have made a Flood;  
But Tears are salt; I Grieve, and Thrust for Blood;  
I Grieve for Blood; for Blood must send Relief;  
I Thrust for Blood, for Blood must ease my Grief;  
I Thrust for sacred Blood of a Dear Lamb;  
I Grieve to think from whence that Dear Blood came;  
'Twas shed for Me, O let me drink my fill,  
Although my Grief remain Entire still:  
O sovereign Power of that Vermilion SPRING,  
Whose Virtue, neither Heart conceives, nor Tongue can sing.   

3 Fraus Mundi.  
I Love the World (as Clients love the Laws)  
To manage the uprightness of my Cause;  
The World loves me, as Shepherds do their Flocks,  
To Rob, and spoil them of their fleecy Locks;  
I love the World, and use it as mine Inn,  
To bait, and rest my tired Carcase in:  
The World loves me, For what? To make her Game;  
For filthy Sin, she sells me timely Shame;  
Forth from her Eyes do Springs of Venom burst,  
But like a Basilisk I'll see her first;  
And this my firm intended Course shall be,  
To poison her, or she will poison me:  
We live at jars, as froward Gamesters do,  
Still guarding, not Regarding others Foe;  
I love the World, to serve my turn, and leave her,  
'Tis no Deceit to Cousin a Deceiver;  
she'll not miss me, ay, less the World shall miss,  
To lose a World of Grief, t' enjoy a World of Bliss.   

4 Gloria Coeli.  
EArth stands immoved, and Fixed, Her situation  
Admits no local Change, no Alteration,  
HEAVEN always moves, renewing still his place,  
And ever sees us with another Face;  
EARTH standeth Fixed, yet there I live opprests;  
HEAVEN always moves, yet there is all my Rest:  
Enlarge thyself, my SOUL, with Meditation,  
Mount there, and there bespeak thy Habitation;  
Where joys are full, and pure, not mixed with mourning,  
All Endless, and from which is no returning:  
No Theft, no Cruel Murder harbours there,  
No Hoary-headed- Care, no sudden Fear,  
No pinching Want, no (Griping fast) Oppression,  
Nor Death, the stipend of our soul Transgression:  
But dearest Friendship, Love, and lasting Pleasure  
Ay there abides, withouten stin●, or Measure;  
Fullness of Riches, Comfort sempeternall,  
Excess without a surfeiting; And Life Eternal.   

5 Dolour Inferni.  
THe Trump shall blow, The Dead (awaked) shall rise,  
And to the Clouds shall turn their wondering Eyes;  
The Heaven shall open, The Bridegroom forth shall come,  
To judge the World, and give the World her Doom:  
joy to the JUST, to others Endless SMART;  
To those the Voice bids COME, to these, DEPART;  
DEPART from LIFE, yet (dying) live for Ever;  
For Ever dying be, and yet Dye Never;  
DEPART like Dogs, with DEVILS take your lot;  
DEPART like DEVILS, for I know you not;  
Like DOGS, like DEVILS go, Go Howle, and Bark;  
DEPART in DARKNESS, for your deeds were Dark;  
Let roaring be your MUSIC, And your Food  
Be flesh of VIPERS, And your Drink, their BLOOD;  
Let FIENDS afflict thee, with REPROACH, and SHAME,  
DEPART, DEPART into Eternal FLAME:  
If HELL the Guerdon then of Sinners be,  
(Lord) give me HELL on Earth (Lord) give me HEAVEN with thee.  
— w— w— I am Define Tibia versus.  
FINIS.