TAILORS URANIA, OR His Heavenly Muse. WITH A brief Narration of the thirteen Sieges, and six Sacking of the famous City of JERUSALEM. Their miseries of War, Plague, and Famine, (during their last siege by VESPASIAN and his Son TITUS.) In Heroical Verse compendiously described.  
LONDON Printed by Edward Griffin for Nathaniel Butter, and are to be sold at his shop at S. Augustine's gate, at the sign of the Pied Bull. 1615.   


TO THE RIGHT worshipful, and worthy favourer of all good endeavours, Sr GEORGE MORE Knight, Lieutenant of his Ma.tie Tower of London, and one of his highness justices of the Peace and Quorum, in the County of Middlesex.  
MOst humbly (worthy) and religious Knight,  
These things which did from my invention flow:  
On you in love and duty, I bestow,  
Whose patronage can shield me safe from spite.  
And though the style, and phrase, unpolished be  
Of new-coined words, to please these Critic times,  
(For I, no Scholar, what can come from me  
But downright plain, and ordinary Rhymes.)  
Yet when your leisure serves you to peruse  
These poor endeavours, which my wit hath done:  
You shall perceive my weak laborious Muse  
Hath in this Work, herself, herself outrun,  
The Matters true, and truth I know you love,  
And Love conduct you to the joys above.  
Your Worships, in all duteous observance, JOHN TAYLOR.    


To the Reader.  
THis Book, if I with boasting should commend,  
In seeking to defend, I should offend:  
Or should I brag, and say it is well writ  
'twere self-conceit, presumption, and no wit.  
Again, should I myself, myself deprave  
It were a sign I small discretion have  
Then as my thoughts, all bragging pride do hate,  
So I abhor to be so much Ingrate  
As to deny God's gifts, and say that he  
By Nature, nothing hath bestowed on me.  
If ought be Good, I thank the power Divine,  
All that is bad I must acknowledge mine;  
My God he's Author of my doing well,  
Without whose Grace, no Good in me doth dwell.  
But be it good, or bad, or well, or ill,  
Kind Reader, gently judge, my Artless skill.    


The Author to the Printer.  
GOod honest Printer, to thy business look,  
Be careful how thou dost Compose this Book:  
If thou thy letters, or my words misplace  
The fault is thine, but mine is the disgrace.  
Then for my Credit, and thine own Respect  
Compose, and prove, and every fault correct.    


In laudem Authoris. To the heliconian Water-Poet, my honest friend, john Taylor.  
IN every Art, save Poetry, the mean  
Is praised: but therein meanely-well to do  
Is base, too base: then judgement cannot lean  
On what's too base, but base it must be too.  
Then each man that his Reputation hugs  
For judgement, praise no lines of but mean Reach:  
And laud but what draws dry Minerva's dugs,  
Lest they their judgements might thereby impeach.  
Then is my judgement jack perplexed in thee;  
For thou dost write so well with means so ill  
That thine Admirer I confess to be,  
Much rather than the judger of thy skill:  
Art makes not Poetry, thou dost plainly prove,  
But supernatural bounty from above.  
john davis.   

In Vraniam johannis Taylor Encomium.  
IT is disputed much among the Wise,  
If that there be a water in the skies:  
If there be one: no Waterman before  
Was ever known to Row in't with his Oar.  
If none; such ic thy high surmounting pen  
It soars above the strain of Watermen:  
Whether there be or no, seek far and near  
thouart matchless sure in this our hemisphere.  
William Branthwaite Cant.   

In Vraniam johannis Taylor.  
IN sport I hitherto have told thy fame,  
But now thy Muse doth merit greater Name:  
Soars high to Heaven, from earth and water flies,  
And leaving base matters, mounts the skies.  
Where hidden knowledge, she doth sweetly sing  
Careless of each inferior common thing.  
Oh that my Soul could follow her in this,  
To shun fowl sin, and seek eternal bliss,  
Her strength grows great, and may God ever send  
Me to amend my faults, as she doth mend.  
Robert Branthwaite.   

To the honest Sculler john Taylor.  
THe water Nymphs that do the Thames frequent  
(The dearest daughters of the Driads old)  
Concluded once, with one combined consent  
A day of Sacrifice abroad to hold.  
With which they did old Innachus so please  
(The God of Rivers, Fountains, Wells, & Springs:)  
That he to give his sacred Nymphs some ease  
Invites the Muses to their offerings.  
For which, agreed it was by all the Nine,  
That since so well the watery Dames did sing:  
Some one of theirs, with power most divine  
They would inspire, as Guerdon of the thing.  
Then choosed they thee, and on thy nimble brain  
Powered out a draft of Heliconian wine:  
Which when Apollo saw, he did refrain  
To guide the light, and with a sharp Engine  
He crowned his daughter's gifts, and with a Bay,  
That then was twined about his golden hair  
Which he from his beloved had plucked that day  
He wreathed thy brows, and bade thee that to wear.  
Since when thy Muse aspired to things divine,  
Still graced by Phoebus, and the Sisters nine.  
Henry Sure.   

To my honest friend john Taylor.  
WHat shall I say, kind Friend, to let thee know  
How worthily I do this work esteem:  
Whereof I think I cannot too much deem  
From which I find a world of wit doth flow.  
The poor unpolished praise I can bestow  
Upon this well deserving work of thine,  
Which here I freely offer at thy Shrine  
Is like a Taper, when the Sun doth show,  
Or bellows help for Eol's breath to blow,  
For thou as much haste soared beyond the strain,  
Whereto our common Muses do attain  
As cinthya's light exceeds the worms that glow.  
And were my Muse replete with learned phrase,  
The world should know thy work deserveth praise.  
Thine in the best of friendship, Richard Leigh.   

To the Author john Taylor.  
Waste ever known to any time before,  
That so much skill in Poesy could be  
Th' attendant to a Skull, or painful oar,  
Thou liv'st in water, but the fire in thee;  
That mounting Element, that made thee choose  
To Court Urania, the divinest Muse.  
Row on: to watermen did never blow  
A gale so good, none so much goodness know.  
Thomas Brewer.   

To my friend john Taylor.  
ROw on (good Waterman) and look back still  
(Thus as thou dost) upon the Muse's Hill,  
To guide thee in thy course: Thy Boate's a Sphere  
Where thine Urania moves divinely-cleere.  
Well hast thou Plyd'e, and (with thy learned Oar)  
Cut through a River, to a nobler shore  
Then ever any landed-at. Thy sail  
(Made all of clouds) swells with a prosperous gale.  
Some say, there is a Ferryman of Hell,  
The Ferryman of Heaven, I now know well,  
And that's thyself, transporting Souls to bliss,  
URANIA sits at Helm and Pilot is;  
For Thames, thou hast the lactea via found,  
Be thou with bays (as that with stars is) crowned.  
Thomas Dekker.    


To the Understander.  
SEe here the Pride and Knowledge of a Sailor,  
His spritsail, foresail, mainsaile, & his Mizzen;  
A poor frail man God wot, I know none frailer:  
I know for Sinners, Christ is dead, and risen.  
I know no greater sinner than john Tailor  
Of all his Death did Ransom out of Prizzen,  
And therefore here's my Pride, if it be Pride,  
To know Christ, and to know him Crucifide.  
Thine in all humility john Taylor.    

TAILORS URANIA.  

(1)  
Eternal God which in thine arms dost Grasp  
All past, all present, and all future things:  
And in inevitable doom dost clasp  
The lives and deaths of all that dies and springs,  
And at the doomefull day will once unhaspe  
Th' acusing book of Subjects and of Kings.  
In whom though ending nor beginning be,  
Let me (o Lord) begin and end in thee.   

(2)  
All cogitations vain from me remove,  
And cleanse my earthly and polluted heart:  
Inspire me with thy blessings from above,  
That (to thy honour) I with Artless Art  
May sing thy justice, Mercy, and thy Love;  
Possess me with thy Grace in every part  
That no profane word issue from my pen  
But to the Glory of thy name; Amen.   

(3)  
I do beseech thee, Gracious loving father  
Reject me not in thy sharp judging Ire:  
But in thy multitude of mercies Rather  
Recall me to thee, Recolect me Nigher,  
My wandering Soul into thy bosom Gather  
And with thy Grace my graceless heart Inspire,  
Dictate unto my mind what it may think,  
Write with thy spirit what I may write with ink.   

(4)  
Thou all things wast e'en then when nothing was,  
And then, thou all things didst of nothing make:  
Of nothing All thou still hast brought to pass,  
And all again, to nothing must betake.  
When sea shall burn, and land shall melt like brass  
When hills shall tremble, and the mountains quake,  
And when the world to Chaos turns again,  
Then thou Almighty All, shalt all remain.   

(5)  
And since this universal massy ball  
This earth, this air, this water, and this fire,  
Must to a ruin and a period fall  
And all again to nothing must retire:  
Be thou to me my only All in All,  
Whose love and mercy never shall expire.  
In thee I place my treasure and my trust  
Where Felon cannot steal, or canker rust.   

(6)  
All things (but only God) at first began,  
The uncreated God, did all Create:  
In him Alone is equal will and can  
Who hath no ending, or commencing date.  
To whose Eternity all time's a span  
Who was, is, shallbe, ever in one state.  
All else to nothing hourly doth decline  
And only stands upon support divine.   

(7)  
Our high Creator our first Parents formed,  
And did inspire them with his heavenly spirit:  
Our Souls seducer (Satan) them deformed  
And from God's favour did them disinherit:  
Our blessed Redeemer them again reformed  
And ransomed them by his unbounded merit.  
Thus were they formed, deformed, reformed again  
By God, by Satan, and our saviours pain.   

(8)  
Man's Generation did from God proceed  
A mortal Body, and a Soul Eternal:  
Degeneration was the devils deed,  
With false delusions and with lies infernal:  
Regeneration was our saviours meed  
Whose death did satisfy the wrath supernal.  
Thus was man found, and lost, and lost was found  
By Grace; with Glory ever to be crowned.   

(9)  
Man was produc'de, seduced, and reduc'de  
By God, by Satan, and by God again:  
From good to ill, from ill he was excusd'e  
By merit of th'immortal man of men.  
The unpolluted blood from him was sluc'de  
To save us from damnation's dreadful den.  
Thus man was made, and marred, and better made,  
By him who did sin, death, and hell invade.   

(10)  
Let man consider then but what he is,  
And contemplate on what he erst hath been:  
How first he was created heir of bliss,  
And how he fell to be the Child of sin;  
How (of himself) he hourly doth amiss,  
And how his best works do no merit win,  
Except acceptance make them be esteemed  
Through his obedience that our Souls redeemed.   

(11)  
Before thou wast, remember thou wast nought,  
And out of nought (or nothing) thou wast framed:  
And how thy Body being made and wrought  
By God, was with a living Soul inflamed:  
And how th' eternal Nomenclator taught  
Thee name all Creatures that were ever named.  
And made thee Stuard of the world's whole treasure  
And placed thee in a paradise of pleasure.   

(12)  
Then wast thou Viceroy to the King of heaven,  
And great Lieutenant to the Lord of hosts:  
The rule of all things unto thee was given,  
At thy command all creatures served like posts  
To come or go, and at thy beck were driven  
Both near and far, unto the farthest coasts.  
God all things made, as servants unto thee  
Because thou only shouldst his servant be.   

(13)  
He gave life unto herbs, to plants, and trees,  
For if they wanted life, how could they grow?  
A beast hath life and sense, moves, feels, and sees,  
And in some sort doth good and evil know:  
But man's before all Creatures in degrees  
God life, and sense, and reason did bestow.  
And lest those blessings should be transitory  
He gave him life, sense, reason, grace, and glory.   

(14)  
Then let our meditations scope be most  
How at the first we were created good:  
And how we (wilful) Grace and goodness lost  
And of the sons of God were Satan's brood.  
Then think the price, that our redemption cost  
Th' eternal son of Gods most precious blood.  
Remember this whilst life and sense remain,  
Else life, and sense, and reason are in vain.   

(15)  
Thou to requite thy God that all thee gave  
Ingratefully against him didst rebel:  
Whereby from Regal state, thou turnedst slave,  
And heavenly justice, doomed thee down to hell.  
As thy rebellion from thy God thee drove,  
So against thee all things to rebellion fell.  
For when to heaven thy due obedience ceased,  
Thy disobedience taught each brutish beast.   

(16)  
Now see thy miserable wretched state,  
Thou and the earth is eke with thee accursed:  
All worldly things, which thee obeyed of late,  
In stiff commotion now against thee burst:  
And thou for ever drove from Eden gate  
To live an exiled wretch, and which is worst  
Thy soul, (God's darling) fell from her preferment,  
To be the devils thrall, in endless torment.   

(17)  
But Mercies sea, hath quenched justice fire,  
And Heavens high heir (in pity of man's case)  
In person came, and satisfied God's ire,  
And Graceless man new Repossessed in Grace.  
The son of God came down, to raise us higher  
To make us Glorious, he himself made base.  
To draw us up, down unto earth he came,  
And honoured us, by putting on our shame.   

(18)  
Who can conceive the Glory he was in  
Above the heaven of heavens, in throned in bliss?  
Who can conceive the loss that he did win  
To rectify, and answer our amiss?  
Who can conceive the Mountains of our sin  
That must be hid with such a sea as this?  
No heart, no tongue, no pen of mortal wight  
These things can once conceive, or speak, or write.   

(19)  
Man may collect th' abundance of his vice  
And the dear love his God to him did bear,  
In thinking on th' inestimable price  
Was paid his sin polluted soul to clear.  
To gain him an immortal paradise  
And to Redeem his foes to pay so dear.  
For if our sins had not been more then much  
The ransom of them sure had not been such.   

(20)  
The blood of any mighty mortal King  
Was insufficient this great debt to pay:  
archangels power, or Angels could not bring  
A Ransom worth forbearance but a day;  
The only son of God must do this thing  
Else it must be undone, and we for aye.  
God was the Creditor, and man the debtor  
Christ (God & man) did pay, none could pay better   

(21)  
Then since thy sinful Soul from Grace was lost,  
And since by Grace it hath found Grace again:  
Since being lost so Great a price it lost  
T' enfranchise it from everlasting pain  
And since thy crimes are quit, thy debts are crossed  
Thy peace with God, the way to heaven made plain  
Let not all this in vain for thee be done  
But thankful be to God, through Christ his son.   

(22)  
Forget not thou art ashes, earth, and dust,  
And that from whence thou cam'st, thou shalt again,  
And at the last trump that appear thou must  
When Procseys and essoins are all in vain:  
Where just and unjust, shall have judgement just,  
For ever doomed to endless joy or pain.  
Where though that thou be damned it is God's glory,  
Thy wife, thy Son, thy Sire, will not be sorry.   

(23)  
Methinks it should make man this world to loathe  
When that which will a thousand cloth and feed:  
It should but only one man feed and cloth  
In fares excess, and gorgeousness of weed,  
Yet this brave canker, this consuming moth  
(Who in his life ne'er means to do good deed)  
Must be adorned for those good parts he wants  
By fearful Fools, and flattering Sichophants.   

(24)  
Hath he the title of an earthly grace?  
Or hath he Honour, Lordship, Worship? or  
Hath he in Court some great commanding place?  
Or hath he wealth to be regarded for?  
If with these honours, virtue he embrace  
Then love him; else his puckfist pomp abhor.  
Sunshine on dunghills makes them stink the more,  
And honour shows all that was hid before.   

(25)  
Shall men give Reverence to a painted trunk  
That's nothing but all outside, and within  
Their senses are with black damnation drunk,  
Whose heart is Satan's Taphouse, or his Inn.  
Whose Reputation inwardly is sunk,  
Though outwardly raised up, and swollen with sin.  
I think it worse than to adore the Devil,  
To worship his base Instruments of evil.   

(26)  
No, look upon the Man, and not his Case,  
See how he doth his Maker imitate:  
If Grace supernal, give internal Grace  
That makes his mind on virtue contemplate.  
That holds this world, and all things in't as base,  
Knows death makes happy, or unfortunate.  
That doth no wrong, for Fanour, gain, or Fear,  
And lays on each, what each deserves to bear.   

(27)  
Such men (no doubt) but few such living are,  
For they are thickly sowed, and thinly growed,  
The purest wheat is mixed with the Tare,  
The humble minds, are servile to the Proud.  
Vice Revels, and poor Virtues poor and bare,  
Hypocrisy into the Church will crowd.  
So man must more than human wit possess  
T'escape the baits and snares of wickedness.   

(28)  
The Atheist of the Scriptures can dispute,  
That one would deem him a Religious man:  
The Temporizer to the Time will suit,  
Although his Zeal be Machiavellian.  
Then there's a Faith that seldom yields good fruit,  
And though impure, is called a Puritan.  
A thousand Sects in thousand Proteus shapes  
Are Times true turncoats, and Religious Apes.   

(29)  
The greatest plague, that ever came from Hell  
Is to be puffed and stuffed with self-conceit:  
When men too Ill, esteem themselves too well,  
When overvalued worth proves light in weight,  
When Self-love and Ambition makes us swell  
Above the limits of Discretions height.  
When the poor jay, displays his borrowed plumes,  
And man (unfeeling sin) to sin presumes.   

(30)  
But if thy feathered pride, Icarian-high  
Doth soar too far above true Reasons bound:  
Th'eternal Sun thy waxen wings will fry,  
Thy fatal Fall, thy Folly shall confownd.  
Who (like that Cretian) mounts ambitiously,  
In Seas of sorrow shall (like him) be drowned.  
By pride the Chaldean Monarchy decreased,  
A King (the best of men) was made a Beast.   

(31)  
The state of Man may be compared well  
Unto a Kingdom governed well or Ill:  
For if his Rule and Policy excel,  
His Reason (like a Queen) commands his will.  
But if seditious Passions do rebel,  
They Reason's Court with all disorder fill,  
And overrun her careless Commonwealth,  
With murder, fraud, oppression, whoredom, stealth.   

(32)  
The Senses are this Kingdom's Court of Guard  
To keep their Queen secure from terrene treason:  
Great is the trust and safety of this ward  
Whilst they give true Intelligence to Reason:  
But if this Guard their duties not regard  
And misinform their Queen at any season;  
Then right for wrong, and wrong for right she'll construe,  
And in her Apprehension proves a Monster.   

(33)  
The Hearing, Sight, the Taste, the Smell, and Touch,  
If Vices do present themselves for objects:  
And they (incredulous) not deem them such,  
Informing Reason that they are good Subjects;  
If Reason's judgement be not more then much  
She entertains for Worthies these base Abjects:  
Who spoil her Court, and break her Kingdoms frame,  
And turn her State, & Glory into shame.   

(34)  
The Appetite, the Fancy, and the Will  
(Spiritual Faculties) are Reasons Peers:  
Who (of themselves) do counsel all things ill  
Not knowing what is true, but what appears:  
If she attend, what only they instill,  
She takes in mere delusions through her ears:  
And they at last will thrust her from her Throne,  
And then (usurping Rebels) sit thereon.   

(35)  
These Vassals having got the Regal sway,  
Enforce the Commons which are the Affections,  
Their hateful hellish precepts to obey,  
With promise of their favours and protections:  
Th' Affections all agree, and all do pay  
These Miscreants their tributes and subjections.  
And now is Reason banished, and they threat  
She ne'er shall gain again her awful seat.   

(36)  
Th'usurping Heart, sometimes doth reign as King,  
Sometimes the Brain is Counsellor of State:  
The Eyes and Ears, Intelligence do bring,  
The Tongue, (as Herald) tidings doth relate.  
The Hands and Feet do execute each thing,  
Which these intruding Tyrant's love or hate.  
And every Member plays a painful part  
To serve a swimming Brain, and swelling Heart.   

(37)  
The Fancy (like an Ape) skips to, and fro,  
Begins a thousand things, and endeth none:  
Makes, mars, forbids, and bids, no, yea, yea, no,  
Do, and undo, hold fast, and let alone:  
Run, stay; up, down, stand, fall, go, come, come, go,  
Sad, glad, mad, witty, foolish, mirth and moan.  
Thus Fancy doth in Apish toys delight  
To serve the greedy maw of Appetite.   

(38)  
And Appetite (as doth a big woombed Dame)  
Lusts, longs, desires, and must have this and that:  
Herbs, roots, fruits, flowers, Fish, Fowle, Beasts wild &  
She must & will have, well she knows not what: (tame  
Whilst Fancy, and Imagination frame  
Themselves more nimbly than a mowzing Cat.  
Still searching what the Appetite desires,  
Superfluous meats, drinks, babbles, and attires.   

(39)  
The Memory Lord Keeper of the Treasure,  
And great Recorder of this world of dust:  
The Understanding gives true justice measure  
To Good, to Bad, to Just, and to Unjust;  
Invention and Remembrance, wait the leisure  
Of Memory, and Understanding must  
Have Wisdom for her fellow, and her guide,  
Else Prince, and Peers, and Commons stray aside.   

(40)  
Truth, and false Lying, on the Tongue attends;  
The one instructs her plainly in the Truth,  
The others proper, and improper ends  
Doth teach to lie, and vouch it with an oath:  
The Tongue, loves one of these, yet both contends  
But she wants entertainment for them both.  
At last she takes in Lying for her Page,  
And bids Truth walk, a beggars Pilgrimage.   

(41)  
When Wisdom, must give Folly cap and knee,  
When harebrained Will, o'er Wit doth rule & reign  
When Lying, shall make Truth regardless be,  
When Love is paid with hatred and disdain:  
When Sense and Appetite do all agree  
To serve a false rebellious heart and brain;  
When they have Reason's Court, thus undermined,  
It is a sign that understanding's blind.   

(42)  
Then is the place where Virtue had abode  
Made a fowl Rendezvouz for filthy Vice:  
The Temple of the holy Spirit of God  
Esteems his blessed presence of no price.  
Man spurns against his just revenging Rod  
Worse than the jews, that for his Coat cast Dice.  
Men fallen into a reprobated Sense  
Dread not their Maker's great Omnipotence.   

(43)  
Then what art thou, polluted earthly clod,  
Thou span, thou froth, thou bubble, and thou smoke:  
Worse than the dust, that underfoot is trod,  
Dar'st thou thy Maker's fury to provoke?  
Why wilt thou (wilful) thy perdition plod,  
And with damnation thy salvation choke?  
Christ bought thy Soul, and lent it thee to use it,  
'tis none of thine; and therefore not abuse it.   

(44)  
Dar'st thou profane with thy ungodly breath  
His Name, that did (before the world) elect thee?  
Dar'st thou, dare him his justice sword t'unsheath?  
Dar'st thou provoke his mercy to reject thee?  
Dar'st thou run headlong to perpetual death,  
Whereas eternal torments shall correct thee?  
And dar'st thou (wretched worm) of earthly race,  
Belch blasphemy against thy Maker's Grace.   

(45)  
He thou offendest is the King of Kings,  
Heaven, Earth and Hell do tremble at his frown:  
Bright Angels and archangels always sings  
Before the seat of his immortal Crown:  
His foes to fell confusion down he slings,  
He gives his servants Honour and Renown.  
His power's not circumscribed here, or there,  
But All in All, is All, and every where.   

(46)  
Can nothing move thy flinty heart to Ruthe,  
That of thyself thou some remorse wouldst take;  
And not to spend thy beauty, strength, and youth  
To serve the Sovereign of the Stygian Lake:  
Say not, to morrow, thou wilt seek the truth,  
And when sin leaves thee, thou wilt sin forsake.  
When thou no more (through weakness) canst offend,  
Then lame, old, rotten, thou wilt God attend.   

(47)  
When hoary hair, and blood all frozen chill,  
When eyes wax dim, and limbs are weak & lame:  
And that no more thy rash rebellious will  
Cannot perform vile deeds of sin and shame:  
When thou hast lost thy strength to do more ill,  
Then unto Heaven, thy mind thou 'ginst to frame.  
Thy youth in Satan's service being spent,  
In age thou thinkst on God, and dost repent.   

(48)  
Suppose a man that's much engaged to thee  
Hath a good Horse, which thou dost much desire:  
Thou offerest for him thrice his worth, to be  
The Master of this Beast thou dost require:  
But this ingrateful wretch will not agree  
To give, to sell him thee, or let thee hire,  
But lets him (all his youth) be rid by those  
Who are thy spiteful, and thy mortal foes.   

(49)  
And when he's lean, and old, and lame, and blind,  
Galled, foundered, filthy, wanting no disease:  
Bots, Glanders, Spavin, broken in his wind,  
Not a tooth left to mumble on beans and pease:  
Then this Companion, (most unkindly kind)  
Will let thee have this palfrey, if thou please,  
If now (past good) thou scornest to receive him,  
he'll flay his skin off, and the dogs shall have him.   

(50)  
Betwixt thy God and thee, such is the case:  
When thou art young, strong, sound of wind and limb,  
Thy soul and body shuns his heavenly Grace,  
Thou wilt not serve thy God, nor wait on him:  
But (heedless) headlong runnest a hellish race  
Till age hath brought thee to the graves ha●d brim.  
Then (being clogged with sin, diseased and foul)  
Thou offerest God thy body and thy soul.   

(51)  
But dost thou think he is at thy Command,  
Or that his mercy must attend thy leisure?  
Or dost thou think thou canst in judgement stand  
And scape the justice of his high displeasure?  
Or dost thou think that his Almighty hand  
Is shortened? or that his supernal pleasure  
Regards not how the Sons of Men do live?  
Or that without Repentance he'll forgive?   

(52)  
Sly Satan's Rage is almost at an end,  
And well he knows his dominations stint;  
He therefore now doth all his Engines bend  
To batter and confound our fleshly Fort;  
He and his Ministers do all attend  
To draw us to his damned infernal Court.  
For if he lose our souls at latest cast  
'twill be too late when all his power is past.   

(53)  
And therefore now he plots his devilish drifts  
To separate us from our God so loving:  
In making us unthankful for his gifts,  
And by our heinous sins his Anger moving,  
Whilst wings of Faith our prayers upwards lifts  
To praise our Maker (as is best behoving.)  
Then Satan kills our Zeal, and unawares  
We are entangled in vile worldly snares.   

(54)  
God made enough, all men to satisfy,  
Yet not enough to give one Man content:  
For he that had the world's whole sovereignty  
Would covet for a further continent.  
Ambitious thirst of fading Dignity  
(As though they were for ever permanent)  
Doth banish Love, and every heavenly Motion,  
Blinds all our Zeal, and murders our Devotion.   

(55)  
'tis truly writ in many a thousand story,  
And thousand thousand sheets of blotted paper  
Declares how terrene things are transitory,  
Incertain certain, wasting like a Taper.  
How frothy painted Pomp, and gaudy Glory  
When least we think doth vanish like a vapour.  
Experience teacheth this, and truth bewrays it,  
And various human accidents displays it.   

(56)  
To day great Dives in a purple coat  
With Epicurian Appetite doth feed:  
His cups with wine do overflow and float,  
His gabs with quoin, his heart from fear is freed,  
And on the world, and wealth doth only dote  
(As if his death, his life should not succeed.)  
He loves himself, himself loves him again,  
And liu's a hated wretch, of God and Men.   

(57)  
Nor stone, or dropsy, or the groaning Gout  
Can make him with his Wealth to live in hate,  
He (maugre pain) takes pleasure to find out  
New Projects to increase his too great state;  
To marry muck to muck, he casts about,  
And never dreams of his expiring date,  
Until he hear the fatal bell to toll,  
And Hell stand gaping to devour his Soul.   

(58)  
I'have heard of an extortionizing Cur,  
That hath been numbed and senseless, as a log;  
Who neither limb, or leg, or joint could stir,  
But on his deathbed grunting like a Hog:  
And almost speechless with his rattling Murr,  
Yet care of Coin his conscience did so clog,  
That not a thought of Heaven he could afford,  
But ten i' the hundred was his latest word.   

(59)  
Thus Gold that should be captive unto all  
Doth captivate his Keeper, as a slave:  
Who like an Idol doth before it fall,  
And never means another God to have.  
And when heavens Pursuivant, grim-Death, doth call  
To warn him to his unavoided Grave,  
Until his jaws be crammed, and rammed with mould  
he'll speak or (speechless) make a sign for gold.   

(60)  
We ought no form Creature to adore,  
Or frame will-worship in our idle brain:  
Nor of the Angels must we ought implore,  
For Man and Angels help is all but vain;  
Yet purblind Avarice still gapes for more,  
And makes his Mammonitish God his Gain:  
He plays the Bawd, his money is the Whore,  
Whilst it breeds Bastards, he doth hold the door.   

(61)  
He thinks his life Angelical, because  
Amongst the Angels he doth spend his time:  
And Royal he will be, for in his paws  
The royals are ensnared like birds in lime:  
And with his Nobles he ordaineth laws,  
That base extortion shall not be a crime.  
He marks how Kingdoms, Provinces, and Towns  
Are overruled by his cursed Crowns.   

(62)  
But if he note his Angels, what they be;  
Not heavenly, nor yet those from Heaven that fell:  
But they are in a third, and worse degree  
Dumb damned senseless, ministers of Hell.  
They cannot smell, or feel, taste, hear, or see,  
And thousand times being told, yet cannot tell.  
they're locked, and barred, and bolted up in thrall,  
Which shows their Nature not Angelical.   

(63)  
His royals doth not Royalize himself,  
Or make him better than he is or was,  
In spite of all his ill got cankered Pelf,  
he's but a miserable golden Ass:  
The devils dear darling, a most hateful Elf,  
Which as Hell's Factor on the Earth doth pass.  
Were every hair about him made a Royal  
He were a Wretch, to God and Men disloyal.   

(64)  
His Nobles no way doth ennoble him,  
Their Counsel cannot mend his Rascal mind:  
His heart's obdurate, and his eyes are dim  
To think or see, t'ward good to be inclined.  
he'll venture soul and body, life and limb  
To scrape and scratch what he must leave behind.  
His Nobles thus, ignobly make him live,  
And headlong to the Devil, their Master drive.   

(65)  
Amongst his Marks he never marketh how  
He spends, or lends, or gives, his ill got store:  
He marks to make it multiply and grow,  
And for the use of Fistie takes a score.  
He never dreads Heavens dreadful angry brow,  
But daily grinds the faces of the poor.  
Let vengeance thunder, and let Hell's dog bark,  
Amongst his Marks, of Grace he hath no mark.   

(66)  
And though a world of Crowns are in his hand,  
For every Crown might he a Kingdom have,  
His state no better (in my mind) should stand  
Then a rich Beggar, or a kingly Slave.  
He should his Crowns, and they not him command  
They (Vassall-like) should do what he should crave.  
Lo thus the Crowns their Sovereign overswayes,  
They Rule and Reign, he like a Slave obeys.   

(67)  
Thus Angels to a Caitiff, are a curse,  
His royals makes his baseness far more base:  
His Nobles, his ignoble mind make worse;  
His Marks, are marks and figures of disgrace:  
His Crowns usurpeth in his Niggard purse,  
And in his heart Contentment hath no place.  
For Angels, royals, Nobles, Marks and Crowns  
Can put no virtue, in the minds of Clowns.   

(68)  
The only slave of slaves, is moneys slave,  
He pines in plenty, staru's amidst his store:  
Dies living, and doth live as in a Grave,  
In wealthy- want, and in abundance poor:  
The Goods he hath, he badly doth deprave,  
And only cares how he may purchase more.  
For he himself cannot afford himself  
A good meals meat, for wasting of his pelf.   

(69)  
His fear's his wealth, his torment his delight,  
His Conscience foul, affrightful is his sleep:  
His hopes despair, his mirth in sadness dight,  
His joys are Cares, what he hath got to keep:  
His Rest, is restless unrest day and night,  
And in a sea of Melancholy deep.  
Amidst his large possessiions liu's in lack,  
And dies in debt to's belly and his back.   

(70)  
Me thinks I hear a Miser-Churle object,  
None rails at Wealth, but those which live in want:  
The idle Grasshopper cannot affect  
The toylesom labours of the frugal Ant:  
The Prodigal by no means will be checked  
So much as when his Purses linings scant.  
The Fox doth scorn the Grapes, but wot you why?  
Because out of his reach, they hang too high.   

(71)  
So doth a sort of poor and needy Hinds,  
The scum and dregs, of every Commonwealth:  
The shakerag-shaghaird crew, whose boundless minds  
Must be supplied with shifting, or by stealth.  
Like sick men, when their pains their Reason blinds  
They envy all men that are well in health.  
So doth a swarm of drones, and idle mates  
Revile and envy at our happy states.   

(72)  
But let them storm, and rail, and curse, and swear,  
Within our coffers, we will keep the Gold:  
Let them themselves, themselves in pieces tear,  
What we have got with toil, with care we'll hold.  
What is't doth men to Reputation rear  
But when their goods and wealth grows manifold.  
We care not then let needy Rascals rail  
Till Tyburn eat them, or some loathsome jail.   

(73)  
Thus doth a Wretch his thirst of gain excuse,  
And makes his bad trade good with show of thrift:  
Himself, (continual) with himself doth muse  
Upon some purchase, or some gaining drift;  
And as a Hog, his downward looks do use  
To pore, and not aloft his eyes to lift.  
He takes heavens fruit, and hoardeth up the same,  
And ne'er remembers God, from whence it came.   

(74)  
But fill thy gabs, till they are over-filld,  
And empt thy conscience more, (if more thou can)  
Raise higher rents, and let thy Land be tilled,  
And tell thyself thou art a happy man.  
Pull down thy Barns, and boasting bigger build,  
As if thy blessed state were new began.  
Then comes a voice, with horror and affright,  
Thou fool I'll fetch away thy soul this night.   

(75)  
And tell me then, who shall these Goods possess  
That thou hast damned thyself to purchase them?  
Who shall be heir to all thy vain excess,  
For which thy Soul, that dear (too dear) bought lem,  
In hazard is, of endless wretchedness  
Being banished from the new jerusalem.  
The Goods are Ill, that doth the world control,  
Whose cursed Gain, doth lose the Owners soul.   

(76)  
What's in the world should make men wish to live,  
If men could well consider what it is:  
What in the world that happiness can give  
Which is not drowned in sorrows black abyss?  
What Goods in the world can a man achieve,  
But woe and misery, overwhelms his bliss?  
No pleasures, or contentments steadfast are,  
For all we can call Ours, is only Care.   

(77)  
I'have seen a Gallant, mounted all in gold  
Like Alexander, on Bucephalus:  
The ground (in his conceit) too base to hold  
Him whom the smiles of fortune favours thus.  
But in his height of heat, how soon he's cold,  
By death, snatched from his pomp, himself, and us.  
His Name, and Noble-Mushrom-fame forgot,  
And all things (but his shame) must lie and rot.   

(78)  
The beauteous Lady, that appears a Saint,  
Of angels form, and Heaven admired hue:  
That can (by Art) defective Nature paint,  
And make false colours to the eye seem true:  
Yet Death at last, her brau'ry doth attaint,  
And (spite her Art) she must pay Nature's due.  
The rarest features, and the fairest forms  
Must die and rot, and be consumed with worms.   

(79)  
Wealth, Beauty, as they are abused or used  
They make the owners either cursed or blest:  
As Good or Ill, is in the mind infused  
They add a joyful rest, or woes unrest:  
To use them well theyare blest, but if abused  
Thy God doth thee and them loath and detest:  
And turns his blessings, which should most content thee,  
To dreadful cursings which shall still torment thee.   

(80)  
Seek than heavens kingdom, & things that are right,  
And all things else shall be upon thee cast:  
Thy days of joy shall never turn to night,  
Thy blessed state shall everlasting last.  
Live still, as ever in thy Maker's sight,  
And let Repentance purge thy vices past.  
Remember thou must drink of deaths sharp cup,  
And of thy Stuardship account give up.   

(81)  
Hadst thou the beauty of fair Absalon,  
Or did thy strength the strength of Samson pass:  
Or could thy wisdom match wise Solomon,  
Or might thy riches Croesus' wealth surpass;  
Or were thy pomp beyond great Babylon  
(The proudest Monarchy that ever was,)  
Yet Beauty, Wisdom, Riches, Strength, and State,  
Age, Death, and Time, will spoil and ruinate.   

(82)  
Make of the World, no more then as it is,  
A vale of Cares, of miseries, and woes:  
Think of it, as the sink of all amiss  
That blinds our Senses with deceiving shows:  
Account it as a den of baleful bliss  
The which (unthought of) all estates o'erthrows.  
How Satan in it bears a Lordly sway,  
And how none but his subjects it obey.   

(83)  
And whilst thou runnest this transitory race,  
Use well the blessings God to thee hath sent:  
Do Good with them whilst thou hast time and space,  
And know they are but things unto thee lent.  
Know that thou must appear before God's face  
To answer if they well, or ill be spent.  
If thou hast spent them well, than heaven is thine,  
If ill, thouart damned to hell, by doom divine.   

(84)  
But ten times happy shall that Steward be,  
Which at the last the Lord shall faithful find:  
Heart, tongue or eyes, cannot think, speak, or see  
The glory that to him shall be assigned.  
He shall outpass the Angels in degree,  
He shall outshine all Stars that ever shined.  
He shall for ever, and for ever sing  
Eternal praises to his God and King.   

(85)  
Unto which God the Father, first and last,  
Whose goodness, all conseru's, preseru's, and feeds:  
To God the Son, whose merits down h●ath cast  
Sin, death, and hell, (due unto Sinners meeds.)  
To thee o Holy Ghost, that ever wast  
The blessing that from Sire, and Son proceeds;  
And to the undevided Three in One  
All Power, and Praise, and Glory be alone.   
FINIS.   

THE SEVERAL Sieges, Assaults, Sacking, and final Destruction, of the famous, ancient, and memorable City of JERUSALEM.  
Divided into two parts.  
By JOHN TAYLOR.  
LONDON Printed by Edward Griffin for Nathaniel Butter, and are to be sold at his shop at S. Augustine's gate, at the sign of the Pied Bull. 1616.   

  

TO THE TRULY worthy, and right Worshipful JOHN MORAY Esquire, one of the Gentlemen of his majesties Royal Bedchamber; Earth's Honours and heavens happiness.  
THis Book, (Good Sir) the issue of my brain  
Though far unworthy of your worthy view,  
Yet I in duty offer it to you  
In hope you Gently it will entertain.  
And though the Method and the Phrase be plain,  
Not Artlike writ, as to the style is due,  
Yet is it void of any thing untrue,  
And truth I know your favour shall obtain.  
The many favours I from you have had  
Hath forced me thus to show my thankful mind:  
And of all faults, I know no vice so bad  
And hateful, as ingratefully inclined.  
A thankful Heart, is all a poor man's pelf,  
Which, (with this Book) I give your Worthy Self.  
Your Worships, ever most obliged JOHN TAYLOR.   


The several Sieges, Assaults, Sacking, and final destruction of the famous, ancient, and memorable City of JERUSALEM.  
THe justice, Mercy, and the Might I sing  
Of Heavens just, merciful, almighty KING.  
By whose fore knowledge all things were elected,  
Whose power hath all things made, & all protected,  
Whose Mercies flood hath quenched his justice flame,  
Who was, is, shall be, one, and still the same.  
Who in the Prime, when all things first began,  
Made all for Man, and for himself made man..  
Made, not begotten, or of human birth,  
No Sire but God, no Mother but the Earth;  
Who ne'er knew Childhood, or the sucking teat,  
But at the first was made a man complete.  
Whose inward Soul, in Godlike form did shine  
As Image of the Majesty divine.  
Whose supernatural wisdom, (beyond Nature)  
Did name each sensible, and senseless creature,  
And from whose Starlike, Sand-like Generation  
Sprung every Kindred, Kingdom, Tribe, and Nation.  
All people then, one Language spoke alone,  
Interpreters the world than needed none:  
There lived then no learned deep Grammarians,  
There were no Turks, no Scythians, no Tartarians,  
Then all was one, and one was only all  
The language of the universal Ball.  
Then if a traveler had gone as far  
As from the artic to th' Antarctic star,  
If he from Borcas unto Auster went,  
Or from the Orient to th' Occident,  
Which way soever he did turn or wind  
He had been sure his Countryman to find.  
One hundred, thirty winters since the Flood  
The Earth one only Language understood:  
Until the son of Cush, the son of Cham  
A proud cloud-scaling Tower began to frame,  
Trusting that if the world again were drowned  
He in his lofty building might rest sound;  
All future Floods, he purposed to prevent  
Aspiring to Heavens glorious Battlement.  
But high jehovah, with a puff was able  
To make ambitious Babel but a babble.  
(For what is man, that he should dare resist  
The great Almighty's power, who in his fist  
Doth gripe Eternity, and when he please  
Can make, and unmake, Heaven, and Earth, & Seas:)  
For in their expectation of conclusion  
He plagued them all with sundry Tongues confusion.  
Such Gibberish Gible Gable all did jangle,  
Some laugh, some fret, all prate, all differing wrangle;  
One calls in Hebrew to his working Mate,  
And he in Welsh Glough whee Comrage doth prate.  
Another gapes in English, or in Scotch,  
And they are answered in the French or Dutch.  
Caldaicke, Siriacke, and Arabian,  
Greek, Latin, Tuscan, and Armenian,  
The Transylvanian, and Hungarian,  
The Persian, and the rude Barbarian;  
All these, and divers more than I can number  
Misunderstanding tongues did there encumber.  
Thus he that sits in Heaven their plots derided,  
And in their height of pride, their tongues divided.  
For in this sudden unexpected change  
The wife and husband, Sire and son were strange,  
The Brother could not understand the Brother,  
The Daughter stands amazed at her Mother,  
By every one a several part is acted,  
And each unto the other seems distracted.  
Thus by the justice of the Lord of Hosts  
Each several tongue was driven to several coasts,  
And GOD (peculiar) to himself did choose  
His most beloved, yet hardhearted jews.  
jehovahs' honour with them then did dwell,  
His Name was only known in Israel,  
Salem his habitation was of yore,  
In Zion men his glory did adore,  
Th'eternal trine, and trine Eternal one  
In jury than was called on alone,  
The sons of Heber, were th'adopted stock,  
Gods only Chosen, holy sacred flock,  
Amongst all Nations, them he only liked,  
And for his own use, them he could and piked;  
Them his sin-killing, saving word he gave  
T'instruct them, what condemned, & what would save,  
To them he gave his word, his Covenants band,  
His patriarchs, his Prophets, and his hand  
Did bless, defend, instruct, correct, and guide  
The jews, and no one Nation else beside.  
For them, a world of wonders hath he done,  
To them, he sent his blessed begotten Son,  
On them, a Land he freely did bestow  
Where milk and honey plenteously did flow,  
With them, he was till they from him did turn  
And wilfully against his blessings spurn,  
All heavenly, earthly, Souls or Bodies good  
They lacked no temp'rall, or eternal food.  
His Temple builded in jerusalem  
Where he had daily sacrifice from them,  
Where though their service, was defect and lame,  
Th' Almighty's mercy did accept the same.  
(For though Man's sin is great, God hath decreed  
To take his best endeavour for a deed.)  
And whilst they in his love and fear abode  
They were his people, he their gracious God.  
But when impieties began to breed  
And overgrow old Jacob's sacred seed,  
When they from good to bad began to fall,  
From ill to worse, from worst to worst of all,  
When GOD'S great mercies could not them allure,  
And his sharp threatenings could not them procure,  
When each one's body was unto the soul  
A loathsome dungeon, to a prisoner foul.  
When sin (all shameless) the whole land o'er spreads  
Then God threw dreadful vengeance on their heads:  
And for their heinous heaping sin on sin  
jerusalem hath oft assaulted been.  
First Shishack, Egypt's King, with might and main  
Made havoc there in Rehoboams' Reign;  
The City, Temple, Golden vessels, Shields,  
All (as a prey) to the Egyptians yields.  
Next joas came, the King of Israel,  
In Amaziah's days with fury fell;  
He brought judea to samaria's thrall,  
King, Kingdom, Princes, Peers, and people all.  
Then thirdly, Rezin King of Aram came  
In Ahaz time, with sword and furious flame.  
Th' Assyrian great Zenach'rib was the next  
By whom good Hezekiah was perplexed,  
But when blasphemous Pagans, (puffed with pride)  
Contemptuously the GOD of Gods defied,  
The Lord of Lords (whom no power can withstand)  
took his own gracious, glorious cause in hand.  
He used no human Arm, or spear, or sword,  
But with his All-commanding mighty word,  
One Angel sent to grisly Pluto's den  
A hundred, eighty, and five thousand men.  
Then five was jerusalem subdued,  
In juda's blood, th' Assyrians hands imbrued,  
Manasses Godless glory did expire,  
All yield unto th'insulting foes desire;  
Usurping Conquest all did seize upon,  
The King in chaines-bound, sent to Babylon,  
Till he (Repenting) to his GOD did call,  
Who heard his cry, and freed him out of thrall.  
Then sixtly, Pharaoh-Necho, Egypt's King,  
To great distress all juda's Land did bring,  
With fell confusion all the Kingdom, filled  
And (with a dart) good King josias killed.  
The Shepherd, for his wandering sheep was shook,  
The godly Prince, from godless people took;  
So this just, zealous, and religious Prince,  
(Whose like scarce ever Reigned before, or since)  
Th'Almighty (to himself) did take again,  
As knowing him too good for such bad men.  
Nabuchadnezer, next made them obey,  
When Zedekiah did the Sceptre sway:  
King, Kingdom, Peers and People, all o'erthrown,  
All topsy-turvy, spoiled and tumbled down;  
The cursed Chaldeans did the King surprise,  
Then slew his Sons, and next plucked out his eyes:  
Then unto Babylon he was conveyed,  
In Chains, in Prison, and in Darkness laid,  
Till death his Corpse, did from his soul divide  
He lived a slave, and sadly, gladly died.  
The City, and the Temple burnt and spoiled,  
With all pollution every place was soiled;  
The holy vessels all away were borne,  
The sacred Garments which the Priests had worn,  
All these the Chaldees, (void of all remorse)  
Did carry unto Babylon, perforce.  
Which, seventy years, in slavery and much woe  
They kept, and would by no means let them go,  
Till Persian Cirus did Earth's glory gain,  
Who freed the jews, and sent them home again:  
He rendered back their vessels and their store,  
And bade them build their Temple up once more.  
Which many years in glorious state did stand  
Till Ptolemy, the King of Egypt's band  
Surprised the jews, and made them all obey,  
Assaulting them upon the Sabbath day.  
Next after that, from Rome great Pompey came,  
And juda's force, by force, perforce did tame:  
Then did the Caesars bear the earthly sway,  
The universal world did them obey.  
And after that the Roman power did place  
The Idumean Herod's graceless Grace,  
Him they created Tetrarch (demi King)  
'Gainst whom the jews did boldly spurn and fling,  
For they had sworn that none but David's seed  
In the seat Royal ever should succeed.  
But Sossius, and King Herod's armies strength  
Did overrun them all in breadth and length,  
By hostile Arms they did them all provoke  
To bear the burden of their awful yoke.  
And lastly them the Romans overrun  
By valiant Titus, old Vespasians son;  
Then fell they to an unrecovered wane,  
They all in general, were or slain or ta'en,  
Then was the extirpation of them all,  
Their just, worst, last, most fatal, final fall.  
Thus mercy (being mocked) plucked judgement down;  
God's favour being scorned, provokes his frown;  
Above all Nations he did them respect,  
Below all Nations he did them deject;  
Most unto them his favour was addicted,  
Most upon them his fury was inflicted;  
Most near, most dear, they were to him in love,  
And farthest off his wrath did them remove;  
He blest, he cursed, he gave, and then he took  
As they his word obeyed, or else forsook.  
How oft jehovah seemed his sword to draw  
To make them fear his precepts and his Law,  
How oft he raised them, when they headlong fell,  
How oft he pardoned, when they did rebel,  
How long did Mercy shine, and justice wink  
When their foul crimes before God's face did stink  
How oft Repentance, like a pleasing savour  
Repurchasd GOD'S abused gracious favour.  
When he did blessings upon blessings heap,  
Then they (ingrateful) held them mean & cheap;  
Their plenty made them too too much secure,  
They their Creator's yoke would not endure,  
They (Graceless) fell from goodness and from grace,  
And kicked and spurned at Heavens most glorious face.  
The Prophets, and the Seers that were sent  
To warn them to amendment & repent,  
They stoned, they killed, they scorned, they beat, they bound,  
Their goodness to requite, their spite did wound.  
The Prophets came with love, and purchased hate,  
They offered peace, and were returned debate;  
They came to save, and were unjustly spilld,  
They brought them life, and were unkindly killed,  
No better entertainment they afford  
Unto the Legates of their loving Lord.  
Thus were the labourers in GOD'S Vineyard used,  
Thus was their love, their care, their pains abused;  
Their toils and travails had no more regard,  
Bonds, death, and tortures, was their best reward.  
At last th'Almighty from his glorious seat  
Perceived his servants they so ill entreat,  
No more would send a Prophet or a Seer  
But his own Son, which he esteemed most dear.  
He left his high Tribunal, and down came,  
And for all Glory, interchanged all shame,  
All mortal miseries he underwent  
To cause his loved-loveles jews repent;  
By Signs, by Wonders, and by Miracles,  
By Preaching, Parables, and Oracles,  
He wrought, and sought, their faithless faith to cure,  
But ever they obdurate did endure.  
Our blessed Redeemer came unto his own  
And amongst them neither was received or known,  
He whom of all they should have welcomed best  
They scorned and hated more than all the rest.  
The GOD of principalities and powers,  
A Sea of endless, boundless mercy, showers  
Upon the heads of these unthankful men,  
Who pay love, hate; and good with ill again.  
Their murdrous-minded-malice never left  
Till they the Lord of life, of life bereft;  
No tongue, or pen, can speak or write the story  
Of the surpassing high immortal glory  
Which he (in pity and in love) forsook  
When he on him our frail weak nature took.  
To save Man's soul, his most esteemed gem,  
And bring it to the new jerusalem,  
From Greatest great, to least of least he fell  
For his beloved chosen Israel.  
But they more mad than madness, in behaviour,  
Laid cursed hands upon our blessed Saviour.  
They killed th'eternal son and heir of heaven  
By whom, and from whom, all our lives are given,  
For which the great Almighty did refuse,  
Disperse, and quite forsake the faithless jews,  
And in his justice great omnipotence  
He left them to a reprobated sense.  
Thus sundry times these people fell and rose,  
From weal to want, from height of joys to woes:  
As they their gracious GOD forsook, or took,  
His mercy either took them, or forsook.  
The swart Egyptians, and the Isralites,  
And raging Rezin King of Aramites,  
Then the Assyrians twice, and then again  
Th' Egyptians overruns them all amain;  
Then the Chaldeans, and once more there came  
Egyptian Ptolemy, who them o'ercome.  
Then Pompey, next King Herod, last of all  
Vespasian was their universal fall.  
As in Assiria Monarchy began  
They lost it to the warlike Persian,  
Of Nimrods' Race, a Race of Kings descended  
Till in Astyages his stock was ended;  
For Cirus, unto Persia did translate  
Th' Assyrian Sovereign Monarchizing state.  
Then after many bloody bruising Arms  
The Persian yielded to the greeks Alarms,  
But (smoake-like) Gracian glory lasted not,  
Before 'twas ripe, it did untimely rot.  
The world's Commander, Alexander died,  
And his Successors did the world divide;  
From one great Monarch, in a moment springs  
Confusion (Hydra-like) from selfe-made Kings.  
Till they (all wearied) slaughtered and forlorn  
Had all the earth dismembered, rend and torn;  
The Romans took advantage of their fall  
And overran, captived, and conquered all.  
Thus as one nail another out doth drive,  
The Persians the Assyrians did deprive;  
The Grecians then the Persian pride did tame,  
The Romans then the Grecians overcame,  
Whilst like a vapour all the world was tossed,  
And Kingdoms were transferred from coast to coast;  
And still the jews in scattered multitudes  
Delivered were to sundry servitudes,  
Changed, given, bought, & sold, from land to land,  
Where they not understood, nor understand.  
To every Monarchy they were made slaves,  
Egypt and Aram, Caldea them out braves,  
Assiria, Persia, Graecia, lastly Rome  
Invaded them, by heavens just angry doom.  
Four Ages did the sons of H●ber pass  
Before their final desolation was;  
Their first Age, aged patriarchs did guide,  
The second, reverend judges did decide,  
The third by Kings, nought, good, bad, worse and worst,  
The fourth by Prophets, who them blessed or cursed,  
As their dread GOD commanded, or forbid  
To bless or curse, e'en so the Prophets did.  
Our Saviour, weeping on the Mount did view  
The City, and foretold what would ensue;  
And in his tender pity unto them  
Said, oh jerusalem, jerusalem,  
Thou killst the Prophets, and to death didst ding  
Those that were sent, thee heavenly grace to bring,  
How oft and oft would I (for your own good)  
Have gathered you, as doth as Hen her brood,  
But you would not, and therefore to you all  
Your houses shall to desolation fall.  
Which came to pass, according as he said,  
Which in the second part is here displayed.   

The last and most lamentable Destruction, of the Ancient, famous, and memorable City and Temple of jerusalem; being destroyed by Vespasian, and his Son Titus.  
COnfusion, Horror, Terror, dreadful Wars,  
Domestic, foreign, inward, outward Jars,  
Shafts shot at juda in jehovahs' ire,  
Infectious plague, war, famine, sword and fire,  
Depopulation, desolation, and  
The final conquest of old jacobs Land.  
These are the Themes my mournful Muse rehearses,  
These are the grounds of my lamenting Verses.  
josephus wrote these things in ample wise,  
Which I thus briefly do Epitomize:  
Which worthy Author in large scope relates  
His Country's alterations, and estates.  
The Books of his Antiquities do tell  
How often times th'arose, how oft they fell,  
How oft God favoured them, how oft his frown  
From height of greatness cast them headlong down,  
The Seaveuth book of his Wars, declareth plain  
How Roman Conquest did the Kingdom gain,  
How death did tyrannize in sundry shapes,  
In sword, in fire, in famine, and in Rapes.  
Who loves to read at large, let him read his,  
Who likes compendious briefs, let him read this.  
Since Heber's sons the country first enjoy de,  
Six times it hath been wasted and destroyed,  
Twice three times spoiled, and thirteen times in all  
Wars force, or Composition made it thrall.  
Compare all wars, that chanced since the Creation,  
They all are nothing to their desolation;  
No story, or no memory describes  
Calamity to match old Isrels Tribes,  
For if each Land their bloody broils recount  
(To them) 'twere but a molehill to a mount,  
All which (for sin) in the Almighty's fury  
Was heaped upon the sinful Land of jury:  
And almost sixteen hundred winters since  
Did great Vespaesian, Rome's Imperial Prince  
With brave young Titus, his stout valiant son  
judea's Kingdom spoil and overrun.  
And with an Army Royal, and renowned  
They did jerusalem beleaguer round.  
With force, with stratagems, with warlike powers,  
With Rams, with Engines, scaling ladders, Towers,  
With all the Art of either might or sleight  
The Romans upon each advantage wait.  
Whilst the besieged, that within did dwell  
Amongst themselves to fell sedition fell;  
Like neigh'bring bavins lying near each other,  
One burns, and burning each one burn another;  
So did the jews each other madly kill  
And all the streets with their slaide corpses fill.  
Eleazar, Simon, john, all disagree  
And rend jerusalem in pieces three.  
These each contending who should be the chief  
(More than the Romans) caused their countries grief.  
john scorned Eleazar should be his superior,  
And Eleazar thought john his inferior;  
And Simon scorned them both, and each did scorn  
By any to be ruled or overbeared;  
The City sundered thus in triple factions,  
Most horrid, bloody, and inhuman actions  
Were still committed, all impieties,  
(In sundry sorts of vile varieties)  
All sacrilegious and ungodly acts  
Were counted Noble meritorious facts.  
They strived each other to surpass in evil,  
And laboured most, most how to serve the devil.  
These men, of grace and goodness had no thought,  
But daily, madly 'gainst each other fought.  
They hurly burly all things overturned,  
Their storehouses with victuals down they burned,  
With hearts more hard than Adamantine rocks  
They drailed Virgins by the Amber locks;  
The Reverend Aged they did rend and tear  
About the streets by snowy ancient hair;  
Young Infants, some their harmless brains dash out,  
And some on points of Lances borne about,  
That 'tis not possible to write with pen  
The barbarous outrage of these devilish men:  
For they (unmindful of the Roman force)  
Themselves did waste and spoil without remorse.  
Their cruel slaughters made their furious foes  
Relent and weep, in pity of their woes,  
Whilst they (relentless Villains) void of pity  
Consume, and ruinate their mother-Citty.  
The Channels all with purple gore o'er flowed,  
The streets with murdered carcases were strewed:  
The Temple with unhallowed hands defiled,  
Respect was none, to age, sex, man, or child;  
Thus this threeheaded, hellish multitude  
Did waste themselves, themselves themselves subdued  
Whilst they within still made their strength more weak,  
The Roman Rams th'opposed walls did break:  
Whose dreadful battery, made the City tremble,  
At which the Factious all their powers assemble,  
And all together (like good friends) unite  
And against their foes they sally forth and fight.  
Like a swollen River, bounded in with banks  
Opposed long, with Pike-like Reedy Ranks,  
At last th'ambitious torrent breaks his bounds  
And overruns whole Lordships, and confounds  
The living and the lifeless, that dares bide  
The fury of his high insulting pride.  
Even so the jews from out the City ventured,  
And like a flood the Roman Army entered,  
O'rewhelming in their desperate madness all  
That durst withstand them, or assault the wall.  
They set the fearful Engines all on fire,  
And bravely fight made their foes retire;  
The battle done, back came these harebrained men  
And each the others foe, divide again.  
Pell pell-mell confusion, than again began,  
All order strait unto disorder ran;  
Their corn, and victuals, all consumed with fire,  
Their hunger-starved bodies begins to tyre,  
Provision in a moment, spoiled and wasted,  
Which kept (might well) for many years have lasted.  
Then Famine, like a Tyrant roams and rages,  
Makes faint (yet furious) havoc of all ages,  
The Rich, the poor, the old, the young, all dies  
All starved, and fleshless bare Anatomies.  
This was a plague of plagues, a woe of woes,  
On every side their death did them enclose,  
But yet the manner how to lose their breaths  
Did more torment them then an host of deaths.  
To sally forth the Romans shed their blood,  
To stay within, they starve for want of food,  
And if they would go forth, the gates were shut,  
And if they stayed within, their throats were cut.  
That if they stay, or go, or go, or stay,  
theyare sure to meet destruction every way;  
But of all torments, hunger is the worst  
For through the stony walls (they say) 'twill burst;  
These people with war, woe, and want, beset,  
Did strive how they might to the Romans get,  
They hopde to find more mercy in their swords,  
Then their still-dying famished state affords.  
Man's wit is sharpest when he is oppressed,  
And wisdom (amongst evils) likes the least.  
They knew Vespasian for a Noble foe  
And one that did not glory in their woe,  
They thought it best his clemency to try,  
And not immured with hungry famine die.  
Resolved thus (despairing in their hopes)  
A number sliding down the walls with ropes  
Fled unto Tytus, who bemoand their case,  
Relieving them, and took them to his Grace.  
Thus forty thousand near with famine starved,  
Were all unhoped for by their foes preserved.  
The City soldiers searched each house to see  
Where any victuals might conveyed be,  
And if they any found, they thought it fit  
To beat the owners for concealing it.  
But if they saw a man look plump and fat  
His throat they presently would cut for that,  
They thought him too much pampered, too well fed,  
And to save meat and drink, they strike him dead.  
Some men and women, Rich and Nobly borne  
Gave all they had for one poor strike of corn,  
And hid themselves and it below the ground  
In some close vault they eat the same un-ground.  
If any could get flesh they eat it raw,  
The strongest still, the weakest overawe,  
For hunger banished natural respect,  
It made the husband his own wife reject,  
The wife doth snatch the meat from out his hand  
Which would and should her love and life command.  
All pity from the Mother was exiled  
She tears and takes the victuals from her Child,  
The Child doth with the Parents play the thief  
Steals all their food, and lets them pine in grief.  
Nor Free or Bondman, Fathers, nor yet Mothers.  
Wives, Husbands, Servants, masters, sisters, brothers,  
Propinquity or strong Affinity,  
Nor all the rights of Consanguinity,  
No Law, or Rule, or Reason could bear sway,  
Where strength commands, there weakness must obey.  
The pining servant will no master know,  
The son his father will no duty show,  
The Commons did no Magistrate regard,  
Each one for one, and but for one he card,  
Disordered, like the Cart before the horse,  
All reverence and respect did yield to force.  
These Miscreants with vigilance all watched  
Where they could see a door or locked or latched,  
There they supposed the people were at meat,  
And in their outrage open the doors they beat,  
Where entering, if they found them feeding fast,  
From out their throats they tear the meat in haste,  
Half eaten, half uneaten, they constrain  
The wretched people cast it up again.  
They hauled them by the ears the house about  
To force them bring supposed victuals out;  
Some by the thumbs hanged up, some by the toes,  
Some pricked with bodkins, some with many blows  
Tormented were, to force them to reveal  
Meat, when they had not any to conceal.  
Now all was fish that fell into the net,  
And all was food that fraud or force could get;  
Grass, hay, bark, leaves of trees, and Dogs, and Cats,  
Toads, Frogs, worms, snails, flies, maggots, Mice and Rats,  
All filthy stinking and contagious Roots,  
The covers of their Coaches, shoes, and boots,  
All vermin, and the dung of Fowls and Beasts  
Were these poor wretches miserable feasts;  
Things loathsome to be named in time of plenty,  
Amongst the starved distressed jews were dainty.  
This famine ran beyond all Nature's bounds,  
All motherly affection it confounds,  
No blood or birth, with it compassion won,  
It forced a Woman kill her only Son,  
She ripped him and dis-jointed limb from limb,  
She dressed, she boiled, she broiled, and roasted him,  
She eat him, she interred him in her womb,  
She made his births place his untimely tomb.  
From her (by Nature) did his life proceed,  
On him (unnatural) she herself did feed,  
He was her flesh, her sinews, bones and blood,  
She (eating him) herself, herself made food.  
No woe her misery can equalize,  
No grief can match her sad calamities;  
The Soldiers smelled the meat and strait assemble,  
Which when they saw (with horror) made them tremble  
Each one with staring hair, and ghastly look,  
Affrighted, and amazed, the house forsook.  
This horrid action, quickly overcame  
These men, whom force of man could never tame.  
Thou that dost live like to a fatted Brawn,  
And cram'st thy guts as long as thou canst yawn,  
Thou that dost eat and drink away thy time,  
Accounting Gluttony a God, no Crime,  
Thou must have Fowl as high as heaven that pierced  
And hast the bowels of the Ocean searched,  
And from all places near so far remote  
Hast dainties for thy all-devouring throat,  
Whose pampered paunch ne'er leaves to feed & quaff  
Till it be made a Hog's trogh, filled with draff.  
Think on jerusalem amidst thy Riot,  
Perhaps 'twill move thee to a temperate diet.  
And you brave Dames, adorned with gems & jewels,  
That must have Cawdles, Culliss and Grewells,  
Conser●'s and Marchpanes, made in sundry shapes,  
As Castles, Towers, Horses, Bears and Apes,  
You, whom no Cherries like your liquorish tooth  
But they must be a Pound a pound forsooth,  
Think on jerusalem amidst your glory,  
And then you'll be less dainty. and more sorry.  
What there availd their beauty, strength, or riches,  
(Three things which all the spacious world bewitches)  
Authority and Honour helped them not,  
Wrong trod down Right, and justice was forgot,  
Their greatest, chiefest, only earthly good  
Was ('twas no matter how they got it) Food.  
One little piece of bread they reckoned more  
Than erst they did of bags of Gold before,  
One scrap, which full fed crops away do fling,  
With them, had been a ransom for a King.  
The loathsome garbage which our Dogs refuse  
Had been a dish of state amongst the jews.  
Whilst Famine played the Tyrant thus within  
The Roman Army strived the walls to win,  
Their Engineers, their pioneers and all  
Did mine and batter, and assault the wall.  
jerusalem had three strong walls of stone  
And long 'twas ere the Romans could get one,  
The dearth and death of sword and famine spread  
The streets, that living trod upon the dead,  
And many great men's houses full were filled  
With carcases, which the seditious killed.  
That with the stench of bodies putrifyde  
A number numberless of people died.  
And burial to the dead they yielded not,  
But where they fell, they let them stink and rot,  
That plague, and sword, and famine, all three strove  
Which should most bodies from their souls remove.  
Unsensible of one another's woes,  
The soldiers then the lifeless Corpses throws  
By hundreds and by thousands o'er the walls,  
Which when the Romans saw their dismal falls  
They told to Titus, which when he perceived  
He wept, and up t'ward heaven his hands he heaved,  
And called on GOD to witness with him this  
These slaughters were no thought, or fault of his.  
Those wretches that could scape from out the City,  
Amongst their foes found both relief and pity,  
If the seditious any catched, that fled,  
Without remorse they straightway struck him dead.  
Another misery I must unfold,  
A many jews had swallowed store of gold,  
Which they supposed should help them in their need  
But from this Treasure did their bane proceed.  
For being by their en'mies fed and cherished,  
The Gold was cause that many of them perished;  
Amongst them all, one poor unhappy Creature  
Went privately to do the needs of Nature,  
And in his Ordure for the Gold did look,  
Where being by the straggling soldiers took,  
They ripped him up and searched his maw, to find  
What Gold or Treasure there remained behind.  
In this sort, (whilst the soldiers gaped for gain)  
Was many a man and woman ripped and slain.  
In some they found Gold, and in many none,  
For had they Gold, or not Gold, all was one,  
They were imbowelld by the barbarous foe  
And searched if they had any gold or no.  
But now my story briefly to conclude,  
Vespasians forces had the walls subdued,  
And his triumphant Banner was displayed  
Amidst the streets, which made the jews dismayed,  
Who (desperate) to the Temple did retire,  
Which (with ungodly hands) they set on fire.  
Whilst Noble Titus, with exceeding care  
Entreated them they would their Temple spare,  
Oh save that House (quoth he) o quench, oh slake,  
And I will spare you for that Houses sake,  
Oh let not after times report a story  
That you have burnt the world's unmatched glory,  
For your own sakes, your Children, & your wives  
If you do look for pardon for your lives,  
If you expect grace from Vespasians hand  
Then spare your Temple, Titus doth command.  
The jews with hearts hard, offered mercy heard,  
But neither mercy, or themselves regard,  
They burnt, and in their madness did confound  
King Salomon's great Temple to the ground.  
That Temple which did thirty Millions cost  
Was in a moment all consumed and lost,  
The blessed Sanctum Sanctorum, holiest place  
Blest oft with high jehovahs' sacred Grace,  
Where (at one offering) as the Text says plain  
Were two and twenty thousand oxen slain,  
One hundred twenty thousand sheep beside  
At the same time for an oblation died  
That house of GOD (which reigns above the thunder)  
Whose glorious fame made all the world to wonder,  
Was burnt and ransacked, spite of human aid  
And level with the lowly ground was laid.  
Which when Vespasian and young Titus saw,  
They cried kill, kill, use speed and marshal Law;  
The Roman soldiers then (inspired with rage)  
Spared none, slew all, respect no sex or age;  
The streets were drowned in a purple flood  
And slaughtered carcases did swim in blood.  
They slew whilst there were any left to slay,  
The ablest men, for slaves they bore away.  
john, Simon and Eleazar, wicked fiends  
As they deserved, were brought to violent ends.  
And from the time the Romans did begin  
The siege, until they did the City win,  
Sedition, sword, fire, famine, all deprives  
Eleven hundred thousand, of their lives.  
Besides one hundred thousand at the least  
Were ta'en, and sold, as each had been a beast.  
And from the time it was at first erected  
Till (by the Romans it was last dejected)  
It stood (as it in histories appears)  
Twenty one hundred, seventy and nine years.  
But yet ere GOD his vengeance down did throw,  
What strange prodigious wonders did he show,  
As warnings how they should destruction shun  
And cause them to repent for deeds misdone;  
First in the Firmament, Th'offended Lord  
Showed them a Comet like a fiery sword,  
The Temple and the Altar divers nights  
Were all environed with bright burning lights,  
And in the midst of the Temple there  
Vnnat'rally a Cow a Lamb did bear,  
The Temples brazen gate, no bolts restrain  
But (of itself) it open flew amain.  
Armed Men and Chariots in the Air assembled,  
The ponderous Earth, affrighted, quaked, & trembled,  
A voice cried in the Temple, to this sense,  
Let us depart, let us depart from hence.  
These supernatural accidents, in sum  
Foretold some fearful judgement was to come;  
But yet the jews accounted them as toys,  
Or scarecrow buggbeares to fright wanton boys,  
Secure they revelld in jerusalem,  
They thought these signs against their foes, not them  
But yet when war and death had all performed,  
When ruin, spoil, and furious flames had stormed,  
Who then the desolated place had seen  
Would not have known there had a City been.  
Thus juda and jerusalem all fell,  
Thus was fulfilld what Christ did once foretell,  
Sad desolation, all their joys bereft,  
And one stone on another was not left.  
FINIS.    

ERRATA.  
In the 23 staff of Urania, line 7 for adorned, read ador'de.  
In the 30 staff, lin. 5. for Cretian, read Cretan.  
In the 39 staff, lin. 1. for Memory, read Memory's.  
In the 40 staff, lin 2. for truth, read troth.  
In the 45 staff, lin 5. for slings, read flings.  
In the first part of jerusalem, pag. 6. lin. 17. for shook read struck.