THE WORKS OF MERCY, BOTH CORPORALL, AND SPIRITVALL.  
LONDON, Printed by G. Elder and M. Flesher. 1621.   


Mercies Works corporal.  
TO feed the Hungry.  
To give drink to the Thirsty.  
To cloth the Naked.  
To ransom the Captives.  
To harbour the harbourless.  
To visit the Sick.  
To bury the Dead.   

Mercies Works spiritual.  
TO correct the Sinner.  
To instruct the Ignorant.  
To counsel the Doubtful.  
To comfort the Sorrowful.  
To bear Wrongs patiently.  
To forgive all Men.  
To pray for others, even our Enemies.    

To the truly Noble in Virtues (the perfection of Nobleness) the most Illustrious Honour of his noble House and Name, The Right Honourable, john Earl of Bridgwater:  
This Sacred Poem is most humbly consecrated, as a Testimony of his especial love and service,  
BY Your Lordship's faithful honourer, RALPH CRANE.   

THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE.  
THe City had my Birth, my Father (free  
Of a much famed, & royal 
* Merchant-taylors.  Company)  
With good esteem bore offices of worth:  
My education past, I then went forth,  
And tried the Air of diverse noble Counties,  
There tasted some free favours, generous bounties.  
Much variation I have had since then  
With one blessed Gift, A Ready Writers Pen,  
(The use whereof (without vainglory told)  
It not extinguished yet, though I am old.)  
First was I seven years' Servant, painful Clerk,  
Unto a Clerk o'th' Counsel, and did mark  
Within the circuit of those hopeful years,  
The goodness and nobility o'th' Peers,  
Those reverend Lords, those Counsellors of State,  
Upon whose virtues I must meditate  
While I have breath; and praise while I am able,  
Each gracious 
* Cl: of the Couns:  Second of that honoured Table.  
And (as a thankful River, that doth send  
His Tribute to the Ocean) I commend  
One special Sacrifice (with heart sincere)  
Unto his worth whom I called Master (there.)  
That (hapless) thence I slept, (wanting firm hold)  
I only sigh the fate, but leave 't untold.  
The Signet and the Privie-seale was next,  
(Those dear Colleagues) who give me for my Text  
A Field of honour, and shall be my Song,  
Whilst Fame a Trumpet hath, or I a Tongue.  
Some gentleness from thence I still possess,  
Which makes their goodness more, my sorrows less.  
To th' Tribe of Levy (heavens chief Miracles)  
I have done service, writ their Oracles;  
Which so divine Instinction doth infuse,  
(For their blessed sakes) I'll make my Soul their Muse,  
And pray with the best power my zeal affords,  
All happy Gifts, to crown their sacred words:  
The Holy Ghost, in Cloven Tongues and Fire,  
Descend on them, when they good things desire.  
But most of all doth my laborious hand  
Amongst the renowned and learned Lawyers stand  
A Monument; each Office, and each Court  
Vouchsafing me such matter of Report,  
That if my voice to th' utmost world could stretch,  
e'en thither should their fames and honours reach.  
And some employment hath my useful Pen  
Had amongst those civil, well-deserving men,  
That grace the Stage with honour and delight,  
Of whose true honesties I much could write,  
But will compriseed (as in a Cask of Gold)  
Under the Kingly Service they do hold.  
Should there be here a harsh objection cast,  
Why (having tried so many ways, and past  
So many places) All, or none of these,  
Could me establish: (oh) let them but please  
To note what I have heard some Merchants say,  
That what they've got on Land, they've lost at Sea;  
'Twill stop the current of that crooked conceit,  
And light unto constructions far more straight:  
For so (God knows) have I by Storms and Flood  
Of Time and Sickness, lost my Land-got good.  
Lo, this hath been my life's sad Pilgrimage,  
Unto this hour (the Evening of my Age)  
City and Countries I have seen, and Court,  
And in them some of each degree, each sort,  
Of each Sex too (for e'en my willing duties  
Reflected have upon some Female Beauties)  
To whom my Soul hath vowed such dear affection,  
I shall not give it ample satisfaction,  
If Death's dark-night, my sight-deprived eyes,  
A shaking hand, or aught else should arise,  
Ere I had consecrated (with my Name)  
Some speaking honour to their living Fame.  
And amongst all them, whom I have (thus) observed,  
You stand in a chief place, and are (thus) served:  
True worth will ne'er esteemeed a wand'ring Shift,  
For a poor man, in a poor well-meant Gift,  
To tender his hearts-zeale; but take't aright,  
As Christ accepted the poor Widow's Mite.  
Do you but so, and of the Lepers ten,  
I'll be the Tenth, and humbly come again,  
And pay my vows, and in a way more known  
Sing double honour to your virtues shown.  
The humbly devoted, R. CRANE.   

The Works of MERCY, BOTH Corporal and Spiritual.  
MAn of polluted lips, dar'st thou aspire  
So high a Work? Call for celestial fire:  
Invoke some holy hand to guide thy pen,  
Some circumcised heart, to teach thee ● when  
Thou but conceivest a verse, sett'st down a line,  
Sigh for thy state, weep for those sins of thine  
Those Actual ones, that justice have called down,  
And made th' Almighty with an angry frown  
Fright Blessedness from thee, making thy life  
A Vale of misery, a Den of strife;  
Scarce suffering thee, in almost sixty years,  
See aught but dangers, mischiefs, debts, and fears;  
Laying on thy Soul such heaviness, such woe,  
As, but his Mercy help thee, thou must go  
(And speedily) unto a Grave, forlorn,  
Wailing, and wishing thou hadst ne'er been borne.  
Alas, but what am I, that he should deign  
In his abundant Grace, to raise again  
Me (grovelling earth) that in confusion lies,  
Not daring to his Throne erect mine eyes?  
O my dejected Spirit, rouse thyself,  
Be not with cares (as worldlings are with pelf)  
Wholly benumbed: thy God (benign, and good)  
Knows e'en for thee, thy Saviour shed his blood:  
Be thou but penitent, and he will smile;  
Wash thee with Tears, and he with sacred Oil  
Will cheer thy looks, and thou shalt clearly see  
The loving kindness he intends to thee.  
The Scales are fall'n already: I behold  
Divine Infusion (happy man) am told  
That his blessed Providence (never forsaking)  
Did first excite thee to this Undertaking:  
He bids thee write; rely on him, and send  
Thy prayers up, and he will fairly end  
This thy design, and thou shalt comforts find,  
Both to thy travailed life, and troubled mind.  
Led by this Fiery-Conduct (this dark night)  
Lo thus I wander, (hopeful Israelite)   


MERCIES FIRST WORK CORPORALL: To feed the Hungry.  
WEll may this Work (amongst all true Christians blest)  
Be placed as a Forerunner to the rest;  
By night the Pillar, and the Cloud by day,  
By which all Mercies Works may find their way:  
For the sharp sting of Hunger to assuage,  
Being an affliction that feels greatest rage,  
Offspring of Famine, that, of Plagues the third,  
Threatened for sin, in the most sacred Word,  
By how much it appears the bitt'rer grief,  
The fairer Mercy shines in the relief:  
Then, to give Bread, implies God's work in heaven,  
Since Christ (the Bread of life) was to us given,  
When we had starved Souls: duty binds us then  
To comfort the necessities of men:  
And while w' have time our charity must be shown  
Not leave it to be done after we're gone,  
By the slow bounty of another's aid,  
Who perhaps too, by thy example swayed,  
Will part from nothing till his dying day,  
So may thy Goodness be lost every way,  
And tossed from one's Trust to another's care,  
Till there be nothing to trust to but Air.  
Christ is the Bread of life; Dole then at death  
Is but dead charity: whilst God gives breath,  
Be thou a giver to those stand in need,  
And with thine own eye see the hungry feed:  
Then on the next thou canst not choose but think,  
Feeding the Starved, thou'lt give the Thirsty drink.  
So by one step of Mercy, thou'lt ascend  
To the full height of goodness in the end:  
Climbing the Corporal Works, there will appear  
Then Jacob's Ladder (the Spiritual) clear.   

MERCIES SECOND WORK CORPORALL: To give drink to the Thirsty.  
ANother raging enemy, like the first,  
Sets upon man (afflicted) and that's Thirst,  
Terror of Surfeits, and that plague his fell  
Upon full bowls; witness that wretch in hell,  
(Who shows the torment best) when all his song  
Was but for one poor drop to cool his tongue:  
But Christ, that sets reward to him that gives  
But a poor cup of water, and relieves  
His Christian brothers want, his thirst t' appease,  
Held it too dear for that rich Gluttons ease.  
What charity can less, then to afford  
A cup of water? Yet with Christ thy Lord  
It has a rich acceptance: which shows plain,  
Man's poorest Alms are not bestowed in vain.  
Mark but the Blessings that are showered from heaven  
On this (the feeblest bounty can be given)  
The Lord shall satisfy thy soul in Drought,  
Make fat thy bones, thy courage bold and stout,  
And like a watered Garden thou shalt grow,  
Nay like a Spring, whose waters ever flow.  
Thy Barns shall crack with plenty for the first,  
For this, thy Presses with new wine shall burst.  
Here are two Steps: if thou canst get so far,  
I know thou'lt clothe Need when thou seest it bare   

MERCIES THIRD WORK CORPORALL: To cloth the Naked.  
 
HE that did first uncover Nakedness,  
Had the first curse from man, whose tongue did bless  
At the same instant his two other Sons,  
In whose acts the first modest Story runs.  
We're taught by God's Law, we should not withhold  
Our brother's garment, (his defence from cold)  
And called his covering: which instructs us still  
How well this work is pleasing to Gods will,  
To cloth the Naked: To incite us more  
To this most seemly Mercy to the poor,  
The Lord himself the first example showed  
On our first Parents, whom he (naked) clothed.  
Humanity instructs us to this care,  
And creatures that no name of Reason bear:  
That gentle Bird (tender and kind to man)  
Seeing the bareness of a Christian,  
Will cover him over with leaves before it rest,  
Then sing a dirge upon his mossy breast.  
Who can so dull a Charity profess,  
But will, of all wants, pity Nakedness?  
If nothing stir him up, this only can,  
He sees his first Shame in an Unclothed man.  
That thought I hope will raise him to this deed,  
To which, being mounted, he will still proceed;  
And having got three steps up, he will see  
In what distress and wants poor Prisoners be.   

MERCIES FOURTH WORK CORPORALL: To ransom Captives.  
THe more the charitable man proceeds,  
Flow greater miseries to meet his deeds:  
If he look now with Mercies melting eye  
Into the Gaoles where wretched Prisoners lie,  
Four miseries joined in one he there shall see,  
Hunger, Thirst, Bareness, and Captivity:  
He than that truly clears this combined grief,  
Fairly sets off four works in one relief.  
This (amongst all afflictions) most extends,  
When man lies locked both from his means & friends:  
Sure, from th' infernal Lake 'twas first derived,  
For so, lost-Soules lie of all joys deprived:  
'Twas the most cruel punishment indeed  
That ever was devised to vex true Need;  
To make Necessity more helpless; Want  
More miserable; Scarcity, more scant:  
As who should say, we'll invent plagues anew,  
we'll bar all means, and see what heaven will do.  
Such are the merciless Creditors, that join  
Misery to want, as they do blood to coin  
Devouring widows houses under colour  
Of long lip-praying, making their plague fuller.  
Let Prisons swallow needy Souls no more,  
But rich Trust-Breakers that have made 'em poor:  
On this thy Charity may boldly venture,  
Clear 'em of True-men, that great thieves may enter;  
For now there is no room, nor would it hold,  
To put up Sheep and Goats both in one Fold.  
If thou desir'st this wrong but to redress,  
I'll trust thy Mercy for the harbourless.   

MERCIES fifth WORK CORPORALL: To harbour the harbourless.  
THis hospitable Mercy stands in need  
Of small incitement, it has been a Deed  
So gloriously requited, that none can  
Deny that succour to a Christian;  
If he remember how the times of old  
Have been rewarded, he will ne'er grow cold:  
For Truth proclaims it (then to be believed)  
In Strangers shapes Angels have been received:  
So Abraham's Hospitality was blest,  
And the like charity in Lot expressed,  
Which passed not unrewarded, for next Morn  
From burning Sodom he was safely borne.  
This were enough (from all) this work t' extract,  
Seeing such Blessings purchased by the act:  
Say we receive not Angels, we are sure  
To entertain Christ, which is far more pure,  
(In his afflicted members) this too we win,  
Letting in Charity, we shut out Sin;  
And this good more: if cheerfully thou impart  
Thy house to Christ, he'll come into thy heart:  
Then puttest thou on all works of blessed kinds,  
Thou'lt run to visit those whom Sickness binds.   

MERCIES six WORK CORPORAL: To visit the Sick.  
THe motives that should most persuade dull minds  
To offices of Mercy of all kinds,  
Are to consider well how like they look  
To all God's Works, the Glass, the sacred Book,  
Which shows 'em clearly to man's mortal eye  
That he might follow 'em more effectually.  
Here is a Mercy (though it seem a pain)  
Which God begins, to draw us on again,  
The Sick to him, the healthful to the Sick,  
Both for his glory, to keep Mercy quick.  
We say of them which have a Sickness on 'em,  
These words, God's visitation is upon 'em:  
Shall not we visit whom he visits then?  
What work can be a glory more to men,  
Then reverently to second (yet most free)  
God's visitation with our company?  
To be a visitant there where God is chief,  
And the first visitor, can this be grief?  
Or Shame? or Danger? Say the last it be,  
Thy comfort is, the same God visits thee:  
And when thy health's restored, more care thou'lt have  
Both of the Sick, and those that want a Grave.   

MERCIES SEVENTH WORK CORPORALL: To bury the Dead.  
WIth this fit care did Abraham first begin,  
And bought a Field to bury his Dead in:  
And joseph was the first that honour gave  
To the dead Corpse, embalmed it for the Grave:  
Nay God himself (which should move most of all)  
Gave Moses in a valley Burial.  
More: mark the glorious promise of his Truth,  
No Blessing bears a fairer spring, or youth  
In the most beautiful Word: mark it again,  
Let it be graven on the hearts of men;  
Where ere thou findest the dead, have this regard,  
Take 'em, and bury 'em; and for reward,  
I'll give thee (in this gift comes all in one)  
The first place in my Resurrection.  
Tobit, amidst his precepts to his Son,  
Gently warns this, as needful to be done,  
When I' me dead, bury me: and next of all,  
(As if he scarce had spoke of Burial)  
Bids the same Care he of his Mother have,  
Whom, when She dies, seal up in the same Grave.  
Thus, when thou hast performed the last request  
To the Works Corporal, and Interred, in rest,  
With a clear Conscience, and untroubled heart,  
Thou mayst lay claim to the Spiritual part.    

These made Parallels.  
Corporall. Spiritual. To feed the Hungry. To correct the Sinner. To give drink to the Thirsty. To instruct the Ignorant. To cloth the Naked. To counsel the Doubtful. To ransom the Captives. To comfort the sorrowful. To harbour the harbourless. To bear wrongs patiently To visit the Sick. To forgive all men. To bury the Dead. To pray for others, even our Enemies.   


MERCIES FIRST WORK SPIRITVALL: To correct the Sinner.  
TO feed the Hungry, Mercies first degree,  
May with this first Spiritual par aleld be:  
For a Stray-Sinners-Soule that long hath swerved  
From Christ (life's Bread) may be called hunger-starved.  

Then to Correct, and turn that Soul to Good,  
Is rightly said to give Spiritual Food.  
So much for the Coherence: and through All  
The Corporall Works so meet Spiritual.   

GOd rebuked Laban, 'cause he did pursue  
jacob; Christ Paul; Paul rebuked Peter too  
Boldly and openly▪ which shows we ought  
To reprove Sin in any: 'tis so taught  
Throughout the word, by Law, and by the Lamb,  
Who all-obedient, for the obedient came.  
List to the counsel of the Holy Ghost,  
Where dwells all goodness plentifully most,  
If thy weak brother through temptation fall,  
Restore him, ye that are Spiritual.  
So says the Spirit of all comforts beauty,  
Which shows this work is a Spiritual duty:  
It is a Mercy to the Souls of men,  
And brings 'em to the way of life again.  
One duty so depends upon another,  
He that Corrects, will sure Instruct his Brother:  
(Coheres with that before, for he that feeds  
The hungry, will give drink to him that needs)  
'Tis such a Golden-chaine, so linked together,  
In Soul, and Body, 'tis the same in either.    

MERCIES SECOND WORK SPIRITVALL: To instruct the Ignorant.  
TO give the Thirsty Drink, the second Act  
Of Mercy Corporall, is this Mercies Tract:  
For what is Ignorance but the fearful Thirst  
And drought of knowledge, in God's wrath oft cursed,  
Swearing the Erring and Idolatrous Breast  
Should never enter into his fair Rest.  
In wars of Ignorance they are said to live,  
And Fire and Thirst are the fairest fruits wars give.  
I give you Milk to drink (saith Paul) not Meat,  
Which shows the faintness of an Ignorant heat.  
God calls the Glory of the Ignorant, Drought,  
And like men famished their life's joys go out.  
Instruction, like a River, then let in,  
Waters the Soul that lay e'en parched with Sin:  
And mark their glorious reward that do't,  
They that to right ways turn the wanderers foot,  
Themselves like fixed Stars (who Erring never)  
Shall in th' eternal kingdom shine for ever.  
'Twas the Command Christ his Disciples gave,  
Go teach all Nations (willing all to save)  
And what makes perfect his Command, Baptise,  
That in their Souls a heavenly Spring might rise.  
Then to instruct the Ignorant, is to give  
Spiritual Drink, by which the Soul may live.  
When Food and drink's given, divine Charity saith  
Counsel the Doubtful, cloth the bare in Faith.   

MERCIES THIRD WORK SPIRITVALL: To counsel the Doubtful.  
TO cloth the Naked, (that third Step in Grace)  
With this Spiritual Work may rank in place:  
There's Nakedness in Soul, which is in Man  
The greatest want, when Christ is not put on;  
His Sufferings, his Righteousness, his Merits,  
Which are the vestments that adorn meek Spirits.  
Those Souls are decked with Graces, and shine most,  
Set with the Counsels of the Holy Ghost.  
Then to be Doubtful, and of hard belief,  
Is miserable Nakedness: a grief  
Which most needs Counsel, and best power of Man,  
Since it first proved the jews Rejection.  
Faith is that Wedding Robe; in which not dressed,  
We are disgraced, and turned out from the Feast:  
Which still confirms th'unseemliness of Doubt:  
Faith's called a Breastplate: if we walk without,  
We are not only bare, but want Defence,  
And every Evil knows our Indigence.  
Every temptation wounds, with the least touch,  
The force, though weak, the Doubter helps it much,  
And sticks-in his own Arrow; his flesh cleaves  
Wide open to Ills, whose heart no Faith receives:  
He that to this Souls Succour lends a hand,  
Helps to remove this house, built upon Sand,  
And sets it on a Rock, (his Saviour's Trust)  
To the next Work of Comfort he'll be just.   

MERCIES FOURTH WORK SPIRITVALL: To comfort the Sorrowful.  
TO Ransom Captives, the fourth Mercy placed  
In the first Rank, may with this Work be graced.  
There are Spiritual Captives, when within  
The Soul lies geyued with Fetters made of Sin,  
Chained to despair, and Gild of ill demerit,  
To Comfort, is to Ransom such a Spirit:  
Or at the least, to set the mind in frame  
With the sweet thought of their Redeemers name:  
That sacred Ransom for all penitent men,  
Loaden with Sorrow, for their load of Sin.  
To this most beauteous Mercy (saith Saint Paul)  
God's special Attribute, may move us all.  
The God of comfort, being Gods glorious name,  
Whence we receiving ours, must give the same  
To the afflicted Conscience, ease her load  
With what ourselves are comforted of God.  
Christ in sweet words makes known himself to be  
The Lord of Comfort, saying, Come to me  
You heavy loaden: what can more be named?  
The Holy Ghost, he's generally proclaimed  
A Comforter: his special work on Earth,  
Is to raise joy upon our second Birth.  
Well with a Christian may this Work agree,  
So star-like fixed in the whole Trinity,  
To light and guide Compassion in Mankind,  
That the next Work it may the easier find.  
He that lends pity to griefs mournful song,  
Patience will bless his Soul to bear a wrong.   

MERCIES fifth WORK SPIRITVALL: To bear Wrongs patiently.  
TO give to those a harbour that have none,  
Was a Work Corporal in the fifth place shown;  
As Patience now in this Spiritual form,  
Which has a welcome for wrongs sharpest storm:  
And to give Injuries houseroom, is no more  
Then to lodge Enemies, distressed and poor;  
Which makes our Acts the nobler in their course,  
And puts our Evils to the weaker force:  
" As wrath consumes itself, opposed by none,  
" So Injuries endured, their stings are gone.  
That God, which (last) of Comfort held the name,  
Is (here) the God of Patience; both the same:  
By his long-suffring, Penitence works our peace,  
And by our Patience we our Souls possess:  
Our Patience having a possession then,  
Who should lodge there, but Injuries of men?  
That place to Evils properly belongs,  
" The house of Patience, is the Inn of wrongs.  
The holy Prophets are before us placed,  
As precedents of Patience; but most graced  
By Christ, and his Endure: witness Scorns,  
Spite, Blasphemies, Reproaches, Buffets, Thorns,  
Last his most precious Suffering, that excels,  
And has raised Patience 'boue all Virtues else;  
And for the Thornie-Crowne, pricked it with Stars  
Shining through Corporal or Spiritual Wars.  
Who would not bear wrongs, since i'th' end they prove  
All jewels, set about their Crown above?  
Without the next, impossible he should live;  
He that bears wrongs, will graciously forgive.   

MERCIES sixth WORK SPIRITVALL: To Forgive all men.  
THe Visitation of the sick, the sixth  
Of Corporal Works, is with this Mercy fixed:  
For on the Bed of Sickness, harshest men  
Will both forgive, and ask forgiveness then:  
That time, the most revengeful Spleen will melt,  
In tears, and not in blood, his Revenge felt.  
The motive then to draw this good Work on us,  
Is to think still that Sickness were upon us:  
And as the Worldling when he's sure to die,  
Will then give all, no man more liberally;  
For reason of his Bounty this we give him,  
Because he can nor keep, nor carry with him:  
So he that's most revengeful, most malicious,  
Will show himself in that kind than least vicious:  
When Visitation, like a frosty Night,  
Binds up the Rivers of his Blood and Spite,  
If he be good, and a right Christian,  
He will forgive (as Charity ties man)  
If he be ne'er so vild, he'll forgive then,  
In that he has no power to injure men.  
However, by this blessed example live,  
Because our Christ forgave, let us forgive:  
For his sake honour it; and in this respect,  
It being the special mark of God's Elect:  
The next will sweetly fall into thy way,  
For he that pardons, will be apt to pray▪   

MERCIES SEVENTH WORK SPIRITVALL: To pray for others, even our enemies  
THe burying of the dead, not disagrees  
With this Work, Praying for our Enemies:  
For as Obliuion's said to be a Grave,  
And Ills (forgotten) their true burial have;  
So when we pray for foes, we there comprise  
The funeral of all our Injuries,  
Never in life to be remembered more,  
But like things buried, sealed, and covered over:  
This praying-love, which makes up Charity best,  
And both, fair Mercy in this Tract expressed,  
Is like a Toombe-stone here upon Death's Inn,  
And covers the great multitude of Sin.  
Blessed Saint Steven thus with loud voice cried,  
And buried his foes wrongs before he died,  
Lord, lay not to their charge this sin (though deep)  
And when he had thus spoke, is said to sleep,  
To show the meekness of his death, and that  
Wrongs were no sooner pardoned, but forgot.  
It is a Mercy that Christ lights us to,  
Forgive them, for they know not what they do:  
Your enemy's love, do well to them that spite you,  
Bless than that curse, & pray for them that smite you  
Mongst Mercies works this shines the special gem,  
Both to bring wrongs to th' Grave, and pray for them:  
As Christian Charity uses this remorse,  
Prayers are oft said over an ill man's coarse  
(To the world's judgement) which this work implies,  
We ought to pray e'en for our Enemies.  
Who loves these Works (both ways in number seven)  
Will shine amongst men, and be a Star in heaven.   
FINIS.