Apollo Christian: OR HELICON REFORM.  ECCLES. 38.25. 
Scribe SAPIENTIAM in tempore vacuitatis.  HOR. de Art. Poe. 
Scribendi rectè SAPERE est & principium, & fons.  
LONDON, Printed for Thomas Norton, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard at the sign of the Kings-head. 1617.   

TO THE HONOUR, PROFIT, & DELIGHT OF THE MOST HONOURABLY DESCENDED, AULGERNON, LORD PERCY, SON, AND HEIR APPARENT TO Henry, HEROICK EARL OF Northumberland:  
LORD OF THE HONOURS OF COCKER MOUTH, AND PETWORTH:  
LORD PERCY, LUCY, POININGS, FITZ-PANE, BRIAN, AND LATIMER:  
KNIGHT OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER.  
AND (UNDER HIS LORDSHIP'S TITLE) FOR THE PROFIT, AND DELIGHT OF ALL THE ILLUSTRIOUS YOUTH OF GREAT BRITAIN: OR ELSEWHERE WITHIN THE SPHERE OF THE English Tongue: THE AUTHOR, HIS APOLLO CHRISTIAN, OR HELJCON REFORM, IN TESTIMONY OF LOVE, AND SERVICE TO MAGNIFICENT VIRTUE, HUMBLY, RIGHTLY, CONSECRATETH.   
PSAL. 91. 
In Decachordo Psalterio, cum cantico in Cithara.   

HELICON REFORM.  

MELOS. I. To the Majesty of the Christian Name.  

LOrd CHRIST, o give me leave & grace to sing  
That sweet name JESUS, and the heavenly thing  
Purport thereof, and how thou, overcome  
By thine own goodness, into virgin's womb  
Disdeignd'st not to descend, and man to be  
In second person of the trinity,  
Through union of substances, which great Clerks  
Call Union Hypostaticke, where the marks  
Of thy five purple wounds impressed abide,  
In pierced hands, and feet, and trenched side.  
Mûses of Zion, and Mount Olivet,  
Whose ditties to men's voices are not set;  
Or notes of Helicon, that dainty spring,  
But Angels: neither tune ye to the string,  
Or stops of breath, your most harmonious strains,  
But to the spheares'selues where my Lord remains.  
Ye blessed Faëries, Sirens, Sisters nine  
(So many heavens are to the crystalline)  
Borrow a while the five wise virgins lamps,  
Go down to David's tomb, and through the damps  
Of time, and death, bring hither from his shrine,  
That instrument of Psalmody divine,  
His ten-strung harp, his great triangled Lyre,  
Whose sacred sounds when furious Saul did hear,  
Th'll spirit fled so they, who understand,  
May quickened be with our God-guided hand.    

MELOS. II. To the most rare virtue of true humility.  

KIng Godfrey would not wear  
A diadem of gold, 
Upon the Crown of thorns.   
Where CHRIST his Lord did bear  
A crown of thorns, whose every cruel fold  
That royal head did tear;  
Dipping their sharp points deep,  
While Angels stood to weep,  
In that most precious blood,  
Whose venerable flood,  
Made withered stocks green buds, and leaves to bear.   

Godfrey's devotion such,  
Finds now a starry crown,  
In city, more, by much,  
Noble and fair, then that recovered town.  
Whom Christ's thorns do not touch,  
Whom his blood moveth not,  
Who hath Christ's love forgot,  
Were he the greatest thing,  
That ever was called King,  
At being spurned to hell ought not to grudge.    

MELOS. III. To the just confusion of vicious self-love.  

David doth free against himself confess,  
And freely Paul, nor are they Saints the less.  
God knows, and foreknows all, nor will upbraid  
Or benefits, or blame, if we afraid  
To lose his love, repent, and sin no more.  
Confession doth display the secret sore,  
Counsel is medicine, mercy doth apply.  
Who ever else is good, a sinner I.  
And if for this ingenuous dealing plain  
Any despise, or do repute me vain,  
I am a sinner I, and say it still.  
And they who think themselves devoid of ill.  
Or like an Abrase table pure and free,  
To them I do not scorn, a scorn to be,  
Themselves a scorn to God. For who wants sin?  
Yet glory out of shame to seek to win  
Hath desperate ambition Then for this,  
Another time, and place more proper is.  
But best begins confession works of fame,  
For God is reconciled by the same:  
That sacrifice is Abel's holocaust.  
Grace making gracious, o how hard thou drawest  
Proud flesh, and blood to such an humble state,  
As life's acts past to recapitulate!  
In my books front, lo, to God's honour stands  
That I most sinner am, if so his hands  
I may in Christ eschew, and vengeance scape.  
Give to this holy work a perfect shape,  
Most heavenly Father, for thy Son I sing,  
Who both is Priest, Altar, and Offering.  
His wounds had they not bled, my tears had trilled,  
And sighs had blown in vain those cisterns filled  
With crimson juice scruzed from the gory grapes  
Of his celestial vine, renew old shapes,  
And wash black sins as white as infant borne.  
I who, and all the world had been forlorn,  
But for this heavenly benefit, must show,  
That from whom's all, to him we all do owe.    

MELOS. iv To the satisfaction of commendable praise-love.  

O Why should mortals titles covet,  
God's baffled so by Pontius Pilas, 
Upon the title in the table of the Cross.   
In fixing up the crosses table?  
A vain affection, yet we love it,  
And neither is it to revile at.  
For who would not seem honourable?   

All Antiquâries cease your searches,  
For the inscribed tables matter,  
As whither Olive, Palm, or Cedar.  
Upon the tropheas top it perches,  
And he who would in honours glitter,  
Sure, must not only be a reader.   

I do confess me most ambitious  
Of th'English Lyrics noble title,  
Mine is the comfort, God's the glory.  
O be then, o be propitious,  
For albeit my power is little,  
Yet is my love not perfunctory.   

Thy style in Hebrew, Greek and Roman,  
JESUS Nazaren, King of jews all,  
As if that Pilate had turned Prophet.  
Who wanteth title seemeth no man:  
Christ's passion give it to my Muse all.  
〈◊〉 proves oft best when proud ones scoff it.   

Thus will I never envy Caesar,  
And favourites of Kings think under,  
Without applying to times humours,  
Talents of mind, destroyed by pleasure.  
The sick world's cure a work of wonder,  
I court not fame, nor fancies rumours.   

Great Lady Fame, the vain man's Goddess.  
Fair Truth and judgement thee do marshal  
After Queen Virtue. She is Sovereign.  
So shadows hand maids are to bodies.  
If metit be let men be partial.  
But no doome's ill so Christian love reign.   

The English Language rich in phrases,  
(O Lamb of God, o Kingly Lion)  
Rival to Hebrew, Greek and Latin,  
By me the trumpet of thy praises,  
Shall into Albion transport Zion,  
And Christ's broad seal confirm my Paten.    

MELOS. V A Romant of Christ's Acts. To the cleared of CHRISTIANITY'S honor, from all comparisons, and indignities. ADVERSUS PSEUDO PHILOSOPHOS, PSEUDOPOLITICOS, ETOMNES OMNINO, NON SATIS CHRISTIANOS.  

§. 1.  
LOrd Christ, by thee this whole huge frame was made,  
By thee the deep foundations first were laid,  
From whence the palace of the heavens did rise,  
And all which seems so glorious in our eyes.  
From thine eyes fire the stars and planets took  
The light they use, each fountain, sea, and brook,  
Ran liquid from thy mouth, the earth was clad  
In herbs, and flowers, and fruits their colours had  
By the bright seals of their Prototypons,  
And first Ideas, whose reflections  
Came from thy mind, and th'objects printed fair,  
Engrained with dies which successory are.  
Time was not till thou hung'st the Sun on high,  
Bidding him run, days arbiter, and eye.  
Fishes, birds, beasts, and man, that noble thing,  
Had shape and life by thee, their God and King.  
Angels, the sparks of thine own flame divine  
By thee enabled were to be, and shine:  
And (which much better had lain hidden still)  
Metals and gems under each shore and hill,  
Thou close didst couch, for use to the world's end,  
When man would more on means than God depend:  
Or to adorn thy house, the house of prayer,  
Where nothing should be seen but bright and fair.  
For either in thy Church's gold doth best,  
Or gold, of all things, is the most unblessed.   

§. 2.  
THis all's creation, God's Hexameron,  
That six days work he could have done in one,  
Or, as he shall consume it in a trice,  
So could have raised the whole edifice,  
This Architecture of th'huge Universe  
(Whose nobler parts who is it can rehearse  
With equal praise to their creations state?)  
This mass which one soul doth inanimate,  
This goodly greatness, this fair Ark of things,  
Borne up in God, which my Muse sums, not sings,  
The work of our redemption doth exceed,  
Both in the worth, and honour of the deed,  
As infinitely as God's mercy stands,  
'bove all the works of his celestial hands  
Obnoxious man, whose benefit it is,  
Cease o to be ingrateful, tend to this;  
For thou art bound; if benefits may bind,  
And benefits of so transcendent kind.  
For better had the glories we behold,  
Remained in Chaos, up together rolled,  
heavens azure glass unblowne-out into spheres,  
And every suit which mother Nature wears,  
Been absolutely void, no acrie screen,  
The convex globe, and hollow skíes between,  
Better had that fine bubble, Lordly Man,  
Whose sin so gored Christ, our Pelican,  
Better, o better had high God forborn  
To make him out of mould, and to adome  
Our Microcosm in Adam Protoplast,  
With gifts divine through his fowl lapse defaced,  
Better that nothing still had stood for all,  
Unless a world were made which should not fall,  
Had not redemption in her lap received,  
What Furies had of man's first state bereaved.  
To build a palace, worthy of a Prince,  
For Apes, and Owls is no magnificence;  
But prodigality, and bad excess,  
And notes the sounder for unworthiness.  
Or, if magnificence, than such the cost,  
Which th'old Egyptians on their Temples lost,  
Under their Pharaohs, and their Ptolomees,  
From Nile-brancht Delta, to black Meroes,  
And Birds, Beasts, Crocodiles, the godheads were,  
Which those Idolaters adored there.  
'Tis not the pomp, nor Majesty of things,  
But th'use they serve unto which honour brings.  
What glory had it been to the Creator,  
Of all things out of nothing to be Author,  
If only Sprights, and Goblins there should dwell,  
And man for whom he made them damned in hell?  
But this was worthy of God's nature sweet  
(With which in man's men doc most rarely meet)  
For his own sake rebellion to forgive,  
And, for his Court's sake, letting man to live:  
Nor only so, but to remove the bar,  
His justice put, and by the which we are  
For ever disinherited of heaven,  
It pleased him his own Son should be given,  
A voluntary sacrifice for all.  
Thus Adam nothing lost by Adam's fall.  
He lost Euphrates, and swift Tigris river;  
But drinks the water makes him live for ever:  
He lost t'abide on earth in endless bliss;  
Hath better joys in other Paradise:  
He lost an Eden; but an Heaven hath found:  
He hath a firmament; he lost but ground:  
Before, his body never should have died;  
But now his body shall be glorified:  
As than his body his soul's mansion was;  
Now soul and body unto glory pass:  
As than he trembled at the voice of God;  
Now, face to face, in his divine abode,  
He God beholds, and shall behold for ever:  
As than his bliss did but in sense persever;  
Now in his soul: then happy but in part;  
Now in the whole: Adâm, how blest thou art!  
As than his objects dainty land-skeps were,  
And clear Orisons, May-months all the year;  
Now mysteries and types revealed do feed  
His happy soul, and time he doth not need:  
Eva in Edon was his natural joy;  
Now supernatural sweets them both employ:  
And for the beauties of a blanched skin,  
Christ's Spouse they see, whose beauties are within:  
His walks were then among fresh trees and flowers;  
Now Alleluia sings in heavenly bowers:  
The flocks of stars were then above his head;  
Now underneath his feet are traversed:  
There were as than no birds, nor beasts of prey,  
And Eagles did with Doves together play,  
To make his Lordship sport, who Monarch was;  
But, where he is, there nothing is so base,  
As beasts, or birds, nor needeth fond delight:  
He reigneth now, where every meanest wight,  
Doth far excel the state of greatest Kings:  
The Cherubin now fan him with their wings,  
And th'head with plumes impalpable do shade,  
'Gainst which was brandished a fiery blade:  
The streams of Eden had some gems of price;  
Rich stones, and unions wall new Paradise:  
There nakedness and sin did make him hide;  
Hear all things ever cleeere in sight a bide:  
The tree of knowledge quite forbidden there;  
Is common, and communicable here:  
There he for diet was to fruit confined;  
Now hunger is not: God doth feed his mind:  
And that which is the justest joy of all,  
His whole posterity, who through his fall,  
Had reason to lament, as suffering loss,  
Now, through th'exaltive virtue of the cross,  
He sees in bliss, without original blot,  
And (grace surmounting sin) that they were not,  
Nor ever shall be by his act endamaged,  
As freed by Christ, who hell for them had romaged:  
Gods promised mercy being most complete,  
Each Tribe high placed on triumphant seat,  
And every Saint distinguished with marks,  
Martyrs, Apostles, Virgins, patriarchs,  
Fellows of Angels, friends, and sons of light,  
And therefore dearest in their maker's sight,  
Eva to ave turned, hard sweat and pain,  
To joy and peace. How great is Adam's gain!  
For in times fullness, the incarnate Word,  
Theanthropos, Messiah, Christ our Lord,  
(That is, God's offspring, and himself high God)  
Who wields the Sceptre, and the iron rod,  
Vonchsafed in the maidens womb to dwell,  
To ransom us from servitude and hell.  
Abasing his great Majesty, and came  
(O happy coming!) to unite this frame,  
This clayey fabric of mortality,  
To God the Father. This was by and by  
Effected. O the wonder! o the joy!  
A riddance clear from all extreme annoy.   

§. 3.  
HE came: before him came the Baptist john,  
Herald, and harbinger of redemption,  
Whose cries in deserts did so far rebound,  
As filled all peopled places with the sound.  
Never man's worth such testimony gained  
As this great Prophet. Yet there had remained  
Among God's people most exemplar Saints.  
Grave jeremy with gorgeous words depaints  
The sacred Order of the Nazarenes,  
Whose lives, and doctrines, in his holy Threnes,  
To milk, snow, ivory, and to sapphires fair,  
Fornutritive, and pure he doth compare.  
Nor with small fervour the same pen endites  
The praises of th'abstemious Rechabites.  
These were of them whom blessed Paul describes  
To be the choicest glories of their Tribes,  
Clothed in goatskins, without perfumes, or dress,  
wandering on mountains, and in wilderness,  
Forborn by wild beasts, but by Tyrants slain,  
Stoned in towns whom rocks let safe remain,  
And poor distressed from cave to cave did pass,  
Of whom the wretched world unworthy was.  
And though that Henoch, and Elias were  
Most eminent, so that our Master here  
Upon mount Thabor did the Thesbite see,  
The Baptist was as great as he, or he.  
Therefore of him would Christ his baptism take,  
And was baptised for examples sake.  
Jordan saw this, and where our Saviour stood  
Came trembling forward, the abashed flood  
Unworthy, Christ's most sacred limbs to touch,  
Nor could the opening heavens admire too much,  
This secret most profound, that Mercies Sea  
In narrow river should contained be:  
Before this time Christ well declared had,  
By arguing with the Doctors, what was clad  
In scorned semblant. Nature's author he.  
How else cold fountain water changed be  
(The first of his great wonders) into wine?  
Honouring marriage, mystery divine:  
But who hath words sufficient to express,  
The testimonies of his heavenlinesse?  
Words are too weak, seeing that other john,  
The Gospel's Eagle, Christ's beloved One,  
A flures us (nor is his assurance vain)  
That the wide world could not the Tomes contain  
Might written be of miracles he did.  
Yet let us touch some. For, enthronized  
Although he be, right at his father's hand,  
This monument will to good purpose stand.   

§. 5.  
Out of pure nothing all the world was raised,  
And being somewhat God the Son it poised.  
God all power gave to him as he was man.  
Who wonders at it? He who all things can,  
May all things govern well, and so doth he.  
Evangelists (four of you such there be)  
Whom great Ezechiel, poet most divine,  
In figures four expressed. As, Matthew, thine,  
And thine o Marck, Saint Peter's scholar sworn,  
And Luke, and john, on eagle's wings high borne,  
Matthew presented in a winged man's image,  
Marck in a Lions, Luke, CHRIST'S mother's lineage  
Describing, by the winged Ox is known.  
Their harmony a perfect Unison.  
That what justinian of the Septuagint,  
In Rome's laws most authentic instrument,  
What Aristaas or the Fathers writ  
Concerning Scriptures brought in Greek to light,  
At Ptolomees command, t'enrich the store  
Of Alexandria's books, the same much more  
Is certain in the Gospel's rare consent.  
Those first translators of th'old Testament  
Divinely did accord, although apart  
They sat in several cells, that so to Art  
Their harmony could not imputed be.  
By the same Spirit did these four agree,  
Their concord worthiest to be most admired,  
As most undoubted, and alike inspired,  
Not in one place, as were those seventy two,  
Nor at one time, and what they had to do  
Was not derivative, but original.  
Upon this Quadrate evangelical,  
This rocky Basis, truth her tower doth build,  
Which, spite of weather, still hath stronger held.  
Himself writ nothing, nothing did commit,  
Or did omit, which the most captious wit  
Can charge for sin, or could be better done.  
Enough, enough: this shows he was God's son.  
Majesty made him others pens to use,  
And Deity his spirit to infuse.   

§. 5.  
MOst wondrous this, that he should be so poor,  
As not to have or couch, or homely bower  
In which to rest his venerable head,  
Propriety by him unpractised.  
Such as are down in means do feel this state  
Most difficult of all to elevate,  
And that a weight of wonder lies therein.  
O whither yet from hence did he not win?  
Nothing to have, and yet all things to sway?  
Apostles twelve, Disciples do obey  
Thrice two times twelve to his magistral will.  
These he did cloth, these he with food did fill  
Out of his doctrines force. For Lordships he,  
And farms had none, though his the whole earth be,  
With whatsoever creatures are therein.  
Th' Oeconomie of Hierarchy seen.  
They begged not, they lacked nothing, nor took care  
For morrows, a felicity most rare.  
He Primate among his, and worthiest, was,  
Providing that no day should overpass  
To be repent, as in wants dis-spent.  
What of the Author of the firmament  
Durst men hope less? The blind, the deaf, the lame,  
The dumb, sick, dead, who to their senses came  
Through his immediate gift were infinite.  
He grew authentic in the people's sight.  
Angels who had been changed from white to black,  
From fair to fowl, from such as no bliss lack  
To such as all bliss want, and others make  
To lack alike, he did so thoroughly shake,  
That among swine they gladly harbour sought,  
Nor could obtaives, till leave of him was got.  
Thus was the Devil trampled under foot,  
As God had promised, when in nature's root  
Man blasted was by his infernal guile.   

§. 6.  
FRom hence let me convert my mounting style  
To the last act of his most wondrous life.  
His sermons we omit, in Gospel rife,  
Rife, and exact, as the rain penned down  
By God, who spoke them. And in all the crown  
Of auditors, who did not rise admiring?  
Or who doth read his words, and more desiring,  
And thinking more from roading doth not rise?  
Witness those daily swelling Libraries  
Grown out of comments on his sermons made;  
Into whose depths no mortal wit can wade,  
Nor line can sound th'abysses of his lore.  
We often know the less by knowing more,  
Abyss begets abyss, mystery mystery,  
All schools are blanckt, all eloquence, all history.  
Nor lies this hardness in th'evangelists,  
Who weave their text with most transparent twists,  
And on the precious groundwork cause t'appear  
The images of acts so perfect clear,  
And with proportion; so exact, and true,  
As make no dainty of an open view,  
Nor doth the Greek with dialects vex the sense,  
As th'Hebrew with their words equivalence  
To sundry uses; th' holy phrase is fit,  
Aswell for loftiest, as for lowest wit,  
And, as much as the largest tongue can be,  
To all intents of full capacity:  
Nor stints the marvel here. For, who so dull  
That somewhat not conceives? and who so full,  
Whose stores may not increase ten thousand fold?  
God's wisdom in it doth the wonder hold.  
Abstract from miracles, for weak ones granted  
(Who wholly build on them are often scanted)  
His parables, his sentences, his speeches,  
Are altogether such, as no mind reaches  
The fullness of their Anagogicke sense.  
Pole is from pole not so far distant hence  
As Fathers, Doctors, Counsels are far short,  
Not of the truth, but of th'entire purport.  
Yet is it written, and that writ is right,  
That in his light we faithful should see light,  
And from one clearness passing to another,  
Last times should open what the first did smother.  
O, had we been so happy from on high,  
As to have felt the force, and energy,  
And most victorious utterance of Christ's words,  
Did Scripture, as it substances affords,  
The postures of his action show to us,  
And gestures grace, which th'artificious  
Are so much in, o had we been so blest,  
Rapture could only serve to speak the rest.  
Enough to constitute a proof past nay,  
That he was God who so could do, and say.  
Therefore adore we thee, o Saviour sweet,  
In whom the lines of all perfections meet.   

§. 7.  
Divine Eschêquer, Treasûrie divine,  
Where God our God doth all the wealth enshrine  
Of SAPIENCE, and of SCIENCE, gifts of his,  
Out of that treasures most immense abyss,  
Whereof small pieces, scattered here and there  
In human nature, did the heathens rear  
To all the splendour which their writings boast,  
(Properly ours, theirs but usurped at most)  
O cast dear God into my mind, and sense,  
Some heavenly sterling, some spiritual pence;  
Shower down in donative thy missill bounties,  
In honour of thy Son, while I dismount ease,  
To mount his name, out of all hands to strike  
Well worded madness, which the times best like.  
Cares from my head; drive weariness from my hands,  
Turn scruples into spurs, the Syrts, and sands  
Of perturbations, to firm grounds of sense,  
Which Romants more do love then eloquence.   

§. 8.  
MOses God's acts did sing, and David too.  
David, and Moses would have much to do,  
Were they his fullest praise to undertake,  
For, what a fame doth sacred Moses make,  
By having brought the Israelites past fear,  
When th' Erythraean seas disparted were,  
Like walls on either side to let them pass,  
Closing again as Pharaoh held on chase,  
Hoping to charge, with chariots armed for fight,  
The trembling sons of Abraham in their flight?  
What pomp of style? what ornaments of phrase  
Use not Gods Prophets when this act they praise?  
Again, whose pen extols not Sinais thunder?  
The Deserts Manna? and, what else was wonder,  
In that great Captains march to hoped rest?  
Which God had promised in country blest.  
Lastly, what wants t'express the glorious state  
Of salomon's temple? Scriptures do abate  
All pomp, all greatness, when compared to it.  
The ancient marvels even to one do fit  
Our master's person, office, and renown.  
No miracle worth naming but his own.  
For, how far substance shadows doth excel,  
Things done their figures set in parallel,  
So far the sacred kernel of CHRIST'S deeds  
The gorgeous husk of those great types exceeds.   

§. 9  
HEre challenge I all Heathen wits, and Worthies,  
All conquerors, and noble pens which for these  
Have conjured Helicon, called Apollo down,  
By monuments t'eternize that renown,  
Which they their patrons had by brave deeds gained,  
Their Tripods, Sibylls, and their wonders feigned,  
To piece with falsehood out their God's defect:  
Here challenge I (let whose will them protect)  
Their joves, their Marses, and their Mercuries,  
Their Dij Penates, and Indigetes,  
Or (who were more in worth, though less in fame)  
Their Paul's, their Scipio's, and what gallant name  
Th' Arsacid's line, the race of Ptolomees,  
The Caesars vaunted, or, if out of these,  
Proud Paganism had ought more admirable,  
Great Alexander, trajan incomparable  
(A duanced by wits vanity to the state  
Of Demi-gods) the life t'equiparate,  
And words, and works of Moses wondrous man,  
Who marvels acted in the Land of Cham,  
And terrible things in rosy-coloured seas,  
Who was true Trismegist, and not Hermes,  
Priest, Prophet, Prince, o very Trismegist,  
Truly most great. Enter who will the List,  
I challenge all the heathen, sure to win.  
And to this combat let come also in  
Their Mages, Brathmanns, Areopagites,  
Their Solons, their philosophies, and rites:  
Let China her Confutius also bring,  
Her realms Lawmaker, and doth seem a thing  
More worthy admiration then what either  
Chaldie, or Egypt, Greece, put all together,  
Can show for an effect of heathen wit,  
The Academic, the most learned Stagyrit;  
Bring Simon Magus, and th'imposterous mate  
Borne at Tyana, whom fond Philostrate  
Blasphemoufly durst unto CHRIST compare,  
jannes', and Mambres, and who famous are  
For Lady witches, Circe, and that crew;  
Pound all into one dose, yea let hell spew  
More black Ingredients, to obtain the prize  
By counterfeits, and mists, to blind the eyes;  
Let th'instances be fabulous, or true,  
God's servant far excels, and doth subdue  
Seem with substance, moral with divine.  
Nor is this an hyperbole of mine.  
All heathen greatness put into one act  
Cannot be made so great, nor so exact,  
As that by which our Moses Israel freed,  
His knowledge being equal to his deed:  
And all the heathen learn, Laws, and Arts  
Together put, come far beneath his parts.  
Not that the Gentiles natures were not rare,  
Their acts not great, their worths not singular,  
Their speech not exquisite, their thoughts not high,  
Their studies not most noble: to deny  
These famous truths were abject, poor, and base,  
Yea more (o Christiâns) to our just disgrace,  
We cannot but confess, that they out went,  
And far outwent, most of our excellent,  
Through our default, whose sloth betrays our powers.  
And would to God that in these days of ours,  
Their justice, candour, valour, temperance,  
And other virtues which did so advance  
Their names, and countries under nature's Law,  
Can now more like them into practice draw:  
They are confessed to be heroic high,  
Glorious, and what not? and the Deity  
Was in their persons prettily resembled.  
But at the voice of Moses nations trembled.  
The plagues of Egypt want a parallel  
Even in their fables. For what one hears tell  
(Read all the fictions which their Fasti hold,  
Their poems, and their Annals) one so bold,  
And blest withal, who single, ever durst  
Enter a Tyrant's Court, and he at worst,  
Disposed to all injustice, tort, and wrong,  
To free six hundred thousand, captive long  
(As long as here five hundred years could make)  
And force him in the end conditions take,  
Not such as Majesty would yield unto,  
But such as Moses did compel to do?  
Moses in all th' Egyptian learnings taught,  
What he would work prerogatively wrought,  
Not with base prayers, or with rude force of hand,  
But with a force which men could not withstand.  
Withstand they did, but did withstand in vain.  
janues, and Mambres who did then sustain  
The persons of the wisemen, and the wit  
Of all the heathen (for no Mages yet,  
Or them before, had more prestigious skill,  
More charms, more spirits, or could more fulfil)  
And in their persons, Moses did confound  
All the world's Arts, all which this globous Mound  
Of sea, and earth hath in it great, or rare,  
Set against God, by whom, and whose they are.  
Nor do I wonder that it should be so,  
Nor is it wonderful. For we must know,  
That the first heathen had from us their lights.  
By Abraham the Mesopotamites,  
And Sages of Chalda● knew the sky,  
The rules, and doctrines of Astronomy;  
And Iacoh, and the patriarchs (abraham's seed)  
To Egypt brought the plant, which there a weed  
Through superstition, and through fraud became:  
The plant of Science ground of joseph's fame,  
joseph the father of Onerocrites,  
jacob of sacred lore, and sacred rites,  
And nature's secrets (which depraved in time,  
Filled Mizraim with more monsters than Nile's slime  
Through Phoebus' beams is said to have engendered)  
All which to Greece by Plato Egypt tendered.  
Plato confesseth it, where he brings in  
The Priest of Saim, plainly telling him,  
That they, the Greeks', were babes, and nothing knew,  
No, nor that Priest, though what he said was true  
Of Greeks' antiquities, which as Greece did want,  
So that Priest bragged, making an idle vaunt  
Of Acts, of ages, and th' Atlantic Isle,  
To glorify his Memphis, and his Nile.  
For that no nation this day under sky,  
Nor ever could show such antiquity,  
As Moses hath delivered of the jews.  
And in this faith be confident my Muse.  
Nor had the heathen only thus the seed,  
And roots of knowledge, but even skill to read.  
Letters the invention of the Hebrews were,  
Not theirs who dwelled at Sidon, and at tire,  
Two cities of Phoenicia most renowned,  
Whose colonies replenished Carthage ground.  
Though Europe at the second hand might have  
Letters from thence, which jews to them first gave.  
For th'hebrew's letters had before the flood.  
How prove we that? The proof we have is good.  
jubal, when th'earth her first fruit yet did bear,  
Nor had, or hills, or Isles, which after were,  
So some conceive) as waters overswayed,  
And an unevenness in the even globe made,  
jubal (as most authentic rolls declare)  
jubal contrived how to tune the aër,  
Apt notes inventing, and to them invents  
The solemn harp, and other instruments.  
Which, without letters, how could men devise?  
Letters the stays of notes, and harmonies.  
So idle those conceits th'old heathen tell,  
How the first gittarn was a Tortoise-shell,  
Whose sinews dried, and touched did yield a sound,  
Or Cyclops hammers to be musics ground.  
Again, before the flowed, that Henoch spoke  
Charactered was. Tertullian proof doth take  
Out of that Author, as Canonical,  
And him defendeth. So of right should all.  
For Jude th'Apostle henoch's book doth cite.  
And books were not till learned Clerks could write.  
Of doomsday Henoch prophesied before,  
heavens cataracts had drowned the earth's shore.  
Conceit so impious no man entertains,  
As if the Bible were of human brains,  
The politic, or euphantasticke birth,  
There can be no such prodigy on earth.  
Nor is there Atheist, neither can there be,  
Swear it who will, death never shall it see.  
Therefore no need to busy me to prove  
That in the which 'tis damned lest doubt to move.  
For who Gods Church contemn, yet by the shine  
Of the works selves must yield the works divine:  
Yea, they seem fallen from charity too much,  
Who can believe there can be any such.  
For though in heart the fool said as he said,  
And as a bruit would feign it so have had,  
Yet David notes it only for a thought,  
And not a Thesis.  
Thus letters are the world's debt to the jews.  
Which Moses most excelled in, best did use.  
His Pontateuchus, or five Tomes divine,  
Antiquities treasures are, and learning's shrine.  
Tribonian therefore wronged Instinian much,  
Heathens wronged Christians, calling Homer's such.  
And, should we grant that Moses did not pass  
(Though far he did) what ever glorious was,  
Learned, and great in all the world beside,  
Yet, whatsoever was the cause of pride,  
Of gloriation, or of largest fame  
Among the noblest Heathens, all the same  
Christians have right to, not as Israel's Tribes  
To Egypt's jewels (their departures bribes)  
But because God was Nature's Lord, and she  
Their Goddess, but ourselves God's children be,  
They are but bastards, or, as hirelings, base,  
To Moses they, Moses to Christ gives place.  
Moses the Hebrews through red seas did guide;  
Christ through hell-fires: Moses dampt Pharaohs pride;  
Christ Lucifers; Moses did Manna give;  
Christ th' Eucharist, which makes us ever live:  
Moses led Iewes but unto Palestine,  
Himself not entering; Christ to land divine,  
Himself first entering, did conduct his flock,  
salomon's Temple, whose brave worths did mock  
All the world's wonders, a poor semblant was  
Of that jerusalem, to which they pass  
Who through the red seas of CHRIST'S blood do go,  
Or through their own, as Martyrs great, or so.  
JERUSALEM, in her most happy days  
Compared with that City, whose heavens rays  
Th' Apocalyps describeth was but base,  
A petty village, void of power, or grace:  
Silver was as street-stones in salomon's time;  
But in Christ's city precious stones the clime  
Do pave throughout, and deck the glittering gates.  
More odds between their persons then their states.   

§. 10.  
MOst wonderfu'l was that which doth remain,  
Who might have reared to himself a reign,  
A Monarchy, such as th'Assyrian never,  
Nor Medes, nor Persians, Greeks', nor Rome had ever,  
Fled from the people would not be a King,  
Because he infinitely was a greater thing;  
Fled from the people, neither would command  
But as a God, maker of sea, and land,  
Because his errand was to bear heavens wrath,  
Which God Almighty to all sinners hath,  
And pay the utmost farthing of man's debt.  
He who is own death with one word could let,  
And could, as God's Word, have refused to be  
This wtetched thing called mortal man, even he  
Contented was to fall into foes power,  
Suffering himself, during the dismal hour,  
To be, in body, his own vassals thrall,  
To Herod's palace tossed from Pilat's hall,  
And hurried to and fro, from bad to worse,  
Annas and Carphas both within God's curse.   

§. 11.  
ANd why? my Gôd, and why, Redeemer dear,  
Didst thou submit thyself to such things here?  
O, and alas, what was there in vile man,  
Which should invite thee to endure such pain?  
Was all the world of creatures so much worth,  
As that thou therefore shouldst a man come forth?  
Flow ye my teâres, sighs open break my breast,  
O sorrows! o let others tell the rest!  
Verily, Gôd, all that this frame hath fair,  
All it hath rich, all that the earth, or aer,  
Water, or fire, are bubbles in respect.  
Do not, ah do not thine own self neglect,  
Go back to heaven, let us to hell sink rather,  
Then thou endure thus much. But God, our Father,  
Would have it so. And could there be, in God,  
So great regard of us? Let any rod,  
Let and plague afflict old Adam's seed,  
Rather than Christ. But God hath it decreed.  
What God hath once decreed no power can bar.  
But, is it possible that men so far  
Should fall from grace, as to reduce them home,  
Thou must from heavens height like a stranger come,  
And be held prisiner, buffeted, abused,  
Scorned, spit upon, scourged, and with cudgels bruised?  
From Gabatha be shown, and Barrabas  
(Thou to the cross called upon) let pass?  
O is it possible that this should be,  
And thou God's Son? or (which more woundeth thee)  
That, after all this, man should live ingrate?  
'Tis possible. Ah, what can elevate  
The groveling souls of mortals? what can rear  
Their downcast minds? Thou didst vouchsafe to bear,  
And we thee bless for bearing. Mên, aspire,  
Your centre is not earth, but some thing higher.  
To make us free thyself becamest thus bound.  
To make us children, heirs of better ground  
Than Canaan, or Fdens' self had any,  
Thou lay'dst aside thy robes, and glories many,  
Thy crown of stars, sceptre of diamonds bright,  
Thy chair of state, thy chambers floor'd with light,  
Thy galleries of saphyr, gardens green,  
Adorned with musive works, and flowrets sneene,  
Through which pure crystal flows, on whose fresh banks,  
Angels sing carcls, and immortal thanks,  
And all the solaces which heavens afford,  
To be a servant, and a worm abhorred.   

§. 12.  
Muse, time will come when I shall celebrate  
The residue of his great acts, and state,  
And most of all that love, whose golden shafts,  
Wounded him so, that despite of all the crafts,  
And policies, and stratagems of hell  
To hinder it, did work so wondrous well,  
As plainly vanquished with his Spouses eyes,  
He came among us in that base disguise,  
And poor and friendless founded such a might,  
As conquers all the world, and doth by right  
Break Realms of enemies as towers of glass.  
This miracle all miracles doth pass.  
Meanwhile my Decasyllabons rest in peace,  
The way to hold out is a while to cease.    

MELOS. VI To the noble young Gentlemen of Great BRITAIN.  

COme away, Deâre, come away,  
Let not light songs make you stay.  
Noble soûles, leave, leave at large,  
What will one day come in charge,  
Time ill spent, and good hours squandered,  
While your thoughts have sweetly wandered,  
In the dreams of elves, and fairies,  
After beauty which but aër is,  
Losing God, and selves the while.  
Glorious wits, what doth beguile,  
What so sowly you bewitches,  
With the shows of worth, and riches,  
Lovely shapes, and forms of pleasure,  
Strongly fancied as if treasure,  
That you thus leave Zion quite,  
Where true Muses, day, and night,  
Honour beauties fading never,  
And at Helicon persever?  
Come away, Deâte, come away,  
Let not light songs make you stay.  
Minds divine, and Spirits haughty,  
Hear, behold, my Muse hath taught ye,  
Hippocren to be but muddy.  
Cedron's quick brook once made ruddy,  
By our saviours sacred wounds,  
Waters hath which have no grounds,  
dregs that settle in the bottom,  
Aër not troubled with an Atom,  
Heavenly wholesome to it hath,  
As not Buxton, Flint, or Bath.  
Such a Lady, such a beauty,  
Queen of Muses there to suit ye,  
Each with loves, and each with Graces,  
As no forests, woods, or Chases,  
Where rank satires, lewd Fawns wanton,  
Into all Saints turning Pantheon.  
Come away, Dear, come away,  
Let not light songs make you stay.   
DEO GRATIAS.  
SOLI DEO HONOR ET GLORIA,  
AMEN.   

THE PRISONERS O.  
O CLAVIS DAVID, ET SCAEPTRUM DOMUS ISRAEL.  

The Prisoners O.  
THe key of the abyss under which the prince of hell was shut, was (saith the Apocalyps) in the custody of an holy Angel his jailor: but the key, which did first open the kingdom of heaven to all believers, was in thy custody, o thou Son of DAVID, being form out of that sacrificing iron, with which thy immaculate flesh was in five places pierced. Thy victorious agony was the Potarrh which blew up the brazen doors of hell. Nay, thou thyself art the key as thou art the door, and the way. Open thy gates, o my foûle, that the King of glory may come in Who is the King of glory? o who? It is he without whose key all graces are locked up in thee, as wares without use, & without whom the gates of heaven in self are for ever shut against thee.  
A mystery, a very great mystery is in this Apostrophe.   

O KEY OF DAVID, AND SCEPTRE OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL:  
This is the mystery, that the keys are herein joined with the sceptre of the house of Israel. For who hath not heard that there appeared, to Great Constantine, our Lord's name in Greek cipher? The capital letter whereof, P, passing perpendicularly through the midst of the capital letter, X, a figure was produced representative of the cross in a part, and significative of the crucified in the total, as thus:  
And what was this else but an Hiereglyphicke of the keys, and sceptre conjoined? These characters are capable of such a position, and, as they are capable, so certainly is it their proper also. The place of Roh, in that celestial proportion in Brachigraphie, is the place of the Sceptre, and the place of the Keys is the place of Chi: And, let them be so configured, trust to me never, if the mystery be as not authentic, as superlatively important.  
The keys of his priesthood do lock, and unlock heaven, and his Sceptre, passing through them, protects what it upholds, and governs aswell above, as here. It is a rod of many names. It is a rod of direction, it is a rod of correction, it is a rod of power, and the only triple mace by which heaven, earth, and hell are awed, and regulated. So that in respect of those two chief authorities, preist-hood, and regality, meeting in the person of our Saviour, King of Kings, and Prince of Priests we may most aptly change this of Virgil, 
Rex Anius, rex idem hominum, Phaebique sacerdos,   
Into this Monostichon, full of most venerable truth,  
Rex CHISTUS, reu idem hominum, Dominique sacerdos.  
But I had much rather hear this mysteries reason in the words of the most learned Doctor of the Latin Church, by occasion of this saying of CHRIST, in Matthew: Data est mihi omnis potestas in caelo, & in terra. Power was given to him (saith S. Hierome) who but a little while before was cruciside, who was buried in a tomb, who had lain dead, who afterward rose again. And power was given to him in heaven, and in earth, that he who before did reign in heaven, might reign also in the earth by the belief of the faithful.  
The true proprietary, & owner of two such ensigns of Sovereignty, and Sanctimony, as the keys, and sceptre, is more worthy than that all the Hierarchies can sufciently praise; is more worthy, then that the heavens, the most beauteous of visible creatures, should be worthy enough to be his mansion; is, to conclude, more worthy than that his dwelling should any where be worthy of him, but only within himself. Above the greatness of his Majesty is the sweetness of his clemency. Humbly confident in that, I therefore say: Let thy golden keys, o CHRIST, unlock thy treasures of spirit, and grace, and out of them store my soul with furnitures, for entertainment of so divine a Visitant, and let thy golden Sceptre brandish itself by thy hand overall my faculties, and drive from thence, and from about, all perturbations, and deformities, that Memory, Reason, Imagination, set at liberty, may obey to the purest part of my mind, and so concur to the receipt and hospitage of mine incarnate God.  
But o, my dearest soûls, how captive, and how caitiff am I, who doubly am in prison? Behôld, material walls, and locks, and bolts about me, and other iovisible within me. The canopy which shrouds me is not jonas his Gourd, but the shadows of death and darkness. Come, o come the rather holy Patrôn, enfranchize thy slave from the ties, and shackles of vanity, and then is captivity the caitiff. For freedom is not impeached by prison, but by sin, because nothing can make any man guilty but his conscience. I feel the fervour, and strength of meditation decay within me. The breath of frailty is short in the race of things divine. The house of a prison is as the house of a prisoner, solitary for comfort, if not for company. Grace is not invited by affectations, but by sincere affections, and them, Lord CHRJST, thyself canst only give. To ourselves we cannot make them. Thou bringest thy furniture with thee, and thy peace. It is enough for oranment and enfreement, if thou afford thy presence. Thou single dost superabound to all. What thine ESAY prophesied, thou holy, and true hast fulfilled. Upon thy shoulders the key of David was couched. For, saith Scripture, in the person of God the father:  Dabo CLAVEM david super humerum eius. 
A mighty key and a weighty, which should need thy back to bear it Thy Cross was that key, which charged on thy shoulders discharged all the world of burden. I second mine admiration with petition. I admire thy Majesty, implore thy mercy. Bound, and in darkness, & in the darkness of death. There is my state's description. Come, o Lord JESV, come, and I am as I would, and should be. And that is the work of thy favour.    

MELOS. VII. Upon this verse in David's Psalms.  
Redimeme Domine à CALUMNIIS hominum ut custodiam mandata tua.  

COme, let us sing, that God may have the glory,  
Some noble act; and let mine auditory  
Bee of the best: my Lyra now is strung,  
And English, which I sing in, is a tongue.  
The victory Saint Michael did obtain  
Against the Dragon in the open plain,  
And moving champain of the triple aër,  
As brave a subject as high heavens are fair.  
I see those captains, and their armies try  
The quarrel in all regions of the sky;  
I see thick mists, winds, whirlwinds, drizzling dew,  
Cold meteors next above, and how fires flew,  
And all the state of those parts troubled quite:  
Was never seen so great and strange a fight.  
And whither Decasyllabons will you go?  
Great was the combat, great the overthrow  
Which our Saint George did to this Dragon give,  
Whose fame in Spensers Red-cross Knight doth live:  
Thither repair who love descriptions life,  
There hangs the table of that noble strife.  
The spirit, and the sense of things our care is.  
Wisdom is Queen, who fareth not with Faëries.  
Th' archangels battle is a truth divine,  
And that brave picture which Great Constantine,  
Caused to be limned over his palace-gate,  
And which Eusebius so doth celebrate  
Had secret reason. There that Prince doth tread,  
Under his feet, a Dragon prostrated,  
Not upon ground but upon surging sea,  
Salvations ensign for a canopy.  
Bring under me, sweet Gôd, that Dragon's head,  
Which Doeg, and his likes so long have fed,  
Against mine honour, and mine innocence,  
With worlds of lies through madness and offence:  
O free me once from wrongs, once lift me high  
Above the jaws and reach of Calumny,  
Whose voice barks louder than all Seylla's dogs,  
And breath is fouler than are all the fogs  
Of Seygian fen, that in a clear renown  
My soul may mount with joy to virtues crown,  
Nor hide my praise for better were I die,  
Then that my glory in the dust should lie.    

MELOS. VIII. Of solid WISDOM.  

BEware, who Wisdoms children strive to be,  
Of titulary Wisdom. That's not she  
Can make you happy, nor whose caskets hold  
That sovereign good you seek, more worth than gold.  
Search not for that rich medicine of the mind,  
That true Philosopher's stone, which they who find,  
And rightly use are forthwith cured thereby  
From earthly thoughts, and taught Entelechy,  
Among th'old Pagans, Saracens, or jews,  
And for this cause all Sectaries refuse.  
Wisdom dwells not in souls perversely blind,  
She hates the earthly, loves the heavenly mind.    

MELOS. IX. Of conceiptfull WISDOM.  

HOrace, whose poems in all praise exceed,  
Admire not but for wit, which he indeed  
Hath excellent, but his main doctrine shun.  
Felicity is lost, and thou undone,  
If that felicity, which he propounds,  
To please the senses, be among the grounds,  
And reasons of thy way in this high Quest.  
Yet hath that Master such rare points expressed,  
As their chief oracles did never reach.  
But other lines destroy what they do teach.  
Who better speaks for temperance? or who  
For modesty? But when we lay hereto  
His bestialities of words, and deeds,  
The contradiction such a judgement breeds:  
Horace well shows that moral schools he knew,  
But in his life did other rules pursue.  
Spiritual banquets, dalliances divine,  
Happy excesses, sweets of heavenly wine,  
And all good wantonness of bliss all state,  
Poor man he knew not, and now knows too late,  
Nor do I herein from his wit detract,  
Which was a prime one, and aswell compact  
As Rome had any, great, polite, or brave:  
And now we of his manners too much have.  
But as the laws of charity do bind,  
Service to England, office to the mind,  
Which I so feign would fair to God maintain,  
And towards man, I needs must be thus plain,  
As to give warning, lest while wit we love,  
We do with all Voluptuaries prove.  
Affect not wit too much, nor fame for wit.  
Have somewhat solid, fancy is but flit.  
And they who nourish fine conceits too long,  
Their reason greatly, and their honour wrong.  
For while in them the world expects the man,  
They still are babes, and nothing noble can,  
Nor dare to can, in so strong chains the mind  
Those sweet enchantments of false glory bind.  
Perpetual motion upward is the thing,  
Which doth to Wisdom, and true greatness bring.  
To flag in regions low, and rest in sense,  
As Horace doth, is dangerous diffluence.  
Beware of Horace, and his likes, the more  
Their Art, and wit are great, and GOD adore.    

MELOS. X. COSMOPOEA. The Creation of the world: In the Majesty of Decad-stanza's, or Stanza's of ten lines.  

I.  
TH' Immutable, who in Almighty mind  
Conceived had the Arthetype divine,  
From matter base the nobler parts refined,  
Adorning it with many a golden sign,  
And as his residence did bid it shire,  
Which in th' abysles hidden were before,  
As veins of metal in the deepest mine,  
And wrapped in unpurified over,  
The dross whereof he cast not out of sight,  
But on the centre in a globe it pight.   

II.  
Four sundry suits then to the ground he gave.  
One fair embroidered with flowers in green,  
Richly drawn out with many a tinsel wave,  
And many a pearl, which on the same is seen,  
When early tears bestrow the earth with dew,  
Not yet exhaled by the thirsty Sun:  
Another decked with fruits of druerse hue,  
As apples which as yet no harm had done,  
Ripe ears of corn, grapes sowln with store of blood.  
Nuts armed with shells, and pina's hard as wood.   

III.  
The third nor blooms, nor blossoms dignifide,  
(Nature's true gems, most pleasing to the eye,  
For other gems the inward earth did hide,  
Reserving them for further scrutiny)  
Cherries the place of rubies did supply,  
And violets for amethysts were ta'en,  
No gold but that which glittered in the sky,  
Nothing in all things being yet profane:  
And finally, he chrystaled with ice,  
The meanest vesture by divine advice.   

iv  
Sea, the earth's sister, and unstable twin,  
The aër their brother, and ethereal fire  
(Which first the rites of marriage did begin,  
Loving each other with a love entire,  
No cause be fallen to lessen their desire)  
Their Father did empeople diversely.  
For creatures finned with wings did up aspire,  
Without controlment swimming through the sky;  
Fish winged with fins inhabited the deep,  
And herds of beasts upon firm land did keep.   

V  
Lords over them he also did ordain.  
As among beasts the Lion Prince of all,  
The Dolphin over sin the Sovereign,  
And among birds the Eagle Principal.  
He Lord, and Lion, and the King of all,  
Created Peers likewise in every kind.  
As the huge Elephant, the Camel tall,  
Who loyally unto their Lord resigned,  
As birds to th'Eagle, all things unto man,  
Aswell the Lion, as Leviathan.   

VI  
Nor did God leave the better parts unfraught,  
Defrauding heaven of form's inhabitant.  
For from the radiant plenty of his thought.  
His everlasting WORD co-operant,  
Armies of shining Angels forth he brought,  
Transparent spirits clecrer than the light.  
So Cherubin, so Scraphim were wrought:  
The essences which never lost his sight.  
Thus heaven was builded, thus the earth was decked,  
By mere intention of the Architect.    

MELOS. XI. Of the Situation of Great BRITAIN.  

I.  
ANother world, another continent;  
About the same so many Isles do swarm,  
Itself so great, and of so large content,  
CAESAR, who gave thereto the first alarm,  
Esteemed it, cut from Europa so.  
Some of which Isles embuttresse it before,  
Other on either side themselves do show,  
Like to the Sporades on Grecian shore,  
The Orcads, and the scattered Aebudeas',  
He thrust behind into the Scottish seas.    

MELOS. XII.  

ANathema to irreligious minds,  
To black deserts;  
Anathema to all prestigious signs,  
And all false parts;  
Anathema to all immodest lines;  
Anathema Maranatha to hearts,  
Who to our youth's corruption bend their Arts.   

The fair white tower of gracious chastity,  
maids sovereign praise,  
And wives most duty, by what battery,  
By what smooth ways,  
Is it not everted? Mûse the verses fly,  
And fly the prose where such lewd baits do lurk,  
The poison unawares doth ruin work.   

Better it were that Printers Art should die,  
Music be dumb,  
Better that impudence should dearly buy,  
In fight to come,  
And all the praise of wit in dust should lie,  
English take rust, and Britain barbarous be,  
Rather than shameless. Heaven loves chastity.   

Greece had her Sapph, and her spruce old wag,  
Anacreon;  
Rome her Caetullus, and the like some brag,  
Of Albion.  
And would to God that herein to seem lagg,  
Were not a cause of absurd shame to many,  
Court who court list, be not wits Ape to any.   

Without that noble Sidney here I tax,  
Or Spensers' pomp:  
And gladly granting johnson nothing lacks  
Of Phoebus' stamp.  
For never wits were made of finer wax,  
Then England hath to vaunt of in these times,  
But them I tax whose reason's lost in times.   

Despair of such as in some books delight,  
That shall be nameless,  
Fathêrs keep children from contagious sight  
Of authors shameless,  
For they are charms, and nature soften quite:  
And such as use them will too soon find true,  
That they are blest who such books never knew.   

Anathemaes of other kinds to rear,  
joys God and Man;  
Anathema another sense may bear,  
As sacred can;  
Sacred for hallowed, and the same for dire.  
New HELICON for new JERUS ALEM,  
Mine HELICON an holy ANATHEM.   
DEO GRATIAS.   

An excellent old Latin Prayer translated.  
Give to me, Lôrd Gôd, a wakeful heart, which no curious cogitation may draw away: Give me a noble heart which no unworthy affection may draw downward: Give me an invincible heart which no tribulation may break. Give me a free heart which no perverse, nor violent passion may enthrall. Bestow upon me, my Lord God, an understanding knowing thee; a conversation pleasing thee; a perseverance faithfully expecting thee; and a confidence finally embracing thee: with thy pains to be crucified by remorse; to use thy benefits in the way by grace: and lastly to enjoy thy bliss, in heaven, by everlasting glory. Amen.    

 depiction of two angels or cherubs holding a wreath above a table, altar or tomb 
● Sacrum Pictati.  
APOLLINI, suisque HELICONIADIBUS, ultimum Authoris, VALE.  
VOTIS NUNCUPATIS. MUSA damnosas Domino facessens, Et sequi doctus mage profuturas, THESPIIS sacras posui deabus, Saucius artes.  
ARA OFFICII    

BONO PUBLICO.  
IN discharge of that immortal obligation, in which God, and Nature tie me unto England, after I was advised, for my health's sake, to grow very remiss, or rather, for a while, altogether to give over reading, and to solace myself with the Muses, whose apt sweet notes might cure in me the Tarantula's sting of whatsoever distemper in the natural state of my affections: I made it my work to devise, how I might draw the flourishing wits, and affections of all well-born, wellbred, and well-given young Gentlemen thereof, to see and taste a more dignity and sweetness in holy, and heavenly arguments, then in profane, and sensual. According to which desire I have in theve my poems somewhat endeavoured to come near the old Majesty of the ancient Lyrics for brevity, and to the best examples for piety in all the most famous old authors, who professing Gnomologie, or some other good matter, founded in public benefit, have been held worthy to live in their written monuments (for man kinds sake, and respects of commonweal) to all posterities. So Hesiod for his poem of husbandry, so Theognis and Phocyllides for their moral sentences, so Oppian, for his natural History of fishes, in verse, dedicated to one of the Roman Emperors, and worth to the Author a golden piece for every line, and by decree of Senate (before whom it was rehearsed) whatsoever else his heart desired in the Empire, so Aratus for his poem of the stars, so Dionysius, for the earth's description, among the ancient heathen Greeks', of which Anatus is honoured by S. Paul, in his sermon to the Athenians, before the Areopagites, where, for proof of God's ubiquity, and of man's origination through him, he citeth a part of one of his divine verses, though concealing the name, as contented to have said, sicut & quidam vestrorum Poetarum dixerunt: So, among the Latins, Cato for his moral couplets (if Cato was their author, and not Ausonius) so Virgil's Georgics (the absolutely best, and most complete of all his learned poems) so Columella, so Manilius, & so generally also all ancient Christian Poets, whither Greek, as S. Gregory Nazianzen, and Synesius; or Latin, as Tertullian, S. Cyprian, Prudentius, S. Paulinus, Lactantius, venerable Bede, Inuencus, Arator, Venantius, Falconia Proba (in whose Cento of Virgil's verses applied to Christ, Caiphas his speech, in S. john. expedit vobis ut unus moriatur homo pro populo, is admirably hit upon, by her, in this Hemistichtum. unum pro multis dabitur caput—  
So the Lady Elpis, wife of great Boetius, the Martyr (whose books of Philosophical consolation are extant, with universal applause, and, for the verses in them, are equal to the very best that ever were) and many other of far more authority, as the hymns of S. Ambrose, & S. Gregory the Great, and that most famous Churchhymne, Te Deum laudamas, composed by S. Ambrose, & S. Augustine (as is said) verse after verse, alternatim. All which last, and many other religions persons of both sexes, had no other scope in their make, then to raise the mind by due devotion to the heaven of heavens, where jesus Christ our Lord, doth live & reign for ever. In like sort there is nothing in this jewel of mine, which is either profane, or against any definition of faith, or doctrine of the Orthodox, but, whatsoever is in it, wholly tends to lift the soul aloft to her Creator, and is either (as Masters speak) Pathos, to stir up good affections, or Didaskalikon, to instruct in piety, or in matter of worthy, and honourable learning. The book is very little, yet greater, by almost half, then from the beginning I meant it should have been, as remaining very mindful of that in Marshals Epigramms, 
Sapiùs in libro mem ratur Persius uno,  
Quàm lovis in TOTA Marsus Amazonide.   
As little also as it is, yet if it had not been from out of much charity to mine own nation, and of a true Christian feeling of what I every day see needful among the wits (as they are called) and braveries of this age (so excellently set forth to the very life, by the pen of the most complete Dramatic Poet that ever this Kingdom had, Bentamen johnson, or perhaps ever shall have) I do assure the world in the word of truth, that I should not have busied my brains, in the midst of so many great cares, and troubles of this life, with an exercise so far out of the way of the times, for all honour, & profit, & which myself have for so many years utterly aucided Not for that this part of Music is an exercise unworthy of a good or a wise man: for, after the glorious example of that great Prince, Priest, & blessed Prophet Moses, of Deborah, of samuel's mother Anna, of David, of Solomon, of King Ezechias, of jeremy, of Ezechiel, of Simeon, of the blessed virgin Marie, and of innumerable other the greatest Saints, & friends of God, who used verses & hymnody, no well-assured man in the world will forbear so holy a delight, for fear of censure & prejudice, by reason of any baseness in estimation caused by the baseness of many vulgarrimes, odious to God and man, for impudence and prodigious ignorance.  
Nevertheless, who is he that will unnecessarily fall fowl upon any univeriall prejudice, such as is, by the extreme abuse of good parts, conceived against versisiers in English whereof but very few have right to be saluted Poets) if it be not for the public good, for which the heathen were forward to hazard any thing, according to that of Horace.  Pulchrum, & decorum est pro patria mori? 
A sentence more deserving immortality then all the oracles of his Gods & Goddesses. And whereas some deceived do think, and therefore do abandon them, that Christian arguments are not capable of those ornaments, beauties, graces, and delicacies which paganical, or Epicuraean subjects of poems are, I am verily persuaded, and am in a manner most sure, that it may be made good, that all the Majesty and praises of their poetry are as infinitely short, or may be made so, of that which Christianity, is capable, as the persons, places, and all the Topics, or circumstances of invention, or description are infinitely more, lofty, and great in Christianity, then in Mytholegae. Which though as yet it be in very few particulars (if in any) apparent (for the Triumple of Angels, written in English, was never in print) unless perhaps in the serene Christeis of Hierom Vida, Bishop of Cremona, and certainly is in that most excellent poem De partu virgins (I speak of Latin) written by that noble Neapolitan, Sanazzara (for, how much Posseninus commends Guelfutio his Rosario in Italian, to the honour of the Blessed Virgin (a work of very many years) is not easily credible, and Torquato Tasso his Italian Jerusalem hath as many admirers, as readers, so far forth, that if any vulgar tongue were capable of perfect poetry, or of a perfect poem of state, which Artists call Epich and Heroick, they seem to carry it clear) the reason why this excellency is not more general, is, for that (as I conceive) writers make not an entire employment of their poetry, or are not in love with the pomp, and splendour of magnificent piety, a scrupulous vanive for the most part, or are otherwise methodmongers, without any wisdom, either of worthy free spirits, or of generous breeding.  
Concerning the reading of Poets, hear a Platonical, or a new Eutopian Law, which it was my chance to find in a manuscript platform, as touching a Sodality to be erected for heroic studies, and is: Poetae nulli leguntor nisi Hymnodi, Lyrici, Epici, Tragidi, Satyrici, ijque casti, & ant Graeci, aut Latini. In vulgarthus linguis exarata poematia 〈◊〉 nulla leguntor, nisi veniâ disertis verbis, & in scriptis, prius impetratâ.  
But this Law will not easily find passage if it come to a Committee of the wits, and seemeth too severe for the public, howsoever it may stand with the wisdom of a Collegiall institution. Nevertheless, if the same were received in public, in some proportion, there would happily be the less cause to say to many young Gentlemen, and studious Philotimists of England, my dear and most honoured Countrymen, as S. Augustine writ in an Epistle to his Disciple, Licentius, being one who was enriched with the greatest wit, and otherwise most exquisitely adorned with all the sorts of honourable human knowledges: Si calicem aureum, etc. Hadst thou found a cup of gold upon the ground, thou wouldst give it to the Church of God. But thou hast received of God a spiritually-golden wit, and dost sacrifice therein to thy lusts, and drinkest, instead of healths, thine whole self in it to the Devil.  

Conclusion.  
As therefore a prudent Lapidary, having (as he persuades himself) a paragon-stone, or oriental union pearl, for which he ventured very far, omitted many great bargains, and laid out large quantities of coin, goeth not to find a Chapman for it, into Thames-street, among Carmen and Portars; but to the Princes, and Cheifes of the Land: so myself, in imitation of that wisdom, which is founded even in common sense, having a jewel of another better nature (if at leastwise the estimation of ware riseth out of the consideration of their quality) do shun all incompetent, and incapable judgements, abounding among the lewd, that is to say, the unlearned (for lewd, and learned did in old English make a flat opposition, according to that of salomon's Proverbs, Impius ignorat scientiam) and do seek, and repose all the credit of my pains, among the competent and capable. So therefore to God's Almighty goodness, humbly recommending myself, and these my endeavos, I devise and leave the commodity, whatsoever it be, to my dearest Lady-mother, noble ENGLAND.  
Soli Deo honour, & gloria.   
FINIS.