Eugenius Theodidactus, THE PROPHETICAL TRUMPETER Sounding An alarum to ENGLAND Illustrating The fate of Great Britain, past, present, and to come. Such wonderful things to happen these seven years following, as have not been heard of heretofore.  
A Celestial Vision.  
With a Description of Heaven and heavenly things, Motives to pacify God's threatened wrath: Of a bloody, fiery way of the day of judgement, and of Saints and Angels.  
Sung in a most heavenly Hymn, to the great comfort of all good Christians, by the muses most unworthy, JOHN HEYDON, Gent. Philomat.  
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}.  
Possibile est Satyras non Scribere.  
LONDON, Printed by T. Lock for the Author, and are to be sold by Thomas Blackmore, at the angel in Paul's churchyard, 1655.   

To the truly virtuous and tried learning, beholding no Mountain for Eminence, not supportment for height, Mr. William Lilly  

O give me leave to pull the Curta●n by  
That clouds, thy Worth in such Obscurity,  
Good Seneca stay but a while thy Bleeding  
To accept what I received at thy reading,  
Here I present it in a solemn strain,  
And thus I plucked the Curtain back again.  the same John Heydon.   


Hom. Ill. a.  
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}  
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}.  
I am gravis ille mihi nig●i quam ●mini ditis,  
Ore aliud qui seri, aliud sub poctare colat.  
As vale of death, so do I hate that kind,  
Whose tongue from thought, whose mouth dissents from mind.  The same, I. H.   


To Capt. John Heydon.  
What Ornament might I devise to sit  
The aspiring height of thy admired Spirit,  
Or, what fair Garland worthy is to sit  
On thy blessed brows that compass in all merit?  
Thou shalt not crowned be with cammon bays,  
Because for thee it is a Crown too low;  
Apollo's tree can yield the simple praise,  
It is too dull a Vesture for thy brow,  
But with a wreath of stars shalt thou be crowned,  
Which when thy working temples do sustain,  
Willike the spheres be ever moving round  
After the Royal music of the Brain.  
Thy skill doth equal Phoebus, not thy Birth,  
He to Heaven gives music, thou to Earth,  I. C. Esq  

To the Author, Mr. John Heydon.  
FAin would I speak, but yet my tongue-●ide Muse  
In river's thirst; and when she hath most use  
Of speech, is strucken dumb; she's plenteous poor,  
And knew she less to say, she could say more:  
She doth enjoy, and yet she cannot find  
Beginning too much brightness hath struck her blind.  
I could admire thee John, and though in truth  
The downy characters of thy blooming youth  
Scarce write the man, yet if we measure years  
By virtue, thou a heroical Spirit wilt appear,  
For when most men do fill their greedy Maws  
With comic laughter, and the sweaty plause  
Of vulgar palms, others write wounding Lines,  
And will accuse, though they be worse, the times  
Thou steer'st another course, and spendest thy oil  
In sacred objects, and in holy toil,  
No sinful Eloquence thy verse defames,  
No lustful sports nor Cupidinean flamesses,  
Thy poesy doth neither frown nor smile,  
There's no satiric, nor venereous stile;  
And must these works be hid, and carest thou less  
To give them to the Moths, then to the Press,  
Free them from Darkness, John, that they may be  
A torch to others, and a Crown to thee,  
For ere they shall obscured lie undone  
Like Raphael, I'll usher in Heydon.  M. B. Esq   

To the Right Honourable in his country; Righr Servicible in Ireland; Right Able of himself; his Excellency, the LORD HENRY cromwell-deputy of IRELAND.  
I see the Storm a coming, whether shall I  
Seek Covert in the Mountain, or the Valley?  
Or, else be take me to the silent stream,  
And let the tempest burst and split his splean  
Upon the Earth; so I be safe and savin,  
While I shall ride at anchor in the Haven;  
Alas, the fatal sisterhood (in sport  
Will there betray thee; for within the Port,  
Shipwreck hath disappointed and disgraced,  
The Proverb of long looked for comes at last;  
Then will I launch into the very main  
To see if Neptune's deity will deign  
To fence and fling his Trident on my Head,  
By pewer whereof all storms are scattered;  
Which if he do deny, my comfort it shall be,  
My shipwreck great, Noble men shalt see  
I sink not in a dicch, nor by the shore,  
But die, and lie at Neptune's Palace D●re:  
'tis thou alone that bear'st the Triple Mace,  
Canst in the very speed of all their Chase  
Restrain their pursuit, do but protect it,  
The simple mysterious Nereids of the Prophet,  
Charge Aeolus (as he does honour thee,  
He do not disimbulk his Cheeks at me,  
I have done nothing to offend thy train,  
Stole Amemone as the Poets fain,  
Nor sought to spoil the Sea-gods bed of coral;  
I mean, Heavens Mysteries; for that's the moral,  
If this be so, vouchsafe me thy Protection,  
That I may bring this work unto perfection;  
Then will I sing thy fortune and thy fame,  
And prove that Cromwell's from the Trojans came;  
Show where his Ancestors long since did build  
A seat which hitherto their name have filled:  
Now may that name and honour ne'er expire,  
But in a melting Firmament of fire.  
From cliffords-inn, the 10. of May, 1655. So Prayeth your lordship's most humble Servant JOHN HEYDON.   

To the Reader.  
REader; these Lines which must pass thorough the pikes and swords of censure, are not written to pleasure every man, than I should displease myself and my friend; I write only to give my friends that I promised, call me not one of our now Priest, now Prophet, and then Lawyer, I'll assure you I never fancied a pulpit, never could boast of Entheusiasmes, nor never could attain to such perfection in the Law, although it hath been the most of my study, and now my profession, viz. the practice of an Attorney in the Upper-bench; if you would know who I am, I was born in this sumptious, City, in Green-Arbour London, I lived sometime in Warwick-shire very obscurely, it was my fortune to travel into other countries, first with a Merchant, as Factor, he died, afterwards I was forced to exercise myself in Martial disciplines in Spain, and Turkey, under the Command of Sede-Malamet Booker Knine Alcad at the Siege of Sally, I made my escape, was taken again, yet escaped to Mamorah, than I went to Zant, from thence carrled to S●vel, and then to the spa, and when I came to England I followed the Law, and gave a very ignorant fellow five and thirty pounds to instruct me in that honourable profession he like a dun took my money, and left me as ignorant as when I came to him; it was my good hap to meet with an honest man, and by his instructions I came to be what I am, Reader, I have taken in vacation to publish what may at all times be advantageous to you. A wellwisher to all honest men is,  
J. Heydon   

The Preface.  
YOu wanton Lads that spend your winged time,  
And chant your ears in reading lustful rhyme,  
Who like transformed Actaeon range about  
And beat the Woods to find Diana out;  
Is't this you'd have? then hence here's no content  
For you; my Muse ne'er knew what Venus meant:  
But stay, I may subvert your rude conceit,  
And every Verse may prove a heavenly bait;  
O that ye were such Captives! then you'd be  
Thrice happy: such as these are only free.  
Leave, leave your wanton toys, and let alone  
Apollo sporting at his Helicon:  
Let Vulcan deal with Venus, what's to thee?  
Although she dandle Cupid● on her Knee,  
Be not enchanted with her wanton charms,  
Let her not hug thee in her whorish arms:  
But wisely do (as N●ptune did) in spite  
Of all, spew out the Lady Aphrodite.  
Come, come, fond lad, what wouldst thou behold  
A visage that will make thy V●nus cold,  
If this be all, He g●ve thy eye delight,  
Come see that face that lends the sun his Light:  
A Cae●e i●ll glorious sight I did espy,  
No earthly object for thy wandering eye,  
I saw a face that made the Heavens to shine,  
Oh seek that glorious face that lends thee thine,  
Look and behold that light, which if thou see  
Aright, will make the earth a heaven to thee;  
Come see that glistering face from which arise  
Such glorious beams that dazzles angels eyes:  
What canst have more? but dost thou think that such  
A comely visage will not let thee touch;  
Or dost thou think a Sun that shines so clear  
Will scorn to let a lesser Orb come near,  
No thou mistakest; say, dost thou truly thirst  
For him, I dare avouch he loved the first,  
Be not dismayed, it needs no more dispute,  
Come give that glorious face a kind salute.   

THE prophetical TRUMPETER Sounding an alarum to Britain.  

I Do not wonder, as I erst have done,  
That when the Prophet Jonas should have gone,  
To Nineveh, God's word He disobeyed,  
And would himself to Tharsus have conveyed:  
For, I have now a sense how flesh and blood  
The motions of the Holy Ghost withstood,  
And feel (Methinks) how many a likely doubt  
The Devil and his frailty found him out.   

He was a man, (though he a Prophet were)  
In whom no little weakness did appear:   

And, thus he thought, perchance, what shall I d●  
A strange attempt my heart is urged too:  
And, there is somewhat, earnestly incites  
That I should hasten to the Ninivites,  
And, preach, that if they alter not their ways,  
Their time of standing is but forty days.   

My soul persuadeth God enjoyus me to it:  
And sleep in peace I cannot till I do it:  
But common Reason striveth to restrain  
This Motion, and persuadeth me 'tis vain.  
It saith; I am a sinner, and so frail,  
That many times my best endeavours fail  
To rectify myself. How shall I then  
Be hopeful of reclaiming other men?   

To Israel I have threatened many years'  
God's judgements: yet, no fruit thereof appears  
Although they have some knowledge of the Lord,  
And are within his League, they slight his word:  
what hope then is there, that a heathen Nation  
will prove regardful of my exhortation?  
The stile of Prophet, in this land I carry;  
And such a Calling, here, is ordinary  
But, in a foreign State, what warranty  
Have I, to publish such a prophecy?  
How may the King and people take the same,  
I shall in the open streets defame  
So great a City? and condemn for sin,  
A place wherein I never yet have been.   

If I shall, the Lord commanded me,  
Then, they perhaps will answer, What is he?  
For, they profess him not. Nay, some suspicion  
They may conceive, that I to move sedition  
Amsent among them. Or, if otherwise  
They shall suppose, how can they but despise  
My, person, and my counsel, who shall from  
So far a place, so mere a stranger come,  
That no man knows, or what, or who I am,  
Or, from what country, or, from whom I came?   

Such thought (belike) delayed and foared him so;  
And, so the Spirit urged him to go  
For Niniveh; that not to go, nor stay,  
Could he resolve; but, fled another way.  
From which rebellious course, God fetcheth him back  
With such a vegeance, that he did not lack  
Sufficient proofs, how Reason did betray him,  
And in his calling, causelessly affray him,  
Yea (mark heavens providence) though Jonas went  
Another way, it crossed not God's intent,  
But furthered it. For, doubtless, ere he came  
To Nineveh, the miracle and fame  
Of his Deliverance, was sent before;  
And, made his preaching work on them the more.  
Now, though I do not arrogate, nor dare  
Myself (except in frailttes) to compare  
With blessed Jonas: yet I may behold  
To say, our causes a resemblance hold.  
My heart, and when that moves, as one avers,  
It more prevails than many counsellors.  
My heart (I say) persuaded me e'er while,  
To read a warning Lecture to this I'll.  
And in such manner moved, that to say  
It came from God, methinks, behold I may  
Yet, my own natural frailty, and the world,  
Among my thoughts so many doubtings hurled,  
That every step had rubs. I leveled some  
In my last Canto. Yet, I could not come  
To even ground, till I had overtopped  
Some other Mountains which my passage stopped.   

Beware, said Reason, how thou undertake  
This hazardous adventure, which to make  
Thou hast resolved: for this wise age denies  
That God vouchsafed any prophecies  
Concerning them; or, that the application  
Of aught foretold, pertaineth to this Nation,  
She saith, my constancy is no true sign  
That God first moved this intent of mine;  
Since heretics, and traitors, oft are seen  
As bold in all their causes to have been  
As Martyrs be. And, that for what they do,  
They can pretend the holy Spirit too:  
And she persuades 'tis likely I shall pass  
(At best) for one that much deluded was.   

She says, moreover, that if these times be  
Indeed, so wicked, as they seem to me;  
I shall in stead of moving to repent,  
Nought else but stir their fury, and be rent  
Perhaps in pieces, by their hasty rage,  
For, what's more likely in a wicked age?   

When people in their sins grow hardened once,  
She says I may as well go talk to ●ones,  
As tell them aught. For, they are in the dark;  
And, what they see and hear, they do not mark.   

She urged that the Prophets in old times  
Did speak in vain against the people's crimes;  
And if in them their words begat no faith,  
Much less will such as mine, my reason saith.  
She tells me also that this I'll hath store  
Of Prophets and of Preachers never more:  
She says, that though their calling none neglect,  
Their pains appear to take but small effect:  
And, if such men authorised as they,  
Do cast their words, without success, away;  
In vain my Muse (whose warrant most contemn)  
Doth seek to work more piety in them.   

A thousand things unto the life effect;  
Yea, all and more than any can object,  
(Who shall peruse this Book) my Reason brought  
before me, and objected to my thought,  
And, as a Pilgrim (who occasions hath  
To take some extraordinary path)  
Arrival making at a double way,  
Is doubtful whether to proceed or stay:  
So fared I; I was nigh tired quite,  
Before I could be certain of the right.  
Yea, twixt my doubtings, and all those replies  
Which in my meditations did arise;  
I so amazed grew, I could not know  
Which way thest befitted me to got  
But, at the last, God brought me thorough all  
My doubts and fears; as though the Storm and Whale  
Once Jonas came: That so all they, who are  
Ordained for their good, these lines to hear,  
The more may profit, when they think upon  
What straits I passed, ere this work was done,  
To that intent my frailties I have so  
Insisted on, as in this book I do.  
Yea, I am hopeful al●o, they that read  
These lines of mine (and mark with how much head  
And Christian awfulness, my heart was won  
To censure and reprove as I have done)  
Will plainly see, these Numbers flow not from  
Fantastic rashness; not from envy come.  
Nor spring from faction; neither were begot  
By their distracted zeal, who (knowing not  
What Spirit guides them) often are beguiled  
With shows of truth; and madly have reviled  
Both good and ill: and whose unsavoury rhymes  
Defames men's persons more than check their crimes  
Dishonour Kings; their sacred names blaspheme;  
And having ga●n'd some notions in a dream,  
Or by report (of what they know not well)  
Desire their giddy thoughts abroad to tell:  
In hope to merit; as indeed they do,  
Sometime the pillory and gallows too.   

I trust, I say, these lines will seem no such,  
Or, if they do, truth is, I care not much,  
Because I certain am what pow●r infused  
Those matters whereupon I now have mused,  
And know, that none will these or me condemn,  
But they whose rage and follies I contemn.   

Yet, that they may be sure I never care  
Who censures me, nor what their censures are,  
(When honest things I do) here, somewhat more  
I'll add to what is mentioned before,  
And give thee, Britain, a more perfect sight  
Of thy distempers, and thy sickly plight.   

Yea, thou shalt know, I have not seen alone  
A bodily Coniumption stealing on,  
And wasting of thy Temporalties; but, that  
I also have discovered of late,  
A Lethargy upon thy soul to steal:  
And that as well the Church as commonweal  
Doth need a cure. Oh! do not quite neglect,  
The good of both; but, one at least respect.  
Though Judah's sicknesses unheeded be,  
(Although thy temporal wounds afflict not thee)  
Yet look on Zion: yea, behold and see  
Thy spiritualties how much impaired they be.  
The church's Patrimony is decayed  
And many a one is in her spoils arrayed,  
Those Patrons, as we term them in this age,  
Who of her Dowries have the Patronage,  
Do rob and cheat her, many times of all;  
And their Donations basely set to sail.   

Those Canaanites, whom thou preservest here,  
And by thy laws to be expelled were,  
Are in thy borders now so multiplied,  
That they are thorns and thistles in thy side,  
They are become a Serpent in thy path,  
Which bites unseen; and nigh unhorsed hath  
Some able Riders, On thy Places high  
Thy people doth commit Idolatry,  
And rear strange altars. In my Fields are found  
Those cunning harmless Foxes to abound,  
That spoil thy Vines. And some I have espied,  
Twixt whose opposed tales, are firebrands tied,  
Which wastes thy fruits. Thy Harvest seemeth fair;  
But secret blastings do so much impair  
And blite the Corn; that when it comes to bread,  
Thy Children oft unwholsomly are fed,  
Men use Religion as a stalking-horse  
To catch preferment; yea, sometimes to worse  
And baser uses they employ the same;  
Like that bold harlot, who quite void of shame,  
Did of her vows, and of her Peace-offerings make  
A Ginn, lascivious customers to take.  
Yea, some resembling him, from whom was cast  
One devil, when one sin they have displaced,  
Of which the world took notice, sweep and cleanse  
Themselves (in show) from all their other sins;  
Yet secretly, let Satan repossess,  
And foul them with a sevenfold wickedness.   

An universal dulness will benumb  
Thy senses, if thou do not soon become  
More heedful of thy state, than thou art yet:  
For, every part hath felt an ague-fit.   

Thy Academs, which are the famous places  
In which all pious knowledges and graces  
Should nourished he, and whence thy chief supply  
Of Teachers, come, (as from a Nursery)  
Even those fair Fountains are much tainted grown,  
With doctrine hardly sound, which thence are blown  
Through every quarter. In their Schools are heard  
Vain jigs and janglings, worthless of regard.  
Their very Pulpits, and their Oratories,  
Are Stages, whereupon their own vain glories  
Men often act. Yea, many a vain conceit,  
Is brought instead of arguments of weight:  
And (which is worse) disorder is so rife  
Among them; and the weeds of evil life  
Have so overgrown those Gardens, that (unless  
Good government shall speedily redress  
That spreading mischief) it will over●p  
The plants of Zion, and destroy her crop.   

To be thy shepherds, wolves are stolen in;  
And thou hast those who even by day begin  
To sow their Tares among thy purest Seed;  
And, with mixed Grains thy Lands pollutions breed.  
For hire, and money, prophecies the Prophet:  
The Priest doth preach to make a living of it,  
Even merely for a living; and but few  
Their holy charge for conscience sake pursue,  
Which I by many signs could make apparent,  
But that it is not yet within my Warrant.  
Loqunter Curae leves; little Cures  
Do make men preach whilst poverty endures.  
Ingentes stupent; but, large livings make  
Our Doctors dumb, condemn not my mistake:  
For, though I do the Latin sentence wrong,  
That's true I tell you in the English tongue.   

Our Nation, which of late prophainness hated,  
Is in that sin almost fasionated.  
The Scriptures without reverence are used,  
The holy phrase, in jesting, is abused  
To flour, or praise, or curse, we can apply  
God's holy word, most irreligiously.  
Instead of emblems, moving thoughts divine,  
The filthy pictures of lewd Aretine,  
Are found in many Closets Foolish lies,  
Profane and most lascivious Elegies,  
Are public made Yea, those whom heretofore  
A heathen Emperor did so abhor,  
That he, for them, their wanton Author sent  
To undergo perpetual banishment;  
Even these, we read, and worse than those, by far,  
Allowed pass, and unapproved are.  
Nay, their vain Authors often cherished be,  
At least, they have the favour to go free.  
But, if a graver Mus● reprove their sin,  
Lord, with what a hasty zeal they call it in  
How libellous they make it and how vile,  
Thou know'st; and at that folly thou do it ●mile.   

Full warily the politic Divine,  
(Who should allow it) scanneth every Line  
Before it pass; each phrase he doth suspect;  
Although he findeth nothing to be checked,  
He fears to licence it. And if by chance  
It pass abroad, forthwith doth ignorance  
Mistake or misapply, and false and bad  
Constructions are of good expressions made:  
Yea, they who on the seats of Judgement sit,   

Are oft, most ready to miscensure it.  
I would they were as forward to disgrace  
Those Authors, who have filled every place  
With fruitless volumes For dispersed are  
Even quite throughout this Land every year,  
Even many thousand reams of scurrile toys.  
Songs, rhymes and Ballads, whose vain use destroys  
Or hinders virtuous knowledge, and Devotion,  
And thus they do to further the promotion  
Of our Diana. Yet, Behold, if we  
To publish some few sheets required be,  
Con ai●ing pious Hy●ns, or christian Songs.  
Or aught which to the praise of God belongs:  
We do so fear the hindrance of our gain,  
That like the Ephesian Silver-smith, fain  
A great complaint, as to have enlarged  
A little Book, had grievously o'recharged  
The commonwealth. Whereas if it were weighed  
How much of late this Land is overlaid  
With trivial volumes: or how much they do  
Corrupt our Manners, and Religion too,  
By that abusive matter they contain,  
I should not seem unjustly to complain.  
These times do swarm with Pamphlets, which be far  
More dangerous than mortal poisons are.  
Even in those books, whereby the simple thought  
To find true knowledge, they their bane have caught:  
For, thence, strong heresies (there being hid  
Amid some doubtless truths, a while unspied)  
Steal out among the people, by degrees;  
More mischief working than each Reader sees.  
And, so, to ruin knowledge, that is made  
A instrument; whereby it rising had.  
For (by their lucre, who the church's peace  
Disturb, their private profit to increase)  
Those Doctrines which are unauthorized,  
Are so promiscuously divulged, and spread,  
Among approved Verities, that foam  
Are in those Labyrinths amazed become:  
And such a contradiction is in that  
Which their confused Pamphlets do relate;  
That common Readers know not which to leave,  
Nor, which the Church of Egland doth receive.  
And from this mischief many others flow,  
Which will, in future times, more harmful grow.   

This spins vain controversies to their length;  
By this most heresies receive their strength.  
And what distraction it already makes,  
Our grieved Mother woeful notice takes  
Instead of active knowledge, and her fruit;  
This filleth men with itching o● dispute,  
And empty words; whereby are set abroach  
A thousand quarrels, to the truths raproach.  
The sectaries, the monkeys, and the apes,  
The Cubs and Foxes, which do ma● our Grapes,  
The wolves in sheepskins, and our frantic rabble  
Of worship-mongers, are innumerable.  
And as the Churches quiet they molest,  
So they each other spitefully infest.  
We have some quakers, some that half way go:  
Some Semi-quezills, some wholly so;  
Some Anabaptiss, some who do refuse  
Black-puddings, and good pork, like arrant Jews:  
Some also termed Arminians are among  
Our Priests and people, very lately sprung.  
What most, so call●d, profess, I stand not for;  
And what some say they teach, I do abhor.  
But, what some other, so misnamed, believe,  
Is that where●o best Christians credit give.  
For, as we see the most reformed man,  
By Libertines is termed a Protestan:  
So (by our purblind Formalist) all those  
Who new fantastic crotchets do oppose,  
Begin to be mistermed Coxils now.  
And hence erelong will greater mischiefs grow  
Then most imagine. For, the foolish fear,  
Lest they to be Dattrells may appear,  
Or else be termed quakers, will make  
Great multitudes Religion quite forsake.  
And I am half persuaded this will one  
Of those great schisms or earthquakes, cause which John  
Foretold in his Apocalypse; and they  
Are blessed, who shall not thereby fall away.  
Some Hocasses and some Famalists have we;  
And some, that no man can tell what they be;  
Nor they themselves, Some seem so wondrous pure  
They no man's conversations can endure,  
Unless they use their plasterings; and appear  
In every formal garb which they shall wear.  
There be of those, who in their words deny,  
And hate the practice of Idolatry,  
Yet make an idol of their formal zeal,  
And underneath strict holiness, conceal  
A mystery of evil which deceives them,  
And, when they think all safe, in danger leaves them.  
Their whole Religion some do place in hearing:  
Some, in the outward action of forbearing  
Ill deeds or in well doing, though the heart  
In that performance bear no real part.  
Some others, of their moral actions make  
Small conscience: and affirm that God doth take  
No notice how ●n body they transgress,  
If him in their ●nward man confess:  
As if a soul beloved could reside  
Within a body quite un●an●fide.   

Some not contented in the act of sin  
Are grown so impudent, that they begin  
To justify themselves in wickedness;  
Or, by quait arguments to make it less;  
And, by such Monsters, to such ends as this,  
The Christian liberty defamed is.   

Mewfangledness, Religion hath o'erthrown;  
And, many as fantastical are grown  
In that, as in apparel. Some, delight  
In nothing more than to be opposite  
To other men: Their zeal they wholly spend  
The present government to reprehend;  
The church's discipline to v●ll fie;  
And rail, at all, which pleads antiquity.   

They love not peace: and therefore have suspicion  
Of Truth itself, if out of persecution:  
And are so thankless, or so heedless be  
Of God's great love, in giving such a free  
And plenteous means of publishing his word,  
That, what, his Prophets of the Jews record,  
Some verify in us. Much pralse is given  
To that blind age, wherein the Queen of Heaven  
Was worshipped here. And alsly we extol  
Those days, as being much more plentiful.   

Some, at the frequency of Preaching g●utch,  
And, tired with it, think we have too much:  
Nay, impudently practise to suppress  
That Exercise, and make our plenty less,  
And, that their doing may not want some fair  
Or goodly colour, they do call for prayer,  
Instead thereof; as if we could not pray,  
Until our preaching we had sent away.   

As these are foolishly, or lewdly, wise;  
We have some others want only precise:  
So waywardly despised, amidst our plenty,  
And through their curiosity, so dainty,  
That very many cannot well digest  
The bread of life, but in their manner dressed.  
Nor will God's Manna, or that measure serve,  
Which he provides; but, they cry out they starve▪  
(Unless they feed upon their own opinions,  
Which are like Egypt garlic and her Onion●)   

Some like not Prayer that's extempore:  
Some notany that set form doth carry.  
Some think there's no devotion, but in those  
That howl, or whine, or snuffle in the nose;  
As if that God vouchsafed all his Graces  
For feigned gestures, or for sour faces.  
Some think not that the man, who gravely teacheth;  
Or hath a sober gesture when he preacheth,  
Of gentle voice: hath any zeal in him,  
And therefore, such like Preachers they contemn.  
Yea, they suppose that no man's doctrine lave●  
The Soul of any one, unless he raves,  
And roars aloud, and slings, and hurleth so  
As if his arms he quite away would throw;  
Or overleap the pulpit, or else break it:  
And this, if their opinion true may make it,  
Is to advance their voices trumpetlike,  
As God commands: yea this they say doth strike  
Sin dead. Whereas indeed, God seldom goes  
In whirlwinds, but is in the voice of those  
Who speak in meekness. And it is not in  
The power of noise to shake the walls of sin:  
For clamours, antique actions, writhed looks  
And such like mimmick rhetoric none brooks  
That hath discretion: neither doth it move  
The heart of any, when we so reprove;  
Except it be in some contrary motion,  
Which interrupts the hearts good devotion.  
The well affected Christian pities it;  
It makes profanest men at nought to set  
God's Ordinance. Mere moral men despise  
Such affatection; much it terrifies  
The ignorant: but very few from thence  
Receive sound knowledge, or true penitence.   

Some relish nothing, but those points that are  
In controversy: some would nothing hear  
But songs of Mercy; some delight in none  
But songs of Thunder, and scarce any one  
Is pleased in what he hears. Nay of their Preachers,  
Merchanicks, arrogate to be the teachers.  
Yea, most of us, what e'er our Pastor says,  
Keep still our own opinions and our ways.  
To hear and know God's word, to some among  
Our Nation, seemeth only to belong  
To Clergy men; and their implicit Faith  
Is built on what the common rumour saith.  
Some others filled with curiosity  
Affirm that every several mystery  
Within God's book included, doth concern  
Ev●n each particular Christian man to learn:  
Whereas they might as well affirm each guest  
That is invited to each Feast,  
Is bound the several dishes there to heed  
And upon every meet before him feed,  
Nay, some have almost this imagination  
That there is hardly hope of their Salvation  
Who speak not Hebrew. And this now adays,  
Makes foolish women, and young prentices  
To learn that holy tongues; in which they grow  
As do those who nothing know,  
Save to be arrogant, and to contemn  
Those Pastors, who have taken charge of them,  
The appetite of some grows dull and fails,  
Unless it may be pampered with quails;  
High flying crotchets, which we see do fill  
Not half so many souls as they do kill.  
We cannot be content to make our flights,  
For that which God exposeth to our sights,  
And search for that which he is pleased to show,  
But, we must also pry, what God doth know,  
Which was indeed an ancient fallacy  
O Satan; and the very same whereby  
He cheated E● From seeking to disclose  
Beyond our warrant, what God only knows,  
Proceedeth many errors. Thence doth come  
Most questions that have troubled Christendom.  
Yea, searching things concealed, hath overthrown  
The comfortable use of what is known.   

Hence flows their fruitless fond asseveration,  
Who blundred on eternal-reprobation,  
And many groundless whimsies have invented,  
Whereby much better musings are prevented.   

Of Reprobation I no doubt have made;  
Yet, those vain quarrellings which we have had.  
Concerning her, and her antiquity,  
(But that the world hath wiser fools than I)  
Appears to me to bring so little fruits,  
That I suppose it fitter for disputes  
In Hell, (among the reprobated crew)  
Then for a Church of Christians to pursue:  
At least to brawl about with such hot rage,  
As hath possessed some Spirits of this age.  
For, some have urged this point of Reprobation  
As if the chiefest groundwork of salvation  
Depended on believing, just, as they  
(Deluded by their fancies) please to say.  
And, though they never found God's holy word  
Did any mention of the same afford,  
But, as of that which did begin since Time;  
And with respect to some committed crime:  
They, nevertheless, their straits together gather,  
To prove the child solder than the Father.  
And, since that fatal thread, there, finds her spinning,  
But for Of; at farthest from Beginning:  
They Reprobation otherwhile confound  
With our Predestination: which is found  
Nowhere in all the Scripture to respect  
The reprobates, but only God's Elect.   

And then they are compelled to prove the sense  
Of their dark ten●, by an inference;  
And to affirm from reason that Election  
Eternal, doth infer the like rejection.  
As if an action of Eternity,  
Were fit to square our shallow reasons, by  
Which argument because it hath not taken  
True Faith, to ground on, may with ease be shaken.   

Their torturing structure, therefore, up to keep,  
They into God's foreknowledge boldly peep,  
Beyond his warrant; searching for decrees  
And secrets, farther than an angel sees:  
Presuming then, as if all things they knew,  
And had eternity within their view.  
But, that hath such an infinite extension.  
Beyond their narrow-bounded comprehension,  
That there they wander on, till they are mad  
And lose that little knowledge which they had.   

For what are they but mad men who maintain  
The giddy fancies of their own weak brain,  
For theses of Religion, which we must  
Believe as they affirm them, of be thrust  
Among the Reprobates? What less, I pray,  
Are they then mad who fool their wits away  
In wheeling arguments which have no end?  
In strains which man shall never apprehend?  
In seeking what their knowledge doth exceed?  
In vain disputings, which contentions breed.  
In strange chimaeras, and fantastic notions,  
That neither stir us up to good devotions,  
Nor mend our manners? But our ways pervert,  
Distract the judgement, or puff up the heart.  
If this I may not madness call, or folly,  
'tis (at the best) religious-melancholy.  
What shall we judge of those who strive to make  
God's Word (whose terms and scope they much mistake  
Their proofs for that whereof no proofs they are,  
And slight those truths, for which the Text is clear:  
What shall we deem of those, who quite mistaking  
Good authors, and their volumes guilty making  
Of what they never meant, do preach and write  
Against those Books with rancerous despite,  
Which being well examined, say the same  
Which they affirm, and check what they do blame.  
Such men there be, and they great noise have made  
By fighting furiously with their own shade.   

What may be thought of them, who likely, ever,  
In their perverse opinions to persever,  
Take knowledge upon trust: and follow those,  
Who lead them on, as wild-geese fly in rows?  
And when their multitude is waxen great,  
Do then so wilfully prejudicate,  
Become so confident of that they hold,  
And in their blind assurance, so are bold,  
That they can brook no trial, neither see  
Their oversights, how plain so ere they be;  
But fondly think (though we believe it not)  
That they infallibility have got.   

Some piousmen; yea, some great Doctors tread.  
Such Labyrinths; and often are misled  
By holding that which they at first were taught,  
Without due proving all things as they ought;  
And vulgar men are often led awry,  
By their examples, and for company.   

For as a traveller that is to come  
From some far country, through large deserts home,  
Nor knowing well the way, is glad to take  
His course with such who shows of cunning make,  
And walks along, depending still on them,  
Through many a wood, and over many a stream,  
Till he and they are lost: there to remain  
He finds no safety, nor means back again,  
Nor list to leave his company; because  
He hopes that nearer homeward still he draws,  
And that his guides full sure of passage are,  
Although they cannot well describe it where,  
So, when plain men do first attempt the way  
Of knowledge, by their guides, they walk astray.  
Without distrust: and when arrived they be  
Where many troublesome windings they do see  
And where no certainty they can behold,  
Yet, on their leaders knowledge they are bold,  
Or on their multitude: yea, though they know,  
And see them err, and turn and stagger so,  
In darksome paths, that well suppose they may,  
They rove and wander in an uncouth way;  
Yet still they are unwilling to suspect  
The wisdom of the Fathers of their Sect.  
Yea, though no satisfaction they can find,  
Though fears and doubtings do afflict their mind,  
They still impute it rather to their own  
Infirmities, or to the depths unknown  
Of those mysterious points, to mention brought;  
But never call in question what is taught:  
Lest being by those Teachers terrified,  
They might forsaken in despair abide.   

Their Doctors, also, failing to devise  
Strong arguments, their hearers to suffice,  
This course, to save their credits, late have got;  
They say, forsooth, faith's doctrine settles not  
With natural capacities; and that  
The Spirit must those men illuminate  
Who shall receive them. And indeed in this,  
They do both say the truth, and say amiss:  
This is a Jesuitish juggling trick,  
And if allowed it be, each lunatic,  
And every brainsick Dreamer, by that way,  
May foist upon us all that he can say,   

For, though God's holy Spirit must create  
New hearts within us, and regenerate  
Depraved nature, ere it can be able  
To make our outward hearings profitable;  
We must not think that all which fancy faith  
(In terms obscure) are mysteries of faith.  
Nor make the hearers want of power to teach  
Their meanings to be proofs of what they teach.   

There is twixt men, and that which they are taught,  
Some natural proportion, or 'tis nought.  
The deepest mystery of our profession,  
Is capable of literal expression,  
As well to reprobates as men elected;  
Or else it may of error be suspected.  
Yea, wicked men a power granted have  
To understand, although they misconceive;  
And can of darkest pointsmake plain relations,  
Though to themselves they fail in applications.   

God never yet did bid us take in hand  
To publish that which none can understand:  
Much less affecteth he a man should mutter.  
Rude sounds of that, whose depth he cannot utter;  
Or in uncertain terms, as many do,  
Who Preach nonsense, and oft non entia too:  
For those which man to man is bound to show,  
Are such plain Truths, as we by word may know;  
Which when the hearer can express again,  
The fruit hath equalled the teacher's pain.   

Then, though the soul doth many times conceive  
By faith, and by that Word which we receive)  
Deep mysteries, and that which far transcends  
A carnal knowledge: though she apprehends  
Some glimmerings of those Objects, that are higher  
Than human Reason ever shall aspire;  
Though she hath tastings of that blessedness,  
Which mortal tongue could never yet express;  
And though the soul may have some earnest given  
On earth, of what it shall enjoy in heaven;  
Though God may, when he list (and now and then,  
For cause not ordinary) to some men  
Vouchsafeth (for their secret satisfactions)  
A few reflections from eternal actions:  
Though this be so, let no man arrogate  
That he such secrets can by word relate:  
For, they are things, of which no voice can preach;  
High flights, to which no mortal man can reach,  
'tis God's own work, such raptures to convey,  
To compass them there is no other way,  
But by his blessed Spirit: and of those  
Most can we not, some must we not disclose.  
For if they only touch our private state,  
They were not sent, that we should them relate;  
But deigned that the soul they strengthen might  
Amid the perils of some secret sight;  
When men to honour God, or for their sin,  
The terrors of this life are plunged in.  
And as it is reputed of those things,  
Which foolish people think some Fairy brings,  
So, of Euthusiamses speak I may;  
Discover them, and straight they fly away.  
For, thus they fare who boast of Revelations,  
Or of the certainty of their Salvations,  
Or any Ghostly gift, at times or places,  
Which warrant not the mention of such graces:  
Yea, by revealing things which they should hide,  
They entrance make for over weening pride:  
And that quite m●rres the blessing they possessed,  
Or, for a while obscureth it at best:   

And yet, if any man shall climb so high,  
That they attain unto a Mystery,  
Conceived by few; they may, if they be able,  
Disclose it where it may be profitable.  
But they must know, that (if it be, indeed,  
Of such transcendency; as doth exceed  
Mere natural reaches) it should be declared  
To none, save unto those who are prepared  
For such conceptions; and more apt to know them  
By their own thoughts, then are out words to show them  
Else, all they utter will in Clouds appear,  
And errors, men, for truths, away will bear.   

Would this had been observed a little more,  
By some who in our Congregations roar  
Of God's unknown Decrees, eternal Callings,  
Of Perseverance, and of final Fallings.  
And such like Mysteries. Or else, I would  
That they their meanings better utter could,  
If well they meant. For, though those points afford  
Much comfomrt and instruction, as God's word  
Hath mentioned them, and may applied be,  
And opened, when we just occasion see;  
Yet, as most handle them, who now adays,  
Do pass for Preachers, with a vulgar praise,  
They profit not; for, this ripe age hath young  
And forward wits, who by their fluent tongue,  
And able memories, a way have found  
To build a house, ere they have laid the ground,  
With common places, and with notes purloined  
(Not well applied, and as ill conjoined)  
A garb of preaching these have soon attained,  
Which hath, with many, approbation gained  
Beyond their merit. For, they take in hand  
Those mysteries, they neither understand,  
Nor studied on. And they have much distracted  
Some hearers, by their Doctrines ill compacted:  
Yea, by enquiring out what God foresees,  
And meddling much with his unknown Decrees,  
The church's peace so much disturbed have they;  
So foul and crooked made Faiths plainest way;  
Such scandals raised; and interrupted so,  
By doubts impertinent, what men should do;  
And their endeavours nullified so far,  
That many of them at a nonplus are.   

Heydon's not of their minds, who take from this  
And other things, that are performed amiss,  
Occasion to disparage frequent preaching,  
Or, to abate our plentiousness of teaching:  
For, of our Harvest, Lord, I humbly pray,  
The store of Labourers continue may.  
And, I could also wish, that none were chose  
To be a seed-man, till he truly knows  
The wheat from tares; and is endued with reason,  
And grace, to sow in order, and in season,  
And that those art-less workmen may be stayed,  
Who build before foundations they have laid:  
Lest, when our Church well built, suppose we shall,  
It sink, and overwhelm us in the Fall.  
It pities me to mark what rents appear  
Within our Zion, and what daubings are  
To hide the ruins, and I fear the frame  
Will totter, if we long neglect the same.  
Our watchmen for the greater part, are grown  
Less mindful of God's honour, than their own:  
For either almost wholly we omit  
That work, or undiscreetly follow it.   

Some speak the truth, without sincere intention,  
As they who preach the Gospel for contention.  
Some by their wicked lives do give offence,  
And harden men in their impenitence.  
As if not hell nor heaven they did believe,  
They riot, game, drink drunk, and whore, and thieve,  
For avarice, and envy, none are worse;  
They are malicious, and blaspheme, and curse,  
As much as any others. None are more  
Regardless of the soul that's mean and poor,  
Among their neighbours, none more quarrelsome,  
Or that more hardly reconciled become,  
Than many clergymen: and as we see  
They are the best of men, when good they be;  
So, there are none that wander more astray;  
When they have left a sanctified way.   

Some Pastors are too hot, and some too cold,  
And very few the golden temper hold.   

Some at the Papist with such madness fling,  
As if they could not utter any thing  
Of them too vile; though ne'er so false it were:  
And we so used by their Jesuits are.  
Some others at the Quakers do strike,  
So furiously, that they are often like  
To wrong the Protestants: for, men impose  
That name sometime, upon the best of those;  
Yea, they who are profane, that name mislay  
On all who make a conscience of their way.  
Some shepherds on their flocks are gorged at full,  
And sumptuously arrayed in their wool.  
But, those that are diseased, they make not strong:  
Their sickliest sheep they seldom come among:  
They take no care the broken up to bind;  
The sheep that's lost they never seek to find:  
They let such wander as will run astray,  
And many times their fury so doth fray  
The tender conscience, that their indiscretion  
Doth fright their hearers headlong to perdition.   

God's bounty hath large pastorage provided,  
But they have not his flocks with wisdom guided:  
For in the midst of plenty, some be ready.  
To starve in ignorance. Some sheep are heady:  
Some get the staggers, some the scab, and they  
Infect their fellows. Some the wantons play  
Among the thorns and briars, which have torn  
The marks and fleeces, which they should have worn.  
Some straggle from the flock, and they are straight  
Surprised by wolves, which lie for them in wait.  
Some sought large feeding, and rank pastures got,  
Which proved not wholesome, and they caught the ●ot.   

For, many preach themselves, and fancies broach,  
That scandal preaching, to the truth's reproach.  
Yea, some term that (forsooth) God's word divine,  
Which would half shame me, should they term it mine,  
And they we see, longest pray and speak  
Are prized of most though head nor foot they make.  
Because the common hearers of this Land,  
Think best of that which least they understand.   

Some, also, by their feet disturb the springs;  
Or trample or defile God's pasturings,  
By hypocrites, injuriously defamed;  
By the frailties of the best, oft shamed.  
And power ecclesiastical is granted  
To them, full often, who those minds have wanted  
Becoming such authority: and they  
Play fast and loose, even with the church's Key.  
They censure and absolve, as best shall make  
For their advantage; not for conscience sake.  
As they shall please, they punish or connive;  
And by the people's follies they do thrive.  
Of evil customs many are we see  
Insinuated, and so strict are we  
To keep them, that we sottishly deny  
To leave them, for what more would edify?  
And we so much do Innovations fear,  
That needful reformations none appear.   

We have prophained every holy thing;  
Even our most Christian Feasts which are to bring  
God's Mercies to our thought, and memorize  
Of Saving Grace, the sacred Mysteries:  
Some have even those gainsaid; and in that  
Have evil spoken of they know not what.  
Some others keep them; but as heathenishly,  
As Feasts of Bacchus; and impiety  
Is then so rife, that God is rarely named  
Or thought upon, except to be blasphemed.   

By these, and other ways, the Church doth lose  
Much honour to the glory of Her Foes,  
And our great shame and loss: for her decays  
Shall be this Realms disprofit and dispraise.   

God hath a controversy with our Land;  
And in an evil plight affairs do stand.  
Already we do smart or doing ill;  
Yet us the hand of God afflicteth still,  
And hay are either such as make obscure  
Faiths principles; or such whose lives impure,  
Profane their Doctrines. Other some have we,  
Who like the beast that over-game some be,  
Do push their weaker brethren with their Horns;  
And hunt them from the flock, by wrongs, or scorn   

God's houses, also, much neglected are;  
And of his Sanctuaries, few have care.  
A barn, or any common house, or room,  
Is thought as well God's worship to become,  
As in the church's infancy; or there,  
Wherewants, and wars, and persecutions are.  
Amidst our peace and plenties, we do grudge  
Our Oratories should be trimm●d as much  
As are our vulgar dwellings; and repine  
That exercises which are most divine,  
Should with more Rites, or Ornaments be done,  
Then when the troublous times afforded none.  
As if a Garden when the flowers are blown,  
Were still to look as when it first was sown.   

To worship so in spirit, we pretend  
That in our bodies, we do scarcely bend  
A leg, or move a cap, when there we be,  
Where God's most holy Mysteries we see  
Yea, many seem so careful to have been,  
To let no superstition enter in,  
That they have almost, wholly banished hence,  
All decency, and pious Reverence.   

The Church by Lukewarm Christians, is neglected  
By brutish Athests it is disrespected;  
By greedy worldlings, robbed of her fleeces,  
By self-willed schismatics nigh torn in pieces;  
By Tyrants and by infidels opposed;  
By her blind Guides, to hazard oft exposed;  
And many see it not; as many be  
So wilful, that his hand they will not see.  
Some plainly view the same, but nothing care  
Some at the sight thereof amazed are,  
Like Balthazar, and have a trembling heart,  
Yet will not from their vanities depart.   

About such matters, othersome are loath  
Their thoughts to busy, (Merely out of sloth)  
Like him, who rather would in hazard put  
His Life, than rise from bed the door to shut.  
Some dream that all things do by chance succeed,  
And that I prate more of them than I need:  
But heaven and earth to witness I invoke,  
That causelessly, I nothing here have spoke.   

If this, oh sickly island! thou believe,  
And for thy great infirmity shalt grieve,  
And, grieving of thy follies make confessions;  
And, to confess thine infinite transgressions:  
That thou amend those errors: God shall then  
Thy manifold distempers cure again;  
Make all thy scarlet sins as white as snow,  
And cast his threatened judgements on thy foe.  
But, if thou (fondly thinking thou art well)  
Shalt slight this Message, which my Muse doth tell,  
And scorn her counsel; if thou shalt not rue  
Thy former ways; but frowardly pursue  
Thy wilful course: then, hark what I am bold,  
(In spite of all thy madness) to unfold.  
For, I will tell thy Fortune; which when they  
That are unborn shall read another day,  
They will believe God's mercy did infuse  
Thy poet's breast, with a prophetic Muse.  
And know, that he this author did prefer  
To be from him, this isle's Remembrancer.   

If thou, I say, oh Britain! shalt retain  
Thy crying sins, thou dost presume in vain  
Of God's protection. If thou stop thine ear,  
Or burn this roll, in whice recorded are  
Thy just Inditements; it shall written be  
With new additions, deeply stamped on thee  
With such Characters, that no time shall raze  
Their fatal image, from thy scared face:  
Though haughtily thou dost thyself dispose,  
Because the Sea thy borders doth enclose.  
Although upon the Rocks thy nest is placed:  
Though thou among the Stars thy dwelling haste;  
Though thou increase thy ships; and unto that  
Which is thine own, with King Jehosaphat;  
Join Ahab's forces. Though thou watch and ward,  
And all thy Ports and Havens strongly guard;  
Although thou multiply thy inland forces,  
And muster up large troops of men and horses;  
Though like an Eagle thou thy wings displayest,  
And (high thyself advancing) proudly sayst;  
I fit aloft, and am so high, that none  
Can fetch me from the place I rest upon.  
Yea, though thou no advantages didst want,  
Of which the glorious Emperies did vaunt;  
Yet, sure, thou shalt be humbled and brought low;  
Even then, perhaps, when least thou fear'st it so.   

Till thou repent, provisions which are made  
For thy defence, or others to invade,  
Shall be in vain; and still the greater cost  
Thou shalt bestow, the honour that is lost  
Shall be the greater, and thy wasted strength,  
Be sink of a Consumption at the length  
Thy treaties, which for peace or profit be,  
Shall neither peace, nor profit bring to thee.  
Or, if thy Counsels prosper for a while,  
God will permit it, only to beguile  
Thy foolishness; and tempt thee on to run  
Some courses, that will bring his Judgements on.  
Yea, all thy winnings shall but fuel be,  
To feed those follies that now spring in thee;  
And make with vengeance those the more enraged  
Who shall for thy correction be engaged.  
What ever threatened in God's Book hath been,  
Against a wicked people for their sin,  
Shall come on thee: His hand shall be for ill,  
On every Mountain, and high-raised hill.  
Thy lofty Cedars, and thy sturdy Oaks,  
Shall feel the fury of his Thunder stroke.  
Upon the Ships, thy Havens, and thy Ports,  
Upon thy arms, thy armies, and thy Forts,  
Upon thy pleasures and commodities,  
Thy craft's mechanic, and thy merchandise;  
On all the fruits and cattle in thy fields,  
On what the air, or what the water yields,  
On State and people; on both weak and strong,  
On Priest and Prophet or both old and young;  
Yea, on each person, place, and every thing,  
The Plague it hath deserved, God shall bring.   

What ever thou dost hope he frustrate shall;  
And make what e'er thou fearest on thee fall.  
This pleasant soil, wherein such plenty grows,  
And where both milk and honey overflows,  
Shall for thy people's wickedness be made  
A Land as barren, as what never had,  
Such plenties in it. God shall drive away  
Thy pleasant fowls, and all those Fish that play  
Within thy waters; and for whose great store  
Some other Nations would have praised him more.  
Those Rivers, that have made thy valleys rich,  
Shall be like streams of ever burning Pitch,  
Thy dust, as Brimstone, fields as hard and dry  
As iron is; the firmament on high,  
Like Brass, shall yield thee neither rain nor due,  
The hope of wasted blessings to renew.  
Aleanness, shall thy fatness quite devour;  
Thy wheat shall in the place of wholesome flower,  
Yield nought but bran. In stead of grass and corn,  
Thou shalt in times of harvest, reap the thorn,  
The thistle and the briar. Of their shadows  
Thy Groves shall robbed be: thy flowery meadows  
Shall steri; e wax: there shall be seldom seen  
Sheep on thy downs, or shepherds on the Green,  
Thy walks, thy Gardens, and each pleasant plot,  
Shall be as those where men inhabit not,  
Thy Villages; where goodly dwellings are,  
Shall stand as if they unfrequented were.  
Thy Cities and thy Palaces wherein  
Most neatness and magnificence hath bln,  
Shall heaps of rubbish be, and as in those  
Demolished abbeys where in daws and crows.  
Now make their nests, the Bramble, and the Nettle,  
Shall in their halls and parlours root, and settle,  
Thy Prince's houses, and thy wealthy Ports,  
Now fill●d with men of all degrees and sorts,  
Shall no inbabitants in them retain,  
But some poor Fisherman, or country Swain,  
Who of thy glories, When the marks they see,  
Shall wonder what those mighty ruins be;  
As now they do, who old foundations find,  
Of towns and Cities perished out of mind.   

The places where much people meetings had,  
Shall vermin holes, and dens for beasts be made.  
Or walks for sprights, who from those uncouth rooms  
Shall fright the passenger, which that way comes.  
In stead of mirth and laughter, lamentation  
Shall there abide: and loathsome desolation,  
In stead of company. Where once was heard  
Sweet melody, men shall be made afeard  
With hideous cries, and howlings of despair.  
Thy very Climate, and thy temperate air,  
Shall lose their wholesomeness, for thy offences,  
And breed hot Fevers, Murraines, Pestilences,  
And all diseases! they that now are trained  
In ease, and with soft pleasures entertained;  
In stead of idle games, and wanton dances,  
Shall practise how to handle guns, and lances;  
And be compelled to leave their friends embraces,  
To end their lives in divers uncouth places;  
Or else, thy face, with their own blood defile,  
In hope to keep themselves, and thee, from spoil.   

Thy beauteous Women, whose great pride is more  
Than theirs, whom Esay blamed heretofore,  
In stead of paintings, and of costly scents,  
Of glittering gems, and precious ornaments,  
Shall wear deformity about their faces;  
And being robbed of all their tempting graces,  
Feel wants, diseases, and all such like things,  
Which to a wanton Lover loathing brings.   

Thy God, shall for thy overflowing vices,  
Scourge thee with Scorpions, Serpents, Cockatrices,  
And other such; whose tails with stings are armed,  
That neither can be plucked forth, nor charmed.  
Thou shalt not be suffized when thou art fed;  
Nor shalt thou suffer scarcity of bread  
And temporal food alone; but, of that meat,  
Whereof the faithful soul desires to eat.  
That curse of Ravenous Beasts, which God hath said,  
Upon a wicked Kingdom shall be laid,  
He will inflict on thee. For though there be  
No tigers, lions, Wolves, or Bears in thee,  
By beastly minded men that shall be far  
More cruel than those bloody spoilers are,  
Thou shalt be torn: for, each man shall assay  
His fellow to devour as lawful prey.   

In stead of lions, tyrants thou shalt breed,  
Who not of conscience nor of Law take heed;  
But, on the weak man's portion lay their Paw,  
And make their pleasures to become their Law,  
In stead of tigers, men of no compassion,  
A furious, and a wilful generation,  
Shall fill thy borders. Thieves and outlaws vile,  
Shall hunt the ways, and haunt the woods for spoil,  
As Bears and Wolves. A subtle cheating crew  
(That will with tricks and cozenages pursue  
The simpler sort) shall here increase their breed;  
And in their subtleties the Fox exceed.  
That hoggish herd, which always rooting are  
Within the ground, and never upward rear.  
Their grunting snouts; nor fix their eyes on heaven,  
To look from whence their daily food is given:  
Those filthy swinish livers, who desire  
To feed on draff, and wallow in the mire;  
Those who affect rank puddles, more than springs;  
To trample and despise most pleasant things;  
The holy to profane; God's herbs of grace  
To nouzle up, his vineyard to deface;  
And such like harms to do: these shall thy fields,  
Mar worse, than those wild boars the desert yields.   

If thou remain impenitent, thou art  
Like Egypt, and so stony is thy heart.  
For which obduratness, those plagues will all  
Descend on thee, which did on Egypt fall.  
Blood, Frogs, and Lice, great swarms of uncouth Flies,  
th' infectious murrain, whereof Cattle dies:  
boils, Scabs, & blains fierce hail, & thunderstorms,  
The Locust, and all fruit devouring worms.  
Cross Darkness, and the death of those that be  
Thy Darlings, all those plagues shall fall on thee,  
According as the Letter doth imply,  
Or, as in mystic sense they signify.   

Thy purest Rivers God shall turn to blood;  
With every Lake, that hath been sweet and good,  
Even in thy nostrils he shall make it stink,  
For nothing shall thy people eat or drink,  
Until their own or others' blood it cost;  
Or put their lives in hazard to be lost.   

Most loathsome Frogs; that is a race impure,  
Of base condition, and of birth obscure,  
(Even in unwholesome ●ens, and ditches, bred)  
Shall with a clownish rudeness overspread  
Thy pleasantest fields; thy fairest rooms possess;  
And make unwholesome by their sluttishness,  
Thy kneeding troughs, thy ovens, and that meat,  
Whereof thy people, and thy Princes eat,  
This hateful brood, shall climb to croak and sing,  
Within in lodging chambers of the King,  
Yea, there make practice of those natural notes,  
Which issue from their evil-sounding throats:  
To wit, vain-brags, revilings, r●baldries,  
Vile slanders, and unchristian blasphemies.   

The Land shall breed a nasty generation,  
Unworthy either of the reputation  
Or name of men. For, they as Lice shall feed  
Even on the body whence they did proceed;  
till poverty, and floventy, and sloth,  
Have quite disgraced them, and consumed them both.   

There shall, moreover, swarms of divers Flies,  
Engendered be in thy prosperities,  
To be a plague: the flesh-fly shall corrupt  
Thy savoury meats; Musketoes interrupt  
The weary traveller; thou shalt have Drones,  
Doors, Hornets, Wasps, and such like angry-ones,  
Who represent that warm whose buzzing tongues  
(Like stings) are used in their neighbour's wrongs;  
And, still are flying, and still bumming so,  
As if they meant some weighty work to do,  
Whenas, upon the common stock they spend;  
And nought perform of that which they pretend.  
Thy butterflies shall plague thee too; even those,  
Who wast their Lands and Rents, in gaudy clothes  
Or idle flutterings, and then spawn their seed,  
Upon thy godli●st flowers and herbs to feed.   

As beasts destroyed by the murrain be,  
So they that are of beastly life in thee,  
By lewd example shall infect each other,  
And in their foul diseases rot together.   

On all thy people, or what sort soe'er,  
Shall Scabs, and bile, and running sores appear,  
The fruits of their corruption. Yea, with pains  
(Within their conscience, and with scars and blains  
Of outward infamy) they shall be grieved,  
And in their tortures perish unrelieved.   

Tempestuous storms, upon this I'll shall fall,  
Hot thunderbolts, and hailstones therewithal,  
Men either too too hot, or too too cold,  
Or else luke warm. But few or none shall hold  
A rightful temper: and these meteors will  
Thy borders with a thousand mischiefs fill,   

The Locust also, and the Palmer worms,  
Shall prey on what escapeth from the storms,  
Not they alone, which on the grass do breed;  
But also, they who from the pit proceed  
Which hath no bottom and when any thing  
Doth by the dew of heaven begin to spring,  
They shall devour the same, till they have left thee,  
Nor leaf nor blossom; but of all bereft thee.   

Then shall a darkness, far more black,  
Then when the light corporeal thou dost lack.  
For grossest ignorance; o'reshadowing all,  
Shall in so thick a darkness thee enthrall,  
That thou a blockish people shalt be made,  
Still wandering on in a deceiving sha●e;  
Mistrusting those that safest paths are showing,  
Most trusting them, who counsel thy undoing;  
And aye tormented be with doubts and fears,  
As one that outcries, in dark places hears.   

Nor shall the hand of God from thee return,  
Till he hath also more thine eldest-born,  
That is, till he hath taken from the quite,  
Even that whereon thou fetst thy whole delight;  
And filled every house throughout this Nation,  
With deaths unlooked for, and lamentation.   

So great shall be thy ruin, and thy shame,  
That when the neighbour kingdoms hear the same  
Their ears shall tingle. And when that day comes,  
In which thy follies must receive their dooms;  
A day of clouds, a day of gloominess,  
A day of black despair, and heaviness  
It will appear. And then thy vanities,,  
Thy gold, thy silver, thy confederacies,  
And all those reeds on which thou hast depended;  
Will fail thy trust, and leave thee unbefriended.  
Thy Judge, thy Priests, and Prophets, then shall mourn  
And, peradventure, feignedly return  
To beg of God to succour them: but they  
Who will not harken to his voice to day,  
Shall cry unheeded: and he will despise  
Their vows, their prayers, and their sacrifice:   

A sea of troubles, all thy hopes shall swallow,  
As waves on waves, so plague on plague shall follow:  
And every thing that was a blessing to thee,  
Shall turn to be a curse; and help undo thee.   

Thy Magistrates have to thee thy fathers been:  
By means of them hath peace been kept within  
Thy sea-girt limits: they thy weal befriended,  
The blessed faith they stoutly have defended:  
But know, that, till thou shalt repent, no part  
Belongs to thee of what is his desert;  
His princely virtues, to his own avail,  
Shall profit much: but they to thee shall fail.  
To thee his clemency shall seem severe,  
His favours all, shall injuries appear,  
And when thy sin is fully ripe in thee,  
Thy prince and people then alike shall be,  
Thou shalt have babes to be thy judges, or worse,  
Those tyrants who by cruelty and force  
Shall take away thy ancient freedoms quite,  
From all their Subjects, yea themselves delight,  
In their vexations: and all those that are  
Made slaves thereby, shall murder, yet not dare  
To stir against them. By degrees they shall  
Deprive thee of thy patrimonies all;  
Compel thee (as in other Lands this day)  
For thine own meat, and thine own drink to pay.  
And at the last begin to exercise.  
Upon thy sons, all heathenish tyrannies,  
As just prerogatives. To these intents,  
Thy nobles shall become their instruments.  
For they who had their birth from noble races,  
Shall some and some be brought into disgraces;  
From offices they shall excluded stand:  
And all their virtuous offspring, from the Land,  
Shall quite be worn: instead of whom shall rise  
A brood advanced by impieties,  
By flattery, by purchase, and by that  
Which every truly noble one doth hate.  
From stems obscure, and out of mean professions,  
They shall ascend and mount by their ambitions,  
To seats of Justice, and those Names to bear,  
Which honoured most within these nations are.  
And being thither got shall make more strong  
Their new-built greatness, by increasing wrong.   

To those, will some of these themselves unite,  
Who by their births to Lordly styles have right;  
But viciously consuming their estate,  
Did from their father's worths degenerate:  
By this confederacy, their nobler bloods  
Shall countenance the others ill-got goods;  
The others wealth again, shall keep from scorn  
Their beggary, who have been nobly born:  
And both together, being else unable,  
(In this ill course to make their standing stable)  
Shall seek how they more great and strong may grow,  
By compassing the public overthrow,  
They shall abuse thy friends with tails and lies;  
With seeming love and servile flatteries.  
They shall persuade them they have power to make  
Their wills their Law; and as they please to take  
Their people's goods, their children and their lives,  
Even by their just and due Prerogatives.   

When thus much they have made them to believe,  
Than they shall teach them practices to grieve  
their subjects by; and instruments become  
to help the sorewing up, by some and some,  
To compass their designs. They shall devise  
Strange projects, and with impudence and lies,  
Proceed in settling them. They shall forget  
Those reverent usages, which do befit  
The majesty of State, and rail and storm,  
When they pretend disorders to reform,  
In their high counsels, and where men should have  
Kind admonitions, and reprovings grave,  
When they offend, they shall be threatened there,  
Or scoffed, or taunted, though no cause appear.   

It is unseemly for a judge to sit  
And exercise a jibling schoolboys wit  
Upon their trades, or names, who stand before  
Their judgement seats: but who doth not abhor,  
To hear it, when a Magistrate objects,  
Birth, poverty, or personal defects  
In an upbraiding wise? Or, who with me  
Derides it not, when in our Courts we see  
Those men, whose bodies are both old and weak,  
(Forgetting grave and useful things to speak)  
Vent Giants words, and bristle up as tho  
Their very breath could armies overthrow:  
Whereas (poor weaklings) were there in their places  
No more authority, then in their faces,  
Their persons, or their language, all their chafing,  
And threatening, nothing would effect but laughing.  
For unto me big looks, and crying, hoh,  
As dreadful seems as when a Child cries, boo,  
To fright his Nurse, yea such a bugbear fashion  
Effecteth nought but scornful indignation.   

But in those times (which nearer are than some  
Suppose perhaps) such rhetoric will come  
To be in use; and arguments of Reason  
And just proceeding, will be out of season.  
Their wisdom shall be folly; and go nigh  
To bring contempt on their authority.  
Their council-table shall a snare be made,  
And those 'gainst whom they no just matter had,  
At first appearance, shall be urged to say  
Some word or other, ere they part away,  
Which will betray their innocence to blame,  
And bring upon them detriment and shame:  
Yea, many times (as David hath of old,  
Concerning such oppressors, well foretold)  
To humble crouchings, and to feigned shows,  
Descend they shall to work men's overthrows:  
And, what their subtlety doth fail to gain,  
They shall by rigour and by force obtain.   

What ever from thy people they can tear  
Or borrow, they shall keep, as if it were  
A prize which had been taken from the foe:  
And, they shall make no conscience what they do  
To prejudice posterity. For, they  
To gain their lust, hut for the present day,  
Shall with such love unto themselves endeavour,  
That (though they knew it would undo for ever  
Their own posterity) it shall not make  
Those Monsters any better course to take.   

Nay, God shall give them up for their offences,  
To such uncomely reprobated senses:  
And blind them so, that when the axe they see  
Even hewing at the root of their own tree,  
By their own handy strokes, they shall not grieve  
For their approaching fall: no, nor believe  
Their fall approacheth; nor assume that heed  
Which might prevent it, till they fall indeed.  
Thy Judges, Britain, in those days will be  
Like roaring Lions, making prey of thee.  
God shall deliver thee into their hand,  
And they shall act their pleasure in the Land;  
As once his Prophet threatened to that nation,  
Which doth exemplify thy Desolation.   

Thy Priests (as thou hast wallowed in excess)  
Shall take delight in drink and wantonness.  
And those, whom thou dost call thy Noble ones  
Shall to the very marrow, gnaw thy bones.  
Thy Lawyers fulfully shall wrest thy Laws,  
And (to the ruin of the common Cause)  
Shall misinterpret them, in hope of grace  
From those, who may despoil them of their place.  
Yea, that whereto they are obliged, both  
By conscience, by their calling, and their Oath  
To put in execution they shall fear,  
And leave them helpless, who oppressed are.  
Thy Prelates in the spoil of thee shall share;  
Thy Priests as light shall be as those that are  
The meanest persons: all their prophecies  
Or Preachings shall be heresies and lies.  
The word of truth shall not in them remain,  
Their lips no wholesome knowledge shall retain,  
And all his outward means of saving grace,  
Thy God shall carry to another place.   

Mark well, oh Britain! what I now shall say,  
And do not slightly pass these words away.  
But be assured that when God begins,  
To bring that vengeance on thee for thy sins,  
Which hazard shall with total overthrow,  
Thy Prophets, and thy Priests will sl●ely sow  
The seeds of that dissension, and sedition,  
Which time will ripen for thy sad perdition,  
Even they who formerly were of thy peace  
The happy instruments, shall then increase  
Thy troubles most. And, even as when the Jews  
Gods truth-presaging Prophets did abuse,  
He suffered those who preached in his Name,  
Such falsehoods, as the chiefest cause became  
Of their destruction: so if thou go on  
To make a scorn (as thou hast often done)  
Of them who seek thy welfare, he will send  
False Prophets that shall bring thee to thine end,  
By saying all things thou wouldst have them say,  
And lulling thee asleep in thine own way.  
If any brainsick Fellow, whom the Devil  
Seduceth to inflict on thee some evil,  
Shall coin false Doctrines, or persuade thee to  
Some foolish course that will at length undo  
The Common-weal: his counsel thou shalt follow;  
Thou, covered with his bait, a hook shalt swallow  
To rend thy entrails: and thine ignorance  
Shall also for that mischief him advance.   

But if that any lover of thy weal,  
Inspired with truth, and with an honest zeal,  
Shall tell thee aught pertaining to thy good,  
His Messages shall stiffly be withstood:  
That Seer shall charged not to see;  
His word shall slighted as a Po●sherd be:  
His life shall be traduced, to disgrace  
His counsels; or, his errant to debase:  
Instead of recompense, he shall be sure  
Imprisonments or threatenings to procure:  
And peradventure (as those Prophets were,  
Who did among the Jewish Peers declare  
Their state's enormities) his good intention,  
May be so wronged, that he, by some invention,  
May lose his life, with public shame and hate,  
As one that is a troubler of the State.   

But not unless the Priest, thereto consent:  
For in those days shall few men innocent  
Be grieved (through any quarter of the Land)  
In which thy clergy shall not have some hand.  
If ever in the Fields (as God forbid)  
The Bloo● of thine own children shall be shed  
By civil discord, they shall blow the flame,  
That will become thy ruin, and thy shame.  
And thus it shall be kindled. When the times,  
Are nigh at worse; and thy increasing crimes  
Almost complete; the Devil shall begin  
To bring strange crotchets, and opinions in  
Among thy teachers, which will breed disunion,  
And interrupt the visible communion  
Of thy established Church, And, in the steed  
Of zealous Pastors, (who God's flock did feed)  
There shall arise within thee, by degrees,  
A clergy, that shall more desire to fleece,  
Then feed the flock. A clergy it shall be,  
Divided In itself: and they shall thee  
Divide among them, into several factions:  
Which rend thee will, and fill thee with distractions:  
They all in outward seeming shall pretend  
God's glory, and to have one pious end:  
But, under colour of sincere devotion,  
Their study shall be temporal promotion:  
YVhich will among themselves strange quarrels make  
Wherein thy other children shall partake.  
As to the Persons, or the cause, they stand  
Affected, even quite throughout the Land.  
Now one great man among them gets the power,  
From all the rest, and like an Emperor,  
Doth act his pleasure. And we know 'tis common  
To have some foolish favourite or woman,  
To govern him, so in a popular State,  
Affairs are managed by the self same fate;  
And either one or more away do steal  
The people's hearts, and sway the commonweal.  
Thus God is pleased, to humble and to raise:  
Thus he by several names, and several ways,  
The world doth govern. Yea thus even in one nation,  
And in one State, he makes much alteration  
In forms of Government: of changing that  
Which is but accidental to a State.  
And such his Justice, and his wisdom is,  
That he preserveth by the means of this,  
Those things which do essentially pertain  
To that great power which over all doth reign.  
Nor is he pleased thus it should be done  
In States that merely civil are alone;  
But also in the church's Governments,  
Allows the change of outward accidents.  
Yea, they to whom he gives the oversights  
Of some particular Church, may change old Rites,  
The customs, Forms, or titles as occasions  
Are offered them; or as the times, or Nations,  
Require a change: provided so, that they  
Take nothing which essential is away;  
Nor add what shall repugn or prejudice  
God's Laws, his prophets, or the liberties  
Of them that are his people. For, in what  
Hath any Church a power, if not in that  
Which is indifferent? Or, in what I pray  
Will men the Church authority obey,  
If not in such like things? Or who should be  
The Judge what is indifferent, if not she?  
A private Spirit knows what best agrees  
With his own fancy, but the Church best sees,  
What fits the Congregation. For; what gives,  
Offence to one, another man receives  
Much Comfort; and his Conscience edifies.  
By disciplines which many do despise,   

There is I know, a middle-way that lies  
Even just betwixt the two extremities,  
Which to sedition, and to faction tend.  
To find which tract, my whole desire I bend;  
And wish it followed more. For, if we tread  
That harmless path, we cannot be misled;  
Nor shamed, though blamed we be. To every man  
I fain would give his due; and all I can  
I do endeavour it. I would not wrong  
My country; neither take what doth belong  
To Cesar: nor infringe, or prejudice,  
The universal church's liberties;  
Nor for her outward discipline prefer  
Or censure any Church particular,  
Or any State, but as befit it may,  
His Muse, which nought but necedfull truths doth say.  
Nor have I any purpose to withdraw  
Obedience, or respect from any Law  
That's positive, or to dishearten from  
Those customs, which a Christian state become.  
Nor have I any thought to scandalize,  
Or speak amiss of Principalities;  
Or, to traduce men's persons: but, I fall  
On errors of men's lives in general,  
And, on those great abuses, which I see  
To blemish every calling and degree.   

Of Dignities and Persons, I observe,  
All means I can, their honours to preserve,  
When I reprove their faults. And even as he  
That hunteth Foxes, where Lambs feeding be,  
May fright that harmless flock, and suffer blame  
Of some bystanders, (knowing not his Game)  
When from his Dogs, those innocents are free,  
And none but their devourers bitten be.  
So, though my reprehensions, often are  
Mistook by foolish Readers; they are far  
From reprehending those, or taxing that  
Which is unfitting for my shooting at.  
I speak those things which will advantage rather  
Than harm: and hence this blinded age may gather  
Much light. Which little volume doth relate  
Nought else but what is like to be our fate,  
If sin increase; and what in former times  
Did fall on other Nations for their crimes.  
I utter what our welfare may increase,  
And help confirm us in a happy peace;  
Which they will never compass, who pursue  
To speak what's pleasing, rather than what's true,  
How ever, here my thoughts delivered be:  
Let God, as he shall please, deliver me.  
And if what here is mentioned, thou dost heed  
(Oh Britain!) in those times that shall succeed,  
It may prevent much loss, and make thee shun  
Those mischiefs, whereby Kingdoms are undone.  
But to thy other sins if thou shalt add  
Rebellions (as false Prophets will persuade)  
Which likely are to follow, when thou shalt  
In thy profession of Religion halt:  
Then will thy Priests and persons scourge each other,  
〈◊〉 their offences, till both fail together:  
By weakening of your powers to make them way,  
Who seeek and look for that unhappy day:   

Then shall disorder every where abound  
And neither just not pious man be found.  
The best shall be a briar or a thorn,  
By whom their neighbours shall be scratched and torn.  
Thy Prophets shall to nothing condescend  
For any merit, just, or pious end;  
But either for increasing of their treasure,  
Or, for accomplishing their wilful, pleasure:  
And unto what they sell or deign for need;  
There shall be given little trust or heed.  
For that which by their words confirm they shall,  
(The Royal Seals uniting therewithal)  
A toy shall frustrate; and a gift shall make  
Their strictest order no effect to take.   

The judge, without a bribe, no cause shall end:  
No man shall trust his brother, or his friend:  
The Parents and the children shall despise  
And hate, and spoil each other, she that lies  
Within her husband's bosom, shall betray him:  
They who thy people should protect, shall slay them,  
The aged shall regarded be of none:  
The poor shall by the rich be trodden on:  
Such grievous insolences, everywhere  
Shall acted be, that good and bad shall fear  
In thee to dwell; and men discreet shall hate  
To be a Ruler, or a Magistrate.  
When they behold (without impenitence)  
So much injustice, and such violence.   

And when thy wickedness this height shall gain,  
To which (no doubt) it will ere long attain,  
If thou proceed: then from the bow that's bent  
And half way drawn already, shall be sent  
A moral arrow, and it pierce thee shall  
Quite through the head, the Liver, and the Gall.   

The Lord shall call, and whistle from afar,  
For those thy enemies that fiercest are:  
For those thou fearest most; and they shall from  
Their countries, like a whirlwind hither come,  
They shall not sleep, nor slumber, nor untie  
Their garments till within thy field they lie,  
Sharp shall their arrows be, and strong their bow,  
Their faces shall as full of honour show  
As doth a Lions. Like a bolt of thunder  
Their troops of horse shall come and tread thee under  
Their iron feet: thy Foes shall eat thy bread.  
And with thy flocks both clothed be and fed.  
Thy dwellers, they shall carry from their own,  
To Countries which their fathers have not known,  
And thither shall such mischiefs them pursue,  
That they who seek the pitfall to eschew,  
Shall in a snare be taken. If they shall  
Escape the sword, a Serpent in the wall  
To death shall sting them: yea, (although they hap  
To shun a hundred plagues) they shall not escape;  
But, with new dangers still be chased about,  
Until that they are wholly rooted out.   

The ploughman than shall be afraid to sow,  
Artificers their labour shall sorgoe;  
The Merchant man shall cross the Seas no more,  
(Except to fly, and seek some other Shore)  
Thy ablest men shall faint: thy wise-ones then,  
Shall know themselves to be but foolish men.  
And they who built and planted by oppression,  
Shall leave their gettings to the foe's possession.  
Yea, God will scourge thee, England, seven times more  
With seven times greater Plagues than heretofore:  
Then, thy allies their friendship shall withdraw;  
And, they that of thy greatness stand in awe,  
Shall say in scorn, Is this the valiant Nation,  
That had throughout the world such reputation  
By victories upon the shore? are these  
That people which was Master of the Seas,  
And grew so mighty? yea, that petty Nation  
That were not worthy of thy indignation,  
Shall mock thee too; and all thy former fame  
Forgot shall be, or mentioned to thy shame.  
Mark how God's plagues were doubled on the Jews,  
When they his mildrorrections did abuse:  
Mark what at last upon their land he sent:  
And, look thou for the selfsame punishment,  
If them thou imitatest. For their sin  
At first, but eight years' bondage they were in.  
Their wickedness grew more, and God did then,  
To Eglon make them slaves eight years and ten,  
They disobeying still, the God of heaven,  
Their year of Servitude were twenty seven,  
To Jabin and to Midian: then prevailed  
Philistia forty years; and when that failed,  
To make them of their evil ways repent,  
There was among themselves a fatal rent;  
And, they oft scourged each other. Still they trod  
The selfsame path; and than the hand of God  
●rought Ashur on them; and did make them bear  
His heavy yoke until the seventeenth year.  
And last of all the Roman Empire came,  
Which from their country rooted out their name,  
That foolish project which they did embrace,  
To keep them in possession of their place,  
Did lose it: and, like Cain, that vagrant nation,  
Hath now remained in fearful desolation,  
Nigh sixteen hundred years; and whatsoever  
Some lately dream, in vain they look for here  
A temporal kingdom. For, as long ago  
Their Psalmist said, No Prophet doth foreshow  
This thraldom's end. Nor shall it end until  
The Gentiles their just number do fulfil:  
Which is unlike to be until that hour,  
In which there shall be no more temporal power,  
Of temporal kingdom; therefore gather them  
(Oh Lord!) unto thy new Jerusalem,  
In thy due time. For, yet unto that place  
They have a promised right, by thy mere grace,  
To those who shall repent, thy firm Election  
Continues in this temporal rejection.  
Oh! show thy mercy in their desolation,  
That thou Mayst honoured be in their salvation  
Yea, teach us also, by their fearful fall,  
To harken to thy voice, when thou dost call;  
(Lest thou in anger unto us protest,  
That we shall never come into thy rest.)  
For we have followed them in all their sin;  
Such, and so many, have our warnings been:  
And if thou still prolong not thy compassion,  
To us belongs the selfsame desolation.  
And it will shortly come, with all those terrors  
That we on them inflicted, for their errors.   

Then woe shall be to them that heretofore  
By joining house to house expelled the poor;  
And field have into field incoporated,  
Until their town-ship were depopulated.  
For desolate their dwelling shall be made:  
Ev●n in their blood the Lord shall bathe his blade:  
And they that have by avarice and wiles,  
Erected palaces and costly piles;  
shall think the stones and timbers in the wall,  
Aloud to God, for vengeance on them call.   

Then woe shall be to them who early rise  
To eat and drink, and play, and wantonnize;  
Still adding sin to sin, for, they the pain  
Of cold, and thirst, and hunger, shall sustain;  
And be the servile slaves of them that are  
Their foes, as to their lusts they captives were.   

Then woe to them who darkness more have loved  
Then light, and good advice have disapproved:  
For they shall wander in a crooked path,  
Which neither light, nor end, nor comfort hath.  
And when for guides and Counsel they do cry,  
Not one shall pity them who passeth by.   

Then woe to them that have corrupted been,  
To justify the wicked in his sin:  
Or for a bribe; the righteous to condemn:  
For flames (as on the chaff) shall seize on them:  
Their bodies to the dunghill shall be cast:  
Their flower shall turn to dust; their stock shall wast,  
And all the Glorious titles they have worn,  
Shall but increase their infamy and scorn,  
Then woe to them that have been raised aloft  
By good men's ruins, and by laying soft  
And easy pillows, under great men's arms,  
To make them pleased in their alluring charms.   

Then woe to them who being grown afraid  
Of some nigh peril, sought unlawful aid;  
And settings God's protection quite aside,  
Upon their own inventions have relied.  
For God their foolish hopes will bring to nought;  
On them, their feared mischief shall be brought;  
And all their wit and strength, shall not suffice,  
To have their sorrow of, which on them lies.  
Yea, then, Oh Britain! woe to every one,  
That hath without repentance evil done:  
For, those who do not heed, not bear in mind  
His visitings, God's reaching hand will find;  
And they with howling cries and lamentation,  
Shall sue and seek, in vain, for his compassion.  
Because they careless of his mercies were,  
Till in consuming wrath he did appear.  
Burst I we set far off that evil day,  
In dull security we pass away  
Our precious time; and with vain hopes and toys,  
Build up a trust which every puff destroys.  
And therefore still when healing is expected,  
New and unlooked for troubles are effected.   

We gather armies and we Fleets prepare:  
And then both strong and safe we think we are  
But when we look for victories and glory,  
What follows, but events that make us sorry?  
And 'tis God's mercy that we turn our faces  
With so few losses, and no more disgraces.  
For what are most of those whom we commend  
Such actions to; and whom we forth do send  
To fights those battles, which the Lords we call,  
But, such as never fight for him at all?  
Whom dost thou make thy Captains, and dispose  
Such offices unto, but unto those  
(Some few excepted) who procure by friends,  
Command and pay, to serve their private ends?   

This island hath some sense of what the ails,  
And very much, this evil times bewails:  
But not our sins do we so much lament,  
Or mourn, that God for them is discontent,  
As that the plagues, they being disturb our pleasures,  
Increase our dangers and exhaust our treasures.  
And for these causes, now and then we fast,  
And pray, as long as half a day doth last,  
For if the Sun do but a little clear  
That Cloud, from which a tempest we do fear,  
What kind of grief we took we plainly show  
By those rejoicings which thereon ensue:  
For in the stead of such due thankfulness,  
As Christian zeal obligeth to express;  
To pleasure (not to God) we sacrifice;  
Renew our sins, revive our vanities;  
And all our vowed gratitude expires,  
In games, in guns, in bells, in health, or Fires.  
We fain would be at peace: but few men go  
That way, as yet, whereby it may be so.  
We have not that humility which must  
Effect it: we are false, and cannot trust  
Each other; no nor God with true confessions:  
Which shows that we abhor not our transgressions.  
It proves, that of our errors, we in heart  
Repent not, neither purpose to depart  
From any folly, For all they that are  
Sincerely penitent, do nothing fear  
So much as their own guilt; nor seek to gain  
Aught more, than to be reconciled again.  
And they that are thus minded, never can  
Be long unreconciled to God, or man.   

When we should stoop, we most ourselves exalt,  
●nd though we be, would not be thought in fault.  
Nay, though we faulty be, and thought and known,  
And proved so, and see that we are thrown  
By our apparent errors into straits,  
From which we cannot get by all our sleights.  
Yet still ourselves we vaunt and justify,  
And struggle, till the snare we faster tie.  
We sin, and we to boast it have no shame,  
Yet storm when others do our folly's name:  
And rather than we will so much as say  
We did amiss (though that might wipe away  
The stain of all) I think that some of us  
So wilful are, so proud, and mischievous,  
That we ourselves, would run, and our Nation,  
To keep our shadow of a Reputation.   

Oh! if we are thus headstrong, 'tis unlike  
We any part of our proud sails will strike  
Till they have sunk our vessel in the sea,  
Or by the furious winds are torn away.  
'Twere better, tho, we did confess our wound,  
Than hide it till our state grew more unsound.  
'Twere better we some wealth or office lost,  
Then keep them, till our lives, and all it cost:  
And therefore, let us w●ely be advised,  
Before we by a tempest be surprised.  
Down first with our top-gallants, and our Flags;  
In storms the skilfull●st Pilots make no brags.  
Let us (if that be not enough) let fall  
Our mizzen-yard, and strike our topsails all.  
If this we find be not enough to do,  
Strike foresail, spritsail, yea and mainsail too.  
And, rather than our Ship should sink or rend:  
Let's overboard, goods, mast, and tanckling send.  
Save but the Hul the Master, and the men;  
And we may live to scour the seas again.   

Believe it England, howsoever some  
Who should foresee thy plagues before they come,  
Endeavour to persuade thee that thou hast  
A hopeful time, and that the worst is past.  
Yet, I dare boldly tell thee, thou hast nigh  
Worn out God's patience by impiety.  
And that unless the same we do renew  
By penitence our folly we shall rue.   

But what am I, that me thou shouldst believe?  
Or unto what I tell, credit give?  
It may be this adulterous Generation  
Expecteth tokens of her desolation;  
And therefore I will give them signs of that  
Which they are now almost arrived at.   

Nor signs, so mystical as most of those  
Which did the ruin of the Jews disclose;  
But sings as evident as are the day.  
For know ye Britain's, that what God did say  
Jerusalem's destruction should foreshow,  
He spoke to every State that should ensue.  
And that he nought of her or to her spoke,  
For hers alone, but also for our sake.   

One sign that God's long-suffering we have tired,  
And that his patience is almost expired,  
Is that, that many judgements he hath sent,  
And still removed them ere we did repent.  
For God (Even by his holiness) did swear,  
(Saith Amos) such a Nation he will tear  
With briars, and with fishhooks rend away  
The whole posterity of such as they.   

Clean teeth (saith God) I gave them; and with bread  
In many places, them I scantly fed;  
And yet they sought me not: then I restrained  
The dews of heaven, upon this field I rained,  
And not on that; yea, to one City came  
Some two or three, to quench their thirsty flame;  
Yet to return to me no care they took;  
With blastings then, and Meldews I them struck;  
And mixed amongst their fruits the palmerworm  
Yet they their lives did not a jot reform,  
Then did I send the Pestilence (said he)  
Devoured, by the sword, their young men be;  
Their Horse are slain, and up to Heaven ascends  
Their stink; yet I discover no amends.   

The self same things thy God in thee hath done,  
Oh England! yet, here follows thereupon  
So small amendment, that they are a sign  
To thee; and their sharp Judgement will be thine.   

The second token which doth fore-declare  
When Cities, States, and Realms, declining are,  
Even Christ himself hath left us: for, (saith he)  
when Desolation shall approaching be,  
Of wars, and warlike rumours ye shall hear;  
Rare signs and tokens will in heaven appear;  
Down from the Firm ament the stars shall fall;  
The hearts of many men, then, sail them shall;  
There will be many scandals and offences;  
Great Earthquakes, schisms, Dearths, and Pestilences,  
Realm, Realm, and Nation, Nation, shall oppose;  
The nearest friends shall be the greatest foes,  
Against the Church shall many tyranniz●;  
Deceivers, and false Prophets, shall arise;  
In every place shall wickedness abound;  
and charity shall very cold be found.  
This Christ himself did Prophecy: and we  
Are doubtless blind, unless confessed it be,  
That at this hour, upon this kingdom here,  
These marks of desolation viewed are.  
How often have we seen prodigious lights,  
O' respread the face of heaven in moonless nights?  
How many dreadful Meteors, have there been  
In this our Climate, lately heard and seen?  
Who knoweth not that but a while ago  
A great Eclipse did threat, if not foreshow  
God's Judgements? In what age, to fore did hear  
So many, who did Saints and Scars appear,  
Fall (as it were) from heaven? Or who hath heard  
Of greater eathquakes, than hath lately scared  
These quarters of the world? How oft, the touch,  
Of famine have we had? But, when so much  
Devoured by the Pestilence were we,  
As in this present year our folks shall be,  
Of wars, and martial rumours, never more  
Were heard within these confines heretofore;  
When were all kingdoms, and all Nations through  
The world, so opposite as they are now?  
I've been in no country, whether nigh or far,  
But is engaged or threatened with some war.  
All places, either present woes bewail;  
Or else things feared make men's hearts to fail.  
False Prophets, and Deceivers we have many;  
We scarcely find integrity in any:  
The name of Christ begins in every place  
To suffer persecution and disgrace;  
And we the greatest jeopardies are in,  
Among our neighbours, and our nearest kin,  
Strange heresies do every where increase,  
Disturbing Zion, and exiling peace.  
Impiety doth multiply. True love  
Grows cold. And if these tokens do not prove  
Our fall draws on, unless we do amend?  
I know not when our folly shall have end.   

A third apparent sign which doth declare  
When some devouring plague approacheth near,  
Is when a Nation doth anew begin  
To let Idolatry to enter in:  
And openly or secretly give place  
To heresy where truth established was:  
Or, when like Jeroboam to possess  
An outward profit, or a temporal peace,  
They either change Religions, or devise  
A worship which doth mix Idolatries  
With truth. For this, even for this very crime,  
The King of Ashur, in Hosea's time  
Led Isr'el captive. And, both from the sight  
Of God, and from the house of David quite  
They were cut off forever, and did neither  
Serve God nor Idols; but even both together;  
In such a mixed Religion as is that  
Which some among us, now have aimed at.   

Mark England, and I prithee mark it well,  
If this offence which ruined Israel,  
On thee appear not: and if so it be,  
Amende, or look for what it threatens thee.   

The fourth true token, which doth fore-express  
The ruin of a Land for wickedness,  
Is when the Priests and Magistrates begin,  
To grow extremely impudent in sin.  
This Sign the Prophet Micah giveth us;  
And he (not I) to you cries loudly thus:  
hear, O ye house of Jacob, and all ye  
That Princes of the house of Israel be:  
Ye justice hate, and ye pervert what's good;  
Ye build the walls of Zion up with blood;  
Jerusalem with sin, ye up have reared,  
Your judges pass their censures for reward;  
Your Priests do preach for hire, your Prophets do  
Like them; and prophecy for money too.  
And, for this cause shall Zion mount (saith he)  
even like a ploughed field become to be;  
And like a forest hill where bushes grow,  
The city of Jerusalem shall show.   

Change but the names, oh Britain! and that token  
Of desolation unto thee is spoken.  
For, what this day thy Priests and Prophets are,  
Their actions and the people's cries declare.   

A fifth sure evidence, that the cause, for which God among  
Thy ruins will entomb thy fame ere long  
(If thou repent not) is this, that thou  
Dost every day the more ungodly grow,  
By how much more the blessed means of grace  
Doth multiply itself in every place.  
God sends unto thee many learned Preachers  
Apostles, Pastors, and all kind of teachers;  
His Visions and his Prophecies upon thee  
He multiplies: and (that he might have won thee  
To more sincerity) on all occasions  
By counsel, by entreaty, and persuasions,  
He hath advised, assured and besought thee,  
With precept upon precept he hath taught thee;  
By line on line, by miracle, by reason,  
In every place, in season, out of season;  
By little and by little, and by much  
Sometime at once: Yet is thy nature such,  
That still thou waxest worse; and in the room  
Of pleasant Grapes, more thistles daily come:  
And thou that art so haughty, and so proud,  
For this, shalt vanish like an empty cloud;  
And, as a Lion, Leopard, or a bear,  
Thy God, for this, shall thee in pieces tear.  
If thou suppose my muse did this device,  
Go take it from Hosea's prophecies.   

The six undoubted signal when the last  
Good days of sinful Realms are almost past,  
Is when the people near to God shall draw  
In word, to make profession of his Law:  
And by their tongues his praises forth declare!  
Yet in their hearts from him continue far.  
To such a Land, their destiny displays  
Isajah: for even thus the Prophet says:  
God will produce a marvel in that state  
And do a work that men shall wonder at;  
The wisdom of their wisest counsellor,  
shall perish, and their prudent men shall err.  
On their deep Counsels, sorrow shall attend;  
Their secret plots shall have a dismal end;  
Their giddy projects which they have devised,  
shall as the potter's Clay be quite despised.  
Like Carmel, Lebanon, shall seem, and he  
Like Lebanon, shall make mount Carmel be.  
Their pleasant Fields like deserts shall appear;  
And there shall Gardens be, where deserts are.   

God keep (thou British isle) this plague from thee  
For signs thereof upon thy body be.  
Thou of the purest worship mak'st profession;  
Yet, waxest more impure in thy condition.  
Thou boastest of the knowledge of God's word,  
Yet thereunto in manners to accord  
Thou dost refuse. Thou makest protestation  
Of piety; yet hatest reformation.  
Yea when when thy tongue doth sing of praise divine,  
Thy heart doth plot some temporal design.  
And some of those, who in this wise are Holy,  
Begin to show their wisdom will be folly.  
For when from sight their snares they deepest hide,  
By God almightles eyes they are espied.   

The seventh symptom of a dreadful blow,  
If not of a perpetual overthrow,  
Is when a slumbering spirit doth surprise  
A Nation, and hath closed up their eyes:  
Or when the Prophets and the Seers are  
So clouded, that plain truths do not appear:  
Or when the Visions evidently seen  
Are passed by, as if they had not been:  
Or when to Nations who can read, God gives  
His Book●; and thereof doth unseal the leaves,  
And bids them read the same, which they to do  
Deny, or plead unableness thereto.  
Black signs are these. For if that book to them,  
Still dark; or as a Book unsealed seem;  
Or, if they heed no more what here is said,  
Than they that have the Book and cannot read;  
The judgements last repeated, are the doom,  
That shall on such a stupid Nation come.   

This sign is come on us, for, lo, unsealed  
God's Book is now amongst us, and revealed  
Are all the Mysteries which do concern  
The children of this present age to learn.  
So well hath hath he instructed this our Land,  
That we not only read, but understand  
The secrets of his Word. The prophecies  
Of his chief Seers, are before our eyes,  
Unveiled: true interpretations  
Are made, and many proper applications  
Even to ourselves, yet is our heart so blind,  
That what we know and see we do not mind.  
We hear and speak, and much ado we keep,  
But we as senseless are as men asleep.  
What then we do. Yea, while that we are talking.  
What snares are in the way where we are walking,  
We heed not what we say, but pass along;  
And, many times, are fast ensnared among  
Those mischiefs, and those faults we did condemn,  
Before our tongues have lost to mention them.  
For our neglect of God in former times,  
(Or for some present unrepented crimes)  
A slumbering Spirit so possesseth us,  
That our estate is wondrous dangerous.  
We see and hear, and tell to one another  
Our perils, yet we headlong hast together  
To wilful ruin, and are grown so mad,  
That when our friends a better course persuade,  
Or seek to stop us (when they see we run  
That way in which we cannot ruin shun)  
We persecute those men with all our soul,  
That we may damn ourselves without control.   

The eight plain sign, by which I understand  
That some devouring mischiefs are at hand,  
Is that maliciousness which I do see  
Among professors of one Faith to be.  
We have but one Father and one Mother,  
Do persecute and torture one another.  
So hotly we oppose not antichrist,  
As we our fellow Brethren do resist.  
The Protestant, the Protestant defies;  
And we ourselves, ourselves do scandalize.  
Our Church we have exposed to more scorn;  
And her fair seamless Vestment rent, and torn,  
By our own fury, more than by their spite  
Who are to us directly opposite,  
To save an apple we the tree destroy,  
And quarrels make for every needless toy,  
From us if any brother differ shall  
But in a crotchet, we upon him fall  
As eagerly, and with as bitter hate,  
As if we knew him for a Reprobate.  
And what ever all this doth signify,  
Saint Paul (by way of caveat) doth imply.  
Take heed (saith he) lest while ye bite each other,  
You of yourselves, consumed be together.   

Another sign, which causeth me to fear,  
That our confusion is approaching near,  
Are those divisions, which I have espied  
In Church and commonwealth, this present tide.  
We cannot hide these rents; for they do gape  
So wide, that some their jaws can hardly scape.  
Would God, the way to close them up we knew,  
Else what they threaten time will shortly show;  
For, all men know, a City or a Land,  
within itself divided, cannot stand.   

The last black sign that here I will repeat,  
(Which doth to kingdom's desolation threat)  
Is when the hand of God almighty brings;  
The People into bondage to their Kings.  
I say, when their own Judges shall take delight,  
Those whom he should protect, to rob, and smite.  
When they who fed the Sheep, the Sheep shall kill,  
And eat them; and suppose they do ill.  
When God gives up a Nation unto those  
That are their neighbours, that they may, as foes,  
Devour them. When (Oh England!) thou shalt see  
This come to pass, a sign it is to thee  
That God is angry, and a certain token  
That into pieces thou shalt quite be broken:  
If not by foreign strength: by force at home;  
And that thy greater torment will become.   

This vengeance, and this fearful preparation,  
Of bringing ruin on a sinful nation,  
If they remain impenitentent the Lord  
Doth menace; and by Zachary record,  
To make us wise. Oh! let us therefore learn,  
What now is coming on us to discern.  
For, (Well considered, if all things were)  
From this captivity, we seem not far.  
It now already seems to be projected;  
Nay, little wants of being quite effected.   

But, if God should from us, as God forbid,  
Take him, as once he good Josiah did,  
He also will (unless we mend) perchance,  
In times to come, a shepherd here advance,  
Who shall not plead for what his Young men say  
Is just; but take the same, perforce, away.  
An Idol Shepheard, who shall neither care  
To find or seek for those that starved are;  
Nor guard the Lambs; nor cure what hath a wound;  
Nor cherish those that firm to him are found;  
But take the fat, and rob them of their fleeces  
And eat their flesh, and break their bones in pieces.   

More signs I might, as yet, commemorate,  
To show God's patience is nigh out of date.  
But these are signs enough, and so apparent,  
That twenty more will give no better warrant  
To what I speak. Yet, if these false appear,  
That's one sign more, our fall approacheth near.  
Be mindful, therefore, while it is to Day;  
And let no good occasion slip away.  
Now rend your hearts, ye Britons, wash & rinse them  
From all corruption, from all evil cleanse them.  
Go offer up the pleasing sacrifice  
Of Righteousness, from folly turn your eyes,  
Seek peace, and follow it, with strict pursuit:  
Relieve the needy, judgement execute;  
Refresh the weary, right the fatherless:  
The strangers, and the widows wants redress:  
Give praise to God, depend with lowly faith,  
On him, and what is holy Spirit faith:  
Remember what a price thy ransom cost;  
And now redeem the time that thou hast lost.   

Return, return thou (oh back-sliding Nation)  
And let thy tears prevent thy desolation.  
As yet, thou Mayst return: for, God's embrace  
Is open for thee, if thou hast the grace,  
To give it meeting. Yet, repentance may  
Prevent the mischiefs of that evil day,  
Which here is menaced: yet, thou Mayst have peace,  
And by discreet endeavouring, increase  
Each outward grace, and every inward thing,  
Which will additions to thy comfort bring.   

If this thou do; these fearful threatenings all,  
(Repeated here) to mercy's change he shall.  
We cannot fay, it will excuse thee from  
All chastisement, or that no blow shall come.  
For, peradventure, thou so long hast been  
Unpenitent, that some loud crying sin  
Hath waked that Vengeance, which upon thy crimes  
Must fall (as once in Jeremiah's times)  
Without prevention; to exemplify  
God's hate of sin to all posterity.  
But, sure we are, that if he doth not stay  
His threatened hand, the stroke that he doth lay  
Will fall the lighter; and become a blessing,  
Thy future joys, and virtues more increasing,  
Than all that large prosperity and rest.  
Which thou, so long together hast possessed.  
God (with a writer's Ink-horn) one hath sent,  
To set a mark on them that shall repent;  
And bids him promise in his Name, that they  
Who shall, recanting, leave their evil way,  
And in their hearts, bewail the grievous crimes,  
And miseries of Zion, in their times.  
That they shall be secure and saved from  
The hand of these destroyers which must come:  
Or else by their destruction find a way  
To that repairing which will ne'er decay.  
Yea, thou, oh Britain! if thou couldst reform  
Thy manners, might●st expel the dreadful storm  
Now threatened; and thy foes (who triumph would  
The ruin of thy glory to behold,  
And jeer thee when thou fallest) soon shall see  
Thy God returning and avenging thee  
On their insultings: yea, with angry blows  
He would effect their shameful overthrows.  
Or turn their hearts. For when from sin men cease,  
God makes their enemies and them at peace.  
Moreover thou shalt have in thy possessing,  
Each inward grace, and every outward blessing;  
Thy fruitful Herds shall in rich pastures feed;  
Thy soil shall plenteously increase thy seed;  
Thy Flock, shall neither shepherd's want, nor meat;  
Clean provender, thy stabled beast shall eat;  
There shall be Rivers in thy Dales, and Fountains  
Upon the tops of all thy noblest Mountains:  
The Moon shall cast upon thee beams as bright  
As now the Sun, and with a seven fold light  
The Sun shall bless thee. He that Rules in thee,  
To all his people reconciled shall be;  
And they shall find themselves no whit deceived,  
In those good hopes which are of him conceived;  
But he, (and they, who shall his throne possess  
When he is gone) shall reign in righteousness;  
And be more careful of thy weal by far,  
Than Parents of their children's profits are:  
Thy Magistrates, with wisdom shall proceed  
In all that shall be counselled or decreed.  
As Harbours, when it blows tempestuously;  
As Rivers into places over-dry;  
As Shadows are to men oppressed with heat;  
As to a hungry stomach wholesome meat;  
To thee so welcome, and as much contenting,  
Thy Nobles will become, on thy repenting.  
Thy Priests shall preach true doctrines in thy temples,  
And make it fruitful by their good examples.  
Thy God with righteousness shall them array,  
And hear and answer them, when they do pray.  
Thy eyes that yet are blinded, shall be clear;  
Thy ears, that than are deafened, then shall hear;  
Thy tongue, that stammers now, shall then speak plain;  
Thy heart shall perfect understanding gain;  
The preaching of the Gospel shall increase;  
Thy God shall make thy comforts and thy peace,  
To flow as doth a River; they who plant,  
The blessing of their labour shall not want;  
Thy poorest people shall at full be fed;  
The meek shall of no tyrant stand in dread;  
Thou shalt have grace and knowledge, to avoid  
Those things whereby the rest may be annoyed;  
Thou shalt possess thy wished blessings all;  
And God shall hear the still before thou call.   

But as a Chime, whose frets disordered grow,  
Can never cause itself in tune to go,  
Nor chime at all, until some cunning hand  
Doth make the same again in order stand:  
Or, as the Clock, whose plummets are not weight,  
Strikes sometimes one for three, and six for eight;  
So fareth it with men and kingdoms all,  
When once from their integrity they fall.  
They may their motion hurry out of frame,  
But have no power to rectify the same.  
That curious hand which first those pieces wrought,  
Must mend them still, or they will still be nought.   

To thee I therefore now my speech convert,  
Thou Famous Artist, who Creator art  
Of heaven and earth, and of those goodly spheres,  
That now have whirled many thousand years.  
(And shall until thy pleasure gives it ending)  
In their perpetual motion without mending.  
Oh! be thou pleased, by thy powerful hand,  
To set in order this depraved Land.   

Our whole foundation, Lord, is out of course;  
And every thing still groweth worse and worse,  
The way that leads quite from thee, we have took  
Thy Covenant, and all thy laws are broke;  
In mischiefs, and in folly, is our pleasure;  
Our crying sins have almost filled their measure;  
Yet, every day we had a new transgression  
And still abuse thy favour and compassion.   

Our governor, our Prelates, and our Nobles,  
Have by their sins increase, increased our trouble.  
Our Priests, and all the people, have misgone;  
All kind of evil deeds, we all have done.  
We have not lived as those means of grace  
Require, which thou hast granted lo this place:  
But rather worse than many who have had  
Less helps than we, of being better made.  
No Nation under heaven so lewed hath been,  
That had so many warnings for their sin,  
And such perpetual callings on, as we,  
To leave our wickedness, and turn to thee.  
Yet, we in stead of turning, forth went;  
And when thy Mercies and thy Plagues were sent  
To pull us back; they seldom wrought our fray,  
Or moved to repentance one whole day.  
No blessing, no affliction, hath a power,  
To move compunction in us, for one hour,  
Unless thou work it. All that I can speak  
And all that I have spoken, till thou break  
And mollify the heart, will fruitless be,  
Not only in my hearers, but in me.  
If thou prepare not way for more esteem,  
All these Remembrances, will foolish seem,  
Nay these, in stead of moving to repent,  
Will indignation move, and discontent;  
Which will men's hardened hearts obdurate more,  
And make their fault much greater than before.  
Unless thou give a blessing, I may strive  
As well to make a marble stone alive,  
As to effect my purpose: yea, all this,  
Like wholesome counsel to a mad man is,  
And I for my good meaning shall be torn  
In pieces, or exposed be to scorn.  
For they against thy word do stop their ear,  
And wild in disobedience, will not hear.   

In this, we all confess ourselves to blame,  
And that we therefore have deserved shame.  
Yea Lord, we do acknowledg●, that for this,  
There nothing else to us pertaining is,  
(Respecting our own worth) but desolation,  
And final rooting out, without compassion.   

But gracious God, though such our merit be,  
Yet mercy still pertaineth unto thee.  
To thee the act of pard'ning and forgiving,]  
As much belongs (oh Father everliving)  
As plagues to us: and it were better far  
Our sins had less than their deservings are,  
Then that thy Clemency should be outgone;  
By all the wickedness that can be done.  
As well as theirs whose lives now left them have,  
Thou canst command those bodies from the grave,  
Who stink, and putrify, and buried be  
In their corruption. Such, oh Sord! are we,  
Oh! call us from this grave, and show thy power  
Upon this much polluted Land of our,  
Forgive us all our slips, our negligences,  
Our sins of knowledge, and our ignorances;  
Our daring wickedness; our bloody crimes,  
And all the faults of past and present times.  
Permit not thy just wrath to burn for ever;  
In thy displeasure do not still persever,  
But call us from that pit of Death, and Sin,  
And from that path of hell which we are in.   

Remember, that this vineyard hath a Vine,  
Which had her planting by that hand of thine,  
Remember, when from Egypt thou remou'dst it,  
With what entire affection, then, thou lov'dst it.  
How thou didst weed and dress it heretofore,  
How thou didst fence it from the forest Bore,  
And think how sweet a vintage than it brought,  
When thy first work upon them thou hadst wrought.   

Remember, that without thy daily care,  
The choicest plants, soon wild and fruitless are,  
And that as long as thou dost prune and dress,  
The sourest Vine shall bring a sweet increase.   

Remember, also Lord, how still that I oe,  
Who first pursued us, doth seek to sow  
His tares among thy wheat; and to his power,  
Break down thy fence, and trample and devour  
The seeds of grace, as soon as they do sprout;  
And is too strong for us to keep him out.  
Oh! let not him prevail, such harm to do us,  
As he desires, but Lord, return unto us.  
Return in mercy: though thou find us slack  
To come ourselves, fetch, draw, and pull us back  
From our own courses, by thy grace divine,  
And set, and keep us, in each way of thine.   

Vouchsafe that every one in his degree,  
The secret error of his life may see,  
And in his lawful calling all his days,  
Perform his Christian duty to thy praise.  
Give peace this troublous age; for perilous  
The times are grown, and no man fights for us  
But thou, oh God nor do we seek or crave  
That any other Champion we may have.  
Nay, give us troubles, if thy will be so,  
That we may have thy strength to bear them too;  
And in affliction thee more glorify,  
Then here heretofore in our prosperity.  
For when thy countenance on us did shine,  
Those Lands that boasted of their corn and wine,  
Had not that joy which thou didst then inspire,  
When we were boiled and fried in blood and fire.   

Oh! give us again that joy, although it cost us  
Our lives. Restore thou what our sin hath lost us,  
Thy Church in these Dominions. Lord preserve  
In purity: and teach us thee to serve  
In holiness and righteousness, until  
We shall the number of our days fulfil,  
Defend these Nations from all overthrows,  
By foreign enemies, or homebred foes.  
Our State with every grace and virtue bless,  
Which may thine honour and its own increase.  
Inflame our Nobles with more love and zeal,  
To thy true Spouse, and to his commonweal,  
Inspire our Clergy in their several places,  
With knowledge, and all sanctifying graces;  
That by their lives and Doctrines they may rear  
Those parts of Zion which decayed are.  
Awake this People give them souls that may  
Believe thy word, and thy commands obey.  
The plagues deserved already, save them from.  
More watchful make them, in all times to come.  
For blessings past, let hearty thanks be given.  
For present ones, let sacrifice to heaven  
Be daily offered up. For what is needing  
(Or may be useful in the time succeeding)  
Let faithful Prayers to thy throne be sent,  
With heart and hands upright and innocent:  
And let all this the better furthered be,  
Through these Remembrances now brought by me.   

For which high favour, and imboldning thus  
My spirit, in a time so dangerous;  
For choosing me, that am so despicable,  
To be employed in this honourable  
And great employment (which I more esteem,  
Than to be crowned with a Diadem)  
For thy enabling me in this Embassage;  
For bringing to conclusion this my Message;  
For sparing of my life, when thousands died,  
Before, behind me, and on every side;  
For saving of me many a time since then,  
When I had forfeited my soul again;  
For all those griefs and poverties, by which  
I am in better things made great, and rich,  
Than all that wealth and honour brings man to,  
Wherewith the world doth keep so much ado:  
For all which thou to me on earth hast given;  
For all, which doth concern my hopes of heaven;  
For these and those innumerable graces,  
Vouchsafed me at, at sundry times and places,  
Unthought upon, unfeigned praise I render:  
Lnd for a living sacrifice I tender  
To thee (oh God) my body, soul, and all,  
Which mine I may, by thy donation, call.   

Accept it blessed Maker, for his sake  
Who did this offering acceptable make  
By giving up himself. Oh! look thou not  
Upon those blemishes which I have got  
By natural corruption; or by those  
Polluted acts which from that ulcer flows,  
According to my skill, I have enroled  
Thy Mercies; and thy Justice I have told.  
I have not hid thy workings in my breast;  
But as I could, their power I have expressed.  
Among our great assemblies, to declare  
Thy will and pleasure, lo, I do not fear:  
And though by Princes I am checked and blamed;  
To speak the truth, I am no whit ashamed.  
Oh! show thou, Lord, thy mercy so to me,  
And let thy love and truth, my guardians be.   

Forgive me all the follies of my youth;  
My faulty deeds; the errors of my mouth;  
The wanderings of my heart, and every one  
Of those good works that I have left undone.  
Forgive me all wherein I did amiss,  
Since thou employdest me in performing this:  
My doubting of thy calling me unto it,  
My fears, which oft disheartened me to do it;  
My sloth, my negligences, my evasions,  
And my deferring it, on vain occasions,  
When I had vowed that no work of mine,  
Should take me up, till I had finished thine.   

Lord, pardon this; and let no future sin,  
Nor what already hath committed been,  
profane this Work, or cause the same to be  
The less effectual to this Land, or me.  
But to myself (Oh Lord) and others, let it  
So moving be, that we may ne'er forget it.  
Let not the evil, nor the good effect  
It takes, or puff me up, or me deject:  
Or make me think that I the better am,  
Because I tell how others are to blame:  
But let it keep me in a Christian fear,  
Still humbly heedful what my actions are.  
Let all those observations I have had,  
Of others errors, be occasion made  
To mind me of mine own. And lest I err,  
Let every man be my Remembrancer;  
With so much charity, as I have sought  
To bring their duties more into our thought.  
And if in any sin I linger long,  
Without repentance; Lord, let every tongue  
That names me, check me for it: and to me  
Become, what I to others fain would be.   

Oh! Let me not be like those busy brooms,  
Which having cleansed many nasty rooms,  
Do make themselves the fouler: but sweet Father,  
Let me be like the precious Diamond rather,  
Which doth by polishing another stone,  
The better shape and lustre, set upon  
His own rough body. Let my life be such,  
As that man's ought to be, who knoweth much  
Of thy good pleasure. And most awful God,  
Let none of those who spread of me abroad  
Unjust reports, the devil's purpose gain,  
By making these my warnings prove in vain  
To those that hear them, but let such disgaces  
Reflect with shame, upon their author's faces,  
till they repent. And let their scandal serve  
Within my heart true meekness to preserve;  
And that humility which else perchance,  
Vainglory, or some natural arrogance  
Might overthrow, if I should think upon  
With carnal thoughts, some good my lines have done.  
Restrain, moreover, them who out of pride,  
Or ignorance, this Labour shall deride.  
Make them perceive who, shall prefer a story,  
Composed for some temporal friend's glory,  
Before those Poems which thy works declare,  
That vain and witless their opinions are;  
And if by thee I was appointed Lord,  
Thy judgements and thy merc●es to record,  
As here I do, set thou thy mark on those,  
Who shall despitefully the same oppose:  
And let it pulikely be seen of all,  
Till of their malice they repent them shall.   

As I my conscience have discharged here,  
Without concealing aught for love, or fear;  
From furious men let me preserved be,  
And from the scorn of ●ools deliver ●e  
Vouchsafe at length some comforting reflection,  
According to the years of my affliction.  
On me, for good, some token please to show,  
That they who see it, may thy bounty know;  
Rejoice, with fellow-feeling of the same,  
And join with me, in praising of thy Name.  
And lest (oh Lord!) some weak ones may despise  
My words because of such necessities  
As they have brought upon me, by their spite,  
Who to my studies have been opposite;  
Oh! give me that, which may sufficient be  
To make them know, that I have served thee;  
And that my labours are to be regarded,  
Although they seem not outwardly rewarded.  
These honours, or that wealth I do not crave,  
Which they affect, who most endeavoured have  
To please the world; I only ask to gain  
But food and raiment, Lord, for all my pains,  
And that the slanders and the poverties  
Wherewith my patience thou shalt exercise,  
Make not these Lines, or me become a scorn,  
Nor leave me to the worldward quite forlorn.   

Yet in preferring of this humble suit,  
I make not my request so absolute  
As that I will capitulate, or tie  
To such conditions, thy dread Majesty;  
For if to honour but an earthly prince,  
My Muse had sung, it had been impudence  
To prompt his bounty; or to doubt he might  
Forget to do my honest Labours right.  
Do therefore as thou pleasest: only give  
Thy servant grace, contentedly to live,  
And to be thankful whatsoever shall  
In this my weary Pilgrimage befall,  
Such things thou dost command me to require  
With earnest, and an absolute desire  
With which I come: beseeching I may find  
Thy love coutinue, though none else be kind  
That blessedness eternal I may get,  
Though all I lose on earth to compass it,  
And that at last when my account is even,  
My payment may be summoned up in heaven:  
Lord, this will please me, call me quickly thither,  
And pay me there my wages altogether;  
Not that which mine by merit seems to be,  
But that which by thy mere grace is due to me.    

A celestial VISION Of Future EVENTS.  
TH' Armi-potent, all-seeing, all-Creator,  
Th' almighty artisan of earth's Thearer,  
Having enclosed in his unclasped book.  
When heaven and earth their first foundation took,  
And therein registered this firm Conclusion,  
An universal end, and all-Confusion  
Of all the world, which when once discreated,  
Should be refined, renewed and recreated,  
This great Decree will doubtless ratify,  
And for th' elects sake, do't more speedily,  
As Sibyls, Prophets, and Apostles wise,  
Yea, Christ himself did truly Prophetize.  
Then pallid Death, whose ash-pale face did fright  
The stoutest Champion, most un-daunted Sprite,  
Having at length with strength enough displayed,  
His all-tryumphant trophies, having made  
A massacre and havoc of all flesh,  
Thinking to Nimrodize it still afresh,  
Like proud disdainful Pompey at the last  
Shall meet our Caesar, and at's feet shall cast  
The glory of his mortal-wounding might,  
Shall lose his fatal sting which did so bite  
And pierce the Heart of every mortal creature,  
T'reduce to dust each wormlings dusty feature.  
Death being then man's fatal final foe,  
Him, Christ victoriously shall overthrow,  
From forth his claws shall strongly wrest the conquest,  
And fell all-felling Death at's feet thus vanquished,  
But as the Corner-creeping thief doth watch  
With sure advantage unawares to catch,  
The careless Servants left the House to keep,  
Whom when he findeth snorting fast asleep,  
Suddenly sets upon them, thus doth prey  
On's hoped-for Booty, and then hasts away.  
Or as it fares in a fair Summer morning,  
When the Great Light the azure skie's adorning,  
And new-now risen from th' Antipodes,  
His radiant rays displays the world to please:  
At whose sweet sight the pretty Lark doth rise,  
With warbling notes wavering i'th' lofty Skies,  
Earth having oped her Shop of sweet perfumes  
Of fragrant flowers, herbs, plants, and pleasant blooms;  
T● gentle wind fans coolness through the air,  
The sun's increasing heat thus to impair;  
Each Creature much delighted at the heart,  
To see this sight; now ready to take part  
Of pleasure, in this pleasant day begun,  
When as upon a sudden, o'er the Sun  
A mighty rain-swollen-cloud begins to spread;  
And furious winds through th' air are nimbly fled  
From forth their Stations, blustering up and down,  
The angry Heavens upon the earth'gin frown  
And from their Spouts pour down great streaming showers,  
Dashing and washing trees, plants, herbs and Flowers,  
With light-heeled lightning, and such Cannon-thunder,  
As Heaven and Earth were reft and cleft in sunder,  
Damping the former hope of sweet delight,  
By this so sudden change amazing sight;  
Even so this second coming of Christ Jesus  
From sins most heavy hateful Yoke to ease us,  
To purge the world of its impurity,  
To Plague the Quakers incredulity,  
T'avenge the blood of his dear slaughtered Saints,  
To give an end to their sad sighs and plaints,  
Shall sudden be, will come at unawares,  
When worldly men are plunged in worldly Cares,  
When lustful men are most a-sensuallizing,  
When fawning Gnathoes most are temporising,  
When as voluptuous-vain-lings sport and play,  
When they do least expect, suspect this day,  
Then shall this unsure-certain doomsday come,  
To some most welcome, woeful unto some,  
Unto the wicked terrible and fearful,  
Unto the godly comfortable and cheerful,  
Unto the Hectors a day of lamentation,  
Unto the Quozils, a day of consolation,  
Sharp to the wicked, joyful to the just,  
God's wrath the sinner scattering as the dust,  
Then as i'th' days of No, with wondrous change  
Shall dire destruction int'all places range.  
As that, with waters woeful inundation:  
So, this, with fires all-spoyling conflagration.  
As, that, with water, cold the heat of sin,  
Wherewith the world had then inflamed been:  
So this, with fire to burn the rotten sticks,  
Of want of Love (combustible dry kicks)  
Our Globy-Gran-dame Earth, shall then all flame,  
Like a huge bonfire, and about the same  
The bound-less, groundless, sea, bright Fishes Station,  
Shall be exciccated with strange admiration:  
And that great-little, nimble scale-armed host,  
Eo longer shall through the watery region.  
Yea, then that huge Leviathan (seas wonder)  
Shall cease his sport, and roaring voice like thunder.  
Then heaven and earth, shall variated be,  
To pure perfection in the highest degrees;  
Then all the spheres, the Stars, and heavenly motions,  
Which serv●d for time-distinctions, certain notions,  
Planets and Plants, which man on earth did use,  
Their power in man and virtue than shall lose.  
Yea, all vicissitudes, all alternations  
of heav●n and earth; shall leave their antique stations,  
Shall be dissolved, cease, and have an end,  
Mountains shall melt, and to low Dales descend.  
The Creatures then, which groan and moan in pain,  
Freed at the least, if not renewed again;  
Then shall be heard a loud heart-daunting voice  
A heavenly trump shall sound with echoing noise  
By God's all-potent power and providence,  
Shall all flesh of this vast circumference  
Hear and appear by that loud trumpets summon,  
At this Grand-sessions all the world in common.  
Then rattling, roaring thunder shall be heard,  
Whereby the wicked shall be frighted, feared,  
Than all the world shall be as flaming fire,  
Christ our just-gentle Judge with love and ire  
Shall come with all the host of winged Legions,  
Soaring about the bright-star spangled Regions.  
With whom apostles, Prophets, Martyrs fly  
In complete glory in the glistering sky.  
Mercy and Justice marching cheek by jowl  
Shall his divine triumphant Chariot roll,  
Whose wheels shall shine with Lightning all about,  
With beams of glory each-where blazing out.  
Who shall in's hand a book in folio bear,  
Wherein man's faults and follies written were.  
Then shall the wicked sin-polluted Goats  
Engulfed in sorrow, roar with hideous notes,  
Howl, groan, and grieve, and lamentably moan  
At God's supernal and tribunal throne,  
Holding their hands at's bar with grief and horror;  
Shall hear the judge's sentence to their terror,  
Their self-accusing conscience telling them  
That they are Guilty, and will them condemn.  
And Satan's Sergeants at their elbows stand,  
To bear their souls and bodies out of hand  
To his infernal-jail, with fiery chains  
To bind them fast to hells ne'er ending paint.  
Their sin, I say, will stand at their right hand,  
And at their lest will damned devil's stand:  
Within, th' accusing conscience crying shame,  
Without them, all the world a burning flame:  
Under their feet, soul frying, gaping hell,  
And o'er their heads, their Judge most fierce and fell.  
Too late they then weep for unwept-for sin,  
Too late they wish they never born had been,  
Too late ashamed at heavens' most glorious Light,  
They wish, but vainly wish, that mountains might  
Them cover, smother, from heart-searching Judge,  
Thus rest of comfort, up and down they trudge.  
And then the just-chief-justice wrathfully,  
On's left hand, says to the wicked, Stand you by,  
You awless, lawless, wicked, hence, depart  
Into eternal terror, pain, and smart,  
Depart, I say, you cursed, go, begone  
Into the depth of hell's deep dungeon.  
That Prison where your damned souls must lie,  
And die a thousand deaths, yet never die.  
Where shall be weeping, walling, schreeks and groans,  
Gnashing of teeth, hell-howling, sighs and moans,  
devils tormenting you in flames eternal,  
With fearful frights, by hellish Fiends infernal,  
For ereta be sequestered from all joy.  
In endless, restless, mercy less annoy.  
O woeful wages, for their works of sin!  
O how much better they ne'er born had been!  
O that when they were born, they then had died,  
Then thus for sin, hell's horrors to abide!  
But as we see after a mighty storm,  
The sun shines out with beams bright, fair and warm:  
So the God-fearing, and sin-flying sheep,  
Which did Christ's Laws and hests sincerely keep,  
Which his distressed Members clothed and fed,  
Which to their power the poor had comforted,  
To these blessed saints, I say, at's right hand placed,  
Who shall be with celestial glory-graced,  
Whom he elected in be angelized,  
Whose souls in joy shall be immortallized;  
With sweet aspect to these will Christ thus say,  
Come, come you blessed of the Lord for aye.  
Come, near adopted brethren, come to me,  
With me you all shall glorified be,  
Receive the kingdom for you all prepared,  
Ere earth's foundation was to the Earth declared.  
For your good service under my faith's banner,  
You shall be crowned with my chief champions honour.  
Since for my sake you once lived in annoy:  
Now with me come into your Master's joy,  
Into that joy, whereof none shall be able  
You to deprive, it is so firm and stable.  
Thus than the lord-chief-justice having driven  
The rout of damned Reprobates from Heaven,  
And having with the Fan of his Decree,  
The chaff from Wheat thus cleansed and made free,  
Thus in a bundle having bound the tares,  
The con-corrupted heap of hellish wares:  
And by the power of's ireful Iron rod,  
His Foes beat down and under foot thus trod:  
His Church from all uncleanness purified,  
His sacred sons enthronised sanctified:  
Now shall they all with joy inexplicable,  
With great content, and comfort amiable,  
Behold and see the New-Jerusalem:  
The city of the Lord, vouchsafed to them.  
That sole Metropolis, that sacred seat,  
Wherein our trine-one Lord most good, most great  
Had long time promised, and now means to dwell,  
With all his Saints in virtue that excel.  
This being that sweet spouse spiritual,  
That blotless, spotless Bride celestial,  
To whom the Lamb Christ Jesus is contracted:  
Now ready that the nuptials be enacted.  
Who being in her Militant estate,  
Was then with blemishes contaminate,  
Was often in-sick, by her sinful course,  
And as it were in danger of divorce;  
By re-relapses and her oft offence,  
Though still protected by heaven's indulgence.  
But now being in her pure and glorious state,  
In heaven triumphant, uncontaminate,  
Conformed unto, confirmed in purity  
All-chast, now placed in sweet security,  
Now undivorceable, lovely and sweet,  
Is new, prepared her bridegroom thus to meet.  
Her eyes like Orient-Pearls, her cheeks with dimples:  
Most amiable, fair, free of least Pimples.  
Her lips like threads of scarlet, coral red,  
Her temples fair, her hair like golden thread.  
Her breath more savoury than mellifluous dew,  
Her breasts like two young Twin-Roes white of hue,  
Arrayed in fine pure linen, clean and white,  
In Vestures wrought with Gold which glister bright,  
And cast an odour ferous fragrant sent,  
Or Sp●kenard, Saffro●, and most pure ointment,  
Attended on by Virgins virtuous, chaste,  
To meet her Bridegroom, thus she forth doth haste.  
Oh sacred sight, sweet show, souls sovereign bliss,  
When thus the Bridegroom his dear spouse shall kiss,  
Marriage of Manna and of M● compacted,  
Whereby our souls with Christ are aye compacted,  
Prefigured in the sacred Sacrament  
Of Christ's last supper, given to this intent.  
Thus Christ (I say) his love, his dove shall meet,  
Thus they each other kindly then shall greet:  
Thus shall this glorious City then appear,  
Wherein the just shall reign with joy and cheer.  
But now ere we behold this blessed theatre,  
Let me herein be th' angel's Imitater,  
T● each Godly cedar here to signify  
This observation, of importancy:  
That since in this great city's model rare,  
We are to meet with wonders past compare,  
We shall behold inimitable art,  
Such as may quickly wonder-strike the heart,  
And seem to Reason's Sin bleared, flesh-blind Eye,  
T● exuperate the bounds of verity:  
Therefore a winged Messenger from Heaven.  
To the blessed Evangelist this charge hath given,  
To register in time concluding scrolls,  
To write this truth in Scriptures sacred rolls,  
That heavens' all-seeing, all foreseeing King,  
Truths spotless Fountain, faith's o'er-flowing-spring,  
That alpha and omega, first and last,  
Who was, is, shall be, when all times are past,  
Who is as powerful to perform his will:  
As ready-prest his Mercies to fulfil;  
Whose Promises are all Yea and Amen:  
Hath promised (and what's he among all men  
Hath ever known the Lord to falsify  
His covenant made, or from his word to fly?)  
Hath vowed (I say) that he'll all things renew,  
All imperfections bring to perfect hue,  
And make the joy of's glorified Saint,  
Endless and free from future moan and plaints.  
Yea, with such grace and forcible persuasion  
He seems to countermand all frail evasion  
Of doubting or demurring in this kind;  
As if he should have said; Man, be not blind;  
Let it not seem an intricate hard thing,  
That I, the Lord, these things to pass should bring,  
I, which of nothing all things did create,  
I, which but breathed, and made each animate,  
I, the arch-mover of what e'er did move,  
Shall aught to me so difficult then prove,  
As not my beck, and how stre●ght to obey?  
O no, be wise, do not my power gainsay,  
Be not incredulous to fear or doubt,  
For I the Lord, this thing will bring about:  
Not only for my power, but Promise sake,  
And the great care which o'er my Saints I take.  
To crown them all, with promised salvation,  
Their foes to fell to hell with dire damnation;  
That true believers than may find me true,  
Atheists their Infidelity may rue.  
Yea with a triple firm ingemination,  
Hath heaven confirmed this faithful Protestation.  
And what so scornfully, scoff●ing Cham so bold?  
What impious atheist dares it untrue hold  
What fearful, faultful, or unfaithful Cain,  
Doth dare this truth, deride, doubt or disdain?  
Doubtless the simplest peevish Grammatist,  
The rudest rustic, who yet never wist  
What 'tis to sound heaven's depth of prudency;  
Would soon condemn them of absurdity.  
O the great wisdom and indulgent Grace!  
Of heaven's great King, himself so to debase;  
Precept on Precept thus to us to teach,  
His will so oft t'inculcate and to preach.  
Line after line, yea now and then a little,  
Our faith more soundly to confirm and settle.  
Us to inform in his pure verity,  
Us to reform from infidelity.  
Therefore such faithless and incredulous,  
Such graceless, godless, irreligious,  
As do deny or will belie this truth;  
Shall be rejected to their endless ruth;  
Shall ne'er have part nor portion in this joy,  
But he obtruded unto ●i● annoy.  
And their too-light, too-late belief shall rue,  
When they receive their meed and merit due:  
When with the damned sin-co-operators  
They shall of woe and horror be partakers.  
Read then with faith, and what thou readst, desire,  
And that thou canst not comprehend, admire.  
But, here as at a stand, I stand amazed,  
That I a dust-born babe, poor, weak and crazed,  
Of stammering tongue, a child an understanding,  
Of heart, oft subject unto sins commanding.  
Should undertake (worm that I am) to pried  
Into the depth of so great mystery.  
That to describe, which asks an angel's skill,  
As Souls which of that sight hath had its fill;  
And yet all to● too little, to declare  
The beauty infinite, the splendour fair  
Of great Jehovah's Palace Chrystaline,  
All full of heu'nly glory, all divine;  
Which to admire the more I do contend,  
I more admire, and less do comprehend:  
And whose rare fabric and celestial sight,  
I rather could stand wondering at, than write.  
Pardon, oh therefore pardon Lord, I pray,  
My great presumption, let thy grace always  
Illuminate my sin-caecated heart:  
And to my lays thy sacred help impart.  
That nought may be misdone, misthought, missaid,  
O Lord I crave thy sacred sovereign aid.  
Give me a voice now, O Voice all divine!  
With heavenly fire inspire this breast of mine,  
And since thou. Lord, art able to declare  
By th' mouths of babes, which weak and tender are,  
Thy might and power: Lord (though unworthy I)  
Into my heart infuse abundantly  
The so sovereign graces of thy holy spirit,  
That my weak Pen, thy wondrous praise may write.  
That thy enthusiasm of prophetic skill,  
May on my lays like honey sweet distil:  
That by divine divine John's godly guide,  
I from the truth may not once step aside,  
But by his true prophetical direction,  
May methodize Jerusalem's perfection,  
That all that read it, may inflamed be  
With hearts desire therein to reign with thee,  
To make great haste and speedy properation,  
To this blessed city with due preparation.  
As God th' ereliving, all good giving King,  
The first that moves of every moving thing,  
When unto Moses he vouchsafed to show  
The Land of Canaan which didoverflo  
With Milk and honey, which he vowed to give  
To Jacobs' offspring, wherein they should live;  
On top of Pisgah Mountain did him place,  
That Moses might from thence behold the grace,  
The pleasure, wealth, and riches of that land,  
Which they should have by power of his right hand:  
Even so the Darling of Christ Jesus, John,  
Rapt in the Spirit was also placed, upon  
A high-topped Mount in Pathmos, whence he might  
Contemplate this great Cities glorious sight;  
A sight more glorious far, than that the Devil  
That subtle Serpent, firebrand of evil,  
Showed to our Saviour in his great temptation,  
When he with Satan fought for our Salvation.  
Thou well-beloved of thy Saviour deer,  
(Saith a blessed angel unto John) draw near,  
With joy come hither, stand a while by me,  
And thou the heavenly Canaan shalt see.  
The Churches glorified spiritual State,  
Thou shalt behold and sweetly contemplate  
The spotless Spouse, th' immaculate chaste Bride,  
With which the Lamb Christ Jesus will abide:  
The joy in God, and godly consolation,  
Th' elected Saints most holy habitation:  
Prepared for them by the trinity,  
Where they shall reign, remain eternally,  
Called the great city, Holy Canaan:  
Great, whose inhabitants none number can,  
Holy, because no putrifacting Sin,  
Nor least impurity can there creep in;  
Called Canaan, or new Jerusalem,  
A place of peace, Saints rest, soul's Diadem.  
Now this most holy heavn●ly Habitacle,  
Was most magnificent Saints receptacle  
with glory, which did from the Lord proceed,  
Whose most refulgent splendour did exceed  
The lustre of all precious stones most bright,  
They all come short of this most glorious Light.  
Yea, as fair transparent Jasper Green,  
So shall his Saints felicity be seen  
For ere to was most fresh and always flourish,  
Because God's power and prudence shall it nourish:  
It being pure as any crystal clear,  
Whereby not blot, not spot can there appear;  
No stains of foul terrestrial uncleanness,  
No gross pollutions or impure obsceanness,  
Shall this their joy obnub●late make dim,  
Or once eclipse their beauty, framed by him;  
God's gracious presence and great majesty  
Shall it so deck, decore and glorify.  
Here 'tis no trivial question, why the Light  
Of this blessed city's lustre equisite  
Is to a precious Jasper Stone compared;  
And why 't might not have been as well declared,  
By th' Sun, or Moon, or Stars most excellent,  
Or artificial Lights which men invent?  
All these are Lights, true; but too light they be,  
Compared with Light itself, i' th' highest degree.  
First, in regard the Suns far piercing rays,  
With its bright beams the eyesight much decays,  
If the beholder thereon fixtly look,  
Nor can his sight the brightness thereof brook;  
But precious stones have no obnoxious might,  
But with their splendour rarely do delight  
The eyes of their beholders, so that they  
The more on them they look, the more they may.  
Whereby, egregiously they intimate  
And to us point the sweet and delicate  
Delight we shall in heavenly knowledge find,  
So to affect and recreate the mind,  
As that the more we thereof do possess,  
The more our love whereof we shall express.  
Again the artificial lights men make,  
As torches, tapers, lamps, and candles, slake;  
Are soon burnt out, extinct, and therefore need  
Some fomentarie adjunct, them to feed:  
But as for precious Stones, their sparkling light  
Is genuine, by Nature shineth bright,  
And glisters in the most obscure dark place,  
Always retaining their resplendent grace:  
And therefore do most lively represent  
The splendour fair, and beauty excellent  
Of th' ever self subsisting deity,  
Always the same, one-same eternity.  
This city is environed, bounded round,  
With a great high-topped wall, thick, strong and sound,  
Which unto us doth thus much intimate;  
That though i'th' Churches Militant esrate,  
The congregations of Christ's faithful Saints  
Were still molested, full of woeful plaint,  
Tossed to and fro with storms tyrannical,  
With persecutions most satanical,  
And like Noes-ark were ne'er in peace or rest,  
With worldly billowing-waves dashed and distressed:  
Yet in this Chuch-triumphant, they shall be  
From all heart-hurting fear of danger free.  
Surely, securely, kept from least annoy,  
In heavenly safety sempiternal joy.  
For why, the Doctrine apostolical  
Shall as a firm invincible strong wall  
Debar and keep out, heart deluding errors,  
All unclean creatures, liars and the tortures,  
which their abominations might effect;  
For, this wall doctrinal doth them reject:  
And thus the Prophet jeremy doth call  
A constont Preacher, a strong, brazen wall.  
Now this strong wall is made more admirable,  
By Stately Ports and groundwork solid, stable,  
Twelve Gates are about it placed conveniently,  
Which thus much do unto us signify:  
That all her friends and Citizens shall see,  
The way to th' city easy, plain to be;  
Plain to the just, to th' unjust narrow straight,  
Easy to those, to these most intricate.  
And on these Gates were charactered most fair,  
The names of Israel's twelve tribes, to declare  
Their good assu●ance and their ready way,  
That none might wander, err, or go astray.  
There needs no use of a conducting guide,  
Their way lying ope' to them on every side.  
But here by th' names of Israel's twelve tribes,  
The sacred spirit unto us describes,  
(They being, once, God's sole peculiar Vine,  
Till they did from his Love and Lure decline)  
That, by a figure, are in them included  
The elected Gentiles, once from grace secluded.  
Even people of all Nations under heaven  
(To whom, Salvation, God in Christ hath given)  
Are here all ta'en for spiritual Israelites,  
Whom Christ the cornerstone to th' Jews unites.  
At these twelve Gates, twelve angels there did stand.  
But not like Edens-angels, in their hand  
Holding a sword, a sword like fiery flame,  
To daunt and drive, what ever thither came:  
But here these angels stand like porter's kind,  
That Abr'ams' faithful Sons access may find  
Unto the tree of life, and sacred spring:  
Which grows and flows from Christ this Edens King  
With most commodious decent situation  
Are these twelve gates plac' 'bout this heavenly station  
And good Ezechiel doth them thus digest  
Three East, three North, three south, and three by west.  
These three tribes names; Dan, Joseph, Semamen,  
Orethe three Eastern Gates were to be seen.  
Orethe three Ports set on the Northern side,  
Jude, Levi, Reubens' names might be descried.  
O'er the three southern gates th' inscription  
Of Simeon, Isachar, and Zabu●on.  
Also the three gates on the West part had  
The name of Aser, Napthalem, and God.  
Of which most decent triple distribution  
Of these twelve Gates, this is the resolution;  
Namely, that all the Saint-elected souls,  
Whose names are written: heavens' eternal rolls,  
From whatsoever quarter of the earth,  
They had their first original and birth:  
Yet, had but one especial means t'ascend  
Unto this city, their hopes happy end.  
To wit, the blessed profession of the trinity,  
Hereby, to Christ th' are joined in near affinity  
And, that they thus, professing three in one:  
Shall find the way wide open to heaven's high throne.  
Shall find the path more parent, plain and straight,  
And at the Gates twelve angels for them wait,  
A twelve fold groundwork and Foundatoin strong,  
Did also to this mighty wall belong.  
I mean not to the city, but the wall,  
For, of the city, Christ is all in all.  
Upon which twelve Foundations glorious, rare,  
Christ's twelve apostles names were graven fair:  
Who here are said to be this Walls foundation,  
By their apostolic administration,  
For having by their blessed Ministry,  
Christ Jesus Doctrine preached publicly  
Unto the World: as the first instruments  
Are therefore, thus, the twelve strong Firmaments:  
Not that they are the principal Foundation,  
But having first place in this Fabrication.  
Are (as I so may say) the first stones laid,  
On which the building of this wall was made.  
For, no man is so silly, as to say,  
That the Foundation doth itself down lay:  
But that's the office of the architector,  
Which is Christ Jesus, this great works director.  
This Cities sovereign, whose unshrinking shoulders,  
Are this most glorious Cities firm upholders.  
Who laid his twelve disciples as Supporters  
Of this Quadrangled walls most spacious quarters,  
As those in whom his church's doctrine pure  
Did most consist and constantly endure:  
Thus are th' apostles grounds of ministration,  
But Christ the only Basis of Salvation.  
But what says Rome to this? that man of Sin,  
Who proudly reigns and rules as Lord and King,  
Peter's supremacy, superior State,  
Is here (Methinks) quite torn, worn out of date.  
For though our Saviour called his Faith, the Rock,  
Whereon he'd build his Church, his Love, his Flock,  
And his and all th' apostles Doctrine pure,  
To be his church's groundwork, grounded sure:  
Yet neither is St. Peter here expressed,  
To be in dignity above the rest:  
Nor yet to be the principal Foundation:  
But one with others have their Station,  
Then, surely, hence, 'tis most apparent plain,  
That antichrist of Rome doth not maintain  
His proud priority, from Peter's Faith;  
But from his Person (whom he falsely saith,  
T'have been Rome's Bishop, which, nor he, nor's crew  
Shall e'er be able to approve as true)  
His person 'tis, I say, not Doctrine pure,  
Oh this it is the Pope can worst endure:  
Therefore since he misdeems Christ's blessed foundation  
He ne'er shall have least part in Christ's Salvation.  
But now return we whence we have digressed,  
The Light-bright Angel (which did manifest  
Unto S. John this glorious sacred sight)  
Now like some noble Pers'nage, Princely wight,  
Like to another prudent Ne●emie,  
Or like good Ezra full of prudency,  
By th' symbol of a Golden Reed in' his hand,  
Did represent, that he with that Met-wand,  
The Cities spacious round should measure out  
The height, length, breadth, and compass all about,  
Entries, and wall, environing the same  
All under line and measure truly came:  
All most exactly formed with due respect,  
By the arch-artist of this architect.  
Yea, with a Golden Reed he meets the same,  
Most fit to measure such a glorious frame.  
By which external gesture, the angel here,  
As elsewhere in the Prophets may appear  
In their prophetic visions used to show  
The Lord's intent, by thus descending to  
Our weak capacity: which ne'er can keep  
A verbal document, in mind so deep,  
As actual gestures evermore we find,  
Examples more than precepts teach the mind.  
And here by th' angels meeting with a reed,  
We are advised to take a special heed,  
And deeply to imprint in mind and heart,  
The subsequent description and rare art,  
The stately symmetry, worth admiration,  
Of this celestial sacred habitation,  
Containing in't an heavenly harmony,  
With the chief grounds of christian verity,  
This city lay in form quadrangulare,  
By which firm cubique platform, here we are  
To understand and note, the stable state  
Of this Mount-Sion free from hostile hate:  
Not to be stirred by tempests violent,  
Immovable, most constant, permanent.  
Which being square, the Gates are opposite  
To the four corners of the earths-globe aright,  
From every part whereof to let in those,  
Whom Christ the Lamb, to reign with him hath chose.  
The four Evangelists the pattern are,  
By whom this edifice was fashioned square:  
By Matthew Mark, Luke and Christ tendered John,  
Was framed (I say) this constitution.  
And since the twelve apostles, as foresai●,  
Were by their short and present doctrine made  
The strong foundation of the holy wall.  
Is't not a concord most harmonical▪  
That these Evangalists most excellent,  
By their long-lasting-written testament;  
Should the four corners of that square build out,  
And it to full perfection bring about.  
The angel then, with's reed the city meeted;  
Which by juss Measure was thus computated,  
Twelve thousand sta●es, whereof eight makes a mile,  
Which fifteen hundreth miles do just compile:  
The length, height, breadth, being of all equal space,  
Do make, almost, infinite room and place,  
Within the wall: as Christ himself hath said,  
In my dear heavinly father's house, are made  
Many fair Mansions: fit to comprehend,  
Th' increase of God's elect, to th' world's last end.  
Now then, the total body of this place,  
Doth to us represent the beauteous grace,  
The great felicity, admired joy,  
Which in this city we shall sure enjoy  
In the united glorious deity,  
Th' incomprehensible trine-unity.  
The three distinct dimensions as foreshowed,  
Of Latitude, Longitude, Altitude,  
Present the several measures of delight,  
Which in the Father, Son, and Holy-sprite,  
We shall possess, and this felicity,  
To be alike, of equal quantity.  
There shall we three in one most clearly see,  
There shall we also worship one in three,  
And of this joy we shall have full fruition,  
Alike of all, without all intermission,  
Even as the Persons are one in the deity,  
And one in substance in the unite trinity,  
The Premises thus reobscured, afford  
To us a most harmonious sweet accord,  
Twixt God and this his holy Habitacle,  
The Lambs sweet spouse; celestial tabernacle.  
God, the Worlds most admired artisan,  
When first he fashioned and created man,  
Like his own perfect Image, did him make;  
God would man should his maker's likeness take,  
Even so this Cities Specious symmetry,  
Is shaped like heavens sacred deity.  
As God himself in trinity is one:  
So by this city his true Church is shown.  
As of the godhead there be persons three,  
And Father, Son, and Spirit coequal be:  
So those dimensions, length, height, Breadth, are all  
By the angel measured, to be just equal.  
As neither person in the Deity,  
Is separable from their Unity:  
So none of these dimensions, being three,  
May from a city separated be,  
Or other solid body, otherwise  
It were not sound, but Line or superfice.  
The persons three and their three offices,  
Are not confounded: and no more are these;  
For neither is the length, the breadth, and so  
The height is neither breadth, nor length we know,  
And even as Athanasius in his Creed,  
As wittily, as wisely doth proceed,  
And says, the father, son, and holy spirit,  
Though three in persons are one God unite:  
So Longitude, Latitude, Altitude,  
Must one sole city evermore include.  
The doctrine also of the deity,  
Is witnessed in the fourfold verity,  
Writ by the four Evangelists: so here  
This New-Jerusalem, as doth appear,  
Is in a quadrate, or square form set down;  
Most like a strong immovable firm town.  
The twelve apostles, were dispersed and sent  
To every quarter of earth's continent,  
To preach to all our saviour's doctrine sound,  
Whereby all nations heavens rightrode way have found:  
On twelve foundations, so stands this great frame,  
And by twelve Gates all go into the same.  
Lastly the godhead universal is,  
And infinite in glory and in bliss,  
Infinitely extended over all:  
So in Jerusalem celestial,  
Is infinite tranquillity and peace,  
Abundant room, for all the great increase  
Of God's dear Saints, who were predestinate  
To this Jerusalem's most happy state.  
Thus having heard this sacred symphony  
Twixt God and 's Church: proceed we orderly.  
The angel now here measuring the wall,  
The mighty bulwark apostolical,  
Of this angelic State of sanctity,  
Found it to be raised up in cubits high,  
Even by a twelve-fold-high-ascending course,  
By th' twelve apostles raised to mighty force.  
But this though spoken in a human sort:  
Yet hath a heavenly sense of great import,  
Namely, that though the Church, here, Militant  
Was evermore distressed with woe and want;  
Being by worldly obstacles kept low,  
And never could to full perfection grow:  
Yet now in her triumphant dignity,  
To plenary perfection springs on high;  
Yhis being by twelve courses signified,  
Which twelve times so much more being multiplied,  
T'an hundreth forty four courses of height;  
Do make the wall to rise, direct upright,  
By Jews and Gentiles mighty multitude,  
Whom grace by faith will in this frame include.  
Thus now, we having seen the stately stature,  
The spacious compass of this heaven-built structure:  
Let us with our divine divine behold  
The matter, substance and most precious mould.  
Whereof the wall, city and firm foundation,  
The twelve great gate of this heaven's habitation,  
Were formed, adorned, yea with what pavement rare,  
The Streets were paved, all which is to declare  
The wonderful unspeakable delight,  
Which God's dear Saints in presence of his sight,  
Shall in that life to come, to th'ful possess:  
And thus the Prophet isaiah did redress,  
And consolate the Jews disconsolation,  
Declaring in his true vaticination,  
The glory of this New-Jerusalem,  
Which God would once rebuild, remake for them.  
O happy are they, which are interested.  
And whose blessed souls are there into invested!  
Now than the building of this fencive wall,  
This sincere Doctrine apostolical,  
Of precious stones, most gloriously did shine  
With bounty and with beauty most divine.  
Having a lustre like the Jasper green,  
Which evermore to flourish shall be seen.  
Hence then, this Note is set before our eyes:  
That this rare fabric, pompous edifice,  
Is all most precious, specious, round about,  
As bright within, as it is light without.  
But in this wall, this one thing is most rare,  
Is most regardable, beyond compare:  
That though those twelve foundations firm & strong,  
Were so by courses set and laid along,  
As that course after course, th' are placed all,  
And strangely ordered clean throughout the wall:  
Yet is the wall, as here we plainly see,  
Thus wholly said of Jasper for to be.  
Which is indeed to show and signify.  
That though those ground-props of the ministry,  
Whose rare and divers gifts in every one,  
Are by rich Jews afterwards here shown:  
Yet that the matter and the lustre bright,  
Of this great wall, are said, and that most right,  
To arise from one, which is the Lord alone,  
Designed here by this rare Jasper stone.  
He only is the church's bulwark strong,  
For though to these apostles did belong  
Diversity of gifts of heavenly grace:  
Yet each of them in his peculiar place  
Did over build one and the selfsame thing,  
And not themselves did preach, but Christ their King.  
The city's model was of perfect Gold,  
Most delectable, glorious to behold.  
Which mettle, for its excellent properties,  
This city's glory rarely amplifies.  
It being of all other chief and best,  
For these five reasons in pure gold expressed.  
First, that the burning fire consumes it not:  
Next, that it takes no Canker, stain or spot.  
Again, for use it longest doth endure,  
As also that the fire makes it more pure.  
Lastly, nor Salt nor Vinegar can spoil,  
Nor any such liquidity defile.  
The fair corruscant beauty of the same,  
And therefore from the rest it bears the fame.  
O! must not then this City needs be stable?  
Is't not most strong, invincible, durable?  
Being so free from stains of all corruption,  
Being so far from fear of foes irruption.  
Nay, here's not all, there's one more property  
Of rare respect, of precious excellency;  
Namely, that it like clearest glass doth glister,  
And thereby casts a more admired lustre:  
Whereby is thus much to us intimated:  
That 'tis not with soul spots contaminated,  
But doth with such a radiant splendour shine,  
That all may always clearly cast their eyen  
With most sweet contemplation, on the face  
Of God's great beauty and most bounteous grace,  
By repercussion of those glorious beams  
Which from his godhead, on his Saints forth streams  
Therefore this glorious City of the Lord,  
Which inwardly such beauty doth afford,  
Is fat unlike the seat of Rome's great whore;  
Which she doth gild and gorgeously daub o'er,  
In her external parts; so to delude  
The simple and besotted multitude.  
Whereas within she's wholly inquinated,  
With filthy beastliness all-vitiated,  
And by her cup of poisonous Fornication,  
Would all defile with her abomination:  
Being beastlike drunken with the blood of Saints,  
Which to heaven's throne do send up Abel's plaints.  
But this celestial sacred architecture,  
Like Solomon's fair Brides most princely vesture,  
Is precious, curious, beautiful within,  
Admits no soil, or smallest touch of Sin;  
Within, without, all spotless purity,  
And intermixed with boundless Majesty.  
Thus having viewed the wall,  
And what rare substance they are framed withal:  
Now let's behold, and that with admiration,  
The sumptuous substance of the strong Foundation.  
All which, though of themselves they are most precious  
Yet are they made more gogeous, gay and specious,  
Being embossed, enameled and dight,  
To make them give a more resplendent light,  
With Patriarchs, Prophets, and Professors good;  
With valiant Martyrs, who not spared their blood  
In Christ's just quarrel, with interpteters,  
And Soul converting holy Ministers:  
All these do garnish, deck, and decorate,  
The twelve foundations of this blissful state.  
Which here the angel fitly doth compare  
Unto twelve Gems, or precious stones most rare  
Whose virtues, colours, places where they grow,  
Is worth our labour severally to know,  
The first foundation is of Jasper stone,  
An Indian Gem, as is by Pliny shown;  
Whose specious splendour, and whose beauty rare,  
'tis easier to admire, than to declare.  
For, a confuse promiscuous multitude  
Of Noble virtues, it doth in't include:  
In which, a pleasant multiplicity  
Of excellencies rare variety  
May be perceived; but which is chief or best,  
Cannot be casly seen: or soon expressed:  
For, it, as hath been snewed, doth represent  
God's blessed similitude most excellent,  
Therefore this stone (and that most worthily)  
Hath in this building chief priority,  
The second was a precious Saphyr stone.  
Which is reported 'mongst the Medes t'have grown,  
Fair goldey spots, this precibus stone doth garnish,  
With a remarkable and beauteous burnish.  
The third was of a Chalcedonie clear,  
Found 'bout the Chalcedonian waters; near  
The Rocks Semplegads or those Isles in Thrac●:  
This stone being named after that foresaid place,  
'tis of one colour glistering like a flame,  
And with the Carbuncle doth seem the same.  
Which with good reason, well may signify,  
Of burning zeal an ardent fervency.  
The fourth an Em●aude, or Smaragdes rare.  
Which stone 'tis said doth grow i' th' Scythian Lare  
Of colour green, glist●ing most clear and bright,  
Which hue indeed doth most tontent the sight;  
And is internally as admirable,  
As for external beauty delectable:  
For if by too-intentive contemplation  
The sight grow dim, this stones rare delactation  
Doth soon refresh the lassitude of th' eye,  
And gives the sight perfection speedily:  
Whose beauty green, sound knowledge intimates,  
Which th' eye of understanding highly rates,  
" Therefore 'tis next the Chalcidonie set;  
" To show, that where zeal hath with knowledge met,  
" And are conjoined i'th' heart their supreme seat:  
" Then are they both most pure and most complete.  
For knowledge without zeal brings proud ambition,  
And zeal without true knowledge, superstition.  
A Sardonix is for the fift foundation,  
Which is a Gem found in the Indian Nation,  
Whose superficial face is red and white,  
Like a man's nail of's hand, and shines most bright.  
And this doth also to us signify,  
A certain show of chaste humanity.  
A Sardius, Carbuncle or Rubic rare,  
Doth this most sacred sixt foundation rear.  
A precious Stone, which specially is found  
By Sardus city in the Lybian ground:  
Of colour red like blood, to intimate,  
A severity on clemency should wait;  
And fit's with the Sardonix here placed,  
Because the foresaid fleshly colours graced,  
And cannot fade, but fresh vivificate,  
By being joined with this associate.  
The seventh Foundation is a Chrysolite:  
An Aethiopian stone which glisters bright,  
Of golden hue, and this doth demonstrate  
Much dignity, and great Magistick State.  
The eighth a beryl, which (as Pliny saith)  
Is found in Indie: this, for colour hath  
Sea water-green, betokening lowliness:  
For, water as experience doth express,  
Yields and gives place to each interposition,  
Which is against it set, or makes inscission.  
" Set with the Chrysollte to signify,  
" Meekness with greatness should keep company:  
A virtuous mean thus ever to retain,  
And rash extremes still wisely to refrain.  
The ninth a opaze which was first found out  
By arabian rovers, ranging all about,  
Called Traglodit's: this Stone's of colour green,  
And yet not simply so, for in 'tis seen  
Much yellowness, glistering like perfect Gold,  
Giving a Lustre pleasant to behold.  
A precious Stone called Indian Chrysoprase,  
Doth this great walls tenth firm foundation raise.  
Which also gives a certain golden glister,  
but therein is a Scallion juice commixture,  
This Fortresses eleventh and twelve foundation,  
Were both of them two Gems of Indian nation,  
Called hyacinth and ametist: both which  
Are of a purple colour, fair and rich.  
And now of all that hitherto is said,  
Of these rich precious Stones whereof was made  
This twelve-fold Solid Glorious Strong Foundation,  
This is the scope, true use and application:  
Namely, that as a careful architector,  
Who of a Princely building is Director;  
And chief o'er-seer, sends with expedition  
His Quarrions, Masons, gives them this commission,  
In every quarter to search out and dress,  
To hue and cut, to have in readiness  
The choicest Stones that might be got for gold,  
For strength to build, and beauteous to behold:  
Or, as Wit-wondrous Solomon is said,  
When he would have the Lord's great temple made,  
To send his Princes to provide each thing,  
Which might decore the seat of heaven's great King:  
With Hiram his kind neighbour did compact,  
For necessaries to that sacred act:  
Who sent both men and all his choicest Stuff,  
Of every thing abundantly enough:  
Even so the Lord, this city's Master-builder,  
Earth's globy Universals strong hand we●lder,  
To th' build in got this blessed habitation  
Sent his apostles into every Nation,  
To India, Egypt, Aethiopia,  
Arabia, Europe, and Armenia.  
Through every course it● world's circumference,  
To reach and preach with care and diligence,  
To congregate and bring into his ●old,  
His precious people; who, like perfect Gold  
Should gorgeously adorn this sacred frame,  
Some Prophets, Martyrs, Preachers of great same;  
Some with one gift, some with another graced,  
That in this Sancture they might thus be placed,  
To frame and build this everlasting palace  
Of everliving Stones, and endless solace.  
Who as th' had built his Church once Militant:  
Now should they thus build up his Church triumphant  
And as they had converted souls to Christ:  
Their souls should shine like Stars in glory highest.  
Thus than the city, wall, and groundwork past,  
To th' gates with joy we now are come at last.  
Twelve Gates most rich and precious did belong  
To the wall apostolic, most firm, most strong,  
Which Gates were all of pearls most orient.  
Yet all were but one Pearl most excellent,  
Even Jesus Christ, who is the only Port,  
Through whom th' Elect must into bliss resort.  
Through whom alone by saith we here are fed.  
Through whom at last we all shall taste that bread,  
That bread of Life never to hunger more,  
Which for his Saints Christ hath laid up in store.  
He only is the door, by which (I say)  
We shall go in and out, feed, Live for ay.  
And as on twelve foundations did arise  
A wall, as we did formerly premise;  
But One in Matter and in Lustre bright,  
Even God the Father, Father of all Light:  
So these twelve Ports, are all one Pearl most rare,  
Even God the Son whence they derived are.  
But here this one objection may accrue,  
How it may come to pass, a pearl should show  
And represent this Man-God Christ our King?  
To which Objection, I this answer bring:  
That as the Shel wherein the Pearl doth grow,  
(Which Pliny plainly in his work doth snow)  
Doth at a certain season gape and yawn,  
And without any generating spawn,  
Draws into it a dew, from forth the air;  
Which, by the Sea, i' th' shell grows Orient fair,  
And of this dew doth more coagulate,  
Than 'tis of earthly stuff coaugmentate:  
Even so, the Holy Ghost from heaven's high frame,  
Upon the blessed Virgin Mary came;  
And God's eternal power, whose breath all made,  
Did so Christ's Virgin-Mother over-shade:  
That without any human copulation,  
Christ in her womb took on him incarnation.  
Yet so, as that his powerful Divinity  
Was still assistant unto his humanity,  
Which subject was to man's infirmity:  
But not to sins even last impurity:  
Being thus most perfect God and Man indeed,  
Knowing our wants to help us at our need.  
Thus then, we see, that these twelve Pearly Gates  
Consisting of one Pearl, this intimates,  
That we in heaven or earth none o● her have  
To invocate, our sinful souls to save,  
But Jesus Christ, true God and man alone,  
Who sits (our advocate) in heaven's high throne.  
Oh then, the wilful madness of our Foe!  
That monstrous beast of Rome, who though he know  
This our Position most authentical,  
Both he and his besotted shavelings all,  
Vet they unto their Saints appropriate,  
And unto angels dare accommodate  
The honour only due to Christ's blessed name.  
Angels themselves having refused the same  
And since nor Saints, nor angels know out state,  
Nor have in them, power, us to consolate,  
But Christ hath willed us come to him alone,  
Who can and will ease and appease our moan,  
Therefore that they dare add and thus diminish  
From God's firm truth; they do but strive to finish  
And measure up to th'ful their own damnation,  
Threatened to all such in the Revelation.  
The Gates thus entered, now we may behold  
The streets within, all paved with purest Gold,  
Which gave allustre like the clearest glass,  
Even every street through which the Saints shall pass,  
And customarily walk up and down,  
Like glorious Kings in pomp and great renown:  
Which streets and patent passages, imply  
(Amongst their other joys) the liberty  
And perfect freedom, which those sacred Saints  
Shall fully there possess; without restraints  
Of being unto any one place tied,  
For why, wheresoever they go, God is their guide,  
They walk in God, and God in them always:  
Their beauteous paths shining with his bright rays.  
Thus have we seen th' essential Majesty,  
This Cities glorious frame and Symmetry,  
The most magnificent and blissful State  
Of those which are in Christ incorporate:  
But yet, whiles here, we see't no otherwise,  
Then as we had a mist before our eyes.  
Then as we were i'th' bottom of a veil,  
Whence of a perfect sight we needs must fail,  
By reason that cloud-kissing mountains high,  
And lofty trees are interposed to th' eye:  
And hereby hinder our more clear aspect  
Of this most glorious heavenly architect:  
So that, but enigmatically, we  
As through a glass, this sacred City see;  
Whiles in the Flesh we live by lively faith,  
As blessed Paul in his Epistle saith:  
Yet let it joy our hearts our soul's delight,  
That though but thus, we may admire this sight.  
That though but with the Prophet Daniel, we  
May ope the window and look toward thee,  
O Dateless, Fateless, Restful, Blissful city;  
Where Hallelujah is the angel's Ditty.  
Now let it not be (O! how can it be?)  
Tedious to us, to contemplate and see  
What majesty and dignity complete  
Is accessary to the glory great  
Of that external beauty of this place,  
Filled with the glory of the Lord's bright face;  
Making this City most magnificent,  
An abstract commonweal most permanent.  
First, there shall be no Temple in the same,  
Wherein to worship God all-glorious name,  
No sacrificing, no peculiar place,  
To worship in, or be this city's Grace,  
Nor no external pedagogy, shall  
Be useful there, no Service Ritual,  
Like that under the Law amongst the Jews,  
When they did their old sacrifices use.  
But God the Father, and the Lamb Christ Jesus,  
Shall of such heavy yokes then clearly ease us.  
And be a Temple unto his, most fair,  
To whose blessed Saints with delight repair.  
His worship, then, shall be most plain and pure,  
And shall for ever constantly endure.  
Without all legal Rites or ceremony,  
Adoring God in Christ in sanctimony  
Whose looks to them as Lessons shall appear,  
His holy name being music in their ear.  
And such indeed is this great city's state,  
So admirable, so inexplicate:  
That Gold and precious stones being too too base,  
T'express the glory of that glorious place,  
If nature did more precious things bring forth,  
More amply to describe this city's worth:  
I therefore know not, what terrestrial thing  
We may with due proportion hereto bring,  
To have a fit and true analogy  
Unto this temple of eternity,  
But God himself and Jesus Christ alone;  
In whom it may most properly be shown.  
Again this city hath no need of Light,  
Neither of Sun, or moon, or Stars most bright,  
For, as the Prophet saith, when God again  
Shall his dear Church restore and o'er it reign,  
The glorious Light thereof so clear shall shine,  
By the blessed presence of the Unite-trine:  
That even the Sun and Moon shall seem most dark,  
And in comparison but like a spark,  
To that ineffable, refulgent light  
Of God's blessed countenance and sacred sight.  
Whereby alone the Saints shall all possess  
Such perfect joy and hearty cheerfulness,  
As that all earthly comfort, though it seemed,  
And were as bright as Sun and Moon esteemed,  
Shall be superfluous, needless, most neglected,  
And unto this compared, not least respected:  
Also, the Heirs and Sons of this Salvation,  
Even all th' Elected people of each Nation,  
Kings of the Earth whom Euphrates did bar,  
And once sequester from Christ's kingdom far;  
So many as are saved (as many shall)  
Shall in Jerusalem celestial  
With perfect joy, enjoy the full fruition  
Of this most infinite and heavenly vision,  
And thither shall their pomp and honour bring,  
Even unto God and Christ their heavenly King.  
But here's not meant their worldly wealth and state,  
Their Gems and Jewels, Gold or Silver plate,  
For, since this sacred city needs no light,  
Of Sun or Moon, which shine on Earth so bright:  
Much less shall there be need of worldly pelf,  
In this most sacred sumptuous Commwealth.  
But this is hereby understood and meant,  
That those good Princes which were eminent  
For virtuous gifts of grace and piety,  
Shall lift up all their whole felicity,  
Their glory and their princely estimation  
From earthly unto heavenly contemplation:  
And only fix their joy upon the same,  
And glory thus to glorify God's name.  
The gates, moreover, of this City, shall  
Be never shut, but stand widrope to all.  
None shall from this felicity be stayed,  
Nor be shut up, as frighted or afraid.  
For there shall be no Enemy to fear them,  
No doubt of danger, then shall once come near them,  
All spite of former adversaries cease,  
For there shall be perpetual rest and peace.  
And which is more, there shall be here no Night,  
For why, an everlasting splendour bright  
From God's all-glorious presence shall proceed,  
A Lightmore pure then light itself indeed,  
Shall so incessantly shine forth always,  
Making an endless everlasting day.  
But here this night may further intimate,  
A twofold meaning Lit'ral, Figurate:  
The Literal sense that there no night shall be,  
Is, that indeed the Saints no Night shall see.  
For why? as hath been said all times distinctions  
Of day and Night, summer and winter seasons  
Shall then quite cease and be superfluous:  
The figurative sense and meaning, thus  
May be explained, that no obscurity  
Of error of sly hypocrisy,  
No unclean thing foul or abominable,  
No filthy creature, liar detestable,  
No murdering Cains, no Judas implous,  
No Cham's, nor Achams sacrilegious,  
No cruel, faithless, friendless, envious else  
That hurts his Neighbour, but much more himself,  
" No Avaricious armed in hooking tenters,  
" And clad in birdlime catching all adventures,  
Nor aught that may contagiously infect,  
Or once eclipse the joy of Christ's Elect,  
Or violate the glorious state and bliss  
Which Christ the Lamb hath purchased for his:  
Nor in the least degree shall hurt or wrong  
The flourishing estate, which doth belong  
To th' Saints rare dignity, and perfect Light  
Of sincere worship of the Lord of Might:  
Which is his angel's glory and chief grace,  
And shall for ever in them keep firm place.  
But those shall hither come with joys most rise,  
Whose names are registered i'th' Book of Life,  
For whom the Lamb Christ Jesus did ordain  
This glorious kingdom with him thus to reign,  
Who were predestinate to this salvation,  
Before the world's original foundation.  
To these alone the Gates stand open wide,  
These shall for ever with the Lamb abide,  
Lastly, to make this city most complete,  
In every part to be as good as great,  
The Holy Ghost having at large declared  
The church's glory, being thus compared  
Unto a sumptuous city full of State,  
Now finally proceedeth to relate,  
That both this City and its Citizens  
Are furnished and replenished with all all means  
For conservation of their endless joy,  
Sufficient to protect them from annoy:  
They have, I say, spiritual lively meat,  
Divine angelic Mann' to drink, to eat,  
The sovereign balsam to conserve always  
Their health, in health, from fall or least decay.  
The holy spirit as erst, here using still,  
These earthly terms t'express heav'n● sacred will.  
And all to show heavens great benignity,  
Descending thus to our capacity,  
This honoured City hath in it also  
A sacred River which doth overflow  
With pure and precious water of blessed life,  
Whose stream do issue from its fount most rife.  
A current River, not a pool with soil,  
Nor foul or troubled, Egyptian Nile;  
Or billowing Euphrates; But sweet and fair  
With dectable streams, smooth, clear and rare.  
A River for its great abundancy,  
Pure in respect of its sweet sanctity,  
Of water of God's spirits rare gifts of Grace,  
Of life, whose tasters live an endless space,  
And clear as crystal from all spissitude,  
From all unclean corrupt amaritude.  
This River shall from God's great throne proceed  
And from the Lambs, gliding with pleasant speed.  
And thus the River here may signify,  
The Holy Ghosts gifts, third in a trinity.  
Which is not slightly ratified, indeed,  
In that 'tis said here, that it shall proceed  
From Gods and from the Lambs most sacred throne,  
Which John's shown prophecy hath clearly shown.  
Yea, and i'th' midst of this great city's street  
Paved all with gold, as mould under their feet,  
Through all the pleasant passages most fair,  
Where to and fro the Sainted souls repair:  
On either side this River (rare to see)  
Doth flourish fairly a Life-giving tree.  
Which tree of Life, doth thus much to us show,  
That to those gracious Waters, which do flow,  
To all the grace●s of God's sacred Spirit;  
Christ Jesus is conjoined, by whose just merit,  
His Church hath life, true peace, and sure salvation,  
Thus having with the Sp●rite cooperation:  
And still residing with his Saints Elect,  
Continually doth guide and them direct,  
Exhibiting to all, by his tuition,  
Easie partaking, and a full fruition  
Of all the Benefits and heavenly Graces,  
Which in and 'bout this River he thus places.  
Whereon they all shall spiritually feed,  
Always desiring, yet ne'er stand in need.  
Which Tree of Life, twelve sorts of fruit doth bear,  
Whereby the Holy Spirit doth declare,  
First, that the Lord, who is the God of Order,  
Doth much detest confusion or disorder.  
In still retaining as he first begun,  
The number twelve, which hitherto is done:  
And also to express that there shall be,  
In number and measure full sufficiency,  
To saturate the longing appecites,  
Of all the twelve spiritual Israelites,  
Even of all those that so have run their race,  
The twelve apostles doctrine to embrace,  
T' observe and keep (Maugre the rage and spite  
Of pope and pagan, foes to Truths pure light.)  
Thus then, we see the angel here observing  
An exquisite decorum, thence not swerving:  
Who since the City, Entries, Rome's Foundations,  
And Symmetry of these blessed habitations,  
To th' number twelve have been accommodated;  
And orderly thus still continuated:  
Therefore with decent correspondency,  
The angel to this number doth apply  
The spiritual food, and furniture most meet,  
Making a consort most harmonious sweet,  
Conformably agreeing thus in one,  
With those whence they had their comparison.  
Now as twelve sorts of fruit grow on this tree,  
The Saints to satisfy: so shall they be  
For delicacy, sweet content and pleasure.  
As every Saint shall have abundant measure:  
So shall this pleasant Plenitude of grace,  
No Nauseous Surset cause, in any case.  
For, as Christ Jesus is that drink and meat,  
Whereof each Sainted soul shall taste and eat:  
So is he sweet, pleasant, and delicate,  
Whereon they feed their fill, yet moderate,  
Taking sufficient for their contentation,  
And their beatitudes firm conservation.  
Which truth is farther illustrated here,  
In that 'tis said this tree of life doth bear,  
Doth every month bear fruit, green, ripe, and fair,  
Which with delights their apperites repair.  
Not that the times shall then alternate be,  
By years, months, days, as nowadays we see,  
For then the seasons cease, time's termined,  
Sun, Moon, and Stars, are then quite vanished,  
As formerly was touched: but here is meant,  
That all things than shall give such rare content,  
shall be so full of rich variety,  
Shall yield such cordial sweet society  
And with such fullness all the Saints shall feed,  
As that to store and hoard up shall not need.  
In that the harvest there shall ever last,  
Their pleasant spring-time than shall ne'er be past.  
Also the Leaves of this most blessed tree,  
Shall Salutiferous and most sovereign be,  
To help, to heal, to cure all Maladies,  
Which 'mongst the Gentile Nations do arise.  
So that this tree not only makes them live:  
But to the Elect a healthful life doth give.  
Yet here's not meant the Churches final state,  
But that when antichrist is ruinate,  
When God shall th'unbelieving Nations call,  
And faithless Jews, who once from Grace did fall.  
But by these leaves is chiefly intimated,  
That all the smallest gifts, accommodated  
By th' Lamb Christ Jesus to the Saints elect,  
Shall serve some way their Souls with joy t'affect.  
T'exhilerate and cheer their sacred mind,  
In's meanest blessings they shall comfort find.  
But now behold now follow him indeed  
That which doth all the former joys exceed:  
The absolute accomplishment of all,  
The accessary blessings, which befall  
The Citizens of this rare domicile,  
Th' inhabitants of God's great zion-hill.  
Namely, that in it there no curse shall be,  
It shall be from destruction firmly free.  
It shall be subject to no execration,  
But strongly stand, fearless of alteration.  
Which is a symbol, and a certainty  
Of this blessed city's perpetuity,  
A most infallible strong argument,  
That 'tis eternal and most permanent.  
A threefold reason hereof may be given,  
First, that (as is foresaid) this seat of heaven,  
This holy habitacle shall contain  
No unclean thing, which may its beauty stain.  
Again, the glorious throne and sacred seat,  
Whereon omnipotent Jehovah great,  
Whereon the blessed trinity will reign,  
Shall here abide and evermore remain.  
Lastly, in that all these his servants shall  
With sincere Love and Zeal angelical,  
For ever invocate his sacred name,  
And his due praises constantly proclaim:  
Serving the Lord in singleness of heart,  
Not once to will from's worship to depart.  
But Curses are (we know) for gross transgressors,  
For disobedient stubborn malefactors,  
Not for th' obedient, faithful and sincere:  
Thus then, is their perennity most clear,  
Moreover all the Saints of this blessed race,  
Shall see th' all-beauteous, light-bright shining face  
Of that arch essence of eternity,  
To walk and talk with him familiarly:  
And with inexplicable sweet delight  
Have full fruition of this sacred sight,  
Not as he is, immense and infinite,  
For so even angels see not his bright light,  
Who are described covering their face  
With their angelic wings: in any case  
Not able to behold his glorious sight,  
He infinite, they being definite.  
Yet that we shall have his full contemplation  
Is certain, but with this just limitation,  
First, in respect of us, we shall possess  
A perfect sight of God's great holiness.  
The Lord in us, and we in him shall dwell  
In such full measure, as no tongue can tell;  
He will replenish every faculty  
Of soul and body most abundantly,  
With his most precious presence: by his sight  
He'll fill our Mines, from darkness freed quite,  
Our hearts he'll quicken, there shall be no deadness,  
Our whole affections freed from gloomy sadness.  
What man is capable to comprehend,  
Even so great glory God will then extend?  
Again, of that blessed sight, which we shall have,  
No inter-mediums shall our sight deprave.  
Here, we as in a vision do him see,  
By mediate Revelation: then shall we  
Of him immediate perfect sight possess,  
Which none but those that have it, can express:  
A measure running over, heaped and p●est;  
Will Christ bestow upon his Saints most blessed.  
His name shall also in their foreheads be.  
That is, they shall with such bold constancy  
And unrevolting zeal profess his name,  
That nothing shall obliterate the same;  
Or cause them once neglect their pure profession,  
By least relapse or undiscreet transgression.  
They shall be so conformed, confirmed therein,  
To persevere as they did first begin,  
Constant, courageous, evermore the same,  
Professing still Jehovah's glorious name.  
Again, his name is said (as here we see)  
Upon their foreheads charactered to be,  
Because the Lord will publicly agnize  
Them, by this cognizance and Patronize  
(By his all-seeing, and all-soveraign power)  
Them and their states, as in a fenced tower.  
And in this City there shall be no night,  
No need of candle, Sun or Stars most bright,  
That is, there shall be no obscurity.  
Or darkness of adverse calamity,  
No night of obumbratick cloudy Error,  
No frighting Fear, nor no heart daunting terror,  
No sly by-fronted close hypocrisy,  
Shall viriate their intact integrity,  
No need of earthly comfort more or less,  
No seeking, suing there, wrongs to redress,  
By temporal laws, or ecclesiastical,  
For, there the trinity is all in all:  
And is this glorious Cities great Lord-Keeper,  
Most vigilant, and watchful, he's no sleeper,  
And, which (as was promised) is the perfection,  
And consummating of this benediction,  
This glorious kingdom, where God's Saints shall reign  
Shall doubtless sempiternally remain,  
Like glorified Kings most gloriously,  
Their bliss shall last, past all eternity.  
Now as bounteous hearted King doth use,  
When he a Fau'ri●e unto him doth chose,  
On whom he meaneth largely to bestow  
His golden gifts, like Rivers to o'erflow;  
What he doth promise or by words proclaim,  
By's Letters-patents ratifies the same:  
Thus, O even thus our bounteous hearted Lord,  
The heart of bounty Loves o'erflowing word,  
Having his Church his favourite elected,  
And promised she shall be by him erected,  
Richly endowed, gorgeously beautified  
Rarely be royallized and sanctified,  
Her head adorned with a Crown of Gold,  
A fragrant Garland which shall ne'er wax old,  
Triumphantly in endless joy shall reign,  
And see her subject, abject foes in pain;  
The Lord (I say) this promise having given,  
That all these joys they shall possess in heaven.  
To verify his promise, and confirm  
What he hath said beyond times endless term,  
Hath given his Letters Patents, his broad Seal  
Ith' sacred Scriptures, which he'ele ne'er repeal;  
Sealed by an angel's testimony pure  
And as his act and deed given and made sure,  
To blessed John, in the behalf and right  
And to the use of all the Saints of Light.  
Which being done, makes thereof Proclamation,  
With most emphatical asseveration,  
That he, the Lord of Lords, and King of Kings,  
Hath power to do, and will perform these things.  
And surely, heaven and earth shall pass away,  
Yea, all things shall preposterously decay,  
Ere his pure word in one least jot or tittle,  
Shall fade or fail, or alter ne'er so little.  
Which, though some wretches atheistical,  
Some Nauseous Neuter, Satan's tennis-ball,  
Some execrable Saduces (I say)  
Which do the resurrection denay,  
Though some vile quakers pythagorical,  
Or Anabaptists most diabolical,  
Which have supposed the spirits transmigration  
From one t' another in life consummation;  
Which do with devilish dotage them persuade,  
That there's no God which ere the world hath mad;  
Nor that the would e'er had a prime beginning,  
And think and hold that it shall ne'er have ending.  
Although such Hectors past all grace,  
May entertain a thought, with brazen face,  
And heart of flinty infidelity,  
To think or say that the rare symmetry  
Of this Jerusalem celestial,  
Seems as thing mere hyperbolical,  
Incredible to their besotted sense,  
And past the reach of their intelligence;  
Yet let the rabble of such miscreants know,  
That there's 'gainst them pronounced a fearful woe,  
There no-belief, or wavering un-belief,  
Shall fill their souls with never ending grief:  
And what they erst would not conceive in mind,  
Their heart with smart shall then both feel and find.  
Nor shall they have least part or portion here,  
Of this great city's pleasure, joy and cheer,  
But from God's presence shall be separated,  
Which is the second death ne'er terminated.  
As for good Abraham's faithful Generation,  
Who waver not in tottering hesitation,  
Who have a hearty thirst, and thirsting heart  
Of these rare pleasures once to have their part:  
Whose hope past hope doth cause their souls aspire,  
By faith in Christ this kingdom to acquire,  
Wherewith, i'th' warfare of this life, they fight,  
Fenced with the bulwark of a zeal upright,  
Armed at all points, with Christ's blessed furniture,  
Wherewith they may most constantly endure  
The fight spiritual, their Loins to tie  
With the strong g●rdle of Christ's Verity;  
Having the breastplate on of righteousness,  
To quench the Darts of hell's ourtagiousness,  
And on their head the helmet of salvation,  
True peril proof 'gainst he is most hot temptation,  
The sword o'th' Spirit, brandished in their hand,  
Wherewith they may courageously withstand  
That brood of quakers Anabaptiss and the flesh;  
Which evermore assault the soul afresh  
With hot encounters, hellish stratagems,  
To keep them from the new Jerusalem's  
Eternal bliss: In which most faithful fight  
If they magnanimously stand upright,  
Assisted by that all-proof, fervent prayer,  
The godlies' guard, supporter, and chief stayer,  
If thus they get (as thus being armed they shall)  
The conquest, o'er those foes fierce capital,  
Even from the proud Pope their old enemy,  
When he shall challenge them this fight to try,  
(As oft he will) they ne'er by fraud or force,  
By terrors or by torments leave their course  
Of constant perseverance to the end,  
But his hopes frustrate, and their souls defend:  
Then shall they like brave victors have the crown  
Of immortality of blessed renown,  
Triumphantly to reign with Christ their King,  
And all their virtues as rich trophies bring,  
And lay before him, for which he will give  
A crown, a kingdom wherein they shall live,  
The Lord in them, and they in him shall dwell,  
As Christ's coheirs, whom he loves passing well,  
And shall sit down with him as children dear,  
To Sup at's table with celestial cheer,  
And then their thirst of this accomplishment  
Shall satisfied be with full content,  
Then shall the holy, happy, faithful, see  
The structure of this sacred frame to be  
Far more illustrious, admirable, rare,  
Than earthly things could possibly declare;  
And that those Stones and gold were too too base,  
To serve t'illustrate heaven's celestial place,  
Whose boundless beauty all discourse transcendeth,  
Whose infinite felicity ne'er endeth.  
Yea, that 'tis such as that no mortal eye,  
Could but as through a glass the same descry:  
Such as no ear hath heard no tongue ere told  
The Majesty which there they shall behold,  
Yea, such (I say) as never human heart  
Could ere conceive th' incogitable part.  
O then, my soul, thou having contemplated  
This City all with glory decorated,  
Thou having viewed, with heart exulting pleasure,  
The Majesty unparalleled, the matchless treasure,  
The most magnificent, majestic state,  
Where into Christ will his incorporate:  
What wilt thou thereof with thyself conclude?  
What wilt thou say of this beatitude?  
Oh this, even this, with Peter and with John  
At Christ's admired tranfiguration,  
'tis good to make thy seat and mansion there,  
Oh there 'tis best to dwell and dwell for e'er.  
Never did noble Greece so much affect  
Their poetized Elysean fields aspect,  
Never so much did wandering wise Ulysses  
Desire his chaste Penelope's kind kisses:  
Or rather, more divinely for to raise  
My thoughts unto a more religious phrase,  
Never did Noah more desire to see  
Ararats Hills, where he of's ark was free:  
Nor Sheba's queen to see wise Solomon,  
Nor at Christ's birth more glad was Simeon,  
Then doth my soul desire these heavenly fields,  
Which perfect pleasure joy and comfort yields,  
To see my Saviour sweet on Zion hill,  
My senses with his sacred sight to fill,  
To ske him in his glorified state,  
Therein to be with him associate:  
Even in these Mansions of Eternity,  
To live in sure in pure felicity.  
Which happiness, though yet I may not have,  
Until my soul receive my corpse from Grave,  
Until I mortal be immortalised,  
And with the sacred angels angelized;  
Unttlith' clouds my Saviour come again,  
To recollect th' Elect with him to reign.  
O yet, my soul, thyself delight and solace,  
To ruminate the joys of that sweet Palace,  
To recapitulate the sacred pleasure  
The Saints shall then possess in plenteous measure,  
Even in the eternal palace crystalline,  
The sacred seat of the United trine;  
The glorious Court and heavenly presence Chamber  
Of heaven's great Emperor, wonderful Commander,  
That alpha and omega, first and last,  
Who was, is, shall be, when all times are past,  
That mighty, powerful, One sole God most high,  
Th' eternal King, nay, self-eternity,  
Infinite, all in all, yet out of all,  
Of ends the end, of firsts original,  
The Life of Lives, Bounties o'erflowing flood,  
Cause of all Causes, Ocean of all Good,  
Unseen, all-Seer, Stars-Guide, Sight of Seeing,  
That One-None which to Nothing gave a being.  
There also shall my soul behold and see  
The most ineffable deep Mystery  
Of that incomprehensible trine-one,  
Sitting in glory in his glistering throne,  
With blessed Saints and angels comitated,  
With all the heavenly host of soul-beated  
Prophets, Apostles, Patriarchs of old,  
The noble band of Martyrs stout and bold;  
Our Parents, Wives, our Children, Kindred, Friends,  
Yea all to whom Christ's saving health extends:  
All of them clad in bliss celestial,  
All shining bright in joy angelical.  
Wherein the presence of their heavenly King,  
They Hallelujah, Hallelujah sing  
To him that sitteth on the throne most high,  
Making a most harmonious Melody,  
With sacred sugared Notes and heavenly Songs,  
Singing the praise which to the Lamb belongs.  
This being their especial exercise,  
Their pleasant practice, customary guise,  
Still to behold the Lord's most beauteous face,  
Burning with love of his most lovely grace,  
Their mouths still filled with praises of his name,  
In magnifying his immortal fame,  
Without all tediousness or intermission,  
Protected always by his blessed tuition,  
O there is infinite, unuttered joy!  
Mirth without mourning, bliss without annoy,  
Health without sickness or pernicious humours,  
Perfection without all sonitainting humours,  
Peace without war, and light without darkness,  
Love without hate, beauty without paleness,  
Sweetness without all fulsome surfeiting,  
Life without death, life ere continuing.  
There are no sighs, no sobs, no penury,  
No hunger, thirst, but with saturity,  
No chilling, killing frosts, or least extremes,  
No parching sunshine, with her piercing beams,  
No will to sin, no power to offend,  
No enemy lest mischief to intend.  
Good Paul hath there no need to watch and pray,  
To labour in the world both night and day;  
And good old Jerome then may cease t'afflict  
Himself, so often, by a life most strict:  
To conquer his spiritual enemy,  
To overthtow the serpent's subtlety.  
For there's all peace, security and rest,  
That peace which can by no means be expressed:  
There's all perfection sacred Light excelling,  
All sorrow, care, darkness, and dread expelling.  
O life eternal! holy habitacle!  
Heavenly Jerusalem, Saints receptacle!  
O amiable City of the Lord!  
How should my soul thy praises due record?  
What excellent rare thing are said of thee?  
What things are writ, are hoped, are found to be  
In thee! thou hast the seat of glory sure,  
That good-best good-God, joy and solace pure,  
Which far exceeds the science and deep sense  
Of human reason and intelligence.  
Por which even Legions of Professors good,  
And godly Martyrs have not spared their blood,  
But with undaunted valiant courage have  
Made lions, tigers, Fire and sword their grave,  
That after death they might enjoy that Crown,  
Those Palms of peace, of honour and renown,  
Wherewith thy Saints, O blessed Jerusalem!  
Are happified in happiness supreme,  
Walking as Kings, in those most gorgeous streets,  
Where each one nought but perfect pleasure meets:  
In streets, I say, more precious than pure gold,  
Glistering with glory wondrous to behold.  
The Gates of which most holy habitation,  
Are pearls of pearless price and valuation,  
Whose wall is all of precious stones most pure,  
Incomparably rich and strong t'endure,  
There is that glorious paradise celestial,  
Surpassing Adam's paradise terrestrial,  
Wherein are fluent oily Rivers Currents,  
Fair brooks of butter and sweet honey torrents.  
Replenished with Garden-walks and Bowers,  
With beds all wrought and fraughted with fragrant flowers.  
Whose odoriferous rare variety  
Afford most various sweet amenity,  
Whose curious colours, and whose lovely green  
Are always fresh, are always springing seen.  
There, Hearts-ease, Saffron, lilies and the Rose,  
Do savour, sent, spring, spire, with sweet repose.  
There all the Spices aromatical,  
T'afford delight and cheer the heart withal.  
There is that sovereign balsam medicinable,  
For sent and Salve most precious amiable.  
All these in thee flourish without defect:  
With these the Garlands of the Saints are decked,  
Without corruption they continue still,  
And sprout and spring about this Zion hill.  
In thee's that peace of God, which doth exceed  
Man's understanding and faith wavering Creed,  
There is that glory which doth all advance;  
Obnoxious never unto change or chance.  
There's that eternal light as sure as pure,  
That Sun of righteousness for e'er t'endure.  
That white and bright blessed Lamb of God most high,  
Who shows and shines most clear incessantly,  
Which no time ever shall once terminate,  
Nor no disastrous chance extenuate,  
There's day which never darkness doth admit.  
There in their bowers of pleasure Saints do sit.  
There also is certain security.  
There shalt thou find secure eternity.  
There all rare comforts from heaven's glorious King  
Successively, successfully do spring.  
What ere the soul can wish, request, desire,  
Is there at hand without the least inquire:  
What ere thou lovest, there is to be found,  
Only, what's ill, comes not in this blessed ground.  
Oh then, my soul, what pleasure infinite?  
Oh what an Ocean of most sweet delight?  
Yea, what a most profound and pure abyss;  
Thus to behold the Lord of Lords, is this?  
Thus to behold with ravished admiration  
The Lord's bright face with sacred contemplation:  
Yea, with thine eyes to see, what faiths dim eye  
On earth was never able to espy,  
Even that eternal trinity most blessed,  
Which can by man no sooner be expressed;  
Than Austin's seeming Lad could pour or lade  
The mighty Ocean, into th' Shel he made  
Without a bottom, that his Shel to fill:  
No sooner can (I say) man's stupid will:  
Till his corruptiod in-corruption be,  
This holy Mystery clearly know and see.  
But when thou mortal dost imortallize,  
When Christ my King, thy soul once happifies,  
Then shalt thou taste that God is good and gracious,  
Then shalt thou Live in this his house most spacious,  
Then shalt thou taste the spring of life most sweet,  
Then in the heavens thou shalt Christ Jesus meet,  
Then shall thy water of terrestrial grief  
Be turned into the wine of sweet relief:  
Then shall thy Sobs be turned into Songs,  
Then shalt thou triumph for thy worldly wrongs;  
O then in that most sacred glorious sight  
Is to be found the fullness of delight,  
Of wisdom, beauty, riches, knowledge pure,  
Of happiness for ever to endure,  
Of goodness, joy, and true nobility,  
Of treasure, pleasure, and felicity,  
Of all that merits love or admiration,  
Or worketh comfort, or sure contentation.  
Yea, all the powers, and powerful faculties  
Of soul and body shall partake likewise,  
Shall be sufficed with the full fruition  
Of heaven's eternal ternal glorious vision.  
God unto all his sacred Saints shall be  
Their universal sweet felicity,  
Containing each particular delight  
Which may affect th' aspect of their blessed sight:  
Infinite both for number and for measure,  
And without end shall be their endless pleasure.  
To th' eyes he shall be a Mirror clear,  
Melodious music to delight the ear:  
To th' Palate he shall be Mellifluous Mell,  
Sweet spiring Balm for to refresh the smell.  
Unto the understanding he shall be  
A Light most bright and pure it'h highest degree,  
To th' will he shall be perfect contentation,  
To th' Memory everlasting continuation.  
In him we also shall enjoy, possess,  
What ever, various time could here express:  
Yea, all the beauties of his rarest creatures,  
Which may our love allure by their sweet features,  
All joy and pleasure to content the mind,  
Such at it'h creatures selves we ne'er could find.  
This sight (I say) is th' angels chiefest treasure,  
The Saint repast, repose and princely pleasure,  
This is their everlasting life, their crown,  
Their Mede, their majesty, their high renown,  
This their rich rest, their spacious specious palace,  
Their outward, inward joy, and sovereign solace:  
Their Paradise divine, their Diadem,  
Their ample bliss, their blessed Jerusalem;  
Their peace of God past all imagination,  
Their full beatitude and sweet salvation,  
To see him who them made, remade, made Saints,  
Him seeing to possess without restraints:  
Possessing him to love him as their King,  
And loving him to praise him, as the Spring,  
And Fountain of this all felicity,  
And praising ever this blessed ●nitie.  
O than my soul, cease not to like, to love,  
These admirable lovely joys above:  
And though thy corrupt flesh is th' obstacle,  
And stays, delays from this blessed habitacle:  
Although thy flesh like churlish Nabal frown,  
Refuse the pains to seek this sacred crown:  
Yet let thy Spirit like good Abigal,  
Go forth to find this place angelical.  
Let Hagar, never get her Mistress place,  
Nor Ishmael good Isaac, so disgrace;  
But strive most strenuously, fight that good fight,  
Subdue thy flesh, withstand proud Satan's might▪  
And with the eye of faith believe, desire  
To live with Christ, pray seek, sue and inquire▪  
Pray earnestly to Christ thy King above,  
In burning zeal, firm faith and burning love.  
For, what ●s this world? nought but a flou●ing fanciesy,  
A theatre or vainness, pleasant phren●  
A since of sin, a shop of all deceit,  
Iniquities chief centre and sure seat,  
A Map, a mirror of all misery,  
A dung on of most dire calamity,  
Lovely to look on like the Scarlet whore,  
But dangerous to deal with evermore:  
A mazie Labyrinth of impious errors,  
A camp of Cruelty, of tears and terrors,  
Constant in nought, but in inconstancy,  
And most unconstant in that constancy:  
In nought the same, save not to be the same,  
And of being, but a very name:  
Still floating, fleeting, never at a stay,  
Hates on the morrow whom it loves to day.  
Yea, 'tis a Joab full of craft and guile,  
Kills his Embracers with a traitorous smile.  
A wrestler 'tis, and trippeth up the heels,  
Of many a man ere he its grasping ●eels:  
Solomon wise, strong Samson so renowned,  
It made their lengths to measure on the ground.  
Therefore to love the world, is nought else, sure,  
Then to her Lime-twigs thy poor soul t' allure,  
Which so the feathers of thy faith will mar,  
Thy soul, if 't may be, from heaven's joys to bar.  
Why then my soul, shouldst thou to the earth be thrall,  
Which hast a heavenly blessed Original?  
Why shouldst thou pin thy thoughts on mortal things  
Who art immortal from the King of Kings?  
And, why shouldst thou a spirit invisible,  
Be pleased with things both gross and visible?  
Striving to pamper thy corrupted body,  
Whose definition is indeed, that both-die:  
Both Soul and Body when the Flesh gives way  
To Sin and Satan in their dire decay.  
And hence it is, that Latinists likewise,  
Thus Corpus fitly crimologize:  
Cor which was once the heart of pure perfection,  
Is thus made Pus, all filth and foul infection.  
Why then shouldst thou then thyself so low depress,  
Who art of high celestial Nobleness,  
One of thy father's first-born children dear;  
Whose name in heavens' blessed Records may appear.  
Why should the world's fall promises delude thee,  
Since heaven with grace & goodness hath indu●d thee.  
Wilt thou a Prince's Son, a heavenly Prince,  
Let Satan's gilded apples thee convince?  
Wilt thou the Son of heaven's all-sacred King,  
Offend thy father for so vile a thing?  
Wilt thou thy birthright Esau-like forge  
For one dire mess of broth, bewitching woe!  
Oh. no! deceitful Dalilah adieu,  
Thy siren's Songs, my soul doth most eschew.  
Thy Crocadile-like tears which would betray me,  
By heaven's preventing-grace shall never slay me:  
For all thy bitter-sweets, false protestations,  
My soul esteemeth but hellish incantations.  
Wherefore as A●mon being once defiled  
With his own Sister, whom he had beguiled,  
After the fact, did hate her ten times more  
Than ever he had loved her before:  
So I, whom thy false friendship once defiled,  
Whom thy deceitful ambush once beguiled:  
I hate, abominate thy mischief more,  
Then ere I loved or liked thee before.  
As seamen Rocks, as Children Scorp●ons fly:  
So (Oh my sou●) hate worldly vanity:  
And, oh! what's he, that would not leave most glad  
World's vanities so finite, base and bad.  
For pleasures infinite: what's he would take  
Fraudulent joys, and permanent forsake:  
None doubtless, none; but Dastards void of grace,  
None but faint-hearted, fearful cowards base.  
The resolute courageous Christian bold,  
Dares deaths grim face confront, see and behold,  
Dares death defy, and his approach desire,  
Because by death, he knows he shall acquire  
The end of all his hope, for deaths the Key  
Which opes the door to true felicity.  
Yea, 'tis no pain, but of all pains the end,  
The gate of heaven and ladder to ascend.  
And death's the death of all his storms and strife,  
And sweet beginning of immortal Life.  
Therefore with smiling countenance, merrily  
To heaven his place of rest he casts his eye:  
And in his heart these thoughts are oft revolved,  
Unfeignedly I wish to be dissolved.  
To be with thee (O Christ my Saviour sweet)  
Thee my deer eldest brother for to meet.  
I see thee Christ, I see thee heavenly home,  
I gladly would and quickly to thee come.  
I see thee, O thou Saints celestial place,  
I much desire I once had run my race.  
But though I cannot with Elias run,  
Ith' strength o'th' spirit in this race begun,  
Unto the heavenly Canaan: yet give Grace,  
Though I with Jacob halt, to halt apace:  
And if not so, yet that at least I may  
Like to an infant, learn to creep the way:  
And grow from strength to strength, from grace to grace,  
Until I come in presence of thy face.  
For I am weary of this pilgrimage,  
And long for thee my heavenly heritage.  
How oft have I thee viewed with admiration?  
How oft hast thou been my soul's meditation?  
How oft have I been ravished with desire,  
That unto thee my soul might once aspire?  
How oft have I been scorned and vilipended  
Earths most unpleasant pleasures quickly ended?  
Being compared to those joys above,  
Which from my heart, my soul doth dearly love:  
My heart, my life, my bliss, my joy, my gem,  
My souls dear soul is New-jerusalem.  
And now I come, my joys I come to you,  
For whom, I did so often seek and sue.  
I pain and death do heartily embrace,  
So that my soul amongst you may take place:  
Yea, though even hell itself were in my way,  
And would my journey stop, disturb, or stay,  
I would it pass, and hazard hell's annoy,  
To live with Christ in his celestial joy.  
And, surely, since heath'nish Cleo● brotus  
Did seem (but desperately) so valorous,  
Hearing his Master Plato once discourse  
Of immortality: with furious force  
(From an high Rock) himself did headlong throw,  
In hope to be immortalised so:  
O how much rather then, I pray, ought I,  
Dying it'h Lord, a thousand death to die,  
To be inve●ted in that perfect glory,  
Shown an affured in truths most faithful Story?  
He died in bare opinion, soul's blind-love,  
I die in saith and knowledge from above:  
He only hop● to have immortal Life,  
I, for immortal rest and glory rife;  
He went unsent-for, I am oft invited,  
Even Christ himself my soul hath oft incited:  
Incited oft, I say, with resolution,  
And Paul's firm faith, to wish for Dissolution.  
Shall then his Pagan-courage mine excel?  
Shall fear of death my Christian-courage quell,  
Since my sure ground than his, is much more firm,  
And death to me is but my sorrows term?  
And that my soul i'th' end shall sure exult,  
Although the way seem somewhat difficult?  
O no, my soul, be valorous and stout,  
With constant courage persevere, hold out.  
None fight but with a hope of victory:  
Thy fight well finished, brings eternity.  
If one should say unto a Captain stout,  
Go forward with bold courage, fight it out;  
Do but thy utmost, fight and give not over,  
For, thou in th' end the conquest shalt recover.  
Would any David his Goliath fly?  
From whom he's sure to win the victory.  
Would any Gideon such a fight refuse?  
Could any valiant Joshua, think you, choose  
But enter combat with the proudest Foe?  
Whom he with triumph surely shall o'erthrow.  
My Saviour sweet even thus to me hath said;  
Take courage, Christian soldier ben't afraid,  
Do thou thy utmost, Satan to withstand:  
For I will be propitious at thy hand.  
Fight valiantly and though thy Foes fierce might  
May hap to bring thee on thy knees i'th' fight,  
May often foil thee by his crafty snare,  
Yea, though his claws were ready thee to tear,  
Yet I will raise thee up, I'll thee defend,  
And thou shalt sure be victor in the end.  
Who then (I say) what's he would be so base,  
As not this proffer gladly to embrace?  
Who could with vile pusillanimity,  
So free a Conquest coward like deny?  
Shall do●ing Lovers for their Lady's fight,  
And for their sakes account all danger slight!  
Shall Merchants venture both lives and goods,  
For wealth & pelf through th' ocean's dangrous floods?  
Yea, shall the ship boy gladly undergo  
All hazards which or Sea or shore can show?  
Only in hope to gain a Master's place.  
And to obtain a cunning Pilots grace.  
And shall my Soul turn coward, ●ear and fly?  
Shall not my soul control that enemy?  
Whom Christ my General first overthrew,  
And thereby all his subtleties well knew:  
And knowing them hath taught me how to fight,  
Me to defend; him offend, put to flight;  
Yea, and hath promised heel assistant be;  
And in my weakness cause my foe to flee;  
And underneath my feet pull Satan down,  
And me as victor, graciously will crown.  
O than my soul! stand stourly to't and fear not,  
Christ's sacred arms in vain about thee bear not.  
Fight this good fight, and let proud Satan know,  
Christ being Captain, thou'lt him overthrow,  
For, if heaven's King by grace be on thy side,  
Thou needst not fear what ere do thee betide:  
No danger sure, can in that battle be,  
Where thou for Christ, and Christ doth fight for thee.  
And here's my comfort, this is my souls stay,  
That whether Satan wound or do me stay,  
Die fleshly body, so my soul may live,  
Christ to my soul the Palm of grace will give.  
But as a mighty Emperor which proclaims  
At some great Feast Olympic warlike Games,  
Wherein to him which proves the Conqueror,  
And doth the best exploits, this Emperor  
Will give a crown, his valour to reward;  
And him with Kingly favour will regard.  
But not the Emperor unto him descends,  
But lie to th' emp'rors' Gallery ascends,  
There from his Princely hand to take the Crown,  
The triumph, trophy, of his high renown,  
Even so the Christian soldier having gained  
The victory, for which he long had strained  
With all his power spiritual, to quell  
The rage of ray●nous sin, and Satan fell,  
Musts from the world's Lists in a blessed end  
By death, heaven's glorious Gallery ascend,  
There, from the hands of Jesus Christ himself  
To take a Crown far passing worldly pelf;  
A Crown of joy, even glories plenitude,  
A Crown of bliss, even heaven's beatitude.  
Not as the Meede of his deserving merit,  
But as the free gift of God's sacred Spirit;  
For having done what ever I am able,  
Yet my best service is unprofitable.  
Only in mercy he is pleased to Crown  
His own good gifts in me to my renown.  
O! therefore death, shall be my welcome guest,  
Death, which translates from la Sour unto rest,  
From worldly sorrow, to heaven's joys increase,  
From woe to weal, from trouble to sweet peace.  
From earth the stage of instability,  
To heaven the fortress of true constancy.  
Go than you godless Heliogabolites,  
You drunken Vicars, proud cosmopolites,  
Go please yourselves in swearing, feasting, fighting,  
And not what's just, but what's your lust's delight in.  
Go please yourselves with rich and large extents  
Of wealthy manors, stately tenements,  
Grow proud to see your underlings beslaved,  
And by your greatness wrongfully outbraved,  
To see your ward-roabs stuffed with proud apparel,  
Your mouths with oaths, your thoughts with strife & quarrel.  
To have variety of worldly pleasure,  
Delicate Gardens, Coffers full of treasure.  
Treasure (sa●d I?) nay white and yellow clay,  
Bewitching Mammon, Sin-bane, soul's decay:  
Or if there's aught that doth you more allure,  
Or which you would with more content procure,  
Use it, possess it, yet for all this know,  
You shall it all with shame and smart for go.  
Yea God will take at deaths disastrous day,  
Your Lands (your life) your goods (your Gods) away.  
This, this (alas) did cause the Prophets cry,  
This moved S. Paul with zealous ard●ncy,  
'Gainst worldlings to cry out, and them accuse,  
That they themselves, their souls would so abuse,  
Such lying vanities so to respect,  
So sottishly their soul's health to reject,  
In Egypt, straw and stubble for to buy,  
Yea Straw I say and chaff, which finally  
Would their own house burn down and ruinate,  
And headlong them to hell precipitate.  
Whereas their saviour at a cheaper price  
Would sell them gold, pure gold, rare Merchandise,  
Even all the Golden joys and sweet delight  
Of Paradise celestial, sacred sight:  
That Pearl of blessed salvation, which to buy  
The wisest Merchant would most joyfully  
Sel all his worldly treasure, earthly pelf,  
With this rare jewel to enrich himself.  
And what's his price? O cheap, and nought else, sure,  
But what thou Mayst thyself with ease procure,  
Only thy heart, 'tis only this, he craves:  
This given to God, both soul and body saves,  
Not that thy God is better by the same,  
But thou made blessed, to magnify his Name,  
'Tis only thine not his good, he desires;  
And for this good he only thanks requires,  
Oh therefore silly, simple, sinful man,  
What greater madness? tel me, if thou can?  
Than such a proffer, fondly to refuse,  
Than death for life, for treasure, Straw to choose;  
For precious liquour, Fountain water good,  
To choose foul puddles stinking full of mud;  
Oh more than mad men thus to take more pain;  
Headlong to run to hell with might and main:  
Then even the holiest saint is to go to heaven,  
Who oft with treats and threats are thereto driven.  
But (〈◊〉 my soul) thy saviour's Counsel take;  
O do not thou his bounty so forsake!  
Go buy of him, give body, heart and all,  
To purchase this rare Gem angelical.  
And with that royal shepherd David say,  
O thou my soul trust in the Lord always:  
Yea in his awe and Law take thou delight,  
O like, love, love look on this both day and night.  
Let it be thy arithmetic, always  
To take account and number out thy days.  
A Deaths-head let thy chief companion be,  
An hour glass remembrancer to thee.  
Let thy chief study be continually,  
How to live well, and blessedly to die.  
So shalt thou (O my soul) most happy be,  
When thou of that blessed city art made free,  
When thou, amongst that sacred hierarchy  
Shall sing sweet tones and tunes melodiously;  
With heav●ns Psalmodical harmonious choir  
Of Saints and Angels zealous, hot as fire,  
The Diapason of whose heavenly lays  
Doth warble forth heaven's due deserved praise,  
Where thou being graced and placed in heavenly state,  
In precious pleasure ne'er to ●erminate,  
Being sweetly rapt in heavenly ecstasy,  
Christ and his church's Epithalamy,  
My sainted foul with surged voice shall sing,  
To God in Christ my three-one heavenly King:  
O happy Citizens enfranchised there!  
O joyful choristers singing so clear!  
Victorious soldiers thus to be transplanted!  
Where peace for war, where life for death is granted.  
Happy wert thou (my soul) most truly blessed,  
If thou wert once of this rare joy possessed:  
That then I might be filled and never fated  
With that rare sight, which once initiated;  
Shall last for aye without times dissolution,  
Shall be most specious without all pollution.  
Therefore my heart (as hart being chafed and chased  
By furious hounds most nimbly tract and traced)  
Desires the water-brook his heat t'allay,  
That so refreshed, he thence may scud away:  
Even so my heart (O Lord) desires to see  
Those Crystal streams of Life which slow from thee!  
Sighs, sues, pursues, her country to recover,  
Here abject, subject, too too triumphed over  
By my three fierce and furious enemies:  
Who seek my soul t'ensnare and sin-surprise,  
Even Satan that old hunter and his hounds,  
The quakers, Hectors which give my soul deep wounds.  
Who more like ravening wolves would fain devour  
And captivate my soul in hellish power,  
But thy preventing grace (O spring of Grace)  
Preserves my soul, disnerves their horrid chase;  
And as a Bird out of the Fowlers Grin,  
And as noah's Dove looking to be let in,  
Into the Ark of thine eternal rest:  
My cyred soul is unto the addressed,  
My soul with world's encumbrances oppressed;  
Desires (O Lord) to be by thee refreshed,  
My soul doth thirst and hasteth to draw near,  
And longs before thy presence to appear,  
O tree of Life! O everliving spring!  
Whose laud and praise the heavenly host do sing!  
O when shall I come and appear in sight  
Of thee, the S●n of righteousness most bright?  
When shall my soul by thine all-saving hand,  
Be led with joy from forth this Des●rt Land?  
When shall I leave this Wilderness of woe,  
Wherein my soul is tossed to and fro?  
I sit alone; as one a house the sparrow:  
Ith' Vale and Dale of tears, fears, sighs and sorrow.  
O lead (dear Christ) my love-sick soul by th' hand,  
From this vast wilderness dry thirsty Land:  
To thy wine-Cellers, that I there may taste  
Of thy wine-flagons thou prepared haste.  
Comfort me with the apples of thy grace.  
With thy Hid-Manna strengthen my weak case.  
With heavenly Milk and honey (Lord) make glad  
My heart, which world's afflictions hath made sad,  
O Let me once from wisdom's sacred Lip,  
Celestial Nard, and Rosean liquour sip.  
Yea, let me fatiare mine insariate thirst,  
With that sweet Milk wherewith thy Saints are noureed,  
I thirst, O Lord, I thirst, thou art the well,  
O quench my thirst, and let me with thee dwell,  
I hunger, Lord, I hunger, thou are bread,  
Even bread of Life, O let my soul be fed.  
I seek thee, Lord, yet still I go astray,  
Through highways, byways, yet I miss the way:  
Thou art, (O Lord) the perfect way and door,  
My soul will follow, if thou go before.  
Direct my feet to leave the paths of sin,  
open glories gate, and let my soul go in.  
Let it be riches to me to possess thee;  
Let it be gloy to me to confess thee;  
Let it be clothes, Christ Jesus to put on;  
Let it be food, his word to feed upon;  
Yea, let it be my life, to live and die,  
For Christ my King, and for his verity.  
So shall my riches be to me eternal,  
So shall my glory be with Christ supernal,  
So shall my clothing fril be fair and new,  
So shall my food be Manna heavenly dew,  
So shall my life ne'er fade, but ever spring,  
Being still preserved by Christ my Lord and King.  
But, oh alas! when shall I see that day?  
That day of gladness never to decay,  
That day of jubilee when all are glad,  
That day when all rejoice, none can be sad?  
Whose endless time and never fixed date,  
Eternity shall never exterminate.  
That Saints blessed birthday, which shall ne'er have evening  
That lasting day to which no night gives ending.  
That rare Grand-Iubile, that Feasts of feasts.  
Sabbaths of sabbaths, endless rests of rests:  
To which least care shall never dare come near,  
Wherein the Saints shall shake of● palid fear.  
O pure, O pleasant, most desired day  
Of that eternal springing month of May!  
In which my soul shall evermore rejoice,  
In which my soul shall hear that happy voice,  
Enter (Blessed soul) into thy Master's joy,  
Enter into sweet rest without annoy;  
Enter into the House of Christ thy King,  
Where peace and plenty mirth and joy do spring,  
Where thou shalt find things most to be admired,  
Where thou shalt have what most thy soul desired.  
Joys infinitely, numberless, I say,  
And various pleasures infinitely gay:  
Unspy able, unspeakable by man,  
Immutable, inscrutable to scan;  
Where I, thy soul will feed, will feast, will fill:  
Feed with spiritual food of my blessed will,  
Feast with the dainties of delight most pure,  
And fill with glory which shall e'er endure.  
Enter, I say, and hear that melody,  
Which comprehends dateless festivity.  
Where is all good, no evil to abuse:  
Where's all thou wishest, nought thou wouldst refuse,  
Where's life e'er-living, sweet and amiable,  
Where is true fame and glory memorable,  
Where is, I say, certain security,  
Securest peace and peaceful pleasancy;  
Most pleasant joy, and joyful happiness,  
Happy eternity, eternal Blessedness;  
The blessed trinity in Unity:  
The Unities trine-one rare deity.  
The Deities three-one's most blessed Vision,  
Which is our Master's joy in ful● fruition.  
O joy of joys, O joy beyond all pleasure!  
Far passing far transcending terrene treasure.  
O joy without annoy, O true conten●  
O sovereign bliss, and souls sweet ravishment!  
O everlasting kingdom, supreme peace!  
Where all the Saints enjoy such joys increase,  
Where all the Saints are clothed with pure Light,  
As with a Garment shining glorious bright:  
Their heads adorned with crowns of purest Gold,  
And precious stones most glorious to behold;  
Whose only exercise is to rejoice,  
To triumph, and to sing with sacred voice,  
Sweet hallelujah to their sovereign King,  
Which them to this felicity did bring.  
Oh when shall my poor soul be made partaker  
Of this great joy, O thou my Lord and maker!  
When shall see thee in it, it in there?  
And therein dwell I in thee, thou in me?  
Surely (O Lord) I will make haste and fly,  
I'll make no stay, but post most speedily.  
I'll never cease to seek, till I have found,  
I'll not leave knocking, till my soul be crowned.  
I'll ne'er leave asking, till thou hast me given  
My boon, thy bounty, even those joys of heaven:  
Since then, I say, such is heaven's majesty!  
And since this world is but mere misery:  
What is 't can hinder this my speedy pace,  
Which I must run, till I have run my race;  
Can worldly power or principality?  
Can kingly favours, wealth or dignity?  
Can worldly pleasures, pleasant unto some?  
Can height or depth, things present, things to come?  
Oh no, with Paul I'll all abominate,  
Ere they shall me from Christ's love separate.  
I'll cry avaunt you soul betraying joys,  
Which belike bring the sting of ●re annoys.  
Avaunt, I say, world's momentary pleasure,  
World's transitory toys, Earths trashie treasure:  
The love of Christ hath so inflam●d my heart,  
That as I trust, it ne'er shall thence depart;  
And, Lord, confirm, strengthen this Faith of mine,  
O let it never faint, fail, or decline.  
But woe to me, poor wretch, who still am fain  
Amongst the tents of Meshech to remain:  
To have my habitation 'mongst the rout  
Of Quakers most ungodly, stubborn, stout.  
The time methinks, is much procrastinated,  
O that the date thereof were terminated.  
Ah me! how long shall it be said to me,  
Wait, wait, expect, and thou the time shalt see?  
And shalt thou see? my soul thou art too blame,  
I must accuse thee (O my soul!) for shame  
Think not the time too long count it not much,  
That with these trials God thy faith should touch.  
For as a Goldsmith waits most carefully  
Upon his gold, which he i'th' fire wiltry;  
That when 'tis burned enough and purified;  
It may not in the fire to wast abide:  
So God his children dear attends upon,  
When in the fire of dire affliction  
He purposeth to purify and try them:  
When thus enough refined he doth spy them:  
By no means will he suffer them to wast,  
But for their comfort to them soon will haste.  
As that most rare pair-Royal well did know:  
Good Shedrach, Meshach, and Abednego:  
Whom he i'th' Babylonian fire did prove,  
Yet so respected in his sacred love;  
That not so much as one hair of their head.  
Was burnt or singed, or once diminished.  
O then, my soul, if God have such a care,  
As from thy head not one small simple hair  
Can fall to th' ground, without his providence:  
O then have thou assured confidence,  
That he thy soul will ne'er permit to perish,  
But in due time will thee refresh and cherish;  
And say with Job, That than of God most just:  
Lord, though thou kill me, I will in thee trust.  
Yea, then confess (as 'tis) that all the woe,  
Which in this life for Christ thou undergo;  
That all earth's torments or afflicting toys,  
Are most unworthy heavens most blissful joys.  
Heavens' joys for weight and measure infinite,  
Earth's pains to death, but slender, small and slight.  
Heavens' joys most perfect, absolutely pure,  
Earth's choicest pleasures pain and grief procure.  
Heavens' joys are sempiternal, everlasting,  
Earth's joys mere toys, still fleeting, ever wasting.  
O then (my soul) have patience, do not grudge,  
Lest so thou make thy Christ thine angry Judge:  
Give patience, Lord, thy sacred will to bear,  
And then receive my soul, how, when, or where.  
For as no gold nor silver can be pure,  
Until the fires burning it endure:  
Nor Stones for Palace work can well be fit,  
Till they with hammers oft be cut and smit:  
No more, I say, is'● possible that we  
Vessels of honour in God's house can be:  
Till we be fined and melted in the fire  
Of worldly crosses and afflictions dire.  
Neither can we as living stones have place;  
Jerusalem's celestial walls to grace;  
Unless the hammers of earth's tribulation,  
Oft bruise the flesh to work the soul's salvation.  
But though thy servants, Lord, may oft be tempted,  
Yet can they never finally be tainted,  
They ne'er can be surprised, though oft assailed,  
For why, heaven's safeguard hath them never failed.  
Christians and persecutions join together,  
Like Christ and 's cross, few calms much stormy weather  
Ere th' Israelites to th' Land of Promise came,  
Their temporal Canaan, Canaan of such fame;  
Th' endured much danger, many miseries:  
And shall not I, most patiently likewise  
Endure all dangers, all anxiety;  
Shall I not undergo all misery,  
In this my journey to heaven's holy Land;  
O yes, with constant courage to it stand.  
For why, I'm sure the more I here endure,  
My joys in heaven shall be more pure.  
And who would not to heaven go joyfully,  
Though with Elias he in whirlwinds fly;  
Grant therefore, Lord, I take earth's Nocuments  
As precious balm, as my souls Documents.  
Confirm my faith with constant resolution,  
To wait, and fit me for my dissolution:  
To wait for thee my Saviour, staff and stay,  
Till thou shalt change my body's house of clay;  
That like thy glorious Body it may be,  
That so thy power and glory I may see:  
That I may hear and see, and bear a part,  
In heavens heart-charming music sacred art,  
In that rare comfort of Mel-Melody,  
At Christ's rare Nuptials blessed solemnity,  
Come then, Lord Jesus, oh, I cannot cease,  
To wish my soul in thine eternal peace,  
Give me, O Lord, good Stephen's Eagles-eye,  
Through thickest clouds heaven's glory to espy.  
Give me (O Lord) a voice angelical,  
With Heart unfeigned on thee thus to call:  
How long (O Lord) how long wilt thou delay?  
Lord Jesus come, come quickly, do not stay;  
Make haste and tarry not, I thee entreat,  
And draw my soul from earth to heavenly seat,  
For why? I fea● (Lord falsify my fear)  
That Satan will 'gainst me such malice bear,  
To cause my refractory flesh to stir  
My soul unto Rebellion: so t'incur  
Thy wrath and indignation for the fame,  
My stubborn flesh, therefore (Lord) curb and tame.  
O, free me from this Fleshly Prison strong,  
Wherein my soul hath fettered lain too long:  
Fettered I say, yea festered more's my shame,  
More art thou flesh; and much more I too blame,  
Who oft with Adam fondly have aspired,  
And with vainglory led, have oft desired  
The fruit o'th' Tree of Knowledge for to eat,  
Not of the Tree of Life, more sovereign meat,  
And to be red in any other Book,  
Much pride and pleasure I have often took,  
Than in my Book of conscience, to behold,  
The woe whereinto sin doth me enfold.  
With wontons I oft viewed pride's Looking-Glass,  
But not times dial, how my days did pass.  
Yea, on earth's follies I have fixed mine eyes:  
Gazing on blaztng worldly vanities.  
Yet Lord I know that as thou hast a book,  
wherein my faults are writ on them to look:  
So thou a Bottle hast, wherein to keep  
My contrite tears, when I for Sin do weep.  
And though myself unworthy I agnize  
Unto thy throne to lift my finful eyes:  
Yet I myself unworthy do not find  
To weep before thee till mine eyes be blind.  
Lord than vouchsafe, vouchsafe I thee beseech,  
An ear an answer to my souls sad speech.  
O come Lord Jesus, come I humbly pray.  
Speak peace unto my soul, O do not stay:  
Bind up my wounds, make whole my malady  
With the Samaratans' sweet charity,  
Into my sore, power thou the oil of gladness;  
Revive my soul from sin constrained sadness.  
O bring my soul out of this mire and mnd,  
This sink of sin where I too long have stood:  
Smite off my Fetters of iniquity,  
As thou didst peter's in captivity,  
Stop in me all the conduits of transgression,  
Break Satan's weapons of my son's oppression,  
Yea, let my eyes be as continual Lavers  
To wash and cleanse sins ulcers stinking savours:  
For a clean Lord (I know) takes delectation,  
To have a clean heart for his habitation.  
Give therefore grace (O Lord) whiles here I live,  
That I a bill of due divorce may give  
Unto that harlo● sin, which too-too-long  
Hath by false Flattery done my soul much wrong,  
O, double, treble happy were I sure,  
If once I might put off sins rags impair,  
T●ose Menstruous clothes wherewith I am disguised,  
Whereby thine Image in me's not agnized:  
Whereby in thy pure sight I am but loathed.  
O therefore that my soul might once be clothed  
With thy most Royal Robes of righteousness,  
Thy seamel●ss, spotless Coat of holiness,  
And therein be presented to the Sight  
Of my great Lord the Father of all Light,  
And be engrafted and incorporate,  
Into this New-ierusalems' blessed state,  
Ino this kingdom evermore existing,  
Into this kingdom all of joy consisting:  
Where all thy Saints and Sacred Angels reign,  
By thee their mighty Lord and sovereign,  
Clothed in vestures of the purest white,  
Still in the presence of thy sacred sight:  
Their heads adorned with Crowns of purest Gold,  
Of preecious stones, rich Pearls rare to behold.  
Thou Lord alone being the Diadem  
Of these thy Saints in this Jerusalem:  
Whose only sight, is their beatitude,  
Which duresfor aye without vicissitude.  
But Lord, it may be thou Mayst say to me,  
Alas, poor soul, wouldst thou my beauty see?  
None ere could see the glory of my face  
And lives on earth, such is man's mortal case.  
Lord, thus I answer, and I this confess,  
That thy celestial glorious, holiness  
Is so immense, so infinite, so rare,  
So great, so glorious gracious, specious, fair,  
That no flesh living can it see, and live,  
Yet to my soul (O Lord) this mercy give,  
That so it may behold thy sacred sight,  
Let death with thousand deaths my body smite;  
So my poor Soul may see thy Majesty,  
Let death my breath, and Life end speedily.  
Oh then, I say, and ne'er shall cease to say,  
O threefold, foursold happy, sure, as they,  
Who by a pious life and blessed end,  
By Christ, heaven's Ladder, to heaven's joys ascend,  
Who for the minutes of earth's Lamentation,  
Enjoy heavens endless years of consolation,  
Who from this earthly prison are set free,  
And in heaven's Palace live, O Christ, with thee:  
Yea, who being dead to sin and Earthly toys,  
Are there in plenitude of perfect joys,  
But oh most wretched miserable I,  
Who (in the floods of world's mortality,  
By huge heau'n-mounting, hell descending waves,  
By Rocks, Syrths, whirlpoles, all which seem my graves)  
Am still constrained to sail through dangers great,  
Which waters, winds, weather, together threat:  
And, which is more, I mosterroniously  
Through ignorance, oft wander clean away,  
I lose my way, and then am dangered most,  
Not ●nowing whither my poor ship doth coast:  
Being thus exposed to seas all jeopardies,  
Like Jonah, when from Ninive he flies,  
Tossed to and fro, even into the Maw of hell,  
By furious hound which 'gainst me rage and swell:  
So that my way to th' Harbour of my rest  
Thus being lost my soul is fore oppressed.  
But which is worst, whiles thus to thee I sail,  
I meet Sea-Monsters which do me assail:  
Resistful Remoraes do strive to stay me,  
And huge Leviathan gapes wide to slay me;  
Lives, toys and troubles, Satan's craft and power,  
Nould stay my voyage, and would me devour.  
Restless, redress is thus I store about,  
And for thy heavenly my soul cries out.  
Wherefore Sea-calming, wind controlly Lord,  
To my perplexed soul thine aid afford;  
For if thou wilt (O Lord.) thou canst me cherish:  
O therefore help, or else my soul will perish.  
One Depth (O Lord) another in doth call,  
As waves break out and on each other fall:  
The depth of my calamity profound,  
Doth invocate thy Mercies which abound.  
I call and cry from many waters deep,  
My soul from sinking (Lord) preserve and keep.  
O keep me from these dangers imminent,  
Which have my silly soul on all sides penned,  
Let thine oustretched arm, upholding grace;  
Once bring my soul unto her resting place,  
From floods or worldly infelicity,  
Into the ●ven of eternity.  
How long, O Lord, how long wilt thou prolong,  
Thy wrath● appeal and ease me, from among  
These d●death-threatning dangers? O direct  
My way to thee, my 〈◊〉 to thee erect.  
My ●fidence replan in thee, I pray,  
That ●o these temp●sts may me not dismay;  
That so these floods, though flow, may not come near me  
That so these blasts, though blow, may not so fe●r me,  
Thou being my unrocking rock, my shield,  
My fortress strong, which to no force can yield,  
Most skilful Pilot, so my stern direct,  
My weather beaten boat, so safe protect,  
That it these dangers infinite may sh●n,  
And to my harbour may the right way run:  
Commiserate, compassionate my case,  
And in thine arms, O Christ, my soul embrace.  
Though I with Jonas seamen lose my wares,  
My goods, my life, world's pleasures, best affairs;  
Though persecution Rocks my Bark may batter,  
My danger driven boat may split may shatter;  
Yet grant, O Lord, I may not shipwreck make  
Of my sure faith in thee; but as the Snake  
Is said t'expose his body to the blow  
Of him that smites, to save his head: Even so  
I willingly may undergo all crosses,  
And with content may bear the greatest losses,  
That I may hold fast faith in Christ my head,  
So I may live by faith, to sin be dead.  
With this conclusion should my soul be cherished,  
I had been undone, had I thus not perished.  
Yea, with those Argo-Nautae willingly,  
My ship through straightest passages shall fly,  
So that in th' end I may with joy possess  
The Golden fleece of endless happiness.  
Lord, though the puddle of impurity  
Hath my poor soul polluted loathsomely  
The Ocean of iniquities foul flood  
Hath me beimeard in stinking mire and mud:  
O yet, sweet Christ, with Hylap of thy merit,  
Cleanse and make clean my sin-polluted spirit;  
Wash me, o Christ, with thy most precious blood,  
None, nought but thou, can do my soul this good,  
My wel-nigh-shipwrackt soul, O Lord assist,  
Which too. too-long the way to thee hath missed.  
Contemn me not, condemn me not for sin,  
But let my Soul to thy sweet rest go in.  
Remit (O Lord) what I have il-omitted,  
Remove (O Lord) what I have miscommitted.  
And though I be to pass by th' Gates of hell,  
Grant power to pass them, and with thee to dwell.  
To dwell I say with thee, i'th' Land of Living,  
Where to thy saints thy joys thou still art giving.  
O thou my souls sweet soul, my heart's dear Hart,  
In this distress do not from me depart;  
Be to my soul as a bright-morning-star,  
Which I may clearly see though somewhat far,  
And be, as th' art indeed, the sun most bright,  
Of righteousness, that my flesh-dimmed sight  
Being with faith's Collyrium made more clear,  
I speedily may see the way appear  
To my heart-chearing long desired port,  
Whereto my soul hath longed to resort,  
I may in time see, and foresee sins charms,  
And so prevent th' event of Sins great harms,  
That on the shore I may perceive thee stand,  
Giving me aim with thy most sacred hand,  
To keep the right way to thine habitation,  
The heaven of happiness, and sure salvation.  
That passing thus this Danger-obvious Ocean,  
By thee the strong Arch-mover of each motion,  
I may go forward with such circumspection,  
And be so guided by thy good direction,  
And with thy grace be so corroborated,  
And with Rock-founded faith so animated,  
That as twixt Scylla's and Charib●is fear,  
My Bark in passage doth a full sail bear:  
I mean proud Pharisaical Self-station,  
And graceless Diffident, Cains desperation,  
By th' justified Publicans example,  
I may the right regenerate paths trample  
Of that true penitent good Prodical,  
To thee (O Lord) for mercy cry and call,  
That by thy gracious guide and safe tuition,  
I may escape despairs and pride's perdition,  
And so with joy, with joy unut●erable,  
Approaching to the shore most amiable:  
Casting the anchor of a constant hope  
On Christ my Saviour, fastened with faith's rope,  
I may my Merchandizes bring aland,  
And put them into my sweet saviour's hand;  
Even all the gains which I poor soul had made  
Of this good talon lent to me to trade:  
To whom although I bring but one for five,  
Yet will he not my soul of heaven deprive.  
And though that one through mine infirmity,  
Hath been much blemished with impurity,  
Hath been disgraced, defaced, and much abused,  
Yet by my Christ it will not be refused,  
But graciously he'll take my will for deed,  
Will hold me by the hand and thus proceed:  
well done, good Servant, worthy of my trust,  
Well done (I say) thy service hath been just;  
Since thou in little matters haste done well,  
Thou shalt be Lord of things which far excel.  
Since thou to do my Will hast done thy best,  
Come, come with me into thy Master's rest.  
Even so Lord Jesus, come I humbly pray,  
For thine Elects sake haste that happy day.  
I look, I long, that I might once clerk  
That happy Day, my soul to happyfie:  
That I with thee (my Saviour) may rejoice,  
That with heart-cheering music and sweet voice,  
In that blessed Chorus sweet, Angelical  
Society of Saints celestial,  
I, Halleluiah, Halleluiah may  
Sing cheerfully to God the Lord always;  
To God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,  
Unto the Trine-One Lord of Host.  
To this great God be given all thanks and praise,  
For his sweet succour in these sacred lays. Amen.  
FINIS.  
— Omnis Gloria solus est Domini.  
Thrice happy Vision, more thrice happy zeal,  
Thus flames us with God, Saints, heaven's Commonweal.   

To the good, godly, and ingenuous Reader.  
GEntlemen, This Book was written for you, & for none ●ut you; any that are malicious, wicked, and corrupted with any deadly sin, in no wise let him presume with Uzza to touch the Ark lest he die. It is enchanted with white magic, the Angel of righteousness doth and will protect it, the spirit of the air his seal & planet; Sachiel his, s●irit, and Zebul his Region, the Mild south, wind bloweth peace and concord, to those I mean, such as it is dedicated to, and none but honest, good, moral, discreet men may read it, whose lives are devoted to the service of God, and in whose hearts there is no guile, to such this book is given.  
Excuse my absence from the Press,  
(Which causeth me thus to express)  
Reader, If you with any errors meet  
In this or that, or the other sheet,  
You must therefore the Printer blame,  
For he did all these errors frame.