A BOTTLE OF HOLY TEARS, OR, Jeremies Threnes and Lamentations for Israel's misery and jerusalems' woeful desolation, Metrically and Metaphrastically laid out in Verse, explaining plainly the meaning of the Prophet in his lamenting Phrases. Very suitable for these times, wherein we have a call every day to learn the Lesson of England's Lamentation, War and Plague having made a strong entrance into divers parts of the Land, and lean Famine and Desolation knocking at the door for entrance.  Therefore said I, look away from me, I will weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people, Esay 22.4. Consider ye and call for the mourning-women, and send for the cunning-women, that they may come, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbour Lamentation, Jer. 9.17, & 19 
YORK, Printed by Tho. Broad, 1645.   

To the godly Reader that understands what these times are, and practices Jeremy's Lamentations with a sorrowing and sensible heart.  
IN that day, (said the Prophet Esay, 
Esay 22.12. ) did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth, in this day he calls for the same, for this is the day of jacobs' trouble. What he calls for, these Verses, as black as the Ink they are writ withal calls for also. 
Nazian. 1. pacificat.  Nazianzen confesses, he never read these lamenting lines of jeremy, but with a lamenting heart, and with overflowing tears in his eyes. Not only Ieremies but ours are lamentable days, and do challenge our Threnodies and mourning Verses. We have our sorrowful Doctor jeremy, and the Doctrine is our own, or the Application rather comes home to us, our Jerusalem being on a fire, our Temples waste, our Elders and Prophets gone into Captivity, our Magistrates none to be found sitting in the gates, our Merchants are weary of the Land, and say it is more tempestuous than the sea, they bear dust and ashes upon their heads, our Virgins are deflowered by an heard of Goats. Rachel weeps for her children, and will not be comforted, because they are not. Every one eats the flesh of his own arm, Manasseh is against Ephraim, and Ephraim against Manasseh, and both against judah. O the cruel and unmerciful deal of the men of these days, as if it were not only true that the English were not only gone to live among the Cannibals in New-England but a Colony of Cannibals were brought thence to devour, and banquet with man's flesh in Old-England. O Lord to us belongeth confusion of face, to our Kings, to our Princes, and to our Fathers, because we have sinned against thee. 
Dan. 9.8.  If there were true judgement given of our calamities what they are, it might be resolved thus and that justly, that the iniquity of the Throne, the Inxurie of the Palates, the oppressions of the Tribunals, the profaneness of the Sanctuary, the ungodliness of the street and market, are all met together in one, and have called forth the justice of God to plague us, and to be revenged on such a Nation as this. We have heard of fours great judgements the Lord threatens to great sinners, wild beasts and those we have, belluine, brutish and bitter men, that need not learn in the wilderness but set up a Lecture in the desert to the Tigers and Leopards to teach them to destroy and ●eare in pieces, and for the other three, limos, lointos, and polemos, Famine, Plague, and War, (woe unto us that we have sinned,) they have said of the Land, Here will we dwell, for we have a delight therein. The Lord teach us the lesson of these days to lament and turn unto him. O all you careless souls that pass by, that have some ease and quiet, when all the Land is steeped in bitterness, and lies in the breach of the wrath of the Almighty, how can you go with such a dry Summer in your eyes? Is it nothing to you, that the Land mourns, the Church hangs up her Harp on the Willow trees. Zion sorrows, England and Ireland are bidding farewell to their broken heartstrings, behold and see if there be any sorrow like England's sorrow, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted her in the day of his fierce wrath. Come and vie tears with the weepers, bow your heads and eyes to the wounded, that having part in her sorrows, when she finds comfort you may challenge a part in her joys. For as none could go into the Temple of Honour, but they must pass thorough the Temple of Virtue; so certainly it will come to pass that none shall enter into the glorious Temple of the Church's joy, but they that go thorough the closet of mourning, earnestly bewailing both our sins, 
●say 66.10.  and God's people's sufferings. Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad with her, all ye that love her: Rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her. To this purpose I have plainly and simply set upon my own heart, and laboured to strike fire with jeremies' flint and steel, that some of his compassionate sorrow might take hold on me in the midst of the passions of the Lords inheritance, and do think the endeavour, 
Nahum 2.7. ●●ck. 7.16.  be it never so mean, honest and good in calling upon others to learn to be Doves, tabring upon their breasts, and mourning in the valleys. The Prophet's meaning I have followed with a metrical and Metaphrasticall interpretation, sometimes taking a Poetical licence to be more large, but always following the Prophetical sense. Nor is it strange that Lamentation should be in Verse and Poetry, the Prophet writ it so in Hebrew meeter, spending four Alphabets of Hebrew Letters, 
Hi●r●●. Epist 115. ad Paulam Vrbi  (somewhat like the 119. Ps. I'm,) about it, the manner of Verse inost resembling a Trimeter Sapphic. Why not sorrow in Verse when David's Penitential, full of the wormwood of repentance in ' 51. Psalm, was vented in mournful Poetry, and had more water of godly sorrow in it, than the spring had Elementary water, in which Bathshebah bathed? If from this Prophets Threnes, 
Pelusi. epist. 298. Lib. 1. Lucae C●nobiarchae.  who was prophetoon polyp●●thestatos, the most calamitous of all the Prophets. I shall but gain some few hearts, with holy and sorrowing sense by compassion, to lament the passions of the Lords people. I shall rejoice, because wet seed carried out has a promise of sheaves to be reaped and brought home triumphantly. The Verse is neither Scenical nor Cynical, but plain and passionate; 
Lacbrymosae p●●mata puppi. Pers. Mat. 5. Es●y 57.18.  not Marshals Verse to break the Diaphragme with laughter, but like Puppius his Verse, the Cloth and Fringe all tears. England's state is sinful and mourfull, the Lord teach us tomourne, that the next Message, we have from the Lord may be that of Christ, Blessed are you that mourn, for you shall be comforted. I will restore comforts to you, and to the Mourners.   

Of the Name, the Argument, the Book, and the Author.  
BEyond all doubt it is, that Jeremy was the Author of this Book. He was the pen in the hand of the Holy Ghost, by which this Book was written. Of all the Books in Scripture, this about the Author falls under the least question. 
Cassanae in Caral. glor. mund.  The jenes call the Book Echa, from the first word Quomodo, as the French (it is thought) call their Salic Law, from the two first words, Si aliqua. The Hebrew Doctors and Rabbins call it Cinoth, that is Lamentations. Of the Greeks it is called Threnoi, because the matter of it is Lamentable, the name of it is suitable, Lamentations. The jews use to read this Scripture by the prescription of their Rabbins, 
Pet. a figueiro in Lam. Jer. in Ca 1.  the 9 day of July, or the month Ab in their Synagogues, because that day Israel fell jerusalem and the Temple were burnt. In the Greek and the Roman Bibles, the Book gins with this proem added to it, And it came to pass after Israel was carried into Captivity, and jerusalem was laid desert, that the Prophet Jeremy sat and lamented with this Lamentation over jerusalem, and said, How doth, etc. Some think this Book not to be a single one of itself, but a part of Jeremy's large Prophecies, and to go● on with it. Junius and Tremelius think it to be the Book of Lamentations made at Josiah● funeral 2 Chron. 35. Now whether there were two Books of Lamentations will fall under question. Sure it is, that much of the jews misery came hasting on after Josiahs' death, so as the sorrow for him turned into a proverbial of great mourning, 
Zach. 12, 10  or the mourning of Hadadrimmon. 3. But for that it should be the Book that underwent the penknife, and the martyrdom of fire by Jehojakim, Jer 36. needs not far to be sought after, seeing there was much matter of prediction, here only of deploration. It remains to conclude that it contains as a bottle Jeremy's tears, wherewith he bewasles the wretched estate of the jews and jerusalem, writing an Epitaph upon that dying City, whose misery he saw begun at Josiahs' death, and foresaw her great desolation instant and imminent; yea, pressing fast onward under Zedekiah, in War, Famine, cr●ell Tyranny, and all evils, within the predicament of misery and prevailing enemies. By this writing he acts Lamentation, confession of sin, appeal to God's mercy, deprecates judgement, lays open Gods just wrath, Israel's unjust ways, thereby both exciting his own people, and giving an example and a lesson to all people, to learn how to repent and turn to God, when he in his judgement is turned against them. He being a Prophet, it not only stays at that destruction by Babylonians under Zedekiah and Jehoiachin, 
Jer. 52.  but withal foretelleth, foresces, and fore-bewailes jerusalem, and jews deeper downfall by Titus and the Romans.   

The Lamentations of the Prophet JEREMY Metrically Meraphrased.  

CHAP. I.  


Verse. 1. COme see and wonder how great Zion sits  
In sad aloneness, lately her fair streets,  
were filled with populous throngs. Now none will woe  
Poor forlorn Widow, none make love unto her  

(a) Cat me soelicemtoties jactasti● amici? Qui ceeidit Rabilinon er●● ille gradu. Boetide conso●● 〈…〉.  How had she all Nations knees? her ears were blest her  
With name of Princess, servant now at best.   

Verse. 2. Sad day's oft eased by night, when as kind sleep  
Stops up tears Bottle: but her sorrows keep  
Their watery course both with the Moon and Sun,  
Her Cheeks are water Channels where floods run:  
Her eyes no standing Ponds, but flowing Springs;  

(b) 〈…〉 ●●vers have forgotten thee, they seek thee not, for I have wounded th●● wi●k 〈…〉. 30.14.  Yet no friend visits, no Lover comfort brings:  
Once many a name, and face of loving friends,  
Now low estate gins, their friendship ends.  
Disloy all love's soon changed from amity   

Verse. 3. By adverse state, to perverse enmity  
Judah is stripped of all her Sovereignty,  
And captive led in great servility:  
Amongst the Heathenish routs this holy flock  
Doth lead a restless life with Pagan folk.  
In vain heart wishes to escape, hope waits,  
The enemies have caught her in such straits.   

Verse. 4. The ways to Zion crowded with holy guests,  
Which yearly came to keep her solemn feasts,  
pathways and gates now languishing lament,  
Because few feet there tread, none them frequent:  
The Priests are prodigal of sighs, and moan,  
Deprised of holy Office, Virgin's groan,  
Deeply afflicted: Zion knows no less,  
Herself in gulphed in great bitterness.   

Verse. 5 Beyond all this, her enemies do command,  
She must obey, they have the upper hand.  
Her sins this scourge to the Lords hand did reach,  
When the Word's rejected then the Rod shall teach.  
He many sius these many sorrows bred,  
For this her children now are Captive led.   

Verse. 6. That face of beauty, which Zion did renown,  
Like all her bliss is gone, uncomely grown.  
As straggling Hearts her Princes are become,  
Wand'ring for food being pasture-pincht at home.  
The strong pursuers do them strengthless drive  
‛ Cainst powerful force poor weakness cannot strive.   

Verse. 7. But O that misery, 
(c) O that I were as in months past, as in the days when god preserved me, when I washed my steps with 〈…〉, and the rocks poured me out rivers of oil, job 29.2, & 6. Memoria foelicitatis ptaeteritae he●●● 〈◊〉 ●●ire infaelititat.  once to have happy been,  
Torments the memory of Jerusalem.  
Of sorrow's children this is eldest son,  
To say of former joys, those days are done.  
Her quondam pleasures she recounts full sad,  
In deep affliction, which before she had,  
Till th' inundation of her enemy's power,  
Which hath her land, self, people, all run o'er.  
Help none appears. Her enemies seeing it, mock,  
Yea her blessed Sabbaths are their laughing stock.   

Verse. 8. Deeply she sinned, therefore she deeply smarts,  
And Vagrant-like, wanders in foreign parts.  
They that had waxed knees, in sign of honour  
Rowing, do now despise, cry fie upon her.  
Because they see her nakedness, with scorn  
They think to  her. She, as one forlorn.  
Draws out her soul in sighs, her face she hides.   

Verse. 9 In her fonle skirts pollution much abides.  
Wherefore from high, thus low she did descend,  
Because she quite forgot her latter end:  
No Comforter appears. O Lord behold  
My miseries swelling tide, whiles enemies bold  
Lift up themselves in pride.   

Verse. 10. They make their prey  
All her delights which hand can snatch away.  
Nay, Lord, thy Sanctuary, that holy place,  
Which all unhallowed feet of Heathen race,  
Thou didst inhibit to enter, these she sees  
Pollute that sacred pavement, which bowed knees  
Of worshipping Saints did kiss.   

Verse. 11. See what rate bears  
One little loaf of bread, when sighs and tears  
Of th' people cannot buy it. For pittance small  
Of meat, which might the flitting soul recall  
To fainting body one day more to live,  
Their costliest jewelrie they do freely give.  
My piteous case consider, Lord, mean while,  
See how in every eye I am counted vile.   

Verse. 12. O heavens! Are men turned flints, their heartstrings brass?  
Has earth no bowels left? O 
(d) Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends, for the hand of god hath touched me, Iob. 〈…〉 hocest dolentium, ut laborem suum to majorem caeteris aestimant, quo aliorum 〈…〉 non cog●oscunt, quia quanto plus dolorem suum sentiunt, tanto minus all rum hulc a daehn 〈…〉 your in loc.  you that pass  
With marbled ruthless hearts, and by me go,  
Lending no pity to condole my woe.  
Is all compassion fled? O that I were  
Among the sweeting stones, they'd drop a tear  
Amidst my groans, and seem to sympathise,  
Whiles men go on with juy celesse pumice eyes.  
Ah unaffected stocks, behold and see,  
If e'er you knew miseries hyperbole  
Climb up so high. See how displeased God  
Has printed all my flesh with his angry rod,  
In blue and livid letters, all my read  
A Lecture of his wrath fall'n on my head.   

Verse. 13. Each member bears some mark of his fierce ire,  
Within my bones he hath enclosed a fire,  
It feeds on me as fuel. 'Tis no boot!  
For me to flee, a snare hath caught my foot.  
Turned backward, desolate, fainting I remain  
Till th' Sun from East hath rid to watery maine.   

Verse. 14. My sins are bundled altogether in one,  
And like an Iron yoke, or heavy stone,  
Laid on my neck, how am I pressed down?  
All strength and vigour is departed, gone.  
In enemy's hands the Lord hath locked me sure,  
Whence to escape are left no means, or power.   

Verse. 15. In midst of th' land my worthies, men of might,  
The Lord hath stamped, and trodden under feet.  
Against my young men he hath led a band,  
Which crush and spoil that flower of my land:  

(e) As when grapes are pressed all their juice runs out: so the Lord hath trampled me to pieces in his anger, and squeazed out all my blood and moisture. Esay 63.2, 3.  The virgin daughter of Judah is pressed sore,  
As grapes in winepress, drowned in purple gore.   

Verse. 16. Therefore mine eyes, mine eyes their rivers spend  
And like to thriftless Prodigals make an end  
Of all their watery store, because so far,  
I am removed from my blessed Comforter,  
That should relieve my soul. My children lie  
Most desolate by prevailing tyranny.   

Verse. 17. Zion spreads forth her hands, yet none draw near  
To solace her. Jacob is drowned in fear  
Of circling enemies, which have hedged him round  
At God's command. This is Jerusalem's wound,  

(f) Leu. 18.19. Thou shalt not approach to a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness.  Like women in pollutions all  
her fly,  
She is separate from all society.   

Verse. 18. Lord thou art just, I from thy Law have swerved,  
And thou hast punished, all this I deserved.  
Draw near all people, O see, and hear I pray  
My sad laments, and sorrows gloomy day.  
My beauteous Maids and Youngmen captives go,  
Form, face and feature cannot bribe the foe.   

Verse. 19 O 
(g) Egyptians and others that the jews trusted in for helpers, jer. 43. jer. 44.11, 12. My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the streams of brooks they pass away. job 6.15.  you my lovers, whose  
promises kissed the sky,  
Where are your windy vows? will none draw nigh,  
Have all deceived? None answer at my call?  
Ah my poor Priests and Elders, how they fall,  
Breathing their final gasps whiles they seek meat,  
They fall down famished in the open street.   

Verse. 20. 〈◊〉 thou thine eyes, O Lord, to my distress,  
My rolling bowels, I cannot express,  
And tossing heart, what grief doth them perplex,  
For my rebellions did my God much vex.  
No face of safety is seen, sword scorns the sheath,  
Killing abroad, at home no guest but death,   

Verse. 21. Slaying by famine. All my foes do know  
How I do sigh and sorrow laid full low,  
Disconsolate. 'Tis matter of joy to them,  
To see black clouds hang o'er Jerusalem.  
But Lord their course is next when mine is done,  
Their day comes on when they shall have my room.  
I know when thou hast tried and humbled me,  
Thou'wilt use the rod to scourge mine enemy.  
When I have drunk thine angers bitter cup,  
As I have dined, so shall mine enemies sup.   

Verse. 22. Set all their wickedness before thy face,  
Make them decline afflictions in my case:  
As I have sinned so have they, let them smart  
As I have smarted. For my fainting heart  
Is ready to break thorough these walls of clay  
with bouncing sobs, thus spend I every day. 
* Haec est regula mund, ut non det bonum prandium, nisictiam det malam coenam. Stella de con●e●●● mundi, Lib. 1. cap, 5,     

Verse. 1. HOw doth the city sit solitary that was full of people how is she become as a Widdo●● she that was great among the N●●●●tions, and Princess among th●● Provinces, how is she become tr●● butary?  
Verse. 2 She weepeth sore in that night, and her tears are on her●● cheels: among all her lover's sh●● hath none to comfort her, all her friends have dealt treacheron 〈◊〉 with her, they are become h●● enemies.  
Verse. 3 Judah is gone into captivity, because of affliction, 〈◊〉 because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the Heathen, 〈◊〉 findeth no rest; all her perse●● toves overtook her between 〈◊〉 straits.  
Verse. 4 The ways of Zion 〈◊〉 mourn, because none come to 〈◊〉 solemn feasts: all her gates 〈◊〉 desolate: her Priest's sigh: her Virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.  
Verse. 5 Her adversaries are the chief her eu●●ies prosper: for the Lord hath afflicted her; for the multitude of her tramigressims, he children are gone into captivity before the enemy.  
Verse. 6. And from the daughter of Zien all her beauty is departed: her Princes are become like Harte, that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.  
Verse. 7. Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction, and of her miseries, a I her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her, the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her Sabbaths.  
Verse. 8. jerusalem hath grievously finned, therefore she is removed: all that honoured her, despise her, because they have soon her nakedness: yea, she figheth and turneth backward.  
Verse. 9 Her filthiness is in her skirts, she remembreth not her last end, therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter: O Lord, behold my affliction for the enemy hath magnified himself.  
Verse. 10. The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the beathen entered into her Sanctus ●● ary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.  
Verse. 11. All her people sigh, they seek bread, they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: see, O Lord, and consider: for I am become vile.  
Verse. 12. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold and see, if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me, in the day of his fierce wrath.  
Verse. 13. From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: be hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me bacl: he hath made me desolate, and faint all the day.  
Verse. 14. The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand ●● they are wreathed, & come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I shall not be able to rise up.  
Verse. 15. The Lord hath trodden under fo●● all my mith men in the mad lest 〈◊〉 the hath called an assembly against me 〈◊〉 crush my 〈…〉. The Lord 〈◊〉 〈…〉 righter of 〈…〉.  
Verse. 16. 〈…〉 with 〈…〉 that show 〈…〉 far from me 〈◊〉 children are desolate be 〈◊〉 the enemy y●ev●nled.  
Verse. 17. Zion s●ealeth forth her hands, & there is name to comfore her: the Lord hath commanded concerning jacob, that his adversaries should be round about him; jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them.  
Verse. 18. The Lord is righteous, for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.  
Verse. 19 I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my Priests and mine Elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls.  
Verse. 20. Behold, O Lord, for 〈◊〉 I in distress: my bowels are troubled: mine heart is turned within me, for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword here●● veth, at home there is death.  
Verse. 21. They have heard that I sigh, there is none to comfort me: all mine enemy's have heard of my trouble, they are glad that thou hast done it: thou will bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like un●● me.  
Verse. 22. Let all their wickedness come before thee: and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart it faint.    

CHAP. II.  


Verse. 1. WIth what a dusky cloak of foggy cloud  
Is Zion clad, which doth her glory shroud,  
And teneb●ize her beams? The angry Lord  
Hath kicked her down from Heaven as one abhorred.  
She now lies soiled in dust, whom once right well  
Each tongue did style the Beauty of Israel.  
In wrath he doth forget, and clean forsake  
His goodly 
(h) The Ark of the covenant is called gods footstool, 1 chron, 28, 2, Psalm 132, 7, It is called his drength, and his glory, Psalm 78, 61,  footstool. He doth riddance make   

Verse. 2. Of jacob's stock, which issued from him,  
They are swallowed up without all pitying.  
Judah's strong holds he hath battered to ground  
Defiled their kingdom, and their King discrowned.   

Verse. 3. His people's flourishing 
(i) Whatsoever is strong and high and excollent it is called an horn in Scripture, It is drawn from ●easts, whose horns are thei● strength, and are their ornament: Horn of David, Psalm 132, Horn of salvation, Luke 1, 69,  horn on high set up,  
In anger is all broke, asunder cut.  
His strong right hand, of nations so well known  
For Israel's only help, is now withdrawn.  
Round about Jacob his fiery fury burns,  
Like raging flame it all to ashes turns.   

Verse. 4. The Lord, as man of war, his bow hath bend,  
Whence never frustrate arrow yet was sent.  
Zions' most excellent ones, joy to the eye  
Once to behold them, now in dust do lie,  
Brought down and slain by his most mighty hand,  
Whose wrath like fire is powr●d out on the Land.   

Verse. 5. Israel's palaces, forts are all destroyed,  
Quite swallowed up, so much as erc she joyed  
She sorrows now. Poor Judah's common song  
Are mournful Threnes and Lamentation.   

Verse. 6. He hath removed his Tabernacle thence  
With violent hand, the lands securest fence,  
Now it's a hedglesse garden. Empty, void,  
Are places of assemblies, lately cloyed  
And surfeiting with throngs, so many guests  
Did come to celebrate her holy Feasts.  
These Sabbaths 
* Malè isti populo accidit, ubi Sabbatha Sabbathum habent, Levit: 26, 43,  solemn days are now forgot,  
Both Kings and Priests are ceased, whose holy lot  
Was Altar-service: these despised are gone,  
Removed by God in indignation.   

Verse. 7. The Altar is cast off and Sanctuary  
Abhorred, the palaces given to th' enemy:  
When 
(k) qui non audiunt attente concionem verbi Dei sonantem, coguntut audire militem bombarbâ tonantem: Tarnovius in locum  pious souls on solemn days before  
In the Lord's house did meet for to adore,  
They gave an heavenly sound in Psalms and praise,  
There now alas the roaring enemies raise  
An impious heathenish ●oyse, like that for sound,  
But not for sense o● harmony. To the ground   

Verse. 8. Zions' fair walls must fall, the Lord hath passed  
His purpose for it. Yea his line is cast  
And stretched upon't: his hand he doth not turn  
From utter ruin. He hath taught to 
(l) Ier, 14, 2, See joel 1, 10, 12, Where when the field is wasted, the land mourneth:  mourn  
The walls and ramparts, as if they had sense  
To tune sad ditties for foes violence.   

Verse. 9 Both gates & bars are broke, and sunk in ground  
Yea all her Kings and Princes wander round  
The Gentiles Country. Holy Law's not more,  

(m) Dicunt Rabbini, prophetia neque inter tristitiam, ne que inter pigritiam habitat: & prophetia cessat tempore persecutiones & exilii: Moses Maimonid: in more Nevochin.  Prophets want visions which they had before.   

Verse. 10. Zions' grave Elders 
(n) Manner of mourners to cover their heads with dust & ashes, as it were confessing they are not worthy to live, and worthy to be laid in the graves and have dust thrown●on them.  on the earth are laid,  
And earth is laid on them, for every head  
Is crowned with ashes, dust, all silent, sad.  
sackcloth is th' only Robe wherewith they are clad.  
Jerusalem's virgins, ripe with grief and fears,  
Walk with down hanging heads like ripened ears.   

Verse. 11. O eyes, your wellsprings fail and watery store,  
My troubled bowels within are panged sore:  
My 
(o) He cleaveth my rei●es asunder and doth not spare; he poureth cut my gall upon the ground. job 16.13. If I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with ● a'mine, Ie●. 14. 1●.  liver as liquor is poured out on the earth,  
Because so great a famine, murderous dearth  
Doth on the daughter of my people lie,  
The silly suckling's famished faint and die.  
In every street their little corpse lie spread,   

Verse. 12. They cry upon their mothers, give us bread,  
We pine, we perish, who will our hunger stay?  
One drop of wine to queneh our thirst we pray.  
Poor babes in vain do cry and pule and crave,  
Whiles mothers want to give what they would have.  
Only in mother's bosom they swoon and die,  
And laid in street preach pity to each eye.   

Verse. 13. What shall I take or seek to earth's utmost hem,  
To witness for thee, O Jerusalem?  
Rhetoric is bankrupt, thou hast beggared th' Arts,  
Ovirgin daughter of Zion, all their parts  
Cannot similitudes coin fit to expreile  
Thy dolours deluge, all compares are less  
Inferior much to thine. Can I but fetch  
Example parallel from some dismal wretch,  
Hence this small glimpse of comfort thou might'st see,  
Thou we●● not singular in misery.  
Yet to the Sea thy sad estate compared,  
Some part by that rude shadow is declared.  
As those proud swelling waves the banks o'er reach,  
Levelling high-crested earth with many a breach,  
And fearful ruptures: thus though waves of woe  
Broke in upon thee, and over run thee so,  
As for thy breach small hopes of help remain,  
Nothing can stop when waves slow in amain.   

Verse. 14. Fie 
(o) Dreaming prophets, jer. 23.23. Daubing prophets E●●k. 22.28. cushion & pillow prophets, or elbow and armhole prophets Ez●●●● 18 Quam ration. mchristo reddent ministri corum, qui ipsorum culp● perierunt, vel quia tacenda dixerunt, vel quia dicenda tacuerunt? Figveiro in Mal. Hicrosolymas de●●ruxerunt prophete titulis Italicis, a Episc Landensis Episc Adulensis Episc placentinius  on all oily Sermons; flattering tongues,  
Of sweet-runed Prophets, that can sing no songs  
But peace and safety. How could Zion stand  
When please-eare Preachers did infect her Land?  
All's well cry they, thou hast some sins indeed,  
Yet desolating vastations no●e we read  
In all our visions. Foolish things and vain  
They see, but see not sin bring captives chain.  
Had they set our Zions' abhorred ways,  
And all her sins, she had not seen these days  
Of sad captivity, but their wi●s they spent,  
To sift false causes of her banishment.   

Verse. 15. Behold the passengers that traveil by  
Do wag their heads, clap hands and hi●●ing cry,  
Lo yonder ruin'd turrets, piles of stone,  
Was the world's beauty and perfection  
Of all earth's glorions Fabriches. Can this be  
Jerusalem's City we demolish●●ce?   

Verse. 16. See how thine enemies together flock,  
To vent the venom of their mouths, they mock:  
Some Serpentlike do his●c, some Doglike grin,  
Every one s●●ive the Scorners prise to win,  
In acting best upon Derisions stage,  
See, see, she's fall'n cry they in scornful rage,  
She's swallowed up: the day, the day is come  
Of her woes, and our wishes; a sad doom.   

Verse. 17. This is the time wel●okt for, long expested,  
God's purpose and dev●●e is now effected.  
Long since he threatened he● for sin of old:  
His wrath sulfills what's patience did withhold.  
She's tumbled down, no piteous ●●n lo●t●●ngu●  
Draws ne●r, heef●●s rejoice, their horns made arong   

Verse. 18. In the Lords c●rs their h●●rts aloud did cry,  
O wall of Zion never more be dry:  
Let slouds veiled ●o h●te ●●es, nee● let sleeps key  
Look up ●li●●ne●●s w●●p●eill essenigh● and day.   

Verse. 19 Ri●e up and b●ak thy midnight ●u●●ed●est,  
In nightly watches pour ●ut he ●ta●d breast  
Before the Lord in Prayers h●ld hands on high,  
Crying, O save 
(p) Dent 28 53 T●ou thalt eat the srued of thine own bod●, the fl●h of thy sons and daughters in the sieg● and straightness wherewith thine enemies shall d'stred● d●●●.  〈◊〉 babes which fainting lie,  
Stabbed through with hu●ger at h●ad of every street.   

Verse. 20. O L●●d behold a miserable s●g●t,  
A spectacle of we, neverd dreye  
Read sad ler Argument of Tragedy.  
Shall 
(q) In the famine of jerusalem Mary a rich & wealthy gentlewoman of per● a boiled her own son to eat him; josephus in 7 book of jews wars; Heressipp●s bring, her in boldly inviting the Soldiers that broke in, irving smelled mea● saying to them I have male you a di●h of meat of my own● bow's: come taste and ●ee how sweet my son's flesh is; Be no● more maidealy and modest then ● mother; what Soldiers more a e●ke and dastardly them a woman? But the Soldiers stayed their stomack● with ●●●ot of the fact; Hegesip. 5. ●ook chap 41 When Scipio took Numantia in Spain; so great was the famine that there were divers mothers s●und with the bodies of their children in their japs; of which they had eaten the half; Petition, in sine Saryt. Under the Emperor lustinian there was so great a famine in Italy that the greatest part of men and women died for hunger; One saith fifty thousand died by famine in one part of Italy, in selo piceno; Two women of strangers that came and lodged at their houses in their journey had killed 17 at several times whiles they slept; and having killed them made them ready and eat them; They attempted it on the 18 but he wakening ended both their famine and lives; Divers mothers than did cook their own children for dishes of mouth Baronius 〈…〉 39 Alstedius in Thesau to chronol  bowell-bleeding mothers take and eat  
Their spanlong sucklings? O abhorred meat?  
Alas, their childbed pangs were sport and mirth,  
When travelling throws fi●st brought these Infaats fo●th,  
Compared with this: when mothers they must feed  
Upon that flesh, which their own flesh did breed.  
O heavy judgement of necessity,  
Inventing food 'gainst Nature's cookery:  
●no bit of such sad breakfast's worse than all  
Earth's griefs, that under imagination fall.  
Shall Priests and Prophets slain in Sanctuary lie,  
Finding no refuge, nor no Sanctuary?   

Verse. 21. Both old and young in open streets lie slain,  
My virgins and my young men drop like rain,  
Falling by sword: no pity doth thee stay  
From slaughtering all in this thy wrathful day.   

Verse. 22. As at some solemn time they are grathred all,  
Girt round with terrors here and there they fall,  
Nothing 
(r) I even I will tear and go away; I will take away and none shall rescue him Hosea 5.14  escapes, for what can safe remain,  
When God a day of anger doth proclaim?  
My babes the solace of my life, which I  
Brought up with care and swaddled, these mine eye  
(Why have I eyes to see it?) sees a prey,  
Unto destroying enemies every day.    

Verse. 1. HOw hath the Lord covered the daughter of Ziom with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beanty of Israel, and remembered no● his fcotstoole in the day of his anger?  
Verse. 2. The Lord swallowed up all the habitations of jacob, and hath not pitted: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong hold● of the daughter of Iuda●: he hath brought them down to the ground he hath polluted the kingdom and the Princes thereof.  
Verse. 3. He hath cut off in his fieres anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right band from before the enemy, & be burned against jacob like a flaming fire whichd v●nreth round about  
Verse. 4. He hath ●ent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, & slew all that were pleasant to the eye, in the Tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire.  
Verse. 5. The Lord was an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds & hath increased in the daughter of judamourning & lamentation  
Verse. 6. And he hath violently taken away his Tabernacle, as if it were of a garden, he hath destroyed his places of the assembly; the Lord hath caused the solemn Feasts & Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion; and hath despised in the indignation of his anger, the King and the priest:  
Verse. 7. The Lord hath cast off his Altar's he hath abhorred his Sanctuary: he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces: they have made a noise in the house of the Lord, as in the day of a solemn feast.  
Verse. 8. The Lord hath purpased to destroy the wall of the daughter of Z●on: he hath stretched out a line the hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to la●ent they languished together.  
Verse. 9 Her gates ●re sunle into the ground: he hath destroyed and brolen her bars: her King and her Princes are among the Gentiles: the lawis no more, her Prophets also fi●d no v●sion from the Lord.  
Verse. 10. The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and leepsilence: they have cast up dust upon their beads: hay have girded themselves with saclolo●th: the virgins of jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.  
Verse. 11. Mine eyes do fail with tears: my bow●s are troubled: my liver is so ●r●d ●p●n the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people because the children & the suckling's swoon in the streets of the city.  
Verse. 12. They say to their mothers, Where is corn and w●n? when they sw●ned as the wounded in the sireets of the city, when their settle was powered out into their mother's b●some.  
Verse. 13. What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee th●● I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the Sea● who can heal thee.  
Verse. 14. Thy Prophets have seen vain a●d foolish things for thee, and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity: but have seen for thee fase burdens, and causes of banishment.  
Verse. 15. All that pass by clap their hands at thee: ●●y visse and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the City that men call the perfection of beauty, the jay of the whole earth?  
Verse. 16. All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hisse and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for: we have found we have seen●t.  
Verse. 17. The Lord hath done that which he had devised: be hath fulsome his w●●d that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.  
Verse. 18. Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wa●l of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river, day and night: give thyself no rest, let not the apple of thine eyes cease.  
Verse. 19 Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning ●f the watches pon●r● out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thine hands toward him, for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.  
Verse. 20. Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast●d me this shall the women eat their fruit, and children of aspan long? shall the Priest and the Prophet be slain in the Sanctuary of the Lord.  
Verse. 21. The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword: thou hast slain them in the day of thy anger: thou hast killed and not pitied.  
Verse. 22. Thou hast called as in a solemn day by terrors round about, so that in the day of the Lords anger, none escaped nor remained; those that I have swaddled & brought up, hath mine enemy consumed.    

CHAP. III.  


Verse. 1. I Am 
(s) I the that of christ; A man of sorrows orde●quai●ted with grief Esay 53  the son of sorrows, who have seen  
Afflictions Centre, and sore schooled have been  
Under God's stinging red.   

Verse. 2. From lightsome walks  
I am brought to sullen darkness, obscure vaults.  
Deprived of joys of all eye-cheering light.   

Verse. 3. Surely 'gainst me God turns himself to fight,  
Under his heavy hand I daily groan.   

Verse. 4. My wrizzeld skin neighbours too near the bone,  
My wrinkled face and flesh my age belie,  
Crown old with grief, not years. My bones do lie  
Scattered and broken.   

Verse. 5. He has built a wall  
'Gainst me; my ease is pain, my sweets are gall.   

Verse. 6. Clesed up in cells of darkness am I laid,  
Like those whom death long since hath prisoners made.   

Verse. 7. When I would scape (cross to my hopes) I find  
An high thorn 
(r) I will bedge up her 〈◊〉 with thorns and make a wall that she shall not find her paths Hosea 3.6  hedge, where with the Lord dab bind  
And keep me in.   

Verse. 8. A heavy chain I bear,  
Then do I cry and shout, but where's God's care?  
He shuts out all my prayers.   

Verse. 9 Stops up my way  
With hewn stones: yea, all my paths that lay  
So strait, are crooked made.   

Verse. 10. Like hungry Bear:  
Or 
(u) Thou huntest me as a fierce Lion. Job 10.16.  greedy Lion lurking close to tear,  
And seize upon some prey, he watched for me.   

Verse. 11. I walk in uncouth paths, compelled to flee:  
Piecemeal he●ent me, tore me in his hate,  
Then leaves me to myself most desolate.   

Verse. 12. With 
(w) He hath taken me by the neck, and ●●ken me to pieces, he hath set me up for his mark. Job 16.12.  full bend bow he aims at me too  
Sets me for mark: nor doth he miss the white.   

Verse. 13. O how his arrows do increase my pains,  
Fixing their Iron teeth even in my reins!   

Verse. 14. To all my people I am made 
(x) Fio repente fabula & ludibrium, & chriosae sum tabernae cantio. Buch●nanus. I became aproverbe unto them, I was phesong of the drunkards. Psal. 69.11, 12.  a scorn  
And subject of their songs, whiles I do mourn  
They rhyme all day upon me.   

Verse. 15. Drunken sots  
Would practise temperance at my wormwood pots,  
And bitter cups, which I have drunk so sore,  
As staggering full, now I can bear no more.   

Verse. 16. Even as with gravel stones my teeth are broke,  
I'm rolled in ashes, choked with dust and smoke.   

Verse. 17. Thou hast divorced a lovely-linked pai●e,  
My soul and peace, my prosperous days to fair,  
Are quite removed, drowned in oblivion.   

Verse. 18. That I am forced to say, my hope is gone.  
Yea, perished from the Lord, all strength extinct,   

Verse. 19 Whiles I remember how I lie fast linked  
In sore affliction, and to mind recall  
My daily draughts of wormwood, and of gall.   

Verse. 20. This I remember, and for this my soul  
Is deeply humbled   

Verse. 21 Yea, my heart doth roll,  
And busied seeks what sins do cause my woe:  
I'll not despair, for humble hopes do grow.   

Verse. 22. O the large sea of mercies in the Lord,  
We merit the edge, he strikes with back of sword.  
〈◊〉 
(y) Quicquid citra infernum est, vitrameritum est.  his transcendent grace which knows no end,  
〈◊〉 for our sins he doth not vengeance send,  
〈◊〉 alt●erly destroy. O mercies rare,  
〈◊〉 spare not sinning, God doth smiting .   

Verse. 23. So oft as Sun doth every morning rise,  
〈◊〉 mercy's are presented to our eyes.  
〈◊〉 faithful is our God in truth and love●   

Verse. 24. My 
(z) My lot is fall'n in a fair place, I 〈◊〉 a goodly herit age, Psal. 16.6.  soul hath chosen thee, O Lord above,  
Whiles others seek for wealth, ease, honour's store,  
●ord thou art my portion, I desire no more,  
Therefore I'll hope in him in lowest state,   

Verse. 25. For God is good to all that on him wait   

Verse. 26. 'Tis a good thing, and piece of rarest Art,  
〈◊〉 darne to wait on God with patiented heart.  
〈◊〉 with soule-calming hopes to rest possessed,  
●●ill Gods saving health be manifest.   

Verse. 27. 'Tis good our shoulders be inur'd betime  
〈◊〉 bear God's yoke even in our youthly prime,  
●arly acquaintance with Gods scourging hand  
●●●●ns his servants, makes them understand.   

Verse. 28. He sits alone, with silence bolts his lips,  
〈◊〉 bursting out into impatient sits.  
〈◊〉 why such burdens he has borne before,   

Verse. 29. Therefore he's 
(a) The godly in afflictions, ponit in pulvereos suum, as 〈◊〉, but the ungodly ponit in coelum os suum. Psal. 73.9.  silent, hopes God will restore.   

Verse. 30. Unto the smiting hand he gives his cheek,  
〈◊〉 filled with reproaches doth not seek  
●ny revenge.   

Verse. 31. This comfort he doth gather,  
〈◊〉 may correct, but casts not off for ever.   

Verse. 32. For some short time his Saints are tried with grief,  
〈◊〉 than Gods tender heart, beyond belief,  
〈◊〉 ravels with pain deliverance to send,  
〈◊〉 endless mercy seeks our miseries end.   

Verse. 33. Oh how 
(b) Deus non maestitia afficit ex ●●orde s●e, non ex animo. Tremel. & Jun.  unwillingly doth our gracious God  
〈◊〉 forth his hand to take sins smarting rod,  
●o scourge rebellious men.   

Verse. 34 He hates that might  
Which oreades down thralled captives under feet.   

Verse. 35. He doth adhorre unjust oppressione all,  
When greatness bribed causes, right causes fall.   

Verse. 36. Against all such he sets his hand and heart,  
Who do the poor in rightful cause subvert.   

Verse. 37 What are men's words, decrees but wind & sand?  
Things only come to pass by God's command.   

Verse. 38. What punishing evil, or what pleasing good  
Meet we withal, which comes not all from God?  
Both come at his decree.   

Verse. 39 O men mo●● vain,  
Why d●e ye murmur, or at all complain?  
No bitter draughts vex us without, within,  
Which first we did not brew and ton in sin.   

Verse. 40. Let us then in ou sufferings search and try,  
What sins in heart or life do cherished lie,   

Verse. 41. Turning to God with lift up hands & heart,  
Praying the Father in heaven to ease our smart.   

Verse. 42. We Lord have sinned with great rebellion.  
Thou scourgest us with sharp correction,  
Thou sparest us not.   

Verse. 43. But in thy angry mood  
Thou smitest, ●●yest, coverest us with blood,  
Yea, thou exc●udest pity.   

Verse. 44. When our prayers  
Are climbed up to the top of heavenly stairs,  
Hoping by this ascent to find thy grace,  
Then dost thou not asient, but hidest thy face,  
Masked with anger's cloud O misery's mass!  
When our poor prayers to God's ear may not pass!   

Verse. 45. We 〈◊〉 counted base by vilest raff of men,  
Refuse and rubbish is our best esteem.   

Verse. 46. Our e●emies all have opd their mouth as large,  
Venting reproaches with a full discharge.   

Verse. 47. Where is our safety? here fear, there a snare,  
Woes and astations our best neighbours are.   

Verse. 48. Mine 
(c) Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes afountaine of tears, that I might weep 〈◊〉 and night for the slain of the daughter of my people. Jer. 9.1.  eyes are full with briny-streaming tears  
Because my people's judgement beats mine cares.   

Verse. 49. Mine eyes gutter my cheeks, I never cease,  
Nor intermit my moan for Zions' case:   

Verse. 50. Until from heaven the Lord cast piteous eye  
Upon my people in their misery.   

Verse. 51. Mine heart affects mine eyes, mine eyes my heart  
〈◊〉 in this wretched consort know their part. 〈◊〉 daughters of my City to deplore.   

Verse. 52. Like 
(d) At when one doth hunt a Partridge in the mountains, 1 Sam. 26.20. Psal. 11.1. Fly a●● 〈◊〉 to your mountain.  weake-winged bird, so am I chased  
〈◊〉 my fierce foes, and guiltless without crime,  
〈◊〉 ●●wk for harmless dove the clouds doth climb.   

Verse. 53. I lie in dungeons bottom as one dead,  
With ponderous pressing stones upon me laid,  
〈◊〉 strangle hopes of life.   

Verse. 54. I'm drowned & gone,  
〈◊〉 plenty 
(e) Great afflictions are commonly compared to great waters, and wa●●● hands. Psal. 42.7. Psal, 69.1, 2. Psal. 124.4, 5.  of waters have my head o'reflowne,  
Which made me say, Lord thou hast done enough,  
How am I perished, I am quite cut off.   

Verse. 55. Yet in the dungeon deep, Lord I did pray,  
●nd called upon thy name.   

Verse. 56. Turn not away  
●●ine ear from my sad sighs, deep-breathed cries,  
know thou heard'st me, O let comfort rise.   

Verse. 57 Yea, Lord I gather hopes, for when I prayed,  
●hou didst draw near and say, be not afraid.   

Verse. 58. The causes of my soul thou hast pleaded well,  
●nd hast redeemed my life from lowest Hell.   

Verse. 59 O Lord thou knowest my wrongs & injuries,  
〈◊〉 and up for me and judge mine enemies.   

Verse. 60. I do appeal for witness to thine eyes.  
●ho saw their busy thoughts always devise●  
●●ngeance and malice.   

Verse. 61. 
(f) Thou hast known my reproach, and my 〈◊〉 and my dishonour, all mine adversaries are before thee. Psal. 69, 19,  Their reproaches all  
●●ine ears have heard, which they on me let fall.   

Verse. 62. What their cursed lips did vent, who 'gainst me risen,  
〈◊〉 plots their hearts invent, O Lord thou knows.  
●hold their sitting down for to conspire,  
〈◊〉 rifing up to act what they desire.  
〈◊〉 their music, their best dish at feasts  
●●on my broken head to break some jests.  
●●ey call on minstrels when they merry be,  
●●●'s hear the Song of Zions' misery,  
●●rusalems last good night. That pleasant stroke  
〈◊〉 enemies sorrows, will our sorrows choke.   

Verse. 64. Render to them, O Lord, a recompense,  
According to their deeds and bad intents.   

Verse. 65. Lay on their wicked hearts thy hardening curse.  
That they may daily grow from ill to worse.   

Verse. 66. Lord in thy wrath destroy them, be they driven  
From all abiding undercope of Heaven.    

Verse. 1. I Am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.  
Verse. 2. He hath led me and brought me, into darkness, but not into light.  
Verse. 3. Surely against me is he urned, he turneth his hand against me all the day.  
Verse. 4. My flesh & my skin hath he made old, he hath broken my bones.  
Verse. 5. He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and traoell.  
Verse. 6. He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.  
Verse. 7. He hath hedged me about, that I cannot getout: he hath made my chain heavy.  
Verse. 8. Also when I cry and shout, shutteth out my prayer.  
Verse. 9 He hath enclosed my way with hewn stone: he hath made my paths crooked.  
Verse. 10. He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a Lion in secret places.  
Verse. 11. He hath turned aside my ways and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.  
Verse. 12. He hath bend his bow, and se● me as a mark for the arrow.  
Verse. 13. He hath caused the arrower 〈◊〉 his quiver to enter into my re●●●.  
Verse. 14. I was a derision to all my people, and their song all the day.  
Verse. 15. He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.  
Verse. 16. He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.  
Verse. 17. And thou hast removed my soul fare off from peace: I forget prosperity.  
Verse. 18. And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord.  
Verse. 19 Remembering mine affliction & my misery, the wormwood & the gall  
Verse. 20. My soulhe hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.  
Verse. 21. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.  
Verse. 22. It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.  
Verse. 23. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.  
Verse. 24. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in him.  
Verse. 25. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.  
Verse. 26. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the sovation of the Lord.  
Verse. 27. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.  
Verse. 28. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.  
Verse. 29. He putteth his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.  
Verse. 30. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him, he is filled full with reproach.  
Verse. 31. For the Lord will not cast off for ever.  
Verse. 32. But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.  
Verse. 33. For he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.  
Verse. 34. To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth.  
Verse. 35. To turn aside the right of a●● before the face of the most High.  
Verse. 36. To subvert aman in bi● 〈◊〉 the Lord approveth not.  
Verse. 37. Who is he that saith, 〈◊〉 cometh to pass, when the 〈◊〉 commandeth it not.  
Verse. 38. Ous of the mouth of the 〈◊〉 High proceedeth not evil and go●●  
Verse. 39 Wherefore doth a living 〈◊〉 complain, a man for the punishm●● of his sins.  
Verse. 40 Let us search and try our 〈◊〉 and turn again to the Lord.  
Verse. 41. Let us loft up our heart 〈◊〉 our hands unto Gods the he●●●●  
Verse. 42. We bout trausgressed and 〈◊〉 rebelled, th●n hast not pardoned.  
Verse. 43. Thou best covered with an● and pers●enied us: th●● hast slai● thou baste not pitied.  
Verse. 44. Thou hast covered thyself w●●● a cloud, that our prayer should 〈◊〉 pass thorough.  
Verse. 45. Thou hast made us at the 〈◊〉 scouring and refuse in the ●●idst the people.  
Verse. 46. All our enemies have op●●● their mouths against us.  
Verse. 47. Fear and asnare is come up us, desolation and destruction.  
Verse. 48. Mine eye ranneth down 〈◊〉 rivers of water, for the destruction the danghter of my people.  
Verse. 49. Mine eye trickleth down 〈◊〉 ceaseth not, without any inter miss●●  
Verse. 50. Till the Lord look down, 〈◊〉 behold from heaven.  
Verse. 51. Mine eye assecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.  
Verse. 52. Mine enemies chased me sore like a bird, without cause.  
Verse. 53. They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.  
Verse. 54. Waters flowed over mine head, than I said, I am cut off.  
Verse. 55. I called upon thy name, O Lord out of the low dungeon.  
Verse. 56. Thou hast heard my voiced hid not thy ear at my breathing, at my cry.  
Verse. 57 Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: Thou saidst Pear not.  
Verse. 58. O Lord thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul, thou hast redcemed my life.  
Verse. 59 O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong, judge thou my cause.  
Verse. 60. Thou hast seen all their vengeance, and all their imaginations against me.  
Verse. 61. Thou hast heard their reproach O Lord, and all their imaginations against me.  
Verse. 62. The lips of those that risen up against me, and their device against me all the day.  
Verse. 63. Behold their sitting down, and their rising up, I am their music.  
Verse. 64. Render unto them a recompense O Lord, according to the work of their hands.  
Verse. 65. Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.  
Verse. 66. Persecute and destroy them in anger, from under the heavens of the Lord.    

CHAP. FOUR  


Verse. 1. HOw 
(g) Such a question for degenerating by sin, (as this by affliction) is that of Esay, 1.21.22. How is the faithful city etc.  is the gold of Zions' glorious frame  
Grown dim and dark, not meriting the name  
Of metals monarch? That which gilded was  
With starlike burnished gold, how dull as brass;  
(Yielding no glistering lustre to the eye)  
Is it become? the heavenly Sanctuary  
Cast down in every street may find her stones.   

Verse. 2. Jerusalem's children, the most precious ones,  
Passing all pearls for price, for beauty gold,  
How are they now as cheap as pitchers sold,  
Esteemed as Potter's ware?   

Verse. 3. Can any kind  
Of Earth's or Ocean's Animals be unkind,  
And cruel as the daughter of Zion is,  
Like 
(h) See Job 39, 14, 15, 16. Contentions there are about this word Ostrich, some will have it, struthio, some ●●culus, some Strix. Vide Cornel. a lap. & Tarn. In Thren. jerem.  hardened Ostrich in the wilderness,  
That doth her new hatched young forget, forsake?  
Yet the Sea-calves as careful, dams do take  
Piteous affection, hold dugs to their young.   

Verse. 4. But here the sucking-child with glued tongue  
To roof of mouth, dried up with thirst doth cry:  
Younglings yell out for bread, ready to die  
With extreme hunger. Yea, the dearth's so great,  
As not one little loaf is left to eat,   

Verse. 5. They who before had all delicious fare,  
Whose trencher robbed the Earth, the Sea, the Air,  
Now in the streets become the beggar's mates,  
Wishing the fragments of their ancient cates.  
The 
(i) Thus the great and glorious Bellisarius for whom in a triumph money was coined and thrown among the people, with this posy on it, Bel●isarius the glory of the Romant, yet afterwards he was cast so low, as both his eyes were put out, and he daily begged his bread in the temple of S. Sopbia, often using this speech, Give I pray one loaf of bread to Bellis. rind, whom virtue exalted high, and envy has thrown down as low, Pezel. Mellific. Histor. in Iustin●an. 1. Thus Hormisda a Persian-Noble came from scarlet to the dunghill, for in that he would not deny Christ his Saviour the Son of God, he was by the Persian tyrant Isdigerdes despoiled of all his riches and honour, and clothing, and turned naked, save there was given him one peasants garment to cover him, and cast into the base servitude of leading Camels, and serving as some ostler. Theodor in Hist. Eccles. Lib. 5. cap. 39  scarlet sirs, which on bed's downe-hils laid,  
Poor wretches now, their beds are dunghills made.   

Verse. 6. For Zions punishment exceedeth far  
Sodom's destruction, there is no compare.  
Their sins were 
(k) Cito periisse beneficii est imago.  scourged with a fiery lash,  
But yet that judgement passed in a flash,  
Made quick dispatch, and swallowed them up all;  
This spun in length, like dripping rain doth fall.   

Verse. 7. Her Nazarites, those sober votaries,  
Whom neither snow nor milk could equalise  
For purest white, whose faces did appear  
Ruddier than Rubies, polished and more clear  
Than any Saphires, now that glory's gone:   

Verse. 8. Their faces brack as coal, not to be known  
Of known familiars. Skin cleaves to the bone,  
No flesh remains to make partition.  
Like age in others is juicy, succulent,  
These withered, dry as sticks, all moisture spent.   

Verse. 9 Death opes an easier gate for them by far,  
Who lose the●●● aim of life by sword of war,  
Then those whom 
(l) Fames ultimum malorum omnium. Am Marcellin. Histor. lib. 19 Quantum est in vobis fame, misexima omnium morte, confecistis. Sallust, in fragment. Epist. Pompeii ad Senat.  lingering famine's sword doth slay,  
And bear to th'grave a long, and languid way:  
When all the feeding flore of house, barn, field,  
●ieads emptiness, and can no succour yield.   

Verse. 10. Mother, whose bowels boiled with passionate heat.  
Sore hunger-smit, their infants boiled for meat.  
What mother's belly nine months had sod in blood,  
Is cooked and sod for that same beilies' food:  
So great a famine, such a deep distress  
The daughter of my people doth oppress   

Verse. 11. Now hath the Lord his fury brought to pass,  
Poured out his wrath which long since threatened was,  
When God kindles his fire, it burns up all.  
Zions' foundations into ashes fall.   

Verse. 12. Kings far remote, which had received the fame,  
And earth's Inhabitants which had heard the name  
Of great Jerusalem, (how her forts and towers  
Scorned all fears of strongest adverse powers)  
Never would these believe, nor could devise  
How any foe or force should it surprise.  
Amongst Impossibles this thing was thought,  
That Zion should to ruin ere be brought.   

Verse. 13. Her 
(m) Animarum medici fuerunt animarum venefici. Tarnovius.  Prophet's most unprofitable were,  
No soap, no nitre can her Priests wash clear  
From guiltiness of sins, which were the cause  
That all did end with such a bloody clause.  
By them the just were slaughtered in the Land,  
Whose blood shall be required at their hand,  
For their examples full of sin and vice  
Filled others, made sins measure fully rise:  
To Idols these did innocent infants slay.   

Verse. 14. In the 
(n) This place in these two Verses is very hard to find out the true sense of, I have chosen out of several expositors what I judged most simple and best, because there are divers applying of the words.  streets full of blood as blind they stray,  
Legal pollutions no way can they avoid.  
Where ere they touch their clothes are smeared with blood.   

Verse. 15. Yet even as lepets, as they walk they cry,  
Unclean, Unclean, keep off, O come not nigh:  
The very Gentiles said, Sure God no more  
Will such cursed wretches to their land restore:   

Verse. 16. God in his fury hath dispersed them fare,  
They have lost his guarding, and regarding care.  
The holy Priests with them had no respect,  
The hoary Elders honour was neglect.   

Verse. 17. Alas (deceiving hopes) our eyes with pain  
B●ate like our pulses, whiles we look in vain,  
Waiting for help from nations withered hand,  
As if whom heaven throws down earth could make stand   

Verse. 18. Our steps they trace, and nets in every street  
Our hunting Nimrods' laid to catch our feet.  
Our 
(o) An evil, an only evil, behold is come. An end is come, the end is come, it watch●● for thee, behold it is come, Ezek. 7.5, 6.  and, our end draws near, heavens destined doom  
Our sins have ripened wrath the day is come.   

Verse. 19 Like Eagles aieric tyrants, birds of prey,  
So are our enemies swift-winged us to slay  
And us slow-flighted fowl pursuing o'ertake  
On mountains, or entrap by lying wait  
In the wild desert.   

Verse. 20. 
(p) Some apply this Christus Domini, as ●●ant of Christ. Others will have it meant to be josias wounded and slain by Pharaoh ●●ho. Thus the Chaldee, Hebrew, Hierome, Thomas, Figueiro, Varablus. Others take ●o be meant of Zedekiah, and that more truly. Some Hebrews, Maldonat. Tarno●s, Di●dati.  Our anointed King  
Given by the Lord, our souls next dearest thing  
Nostriss best breath, their pits did him devour,  
Whose covering wings we counted refuge sure,  
Looking his shadow would us safety give  
Amongst the Heathen, in hopes again to live.   

Verse. 21. Go to, O daughter of Edom, laugh a while,  
Mock on Inhabitant of Uz, and smile,  
Fleering at our so sad, so low estate.  
〈◊〉 shalt thou not God's cup of wrath escape.  
It's coming towards thee, thou shalt drunken lie,  
Showing thy nakedness to every eye.   

Verse. 22. Chaere up O Zion, now the Lord hath done  
His task of Justice, all his wrath is gone.  
What punishments on thee he did intent  
To inflict for sin, are finished, at an end.  
Never again shalt thou so desolate be  
Transported, carried in captivity.  
But thou 
(q) Danae Sionis tandem fient Babylonis. Judgement must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the Gospel of God 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 4.17.  O daughter of Edom that didst stand  
Laughing at Zion, shalt sore feel the hand  
Of God, for all thy sins correcting thee,  
Laying on thine head thine own iniquity.  
God in his people will sinne scourge and hate,  
Much less shall sinful Edom scourging escape.    

Verse. 1 HOw is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the Sanctitary are poured out in the top of every street.  
Verse. 2. The procious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter.  
Verse. 3. Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.  
Verse. 4. The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.  
Verse. 5. They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet, embrace dunghills.  
Verse. 6. For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people, is gre●●er than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was over thrown as in a moment, and no hand stayed on her.  
Verse. 7. Her Nazarites were pure● then snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of Saphire.  
Verse. 8. Their visage is blacker than a coal: they are not known in the streets their skin cleaveth to their hones: it is withered, it is become like a stick.  
Verse. 9 They that be slain with the sword, we better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken thorough for want of the fruits of the field.  
Verse. 10. The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children, they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.  
Verse. 11. The Lord hath accomplished his jury, be hath poured out his fierce anger, he hath kindled a fire in Z●●●, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.  
Verse. 12. The Kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world would not have believed, that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of jerusalem.  
Verse. 13. For the sins of her Prophets, and the iniquities of her Priests, th●● here shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.  
Verse. 14. They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so the men could not couth their garments.  
Verse. 15. They cried unto them; Depart ye, it is unclean, depart, depart, touch not, when they fled away and wandered: they said among the heathen, They shall no more sosourne there.  
Verse. 16. The anger of the Lord hath divided them, he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the Priests, they favoured not the Elders.  
Verse. 17. As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.  
Verse. 18. They bunt our steps that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled, for our end is come.  
Verse. 19 Our persecutors are swifter than the Eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.  
Verse. 20. The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.  
Verse. 21. Rejoice and be glad O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Us, the cup also shall pass thorough unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.  
Verse. 22. The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion, he will no more carry thee away into captivity he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he 〈◊〉 discover thy sins.    

CHAP. V.  


Verse. 1 O Lord, behold what weight upon us lies,  
Ease this thy grievous hand with gracious eyes  
Consider how thou sett'st us as the butt,  
Where wicked men reproaches daily shoot.   

Verse. 2. Our proper right, inheritance and lands  
Strangers possess, they fall in aliens hands.   

Verse. 3. Who ever saw orphans and fatherless  
Used as thresholds, have seen our distress:  
Our mother's mourn as those in widowhood.   

Verse. 4. We lay out money for every piece of wood:  
A 
(r) They shall eat bread by weight and with care, and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment, Ezek. 4.16.  very cup of water cannot come  
To quench our thirst without a little sum.  
Both birds and beasts at Nature's Inn may call,  
Drink at each brook, and none for payment call:  
Better their case then ours, we are not thus,  
Even Nature's Commons are enclosed to us.   

Verse. 5. Our neck doth crack with persecutions weight,  
Pains spend the day, and restlessness the night.   

Verse. 6. We 
(s) All the labour of man is for his mouth and yet the appetite is not filled, Eccles. 6.7.  sold ourselves to the Egyptians side,  
And to the Assyrians, to be satisfied  
With bellies full of meat.   

Verse. 7. Our fathers 
(t) God clears his justice, punishing the children of sinful parents, Ezek. 18.2, 3. etc.  laid  
These eggs of sin, which are our dinner made:  
Our Ancestors (now dead) the grapes did eat,  
Our teeth are edged, their sins their sons now beat.   

Verse. 8. Though we be freemen, slaves do us command,  
Nor's any left to help us from their hand.   

Verse. 9 With danger of curlives our bread we bought,  
When we sought meat, the sword us also sought,  
And watched for us in the wilderness.   

Verse. 10. Our skin the covering garment of the flesh,  
All comely, beauteous hue it quite forscoke,  
As 
(n) Anieulae caminariae similis ex incendii suiigine extit●sti●: prosundis rugis splendida prius & suavis t●n facies est atata. Nicetas choniat. in Annal. in deploratione urbis Byzantii.  heated oven grown black with smudge and smoke,  
So was it blackened by the famine's force,  
Withering the body, hindering nature's course.   

Verse. 11. Besides our enemies (for to let us see  
A perfect Map of misery) goatish be.  
Ravishing Zions' women in the heat  
Of their most lustful rage: poor maids entreat  
In Judah's cities, not t'unlock their shame,  
Deflowered, they depart who Virgins came.   

Verse. 12. Every degree had share in mischief's lot,  
The Princes were hanged up and scaped not.  
None gave respectful reverence to the face  
Of gravest Elders, their account was base.   

Verse. 13. They caused our 
(w) It seems they made their children slaves in pistrino molam vertere, and for the Kitchen fasces ligni portate.  young men toil in servile  
Drudging as slaves, to turn the mill and grind.  
What cruel hand will weaklings shoulders try  
With leaden load? yet our poor children ery,  
And crying fall, contending all in vain,  
Their wood and faggots burdens to sustain.   

Verse. 14. Had great Jerusalem a comelier sight,  
Then when the Elders in 
(x) Hieron. in Zach. cap. 8. The judges and Elders used to sit in the gates of the City, Ruth 4. 1 Zach. 8.16. The reason is rendered for easier dispatch of justice, that countrymen need not be at cost to go for into the city.  her gates did meet,  
To weight in seals of equity right and wrong,  
Aiding weak poor, against oppressors strong?  
Now all the sea●ts are empty, no furred gown,  
Or scarlet robe, lifts up right cause cast down.  
The sportful youth, which made the streets resound  
With 
(y) A sign of the solation it is when in a city there is heard no voice of harpers, musicians or pipers. Rev. 〈◊〉  music, now lament, all mirth is drowned,  
Never a merry twang of harp or lute  
Is heard, the stroke of sorrow strikes all mute.   

Verse. 15. Our hearts and joy break off acquaintance all,  
Our dance is done, to mourning now we fall.   

Verse. 16. The 
(z) The glory and excellency of a people is som●ties called cornu, sometimes coron●. Prov. 49 Esay 28. 〈◊〉 Ezek. 16.12. Phil. 4 1. 1 Thes. 2, 19  erowne of glory which adorned our head  
Is fall'n and with it all our glory fled.  
Woe, woe to us, whose sins create this cross  
Of miseries highest gain, joys deepest loss.   

Verse. 17. For this ●ur heart is faint, this dims our eye,  
Weeping, and waiting long for remedy.   

Verse. 18. Alas poor Zion, who can spare his eyes,  
Seeing how desolate thy mountain lies?  
Where best of men frequented, now the beasts,  
And ●avening 
(a) A desolate place is called a habitation for foxes, Psal, 63.10, because they and other beasts that are hunted, do not ordinarily haunt places where men do frequently live 〈◊〉 converse,  Foxes make their dens and nests.   

Verse. 19 Such is the fickle state of humane things  
Composed of mutables, where each day brings  
Exchanging passages of joy and sorrow,  
This day's success, excess of grief to morrow:  
But Lord thou dost remain the same for ever,  

(b) I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of jacob are not consumed Malipiero, 3, 6,  Immutable and changeless altogether,  
Thou hast a stable kingdom, steady throne,  
Lasting beyond last generation.   

Verse. 20. Why dost thou Lord shut up thy gates of love  
For ever? Shall we never once more prove  
Thy truth and goodness? Canst thou so forsake  
Us like to strangers, and no notice take?   

Verse. 21. Return O 
(c) 〈◊〉 nobis, tihi nos, Deus o converte preeamur, Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast 〈◊〉 flicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil, psal, 90, 15,  Lord, & turn our hearts to thee,  
And thine to us, so shall we turned be:  
Renew those days of peace we had before,  
O let thy grace thy servants now restore.   

Verse. 22. But O our dying hopes, thy vengeful wrath  
Quite casts us off: Lord make us live by faith.    

Verse. 1. REmember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider and behold our reproach.  
Verse. 2. Our inheritance is turned unto strangers, our houses to aliens.  
Verse. 3. We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.  
Verse. 4. We have drunken our water for money, our wood is sold unto us.  
Verse. 5. Our necks are under persecution: we labour and have no rest.  
Verse. 6. We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.  
Verse. 7. Our fathers have sinned and are not, and we have borne their inquity.  
Verse. 8. Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us our of their hand.  
Verse. 9 We gate our bread with the peril f●our lives, because of the wilderness.  
Verse. 10. Our skin wash ●acke like an oven, because of the terrible famine.  
Verse. 11. They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of judah.  
Verse. 12. Prints are hanged up by their hand: the fares of the Elders were not honoured.  
Verse. 13. They took the young men to grind, and the children f●ll under the wood.  
Verse. 14. The Elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music.  
Verse. 15. The joy of our heart is ●●●●sed, our dance is turned into m●●●ning.  
Verse. 16. The crown is fallen from 〈◊〉 head: Woe unto us that we 〈◊〉 sinned.  
Verse. 17. For this our heart is fai●● for these things our eyes are dim●●●●  
Verse. 18. Because of the mountain 〈◊〉 Zion, which is desolate, the 〈◊〉 wake upon it.  
Verse. 19 Thou, O Lord, remain●● for ever, thy throne from generation to generation.  
Verse. 20. Wherefore dost thou forg●● us for ever, and forsake us so lo●● time.  
Verse. 21. Turn thou us unto thee, 〈◊〉 Lord, and we shall be turned: 〈◊〉 our days as of old.  
Verse. 22. But thou hast utterly rejected us: thou art very wroth against us.    
FINIS.