A comfortable new Ballad of a Dreame of a Sinner[?],being very [...] troubled with the assaults of Sathan[?]
To the tune of Roger[?]
IN slumbring slléepe I lay
all night alone in bed,
A vision very strange
there came into my head,
Me thought the day of doome
vndoubtedly was come,
And Christ himselfe was there
to iudge both all and some.
My selfe was sent for there
with sound of Trumpet shrill,
Which said, All soules come heare
your sentence good or ill.
I sate in minde amaz'd,
at that same sudden voyce,
For in mine owne good life
no whit I could reioyce.
With panting brest I paus'd
at that same sudden sight,
Not trusting to my selfe,
but to Christs mercies great.
I was no sooner meant,
but Sathan came, me thought,
With him a role full large
of all my life he brought▪
And laid before the Lord
how that I was his owne,
And would haue had me then,
my sinnes so great were growne
I quaking lay with feare,
and wist not what to doe,
But in the blood of Christ
I trusted still vnto.
Then said our Sauiour Christ,
foule Sathan end thy strife▪
Looke if the sinners name
be in the booke of life.
If he be entred there,
then must he needes be blest,
His sinnes be washt away,
his soule with me shall rest.
Then Sathan tooke the booke,
did leafe by leafe vnfold,
And there he found my name
in letters limb'd with gold.
Then Sathan sorrowed much
at that same sudden sight.
And said vnto the Lord,
thy Iudgements are not right
And thus our Sauiour swéet
said to him by and by,
Thou, Sathan, know'st full well
that I for sinne did dye.
Redéeming all the world,
once ouerthrowne by thée,
And so will saue all such
as truly trust in me.
My mortall foe was wroth,
that he had lost his prey,
Extreamely vexed was,
and vanisht quite away▪
But I that thus was bill'd
within that blessed booke,
Out of my stumbring sleepe
so ioyfully awoke.
Still praying to the Lord,
that alwayes sinners may
From Sathan be set frée,
at the last dreadfull day.
That after earthly toyles,
we may heauen ioyes attaine[?],
Here learne to liue to d [...]
that we may liue againe.
Our noble royall King.
God grant him long to raigne
To liue in ioy and peace,
the Gospell to maintaine.
FINIS
London Printed for E. Wright.