Cum sapiant pauci, paucis placuisse laboro,
Hoc tantum cupio, complacuisse bonis.
Catascopos.
Suus cui (que) genius suum et ingenium.
FAr from the turmoils of this worlds affairs,
Whence still succeeding seas of endles woes,
Like Hydra's heads inflicting new despairs,
Conforund the soule with false deluding showes:
In secret Cel, with sweet content diuided,
I sigh to see how mankind is misguided.
Linquo Coax ranis, Ka coruis, vana (que) vanis:
Ad Logicam pergo quae mortis non timet ergo.
Hic vacue curis licet hic cantare sub antro,
Et proculè speculo fluctus spectare furentes.
Catascopos.
I see great kings that mightie Septers swaie,
And take their vowes, the Gospel to protect:
Giue damned Atheisme priuiledge and waie,
As though the Gospel were of none effect.
Yet is the Gospel vnder foule disguise,
Proclaimd the cause, whence Christian wars arisd.
Quicquid delirant reges plectuntur Achiui.
Catascopos.
I see how Moses chast seat is deforn'd,
By brothel incest or adult'rous frie,
That Iohn and Peters pouertie haue scorn'd,
To glut themselues with sensuall Sodomie:
O age, wherein the Lamps that light should shiue,
From vertue, truth and true zeale do decline!
Domus mea domus orationis, &c.
Optime hic suo fungitur officio, qui
studet bene vivere.
Catascopos.
I see good lawes for godlie vse diuised,
The iust mans right, and rigor for offenses
By filthie lucre masqued and disguised.
Truth's but a sound to shadow foule pretenses:
For pride, ambition, ire and auarice
Do dull, dimme, blanch and blind the wisest eies.
Pacis lex, legis ligamentum, iusticia est.
Catascopos.
I see how wars, the Canker of Estate,
Hels image and al common weales downthrow,
Spring from the proud ambitious harts debate,
Where rancor, spleene, and enuie ouerflow:
Not multitudes of men conquest atchieue:
Tis onely god that victorie doth giue.
Arma ira, vindicta (que) Dei.
Fraterno primi maduerunt sanguine fratres.
Fraterno primi maduerunt sanguine muri.
Innocuo sitiens sanguine Romamadet.
Catascopos.
I see craft crept into the clowted shooe:
The ploughmans life that happie lifs disgrac't,
Of yore content with fruits that did ensue
From feithful feilds, where al their hopes they plac't:
Now to the rest I may it well resemble.
Full taught to sweare, forsweare, lie and dissemble.
Foelix nimium prior aetas,
Contenta fidelibus arvis.
Catascopos.
I see extortion, and that boundlesse gulf,
Hight vsury, which suck vp humane blood,
Deuouring lyue flesh, like an hungrie woolf,
And vntill death, do neuer mite of good:
Where is old loue, which charitie men cleepe?
And where is conscience? sunck or sound on sleepe.
Divitis ad manes nil feret vmbra suos.
Dormierunt somnum suum, & nihil invenerunt,
Ʋiri divitiarum in manibus suis.
Catascopos.
I see in youth no reu'rence to old yeares,
Temples are made but marts to traffique in,
Regard to vertue but in feiwe appears,
Good works and almsdeeds are accompted sinne:
Freindship is fled, and feithfull loue exiled,
Sathan so much this last age hath beguiled.
—heu dona bonorum
Sunt breuia, aeternum, quae nocuere, dolent.
Catascopos.
I see a sect of Locusts swarme of late,
That prie into ech Prince is Cabinet,
And rampe vpon the Maiestie of state,
Assassinats, though sheepe they counterfet,
Whose proiect, is the worke of holy good,
Whose practize, poyson, strife, rebellion, bloud.
Quo, quo scelesti ruitis?
Furor ne coecus, an rapit vis acrior?
An culpa?
—culpa. vndi (que) tuto
Astutae vulpes penetrarunt viscera regni.
Catascopos.
I see another sect their opposite.
That leap beyond the limits of the lawe,
And personat the curious hipocrite,
Of King and Church without respect or awe:
Instain'd with Phresie, of neiw reformation,
That broach contempt, pride, peril, innouation.
Alter et alterius hostis, vter (que) nocet.
Catascopos.
I see the true Euangiliques dispos'd,
And held betwixt the is two extreams, at naught,
The one with foreigne stratagerns disguisd;
The other with domestique rancor fraught:
And both they, from their proper ends, conspire,
To set all states and king domes on a fire.
Pestiferum mira propinant arte venenum,
Et miser as blando circundant ore puellas.
Catascopos.
I see the nests, that nourish and maintaine
Those harpies, built in place of eminence:
Courts, Citie, groues hils, vallies and the plaine,
Shroud and support their vncurbd insolence:
☞ The Centinels, that should the feilds defend,
As Scar-crowes, but amaze, but not amend.
Nihil interest, faueas ne sceleri,
an illud facias.
Catascopos.
I see a Chaos of the vniuers,
Religion, laws, minds, maners, tongues tranform'd,
Whilom the direct current, now reuers,
The Lustre of the holy place deform'd,
☞ Where sin doth sit and swaie the stedles helme:
Whiles Schisme & sects poore vertue ouerwhelme.
Tempora temporibus succumbunt prima futuris.
Catascopos.
I see that triple mitred monsters head
Gilt with the gores of sacred maiestie,
His Altans Ore with guiltlesse blood be spred,
But that's not all, O vnhard butcheries!
He lookt of late, at one blow, to deuoure
A King, Queene, Prince, and kingdom in an houre.
Stat cruor in templis, multa (que) rubentia caede
Lubrica saxa madent, nulli sua profuit aetas,
Non genus aut sexus.
Catascopos.
I see, O God! and must I hold my peace?
Are not the liues of Kings and Princes deere?
Will heere, thinke you, their rabious furie cease?
No, no, moe plots in practice are, I feare.
☞ Let Iacob know, no true peace to enioy,
When Aegypt still affronts him with annoy.
Incauta semper nimia praesumptio est
& sui negligens.
Catascopos.
I see the Bees, whose feithfull zeale inclin'd,
Their hiues with waxe and hony to replet,
By slothfull drons confronted and confin'd,
That sucke the sweet, for which they neuer swet:
But hog-like francke and feed their glottonie,
Whiles their poore flock vnsed and famisht lye.
Dat veniam coruis, vexat censura columbas.
—et sic
Infoelix lolium, steriles dominantur auenae.
Catascopos.
I see the cureles Gangren that insect.
And mortifies the bodies soundest part,
Disperse it selfe with dangerous affects,
Through al the veines, to seize vpon the hart:
And yet I see not art nor policie,
Giue rupture to that mortall malidie.
Aditum nocendi, persido prestat fides.
Opprime, dum nous sunt, subitimala semina morbi,
Antidotus cinerinam sua sera venit.
Catascopos.
I see examples, that teach to be wise,
Remote, and of too recent memorie,
Whose yet hoat blood, ascended to the skies,
Call for reueinge, but held as dreams; and why?
For Sirens songs doe lul our sense sleepe
Our dogs are dead, wolfs ouerrun the sheepe.
Fistula dulce canit, voluorom dum decipit auteps,
Corda (que) foedifragum mortaliae fascinat aurum.
Catascopos.
I see the two forerunners of the fall
And period of Estats and Monarchies,
Venting their venim blancht with sugred gall,
Two fatal Sisters Pride and Luxuries:
That with their vnknown strange effects portend,
Or woe, or wracke or ruine in the end.
Luxus & superbia non aegrotae modo,
Sed periclitantis reipublicae inditia.
Catascopos.
I see all sinnes haue aesta's height or'e past,
And swel at ful with Autums surcharg'd wonder,
Expecting that both syth and sickle hast,
To cut the proud apostum'd bulke in sunder:
That Sodom-like Rhamun sia do cosume,
Boulk, stuble, flraw & chaffe with quenchles fume.
Grandia supplicijs grauibus peccata luuntur.
Catascopos.
I see the Eagles in confined eie
To toure about the earth's inheritance,
Scorning all birds that would him timber bye,
To interrupt his selfe sole gouernance:
Whose sublim'd thoughts which no meane can conteine,
Shall know, 'gainst God, mans counsels are but vaine.
Quicquid in altum fortuna tulit, tuitur a leuat.
Deposuit potentes de sede sua, &c.
Catascopos.
I see the glorious Churches of the East,
Whose splendor long time, till of late had shin'd,
Now by the common enemie possest.
Shal home-bred discord stil our Iudgements blin'da
And shall our selfs be stirs-men to our woe?
I say no more, God graunt it be not so.
Propter iniquitatem populi transferetur
regnum de gente in gentens.
Catascopos.
I see, and what? O see, but sight no more,
To weepe or laugh were passions, bootles, vaine.
Compute the scasons that haue past before;
From peace to wars, from wars to peace againe:
And thou shalt say, it is decreed from hie,
Times haue their turns, aske not Iehouah why.
Mundus semper sibi similis.
Currunt sic ordi ne f [...]
Rotat omnia fatum.
Catascopos.
Cogita super nos, O Deus, cogitationes pacis & non afflictionis, & des finem & patientiam, & inuocabimus te, & viuemus. Amen.
Verbum Domini manet in aternum.
—non me
Falsus honos iuuat, aut
Falsus honos iuuat, aut
- mordax
- mendax
FINIS.