MELOS. V. A Romant of Christs Acts. To the cleering of CHRISTIANITIES bonor, from all comparisons, and indignities. ADVERSVS PSEVDO PHILOSOPHOS, PSEVDOPOLITICOS, ETOMNES OMNINO, NON SATIS CHRISTIANOS.
§. 1.
LOrd Christ, by thee this whole huge frame was made,
By thee the deep foundations first were laid,
From whence the palace of the heauens did rise,
And all which seemes so glorious in our eyes.
From thine eyes fire the starres and planets tooke
The light they vse, each fountaine, sea, and brooke,
Ranne liquid from thy mouth, the earth was clad
In herbs, and flowres, and fruits their colours had
By the bright seales of their Prototypons,
And first Idaeas, whose reflections
Came from thy minde, and th'obiects printed faire,
Engrain'd with dies which successory are.
Time was not till thou hung'st the Sunne on high,
Bidding him runne, dayes arbiter, and eye.
Fishes, birds, beasts, and man, that noble thing,
Had shape and life by thee, their God and King.
Angels, the sparkes of thine owne flame diuine
By thee enabled were to bee, and shine:
And (which much better had lyen hidden still)
Mettals and gemms vnder each shore and hill,
Thou close didst couch, for vse to the worlds end,
When man would more on meanes then God depend:
Or to adorne thy house, the house of pray'r,
Where nothing should bee seene but bright and faire.
For either in thy Churches golde doth best,
Or golde, of all things, is the most vnblest.
§. 2.
THis all's creation, Gods Hexameron,
That six dayes worke he could haue done in one,
Or, as hee shall consume it in a trice,
So could haue raised the whole edifice,
This Architecture of th'huge Vniuerse
(Whose nobler parts who is it can reherse
With equall praise to their creations state?)
This masse which one soule doth inanimate,
This goodly greatnesse, this faire Arke of things,
Borne vp in God, which my Muse summes, not sings,
The worke of our redemption doth exceed,
Both in the worth, and honour of the deed,
As infinitely as Gods mercy stands,
'Boue all the workes of his celestiall hands
Obnoxious man, whose benefit it is,
Cease ô to bee ingratefull, tend to this;
For thou art bound; if benefits may binde,
And benefits of so transcendent kinde.
For better had the glories we beholde,
Remain'd in Chaos, vp together rolde,
Heauens azure glasse vnblowne-out into spheares,
And euery suit which mother Nature weares,
Beene absolutely voyd, no acrie screene,
The conuex globe, and hollow skíes betweene,
Better had that fine bubble, Lordly Man,
Whose sinne so gored Christ, our Pellican,
Better, ô better had high God forborne
To make him out of molde, and to adome
Our Microcosm in Adam Protoplast,
With gifts diuine through his fowle lapse defac't,
Better that nothing still had stood for all,
Vnlesse a world were made which should not fall,
Had not redemption in her lap receiued,
What Furies had of mans first state bereaued.
To build a palace, worthy of a Prince,
For Apes, and Owles is no magnificence;
But prodigality, and bad excesse,
And notes the sounder for vnworthinesse.
Or, if magnificence, then such the cost,
Which th'old Aegyptians on their Temples lost,
Vnder their Pharaohs, and their Ptolomees,
From Nile-brancht Delta, to blacke Meroes,
And Birds, Beasts, Crocodiles, the god-heads were,
Which those Idolaters adored there.
'Tis not the pomp, nor Maiestie of things,
But th'vse they serue vnto which honor brings.
What glory had it beene to the Creator,
Of all things out of nothing to be Author,
If onely Sprights, and Goblins there should dwell,
And man for whom he made them damn'd in hell?
But this was worthy of Gods nature sweet
(With which in mans men doc most rarely meet)
For his owne sake rebellion to forgiue,
And, for his Courts sake, letting man to liue:
Nor onely so, but to remooue the barre,
His iustice put, and by the which we are
For euer disinherited of heauen,
It pleased him his owne Sonne should be giuen,
A voluntary sacrifice for all.
Thus Adam nothing lost by Adams fall.
Hee lost Euphrates, and swift Tygris riuer;
But drinkes the water makes him liue for euer:
Hee lost t'abide on earth in endlesse blisse;
Hath better ioyes in other Paradise:
Hee lost an Eden; but an Heauen hath found:
Hee hath a firmament; hee lost but ground:
Before, his body neuer should haue died;
But now his body shall bee glorified:
As then his body his soules mansion was;
Now soule and body vnto glory passe:
As then he trembled at the voyce of God;
Now, face to face, in his diuine abode,
Hee God beholds, and shall behold for euer:
As then his blisse did but in sense perseuer;
Now in his soule: then happy but in part;
Now in the whole: Adâm, how blest thou art!
As then his obiects dainty land-skeps were,
And cleere Horizons, May-months all the yeere;
Now mysteries and types reueal'd doe feed
His happy soule, and time he doth not need:
Eua in Edon was his naturall ioy;
Now supernaturall sweets them both employ:
And for the beauties of a blanched skin,
Christs Spouse they see, whose beauties are within:
His walkes were then among fresh trees and flowers;
Now Alleluia sings in heauenly bowers:
The flockes of starres were then aboue his head;
Now vnderneath his feet are trauersed:
There were as then no birds, nor beasts of prey,
And Eagles did with Doues together play,
To make his Lordship sport, who Monarch was;
But, where he is, there nothing is so base,
As beasts, or birds, nor needeth fond delight:
Hee raigneth now, where euery meanest wight,
Doth farre excell the state of greatest Kings:
The Cherubim now fanne him with their wings,
And th'head with plumes impalpable doe shade,
'Gainst which was brandished a fiery blade:
The streames of Eden had some gemms of price;
Rich stones, and vnions wall new Paradise:
There nakednesse and sinne did make him hide;
Heere all things euer cleeere in sight a bide:
The tree of knowledge quite forbidden there;
Is common, and communicable here:
There he for diet was to fruit confinde;
Now hunger is not: God doth feede his minde:
And that which is the iustest ioy of all,
His whole posterity, who through his fall,
Had reason to lament, as suffering losse,
Now, through th'exaltiue vertue of the crosse,
Hee sees in blisse, without originall blot,
And (grace surmounting sinne) that they were not,
Nor euer shall bee by his act endomaged,
As freed by Christ, who hell for them had romaged:
Gods promis'd mercy being most compleat,
Each Tribe high placed on triumphant seat,
And euery Saint distinguished with markes,
Martyrs, Apostles, Virgins, Patriarkes,
Fellowes of Angels, friends, and sonnes of light,
And therefore deerest in their makers sight,
Eua to Aue turn'd, hard sweat and paine,
To ioy and peace. How great is Adams gaine!
For in times fulnesse, the incarnate Word,
Theanthropos, Messias, Christ our Lord,
(That is, Gods off-spring, and himselfe high God)
Who weilds the Scepter, and the iron rod,
Vonchsafed in the Maydens wombe to dwell,
To ransome vs from seruitude and hell.
Abasing his great Maiesty, and came
(O happy comming!) to vnite this frame,
This clayie fabricke of mortality,
To God the Father. This was by and by
Effected. O the wonder! ô the ioy!
A riddance cleare from all extreame annoy.
§. 3.
HEE came: before him came the Baptist Iohn,
Herald, and harbinger of redemption,
Whose cryes in desarts did so farre rebound,
As fill'd all peopled places with the sound.
Neuer mans worth such testimony gain'd
As this great Prophet. Yet there had remain'd
Among Gods people most exemplar Saints.
Graue Ieremie with gorgeous words depaints
The sacred Order of the Nazarenes,
Whose liues, and doctrines, in his holy Threnes,
To milke, snow, iuory, and to saphyres faire,
Fornutritiue, and pure he doth compare.
Nor with small feruor the same pen endites
The praises of th'abstemious Rechabites.
These were of them whom blessed Paul describes
To bee the choysest glories of their Tribes,
Cloath'd in goat-skins, without perfumes, or dresse,
Wandring on mountaines, and in wildernesse,
For-borne by wilde beasts, but by Tyrants slaine,
Stoned in townes whom rockes let safe remaine,
And poore distrest from caue to caue did passe,
Of whom the wretched world vnworthy was.
And though that Henoch, and Elias were
Most eminent, so that our Master here
Vpon mount Thabor did the Thesbite see,
The Baptist was as great as hee, or hee.
Therefore of him would Christ his baptisme take,
And was baptized for examples sake.
Jordan saw this, and where our Sauiour stood
Came trembling forward, the abashed flood
Vnworthy, Christs most sacred limbs to touch,
Nor could the opening heauens admire too much,
This secret most profound, that Mercies Sea
In narrow riuer should contained bee:
Before this time Christ well declared had,
By arguing with the Doctors, what was clad
In scorned semblant. Natures author hee.
How else cold fountaine water changed bee
(The first of his great wonders) into wine?
Honouring marriage, mystery diuine:
But who hath words sufficient to expresse,
The testimonies of his heauenlinesse?
Words are too weake, seeing that other Iohn,
The Gospels Eagle, Christs beloued One,
A flures vs (nor is his assurance vaine)
That the wide world could not the Tomes containe
Might written bee of miracles hee did.
Yet let vs touch some. For, enthronized
Although hee bee, right at his fathers hand,
This monument will to good purpose stand.
§. 5.
OVt of pure nothing all the world was rais'd,
And beeing somewhat God the Sonne it pais'd.
God all powre gaue to him as hee was man.
Who wonders at it? Hee who all things can,
May all things gouerne well, and so doth hee.
Euangelists (fowre of you such there bee)
Whom great Ezechiel, poet most diuine,
In figures fowre exprest. As, Matthew, thine,
And thine ô Marck, Saint Peters scholler sworne,
And Luke, and Iohn, on Eagles wings high borne,
Matthew presented in a wing'd mans image,
Marck in a Lyons, Luke, CHRISTS mothers linage
Describing, by the winged Oxe is known.
Their harmony a perfect Vnison.
That what Iustinian of the Septuagint,
In Romes lawes most authentick instrument,
What Aristaas or the Fathers write
Concerning Scriptures brought in Greeke to light,
At Ptolomees command, t'enrich the store
Of Alexandria's bookes, the same much more
Is certaine in the Gospels rare concent.
Those first Translatours of th'old Testament
Diuinely did accord, although apart
They sat in seuerall cels, that so to Art
Their harmony could not imputed bee.
By the same Spirit did these fowre agree,
Their concord worthiest to bee most admir'd,
As most vndoubted, and alike inspir'd,
Not in one place, as were those seauentie two,
Nor at one time, and what they had to do
Was not deriuatiue, but originall.
Vpon this Quadrate Euangelicall,
This rockie Basis, truth her towre doth build,
Which, spite of weather, still hath stronger held.
Himselfe writ nothing, nothing did commit,
Or did omit, which the most captious wit
Could charge for sinne, or could be better done.
Enough, enough: this shewes he was Gods sonne.
Maiesty made him others pens to vse,
And Deity his spirit to infuse.
§. 5.
MOst wondrous this, that he should bee so poore,
As not to haue or couch, or homely bowr
In which to rest his venerable head,
Propriety by him vnpractised.
Such as are downe in meanes doe feele this state
Most difficult of all to eleuate,
And that a weight of wonder lies therein.
O whither yet from hence did he not win?
Nothing to haue, and yet all things to sway?
Apostles twelue, Disciples do obay
Thrice two times twelue to his magistrall will.
These he did cloath, these he with food did fill
Out of his doctrines force. For Lordships hee,
And farmes had none, though his the whole earth bee,
With whatsoeuer creatures are therein.
Th' Oeconomie of Hierarchie seene.
They begg'd not, they lackt nothing, nor tooke care
For morrowes, a felicity most rare.
Hee Primate among his, and worthiest, was,
Prouiding that no day should ouerpasse
To bee repented, as in wants dis-spent.
What of the Author of the firmament
Durst men hope lesse? The blinde, the deafe, the lame,
The dumbe, sicke, dead, who to their senses came
Through his immediate gift were infinite.
Hee grew authenticke in the peoples sight.
Angels who had beene chang'd from white to blacke,
From faire to fowle, from such as no blisse lacke
To such as all blisse want, and others make
To lacke alike, hee did so throughly shake,
That among swine they gladly harbour sought,
Nor could obtaiue, till leaue of him was got.
Thus was the Diuell trampled vnder foot,
As God had promis'd, when in natures root
Man blasted was by his infernall guile.
§. 6.
FRom hence let me conuert my mounting stile
To the last act of his most wondrous life.
His sermons we omit, in Gospell rife,
Rife, and exact, as the rein penned downe
By God, who spake them. And in all the crowne
Of auditors, who did not rise admiring?
Or who doth read his words, and more desiring,
And thinking more from roading doth not rise?
Witnesse those daily swelling Libraries
Growne out of comments on his sermons made;
Into whose depths no mortall wit can wade,
Nor line can sound th'abysses of his lore.
We often know the lesse by knowing more,
Abysse begets abysse, mysterie mysterie,
All schooles are blanckt, all eloquence, all hystorie.
Nor lies this hardnesse in th'Euangelists,
Who weaue their text with most transparent twists,
And on the precious ground-worke cause t'appeare
The images of acts so perfect cleare,
And with proportion; so exact, and true,
As make no dainty of an open view,
Nor doth the Greeke with dialects vex the sense,
As th'Hebrew with their words equiualence
To sundry vses; th holy phrase is fit,
Aswell for loftiest, as for lowest wit,
And, as much as the largest tongue can bee,
To all intents of full capacitee:
Nor stints the maruell heere. For, who so dull
That somewhat not conceiues? and who so full,
Whose stores may not encrease ten thousand fold?
Gods wisdome in it doth the wonder hold.
Abstract from miracles, for weake ones granted
(Who wholly build on them are often scanted)
His parables, his sentences, his speeches,
Are altogether such, as no minde reaches
The fulnesse of their Anagogicke sense.
Pole is from pole not so farre distant hence
As Fathers, Doctors, Counsels are farre short,
Not of the truth, but of th'entire purport.
Yet is it written, and that writ is right,
That in his light wee faithfull should see light,
And from one cleerenesse passing to another,
Last times should open what the first did smother.
O, had wee beene so happy from on high,
As to haue felt the force, and energie,
And most victorious vtterance of Christs words,
Did Scripture, as it substances affords,
The postures of his action shew to vs,
And gestures grace, which th'artificious
Are so much in, ô had we beene so blest,
Rapture could onely serue to speake the rest.
Enough to constitute a proofe past nay,
That hee was God who so could doe, and say.
Therefore adore wee thee, ô Sauiour sweet,
In whom the lines of all perfections meet.
§. 7.
DIuine Eschêquer, Treasûrie diuine,
Where God our God doth all the wealth enshrine
Of SAPIENCE, and of SCIENCE, gifts of his,
Out of that treasures most immense abysse,
Whereof small peeces, scattered heere and there
In humane nature, did the heathens reare
To all the splendor which their writings boast,
(Properly ours, theirs but vsurpt at most)
O cast deare God into my minde, and sense,
Some heauenly sterling, some spirituall pence;
Shower downe in donatiue thy missill bounties,
In honour of thy Sonne, while I dismount ease,
To mount his name, out of all hands to strike
Well worded madnesse, which the times best like.
Cares from my head; driue wearinesse from my hands,
Turne scruples into spurrs, the Syrts, and sands
Of perturbations, to firme grounds of sense,
Which Romants more doe loue then eloquence.
§. 8.
MOses Gods acts did sing, and Dauid too.
Dauid, and Moses would haue much to do,
Were they his fullest praise to vndertake,
For, what a fame doth sacred Moses make,
By hauing brought the Israelites past feare,
When th'Erythraean seas disparted were,
Like wals on either side to let them passe,
Closing againe as Pharaoh held on chase,
Hoping to charge, with chariots arm'd for fight,
The trembling sonnes of Abraham in their flight?
What pomp of stile? what ornaments of phrase
Vse not Gods Prophets when this act they praise?
Againe, whose pen extols not Sinais thunder?
The Deserts Manna? and, what else was wonder,
In that great Captaines march to hoped rest?
Which God had promised in countrey blest.
Lastly, what wants t'expresse the glorious state
Of Salomons temple? Scriptures doe abate
All pomp, all greatnesse, when compar'd to it.
The ancient maruailes euen to one doe fit
Our masters person, office, and renowne.
No miracle worth naming but his owne.
For, how farre substance shadowes doth excell,
Things done their figures set in paralell,
So farre the sacred kernell of CHRISTS deeds
The gorgeous huske of those great types exceeds.
§. 9.
HEre challenge I all Heathen wits, and Worthies,
All Conquerours, and noble pens which for these
Haue coniur'd Helicon, call'd Apollo downe,
By monuments t'eternize that renowne,
Which they their patrons had by braue deeds gain'd,
Their Tripods, Sibylls, and their wonders fain'd,
To peece with falshood out their Gods defect:
Here challenge I (let whose will them protect)
Their Ioues, their Marses, and their Mercuries,
Their Dij Penates, and Indigetes,
Or (who were more in worth, though lesse in fame)
Their Pauls, their Scipio's, and what gallant name
Th' Arsacid's line, the race of Ptolomees,
The Caesars vaunted, or, if out of these,
Prowd Paganism had oughts more admirable,
Great Alexander, Traian incomparable
(A duanced by wits vanity to the state
Of Demi-gods) the life t'equiparate,
And words, and workes of Moses wondrous man,
Who maruels acted in the Land of Cham,
And terrible things in rosie-colour'd seas,
Who was true Trismegist, and not Hermes,
Preist, Prophet, Prince, ô very Trismegist,
Truely most great. Enter who will the List,
I challenge all the heathen, sure to win.
And to this combat let come also in
Their Mages, Brathmanns, Areopagites,
Their Solons, their philosophies, and rites:
Let China her Confutius also bring,
Her Realmes Law-maker, and doth seeme a thing
More worthy admiration then what either
Chaldie, or Aegypt, Greece, put all together,
Can shew for an effect of heathen wit,
The Academ, the most learn'd Stagyrit;
Bring Simon Magus, and th'impostr'ous mate
Borne at Tyana, whom fond Philostrate
Blasphemoufly durst vnto CHRIST compare,
Iannes, and Mambres, and who famous are
For Lady witches, Circe, and that crew;
Pownd all into one dose, yea let hell spew
More blacke Ingredients, to obtaine the prize
By counterfets, and mists, to blinde the eyes;
Let th'instances be fabulous, or true,
Gods seruant farre excels, and doth subdue
Seemings with substance, morall with diuine.
Nor is this an hyperbole of mine.
All heathen greatnesse put into one act
Cannot bee made so great, nor so exact,
As that by which our Moses Israel freed,
His knowledge being equall to his deed:
And all the heathen learnings, Lawes, and Arts
Together put, come farre beneath his parts.
Not that the Gentiles natures were not rare,
Their acts not great, their worths not singular,
Their speech not exquisite, their thoughts not high,
Their studies not most noble: to denie
These famous truthes were abiect, poore, and base,
Yea more (ô Christiâns) to our iust disgrace,
We cannot but confesse, that they out went,
And farre outwent, most of our excellent,
Through our default, whose sloth betrayes our powers.
And would to God that in these dayes of ours,
Their iustice, candor, valour, temperance,
And other vertues which did so aduance
Their names, and countries vnder natures Law,
Could now more like them into practise draw:
They are confest to be heroick high,
Glorious, and what not? and the Deitie
Was in their persons prettily resembled.
But at the voyce of Moses nations trembled.
The plagues of Aegypt want a parallell
Euen in their fables. For what one heares tell
(Read all the fictions which their Fasti hold,
Their poems, and their Annals) one so bold,
And blest withall, who single, euer durst
Enter a Tyrants Court, and hee at worst,
Dispos'd to all iniustice, tort, and wrong,
To free six hundred thousand, captiue long
(As long as heere fiue hundred yeeres could make)
And force him in the end conditions take,
Not such as Maiestie would yeeld vnto,
But such as Moses did compell to doe?
Moses in all th' Aegyptian learnings taught,
What hee would worke prerogatiuely wrought,
Not with base prai'rs, or with rude force of hand,
But with a force which men could not withstand.
Withstand they did, but did withstand in vaine.
Ianues, and Mambres who did then sustaine
The persons of the wise-men, and the wit
Of all the heathen (for no Mages yet,
Or them before, had more prestigious skill,
More charmes, more spirits, or could more fulfill)
And in their persons, Moses did confound
All the worlds Arts, all which this globous Mound
Of sea, and earth hath in it great, or rare,
Set against God, by whom, and whose they are.
Nor doe I wonder that it should bee so,
Nor is it wonderfull. For wee must know,
That the first heathen had from vs their lights.
By Abraham the Mesopotamites,
And Sages of Chalda [...] knew the skie,
The rules, and doctrines of Astronomie;
And Iacoh, and the Patriarkes (Abrahams seed)
To Aegypt brought the plant, which there a weed
Through superstition, and through fraud became:
The plant of Science ground of Iosephs fame,
Ioseph the father of Onerocrites,
Iacob of sacred lore, and sacred rites,
And natures secrets (which deprau'd in time,
Fill'd Mizraim with more monsters then Niles slime
Through Phoebus beames is sayd to haue engendred)
All which to Greece by Plato Aegypt tendred.
Plato confesseth it, where he brings in
The Priest of Saim, plainely telling him,
That they, the Greekes, were babes, and nothing knew,
No, nor that Preist, though what he sayd was true
Of Greekes antiquities, which as Greece did want,
So that Preist bragg'd, making an idle vaunt
Of Acts, of ages, and th' Atlanticke Ile,
To glorifie his Memphis, and his Nile.
For that no nation this day vnder skie,
Nor euer could shew such antiquitie,
As Moses hath deliuered of the Iewes.
And in this faith bee confident my Muse.
Nor had the heathen onely thus the seed,
And roots of knowledge, but euen skill to read.
Letters the inuention of the Hebrewes were,
Not theirs who dwelt at Sidon, and at Tyre,
Two cities of Phaenicia most renown'd,
Whose colonies replenisht Carthage ground.
Though Europe at the second hand might haue
Letters from thence, which Iewes to them first gaue.
For th'Hebrewes letters had before the flood.
How proue wee that? The proofe wee haue is good.
Iubal, when th'earth her first fruit yet did beare,
Nor had, or hills, or Iles, which after were,
So some conceiue) as waters ouerswayd,
And an vneuenesse in the euen globe made,
Iubal (as most authenticke rolls declare)
Iubal contriued how to tune the aër,
Apt notes inuenting, and to them inuents
The solemne harp, and other instruments.
Which, without letters, how could men deuise?
Letters the stayes of notes, and harmonies.
So idle those conceipts th'old heathen tell,
How the first gittarn was a Tortoyse-shell,
Whose sinewes dride, and toucht did yeild a sound,
Or Cyclops hammers to bee musicks ground.
Againe, before the flowd, that Henoch spake
Character'd was. Tertullian proofe doth take
Out of that Author, as Canonicall,
And him defendeth. So of right should all.
For Iude th'Apostle Henochs booke doth cite.
And bookes were not till learned Clarkes could write.
Of doomesday Henoch propheside before,
Heauens cataracts had drowned the earths shore.
Conceipt so impious no man entertaines,
As if the Bible were of humane braines,
The politicke, or euphantasticke birth,
There can bee no such prodigie on earth.
Nor is there Atheist, neither can there bee,
Sweare it who will, death neuer shall it see.
Therefore no neede to busie mee to prooue
That in the which 'tis damn'd least doubt to mooue.
For who Gods Church contemne, yet by the shine
Of the workes selues must yeeld the workes diuine:
Yea, they seeme falne from charitie too much,
Who can beleeue there can be any such.
For though in heart the foole sayd as he sayd,
And as a bruit would faine it so haue had,
Yet Dauid notes it onely for a thought,
And not a Thesis.
Thus letters are the worlds debt to the Iewes.
Which Moses most excell'd in, best did vse.
His Pontateuchus, or fiue Tomes diuine,
Antiquities treasures are, and learnings shrine.
Tribonian therefore wrong'd Instinian much,
Heathens wrong'd Christians, calling Homers such.
And, should we grant that Moses did not passe
(Though farre he did) what euer glorious was,
Learned, and great in all the world beside,
Yet, whatsoeuer was the cause of pride,
Of gloriation, or of largest fame
Among the noblest Heathens, all the same
Christians haue right to, not as Israels Tribes
To Aegypts iewels (their departures bribes)
But because God was Natures Lord, and shee
Their Goddesse, but our selues Gods children bee,
They are but bastards, or, as hirelings, base,
To Moses they, Moses to Christ giues place.
Moses the Hebrewes through red seas did guide;
Christ through hell-fires: Moses dampt Pharaohs pride;
Christ Lucifers; Moses did Manna giue;
Christ th' Eucharist, which makes vs euer liue:
Moses led Iewes but vnto Palestine,
Himselfe not entring; Christ to land diuine,
Himselfe first entring, did conduct his flocke,
Salomons Temple, whose braue worths did mocke
All the worlds wonders, a poore semblant was
Of that Ierusalem, to which they passe
Who through the red seas of CHRISTS bloud do go,
Or through their owne, as Martyrs great, or so.
IERVSALEM, in her most happy dayes
Compared with that Citie, whose heauens rayes
Th' Apocalyps describeth was but base,
A petty village, voyd of powr, or grace:
Siluer was as street-stones in Salomons time;
But in Christs city precious stones the clime
Doe paue throughout, and decke the glittering gates.
More odds between their persons then their states.
§. 10.
MOst wonderfu'l was that which doth remaine,
Who might haue reared to himselfe a reigne,
A Monarchy, such as th'Assyrian neuer,
Nor Medes, nor Persians, Greekes, nor Rome had euer,
Fled from the people would not bee a King,
Because hee infinitely was a greater thing;
Fled from the people, neither would command
But as a God, maker of sea, and land,
Because his errand was to beare heauens wrath,
Which God All-mighty to all sinners hath,
And pay the vtmost farthing of mans debt.
Hee who is owne death with one word could let,
And could, as Gods Word, haue refus'd to bee
This wtetched thing call'd mortall man, euen hee
Contented was to fall into soes powre,
Suffring himselfe, during the dismall howre,
To bee, in body, his owne vassalls thrall,
To Herods palace tost from Pilats hall,
And hurried to and fro, from bad to worse,
Annas and Carphas both within Gods curse.
§. 11.
ANd why? my Gôd, and why, Redeemer deere,
Didst thou submit thy selfe to such things heere?
O, and alas, what was there in vile man,
Which should inuite thee to endure such pain?
Was all the world of creatures so much worth,
As that thou therefore should'st a man come forth?
Flow yee my teâres, sighes open breake my brest,
O sorrowes! ô let others tell the rest!
Verily, Gôd, all that this frame hath fair,
All it hath rich, all that the earth, or aer,
Water, or fire, are bubbles in respect.
Doe not, ah doe not thine owne selfe neglect,
Goe backe to heauen, let vs to hell sincke rather,
Then thou endure thus much. But God, our Father,
Would haue it so. And could there bee, in God,
So great regard of vs? Let any rod,
Let and plague afflict old Adams seed,
Rather then Christ. But God hath it decreed.
What God hath once decreed no powre can barre.
But, is it possible that men so farre
Should fall from grace, as to reduce them home,
Thou must from heauens heigth like a stranger come,
And bee held prisiner, buffeted, abus'd,
Scorn'd, spet vpon, scourg'd, and with cudgels bruiz'd?
From Gabatha be showne, and Bar-abbas
(Thou to the crosse called vpon) let passe?
O is it possible that this should bee,
And thou Gods Son? or (which more woundeth thee)
That, after all this, man should liue ingrate?
'Tis possible. Ah, what can eleuate
The groueling soules of mortals? what can reare
Their down-cast minds? Thou didst vouchsafe to beare,
And wee thee blesse for bearing. Mên, aspire,
Your center is not earth, but some thing higher.
To make vs free thy selfe becam'st thus bound.
To make vs children, heires of better ground
Then Canaan, or Fdens selfe had any,
Thou lay'dst aside thy robes, and glories many,
Thy crowne of starres, scepter of diamonds bright,
Thy chaire of state, thy chambers floor'd with light,
Thy galleries of saphyr, gardens greene,
Adorn'd with musiue works, and flowrets sneene,
Through which pure chrystall flowes, on whose fresh bankes,
Angels sing carcls, and immortall thankes,
And all the solaces which heauens afford,
To bee a seruant, and a worme abhord.
§. 12.
MVse, time will come when I shall celebrate
The residue of his great acts, and state,
And most of all that loue, whose golden shafts,
Wounded him so, that 'spite of all the crafts,
And policies, and stratagems of hell
To hinder it, did worke so wondrous well,
As plainely vanquisht with his Spouses eyes,
He came among vs in that base disguise,
And poore and friendlesse founded such a might,
As conquers all the world, and doth by right
Breake Realmes of enemies as towrs of glasse.
This miracle all miracles doth passe.
Meanewhile my Decasyllabons rest in peace,
The way to holde out is a while to cease.