THE LEVITES REVENGE.
Canto I.
The Argument.
The Leuites loue, her flight, and then,
His fetching of her home agen:
Gibeahs harsh vsage, with the free,
Vnlookt for old mans courtesie,
Their base attempt, her wretched fate
This song to Time doth consecrate.
VVHilst
Israels gouernement was yet but rude,
And Multitudes did sway the Multitude,
Whilst all the Nation were so many Kings,
Or else but one great Anarchy. Fame sings
That there a Leuite was (Leuites may erre)
Who had a Concubine, and doubted her.
[Page 2] Durst Lust, and Iealousie so high aspire
To one that onely knew the Altars fire?
Must he feele other Flames? to wanton eyes
Must eu'n the Priest be made a sacrifice?
Or hath he offerd incense so long time
For
Iudah's fault, that he hath gain'd their crime?
Appeas'd for sinnes to learne them? in times past
Whilst yet the ancient innocence did last,
Leuy could kill a Rauisher, but now
Leuies base off-spring does not disauow
To be a Ravisher. Perhaps to show
His Grandsires rashnesse, who would headlong goe
To punish that crime, which ere long might be
His owne, at least in his Posterity.
For so 'twas now: the Leuite loues, and more,
Suspects at last, whom he did first adore:
For Fame speakes hardly of her: but poore man
What other hope couldst thou imagine? can
One that hath broke with honesty, be true
To him that made her breake? or else are you
The onely Tempter? does there no blood boyle
Besides the Leuites? can they onely toyle
In sinnes, that preach against them? if they can,
Yet such as she are made for euery man.
What none can challenge his, is due to all,
Lust should not imitate a Nuptiall.
She now suspects her Leuites iealousie,
And hasts home to her fathers house: ô why
Left's thou that house? or why return'st thou euer?
Where thou shouldst alwayes stay, or returne neuer.
Was then a Father to be visited
When thou wert made a Mother? what hope bred
That madnesse in thee, that vnto a mild
Father, thou shouldst be welcome for a child?
Or vnto whom wouldst thou haue welcome been?
A Father? 'tis the nature of thy sinne
[Page 3] To make them doubtfull: they that liue like thee,
Asham'd of nothing but of Modesty,
Banish themselues from all, but their deare sinne;
And loose at once their vertue, and their kinne.
But when the Leuite saw that she was gone,
That she was lost, whom he so dored on,
Reason almost forsooke him too, to proue
Anger can blind a man as well as loue:
It may be
Israel was holy then
And sacrifices for the guilty men
Came slowly in, this might increase his griefe,
And be an accessory, if not chiefe:
This might confirme him in his angry sinne,
Rob'd of his profit and his concubine.
But hee'l not loose her: wilt thou seeke her then
That does fly thee? that to an host of men
Hath giv'n thy due? as if she meant to try
Which were the most vnvanquisht luxury
Of Priest or people: whom if thou should finde,
Thou hast not yet recouered her lost mind,
That wanders still, and wilt thou fetch her thence
To try, or else to teach thee Patience?
Can she teach any vertue? can there be
Ought learnt from her besides immodesty?
All that this iourney can effect, that thou
Can'st promise to thy selfe, if thou speed'st now,
Is, that shee'l loose the bashfulnesse she had,
And onely proue more confidently bad.
You now may thinke him neere his iourneyes end;
Where long before his thoughts had met his friend,
Scorning his bodies sluggish company,
And now both are arriu'd, where to his eye
[...]he first appear'd, for whom alone, I find,
Be thank'd the heav'n that did not make him blind,
For which he should haue thank'd them: he had been
Then nor a Louer, nor a Priest: no sinne
[Page 4] Had crept in with the light, nor euer made
In that good Darkenesse, an vnhallowed shade.
But who had seene him when he first descry'd
Who 'twas that met them, how he slipt beside
The wearyed beast, and with full speed did run
As if he meant to tempt temptation;
He would haue iudg'd that women strongest were,
And men obiect the weakenesse which they are.
Thus when he should wisely haue vnderstood,
And thank'd the kinder heau'ns, who made him good
Against his will almost, hauing remou'd
That which did hinder him from being belou'd
Of God, and goodnesse, not vnlike the Fish
Which seemes to be desirous of the dish,
(As if for his deliuery he did waite,
And therefore were ambitious of the baite:)
Into a knowne snare, he does gladly run,
And foolishly pursues, what he should shun.
And is not this, Ide know, the readiest way
To make God thinke, we mocke him when we pray
When we pretend desire, that we may bee,
As from the Fault, so the Temptation free:
Whilst (as we had not knowne what we had said
Or hop'd that God obseru'd not how we praid)
Lest that we should receiue our hurt from farre,
We both the Tempted, and the Tempters are,
And thus the holyest name we take in vaine,
Praying as neuer meaning to obtaine.
And now her father comes, who after words
As kind and Elegant as that place affords,
Intreats her pardon: but alas, good Age,
Who shall intreat thy pardon, or asswage
The Leuites passion now? who does auerre,
That he alone does sinne, who taxes her:
With this he smiles on her, and yet does feare
Lest she should thinke that this a Pardon were,
[Page 5] Or reconcilement: without much adoe,
You might perswade him now he came to wooe,
And not to fetch her backe; but by the hast
Of carrying her from thence, fearing the wast
Of the least minute, she might well descry,
What ere his words, his deeds spoke Iealousie.
Hardly he condiscends to one nights stay
Though t'were with her, but how he spent the day,
How his desires were speedier then the Sunne,
(VVhom then he thought to creep, and not to runne)
Twere tedious to relate, though the old man
VVith all the Art, and all the Cheare he can,
Detaines him three daies longer, which appeare
As long as fancy can extend a yeare.
Minutes are Ages with him, and he deemes
He hath out-lingred grave
Methusalems
Nine hundred yeare by such a stay, and feares
That she may once more shunne him for his yeares.
Sure such accounts the wise Aegyptians made
VVho added wings to Time, as if he had
Mou'd on too slowly, or as if they meant
To take his fore-top from him, with intent
To make him bald before too, whose records
Had very neere as many yeares as words.
Making full forty thousand ere the fall,
And pu'ny
Adam of no age at all.
The fifth day dawnes, but ere the rising Sunne
Had shew'd the victory which he had wonne
Of cloudy night, before the sleepy Cocke
Had prou'd himselfe to be the Country Clocke
Shewing the mornings houre, when now wee might
Haue spoke no falshood had we call'd it Night.
Our Leuite for his iourney does prepare,
And his are drest, ere Phoebus horses are:
To whom the Father comes, and gently chides
[...]is earely sonne-in-law, who, forst, abides
[Page 6] Till afternoone with him, and then he goes
Not from the house so fast, as to his woes.
Sure the old man did prophecy the harme,
Which would insue, when he did seeke to charme
Our Leuite to a longer stay: but O
Tis double misery before hand to know
We shall be miserable! then why hath man
That curst ability, that well he can
Prognosticate mishapps, when they are neere?
And all his knowledge teaches but to feare.
Which yet our Leuite hath not learnt, who rides
Doubting no danger: now the worlds eye glides
To his west Inne, when
Iebus he espies,
Whom he counts his, because Gods enemies.
Hearken ye Gallants that will crosse the seas,
And are industrious for a new disease,
If you will needs be gadding, and despise
For forraine toyes, our home-bred rarities,
Take this example with you, if you goe
Trauell not from Religion: why, although
You neuer touch at
Rome, or else perchance
You scarce see
Spaine, and gleane but part of
France▪
You may be weary, thinke your trauell great,
And spare at once your conscience, and your sweat▪
You see our Leuite though the night draw neere,
His loue be weary, and no towne appeare
Where she may rest herselfe, although the way
Were troublesome enough ev'n in the day,
Yet she resolues gladly to vndergoe
More miseries then Night and danger know,
Ere he will venture there to make his stay
From whence the Idols had droue God away.
O farre vnworthy of thy future Fate
By this best Action! miserable state
Of too great vertue ill-imploy'd! to be
Punish't, when he did shunne Iniquitie
[Page 7] As he did
Iebus. How he spurs, how rates
His tardy beast! how his owne slacknesse hates
Which forc't him by his trauelling so late
If not to stay, yet to deliberate.
Within the Center of the Earth there stands
Neere to the fiery streames, and ashy sands,
A dreadfull pallace, of such vncouth frame
Each part so shap't as if twere built to shame
All Architecture, that if one did see
The vastnesse of it, and deformity,
He would not make the least demurre to tell
That t'was a lodging for the Prince of Hell.
What ere does beautifie a house, here wants,
The walls are blacke as the Inhabitants,
Made out of Iett, into such figures fram'd
That Nature dare not owne them, nor be blam'd
With so much Monster: wee in doubt may call
Whether the trimming, or materiall,
Had the more horror. No birds here are heard,
But such whose harsher accents would haue seard
The most resolu'd: they punish in their rimes,
And all their ditty does consist of crimes.
The fly Praecisian that could gull the eye
Of the most sharpe, by close hypocrisie,
Whose mischiefes onely he that did, could tell,
Who, we may thinke might eu'n haue cheated Hell
VVith such dissembling, sees his vices bare,
Naked, and foule, as when they acted were:
One layes oppression to his charge, another
His sisters incest, murther of his brother.
They shew his zeale was onely to contend,
And all his reformation not to mend
But to confound the State, that his knitt brow
(Which lookt so sterne as it would disallow
The most indifferent act, and like of none
But such as did pretend perfection)
[Page 8] VVas but an easie Vizor, such as Rage
Can giue it selfe, and must receiue from Age.
That he did onely know externall Grace,
And all his holinesse was in his face.
Is goodnesse in a wrinckle? can we find
That what does cloud the face, does cleanse the mind?
To me it is a tricke of rarest art
That hollow browes should haue the soundest heart.
These are the sounds, but then the smells are worse,
Enough to make that Harmony no Curse.
Vnder the walles there runnes a brimstone flood
The top of flames, the bottome was of mud:
Of such grosse vapour, that to smell was Death,
Prisons are sweet, compar'd vnto that breath.
And to maintaine the fire and stench at once,
The fewell is prepar'd of vsurers bones.
Loose Madams lockes, the feathers of their Fanne,
VVith the foule inside of a Puritan.
In this sweet place as sweet a Prince doth dwell,
The cheife of fiends, the Emperor of Hell
Grand Lucifer, whom if I should relate
In the worst figure that the eye doth hate:
I should but faintly his foule selfe expresse,
Nor reach to his vnpattern'd vglinesse.
Death keepes the entrance, a tall sturdy groome,
Who emptying all places fills no roome.
But like the fond Idolater of pelfe
Denyes men, what he cannot haue himselfe:
Here does this shade send challenges to all,
Who would h
[...]ue entrance first to try a fall,
They try, and they are throwne ther's none so great
But yeelds to him, who knew but one defeat
And that long after, but his prime was now,
His bones some marrow had, some grace his brow.
No plagues as yet, no famines had beene knowne
The sword was thrifty, making few to groane
[Page 9] Vnder his edges. Death yet had lusty thighes,
Nor spent himselfe with too much exercise.
Here there stand numbers, which exceed all summes
(For they refuse none here, who euer comes)
The murtherer first, and without much adoe,
Sometime he will admit the murtherd too.
Then the incontinent, but if that he
Be knowne by Incest or Adultery,
His seat is chiefe: nor haue they a low place,
Who with an open and alluring face,
Delude their trusting friends, till they haue woon
Their deeper proiects, which they built vpon.
The rest of lower crimes, whom we may call,
Downe-right offenders, such as after all
Their time of trespasse, haue not gain'd the skill,
And onely know the taint, not art of Ill:
Haue no distinguisht roomes, but venture in,
As headlong to their paines, as to their sinne.
But now some other enter; for a charge
Past from the Prince of shadowes, to inlarge
Th'imprison'd Crimes, that all might now conferre
(Such is his will) with their Lord Lucifer.
What noyse there was? what striuing at the doore?
This would be first, and that would goe before:
Pride claimes precedency, and cryes who ere
Ventures to make a step before her there
Is impudently foolish, that the place
Is hers by due, and onely theirs by grace,
When she would yeeld it: vnlesse first they would
Bring more conuincing reasons then she could:
For who should to the Prince of Hell first goe
To visit him, but she that made him so?
And who had made him so, shee'd know, but she,
When with his God he claim'd Aequality?
Peace, Wrath exclaimes, and with so deepe an oath
As all those fiends, with Hell to boot, were loath
[Page 10] To heare another such, he vowes no more
To beare the brauings of that scarlet whore,
Hee'l first a Rebell, first a Vertue be,
And no more VVrath, but Magnanimity.
She smil'd, and bid him be so but whilst they
Were hot in this contention, Enuy lay
Gnawing her breasts: faine would she haue bin higher
Had but her spirit equall'd her desire.
But since she cannot be reueng'd of them,
She vseth an vnheard of stratagem,
Teares her owne haires, and her grimme face beslimes
Thus punishing herselfe for others crimes.
By this time Idlenesse comes in the reare,
As proud, though not as actiue, as they were;
He scarce would take the paines to speake, but loth
To loose his dignity by too much Sloth,
He giues them these few words, VVhy striue you so
About the place which all to mee doe owe?
Doe not ye know, I am the raigning Crime,
Most generall, and most lofty of the time?
I make the Lawyer silent, though he see
His clyent full; I am beyond a Fee:
When Lawes doe not, I make the Preacher dumbe
Eu'n when the Tyger, or the Wolfe doe come:
But aboue all, I in the Court doe grow,
Beggars are proud, but Emperors are slow.
Drunkennesse could not answere, but does thinke
Twas fit that Idlenesse should yeeld to drinke:
And reeling to encounter him, does fall
Iust in the entrance, and excludes them all.
Now is the skirmish hotter then before,
Now Pride begins to scratch, and VVrath to roare;
Drunkennesse lyes vnmou'd, and Sloths intent
Is to sit still, and to expect th'euent.
But in this ciuill broyle, at last comes Craft
Of whom no Painter ere could take a draft,
[Page 11] He had such change of shapes, who when he saw
These tumbling warriours, and that no awe,
No feare of Lucifer could teach them peace,
Hee'l try his skill to make these broyles to cease.
Fie Pride, sayes he, What? giue your selfe the fall?
And Wrath, are you no more discreet withall
Then quarrell with a woman? Come agree,
If not for feare of Hell, for loue of me.
But out alas, you doe too well agree,
When VVrath is Proud, and Pride will Wrathfull be.
Goe hand in hand (thus friendly Craft decides)
Onely the vpper hand let that be Prides.
They enter the great hall, where they doe see
The Hellish Monarch in his Maiesty,
VVhere hauing made obeysance, he beginnes,
Thus to breake silence, and vpbraid the Sinnes.
The reason why I call'd you (not to dwell
On an vnnecessary praeamble)
Is to informe you, that we find of late
You haue not beene officious to the State:
Tis true, you bring me daily what's mine owne,
And plentifully reape what I haue sowne.
In the grosse Heathen you doe hourely cause
Vices, which neuer were forbid by Lawes,
Because ne're thought of: but what's this to me,
VVhether that Lust or Infidelity
Fill Hell with those, nay and oppresse it too,
VVhich must come thither, whatsoere they doe?
You doe like those, who in the other life
Buy their owne lands, and wooe againe their wife.
A goodly act, and wherein's danger store,
You giue me that, which was mine owne before.
VVhilst
Iudah all this while hath me withstood,
And dares, when I forbid them, to be good.
They honor Parents with a zealous strife,
And with their goodnesse doe prolong their life.
[Page 12] In them no malice nor no rancor lyes,
Nor shed they bloud, but for a sacrifice:
Adultery's scarce heard of in a life,
And they are men only vnto their owne wife.
In such a lou'd community they liue,
None need to steale, all are so apt to giue.
While you suppose that highly you deserue,
If you can say that you haue made them swarue
From goodnesse that ne're had it: well y'aue done
If that
Semiramis once doate vpon
Her wondring issue, and begin to swell
With such a birth, that would pose vs to tell
How she should call it; and what she did beare
If it her daughter, or her grandchild were.
You haue discharg'd your office, if you make
Some bloudy Nations their owne issue take
And offer vnto me; or if you draw
Some to the practice of that wicked Law
That after fifty they their parents kill,
And not that onely, but suppose that ill
To be their duty. O fond thought! and thence
Doe estimate their childs obedience?
Hence truant Crimes, auant, no more appeare
In my dread presence, no more let me heare
Those petty actions, if you doe not straight
Reuenge my wrongs, and ease me of this waight,
VVhich thus oppresseth me, if
Israel still
Shall dare to crosse what I shall call my will;
By Hell Ile doe—but what? I say no more,
If you are wise, preuent, if not, deplore.
This said he star'd so fiercely that they fear'd
He would performe much more then they had heard,
Nor know they wel how they their tongues should vse,
VVhether twere best to promise or excuse.
At last Lust rises, and becalmes him thus,
VVhy doe you loose your wrath, great Prince, on vs?
[Page 13] Vs your sworne vassals? who nor thinke nor doe
But what your will is their command vnto.
What though w'aue spent our paines not the right way?
Yet they were paines nor can an enemy say
But we were actiue Furies, and haue done
VVhat lesser feinds durst not haue thought vpon.
And yet (if that I may haue leaue to tell
From your dread grace) preciser
Israel
Hath not escap'd vs wholly, nor hath bin
More noted for their Law, then for their Sinne▪
VVas that a Vertue too, when being led
By Gods owne hand, and fill'd with Angels bread,
They did, (I ioy to caus't, but blush to tell,)
They did repine eu'n at that miracle.
Fasting and full they murmure, nor are lesse
Angry with Manna then with Emptinesse.
I could speake more, and truely: but in summe,
To proue my past acts by my acts to come;
If by your gracious leaue, I haue the fate
To haue a ioynt commission with Debate,
Ile make a fire within their blood to burne,
Shall their proud Cities into ashes turne:
And they shall know how foolishly they erre,
VVho are not willing slaues to Lucifer.
Lucifer nods, and Lust does swiftly runne
VVith his vnlimited Commission:
VVhich with what Art, what mischiefe he did vse,
Is now the griefe and bus'nesse of my Muse.
But now she must to our sad Leuite hast
VVhom we left trau'lling, when the day was past.
The sunne sets ouer
Gibeah; when that he
Drawes neerer thither ward, but then to see
The blush of Heau'n, with what a red it shin'd,
(As if the Sunne his office had resign'd
Vnto those clouds) to all that vnderstood,
It would haue shew'd that it did figure blood.
[Page 14] And now our Leuite is arriu'd, but finds
The walls more courteous then the peoples minds:
For these had gates which let him in, but they
Were mercilesse, and rougher then the way:
Men that had onely studied to oppresse,
Whose minds were shut against the harbourlesse:
And yet he sees large houses, some so high
As if they learn't acquaintance with the sky,
What euer pleas'd their fathers now growes stale,
Their buildings to the hills exalt the vale:
And such thicke palaces the mountaines fill,
As if the quarry grew without the hill.
Some are of that circumference, you'd guesse,
They had beene built for him, who had no lesse
Then the whole world his Family. But when
Our Leuite was inquisitiue, what men
Fill'd vp that Princely dwelling? and if there
Might be found hope of rest for them that were
But two more then the Family? they tell
That two are the whole Family, 'twas well,
And stately too (as state is at this day)
So might they liue at home, and yet away.
O the great folly of Magnificence!
Houses are little Cities, and from thence
Cities are lesser worlds, that man may haue
Roome enough here that cannot fill a graue.
He must haue Halls, and Parlors, and beside
Chambers inuented, but not nam'd by pride:
And all this for one man, as if he sought
To haue a seuerall lodging for each thought,
But none for any stranger: this truth seemes
Too certaine to our Leuite, who esteemes
That pris'ners are in better state then he;
Nay, eu'n the pris'ners of mortality,
Such as are fast immur'd within the graue
Who though they want a life, a lodging haue:
[Page 15] Inhumane wretches! haue you then forgot
That you were sometime strangers? Were you not
In Aegypt once? where the Propheticke land
Did iustly scourge your basenesse before hand,
Knowing you would be barbarous, and so
Made you to reele the harshnesse which you show?
O
[...]uelly forgetful
[...] that indure
To act, or else out-doe the Epicure,
Whilst he feeds on the Ayre; that thinke it meet
To lye in Downe, while he lyes in the street!
An old man thought not thus, but to his house
Intrea
[...]s the strangers: 'tis malicious
To lay the imputation vpon Age
That it is couetous (as if the sage
Haires of the Ancient were therefore white
To signifie their siluer Appetite.)
Peace you blasphemers, see an aged man
Couetous onely of a Guest, who can
Repay him nothing, but his Prayer, and be
Indebted once more for his Piety;
But if my Muse haue any power o're time
And sinne haue more mortality then rime,
Old man thou shalt be euer old, and haue
No entertainment in the silent graue
For this thy entertainment: here a while
Let me admire how that a towne so vile,
Which we would thinke with stangers had decreed
To shut out Vertue too, should rarely breed
Such a strange Vertue? quietly we heare
Of courtesies in
Rome; of kindnesse there
Where
Greece is nam'd, who counted it a sinne
Not to haue made each noble house an Inne
For worthy strangers: but when one shall fall
In commendation of the Canniball,
Shall say that they, who on their guests doe gnaw
And entertaine their strangers in their maw,
[Page 16] Are hospitably minded, that eu'n there
May be a mouth which is no Sepulcher.
VVe stand agast, as if we did conspire
Not to beleeue the good we did desire.
VVhence sprung this Singularity? whence came
This worth which so deserues and conquers Fame?
Our Vertues are not borne with vs, and they
Which will innoble man till times last day
Liue after them they make to liue, what we
Call goodnesse is the gift of Company.
Our study not our Nature, and could these
Teach any other thing besides disease
In manners? it is fit then we confesse
Mercy is learn't amongst the mercilesse,
And rather then a Leuite shall want rest
Auarice selfe shall entertaine a Guest.
But now the Leuite hath forgot that he
Had felt the hard streets hospitality;
He finds such kindnesse, that he does suppose
Courtesie wore no other haires then those
To grieue the honest world, who now might feare,
That she was hasting to her sepulcher.
Into an anticke roome he leads him first.
Where one would guesse that
Abraham had been nurs:
Or a more ancient Patriarch, the walles
Compos'd of that which from a wett shooe falles
In weeping winter, which a man would thinke
Their age had now dry'd vp into one Chinke.
Yet such a roome one comfort does afford,
It was not built to ruine its sad Lord.
For who will begge a Cottage? who would make
A guilty wretch, that he his rags might take?
To that whence nothing comes is no regard:
None would be vicious too but for reward.
No, let them feare who dwell in arched vaults,
Who in much roome doe seeke to hide their faults.
[Page 17] Where hundred columnes rise to mate the skie,
And mocke their Lords with false Diuinity.
Enuie is proud, nor strikes at what is low,
And they shall onely feele who scorne her blow:
She on no base aduantage will insist,
Nor striue with any but that can resist.
Now is the table spred, and now the meat
Be'ing set, each takes him his appointed seat:
No courtship here is shew'd, no caruing grace,
The entertainment (homely as the place)
Spoke onely hearty, and that plaine intent
Which greater entertainers complement.
So
Abraham feasted heau'nly guests, as when
He made the Angels eate the bread of men:
Soon the like guests hospitable
Lot,
Bestow'd the diet which they wanted not;
In this ours differs, nay in this exceeds,
That he bestowes his kindnesse where it needs.
One would haue thought so, when he heard the noise,
Of confus'd multitudes, men mixt with boyes,
All ages in the cry, as if they meant
That now the Babes should not be innocent:
Bees doe not murmure so, and angry hounds
In their full rage send forth but easy sounds,
Compar'd to this: their inland Sea stood still,
Wondring to heare himselfe out-scar'd, and till
This time, that noise hath such a silence bred,
That euen since it hath beene styl'd the Dead.
Now they besiege the house, and one would feare
That their loud tongues so many engines were
To batter it: downe with the Gate, cryes one,
Another laughes at that, and with a stone
Threatens to force a Gate, and deepely swore
To giue them entrance, all the House was Doore.
But then another that would needs be wise,
And counted cheife in this great enterprise,
[Page 18] Exhorts them to a Parly: Why, my friends,
Make you such hast, sayes he, to loose your ends?
Haue you indented with the stones you throw
To misse the Leuite? Doe you thinke no blow
Can fasten on him, or d'ye meane to proue
If that the stones are riualls in your Loue?
Stones and not men! with that the hands were still,
But all the noyse, the Hubbub, with an ill
Consent, cries for the Leuite, whom they faine
Would onely know, and so returne againe.
And could you see him in the street so long,
As farre from beeing laid, as this your wrong
Shall be from after-Ages, when he had
No couer, but the kinder heau'ns, (whose sad
Compassion hindred them from shedding teares,
Lest such a griefe should make th'vnkindnesse theirs)
Had you so full a view of him, and yet
Doe you desire to know him? No, forget
That euer there was such an one, and then
Posterity may thinke that you were men:
How will they wonder else, when they shall heare
You lou'd him in the house, whom you did feare
To bring into your house; that you were mad,
In the pursuit of that you might haue had?
You aim'd another, a worse way, and iust
His answere is, that calls your Knowledge, Lust.
But how were they so long time innocent?
How was this Prodigy of Desire eu'n spent
Before it was exprest? here we may see
In impudence there was some Modesty:
They would not sinne at home, the worst abhor'd
To be a Beast, where he should be a Lord.
And it seem'd better to the vilest breast
Not to receiue, then to abuse a Guest.
Now the Old-man not fearing any harme
That might ensue, whether he hop'd the warme
[Page 19] Lust of their Youth, would by his Age bequelld,
And that those flames would to such winter yeeld:
Or whether he was then rather addrest
To offer vp himselfe before his Guest
Vnto their Fury, forth he goes: they thought
That now they should obtaine what they had sought,
Whom thus he does bespeake, Haue patience
My friends, I come, not to intreat you hence,
But to fulfill your pleasure, onely change
The Se
[...] I haue a daughter and what's strange
In this not towne a Virgin
[...] at your sure
I am content to make her prostitute.
So that my stranger may nor iniur'd
[...]e
Nature shall yeeld to Hospitality.
O constant goodnesse! O best act, which can
Conclude the Vertue, older then the Man▪
How I could
[...] my selfe in praysing thee,
Man not of Age, but of Aeternity!
Who didst respect thy guest beyond thy blood,
And knew'st the difference betwixt Fond, and Good.
Henceforth scorne all comparisons below,
Onely thy Maker, thy Superiour know:
Such was his Mercy that he did bestow
His onely Sonne a ransome for his Foe;
(This was a patterne fit for the most High)
Yet next this Mercy, was thy Charitie:
Thy Act at least is second to the best,
Who wouldst not spare thy Daughter for thy Guest
But they'l not be prescrib'd in their desire,
Who thinke to alter, were to quench their fire:
They must the Leuite or his Sister know,
(For Sister they interpret her) to show
Our sawcy Lay-men how they should expound
Their Preachers actions, not to be profound
To search their faults, but well and wisely too,
Doe what they speake, and not speake what they doe.
[Page 20] This they exclaime, and this our Leuite heares,
Who now hath spent his Reason, and his Fares,
Such a Confusion he is falne into,
He knowes not what to shunne, nor what to doe,
So in rais'd Seas, when that the angry wind
Threatens destruction to that daring kind,
Who to a flying house themselues commit,
(Seeming at once to flye too from their wit.)
The well-stor'd passenger, (when he does find
That all this fury of the waue and wind
Is for this Treasure) now resolues to dye:
(Death is not so much fear'd as Pouerty)
And now resolues that he will venture on
More losse before that Resolution:
He does from this vnto that purpose skip,
And now his mind more totters then his ship.
Till after all this tedious, foolish strife,
Which he shall saue, his treasure, or his Life,
He shall saue neither; and thus being loath
To hazard either, he does forfeit both.
And now she shall be Passiue. O Fates sport!
Hee'l now betray, that should defend the Fort.
Such Revolution did you euer see?
Who earst was Iealous, will a Pander be.
O Life, thou most desir'd, and wretched thing!
Thy loue betrayd his loue, from thee did spring
This Contradiction of crosse Faults. O why
Chose he not rather to doe well, and Dye?
Why did he so desire to shunne his Friend,
And call that Misery, which was an End?
The Dead doe feare no Rauisher, no Lust
Was ere so hot, to dote vpon cold dust,
Were he once dead he should feare no crimes then,
Neither his owne, nor those of other men:
And could he wish a longer life? let those
Who doe not know (but by inflicting) wees
[Page 21] Hugg that desire, but hee who wisely wayes
What many miseries are in many dayes,
Let not him be so mad to wish his feares,
And onely proue his Dotage by his Yeares.
Neuer did Morning blush so much as that
Which next appear'd; when vp our Leuite gat,
And running nimbly to the doore, he sees
His loue before the doore with her faire knees
Growne to the Earth, so close, that one would seare,
She tooke a measure of her Sepulcher,
With hands outstretch'd, as if, fearing to faile,
She meant to make a Sexton of her naile
To dig her graue: or else (for who can tell?)
Suspecting by her iniuries an Hell
Not to be farre, where such sinnes had a birth,
She lay so close, to feele if it were Earth.
He wonders at the posture, nor knowes why
She had not chose to rest more easily.
And now he will be satisfy'd, but she
Had lost her tongue too, with her Chastity.
He thinkes she sleepes, and therefore louder cryes,
Why doe we dally here? Wake, and Arise.
But let him cry on, she hath heard her last,
Deafe to all sounds now, but the latest blast.
And art thou dead, he cryes? what dead? with that
You'd wonder which had beene aliue, as flat
He lay, and speechlesse, glad of the same death,
But that thicke sighes betray that he had breath:
Which onely serues his Anger: now he hyes
Home to mount
Ephraim, all his ielousies
Are dead with her, and now he meanes to make
Her common after death: each Tribe shall take
A peice of her; O the obdurate mind
That so could part, what God had so combin'd!
I faint in the relating it, nor well
What he durst act, dare vndertake to tell.
[Page 22] Twelue made of one? O who would not be mad,
To thinke vpon that madnesse? if she had
But such another griefe, with both opprest,
My Muse would then be dumbe, which now doth rest.
Canto II.
The Argument.
The twelue peices of his wife
Cut out by the Leuites knife,
To the field to doe him right,
Draw the neiled Israelite.
Abrahams Prayer, Heau'ns decree,
Beniamins glad victory
Twice repeated, make the summe
Of the booke which is to come.
SVch crimes amongst the Israelites? I feare
Incredulous posterity will sweare
Mine was the fault, and when they muse hereon
They'l iudge the Crime was in my Fiction.
When Vice exceeds a Probability
It gaines excuse, so that to sinne on high
Is politicke offence, for he that shall
Sinne so, is thought not to haue sinn'd at all.
'Tis the corruption of the minds of men
To iudge the worst of actions, but 'tis when
The fault is frequent, when the daily vse
Giues it at once, the guilt, and the excuse:
But if a crime swell to the height of this,
Murder, or Incest, or if any is
Of fowler name; when man will man abuse,
We doe absolue more gladly then accuse,
[Page 23] Can it be possibly presum'd that they
To whom the God of
Iacob shew'd the way,
Both of their feet and manners, who had seene
His frequent Miracles, nay who had been
Part of the wonder too, so to haue fell
As to commit a greater Miracle?
Sodome in
Iudah? now the Fable winnes
Credit, and is out-acted by true sinnes:
Report hath made
Pygmalion to haue lou'd
That which he made, who by his Art was mou'd
To palpable Idolatry, yet so
At least he lou'd a woman in the show:
Hee's fixt on his faire Image, so that one
Would wonder which had beene the truer stone.
Yet 'twas a Womans Image, so that I
Wonder at's lucke, more them his vanity,
A Painted Woman will cause loue: i'me mou'd
More, how he did obtaine, then why he lou'd.
These doe affect what to obtaine is worst,
What in the very thinking is accurst:
In other loues the wife may barren proue,
In this the barrennesse is in the Loue,
In other faults there haue excuses beene,
This hath no other Motiue then the Sinne.
And can this sinne be theirs? Yes know it can,
Man forsakes God, and then he doates on man.
But who did tutor them to this offence?
For, though we find it in each conscience
That we are naturally vicious,
That ther's no true good in the best of vs,
That we pursue our ill, as drawne by Fate,
Yet 'tis example does specificate,
That teacheth vs This sinne: 'tis mine owne Vice,
But that I am more lost in Auarice,
That I doe choose Adultery, or preferre
The lustfull man before the Murtherer,
[Page 24] I haue from Praesident: and thus our ill
Comes from the Patterne too, as from the Will.
Aegypt denyes to haue an hand herein,
(Aegypt the house of bondage, not of sinne.)
Their cruelty I heare, and which is odd,
I read that their chiefe sinne, is their chiefe god.
They make their gardens heau'ns, and in each plant
They find a Deity: If that any want
Be in their fields, if thence they doe not gaine,
It is their gods they want, and not their graine.
Their superstition yet might issue hence,
The Calfe, on which they plac'd their confidence,
Which act this glory to them doth afford,
They make themselues the beast which they ador'd.
Or did the Desart make them thus to stray,
And cause them loose their Manners with the Way?
Did those vast places, which wise Nature fram'd,
Wherein wild man should by his feare be tam'd,
His feare of wilder beasts, instruct these men,
That there are beasts which are not in the Denne:
And that when euer we neglect, or scanne
The Lords commands, the Monster is the Man?
No, these suspitions may suspected bee,
As farre from Truth, as they from Honesty:
Aegypt was free from this fault, and much lesse
Can we impose it on the Wildernesse.
They had no King: as well the fooles as wise
Did all what did seeme right in their owne Eyes.
And
Sodomes crime seem'd right to some to see
When euery man will his owne Monarch bee,
When all subiection is
[...]one quite away,
And the same man does gouerne and obey,
How there is no obedience nor rule,
How euery man like to the Horse and Mule,
Which want the vnderstanding of their bit,
And neither haue their owne, nor Riders wit,
[Page 25] Make a swift pace to Ruine. Giue me then
Leaue to admire, and pitty those poore men,
Who thinke that Man should his owne Ruler be,
And exercise Home-principality:
Who in one speedy minute strangely doe
What
Alexander but aspir'd vnto,
Conquer all Kingdomes, which they'affirme to be,
No better then a well-nam'd Tyranny.
Let me inquire of these, if they haue read
Any such crimes where people had an head?
Let me inquire of men, as yet not wild,
Whether they thinke themselues Lords of their child?
Whether their seruants Masters? whether they
Suppose that God did not make some t'obey.
In Innocence there was Dominion,
And the first man was the first Lord: that one
King of the Creatures, whom for this none blames,
He prou'd his Soueraignty by their Names.
That he was his wiues Soueraigne, in the Fall
He fell not from his Monarchy, when all
His Righteousnesse was vanish't, that remain'd
And so a knowledge of this truth he gain'd,
(A truth he could not know had hee still stood)
We can be longer Powerfull then Good.
Nay let vs looke on Hell, and we shall see
That there's a Prince of that obscurity.
It is a torment such as Hell hath none,
To want that order in confusion:
That is the best, we may conclude from hence,
That is in Hell, and was in Innocence.
But I doe wonder at the fault so long
That I deferre the punishment: my song
Must to the Leuite turne, or rather be
No more a Song, but a sad Elegy.
He hauing caru'd his Loue, as you haue heard,
And done that act, which Hell and Furies fear'd;
[Page 26] Sends a choice piece to euery Tribe, to plead
Their iniuries, and tell why she is dead:
Beniamin shall haue one of them, lest hee
Might dare commit a crime, he durst not see.
A seuerall messenger to each Tribe is sent:
But he that vnto Princely
Iudah went,
Carying the head of the dismembred coarse,
With such a voice which sorrow had made hoarse,
(Least he should raue too highly) thus beginnes,
Is there an Heau'n? and can there be such sinnes!
Stands the Earth still? me thinkes I hardly stand,
Feeling the Seas inconstancy on Land.
After this Act, why flowes the water more?
Why does't not staine, which alwaies clear'd before?
It is not Ayre we draw now, 'tis a breath
Sent to infect vs from the Land of Death:
The Fire, whose office 'tis to warme and shine,
Growes blacke and downewards, as it did repine
To see the fact, and sheds a kinde of teares,
Quenching his heat, because he cannot theirs.
Can you behold these eyes without a teare?
Can you with patience longer thinke they were,
And are not the worlds wonder? yet I erre,
It is Reuenge, and not a Teare fits her:
Let women weepe for women, then you shall
Shew you haue sorrow'd heartily, if all
Doe sorrow which haue iniur'd her, and be
Examples, as of Crimes so Misery.
Gibeah 'twas (O 'twas not
Gibeah)
Credit me not, beleeue not what I say,
I scarce dare trust my selfe, and yet agen,
Gibeah 'twas, that did this Fact: and then
He tells them all, what I before haue wept;
Now
Iudah stormes, and as a Riuer kept
From its owne course by Weares, and Milles, if once
It force a passage, hurryes or'e the stones,
[Page 27] Sweepes all along with it, and so alone
Without stormes makes an Inundation:
Such was the peoples fury, they're so hot
That they will punish what we credit not,
And be as speedy as seuere: but some
Who loath'd the bloudy accents of the Drumme,
Who thought no mischiefes of that foulnesse are,
But that they gaine excuse, compar'd with warre,
And warre with brethren; these, I say, of age
The chiefe amongst them, doe oppose their rage,
Exhort them to a temper: Stay, sayes one,
And be aduis'd before you be vndone.
Whence is this fury? why d'yee make such hast
To doe that act which you'l repent as fast?
Are any glad to fight? or can ought be
Mother of warre, beside Necessity?
Be not mistaken, brethren, take good heed,
It is not Physicke frequently to bleed.
He that for petty griefes incision makes
Cannot be cur'd so often as he akes.
Are then your sisters, daughters, wifes too chast?
Or are you sorry that as yet no wast
Deformes your richer grounds? or does it stirre
An anger in you, that the souldier
Mowes not your Fields? Poore men, doe you lament
That still you are as safe as innocent?
We yet haue Cities proudly situate,
We yet haue people: be it not in fate
That your esteeme of both should be so cheape
To wish those carcasses and these an Heape.
Me thinkes our Iordan hath an happier pace,
And flowes with greater maiesty and grace
In his owne naturall waue, then if the sword
Should higher colour to his streames afford;
Should paint and so deforme it: to mine eye
A Riuer's better then a Prodigy.
[Page 28] But I desire, deere Countrymen, to know,
VVhose is the blood that we must lauish so?
Perhaps the
Philistins ambition
VVould to our
Shilob bring their
Ascalon,
And these you would encounter: or t'may be
Aegypt still enuying that you are free
Intends a second bondage: or perchance
Your daily conquer'd Enemies aduance
Their often flying ensignes, those at hand
Possessors and destroyers of the Land;
VVhom God reseruing for our future Pride,
Left to our eyes as thornes, prickes to our side.
No none of these, but all your swords intend
I grieue to speak't, the ruine of a friend:
And all the sonnes of
Israel doe presse
That
Israel may haue a sonne the lesse.
Ioseph I'ue read suffer'd his brothers hate,
(Joseph of neere acquaintance vnto fate
The mouth of Destiny,) they would kill him first,
But after sell him, to try which was worst:
And yet no reason for this spleene appeares,
But that his glory was beyond his yeares:
To hate the yonger still is too much sinne,
And after
Ioseph to spoile
Beniamin.
Hath twelue no mystery? doe ye ascribe
Meerely to Chance, that there is no odd Tribe.
Trust me my brethren, they doe iniure God,
VVho say that he delights in what is odd:
I thinke 'tis parity best pleaseth heau'n;
And what is most iust, loues what is most eu'n.
Doe I excuse them then to please the time,
And onely make an error of a Crime?
Am I sinnes Aduocate? farre be't from mee
To thinke so ill of Warre as Sodomy:
For Sodomy I tearme it, Iustice calls
That, fact; which neuer into action falls,
[Page 29] If it hath past the license of the will:
And their intent reacht to that height of ill;
But whose intent? O pardon me, there bee
Beniamites spotlesse of that Infamy.
Shall these be ioyn'd in punishment? a sinne
You'd warre against, O doe not then beginne
To act a greater, as if you would see
VVhether Iniustice aequall'd Luxury?
This madnesse was from
Gibeah, 'tis true,
Yet some doe more distast the crime, then you,
Euen in that City: heare then my aduice,
And God shall prosper what you enterprize.
Exhort them to doe iustice, if that then
They still be partiall to these guilty men,
Their guilt is greatest, let them perish all
And equall their offences with their fall.
Thicke acclamations breake off his discourse,
Theyle heare no more because they like't: Remorse
Ceizeth each conscience, they already hate
The ciuill warre, which they so wisht of late.
Embassadors by generall voice are sent:
But
Beniamin conceits that to repent
VVere the worse sinne, and that who ere will doe
A wicked act, he ought defend it too.
But are not we true
Beniamites in this,
And aggrauate what ere we doe amisse
By a new act? as if the second deed
Excus'd the former, if it did exceed.
Did we not thus, an end were come to warre;
Did we not thus, no more should priuate iarre
Molest our peace; Kings might put vp their swords,
And euery quarrell might conclude in words:
One conference would root out all debate,
And they might then most loue, who now most hate,
The most sworne foes: for shew me, where is he
VVould seeke Reuenge, without an Iniury?
[Page 30] A wrong receiu'd, or thought one? then no need
But to deny, to excuse the deed,
Why is Defence? O what doe they intend
Who iustifie those acts, which they should mend!
O Pride! O folly! O extreame disease!
O Fact, which he condemnes who practises!
Who in his soule confesseth he offends
And yet doubles his guilt when he not ends.
Great crimes find greater patrons: impudence
Followes each fault, to make vs thinke that sense
Hath fled vs with our Vertue, and that men
By such an hardnesse are turn'd stones agen.
So wifes of Entertainment (who doe know
More then one Husband) in the publicke, shew
As vertuous as the best whilst vndescry'd,
Whilst they haue this good left, that they will hide
And veile ore their offences: but if once
Either their husbands iust suspicions,
Or their security betray their fact,
No more doe blush to answere, then to act,
As if 'twere meritorious, and so, did
Appeare no sinne no longer then 'twas hid.
Why should the bad be bold? why should there be
Audaciousnesse ioyn'd to impiety?
Whence is this daring? Sinne was child to Night,
How dares he then approach and blast the light?
How dares he stand th'examining, and try
If men can find out his deformity.
I haue the reason, we are flatterers all,
And to our selues the most; if any fall
Into grosse errors, still he thinkes hee's free,
And Pride supplies the place of honesty.
He thinkes tis good to haue a vertuous name
And cares not for the goodnesse, but the fame.
Which makes the
Beniamites reply: we'admire
(To say no more) at your so strange desire.
[Page 31] And at the craft on't most, that you pretend
Loue and aduice, when you subiection send:
Are we so stupid, and so senslesse growne
As to be thought not fit to rule our owne?
Beniamin was the yongest we confesse
Of
Iacobs sonnes, and yet a sonne, no lesse
Then
Leuy, or proud
Iudah: he that gaue
Life to each Tribe, intended none a slaue,
Nor shall you make vs. But youle say, that you
Out of a generall loue to goodnesse sue
For iustice 'gainst her Enemies. Tis poore
If what we would we cannot couer o're
With specious pretences: tis an ill
Physitians part so to betray his pill,
That children may perceiue it want of dresse,
And chuse disease before seene bitternesse;
But let me tell you who so ere do's deale,
In the affaires of a strange common-weale,
Is tyrannous or mad: he would be knowne
Either anothers Lord, or's not his owne.
Yet what is't your graue Masters doe aduice
Our sleepy Councell of? whose duller Eyes
See onely open vices: we haue heard
The Leuite and his Concubine, we feard
You'd haue vs punish him: then you relate
That comming vnto
Gibeah something late,
And willing to depart the earlier thence,
He found his Chast one dead: O dire offence!
She had the punishment she deseru'd, and iust
It was, that who had liu'd should dye by Lust.
And yet for feare Leuites in time to come
Might want such easie fauourites, and some
Would leaue their courteous trade, if there be found
No cure, no remedy for such a wound:
We are content to be seuere: but then
We doe expect, you name those guilty men.
[Page 32] Out's the more hard and thanklesse task I trow,
For we will punish those whom you but show.
These mockes doe whet the Isra'elites so farre,
Nothing remaines now but a ciuill warre:
Now all the Tribes haue vnto
Mispah ran,
With such consent you'd thinke they were one man.
If warre had euer reason, or if men
Had ere authority to kill others, then
Certainely these, in so diuine a cause,
Twas not the peoples quarrell, but the Lawes.
Here no ambition, no vntam'd desire
Of Principalitie, of growing higher,
Put on these Armes, nor was it fault enough
That
Beniamin was rich, to raise these rough
Spirits of
Mars, nor is't a true surmise
That priuate wrongs did cause these Enemies:
These fight the battel of the Lord, herein
Iustice on one side fights, on th'other Sinne:
So that in height of blood, heat of the warres,
They rather Iudges are, then Souldiers.
The Israelites if they now spare, are shent,
The more they kill, the more they're innocent.
Our Age makes vs againe these actions see
An Age of warre, though not of victory.
For 'tis not victory to winne the Field,
Vnlesse we make our Enemies to yeeld
More to our Iustice, then our Force, and so
As well instruct as ouercome our Foe.
Call you that Conquest, or a Theft of State,
When in a Stranger region of late,
The Eagle built his nest, hauing expell'd
(Vpon a meere pretence that he rebell'd)
The former Ayry, for no other cause,
But that his bill was strong, and sharpe his clawes:
To see the malice, and the power of hate,
That made eu'n the Elector Reprobate.
[Page 33] When
Caesar did not sticke, nor blush to doe
What they detested, who aduis'd him too,
When that all lawes their ancient force might loose,
He made a Choyce of him that was to Choose.
Now all occasions can perswade to sight,
When Power is misinterpreted for Right.
There is a Lust of killing men▪ so great,
Riuers of bloud can scarce asswage the heat:
Our liues are cheaper then the liues of beasts,
Then those whose very being is for feasts;
Who haue no vse but for the throat: hard plight!
Anger not kills them, but our appetite,
If we haue eaten once, we spare: and then
If we are full are kind: but to kill men
We haue a lasting appetite, shedding blood,
Our famine is increas'd eu'n by our food:
Such
Erisichthons are we, they that haue
Vnlimited desires, Death and the Graue
But shadow this affection, and to it
Compar'd, the Horse-leach wants an Appetite:
It may be weighing mans high faculties
(Which make him claime a kinred with the skies)
They seeme to doubt of his mortality
And onely striue to know if he can dye.
Nor doe they care on what pretence (lest ought
Should make their crime the lesse) no reason's sought
To mitigate their fault, and they are thus
So farre from good, they scarce are cautelous.
But 'tis a sore will fester, if you touch,
Away my Muse, sometime a truth's too much
For Honour, or for safety: he alone
Prospers who flatters. But if any one
Shall aske a Probabilitie for this
How such a multitude, such a swarme is
Assembled of the Israelites (for then
There met at once foure hundred thousand men
[Page 34] Against their brother
Beniamin,) whilst yet
They had not dispossest the Canaanite,
(There was a mixture not a Conquest made)
How durst they then so foolishly inuade
Their brethrens Countrey, when they left their owne
Subiect to imminent destruction?
Or when was this inuasion made? To me
The Number hath a more Facility
For credit, then the Time; doe we not finde,
That
Israel wanting Iudges was assignde
To bondage, as to Anarchy? they groane
Vnder a forraine yoake, wanting their owne.
Carries it any likelyhood; or can
It sinke into the fancy of a man,
That when they were opprest, they should oppresse?
As full of folly as of sauagenesse:
This were to perfect
Eglons victory,
And act what
Iabin but desir'd should be.
And yet it might be,
Ioshua being dead,
Then was the time, the people lack'd an head:
Who taking no care for posterity,
Twas the worst act of
Ioshua to dye.
Moses deputed him, and if that he
Had left another Gouernor, it might be
Our Leuite had beene chast: and
Beniamin
Beene noted for his vertue, not his sinne.
Then were these multitudes no miracle,
And
Canaan so oft beat by
Israel,
In likelihood would rest quiet, and expect
If these would doe what they could not effect.
Besides, their dwellings in the Valleyes be
So that their seat teaches humilitie:
And then to climbe the mountaines was such paine
As that the labour did exceed the gaine.
And thus you see, that they may fight: but ere
Their enemies Countries by them wasted were,
[Page 35] They to the Oracle repaire, to know
If victory shall grace them, or their Foe?
Yet pardon me, I erre, they are so strong
As that they would imagine it a wrong
Done to their valor, it we should suppose,
That they intreated conquest of their foes;
No, being sure of Victory, they aske
Which of the Tribes shall vndertake the taske
Of the first onset, and the Tribes refus'd,
Enuy at
Iudahs choyce, as if abus'd,
And iniur'd they esteem'd themselues, that they
Should loose the dangerous honor of the day.
Such was their pride, such thoughts their Nūbers brod
Numbers, whose feare, might strike the Enemy dead:
Whose hands deseru'd a fiercer Enemy,
And matter of an harder victory.
With these they thinke, they might to
Memphis passe,
And make the Aegyptians know, what bondage was.
With these they thought with ease to force a Way
(Though nature did oppose) to
India.
And in a sawcy victory out-runne,
The primitiue vprising of the Sunne.
How large are our desires? and yet how few
Euents are answerable? So the dew
Which earely on the top of mountaines stood
(Meaning at least to imitate a flood)
When once the Sunne appeares, appeares no more,
And leaues that parch'd, which was too moist before.
That we are neuer wholly good! that still
Mixt with our Vertue, is some spice of ill!
The Israelites are Iust, but they are Proud,
As if a lesser fault might be allowd
For punishing the greater: yet I'de know
Whilst yet they might suffer an ouerthrow,
Why they reioyce as if th'ad wonne! or why
They haue a Pride ere they haue Certainty?
[Page 36] Their numbers are incredible, 'tis true,
Yet multitudes haue beene orecome by few:
Their army is compleat, tis right, but then
We know it is an army but of men,
Of future carkasses, so quickly some
They haue no time to thinke of death to come:
To whom no starre a certainty does giue,
That they at least to the next Field should liue.
Foure hundred thousand carkasses; enough
To giue the beasts a surfet, and allow
Fertility which Nature had deny'd
Vnto those Lands: So that their height of pride,
Of hope, of glory, and of all their toyle
Is to inrich the Land which they would spoile.
So thought the
Beniamites, who though they saw
That Pow'r too was against them with the Law,
Yet resolutely they intend to die,
And such despaire giues them the victory.
They are not Cowards, yet, though they are bad,
They slay more numbers then wee'd thinke they had.
Whence comes this Courage to the Desperate?
The bad me thinkes should be effeminate,
And as the Bees (the subiect or the King)
Hauing abus'd it once, doe loose their sting:
And to inforce a Stoick vnto laughter,
Being once too fierce, they are alwaies sluggish after
Conuerted vnto Droanes, so it seemes fit
(And not so much heauens Iustice, as its wit)
That who hath lost his Vertue once, should straight
Loose courage too, opprest with his owne waight.
The Israelites though amaz'd at this defeat,
Yet gather head, and to their campe retreat;
There might you see Sorrow and Anger ioyn'd,
Nor doe they grieue so much as they repin'd.
Here fathers weepe their onely sonnes, and there
Brothers for as deare losses dropp a teare,
[Page 37] Accompany'd with threatnings, they are mad
Till they bestow the sorrow which they had.
Once more to
Shiloh they repaire, to heare
If God at last will aide them, and for feare
That it was pride did frustrate their first sute,
They're now as humble, as then resolute:
In stead of fighting they now weepe a day,
Sighes they doe thinke and teares can make a way
Where swords are vselesse, they'l gaine victory
No longer by their hand, but by their Eye.
Great and iust God, sayes one, we doe confesse
That all this heauy anger is farre lesse
Then our deseruings: should'st thou fully waigh
Our sinnes enormity, tis not a day
Lost to the Foe, can expiate: did we feele
What ere we saw in Aegypt, did the steele
Peirce deeper in our bowells, should the skyes
Shed those hot showers in which
Gomorrah fryes,
We could not taxe the Iustice of our King,
But after all, owe still a suffering.
Yet thou hast ancient mercies, we'aue beene told
Of all thy courtesies, which were of old
Shew'd to our Fathers; O vouchsafe them still,
And make vs heires of those: we haue done ill,
Prodigiously ill, ther's no offence
Which we are guiltlesse of, each conscience
Accuseth, and amazeth vs: yet now
Our flinty hearts to a repentance bow:
Yet now at last vouchsafe thy fauour to vs,
And as thy rod hath scourg'd, let mercy wooe vs;
We dare not looke for victory: O no,
Giue vs at leastwise a more vertuous Foe.
Thy wrath is iust great God, and tis our sute
Onely iust men thy wrath may execute.
We beg not for our liues, they are thy loane,
Which when thou wilt, receiue, yet as thine owne,
[Page 38] Let not their swords bereaue vs of our breath,
And we shall find a benefit in death.
Yet what a glory can it be to thee
That we are dead? and that the Heathen see
Thy anger on thy Children? that thy wrath
In stead of being felt, is told in
Gath,
And publisht in fierce
Ascalon; spare vs then
If not for vs, yet for thy selfe; and when
Thou think'st of plaguing vs, thy selfe exempt,
Since that our Ruine will breed thy contempt:
Let then thy mercy aboue iustice shine;
If we are bad, consider we are thine.
Thus grumbled they a pray'r: and he that sees
Councells vnhatchd, and what he will, decrees,
(Yet euer iustly) does perceiue that they
What ere they faine, doe murmure, and not pray.
Which he decrees to punish: they would know
Whether that once more they shall fight▪ or no?
Once more he grants that they shall fight and thus
They're not so crauing, as he Courteous,
If they but aske him, he will not deny,
Fight's their desire, and then his answere's I.
Had they but ask'd the victorie as well
He would haue heard his troubled Israel:
He that deliuer'd them from forraine armes,
And taught their weake hands to repaire their harmes
With admirable victory. He I say
Would haue bestow'd the honor of the day
On them, had they desir'd it; they haue knowne
How he hath warr'd for them from heauen, & showne
Such miracles in their defence, they fright
Those whom they saue, as when the wondring night
Thought herselfe banisht from the world (the Sunne
Standing vnmou'd, forgetting how to runne.)
If they now loose the day the fault is theirs,
God does no mercy want, they want right prayers.
[Page 39] But they suppose it too too fond to stand
Begging of that which is in their owne hand.
This they conceiue were to mocke God, to craue
That to be giu'n which they already haue,
A pow'r to vse their armes: No, if once more
They may haue field-roome, may but fight it o're
Though Heau'n doe not fight for them; they suppose
They cannot loose, if Heau'n doe not oppose.
They thinke no chance can possibly bestow,
The foile on them, the Lawrell on the foe.
What though they lost the praise of the first day,
And fought as though they came to runne-away:
Twas not for want of courage sure, but either
The foe had got aduantage of the weather,
Or else the wind had rays'd the dust so high
That they suppos'd fresh enemies to be nigh,
And fear'd to be enuiron'd round: what ere
Occasion'd their first ouerthrow, no feare,
No chance, shall cause another; and the slaues
That now triumph, shall find their trenches, graues.
Is this their Crime alone, or doe not all
Partake as of their fault, so of their fall?
Israel is not onely mad, there be
Some vices which we giue posterity,
And this is one of them: O how vaine is man!
O how his Reason too is but a spanne,
And not his stature or his Age! we haue long
Iniur'd the beasts, and done them too much wrong,
By calling them Irrationall; could they speake
Thus in rough language, they would fiercely breake
Their mind vnto vs: O you onely wise
To whom kind Nature hath imparted Eyes,
Leauing all other blind; pardon if we
Doe tell you where you haue forgot to see,
Where we are clearer sighted: can you show
Where euer beasts did to that madnesse grow,
[Page 40] As to pronounce of that, which is to come,
Of that which onely seemes in Chances doome?
Yet thus you doe; and doing thus haue showne,
Reason's your title, our Possession.
The Israelites had to their cost of late
Found confidence to be vnfortunate;
(Their confidence in Numbers) and yet still
(Though now contain'd in smaller roome) they will
Forespeake their victory: why, because they see
That they are many yet; poore vanity!
When they were more, they were o'recome, yet dare
Conceiue a Conquest when they fewer are;
Because still some are to be kill'd: as though
Successe to Multitudes did homage owe,
And multitudes impair'd: as if the way
To winne another were to loose one day.
But had we seene the City now! what ioy
Raign'd in those streetes, sufficient to destroy
Those whom it comforted (for pleasure too
Can find a way to death, and strangely doe
The worke of heauinesse and griefe) I say
Had we but seene the glory of that day:
The whooping, dancing, and the generall noyse
To which the sea and thunder are but toyes;
We should haue thought it (so the sounds agree.)
No noise of Triumph, but Captiuity.
At last they doe repose themselues, and one
Of highest iudgement and discretion,
Instructs them thus: My dearest Countrymen,
Who ere intends his priuate ends, does pen
A speech vnto the Eare, his study is
Which words sound well, and which are thought amisse:
He tryes all wayes, he layes all colours on
To cheat the Iudgement, sooth the Passion,
So that he hopes at last that it must hit
Either the subiect, or the clothing it:
[Page 41] But I whose end is Publike good, intend
Nothing but that which caryes to that end:
Pardon me then if I am harsh and round,
If that I am not Plausible, but sound.
We wonne a victory last day, so great
We hardly dare beleeue we were not beat:
Our conquest easier was then our beleife;
And with great reason too: for tell, what chiefe,
What petty captaine is so vaine, so mad
As to ascribe to his conduct the glad
Euent of last dayes hazard? to my sense
The Conqueror was onely Prouidence,
And we but instruments: then I'de aduice
That as you haue beene happy, you'd be wise:
That man does still in greatest glory stand,
Whose braine is better thought of then his hand▪
And so I wish that yours should be: we know
That what is gain'd by Fortune is lost so,
She hath no constant Fauorite, then now
Whilst yet our victory does meanes allow
To purchase peace at our owne rate, and thriue
By Couenant more then Battle: let vs driue
All thought of warre farre from vs, tis in vaine
To get that hardly, which we may obtaine
By easier meanes, and he does more then raue
Who hazards that which he may certaine haue.
More was he speaking, when a thousand tongues
Made his be silent, one would thinke their lungs
To be vnequall to that noyse, so fierce
Their clamor is, such sounds the heauens doe peirce.
So haue I oft heard in our Theater
(When that a daintier passage wan the Eare)
A thousand tongues, a thousand hands rebound,
(As if the Plaudite were in the sound,
And most noise were most pleasing:) they expresse
Their liking so, as these their frowardnesse.
[Page 42] Who raue from noise to action, one stoopes downe,
To reach a stone, another fiercer clowne
Shakes a steel'd Tauelin at him, all the hands,
Against which
Israel but weakely stands,
Ayme now at one; who dreadlesse, vnimpair'd
In courage, neither wisht life, nor despair'd.
At last a serious Counceller stood vp;
Much had he tasted of the liberall Cup,
And thankefully exprest it in his face,
To which a larger wound would be a grace
By hiding his rich pimples: This braue man
Raises himselfe, and with what speed he can
Stutters thus to them; Cease my noble boyes,
Quiet your threatnings now, and stint your noyse.
Tis a iust anger you haue showne, but yet
The time in which you shew it is vnfit.
Now should we dance, my blouds, now should we sing,
And make the wondring firmament to ring
With ioyfull acclamations; now braue spirits
To shew the most ioy, is to shew most merits.
Sadnesse is onely Capitall: in fine,
Now should we shed no bloud but of the vine.
For you Sir whom we doubly guilty see,
Of Treason first, and then Philosophy
If these doe please, thus we pronounce: to shew
How little we doe feare you, or the Foe,
Wee'l send you first vnto their campe, and then
Wee'l fetch you by our conquest home agen.
This is a mercy if well vnderstood,
You shall inioy the fortune you thinke good.
Here his breath failes: when all the people cry
He hath spoke nobly, none this day shall dye.
And yet the Traitor shall not scape at last
Whose execution is deferr'd, not past.
Twas neither peace, nor warre now, either side
Hauing sufficiently their forces try'd,
[Page 43] Take breath a while: O happy men, if still
This mind continue in them! If they kill
Their appetite of killing! if this rest
Can at the last informe them what is best!
To bury their slaine friends▪ both sides agree
Vnto a two dayes truce: Stupiditie
Nor to be borne with! had they knowne the vse
At first of that which they now call a truce,
This truce had beene vnnecessary, then
They might haue spar'd, whilst now they bury men.
And that they now may bury, they intreat
Respite a while from warre: thus all their heat
Is buried for the time: good heau'n to see
Th' Omnipotency of Necessity,
Whom all the neerest ties of Neighbourhood,
Religion, Language, nay of the same Bloud
Could not containe from fight, but that they would
(To see if it were theirs) shed their owne bloud,
These are intreated to a forme of peace,
Their fury for a day or two can cease,
Commanded by Necessity: they feare
Lest th' Ayre by so much carcasse poysoned were:
Lest to reuenge the bloud which they had shed,
They now might feele the valour of the dead,
Of strong corruption: these thoughts hold their mind
These thoughts a while inforce them to be kind
On both sides (for they doe not iarre in all)
Nature preuailes not, but a Funerall.
Nor doth this long preuaile, for when they had
Interr'd some carcasses, they yet are mad
Till they haue made some more, till they haue done
A second fault, as not content with one.
They see their Error, and commit it, thus
Who are not eminently vertuous,
Are easily entrapp'd in vices snares,
And want the poore excuse, that vnawares
[Page 44] They were ingag'd, we greedily runne on
Offending with Deliberation.
And can you call this but Infirmity?
Nick-name a Vice? O call it Prodigy.
Call it—O what? What name can well expresse
The miracle of humane guiltinesse?
Could he pretend an ignorance at least
And be in Nature as in Fact a beast,
He were not worse then they, then he might be
Both from the Vse and Fault of Reason free.
But what new horror ceizeth me? what fire
Raignes in my thoughts, and prompts me to rise higher?
Hence you low soules who groueling on the Earth
Basely deiect your selues below your birth,
Sold to your senses: I intend to tell
What none can know but in whose breasts doe dwell
Coelestiall fires, and vnto whom 'tis giu'n
To haue a neerer intercourse with Heau'n.
Yet pardon you pure soules, whom no one dares
Eas'd of our flesh, to trouble with our cares:
Pardon I once more aske, if my weake pen
Fitting it selfe to ordinary men,
Attaine not to your height (to vs vnknowne)
And giue you those words which you shame to owne.
The Lawgiuer, who saw as in a glasse
All in the Word, what euer 'twas did passe
In these neer enmities, as farre as Man
Perfectly happy knowes a griefe, began
To feele Compassion: Haue I then said he
Deliuer'd
Israel for this misery?
And did I free them from th' Aegyptian
Onely to find them graues in
Canaan?
I did foretell their Land should ouerflow,
But neuer thought to be expounded so;
Neuer with bloud: I meant that they should haue
More blessings then the couetous can craue.
[Page 45] The flowing Vdder, and the vntyr'd Bee,
An happy Deluge of Fertility.
O how would now proud
Pharaoh reioyce!
How would he haue a Ioy beyond a voyce,
Beyond his tyranny, could he but know
VVhat
Israel does indure without a Foe!
VVas it for this I did so oft repeat
VVonders before him, wonders of so great
Exuberance of powre, so highly done,
That they contemne all admiration?
How wert thou
Nilus bloudy'd into Red,
Thy waters as vnknowne as is thy Head?
VVhen all thy finny progeny did find
That to destroy now, which did breed their kind,
VVhen by a nimble death they vnderstand,
The Riuer as discourteous as the Land?
Can I forget that when I did bestow
A liberty as heretofore to flow
Vnto thy now pale waters, there did passe
An issue stranger then his Colour was
From the too fertil riuer? Frogges are found
VVith such a multitude to hide the ground
That ther's no grasse appeares, no corne is seen.
The spring does blush because he lookes not greene.
Their numbers and their noyse equally harsh
Make Aegypt not a Region but a Marsh.
VVhat a small portion of my acts were these?
How scarcely to be counted passages
In my large story? Dust is chang'd to Lice
And now beginnes to creepe, which the most nice
And curious eye before could neuer find
To moue at all, vnlesse 'twere by the wind:
VVhich could not scatter those thicke clouds of Flyes,
That would not let them, no, not see the skyes.
VVhen I but threaten all the cattle dye,
And Aegypts Gods find a Mortality.
[Page 46] But lest the men should thinke that they were free
From the fault too, if the Calamity
[...]:
I taught their bodies with blacke goare to runne,
And imitate their soules corruption.
What was a Face is now a Pimple growne,
And in each part is plentifully sowne
A store of blaines, so vgly, that to me
It was a kind of Iudgement but to see.
And if this were but little, was't not I
That call'd those candy'd pellets from the sky,
Which in a moment ouerwhelming all
Did badly change their colour in their fall:
And by the murthering euery one they found
Within their reach came red vnto the ground?
When to repaire the numbers they had slaine
(Beasts of all sorts) the land is fill'd againe,
But tis with Locusts, such a swarme they see
Made for the shame of all their Husbandry,
That they could wish, so they were rid of these
The former Murrein, ere this new increase.
But who can tell the following Prodigy?
Last day the Earth was hid, but now the sky
Chaos returnes, the Sunne hath lost his rayes
And Nights obscurity is turn'd to Dayes.
Who could a greater miracle afford?
God made the Light, I Darknesse by a Word.
Which had it lasted, had it ne're been spent,
They would haue call'd it a kind punishment,
They had not seen then their first borne to dy,
To challenge death by their Natiuity:
All
[...], but why? was it to see
[...] suffer fuller misery?
To gaine the Country which they could not hold,
From which their owne armes ignorantly bold
Expell their owne selues: O let no man tell
That
Israel did banish
Israel.
[Page 47] My prayers forbid, nor let it ere be said
That
Moses was vnkind since he was dead,
That in the graue I left my goodnesse too;
And could not pity when not feele a woe.
Hauing said this, with all the speed he may
He seekes out holy
Abraham, who that day,
By his deere
Isaac seconded, did sing
The ancient mercies of their heauenly King.
One tells how hauing now worne out a life
And so being fitter for his Graue then VVife,
Nay then when she had liu'd vnto those yeares,
To be accounted with the Grandmothers,
When
Sara now was so vnweildy growne,
Her legges could scarcely beare her selfe alone,
She beares another burthen, and does swell
Not with a child, but with a Miracle.
This said, he stops; and then againe goes on
No more with story, but Deuotion.
O prayse the Lord my soule, let me not find
My body was more fruitfull then my mind.
O let that teeme with thankefulnesse, and be
Made sweetly pregnant by my memory.
Father, sayes
Isaac, I haue often heard
That we doe tell with Ioy what we haue Feard,
And what in suffring terrifies our sense,
Does in relating please: what violence
Of blisse possesseth me, when I compare
My dangers past with ioyes that present are!
Methinkes I yet carry that fatall wood
(A burden which I hardly vnderstood
Should carry me) methinkes I still enquire
VVhere is the sacrifice, and where the fire?
How little did I thinke, or feare till then
That God commanded sacrifice of men!
How little could I guesse in any part
That God in such sort did desire the Heart?
[Page 48] Yet pardon Father, if you now must know,
Your silence seem'd more cruell then your blow:
Could I oppose my mind against your will,
Or wish him spar'd, whom you decreed to kill?
Wherefore was all this circumstance? what need
But first to tell, and then to act the deed?
I neuer knew what disobedience meant,
And your distrust was my worst punishment.
I must confesse I was amaz'd, my bloud
Congeal'd within me, and my faint haires stood
Yet not for feare of death (Death was my profit)
But for the manner and the Author of it.
Was this the heau'nly promise? and must I
So strangely borne, somewhat more strangely dye?
What should I say now? or what shall I doe?
That frustrate by my death Gods promise too.
Should I inuoke Heau'ns ayde? alas, from thence
Came the iniunction for this violence:
Should I implore my fathers helpe? why, he
Would sooner hearken vnto heau'n then me.
And so he did: for when the trembling sword
As if he knew the temper of his Lord
Threatned a death, most fortunately then
He that did arme you did disarme agen;
Shewing your will was all he did require,
Commanding you to that you most desire,
To be againe a Father: O the power
And mercy of our God! who in an houre,
Who in a minute, can make all things well,
Can bring and then deliuer out of Hell.
These were their Accents, when that
Moses sayes,
It is an holy businesse to praise,
To magnifie our Lord, so to goe on
In the intent of our Creation.
To this all times, all reasons doe obey,
And we may praise as often as we pray.
[Page 49] But now let's change these tones, let vs be mute
In all discourses now, but in a suite;
Let vs at once conioyne our prayers, and see
If our one God will hearken vnto three.
Your issue, and my charge, whom I haue led
Thorow those paths that neuer man did tred,
(As if they fear'd a scarcity of foes)
Doe their owne selues against themselues oppose;
And their destruction (vnlesse we repaire
Sooner to ayde them) will preuent our pray'r.
It was a place aboue the Ayre, the Sky,
Whither Man cannot reach, not with his Eye,
Nay if th' exactnesse of the height be sought,
Whither Man cannot reach, not with his thought.
Beyond the place where haile, and raine doe grow,
Aboue the chill-white treasures of the snow;
To which compar'd the starry heau'n is fell
Vnto a neerer neighbourhood with Hell.
And when I shall of Gods abode intreat
It does become his prospect, not his seat.
To which compar'd, the Chrystall heau'n does meet
With Earth, to be a stoole vnto his feet.
This was the Place (yet pardon 'twas not so,
Places are things which onely bodies know,
Our bounds of Ayre, from which the heau'ns are free
As from Corruption and Mortality)
But heere it was His sacred throne did stand,
Who with a word created Sea and Land:
Who with a word was Maker of his Throne,
Who till he made it neuer wanted one.
Bring me the richest goldsmiths treasuries
(Those baites that doe allure our hearts and eies)
The dusky Sapphire, the Pearle richly white,
The sparkling Diamond, yellow Chrysolite,
Or if there be a gemme Nature hath fram'd,
Of so high price that Art hath neuer nam'd.
[Page 50] Ransacke the
Inga's tombes, where there doth lye
With their corrupted dust their treasury:
(Who to that pretty bounty doe attaine
That they bestow their gold on earth againe.)
Search me their graues, or if you fearfull be
Of treasure guarded by Mortality,
Rob all the mines fenc't with so many barres,
(Where Nature in the Earth hath fancy'd starres,
Whose luster least our weaknesse cannot beare
Her kinder wisedome made her store vp there)
Bring these vnto the view, to an exact
Figure, which
Phidias durst call his Act:
Yet to this throne compar'd, it will appeare
So farre from shining, it will scarce looke cleare.
Here does the Ancient of dayes disclose
The glory of his Maiesty to those
To whom he daynes his presence, who enioy
At full, what would a weaker eye destroy:
Whose blisse shall neuer haue a period,
Who therefore liue because they see their God.
How could I euer linger, euer dwell
In this so blest Relation! O how well
Should I esteeme my selfe entranc'd, if I
By staying here should lose my History!
Here thousand thousands wait vpon his call
Of humane seruants, and Angelicall,
And such a multitude inuest his throne
(Millions of Spirits waiting vpon One,)
That it may be we should not say amisse,
Their Number stranger then their Nature is:
Here sound the Halleluiah's, here the Quire
Of Heau'n is high, and full as their desire:
No voice is here vntun'd, they doe not find
Aiarre, more in the sound, then in the mind.
Their power of singing growes on with their song,
And they can longer sing, because thus long;
[Page 51] Thus here themselues they fully strengthned fee,
To a melodious eternitie.
Here
Abraham presents himselfe, and sayes
O thou aboue the iniury of Dayes;
Who making Times art subiect vnto none,
Who giu'st all knowledge, and art neuer knowne;
Who in my dayes of flesh didst gladly lend
An eare vnto my sute, and wouldst not bend
Thy plagues against thine enemies, vntill
I knew th'intent, and thou hadst askt my will,
The will of me poore mortall, nay farre worse
Of me a sinner then, the ancient curse
Stucke deepely in me, that I might haue feard
My faults, and not my pray'r should haue beene heard:
Could I speake then, and am I silent now?
Did
Sodome moue, and cannot
Israel bow?
O pardon me if I bewaile their state,
If I their Father proue their Aduocate.
Didst not thou promise when I had giu'n ore
All hope of Father, when I wisht no more
Then a contented Graue, that then from me,
Should come so numerous a progeny:
That all the cleerer army of the sky,
And the thicke sands which still vnnumbred lye
Should come within account before my seed,
Which not my
Sara, but thy truth should breed?
How oft I thought that promise did include
Their lasting too as well as multitude;
That their continuance should be as sure,
As long as either sands or starres indure.
If they haue sinn'd, thou know'st they may repent
And be the better by a punishment,
Neuer by Ruine: O then vse thy rod
Thinke that they are thy People, thou their God.
And if they are so, O then let not be
Any more strife, but who shall most serue thee,
[Page 52] If they are so, let
Abraham once more
Receiue those children which thou gau'st before.
Now they haue left their heau'nly ecchoing,
Now all the Quire does wonder and not sing,
When from th'eternall Maiesty are heard
Speeches, which all but the dread Speaker fear'd.
Am I as Man that I should change? or like
The sonne of man to threaten and not strike?
If I pronounce my wrath against a Land
Shall that continue, and my word not stand?
If I doe whet a sword, shall it be blunt,
And haue no direr sharpenesse then t'was wont?
Beniamins crime h'as such an horror in't,
(Who haue confirm'd their faces like a flint
Against all dye of modesty) that till
Their bloud (which now their too hot veines doe fill)
Flow in their fields, till that their Numbers be
Of as small note as is their Chastity,
It shall not be remitted: yet to show
That I can pay that which I doe not owe,
A remnant shall escape: but for the rest,
(Those other Tribes which boast they are the best,)
And yet to verifie their goodnesse, lesse
Speake, as if they were iniur'd by successe,
So making the fault mine, who therefore haue
Beene lib'rall benefactors to the graue
By their thicke deaths) vntill that I doe see
A confirm'd truth of their humility,
They shall not see a victory: Ile make
Beniamin punish these, and after take
Vengeance on the Reuengers, till they see
My mercy hath not spent mine Aequity.
This I pronounce, this is my constant will.
Now all the holy company doe fill
The heau'ns with shouts of prayse, and loudly cry
All Honor, Glory, Power to the most High.
[Page 53] But now the Israelites once more haue brought
Their troopes into the field, once more haue fought,
And whether 'twas the fault of them that led,
Or of the souldier, once more they haue fled:
And now because their battle was not long
I will not be more tedious in my Song.
Canto III.
The Argument.
The Leuites vision,
Phineah's Prayer,
The Israelites late caus'd despaire
Now turn'd to courage, when by them
A new inuenned stratagem
Drawes the enemy from the walls,
Ʋntill within their net he falls,
With the full righting of the wrong
Does both conclude, and crowne my Song.
VVHen will Vice faile? whē shall we see th' euēt
Of wicked acts as bad as the Intent?
As yet the worst are prosperous, and worse,
The good as yet haue neuer miss'd their curse:
Reuiew the Leuites wife, and you shall see
When she had forfeited her honesty,
Her father entertain'd her; but once more
When she was come to what she left before,
Her Lord and Vertue, when that all her strife
Shall be to gaine the name of a good wife,
Gibeah will not harbour her; O poore!
Gibeah were guiltlesse had it done no more:
But
Gibeah will murder her; and now
Returne we to the Campe, and there see how
[Page 54] They proue this fatall truth, twice had they try'd
The valour of their enemies, and twice dy'd
The fields with their best bloud, so hardly crost
That they haue fought no oftner then th'aue lost:
And yet their cause was best: neither were they
The onely people which haue lost the day
Which they deseru'd to winne: search the records
Of euery Age, and euery Age affords
Examples of like strangenesse: who can tell
What the
Assyrian did to
Israel?
How in despite of all their lofty towers,
(Which hop'd a standing to the last of houres)
He made one houre their last: vnlucky howre,
Where vice shew'd what 't could do when it had power.
The sword did sport with lifes, nor were they such
VVhose losse or preseruation did not much
Pertaine vnto the state: but the Kings sonnes
In the same time, the same Pauilions,
By the same tyrant are inforc'd to dye,
And which exceeds all, in their fathers eye.
Poore
Zedekiahs kingdome first is gone
And then his heyres, O harsh inversion!
If he had lost them first, it might be thought
His kingdomes losse would not haue mou'd him ought,
He would haue made the best of th'other crosse
Esteeming it an easing, not a losse.
As he might now to be depriu'd of sight
VVhen he should couet the kind screene of Night
Betweene his woes and him: if in his mind
He saw, it was a blessing to be blind:
That then he should be forc't to see no more
VVhen he could not see what he saw before.
This
Israel suffer'd, and his
Ashur did,
And yet I dare affirme it was not hid
Not from th'
Assyrian eu'n in his owne doome
That they were better who were ouercome.
[Page 55] Or if the goodnesse to his side he drawes,
Tis that his sword was better, not his cause.
I could goe on in presidents as true,
Actions betweene the Heathen and the Iew,
Betweene the Turke and Christian: but what need
To shew there is no birth without a seed?
No speech without a tongue? or if there be
More truths of such knowne perspicuity.
How doe they doate then, who would tye the Lord
To be so ayding to his childrens sword,
As that he ne're should vse his owne, nor doe
Any one act, but what they wish him too?
Are they so good? or is his loue so fond,
As of a courtesie to make a bond?
Shall they indent with him? and say thus farre
Thou mayst correct, but if thy iudgements are
Of longer date, they are vniust? for shame
(All ye that glory in a purer Name,)
Hence those blaspehemous thoughts, far hence remoue,
Lest they deserue the plagues they would reproue.
Is it iniustice to suppresse our pride,
To bring vnto our eyes what we would hide,
Eu'n from our selues, our close deformities?
Or, may not God, to shew how he does prize
His seruants labours, make them thus appeare,
As does the Sunne after a cloud, more cleare?
His iudgement certainly wee'l say's too quicke,
VVho'l proue one bad because he sees him sicke;
These iudgements are discases, and bestowd
At pleasure, and not where they most are owd:
Yet due they are where euer they are found,
Since there are none so Catholikely sound,
But in a word, but in a thought haue strayd,
Perhaps in those Afflictions, when th'aue wayd
Their deeds and suffrings which they thinke to be
Of farre more rigor then Aequality.
[Page 56] Then courage noble Countrymen, nor feare
Though you should want successe a while to
[...]eare
Your names vp to your ancestors, (who did
Those acts which now were better to be hid:
Lest that they should vpbraid vs) doe not feare
That
Spaine is neerer the Almighties Eare
Then our deuotions: he that could bestow
A victory after a second blow
Vpon the doubting Israelites, can still
Create our better hopes eu'n out of ill.
Or if he doe not, if he haue decreed
That our iust plague shall be their vniust deed:
That
Israel shall be once more ouercome,
And
Dauid flie away from
Absalom:
Yet let this glad vs in our chiefest woe,
Man may be good and yet vnhappy too.
Now are they truely humbled, now although
No curious eye could guesse their ouerthrow
When he had seene their numbers, yet at length
They will rely vpon another strength,
Or if to numbers they will trust agen,
'Tis to Gods numerous mercies, not their men.
He can deliuer (they haue seene) by few,
And they doe thinke it possible and true
That he can helpe by many too, they find
Without him all their actions full of wind,
Of emptinesse, and with him they not doubt
To be as well victorious as deuout.
Now Pride hath left them, now they goodnesse yeeld,
Now haue they lost their vices with the field.
Such holy lessons doe misfortunes teach,
Which make our once bad thoughts brauely to reach
At Heau'n and glory: if you marke it well
Whilst yet it was a num'rous
Israel
It was a proud one too, but when that now
God lookes vpon them with an angry brow,
[Page 57] When all their troopes halfe weary and halfe sicke,
Are growne to easier Arithmeticke,
Th'are truly penitent▪ hence we may see
The pow'r, the good pow'r of Aduersitie,
W'are bad if we are happy, if it please
Heau'n to indow vs with a little ease,
If riches doe increase, vntill our store
Meet our desires, till we can wish no more,
If that our garners swell (vntill they feare
Ruine from that with which they furnisht were)
We but abuse these benefits: our Peace
Brings forth but factions, if that strangers cease
To giue vs the affront; our selues will be
Both the defendant, and the Enemy.
Our riches are our snares, which being giu'n
To man, to make a purchase of the heau'n,
We buy our ruine with them, the abuse
Is double, in the getting, and the vse,
So that our summes vnto such heapes are growne
When Auarice succeeds Oppression.
In briefe, our garners so well stuff'd, so cramm'd,
Detaine our Corne, as if that it were damn'd
To euerlasting prison, none appeares,
And thus we giue dearth to the fruitfull yeares:
Being to such a proud rebellion growne,
Famine is not heau'ns iudgement but our owne.
So wretched are we, so we skilfull grow
In crimes, the which the heathen doe not know.
We wrong God for his blessings, as if thus
We then were thankfull, if iniurious.
Why should not mercy winne vs? why should we
Be worse by that, whence we should betterd be?
Blessings were ne're intended for our harme,
Why doe we hearken then to the fond charme
Of such temptations? O how base is man!
How foolish Irreligion has wanne
[Page 58] Vpon his reason too! Doe we not call
Whom onely stripes can master, bestiall?
O what is man then! who ne're heares his Lord,
Till that the famine call him, or the sword.
Who (as he meant to tyre his patient God)
Yeelds not vnto his fauours, but his rod.
And can we yet intreat him to be kind,
To alter his, when wee'l not change our mind?
If we are heard, we will offend agen,
And all our pray'r does but intreat a Sinne.
Thus pray'd the Israelites, but if th'are heard
If he that made them scorn'd, will make them feard:
It is in chance, no, tis as sure as fate,
Hauing forgot their misery of late
They will rebell againe: like those good hearts
Who though they know the paines, the many smarts
Which fruitfulnesse is fruitfull with, still giue
Death to themselues, to make their issue liue:
And if they scape this death, they try againe,
And boldly venture for a second paine,
As if twere pleasure, or as if they meant
Rather to dye, then to be continent.
Thus haue we seene a barren, sandy soyle
(Made onely for the husbandmans sad toyle
And not his profit) when the full heau'n powres
His moisture downe, easing himselfe by showres:
Drown'd with the drops, to make vs vnderstand
A figure of the Sea vpon the Land,
VVhen once those drops are spent, when that the sky
Smiles with his new restor'd ferenitie,
Swifter then thought, before that we can say
This was the place; the water's gone away,
Theres a low Ebbe, againe we see the Land
Changing its moisture for its ancient sand.
Yet he that knowes this their infirmity,
At last will pitty it, and from on high,
[Page 59] (When now their thoughts of warre they will adiourne
When there's no talke now, but of their returne)
Hee'l hinder it by victory: with that
(About the time that pitchy night had gat
The conquest of the day, of which being proud
He wrapt himselfe within his thickest cloud,
Thinking perhaps his conquest to be voyd,
If any saw the triumphs he inioyd)
Vnto our Leuite he a vision sends
Clad in her dearest shape, in whom he ends
All thoughts of Fancy: Whom when he had seene
(And quickly he had spy'd her) Fairest Queene
Of heau'n, he sayes, what is there here on earth
That could perswade thee to a second birth,
Thus to appeare agen? needs must thou know
(For ignorance belongs to vs below
Excluded out of heau'n) that our sad stare
Is for its goodnes prou'd vnfortunate;
That
Beniamin is conqueror, and that we
Could not reuenge, but onely follow thee:
Nor was't one losse, one petty ouerthrow
Hath daunted vs, but (as if fate would show
All her choyce malice on vs) we haue try'd
How many wayes 'twas possible t'aue dy'd.
Beleeue it, heauenly one, no cowardise
(Which heretofore being base, is now tearmd wise)
Lost vs the day, no prouidence, no zeale
Nor that (which can the maymes of actions heale)
Councell, and graue aduice was wanting to vs:
Only the heau'ns, which we had thought would wooe vs
To prosecute thy vengeance, and from whence
We look'd for daies, like a good conscience
Shining and cleere, with cruelty vnheard
Giue vs an ouerthrow for a reward;
That we can onely (such our wretched fate)
Deplore the losse, which we should vindicate.
[Page 60] Is this your Iustice heau'ns? nay I would know
If it at least be wisedome, thus to shew.
Your wrath vpon you followers? if there be
Such a desire in you to make vs see
What powre you haue, wherefore d'ye not vse
That powre on those, who impiously abuse
Vs and your selues? O there are heathen still,
People that neither feare, nor know your will,
If you will ruine these, or any wise
But lessen, y'aue the fewer Enemies:
On these be powerfull; but if you doubt
Whether such nations may be singled out,
That sinne hath fled the world, then here begin,
For all the Heathen are in
Beniamin.
Are we the onely faulty? or am I
Pickt out for eminent Iniquity?
All lights on me, twas I that rays'd these warres,
Twas I that this thicke people like to starres
Haue lessend into Number; I alone
Merit both peoples curses ioynd in one.
Beniamin does detest me, and I guesse
Israels hatred is more close, not lesse.
What shall I doe, what course is to be tryde
When safe I cannot goe, nor safe abide?
No more sayes she, nor foolishly conclude
To giue complaints in stead of gratitude.
Wee'are heard my deare, and he at whose command
The earth will learne to moue, the heau'n to stand
Fast as the Center, who brings downe to hell,
And out of deeper mercies (which to tell
Would pose them that they blesse) brings backe againe,
Making the pleasure greater by the paine,)
Hath crown'd our wishes. O ioyfully good!
Not to be had on earth, nor vnderstood:
Heau'ns high superlatiue, for vnto me
Reuenge is better then Aeternity.
[Page 61] Reuenge vpon Gods enemies: know my deare
(And know that thou must doe what thou shalt heare)
It is the will of heau'n, when once the skye
Is proud of the next mornings liuery,
All
Israel should meet, where what shall fall
Iust with wishes, or exceed them all,
I must not now discouer, yet thus much
I care deliuer (my affection's such)
A truth, that is confest as soone as heard,
That he who knew to plague, knowes to reward.
Our Leuite wakes, but stretching out an arme
He feeles no body, no, nor no place warme
To proue she had been there, he thinkes 'tmay be
No vision, but a birth of Phantasie:
An issue of a troubled braine that fram'd
Formes to it selfe which Nature hath not nam'd.
Haue I not slaine enough he sayes, but still
Is it my office and my curse to kill?
Twas but a dreame inioyn'd me to be bad,
A dreame, a vapour, and am I so mad
For nothing to bee monstrous, and commit
A crime, that men shall feare to dreame of it!
But can I disobey what it hath pleas'd
Heau'n to command me? O how I am ceaz'd
VVith strange extreames! nor readily can tell
Whether this Reuelation should dwell
Clos'd in my brest? or whether I goe on
As counting it a Reuelation?
There may be guilty silence, if we feare
In the affaire of heauen to wound an eare
With threatning Rheroricke; this will not bee
Excus'd by a pretence of modesty:
Rather twill proue the iudgement of iust heau'n,
VVe shall receiue the doome we should haue giu'n.
Now all the people know what he hath heard,
Now they haue all their forwardnesse declar'd
[Page 62] In sacrifice, when
Phineas appeares,
One that had liued vnto so many yeares;
He knew not how to count them, and that knew
The Desert wonders, and could proue them true
By his owne sight, that could the more ingage
Men to beleeue, not by his tongue, but age.
Nay I haue heard some hauing duely way'd
How long in that high office he had stayd,
Conceiue they may affirme without a checke,
Him of the order of
Melchisedec;
And proue (as onely iudging what they see)
Their Priesthoods, by their Priests eternity.
Who hauing enter'd, all the people bow'd:
(For 'twas not yet as perfect zeale allow'd
To be irreuerent to their Priest, that name
Which now is prou'd a title but of shame,
Then was the badge of glory) he indeares
Himselfe, more by his office, then his yeares
To those, who thinke these two can ne're agree,
To scorne the Priest, and serue the Deitie.
Before the Altar his weake knees he bends,
Which age before, but now deuotion sends
Vnto the ground, where with a voyce so low,
That he could onely heare it, who could know
What it would haue before it spake, he thus
Whisper'd a prayer;
King of Heauen, of Earth, of Seas,
And of men exceeding these:
Thou, that when thy people ranne
From the proud Egyptian,
Ledst them through a liquid path
Safe, and scarce wet, when thy wrath
Wonderfully made them know,
Twas a Sea vnto the foe.
Thou that when the heat, the sand
Of a barren thirsty land,
[Page 63] Made our tongues be so confin'd
To our roofes, they scarce repin'd,
But in secret, so that we
Onely fear'd a blasphemy.
Thou then by a powerfull knocke
Mad'st a Sea within a Rocke,
And gau'st
Israel to know
For them drought should ouerflow:
Thou art still the same, and we
Stand in the same need of thee.
Pardon then if we presume
To an hope, and so assume
Courage to vs, when we ioyne
Our wants to that powre of thine.
Yes our wants, for we can find
None of merit, w'aue declin'd
Eu'ry good way, and haue still
Beene ambitious of ill,
So that when we are exact,
And haue all our good deeds rackt
To the highest rate, ther's none
Dares appeare before thy throne:
Onely this desert we see,
Continuance of aduersity.
Nay such monsters haue we bin,
Such proficients in each sinne,
That we durst not looke on heau'n,
Nor intreat to be forgiu'n.
Hadst not thou vouchsaf'd to doe
What our wishes reacht not too:
Hadst not thou vouchsaf'd to be
Tutor to our Infancy:
And bestow'd when we were mute
Both our prayer and our sute.
O the Courteous
Respect heau'ns beares vs! Scarcely had hee done,
Scarce finisht his impos'd deuotion,
[Page 64] VVhen on the sudden, ere you could haue said
The Priest had sacrific'd, or he had pray'd,
Through all the Campe a light was spread, to this
Compar'd, the Sunne but a darke body is:
And in respect of so diuine a light
Our day is honor'd, if he be tearmd night,
Nor this alone, but that they there might see
And feare their God in his full Maiesty,
Such voyces and such thunders fright the Ayre,
That they suppose they want another prayer
To be assur'd from them; so they declar'd
They were afraid to heare, that they were heard.
Downe on the pauement euery knee is fixt,
Some groueling on their faces, when betwixt
Astonishment and hope, whilst yet they doubt
VVhat all this preface meanes, and whilst the rout
Fear'd iudgments which they merited, they heare
A voyce, for which they wish a larger care,
It was so sweetly mercifull:
Once more
Goe vp
(it sayes) and though that heretofore
Y'aue had the worst. yet thus my sentence stands
Ile now deliuer them into your hands.
Haue you beheld how some condemn'd to dy,
VVhen they were fitted for Aeternity,
VVhen life they did despise, and all below,
Receiu'd a pardon, when they fear'd the blow
That should vnman them, haue you seene them then
Almost forgetting that they were but men;
How to expresse their mind they want a word,
Ioy hauing done the office of the sword,
And made them speechlesse? then you may in part
Conceiue the wonder of their ioy; which Art
Confesseth it exceeds her power to show
At full, which onely they that haue can know.
Thus braue
Corvinus, then whom fame nere knew
Any that to an higher vertue grew,
[Page 65] When once it pleas'd Fortune to leaue her frowne,
Made an exchange of Fetters for a Crowne.
Thus, not to seeke a forreine president,
Our
Henry, whom the Heau'ns courteously sent
To set a period to our Ciuill broyles,
To ioyne both Roses: after many foyles
Receiu'd and conquer'd, after he had seene
Himselfe an Exile, who a Prince had beene,
When banishment was enuy'd him, when nought
Would please his Enemy, vnlesse he bought
His death of him that harbour'd him; eu'n then,
To foole the proiects of the cunningst men,
This wither'd root begins afresh to spring,
And from a banisht coarse reuiues a King.
Thus (not to seeke out a stale president,
Mentioning mercies after they are spent
And lost in story)
Englands present Ioy
(Whom Fate can onely threaten, not annoy,)
How hath he try'd variety of griefe!
How beene in dangers, as in Rule our Chiefe;
That when there is a speech of suffering,
He is no lesse our Patterne, then our King.
The Seas spoke loud, yet if we rightly poyse,
There was more danger, where there was lesse noyse:
Yet was he freed from both, when in mans eye,
Successe had seem'd to smile on Treachery.
These are your wonders, Heau'n, and not so much
Fauours (although the Fauour too be such,
That it does pose our gratitude, and so
Onely proclaimes that we are made to owe,
Our pouerty of merit) to be short,
Th'are not so much your Fauours, as your Sport.
You in an instant rayse, whom we would sweare
Nayl'd to the Earth, him that had left to feare
More then he suffer'd, that had beene so long
Acquainted with ill lucke, with such a throng
[Page 66] Of misaduentures, that hee does not know
What it is to be free from them, and so
This courteous intermission he expounds
Rather a Change then Cure of his neer wounds:
You in an vnthought Minute can depresse,
Whom we beleeue in league with Happinesse.
And as vpon the Stage we oft haue seene
Him act a Beggar, who a King hath beene:
For no default, but that the Poets art
Thought at that time he best would fit that part?
So in our serious Theaters, when you please
Kings are as varying persons as are these,
Onely in this their disaduantage lyes;
That they may fall, but cannot hope to rise.
They, whom the bands that make a kingdome strong,
Succession to the Crowne both right and long
From worthy Ancestors, obedience
At home, and lastly sure intelligence
Abroad hath fortifyed, those that suppos'd
True ioy to be wholly in them inclos'd:
If you but please to frowne, in one short day
(When they not thinke their Enemies on their way)
Are conquer'd by them, and at last retaine
This comfort onely to allay their paine,
That their misfortunes (if the heauens decree)
May be the portion of their Enemy.
Why then doe trifling miseries so grate
Our minds, and make vs more vnfortunate
Then heau'n intended? if out of a summe
Of mony (not so rich as troublesome
By the large roome it occupies,) some one
Willing to teach vs moderation,
Nibble a little, how we fret! we raue!
How for our treasure wee distraction haue!
As if we did beleeue (to say no more)
Heau'n onely had the powre to make vs poore,
[Page 67] But
Israel thought not thus, but does prepare
All things that for the Action needfull are:
He thinkes now double diligence is due,
That he may be victorious, and God true.
On the Eastside of
Gibeah there stood
An ouergrowne and vnfrequented wood;
The trees so thickly plac'd, that you would guesse,
(Had you beheld that horrid wildernesse:
How darkenesse all the Mastery had wonne,)
Twas made for the discredit of the Sunne;
Neuer did any raye pierce through those leaues,
And if at any time it light receiues
Tis onely when the heauens doe misse their stroke,
And passing wicked men, murder an Oke.
So that the brightnesse that adornes the same
Serues not so much to inlighten, as inflame.
Here neuer did the nimble Fairy tread,
Nor euer any of the Wood-nymphes bred
Within this groue, but it was singled out
For
Pluto's regiment, for that bad rout
Of Hell-borne furies, there you might haue seene
Alecto stretch'd at her full length betweene
Two fatall Yughs, where while her rest she takes,
She giues an intermission to her Snakes,
Who in a thousand curles there hissing lye,
And she sleepes sweeter by their harmony.
Here had the Canaanite in former times
(Whilest that Religion did consist in crimes,)
Offer'd his sonnes in sacrifice, as though
He meant to pay backe heau'n all he did owe
Or did conceiue, (that which he should despaire)
To be without sinne, when without an heire.
This horrid place till now had emptie stood,
But now the Israelites conclude it good
To plant an ambush there: for thus they plot
That when the skirmish shall be growing hot,
[Page 68] They will draw backe, to make the
Beniamite
Conceiue that stratagem to be a flight,
And leaue the towne for the pursuit; when straight
Vpon a signe giu'n, they that lie in waite
Shall ceize vpon the City, and so force
Their Enemy to such a desp'rate course,
That being pursu'd by those he put to flight,
He shall not know, whether to flie or fight.
Hearken ye silly ones that doe suppose
You ought not to beare Armes against your foes:
Who hauing cast off ordinary sense,
Affirme that they doe warre with Prouidence,
Who prouidently warre, that they distrust
The powre, or care of heau'n, who will be iust
To their owne cause, which you will noyse to be
A spice of wiser Infidelity.
To these I need no other answer find:
Shall we be foolish because heau'n is kind?
And when your industry might doe as well,
Will ye inforce God to a Miracle?
It is a truth I grant, which you pretend
That God hath destin'd all things to their end,
Which stands immoueable: nor is't in Fate
To alter what he will praeordinate:
Yet neuer any did so farre proceed
In folly, to affirme that he decreed
Onely the end, that 'twas in Gods intents,
Whilest we did sleepe, to blesse vs with euents
We dreame not of: Such fondnes cannot find
Any excuse (vnlesse they were design'd
Ineuitably to't:) for I would know
(If they suppose it possible to shew
Their mind in these affaires, or if they bee
Not hindred from an answer by Decree)
Why they doe eate? and why they doe not hence
Conclude rebellion against Prouidence?
[Page 69] Why they doe cloath themselues? and why desire
When cold oppresseth them to choose a fire?
Haue you forgot that for his holy ones,
God can at
[...]ase produce e'ne out of stones
As solid sustenance? or is it lost
In your fraile memory, that when
Israel crost
The Desert out of
Egypt, forty yeares
Nor Taylors they imploy'd, nor Shoomakers?
Trust me if you your selues thinke your selues true,
Your care does vilify Gods care of you;
And euery dish that to your board is brought
Vpbraides him to his face, as if you sought
To mend his purpose; and by this odd feat,
You doe blaspheme as often as you eate.
The Israelites are wiser farre, although
They haue that vnknowne happinesse, to know
Their victory aforehand, though they heare
This truth from him, from whom they cannot feare
Any deceit, (whose powerfull word alone
Makes that a truth which he resolues vpon,)
Although they will allow his Act for chiefe,
Yet they will doe their part too: to be briefe,
Euery souldier to himselfe sayes thus;
God will bestow the victory, but by vs.
The night they spend in prayer, but when the morne
Had dimm'd the pride of
Cynthiah's cleerest horne
By higher luster, being call'd away
Not by the Cocke, the Trumpetter of Day;
But by an earlier trumpet, then you might
By her vnwilling and yet hasting light,
Discerne, and seeing, almost rightly poyse
Whether were more, their number, or their noyse,
And vnto which more feare was to be giu'n,
Who fill the Earth with Numbers, with Noyse Heau'n.
Beniamin takes th'alarme, and hauing chose
One in whose faithfulnesse they might repose
[Page 70] A wary confidence; they quit the wall
And to the wider field issue out all,
Lest if they stay'd within, and did oppose
Rampiers and ditches onely to their foes,
They might haue bragg'd, (as if that they had won)
Making a prison of their garrison.
Now both the Hoasts themselues so neere doe find,
That it would aske more labour t'haue declin'd
The field, then to haue wonne it, yet they stay
Hoping that innocence is in delay,
If they are slowly guilty: now speares flye
Shiuer'd in thousand fitters to the skye;
And whether it reuenge or fortune were,
Euery peece becomes a Murtherer,
And from their bodies frees a many soule,
Doing that broken, which they could not whole.
Could
Xerxes here haue sate vpon an hill,
To see these warriors, hee would not still
Fondly lament, nor lauish out a teare
Because they could not liue an hundred yeere,
But melt into iust passion away,
Because they could not liue out all that day.
Now might you haue beheld the fiery horse
Proud of his owne, and of his Masters force,
Robb'd of his Master, whom you now might see
Running, as if twere after Liberty.
Or you'de conceiue, had you but seene the race
That 'twas no more a battle, but a chase.
No stroke falls idle, nay they are so neere;
They need not strike at all: death is caus'd here
By their bad neighbourhood, the whole and sound
You might haue seene here dead without a wound.
To saue the guilt and labour of the sword,
Bodies to bodies their owne ends afford.
Now nothing but the dust is to be seene
Which like so many Emblemes flyes betweene
[Page 71] The mingled armies, which in silence sayes,
They are no better then the motes they raise,
Then those poore Atomes: but they thinke to shrowde
Their acts from sight of heau'n vnder that cloud,
And therefore did their vtmost: yet as though
These hands were slugglish, or this fury slow,
The trumpets chid them to a lustier guilt
And the lowd drummes proclaim'd, you haue not spilt
Blood enough yet: O what were they that found
Out first the vse and malice of that sound?
Which makes vs kill with greedinesse, and when
Tis the Corrupted Nature of most men
Hardly to yeeld vnto the destitute,
These will not suffer vs to heare their suite.
This drownes the groanes: but now both armies reele,
Now this giues backe some ground, now that doth feele
That it is prest too hardly. Thus the seas
When euer it the angry winds does please
To exercise their fury, doe not know
What course to take, nor whither they should flow:
This waue breakes that, and then another blast
Makes that the conqueror, which was conquerd last.
At length the Israelites giue backe indeed,
And though in order, yet with such a speed,
Beniamin calls it Flight, all's ours they cry,
If we can runne we haue the victory:
With that what euer men the towne affords,
Skilfull to vse their fingers or their swords,
For spoyle or for pursuite, issue out thence
With such a noyse, they giue intelligence
That they haue left it emptie: O the vaine
Attempts of foolish man! O deseru'd paine!
Th'are made the spoile, that they intend to make,
So wisely can iust heau'ns their vengeance take
On bad attempts, so all heate asswage,
And make our Ruine greater then our Rage.
[Page 72] It neuer entred into their proud thought,
They should receiue the dammage which they sought
To giue vnto their brethren: who hauing left
Their woody couert, and the friendly cleft,
VVhich entertain'd them, by a quicke surprize,
Take the vnguarded towne: O who can prize
Those losses to the full? or who rehearse
Those misaduentures in an equall verse?
They spare no age, but (cruell) take away
From the old men, the solitary day
They could expect to liue: now Infants dye,
Eu'n those, who yet within their mothers lye,
Finding a Night before they see the Morne,
Being buri'd thus, before that they were borne,
For whom their murtherers no crime could choose,
But that they were, and had a life to loose.
Nor does the weaker sex escape the rage
Of these intruders, and as euery Age,
So euery Person suffers, onely here
May be the difference, (if that any were)
Either they're killd out-right, or which is worse,
They thinke their life to be the greater curse.
Here mothers see their daughters whom they bred
As Votaries vnto their Maidenhead,
Vn-virgin'd in their sight, where hauing lost
That peerelesse iewell, which they valewd most,
They doe receiue to vindicate their name
A death from them, from whom they had their shame.
Auarice followes Lust, now they haue leisure
To ransacke all those Mineralls of treasure
Long peace and thrift had hoarded vp, at last
As children when their Appetite is past
Spoyle what they cannot eate, and badly kind
Pamper their dogs with that they leaue behind:
So these, as surfeiting with such a store,
(VVhich made them lose all feare of being poore)
[Page 73] VVhat is not ready spoyle, giue to the fire,
VVhose conqu'ring flames vnto the heau'ns aspire,
As boasting of their seruice: through the towne,
Swifter then any thing that has renowne
For speedinesse, they runne, one houre does spoile
(Vnlucky houre) what was an Ages toyle
Now cracke the houses, now the Temples fry,
Now the poore Citizens resolu'd to dye,
Doubt of what death: and know not which to try,
The fire, the downefalls, or the Enemy.
Had this misfortune hapned in the Night
(Though Nature had oppos'd) such a full light
Had made a day, and so againe had wonne
A Conquest of the towne, and of the Sunne.
Neuer did Sailor with such ioy behold
Castor and
Pollux when his ship was roll'd
Vpon the angry Ocean, (whose proud waues
Made the most haughty minds freeze into slaues
VVith a base feare,) as
Israel does view
Those flames, which he does feare not to be true,
They are so great, and yet he hopes to see
These flames to light him to a victory.
Now all the face of things is chang'd anew,
Now those which earst seem'd vanquish'd doe pursue:
The Israelites confirming by their Fight
That they could cause as well as act a Flight.
Beniamin growes amaz'd, and does not know
VVhat he should doe, nor on what grounds to goe,
VVhich probably seem safe: if he should flye
He runnes away vnto the Enemy:
And shall he fight? alas! but he will find
It is impossible to fight behind,
VVhere he shall be assay'ld: yet he shifts ground,
And figures out his battle in a round.
And since he hath no hope to scape away,
Hee'l nobly sell, not giue away the day.
[Page 74] They neuer fought till now, all the whole day
Before, was onely somewhat fiercer Play,
Murder in iest, but now they are so fierce
As if they would inforce their swords to pierce
Beyond the body; this a while, at length
Despaire does yeeld the victory to strength;
And Fortune (that the world henceforth might find
That they had iniur'd her who call'd her blind)
Crownes the best side, and prouidently tryes
At once to proue their Conquest, and her Eyes.
The Parellell is easie; was't not thus,
When Heau'n was pleas'd to be as kind to vs?
We felt the prickles first, but then our Nose
Suckt in the sweeter vertue of the Rose.
We had successe, as it were chose, and pickt,
And what we feard to suffer did inflict.
When
Brett and
Burrowes (that I speake their due)
Reuiu'd to
France, Talbot and
Montague.
(O too like
Montague, that lost thy breath,
By the same fatall Engine of quicke death.)
When the choyce valour of each rancke, and fyle
Made vp a double Sea within the Isle
Of blood and teares, O giue vs thankes, kind heau'n,
And adde a vertue to our Fortune giu'n,
That we may all acknowledge his desert,
Who nobly gain'd a conquest of the heart
Of them, whose bodies he had conquer'd first,
To whom he then discouer'd, what he durst,
And after what his Nature was, when he
In the sad field had spent his Cruelty,
For when they offer'd to redeeme their dead,
Summes which another would haue vanquished,
He freely yeelds vnto the sutors breath,
And giues the Graue, as easily as the Death.
Whilst they doe giue—O how I blush to tell,
A poison'd knife, a poison that will dwell
[Page 75] And eate into their fame till earth be gone,
Till poyson haue no more to worke vpon.
Teach vs our right to him, but then to you
What shall we giue? and yet what not leaue due?
Then, O kind Heau'n, for this let me be pleader,
May we still sing your prayse, who led our Leader.
And now I hast vnto my songs conclusion,
Israels conquest,
Bentamins confusion
On all that valiant number which but now
Made treble numbers to their valor bow:
Onely sixe hundred scape away, so few,
They were scarce able to commit a new
The Crime for which they suffer'd; had not Night
Became their vmpire and forbad the Fight,
Those few had perisht too; then at the last
Let future Ages learne of Ages past
How vice rewards her seruants! Let them be
Afraid at leastwise of the misery,
Who slight the sinne: why should a beauteous face
Make my soule foule? and an externall grace
Bereaue me of my inward? O despaire!
Shall I be bad because another's faire?
Hence that poore folly, rather let vs winne
A conquest by the losse of
Beniamin.
To know that those bely'd, and stolne delights
Are not of so long lasting as the Nights,
In which we did inioy them, how the Day
Takes both their darknesse, and our sweets away:
To vnderstand that tardy heau'n is iust,
That Ruine is the consequent of Lust.
And now O Father, once more I repaire,
To thy great presence, O thou onely faire!
(Who dwelling in the light that none comes neere
Canst not be seene of vs, because too cleere;
To whom created beauties if compar'd,
Ruin such as haue the wisest eyes ensnar'd,
[Page 76] Are nothing but Deformity at best,
Durt somewhat better colourd then the rest)
Instruct my youth, O teach that I may know,
What mischiefes lurke vnder a seemely show;
What a sweet danger woman is: O thou
To whom the knees that doe not loue, doe bow,
Whom all obey, eu'n such as haue no sense,
Who doe not know their owne obedience;
Whom all obey, eu'n such as doe goe on
In a perpetuall Rebellion,
The Spirits accurst: Grant me, that chastly wife
I enter into Couenant with mine eyes,
Neuer to looke on Woman, not to see
What would perswade my soule to forsake thee,
To make a God of flesh: But if that I
Forc'd by Temptation, or Necessity,
Must see my Ruine, yet thus much, O thou
Whom my soule loues, and would more, knew she how,
(For his deare sake and worth, in whom was found
Onely a place, no reason for a wound)
If I must haue the sight, yet I require
I may at leastwise not haue the desire.
If I must see, let it be to despise
So shall my heart be chast, if not mine eyes.
FINIS.