[Page 5]THE TIMES DISPLAYED IN SIX SESTIADS.
The Argument,
An Independent
and a Presbyter
Their severall Tenents, each do here prefer;
And while they, pro
and con
do argue, we
May judge of both, and which most erreth see.
INDEPENDENT
AND have we spent our bloods to gain no more
We are as wretched as we were before
When as the Lordly Prelates, ruld the Land
Making Gods Truth, to stoop to your command
O thou immortall Rector when shall we
Be as we ought, and have our conscience free
From mens Injunctions.
PRESBYTER,
"See mans nature is
"Never contented, though he be in blisse.
"He would have yet more joy, why knowst thou not,
Or hath thy shallow memory forgot,
What great immunities are purchased
Since the great, little Prelate, lost his head
[Page 6]
Are we not free from Papists lordly Reign
Who ruld,
Charls onely called Soveraign;
Is not the throst of
Inovation cut
Are not our Enemies, in pinsolds that;
Are not those Courts, that rackt the Commons purses
"Receiving oft, their silver, with their curses
Abolisht, i
[...] not that some fatall court
Star Chamber cald, where six Lords could extort
What they would from the Common, now put down
And in the stead mercy and Justice shown.
Are not all envious suckers.
Independent
He, whose this
My utter enemy, I ween it is,
As the ill boding Scrilch-owl I do hate
Thy speeches, tell me art thou
Consecrate,
An
Elder, whom I may dechipher thus
Hodie Clericus, cr
[...] Lui
[...]us:
Thee and thy tenents I abhor and hate
As errors, do all mischiefe properate
Perhaps thou art an
Expactant, luch there be
Who waite Election, in the Presbytery
I hold the Rule, of your Archi-synagogie
To be a cruell, Rigorous Tyrannie
Your high Sanhedrim, by which you undertake
Your Fellow Commoners, meer slaves to make
Your great Assembly is above all power
And what you please, you turn, and change each houre
So that I de rather chuse, a slave to be
And vassaild, to the Bishops Hierchie
Then unto you subjected, pray whence rose
Your Reformation, but from
Knox, and those
Seditious ones
Melvill and
Lisley, and
Peter Carmichael, who once did stund
In open opposition gainst all Law
In ordine ad Spiritualia.
Presbyter
[Page 7]
O Thou deluded, that art enemie
To God, doth not the sacred verity
Confirm, and eke command the Church should be
Guided by a Judicious Presbyterie
Thy Allegations are most false and naught,
Such as the Feind into thy mind hath brought:
Thou art a Libertine, and wouldst have none
To govern thee, but thy false heart alone
Woe be to
England, hadst thou thy desire
Whose thoughts are swords, whose actions are fire
To ruin thine opposers, praised be
To the Almighties Sacred Maiestie
Our prudent Parliament, do now proceed
To settle
Independent.
What they have decreed
Theil finde when they have setled it most sure
Tis built on sand, and cannot long indure.
Presbyter.
Well go thy wayes, let Sathan and his crue
Theu most of your wicked ends persue,
God will preserve his Church, and maugre all
Will have his own will to be principall
After so long obseurity, he now
Is pleasd unto his servants light to shew,
The true light of his face, the government,
He gave to his Apostles, with intent
They and the true Church, ever should observe
Which having purchasd, grant Lord, nere swerve
There-from, but us and ours imbrace it may
Untill the last, and dreadfull Judgement day,
The end of the first Sestiad.
The Argument
An Anabaptist and a Brownist here
Ʋnmask themselves, and make the filth appear,
The while the one contendeth for himself
Averring he ought not baptize his elfe
Till hees of age, the other worse deluded
Saith, Godhath England from the Church exculded.
Anabaptist.
After so long a night, of woe and sorrow
Behold a fair, and delicious morrow
After so many years, when we opprest
Were fin'd imprisoned, and could never rest
For the
Beast, Image, the hated Bishops (now)
We openly, and without, dread avow
Our tenents, dipping maids, and wives each day
Their naturall concupicence to allay,
And although some we drown, those drowned so
Doe but by water unto heaven go,
And—
Brow.
Ile not beleeve the Church of
England is:
A true Church, making my assurance this,
When Bishops and their government did stand
And Popery was used in the Land
By singing, cringing, worshipping of tables
Christning of bells, with many other Fables,
[Page 9]
Twas then an
The
Brow nists hold our church to be Antichristian & Heretical; that becaus we have no Church, they are to sever themselves from us, that without civil authority they are to erect a Church of their own.
Antichristian Church, and now
They seem those errors, for to disavow
Instead thereof the
English Parlament.
Set up a worser, fiercer Government.
The spawn of Bishops, now must rule, I gather
The wandering issue, of a misled Father
For the Presbyterie, the wise can tel
We justly may with Bishops paralel,
From them their Power's deriv'd
Anabaptist,
All hail to thee
Dear Brother of our NONCONFORMITIE;
Both thee and I, like
Sampsons Foxes do
Burn up
Gods vineyard, work the Church much wo,
Why then are we estranged each from other,
Let mee imbrace thee, in my arms my Brother.
Brownist.
Stay good, my friend, and know twixt thee & me
There is a very vast Antipathie,
I do not hold that Beasts from death shal rise
At the last day, nor yet in any wise
Can I beleeve, that ere the Damned shall
After some torments be released all,
And plac'd in heavenly joys, for so you hold.
Anabap.
Why then my Friend thou hast the worst on's told
By manifest *, that they may proved bee,
Thou now recitedst, as an heresie,
Scriptures
And this assure thy self, who ere is not
Of our Society, shal have his lot
Amongest the Damned, evermore to dwel,
Wailing his error, in the lowest Hel.
Brownist.
Rashly concluded, thus each Sect doth say
He that treads not their paths, errs from the way.
The end of the second Sestiad.
The Argument
One of the Family of Love
With an Antinomian meets
And divers questions they do move
Not parting without threats.
Familist.
A
Mor omnia vincit, 'twas that which mov'd
God for to come on earth, because he lov'd
The sons of men, tis love that all creates
Tis love that men and creatures propogates
Did men but know the sweet society
We do enjoy are of loves family
They would reject their burthensome Estate
And make themselves with us Incorporate,
How many Queenes, and princesses of might
To be made one of us, have tane delight,
As
Messalina, Cleopatra,
FLORA
She
Romes vulgar honour as a Dietie
Lais and
Thais, O Ime ravished
To think upon the pleasant Lectures read
To us, when we in full Assembly met,
The sisters on the brothers laps being set
Nothing but love our harmelesse souls desire
With love, each of our hearts is set on fire
This love we cherish, by all wayes we may
For tis good our loves should ought decay
[Page 11]
And therefore Oysters, Lobsters, we prepare
Eringoes tatoes, and such toyish fare,
And this we do, to preserve love in us
For
sine Cerere & Bacho, friget Venus.
Anti,
My eares are blister'd; O what have I heard
And art thou not thou beast at all afeard
Of Hell, or thinkst thou the Almighty sleeps
Why he a bedrole of thy basenesse keeps
And will take vengeance on thee that dost make
Religion cloak thy evills.
Familist.
Dost thou take
In hand sin to reprove, whose sins are such
That of thy blasphemies, there cant too much
Be spoken, thou deniest, the Law was given
To be mans Rule, although the Lord from heaven
Girt in bright flames, with awfull Majesty
The while the Trumpet sounded from on hie
Denounced Death, to him the same should break
And yet you dare with boldnesse for to speak
And to divulge, you from the Law are freed
And you of nought but faith do stand in need.
Again, you teach, averring impiously
Your sins are pardond, ere committed be
Why then it seems Christ Jesus, to no end
his heavenly
pater noster did commend
To his Disciples, bidding them desire
Forgivenesse of their sins, as the just hire
Of their forgiving others, some there be
Of your sweet Sect, that do unanimously
Conclude there is no strict necessity
Of our receiving that holy
Of the Lords Supper.
mistery
Of our salvation (Why are we tyed thus)
Say they to shaddows, when Christ dwells in us
Already, why on pictures must we feed
When we possesse the substance.
Antinom.
[Page 12]
Twere indeed
Agreivous crime in me, for to confer
With one whose wayes, are so Irregular,
Untie those bonds, do chain thy soul and be
No more pertaker, of loves familie
And were it not, that I have hope thou maist
Converted be, ere thou of death do taste
I would discover thee,
Familist.
And I but that
I would not people draw to wonder at
Thy self and me, I would unto thy wo
First bang thee soundly, and then let thee go.
The end of the third Sestyad.
The Argument
A Libertine and an Arminian
Each make known, your fond opinion;
And by the stories, which they tell
We may Judge both, are fit for hell.
Libertine.
GIve me the Joyes on Earth, and tell not me
Of after hopes, future felicitie
I tire to think on, the time present I
Will spend in mirth, and pleasant jollitie
Sit round my hearts, our heads with Ivie crownd
Let quasse Lyeus, and the healths go round
And singing pearls, unto
Ceres, we
Unto the Harpe, will foot it lustily
While here I live, Ile spend my time in mirth
Time is no more, when I am gone from earth
This night Ile clip a beauty, would tempt Jove
Equall to Juno, or the Queen of Love
Away with this same fond Philosophie
That tells, the soul lives to Eternitie
Away with such vain fancies when we fall
The soul dyes with the body, &c.
It hath been foretold by the Prophets and Apostles that such men the latter dayes shall afford, and our own age hath verified, their speech unto us, and even for the main question of the Resurrection whereat
[Page 14] they stick so mightily. was it not plainly foretold that men should in the latter times say, where is the promise of his coming an level at this present time is there not exceprions taken against the Creation, the Ark, and divers other points, the ground whereof is superfluity of wit, without ground of learning, which may be truly termed,
Mater eirorum et vitiorum nutrix, now the chief cause of Atheism is SENSUALITY, which maketh men desirous to remove all stops and impediments of their wicked life, among which, because Religion is the chiefest, so as neither in this life without shame, they can persist therein, nor if that be true without torment in the life to come, they whet their wits to annihilate the joys of heaven, wherein they see (if any such be) they have no part; and likewise the pains of hel, wherein their portion must needs be very great; they labor therefore, not that they may not deserve those pains, but that deserving them there may be no such pain to seize upon them, but what conceit can be imagined more base, then that man should strive to perswade himself, even against the secret instinct (no doubt) of his own mind, that his soul is, as the soul of a beast, mortal, and corruptible with the body, against which barbarous opinion, their own Atheism is a very strong Argument.
For were not the soul a nature separable from the body, how could it enter into discourse of things meerly spiritual, and nothing at all pertaining to the body; surely the soul were not able to conceive any thing of heaven, no not so much as to dispute against heaven, and against God, if there were not in it somwhat heavenly and derived from God, Thus much by the way.
Arminian.
[Page 15]
Theres no man shall,
Perswade me, but man has, an Innate will
Power of himself, to commit good or ill,
I've set before thee, fire, and water, chuse,
Saith God, ev'n which thou wils, which plainly shews
Mans power's of himself, to take or leave,
To take the good; or else the ill receive,
POPE PIƲS, had a vision on a day
As after Dinner on his couch he lay
A glorious Angel did before him stand
Bearing a graven Schedule in his hand
On the right side, was in a figure placd
The heaven of heavens with the Almighty gracd,
While all his glorious angels standing round
Loud
Allelujaes, to the THRONE, resound:
On the left hand was ORCƲS plac'd where sate
Grim Pluto, placed in a throne of state,
Foshiond of burning brasse, the Damned Crew
Howling in flames, their forepast Acts did rew,
Just in the midst, betwixt both these there stood
A man wel shapt, and of proportion good,
Before whom hung a tablet, in which words
Of letter Capital, this sense affords;
Behold, o man, before thee two ways lie,
The one to joy, tother to miserie
Doth lead; chuse which thou wilt, therefore tis sure
Man may his sorrow, or his blisse procure
By his own inclination; Ergo, I
Will in this my opinion Live, and Die.
THE AUTHOR.
Ah do not so, trust not to thine own strength,
For fear it plunge thee in Abisse at length.
The end of the fourth Sestyad.
The Argument.
A Papist on Pilgrimage he went
Meets with a true beleeving Protestant,
Twixt whom there divers propositions bee
As bout the Masse and popes Supremacy,
Til in the end, they both agree as one,
And do extol the true Religion.
Papist.
Holy Saint
Christopher be thou my guide
And ayd my speed, that I by eventide
May arive safely at Saint
Francis shrine,
That holy
Francis that by ayd divine
Conversing in the solitary wood
Making wild fruits and water be his food,
O be propitius
Protestant,
See it is my chance
To meet with one will give me cause to advance
Gods truth above the unwritten veritie,
Worshipful Pilgrim, all hail to thee
That wrapt in errors dost thy journey take
Bare footed, while the sirly thorny brake
Often draws blood.
Papist.
By Saint
Sebastian
I now have met a
A Protestant so termed by them, because they place their cheif confidence in the Act of faith—.
SOLIFIDIAN;
Why thou deluded, how long wilt thou bee
Unto the holy Church an enemie,
[Page 17]
And still persisting in thy w
[...]ed state
Dye as an Heretick, excommunicate
By Christs Vicegerent.
Protestant.
My good pilgrim hold,
Enough and each too much, thou now hast told
Ime not deluded, but with setled faith
I tye my selfe, to what the Scripture saith
Which in no place mentions the papall throne,
That Septred Kings, must yeeld subjection
To mytred Bishops, that false power do vaunt
That
Christum simulant, & contrachristum pugnat
Nor do I weigh, how me, the pope shall handle
No though, he curse me, with bel book and candle.
Papist.
The ayres infected, O that I had now
Some holy water, for to crosse my brow
O sire I blasphemy have heard thou soul
Who art infected so, with errours foul,
Tis hard to cure thee.
Protest.
Nor do I desire.
Thou shouldst as my Physitian gaine thy hyre
Which will be more, then all the world affords
My precious soul,
Papist.
Although to bandy words
With thee an Heritick, were fond and Vaine
Yet so I see, thart learn'd Ile not abstain
But I wil converse a while, know then that Rome
Is the most ancient Church (where martyrdome)
Diverse Apostles did receive, and there
By Christs appointment, is S.
Peters chair
Where Christs Vice-gerent,
Peters seat doth fill
And what he doth Comand, even Christ doth wil
He cannot erre in ought, for on this stone
Christ builds his Church (all opposition)
Shall not prevail against him, every state
Al Kings on Earth to him subordinate;
He to the glorious fun I may compare.
Kings to the Moon, who of his lustre share.
Protest.
[Page 18]
I hear toomuch, although tis truth
Rome was
Once cald the mother Church, but truth did passe
From
Rome, drove thence by erring fallacies,
By ground less fables, superstitious lies,
When Gods love was relinquisht, and instead
Thereof, was mans traditions honored.
Nor is the Pope to sit in Christ his throne.
For Christ himself doth rule his Church alone;
Nor can we find by what our Savior said
(To
Peter) that on him alone he laid
A charge to rule his Church, but when he spake
To
Peter, he did the rest his Partners make,
And not on
Peter, but upon his faith
Christ builds his Church, when on this rock he saith
Ile build my Church, and whereas you compare
The
Pope unto the Sun, you grosly erre,
But rather we ful aptly render may
The
Pope as Moon, for as one wel doth say.
—Fratri contraria Phabe
Ibit & obliquum, big as agitare per orbem
Indignata, diem poseit sibit totaque discors
Machina convulsi, turbabit foe dera mundi.
The Moon disdeigning of her rule by night
Would needs rule
Phabus Carr the day to light,
And by this civil, and unnatural Jarr
Inforced natures bands to fry in Warr.
Even so at first, the Aspiring
Popes of Rome,
When they would Kings as wel as Priests become
Layd claim, and urgd it their Prerogative
For to dispose of Crowns, and those did strive
For to make frustrate, Their so il Intent
They presently deprivd of Government,
And then being seated in the Suns bright Carr
They streight involvd all nations in VVarr,
And now the sole Incendiaries be
For to set Crown and Crown at enmity.
Papist.
[Page 19]
I do find something in me prompts me now
The
Popes usurped power to disavow.
Protestant.
This man of sin doth hold the world in hand,
He holds his Papal power by Christs command
And lest the vulgar should into it pry
He doth lock up the sacred Verity,
And feeds the peoples minds with outward glosses.
VVith pleasant musick, Images, and Crosses,
VVith Pilgrimages, Offerings, and Oblations,
VVith holy Rood days, and such recreations.
VVith holy-water, wafer, cakes, and challices,
VVith Copes, & Mitres, Crosiers, such like sallacies
Bewitch the people so, they blindly run
To all excesse of Superstition;
Again, that he his Priests may magnifie
To win them honor in the peoples eye
Theyre told, when once the words of consecration
Are uttred, just upon the elevation
Of the bread God, 'tis very Christ even hee,
VVho for their fins, did suffer on the tree,
O horrid, that a mortal should create
Even his Creator.
Papist.
I now see the state
That I am in is wretched, and by thee
O happy friend I am converted, see
I am not as I was, I here lay by
This weed of shame, and now intirely I
VVil be a Protestant.
Protestant.
If so
Thy tongue and heart in equipage do go,
Come follow me, and thou wilt find theres none
Of true Belief, but Protestants alone.
The end of the fifth Sestyad.
The Argument.
Apollo
rageth that the noble bay
Is worn by those that do not merit it,
He and she Muses an amer cement lay
On some, that trusting to their sor did wit
Do undertake, of things most high to say,
Yet cannot words unto the matter fit:
Mean time Urania
doth in tears deplore
Her
Quarles.
Peets losse, whose like shal be no more.
1.
HE that doth bear the silver shining bow
Whose musick doth surpass, that of the sphears
VVho slew great
Ovids Metamoi. Lib. 1.
Pythan, and did
Vulcan show
VVhere
Mars and
Vanus, were, to increase his fears.
Jove and
Latonas son, whom Readers know
In heaven he of
Sol, the title bears:
In earth he
Liber Pater called is,
And eke
Apollo in the shades of
Dis.
2.
One time, as on the spire of's * Temple hee
At
Delphos
Did sit, he cast his most refulgent eye
Towards
Pernassus Mount, where he might see
The sacred Nine, not now melodiously
As they were wont, to chaunt in Jollitie
Apolloes praise, and the great
Jupiter
Diety,
That turnd
IO to a Cow, but now they were
VVith sorrow overcome, did joy forheare.
3.
VVith speed to
Hellicon he took his flight.
VVhere being come, the Muses did arise
And made obeaysance, as was requisite,
To whom said
A name of
Apollo.
Sminthus, why, with downeast eye,
Are your fair Aspects clouded, and why dight
In sable weeds, the reason I surmise,
VVhich doth afflict me more, then when my
Phaeton.
son
By those unruly Steeds, to death was done.
4.
Shal part of
Daphne or the
bay tree.
her, whom once I lovd so dear,
Be worn by those whose for did minds I hate;
Why do I, for to shoot, the slaves forbear,
And with my Arrows, their brests penetrate;
Who for to claim the Lawrel do not fear.
Due only unto those, whose happy fate
Hath raised them, my Prophets for to bee,
Or else can claim the same by victorie.
5.
Each fellow now, that hath but had a view
Of the learnd
Phrygians Fables, groweth bold,
And name of Poet doth to himself accrew;
That
M. P.
Ballad maker too, is now extold
With the great name of Poet,
J. T.
He that knew
Better far how to row, then pen to hold,
His sordid lines, are sweld to such a weight,
Theyre able for to make, his Boat afreight.
6.
The god of waves hath been my enemy,
Else that base Fool, had Haddocks fed ere now.
And
Fennor might have wrote his Ellegy,
(Another coxcomb) that his wit, to show
Wrote many things, the best not worth the eye
Of any schoolboy, doth his genders know;
But while the Fools I rate, let me not be
Forgetful of those writers lovd by me.
7.
Although the
Bard, whose lines unequalled,
Who only did deserve a Poets name
To my Eternal grief, be long since dead,
His lines for ever shal preserve his Fame.
So * his who did so neer his footpaths tread
Samuel Danniel.
Whose lines as neer as
Virgils Homers came,
Do equal
Spencers, who the soul of verse
In his admired Poems doth rehearse.
8.
But ah whose this whose shade before me stands
O tis the Man, whose Fame the earth doth fil,
VVhose vertue is the talk of Forraign Lands
VVhile they admire his Feats of
Arms his skil
In Poesic, while he bove all commands
The Muses, who so waited on his Quil
That like to
Sidu
[...]; none ere wrote before
His birth, not now hees dead shal ere write more.
9.
See him whose Tragick Sceans
EƲRIPIDES
Doth equal, and with
SOPHOCLES we may
Compare great
SHAKESPEAR ARISTOPHANES
Never like him, his Fancy could display,
VVitness-he Prince of
Tyre, his Pericles,
His sweet and his to be admired lay
He wrote of lustful
Tarquins Rape shews he
Did understand the depth of Poesie.
10.
But
Drayton.
thou dear soul, whose lines when
I behold
I do astonisht stand, of whom Fame says
By after times, Thy
Polyolbion.
songs shal be extold
And mentioned be as equalling my lays
Thou who so sweetly EDVVARDS woes hast told
VVhen other Poems; though of worth decays,
Thine shal be honord, and shal aye subfist
In spight of dark oblions hiding mist.
11.
So * His that Divine PLAUTUS equalled
Ben. Iohnson.
Whose Commick vain
MENANDER nere could hit,
Whose tragick sceans shal be with wonder Read
By after ages for unto his wit
My selfe gave personal ayd
I dictated
To him when as
Sejanus fall he writ,
And yet on earth some foolish sots there bee
That dare make Randolf his Rival in degree.
12.
All hail eke unto
Mr. May.
thee that didst translate
My loved
LƲCAN into thine own tongue,
And what he could not finish snatcht by fate,
Thou hast compleated his ingenuous
P
[...]salla.
song
Thy Fame with his shal nere be out of date
Nor shal base Momus carpe thy glory wrong,
But of mine own tree, Ile a garland frame
For thee, and mongst my Propets rank thy name,
13.
So * thine whose rural quil so high doth sound
Theocritus or
Mantnans ere could bee
So sweet and so sententious ever found
As are thy
Pastorals of
Britanie,
Thy fame for aye shal to the skies resound,
And
I pronounce Thy fluent Poesie
Singing of shepherds is the best ere wit
Invented, and none ere yet equalled it.
14
Nor thine O
Heywood worthy to be read
By Kings, whose books of eloquence are such
Enough in praise of thee, can nere be sed
Nor can my Verses, ere extoll too much
Thy reall worth, whose lines unparaled
Although some envious criticks seem to grutch
Shall live on earth to thy eternall Fame
When theirs in grave shall rot, without a name.
15
So eke shall yours, great
Davenant, Sherley and
Thine learned
Goffe, Banmont, and
Fletchers to
With
Mr
Philip Massenger.
his that the sweet Renegaddo pend
With
Mr
Allen.
his who
Cressey sang, and
Poycters to
Your works, your names for ever shal commend
Joyned with
Mr
Nabbs.
his, that wrot how
Scipie,
Orethrew great
Hanniball, his ingenious lines
Shall be a pattern, for the after times.
16.
Nor will I
Mr
withers.
thee forget whose Poesie
Is pure, whose Emblems, Satyrs Pastoralls
Shal live on earth even to Eternity,
Nor * Thee whose Poems loudly on me cals
For my applause, which here I give, and I
Mr
Randal
Pronounce
Mr
Mills
his merit, that so high
[...]tals
The Muses, in his Night-watch, great to bee,
And times to come shal hugg his Poesie.
17.
But why,
Ʋrania, hangst thou so thy head,
What grievous loss hath rest thy Joys away;
Quoth she, knows not
Apollo QƲARLES is dead
That next to
BARTAS, sang the heavenlist lay,
And who is he on earth, his steps can tread,
So shal my glory come unto decay;
At this she wept, and wailing wrung her hands,
The Muses mourning round about her stands.
18.
Quoth then
Apollo, lay this grief aside,
I do assure thee, that thy honor shal
Not fade, but be far greater Amplified;
Theres one who now upon thy name doth cal,
Who hath by
Clio formerly been tried,
And by her wel approvd; He surely shal
Succeed great
Quarles, if thou not fâte to inspite
And warm his Bosome with thy hottest fire.
19.
Hereat she cheared was, and now a
[...] earst
Apollo in the midst, the Mules Nine
Began to sing, CLIO,
Joves Deeds rehearst
VVhen he the Gyants pasht, her song Divine
Apollo shapt his tyre unto, where first
I did set sorth I must again decline:
What shallow fools shal prate I do not care,
Fly Thou my Book to those that Learned are.
Nunquam me Impune lacessit.
The end of the sixth and last Sestyad.
FINIS.