| |
| Gen. 1.31. | GOOD were all natures as God made them all, | |
| Rom. 9.21–23. | Good was his Will permitting some to fall, | |
| Rom. 11. | That th’ rest renouncing their frail strength might stand | |
| Rom. 3.6. | Humble and firm in his supporting hand, | |
| Gen. 18.25. | His wisdome and omnipotence might own, | 5 |
| Rom. 11.33. | When his Foes power and craft is overthrown, | |
| Seeing his hate of sin, might thence confess | |
| 1 Cor. 10.12. | His pure innate and perfect Holiness, | |
| Rom. 16.20. | And that the glory of his Justice might | |
| Psal. 2. | In the Rebels torturing flames seem bright. | 10 |
| Jos. 24.19. | That th’ ever bless’d Redeemer might take place | |
| Psal. 5.4–6. | To illustrate his rich mercy and free grace | |
| & 7.11. &c. | Whereby he fallen sinners doth restore | |
| & 11.5,6. | To fuller bliss than they enjoy’d before; | |
| 1 Pet. 1.10. | That Vertue might in its clear brightness shine | 15 |
| Which like rich ore concealed in the mine | |
| Eph. 1.4,11. | Had not been known, but that opposing vice | |
| Joh. 3.16. | Illustrates it by frequent exercise. | |
| Eph. 2.5. Rom. 8.35–39. Rom. 5.5, &c. 1 Pet. 4.12–14. |
| If all were good, whence then arose the ill? | |
| ’Twas not in Gods, but in the creatures will, | 20 |
| Averting from that good, which is supream, | |
| Eccl. 7.29. | Corrupted so, as a declining stream | |
| Jude 6. | That breaks off its communion with its head, | |
| Joh. 8.44. | By whom its life and sweetness late were fed, | |
| Turns to a noisome, dead, and poysonous Lake, | 25 |
| Infecting all who the foul waters take: | |
| Or as a Branch cut from the living Tree, | |
| Passes into contempt immediately, | |
| And dies divided from its glorious stock; | |
| So strength disjoyned from the living rock, | 30 |
| Turns to contemned imbecillity, | |
| Jer. 2.13. | And doth to all its grace and glory die. | |
| Devils. | Some new-made Angels thus, not more sublime | |
| In nature, than transcending in their crime, | |
| Quitting th’ eternal fountain of their light, | 35 |
| Eph. 2.2. | Became the first-born sons of woe and night, | |
| Act. 26.18. | Princes of Darkness, and the sad Abysse, | |
| Mat. 25.41. | Which now their cursed place and portion is, | |
| Where they no more must see Gods glorious face | |
| Rev. 20.10. | Nor ever taste of his refreshing grace, | 40 |
| But in the fire of his fierce anger dwell, | |
| Which though it burns, enlightens not their Hell. | |
| But circumstances that we cannot know | |
| Of their rebellion and their overthrow | |
| We will not dare t’ invent, nor will we take | 45 |
| Guesses from the reports themselves did make | |
| To their old Priests, to whom they did devise | |
| To inspire some truths, wrapt up in many lies; | |
| Such as their gross poetick fables are, | |
| Saturn’s extrusion, the bold giants war, | 50 |
| Division of the universal realm, | |
| To Gods that in high heaven steer the helm, | |
| Others who all things in the Ocean guide, | |
| And those who in th’ infernal Court preside, | |
| Who there a vast and gloomy Empire sway, | 55 |
| Whom all the Furies and the Ghosts obey. | |
| But not to name these foolish impious tales, | |
| Which stifle truth in her pretended veils, | |
| Let us in its own blazing conduct go, | |
| And look no further than that light doth show; | 60 |
| Wherein we see the present powers of hell, | |
| Before they under Gods displeasure fell, | |
| Were once endued with grace and excellence, | |
| Lu. 10.18. | Beyond the comprehension of our sense, | |
| Pure holy lights in the bright heaven were | 65 |
| Jude 6. | Blazing about the throne, but not fixt there; | |
| Where, by the Apostasie of their own will, | |
| Precipitating them into all ill, | |
| 2 Pet. 2.4. | And Gods just wrath, whose eyes are far too pure | |
| Hab. 1.13. | Stain’d and polluted objects to endure, | 70 |
| Lu. 10.18. | They fell like lightning, hurl’d in his fierce ire, | |
| Jam. 3.6. | And falling, set the lower world on fire: | |
| Joh. 8.44. | Which their loose prison is where they remain, | |
| Jud. 6. | And walk as criminals under Gods chain; | |
| Until the last and great assizes come, | 75 |
| 1 Cor. 6.3. | When Execution shall seal up their doom. | |
| Mat. 8.29. | Thus are they now to their created light, | |
| Gen. 3.15. | Unto all Truth, and Goodness opposite, | |
| 1 Pet. 5.8. | Hating the Peace and Joy that reigns above, | |
| Job 1.7, &c. | Vainly contending to extinguish love, | 80 |
| Rev. 12.10. | Ruine Gods sacred Empire, and destroy | |
| That blessedness they never can enjoy. | |
| Mark 3.22,24–26. | A Chief they have, whose Soveraign power and place | |
| But adds to’his sin, his torture, and disgrace. | |
| Rev. 20.10. | An order too there is in their dire state, | 85 |
| Though they all Orders else disturb and hate. | |
| Luk. 8.30. | Ten thousand thousand wicked spirits stand, | |
| Attending their black Prince, as his command, | |
| To all imaginable evils prest, | |
| That may promote their common interest. | 90 |
| Nor are they linked thus by faith and love, | |
| But hate of God and goodness, which doth move | |
| The same endeavours and desires in all, | |
| Mat. 12.25,26. | Lest civil wars should make their Empire fall. | |
| An Empire which the Almighty doth permit, | 95 |
| Rev. 20.2,7,8. | Yet so as he controlls and limits it. | |
| Suffering their rage sometimes to take effect, | |
| Job 2.6. | Only to be the more severely checkt; | |
| Col. 2.14,15. | When he produces a contrary end, | |
| Heb. 2.9,14. | From what they did malitiously intend, | 100 |
| Befools their wisdome, crosses their designs, | |
| Luk. 22.3. | And blows them up in their own crafty mines, | |
| 2 Tim. 2.25,26. | Allows them play in the entangling net, | |
| Eph. 6.11,12, &c. | So to be faster in damnation set, | |
| 1 Pet. 5.8. | Submits them to each others tyrannies, | 105 |
| Who did Gods softer sacred bonds despise, | |
| Rev. 12.12. | Lets them still fight, who never can prevail, | |
| More curs’d if they succeed, than if they fail, | |
| Since every soul the Rebels gain from God, | |
| Adds but another Scorpion to that rod, | 110 |
| Lu. 16.24. | Bound up, that they may mutual torturers be, | |
| Rev. 14.10,11. | Tormented and tormenting equally. | |
| Mat. 25.41. | As a wise General that doth design | |
| To keep his Army still in discipline, | |
| Suffers the embodying of some slighter foes, | 115 |
| Which he at his own pleasure can enclose, | |
| And vanquish, that he justly may chastise | |
| Their folly, and his own troops exercise, | |
| Their vigilance, their faith and valour prove; | |
| Endearing them thereby to his own love, | 120 |
| Luk. 22.31,32. | As he alike endears himself to theirs, | |
| Joh. 17.20. | By his continual succours and kind cares: | |
| So the Almighty gives the Devils scope, | |
| Mat. 4. | Who though they are excluded from all hope | |
| Heb. 2.18. & 4.15. | Of e’re escaping, no reluctance have, | 125 |
| & 7.25. | But like the desperate villain they make brave, | |
| Rom. 16.20. | To death pursue their bold attempts, that all | |
| O’re whom they cannot reign, with them may fall. | |
| And tho’ Gods watchful guards besiege them round | |
| Rev. 12.7,8. | That none can pass their strict prescribed bound, | 130 |
| Yet make they daily sallies in their pride, | |
| Mat. 4.11. | Which still repulst the holy host deride. | |
| Jude 9. | Their malice in it self and its event, | |
| Being equally a crime and punishment. | |
| Thus though sin in it self be ill, ’tis good | 135 |
| That sin should be, for thereby rectitude | |
| Thorough oppos’d iniquity, as light | |
| By shades, is more conspicuous and more bright. | |
| The wonderful creation of mankind, | |
| For lasting glory and rich grace design’d, | 140 |
| The blessed angels look’d on with delight, | |
| Lu. 15.10. | Gladded to see us climb so near their height; | |
| & 16.22. | Above all other works, next in degree, | |
| Heb. 12.22. | And capable of their societie. | |
| But ’twas far otherwise with those that fell | 145 |
| Mans destin’d heaven, encreas’d their hell, | |
| While they burnt with a proud malitious spite | |
| Joh. 8.44. | To see a new-made, earth-born favourite, | |
| For their high seats and empty thrones design’d; | |
| Therefore both against God and man combin’d, | 150 |
| To hinder Gods decree from taking place, | |
| And to devest man of his Makers grace; | |
| 1 Pet. 3.13. | Which while he in a pure obedience stood, | |
| They knew, not all their force nor cunning cou’d, | |
| But if they could with any false pretence | 155 |
| Inveigle him to quit his innocence, | |
| They hop’d death would prevent the dreaded womb | |
| From whence their happier successors must come. | |
| Wherefore th’ accursed Soveraign of hell | |
| Thinking no other Devil could so well | 160 |
| Gen. 3.1, &c. | Act this ill part, whose consequence was high | |
| Enough to engage his hateful majesty, | |
| Himself exposes for the common cause, | |
| And with his hellish kingdomes full applause, | |
| Goes forth, putting himself into disguise, | 165 |
| And so within a bright scal’d serpect lies, | |
| Folded about the fair forbidden tree, | |
| Watching a wish’d for opportunitie, | |
| Which Eve soon gave him, coming there alone | |
| So to be first and easier overthrown; | 170 |
| On whose weak side, th’ assault had not been made | |
| Had she not from her firm protection stray’d; | |
| But so the Devil then, so leud men now | |
| 2 Tim. 3.6. | Prevail, when women privacies allow, | |
| And to those flatt’ring whispers lend an ear | 175 |
| Which even impudence it self would fear | |
| To utter in the presence of a friend, | |
| Whose vertuous awe our frailty might defend. | |
| Though unexperience might excuse Eves fault, | |
| Yet those who now give way to an assault, | 180 |
| By suffring it alone, none can exempt | |
| From the just blame that they their tempters tempt, | |
| And by vain confidence themselves betray, | |
| Fondly secure in a known desperate way. | |
| As Eve stood near the tree, the subtile beast, | 185 |
| By Satan mov’d, his speech to her addrest | |
| Hath God, said he, forbid that you should tast | |
| These pleasant fruits, which in your eyes are plac’t, | |
| Why are the tempting boughs expos’d, if you | |
| May not delight your palates with your view? | 190 |
| God, said the woman, gives us libertie | |
| To eat without restraint of every tree | |
| Which in the garden grows, but only one; | |
| Restrain’d by such a prohibition, | |
| We dare not touch it, for when e’re we do | 195 |
| A certain death will our offence ensue. | |
| Then did the wicked subtile beast replie, | |
| Ah simple wretch, you shall not surely die, | |
| God enviously to you this fruit denies, | |
| He knows that eating it, will make you wise, | 200 |
| Of good and ill give you discerning sense, | |
| And raise you to a god-like excellence. | |
| Eve quickly caught in the soul hunters net, | |
| Believ’d that death was only a vain threat, | |
| Her unbelief quenching religious dread | 205 |
| Infectious counsel in her bosome bred, | |
| Dissatisfaction with her present state | |
| And fond ambition of a godlike height. | |
| Who now applies herself to its pursuit, | |
| With longing eyes looks on the lovely fruit, | 210 |
| First nicely plucks, then eats with full delight, | |
| And gratifies her murderous appetite; | |
| Poyson’d with the sweet relish of her sin, | |
| Before her inward torturing pangs begin, | |
| The pleasure to her husband she commends, | 215 |
| And he by her persuasion too offends, | |
| As by the serpents she before had done. | |
| Pro. 1.10, &c. | Hence learn pernicious councellors to shun. | |
| Within the snake the crafty tempter smil’d | |
| To see mankind so easily beguil’d, | 220 |
| But laugh not Satan, God shall thee deride, | |
| The Son of God and Man shall scourge thy pride, | |
| 1 Joh. 3.8. | And in the time of vengeance shall exact | |
| Joh. 16.11. | A punishment on thee, for this accursed fact. | |
| Now wrought the poyson on the guilty pair, | 225 |
| Who with confusion on each other stare, | |
| While death possession takes, and enters in | |
| Rom. 5.12. | At the wide breach, laid open by their sin. | |
| Sound health and joy before th’ intruder fled, | |
| Sickness and sorrow coming in their stead. | 230 |
| Their late sweet calm did now for ever cease, | |
| Esa. 48.22. | Storms in all quarters drove away their peace; | |
| Dread, guilt, remorse in the benighted soul, | |
| Like raging billows on each other rowl; | | |
| Deaths harbingers waste in each province make, | 235 |
| While thundring terrours mans whole Island shake. | |
| Within, without, disorder’d in the storm, | |
| The colour fades, and tremblings change the form, | |
| Heat melts their substance, cold their joynts benumbs, | |
| Dull languishment their vigour overcomes. | 240 |
| Grief conquer’d beauty lays down all her arms, | |
| Psa. 39.11. | And mightier woe dissolves her late strong charms, | |
| Shame doth their looks deject, no chearful grace, | |
| No pleasant smiles, appear in their sad face, | |
| They see themselves fool’d, cheated, and betray’d, | 245 |
| And naked in the view of heaven made; | |
| No glory compasses the drooping head, | |
| The sight of their own ugliness they dread, | |
| And curtains of broad thin Fig-leaves devise | |
| To hide themselves from their own weeping eyes; | 250 |
| But, Ah, these coverings were too slight and thin | |
| To ward their shame oft, or to keep out sin, | |
| Or the keen airs quick piercing shafts, which through | |
| Both leaves and pores into the bowels flew. | |
| While they remain’d in their pure innocence | 255 |
| It was their robe of glory and defence: | |
| But when sin tore that mantle off, they found | |
| Their members were all naked, all uncrown’d; | |
| Their purity in every place defil’d, | |
| Their vest of righteousness all torn and spoyl’d. | 260 |
| Wherefore, through guilt, the late lov’d light they shun, | |
| And into the obscurest shadow run; | |
| Ps. 139.11. | But in no darkness can their quiet find, | |
| Carrying within them a disturbed mind, | |
| Which doth their cureless folly represent, | 265 |
| And makes them curse their late experiment; | |
| Wishing they had been pure and ignorant still, | |
| Nor coveted the knowledge of their ill. | |
| Ah thus it is that yet we learn our good, | |
| Till it be lost, but seldome understood, | 270 |
| Rich blessings, while we have them, little prize | |
| Until their want their value magnifies, | |
| And equally doth our remorse encrease | |
| For having cast away such happiness. | |
| O wretched man! who at so dear a rate | 275 |
| Purchas’d the knowledge of his own frail state, | |
| Eccl. 1.18. | Knowledge of small advantage to the wise, | |
| Which only their affliction multiplies, | |
| While they in painful study vex their brain, | |
| Pursuing what they never can attain; | 280 |
| And what would not avail them if acquir’d, | |
| Till at the length with fruitless labour tir’d, | |
| All that the learned and the wise can find | |
| Is but a vain disturbance of the mind, | |
| A sense of mans inevitable woes, | 285 |
| Which he but little feels, who little knows; | |
| Prov. 1.7. | While mortals, holding on their error, still | |
| Psal. 111.10. | Pursue the knowledge both of good and ill, | |
| 1 Cor. 1.20,21. | They neither of them perfectly attain, | |
| & 2.14. | But in a dark tumultuous state remain; | 290 |
| Jam. 3.15–17. | Till sense of ill, encreasing like nights shade, | |
| Or hath a blot of good impressions made, | |
| Or good, victorious as the morning light, | |
| Triumph over the vanquisht opposite | |
| For both at once abide not in one place, | 295 |
| Good knowledge flies from them who ill embrace. | |
| So were our parents fill’d with guilt and fear, | |
| When in the groves they Gods approaches hear, | |
| And from the terrour of his presence fled; | |
| Whether their own convictions caus’d their dread, | 300 |
| For inward guilt of conscience might suffice | |
| To chace vile sinners from his purer eyes; | |
| Or nature felt an angry Gods descent, | |
| Which shook the earth, and tore the firmament, | |
| We are not told, nor will too far enquire. | 305 |
| Lightnings and tempests might speak forth his ire. | |
| For at the day of universal doom | |
| The great Judge shall in flaming vengeance come; | |
| Ps. 97.3,4. | An all-consuming fire shall go before, | |
| Es. 9.5. | Whirlwinds and thunder shall about him roar, | 310 |
| & 66.15,16. | Horror shall darken the whole troubled skies, | |
| 1 Thes. 1.8. | And bloody veils shall hide the worlds bright eyes, | |
| 2 Pet. 3.12. | While stars from the dissolving heaven drop down, | |
| And funeral blazes every Turret crown. | |
| Rev. 1.7. | The clouds shall be confounded with the waves, | 315 |
| Joel 3.15,16. | The yawning earth shall open all her graves, | |
| Loud fragors shall firm rocks in sunder rend, | |
| Mat. 24.29. | Cleft mountains shall hells fiery jaws distend, | |
| Vomiting cinders, sulphur, pitch, and flame, | |
| Which shall consume the worlds unjoynted frame, | 320 |
| And turn the Paradises we admire | |
| Rev. 19.20. | Into an ever-boyling lake of fire. | |
| But God then, in his rich grace, did delay | |
| These dismal terrors, till the last great day. | |
| Yet even his first approach created dread, | 325 |
| And the poor mortals from his anger fled; | |
| Until a calmer voice their sense did greet. | |
| Heb. 12.11. | Love even when it chides is kind and sweet. | |
| Psal. 89.31–33. | The sense of wrath far from the fear’d Power drives, | |
| The sense of Love brings home the fugitives. | 330 |
| Gen. 4.14. | Souls flying God into despair next fall, | |
| Thence into hate, till black hell close up all. | |
| Act. 9. | But if sweet mercy meet them on the way, | |
| That milder voyce, first doth their mad flight stay, | |
| Psal. 130.7,4. | And their ill-quitted hope again restore, | 335 |
| Then love that was forsaking them before | |
| Returns with a more flaming strong desire | |
| Of those sweet joys from which it did retire, | |
| Lam. 3.1, &c. | And in their absence woe and terror found, | |
| And all those plagues that can a poor soul wound. | 340 |
| While thus this love with holy ardour burns, | |
| Mat. 27.46. | The bleeding sinner to his God returns, | |
| And prostrate at his throne of grace doth lie, | |
| Job 13.15. | If death he cannot shun, yet there to die. | |
| Hos. 6.1,2,3. | Where Mercy still doth fainting souls revive, | 345 |
| And in its kind embraces keep alive | |
| A gentler fire, than what it lately felt | |
| Under the sense of wrath. The soul doth melt, | |
| Like precious Ore, which when men would refine | |
| Doth in its liquefaction brightly shine; | 350 |
| In cleansing penitential meltings so | |
| Foul sinners once again illustrious grow, | |
| Mal. 3.2,3. | When Christs all-heating softning spirit, hath | |
| Rev. 1.5. | Their Furnance been, and his pure blood their Bath. | |
| Now though Gods wrath bring not the sinner home, | 355 |
| Rom. 12.1. | Who only by sweet love attracted come, | |
| Yet is it necessary that the sense | |
| Joh. 16.9,10. | Of it, should make us know the excellence, | |
| Mat. 11.28. | And taste the pleasantness of pardoning grace, | |
| That we may it with fuller joy embrace; | 360 |
| Which when it brings a frighted wretch from hell | |
| Luk. 7.47. | Makes it love more, than those who never fell: | |
| 1 Joh. 4.10. | But mankinds love to God grows by degrees, | |
| As he more clearly Gods sweet mercy sees, | |
| And God at first reveals not all his grace, | 365 |
| That men more ardently may seek his face, | |
| Averted by their folly and their pride, | |
| Which makes them their confounded faces hide. | |
| As still the Sun’s the same behind the clouds, | |
| Lam. 3.22,23. | Such is Gods love, which his kind anger shrouds, | 370 |
| Which doth not all at once it self reveal, | |
| But first in the thick shadows that conceal | |
| Its glory, doth attenuation cause; | |
| Then the black, dismal curtain softly draws, | |
| Lam. 3.26, | And lets some glimmering light of hope appear, | 375 |
| 29, &c. | Which rather is a lessening of our fear, | |
| Hos. 2.15. | Than an assurance of our joy and peace, | |
| A truce with misery, rather than release. | |
| Thus had not God come in, mankind had died | |
| Without repair, yet came he first to chide, | 380 |
| To urge their sin, with its sad consequence, | |
| And make them feel the weight of their offence. | |
| To’ examine and arraign them at his bar, | |
| And shew them what vile criminals they were: | |
| But ah! our utterance here is choak’d with woe, | 385 |
| With tardy steps from Paradise we go. | |
| Then let us pause on our lost joys a while | |
| Before we enter on our sad exile. | |
| |
