The Second Week, Fourth Day, Book III: The Schisme

THE ARGUMENT.

Reiecting Olde, Yong-Counsail'd rash ROBOAM
Loseth Ten Tribes; which fall to IEROBOAM.
He, Godding Calves, makes Izrael to Sin:
His Scepter therefore shortly fails his Kin.
BAAZ, ZIMRI, OMRI, ACHAB (worst of all)
With IEZABEL. Elias conquers Baal;
Commands the Clouds; rapt-vp to Heav'n, aliue.
Elisha's Works: his bones the dead reuiue.
SAMARIA'S tragik Siege. A Storm at Sea,
For Ionas sake: repentant NINIVE.

HEer sing I ISAAC'S ciuill Brauls and Broils;
Iacobs Revolt; their Cities sack, their Spoils:
Their cursed Wrack, their Godded Calues: the rent
Of th' Hebrew Tribes from th' Isheans Regiment.

Ah! see we not, som seek the like in France?
With rage-full swords of civill Variance,
To share the sacred Gaulian Diadem?
To strip the Lillies from their natiue stem?
And (as it were) to Cantonize the State
Whose Law did aw Imperial Rhine (of late)
Tiber and Iber too; and vnder whom
Even silver Iordan's captiue floods did foam.

But, let not vs, good Lord, O let not vs
Serue servilely a hundred Kinglings thus,
In stead of one great Monarch: never let
The lawfull Heir from his owne Throne be beat;
This Scepter yearly to be new possest;
Nor every Town to be a Tyrants nest:
Keep all intire, re-stablish prudent Raign,
Restore the Sword to Iustice hand again;
That, blest with Peace, thy blessed Prayse (O Lord)
My thankfull Layes may more and more record.

THE GENERAL States of Israel, gathered all,
By thousands now, within strong Sichem's Wall;
All iointly name ROBOAM for their King,
But (strictly-stout) his Powr thus limiting:

Command (say they) and Rule in Abram's Fold,
Not as a Wolf, but as a Shepheard should:
Slacken the reans of our late Servitude:
Lighten our gall'd backs of those Burthens rude,
Those heavy Imposts of thy Father (fierce):
Repress the rapin of thine Officers:
So, we will serue thee, life and goods at-once:
If other-wise; thy Service we renounce.

Heer-with amaz'd, the moody Prince, in post
Sends for those Ancients which had swayed most
His Fathers Counsails: and he seems to crave
Their sage Advises, in a case so graue.

God hath not made, say they (iumping together)
Subiects for Kings, but Kings for Subiects rather:
Then, let not thine (already in distress)
•e gnaw'n by others; by thy Self much less.
What boots a Head, with-out the hand and foot?
What is a Scepter, and no Subiects to't?
The greater Milt, the Body pines the more:
The Checker's fatting makes the People poor:
A Princes Wealth in Subiects Wealth is set;
The Bank of Thrift, where gold doth gold beget:
Where the good Prince coms never but at need:
For, he is prais'd for a good Heard (indeed)
Whose Flock is fat and fair, with frolik bounds
Frisking and skipping vp and down the Douns.
Among the Beasts fullest of furious gall,
The Vulgar's fiercest, wildest, worst of all:
Hydra with thousand heads, and thousand stings,
Yet soon agreed to war against their Kings.

If then you wish, their barking rage to cease,
Cast them a bone; by an Abatement, ease
Their wringing Yoak: thy Pity let them proue,
And ground thy Greatness on thy Peoples loue.

Or, if thou (fell) wilt needs feed on their ice,
Yet vse no threats, nor giue them flat Denies:
But, to establish thy yet-new Estate,
Give them som hope, and let them feed on that:
And (wisely) minde thy Fathers Saying sage,
That A soft answer (soon) appeaseth rage.

ROBOAM, scorning these olde Senators,
Leans to his Yonglings, Minions, Flatterers
(Birds of a feather) that with one accord
Cry-out, importune, and perswade their Lord,
Not sillily to be by such disturb'd,
Nor let him-self so simply to be curb'd;
But, to repress, press, and oppress the more
These Mal-contents, but too-well vs'd before:
With iron teeth to bruise their idle bones,
To suck their Marrow out; and (for the nonce)
Their rebell Pride to fetter (as it were)
And lock their Furie in the stocks of Fear:
And, to shake-off (on th' other side) and shun
Those Gray-beards olde and colde direction,
Their sawcie censures, snibbing his Minority;
Where-by (too-proud) they trip at his Authority,
Vsurp his place; and (too-too-malapert)
Would teach a wiser then them-selues his part:
To knowe that he's a King; and that he took
Even in the womb, as th' outward limbs and look,
So th' inward graces, the Discretion
And deep Fore-fight of prudent SALOMON;
And, in the Shop of Nature, learn'd (long since)
The Art of State, the Office of a Prince.

Wisedom (fond King) her sacred Seaterects
In hoarie brains: and Day the Day directs:
Th' old-man-fore-sees a-far; by past events
He (prudent) ponders future accidents:
The Young-man knowes not (new-com, as it were)
This wily World, but as a passenger;
And, more with courage then with Counsail's guide,
Barely beholds things on the outer side.
Yet, to the last thou lean'st; and, frowning fel,
Checkst thus the Son's of noble Israel:

Ah! rebel Slaues! you, you will Rule your King:
You'll be his Carvers: you will clip his wing:
You'll hold the sacred helm, controule the Crown:
You'll rate his State, and turn all vp-side-down.
But, know you (varlets) whom you dally-with?
My little finger over-balanceth
My Father's loigns: he did but rub you light,
I'll flay your backs; he bow'd, I'll break yee quight;
He threatned Rods (or gentle Whips of cord)
But I will haue your carrion shoulders goar'd
With scourges tangd with rowels: and my Name
Shall make you quake, if you but hear the same.

As rapid streams, incountring in their way
With close-driv'n piles of som new bank or bay,
Or steady pillers of a Bridge built new,
Which last-past Sommer never saw, nor knew;
Swell, roar, and rage far fiercer then they wont,
And with their foam defile the Welkins front:
So yerst griev'd Isaac, now growen desperate,
With loud proud tearms doth thus expostulate:

Why? what haue we to do (what part? what place?)
With Böozian Ishay's avaricious race?
Go, Raign (proud Iuda) where thou wilt; for we
Nill bear the burthen of thy Tyranny:
Go vse els-where thy cruell threats and braues;
We are thy Brethren, we, and not thy Slaues.

Thus cry the People, and th' ill-counsal'd King
Vn-kingly yeelds to their rude Mutining:
And flies eft-soons with som few Beniamites,
The zealous Leuites, and the ••daïtes:
The rest revolt, and chuse for Soveraign
A shame-les, faith-les, bold and busie-brain,
An Ephraimite, who (double-false) doth fall
Both from his King and from his God withall.

For, he fore-sees that if th' Isacians still
(As Law inioyn'd (should mount on Sion Hill,
To sacrifice; with beauty of that Temple,
Their Princes sight, the Doctrine and Example
Of sacred Leuites, they would soon be taken,
And drawn aboord the Bark they had forsaken.
To rent the Church therfore he doth deuise,
And God's true Spouse doth Harlot.like disguise:
Will haue them hence-forth Worship God the Lord
Vnder the Form of Hay-fed Calues (abhorr'd)
In Dan and Bethel: brings-vp Service new;
Profane, vsurping sacred Aron's Dew.

But, how (ingrate) requit'st thou God, in this?
He, of a Servant, made thee King of His:
Thou, of a God, mak'st him a horned Steer;
Sett'st Altar against Altar; and, the deer,
Cleer Star of Truth beclouding with the vail
Of thine Ambition, mak'st all Israel fail,
And fall with-all into the Gulf of Death,
So deep (alas!) that from thence-forth, vn-eath
Could th' operation of so many Miracles,
In their hard hearts re-print the Sacred Oracles.

One-day, the while this Priest-King sacrifiz'd
To's clov'n-foot God in Bethel (self-deviz'd)
A zealous Prophet from the Lord there came,
Who boldly thus his brutish rage doth blame:
O odious House, O execrable Cell,
O Satans Forge, O impious Shop of Hell;
Accursed Altar, that so braves and hoasts
Against the Altar of the Lord of Hoasts;
Behold, from Dauid shall a King return
That on thy stones thine owne Priests bones shall burn,
Thus sayth the Lord: and this shall be the Sign
(Prodigiously to seal his Word, in mine)
Thou now in th' instant shalt in sunder shatter,
And in the Air shall thy vile cinders scatter.

Take, take the Sot, sayd then th' vngodly Prince,
And (as he spake in rage-full vehemence)
Reacht-out his arm: but, instantly the same
So strangely withered and so num became,
And God so rustied euery ioynt, that there
(But as the Body stird) it could not stir:
Th' vnsacred Altarsodain slent in twain;
And th' ashes, flying through th' vn. hallowed Fane,
Blinde the blinde Priests; as in the Sommer (oft)
The light, white Dust (driv'n by the Winde aloft)
Whirling about, offends the tendrest eye,
And makes the Shepheards (with-out cause) to cry.

O holy Prophet (prayes the Tyrant then)
Deer man of God, restore my hand again:
His hand is heal'd. But (obstinate in ill)
In His Calf-service He persevers still,
Still runs his Race, still every day impairs,
And of his Sins makes all his Sons his heirs.

The King of Iuda little better proves,
His Fathers by-paths so Abijam loves;
The People, pliant to their Princes guise,
Forget their God, and his drad Law despise.

God, notwithstanding (of his speciall grace)
Entails the Scepter to the sacred race
Of his deer Dauid: and he bindes with boughs
Of glorious Laurels their victorious brows:
And evermore (how-ever Tyrants rave)
Som form of Church in Sion will he haue.

Aza, Abijam's Son; Iehosaphat
The son of Aza (rightly zealous) hate
All Idol-gods: and, warring with success,
Dung Isaak's Fields with forrain carcases.

In Aza's ayd fights th' arm armi-potent
(Which shakes the Heav'ns, rakes Hils, & Rocks doth rent)
Against black Zerah's ouer-daring boast,
That with drad deluge of a Million Hoast
O'r-flow'd all I•d•; and, all sacking (fell)
Transported Afrik into Israel:
He fights for His; who, seeing th' Ammonite,
The Idumaean, and proud Moabite,
In Battail ray, caus'd all his Hoast to sing
This Song aloud, them thus encouraging:

Sa, sa, (my hearts) let's cheerly to the charge;
Having for Captain, for Defence, and Targe,
That glorious Prince to whom the raging Sea
Hath heertofore, in foming pride, giv'n way:
Who, with a sigh (or with a whistle, rather)
Can call the North, South, East, and West together:
Who, at a beck, or with a wink, commands
Millions of millions of bright-winged Bands:
Who, with a breath, brings (in an instant) vnder
The proudest Powrs: whose arrows are the Thunder.

While yet they sang, fell Discord reaching-far,
Hies to the Heathen that encamped are:
Clean through her mantle (tatterd all in flakes)
Appears her brest all-over gnaw'n with Snakes,
Her skin is scarr'd, her teeth (for rage) do gnash,
The Basilisk with-in her eyes doth flash;
And, one by one, she plucks-off (in despight)
Her hairs (no hairs, but hissing Serpents right)
And, one by one, she severally bestowes-'em
Through all the Camp, in every Captains bosom,
Blowes every vein full of her furious mood,
Burns every Souldier with the thirst of bloud:
And, with the same blade that she died once
In valiant Gedeon's (Brother-slaughtered) Sons,
She sets the Brother to assail the Brother,
The Son the Sier, and deerest Friends each-other.

The swords new draw'n against their Enemies,
Now (new revolted) hack their owne Allies:
And Mars so mads them in their mutuall Iar,
That strange, turns civill, civill, houshold War:
Proud Edom heaws Moab and th' Ammonite;
Amon hunts Edom and the Moabite;
Moab assaults Amon and Edom too;
And each of them wars first with th' other two,
Then with themselues: then Amon Amon thrills,
Moab wounds Moab, Edom Edom kills.

From Hoast to Hoast, blinde-fold Despair, in each,
Disports her self; those that are one in speach,
Vnder one colours, of one very coat,
Combat each other, cut each others throat.

Rage-full confusion every-where commands,
Against his Captain the Lieutenant stands,
The Corporal vpon his Seriant flies,
And basest Boyes against their Masters rise.
Nay, drad Bellona passeth fiercely further,
Th' owne Vnkle doth his owne deer Nephew murther,
The Nephew th' Vnkle with the like repayes,
Cosen thrils Cosen, Kins-man Kins-man slayes:
Yea, even the Father kills his Son most cruell,
And from one Belly springs a bloudy Duell;
Twins fiercely fight: and while each woundeth other,
And drawes the life-blood of his half-self Brother,
Feels not his owne to fail, till in the place
Both fall; as like in fury as in face:
But, strength at length (not stomach) fails in either;
And, as together born, they die together.

The faithfull Hoast drawes neer, and gladly goes
Viewing the bodies of their breath-les Foes.
Men, Camels, Horse (som saddled, som with-out)
Pikes, Quivers, Darts, lie mingled all about
The bloudy Field; and from the Mountains nigh
The Rav'ns begin with their pork-porking cry:
Heer seems an Arm, a Giant late did owe,
As if it would to a Dwarf's shoulder growe:
A Princes hand there (knowen by pretious signes)
Vnto the arm of a base Porter ioyns;
An olde-Man's head heer to a Stripling's neck;
And there, lean buttocks to a brawny back:
Heer, of a Body iustly cloven in two,
The bloudy tripes are trailing to and fro;
There, fiue red fingers of a Hand cut-off
Gripe still the truncheon of a steeled staff;
And, there (at-once, all broached on one Lance)
Lie three braue Horse-men in a deadly Trance.

Chariots, vnfurnisht and vnharnest stood,
Over the spoaks, vp to the naves in blood.
Th' Engaddian Snowes melt in vermilion streams,
And (now no marvell) Iaruel warmly steams,
Stopt with dead bodies; so, that never-more
It should haue seen the Ocean (as before)
Nor payd the Tribute that his Duty craues,
Saue that the crimsin holp the crystall waues.

Praysed be God (sayd Iuda) praysed be
The Lord of Hoasts, the King of Maiesty,
That moawes his Foes; that doth his owne protect,
That holds so deer the blood of his elect:
That fights for vs, and teacheth vs to fight,
Conquer, and triumph of the Pagan's might:
And (finally) doth punish Tyrants fel,
With their owne swords, to saue his Israel.

But, notwithstanding Ieroboam's Plot,
His third Successor yet succeeds him not;
A barbarous Fury raigneth in his Race,
His bloudy Scepter shifteth hands apace:
Nadab his son, and all his seed beside,
Feels cursed Baasha's cruell Paricide;
And Baasha's issue is by Zimri slain,
Zimri by Zimri; then doth Omri raign,
Omri, accursed for his owne transgression,
But more accursed for the foule succession
Of such a Son as Achab (sold to Sin)
That boldly brings Sidonian Idols in,
Builds vnto Baal; and, of all Kings the worst,
Weds Iezabel, adds Drunkenness to Thirst.

Blinde Superstition's like a drop of Oyl
Still spreading, till it all a Garment spoyl:
Or, like a spark, fall'n in a floor of Mat,
Which soon inflameth all the Chamber; that,
Fiers the whole House; the House, the Town about;
Consuming all, and never going-out,
Till Goods, and Bodies, Towrs, and Temples high,
All in a Toomb of their owne ashes lye:
When one begins (how little be't) to stray
From the diuine Law's little-beaten way,
We cursed fall into the black Abysse
Of all foul Errrors: every Sin that is
Donns sacred Mask; and, monsters most ahhord,
Killing the Saints we think to please the Lord,
As Achab did; who vanquisht with the spel,
Speach, grace, and face of painted Iezabel,
Presumes to lay his sacrilegious hand
On th' oyled Priests that in Gods presence stand,
Of honest Men his Towns depopulates,
Lessens the Number of his Noble States,
T'augment his Lands; and, with the bloud of His,
Wrights th' Instruments of his new Purchases.
But slain (at last) by th' Hoast of Benhadad,
His Son succeeds him (and almost as bad)
He breaks his neck, and leaues his fatall place,
To 's brother Ioram, last of Achab's race;
An odious race, th' alliance of whose blood
Corrupts the Heirs of Iosaphat the good,
Causing his Son (charm'd with Athalia's wile)
In's Brother's bloud his armed arms to file,
And Ahaziah's giddy brain t'infect

With the damn'd Error of Samarian Sect.
But, though these Kings did openly oppugn
And stubbornly the King of Heav'n impugn;
Though Abrah'ms issue (now degenerate)
Did but too-neer their Princes imitate;
Though over all, a Chaos of confusion,
A Hell of Horror, Murder, and Delusion,
A Sea of Sins (contempt of God and Good)
Cover'd these Kingdoms (as another Flood);
God left not yet that Age without his Oracles:
A hundred Prophets, strong in word and miracles,
Resist their rage and from sad drowning keep
The wracked planks on th' Idol-Ocean deep.
Cleer Sommer Noons need not a candle-light;
Nor sound, Physician; but clean opposite:
So, in our Soules, the more Sin's Floods do flowe,
The more God makes his Mercie's Gulf to growe.

For his Embassage in sad Achab's dayes,
Thes bite Elijah did th' Almighty rayse;
Who, burning-bold in spirit and speach, cries-out,
In Achab's ears and all his Court about:
O impious Achab, fear'st thou not (quoth he)
The sulphury flames and Thunder-bolts that be
Already roaring in the dreadfull fist
Of God the Lord, that doth the proud resist,
Revengeth wrongs, th' outrageous Heathen's Hammer,
Terror of Terrors, and all Tyrants Tamer?
Doost thou not knowe, He threats to Israel
A Heav'n of Brass, if they his grace repel,
Reiect his loue, and get them other Loues,
Whoring about with forrain. Gods, in Groves?
God cannot lie: His dreadfull Threatnings ever
Draw dreadfull Iudgements (if our Sin persever):
As the Lord lives, this thirsty yawning Plain
In seav'n six Month's drinks not a drop of Rain.

No sooner spoken, but in present view,
The Heav'ns begin to change their wonted hew;
Th' Aire deadly thick, doth quickly vanish quight;
To a sad Day succeeds a sadder Night:
A bloudy vapour and a burning cloud,
By day, begirt the Sun (all coaly-browd);
By night, the Moon denies to fading Flowrs
Her silver sweat, and pearly-purled showrs:
The Welkin's studded with new Blazing-Stars,
Flame-darting Lances, fiery crowns and Cars,
Kids, Lions, Bears, wrapt in prodigious Beams,
Dreadfull to see: and Phoebus (as it seems)
Weary of travail in so hote a time,
Rests all the while in boyling Cancer's clime.
Hills, lately hid with snowe, now burn a main:
May hath no Deaw, nor February Rain:
Sad Atlas Nieces, and the Hunter's Star
Have like effect as the Canicular:
Zephyre is mute, and not a breath is felt,
But hectik Auster's, which doth all things swelt,
And (panting-short) puffs every-where vpon
The withered Plains of wicked Shomeron,
Th' vnsavorie breath of Serpents crawling o're
The Lybians pest-full and vn-blest-full shoar.

Now Herbs to fail, and Flowrs to fall began;
Mirtles and Bayes for want of moist grew wan:
With open mouth the Earth the aid doth crave
Of black-blew Clouds: cleer Kishon's rapid wave
Wars now no more with Bridges arched round;
Sorek, for shame, now hides him vnder ground:
Mokmur, whose murmur troubled with the noise
The sleeping Shepheards, hath nor stream, nor voice,
Cedron's not Cedron, but (late) Cedron's bed,
And Iordan's Current is as dry, as dead.
The beam-brow'd Stag, and strong-neckt Bull do ly
On palc-faç't banks of Arnon (also dry)
But, neither sup, nor see the Crystal Wave,
Ouer the which so often swom they have:
The lusty Courser that late scorn'd the ground,
Now lank and lean, with crest and courage downd,
With rugged tongue out of his chained mouth,
With hollow-flanks panting for inward drouth,
Rouling his Bit, but with a feeble rumor,
Would sweat for faintnes, but he wanteth humour:
The Towr-backt Camel, that best brooketh Thirst,
And on his bunch could have transported yerst
Neer a whole Houshold, now is able scant
To bear him self, he is so feebly-faint.

Both yong and olde, both of the base and best,
Feel a fel Aetna in their thirstie brest:
To temper which, they breath, but to their wo:
For, for pure air, they sup into them, so,
A putride, thick, and pestilentiall fume,
Which stuffs their Lights and doth their lives consume.
Ther's not a Puddle (though it strangely stink)
But dry they draw't, Sea-Water's dainty Drink:
And fusty-Bottles, from beyond-Sea (South)
Bring Nile to Somer, for the Kings owne mouth.
For, though the Lord th' whole Land of Syria smights,
Th' heat of his Anger on Samaria lights
With greatest force; whose furious Prince implies,
The Prophet Cause of all these miseries.

Therefore, he fearing Achab's ragefull hate,
Down to Brook Ch•rith's hollow banks he gate;
Where, for his Cooks, Caters, and Wayters, tho
From the foure windes the winged people go.

Thence, to Sareptha. where he craves the aid
Of a poor Widow, who thus mildely said,
Alas! fain would I, but (God wot) my store
Is but of bread for one meal (and no more):
Yet, give me (saith he) giue me som (I pray);
Who soweth sparing, sparing reapeth ay:
Sure a good turn shall never guerdon want;
A Gift to Needlings is not given, but lent:
T's a Well of Wealth, which doth perpetuall run:
A fruitfull Field which thousand yeelds for one.

While thus he said, and staid; the Widow glad,
Gives to him frankly all the bread she had:
She lost not by't: for, all the Famin-while,
That rag'd in Tyre, her little Flowr and Oyl
Decreased not, yet had she plenty still,
For her and hers to feed in time their fill.
At length befell fel Death to take-away
Her onely Son, and with her Son her Ioy:
She prayes her Guest, and he implores his God,
And stretching him vpon the breath-les Lad,
Thus cries aloud: Vouch safe me, Lord, this boon,
Restore this child's soule, which (it seems) to-soon
Thou hast bereft: O! let it not be said,
That heer for nought I haue so ought been fed:
Let not my presence be each-where abhorr'd;
Nor Charity with thee to want Reward.

As a small seedling of that fruitfull Worm,
Which (of it self) fine shining Sleaves doth form,
By the warm comfort of a Virgin brest,
Begins to quicken, creepeth (as the rest)
Re-spins a-fresh, and, in her witty loom,
Makes of her corps her corps a pretious Toomb:
This Childe (no Man, but Man's pale Module now)
With death ith bosom, horror on the brow,
The bait of Worms, the Booty of the Beer,
At sacred words begins his ey to rear;
Swimming in Death, his powrs do re-assemble,
His spirits (rewarm'd) with-in his artirs tremble;
He fetcht a sigh, then lively rysing too,
Talks, walks, and eats, as he was woont to doo.

Fain would the Mother haue besought the Seer
T' have past the rest of his colde Olde-age heer:
But th' holy spirit him sodain hence doth bring
Vnto Samaria to th' incensed King;
Who rates him thus: O Basilisk! O Bane!
Art not thou He that sow'st th' Isaacian Plain
With Trouble-Tares? Seditious, hast not thou
Profan'd the Laws of our Fore-fathers now?
Broken all Orders, and the Altars bann'd
Of th' holy Gods, Protectors of our Land?
Since thy fond Preaching did heer first begin,
More and more heavie hath Heav'ns anger bin
Vpon vs all; and Baal, blasphem'd by thee,
Hath since that season never left vs free.
From grievous Plagues: it is a Hellwe feel,
Our Heav'n is Brass, our Earth is all of Steel.

No, no, O King (if I the Truth shall tell)
Thou, thou art he that troublest Israell.
Thou (give me leave) thou and thy Grand-sires, mad.
After strange Gods in every Grove to gad,
Have left the true, wise, wondrous (all-abroad)
Omnipotent, victorious, glorious God:
Such shall you proue him, if you dare oppone
All your Baal-Prophets against me, but one.

Content, quoth Achab: then to Carmel's top
The Schismik Priests were quickly called vp:
Vnto their Baal an Altar build they there;
To God, the Prophet doth another rear:
Both have their Beasts; and by their prayer must prove
Whose God is GOD, by Fier from Heav'n above.
The People's eyes, and eares, and mindes are bent
Vpon these Maruails, to observe th' euent
(Maruails, which might well cleer the difference
That had so long depended in suspence
'Twixt Israel and Iuda; and direct
Th' Earth how to serue Heav'ns sacred Architect)
As when two Buls, inflamed fiercely-fell,
Met front to front, their forked arms do mell,
The feeble Heards of Heifers in a maze
Twixt hope and fear, vnfeeding, stand at gaze,
To see the Fight, and censure which do prove
The valiantest, that he may be their Loue.

Baal's baalling Priests call and cry out for life,
They gash their flesh, with Launcet and with knife,
They cruell make their blood to spin about
(As Claret wine from a pearç't Peece doth spout)
And, madly shaking heads, leggs, sides and arms,
They howling chant these Dithyrambik charms;

Help, help, O Baal, O Baal attend our cryes,
Baal, hear vs Baal, O Baal, bow down thine eyes:
O Stratian, Clarian, Eleutherian Powrs,
Panomphaean God, approve vs thine, thee ours:
O Epicarpian! O Epistatirian,
Phyxian, Feretrian, O Exacestirian,
Xenian, Messapian, O Lebradean BAAL,
O Assabine, BAAL-SAMEN, hear our Call.

Elijah, that their bloody Rites abhord,
And knowes aright the seruice of the Lord,
T' appease his wrath he doth not scarre his skin;
Nor with self-wounds presume his grace to win,
Nor makes himself vnfitting for his function,
By selfly stripes (as causing more compunction)
Nor, thrild with bodkins, raves in frantik-wise,
And in a furie seems to prophetize:
But offers God his heart, in steed of blood;
His speech is sober, and as milde his mood.

Cry loud, quoth he: your God is yet perchance
In a deep sleep, or doth in Arms advance
Against his Foes (th' Egyptian Deïties)
Or is consulting how to keep the Flies
From off his Altar. But, O Izrael!
Alas! why yoakst thou God with Baal (or Bel)?
Alas! how long thus wilt thou halt twixt either,
And fondly mix Darnel and Wheat together
In thy Faith's Field? If Baal be God indeed,
Then boldly serue him, seek him sole at need:
But, if blew Sea, and winged Firmament,
Th' all-bearing Earth, and Storm-breed Element,
Be but the least Works of th' Almighty hand
Of Iacob's God: If Heav'n, Aire, Sea, and Land,
And all in all, and all in euery one,
By his owne finger be sustain'd alone:
If he have cast those cursed Nations out,
Which yerst defil'd this fair, fat Land about;
To give it thee, to plant thee in their place,
Why him alone doost thou not ay imbrace,
And serue him onely in thy Soule and Heart,
Who in his Love brooks none to share a part?
The cord vn-twisted weakens: and who serves
Two Lords at-once, to lose them both deserves.
Baal dead (thouseest) hears not his Servants call,
Much less can grant them their Desires at all:
But, Iaacob's God, IEHOVA, ELOHIM,
Never deceives their hope that trust in him.

Hear me therefore, O Lord, and from above
With Sacred Fire (thy Soverain powr to prove)
Consume this Bullock, and shewe by the same
That thou art GOD, and I thy Servant am:
And to thy Fold (thy Churches Lap) repeal
Thy wandring Flock, thy chosen Izrael.

As falls a Meteor in a Sommer Even,
A sodain Flash coms flaming down from Heav'n,
Licks dry the Dikes, and instantly, at-once,
Burns all to Ashes, both the Altar-stones,
And th' Offered Bullock: and the People fall
In zealous fury on the Priests of Baal;
And, by Elijah's prayer, soon obtain
Rain, which so often they had askt in vain.

For, what is it Elijah cannot do?
If he be hungry, Fouls, and Angels too,
Becom his Stewards. Fears he th' armed Bands
Of a fel Tyrant? from their bloody hands
To rescue him, Heav'n (his confederate)
Consumes with Fire them and their fierie hate.
Or, would he pass a Brook that brooks no bay,
Nor Bridge, nor Bank? The Water giues him way.
Or, irks him Earth? To Heav'n alive he hies,
And (sauing Henoch) onely He not-dies.

This Man of God, discoursing with his heir
Of th' vpper Kingdom and of Gods Affair,
A sodain whirl-winde, with a whiffing Fire,
And flaming Chariot rapts him vp intire,
Burns not, but fines; and doth (in fashion strange)
By death-les Death, mortall immortall change.
A long-tail'd squib, a flaming ridge, for rut
Seems seen a while, where the bright Coach hath cut.

This sacred Rape, nigh rapt Elisha too;
Who, taking vp his Tutors Mantle, tho,
Follows as far as well he could with ey
The fire-snort Palfreys, through the sparkling Sky;
Crying, My father, father mine fare-well,
The Chariots and the Horse of Izrael.

The Thisbian Prophet hangs not in the Air,
Amid the Meteors to be tossed there,
As Mists and Rains, and Hail, and hoarie Plumes,
And other Fierie many-formed Fumes:
Amid the Air tumultuous Satan roules;
And not the Saints, the happy, heav'nly Soules.

Nor is he nailed to some shining Wheel,
Ixion-like continually to reel;
For CHRIST his flesh transfigur'd, and divine,
Mounted aboue the Arches Crystalline:
And where CHRIST is, from pain and passion free,
There (after death) shall all his Chosen bee.

Elijah therfore climbs th' Empyreal Pole,
Where, ever-blest in body and in soule,
Contemns this World, becoms an Angel bright,
And doth him firm to the TRINE-ONE vnite.

But how, or why should He this vantage haue
Yer CHRIST (right call'd the first-fruits of the Grave)?
O happy passage! O sweet, sacred Flight!
O blessed Rape! thou raptest so my spright
In this Dispute, and mak'st my weaker wit
So many wayes to cast-about for it,
That (I confess) the more I do contend,
I more admire, and less I comprehend.

For lack of wings, then biding heer belowe
With his Successor, I proceed to showe,
How, soon as he took-vp his Cloak (to bear-it)
Within Elisha shin'd Elijah's Spirit;
By powr whereof, immediatly he cleaves
An vn-couth way through Iordan's rapid waves:
Past hope he gives to the Sunamian Wife
A Son; and soon restores him dead to life:
With sodain blindness smightes the Syrian Troup
The which in Dothan did him round in coup:
Increaseth bread, and of a pound of Oyl
Fills all the Vessels in a Town that while:
His hoary head (in Bethel) laught to scorn,
Is veng'd by Bears, on forty children torn:
Naaman's cleans'd; and, for foul Simonie,
Gehazi's punisht with his Leprosie:
Mends bitter Broath, he maketh Iron swim,
As porie Cork, vpon the Water's brim.

Rich Iericho's (sometimes) sal-peetry soil,
Through brinie springs that did about it boil,
Brought forth no fruit, and her vn-holsom Brooks
Voyded the Town of Folk, the Fields of Flocks:
The Towns-men, therefore, thus besought the Seer;
Thou seest our Citie's situation heer
Is passing pleasant; but the ground is naught,
The Water worse: we pray thee mend the fault,
Sweeten our Rivers, make them pleasanter,
Our Hills more green, our Plains more fertiler.

The Prophet calls but for a Cruse of Salt
(O strangest cure!) to cure the brynie fault
Of all their Floods; and, casting that in one
Foul stinking Spring, heals all their streams anon:
Not, for an houre, or for a day, or twain,
But to this Day they sweet and sound remain.

Their Valley, walled with bald Hills before,
But even a horror to behold, of-yore;
Is now an Eden, and th' All-circling Sun,
For fruitfull beauty, sees no Paragon.
There (labour-les) mounts the victorious Palm,
There (and but there) growes the all-healing Balm,
There ripes the rare cheer-cheek Myrobalan,
Minde-gladding Fruit, that can vn-olde a Man.
O skilfull Husbands, giue your fattest Plains
Five or six earths; spare neither cost nor pains,
To water them; rid them of weeds and stones,
With Muck and Marle batten and baste their bones;
Vnles God bless your Labour and your Land,
You plough the Sea, and sowe vpon the sand.

This, Iurie knowes; a Soil somtimes (at least)
Sole Paradise of all the proudest East:
But now the brutest and most barren place,
The curse of God, and all the Worlds disgrace:
And also Greece, on whom Heav'ns (yerst so good)
Rain nothing now but their drad Furie's Flood.
The grace of God is a most sure Revenue,
A Sea of Wealth, that ever shall continew,
A never-failing Field, which needs not ay
The cool of Night, nor comfort of the Day.

What shall I say? This sacred Personage
Not only profits to his proper Age;
But, after life, life in his bones hee leaves,
And dead, the dead he raiseth from their graves.

Nor is Elisha famous more for Miracles,
Than for the Truth of his so often Oracles:
He showes the Palms and Foils of Israell,
Benhadad's death, the Raign of Hazael:
Beyond all hope, and passing all appearance,
Deiected Ioram's neer relief he warrants.

For, now the Syrian, with insulting Powrs,
So streict besiegeth the Samarian Towrs,
That even al-ready in each nook agrising,
Fell, wall-break (all-break) Famin, ill-advising
Howls hideously: even the bare bones are seen
(As sharp as kniues) thorough the emptie skin
Of the best bred: and each-man seems (almost)
No Man indeed, but a pale ghastly Ghost.

Som snatch the bread from their owne Babes, that pine;
Som eat the Draff that was ordain'd for Swine,
Som doo defile them with forbidden flesh,
Som bite the grass their hunger to refresh;
Som, gold for Birds-dung (waight for waight) exchange;
Som, of their Boots make them a Banquet strange,
Som fry the Hay-dust, and it savorie finde;
Som, Almond-shels and Nut-shels gladly grinde,
Som mince their Fathers Wills, in parchment writ,
And so devoure their Birth-right at a bit.

The King, when wearie he would rest awhile,
Dreams of the Dainties he hath had yer-while,
Smacks, swallows, grindes both with his teeth and iaws;
But, only winde his beguil'd bellie draws:
And, then awaking, of his owne spare Diet
Robbs his owne brest, to keep his Captains quiet.
He is importun'd heer and there, about:
Aboue the rest, a Woman skrieketh out
In moornfull manner, with disheueled haire;
Her face despight, her fashion showes despaire.

O! stay my Liege, heat, hear a grieuous thing;
Iustice, great Ioram, Iustice, gentle King.
O, no, not Iustice: (did I Iustice craue?)
Fondling, in Iustice, thou canst nothing haue
But a iust death; nay, but a Torture fell,
Nay, but a Torment, like the pains of Hell.
Yet, even this Plea is worse then death to me:
Then grant me Iustice, Iustice let it be.
For (O!) what horror can restrain desire.
Of iust Revenge, when it is once afire?
My Lord, I bargain'd, and (to bind the Pact)
By solemn Oath I sealed the Contract;
Contract, indeed cruell, yet could not be
Infring'd, or broken, without Crueltie.
(Tell it O Tongue, why stay'st thou so vpon-it?
Dar'st thou not say-it, hauing dar'd and don-it?
Not having fear'd Heav'ns King, how canst thou fear
An earthly King?) Then, thus (my Liege) while-yer.
I, and my Neighbour desperately agreed,
Iointly to eate, successiuely, our seed;
Our owne deer Children: and (O luck-les Lot!)
Mine first of all, is destin'd to the Pot:
Forth-with I catch-him and I snatch him to-me
Vp in mine armes: he straight begins to woo-me,
Stroaks, colls, and huggs me, with his arms and thighes:
And, smiling sweet, Mam-mam, mam-mam, he cryes,
Then kisses me; and, with a thousand toyes,
Thinks to delight me with his wonted ioyes.
I looke away, and with my hand addrest,
Bury my knife within his tender brest:
And, as a Tigresse, or the Dam of Bears,
A Fawn or Kid in hundred gobbets tears,
I tear him quick, dress him, and on our Table.
I set him: oh! ('tis now no time to fable)
I taste him first, I first the feast begin,
His blood (my blood) runs round about my Chin,
My Childe returns, re-breeding in my Womb;
And of my Flesh my Flesh is shamefull Tomb:
Soon cloyd (alas!) but little could I eat,
And vp again that little striues to get.
But she, she layes it in, she greedy plyes-it,
And all night long she sits to gourmandize-it:
Not for her fill so much, of such (think I)
As to prolong the more my misery:
O God, sayd she (and smiles in eating it)
What a sweet morsell! what a dainty bit!
Blest be the brest that nu•c't such meat for me;
But more the Womb that bare it, so to be.
So (to be brief) my Son is eat: But hers
Alive and lustie in her arms she bears.

Why should her Pittie, rather her despight,
Doo both her Faith, Me, and my Son, vn-right?
Ah! for her belly, rather then her Boy,
She playd this prank (and robd me of my Ioy).
She did it not, of tender hart to save him;
But, greedy-gut, that she alone might haue him.
Therfore, O King, doo Iustice in this case:
Nor craue I pardon of thy princely grace
For mine Offence; (such an Offence, I knowe,
As yet grim Minos never iudg'd belowe)
For if I should, how should I doo, for meat;
Not having now another Childe to eat?
No: this is all I crave before I die,
That I may taste but of Her sonns sweet thigh:
Or, that (at least) mine eye, more iust then cruell,
May see him slain by her, my Horrors Fuell.

But, if you waigh not mine vnfained •ears
(Indeed vn-worthy): yet vouchsafe your ears
To the loud Plaints of my lamenting Son;
Who, with strange murmurs rumbling vp and down,
Seems in my bowels as reviv'd to groan,
And to your Highnes, thus to make his moan;

Sir, will you suffer, without all revenge,
Mens cursed malice boldly to infringe
Law, Faith, and Iustice, Vows, and Oaths, and all;
As buzzing Flies tear Cob-webs on a wall?
Ah! shall I then descend alone belowe?
Dy vn-reveng'd? foster my cruel Foe?
And then-cast-forth in foulest Excrement,
Infect the Aier, offend the Element;
The while her Darling, on his Hobby-horse
About the Hall shall ride, and prance, and course;
And imitate Mens actions (as an Ape),
Build paper-Towrs, make Puppets, sit in Lap?
No: let him die, let him (as I) be cut,
Let him (as I) be in two Bellies put:
Full-fill the Pact; that so our wretched Mothers
Their Guilt and Grief, may either's match with others.

The King, less mov'd with pitty than with horror,
Thunders these words, raging in threat-full terror;
Vengeance and mischief on mine owne head light,
If curst Elisha keep his head this night:
And, as he spake, forth in a rage he flings,
To execute his bloody Threatenings.

Sir, said the Prophet, you have seen the skathe
Deuouring Famin heer performed hath:
But, by to-morrow this time (God hath said)
Samaria's Gates shall even abound with Bread.

Tush (sayd a Minion of the Court, hard by,
Of surly speech, proud gait, and lofty ey)
Though God should open all Heav'ns windows wide,
It cannot be: Yes, Infidell (reply'd
The zealous Prophet) Thouthy Self (in sum)
Shalt see it then: but slialt not taste a Crum.
Thus said Elisha, and th' Almightie Powr
Perform'd his Sayings in the very howr.

Her scarlet Robe Aurora had not donn'd,
Nor had she yet limn'd the Euphratean strond
With trembling shine, neither was Phoebus yet
Willing to wake out of a drouzie Fit,
When pallid FEAR, flyes to the Pagan Hoast,
Wilde-staring Hag, shiv'ring, and wavering most;
She, that her voice and visage shifts so oft:
She that in Counsails strives to lift aloft
Irresolution, to be President
(Canker of Honor, curse of Government):
She that even trembles in her surest Arms,
Starts at a leaf, swouns at report of harms:
Beleeves all, sees all; and so swayeth all,
That, if she say, the Firmament doth fall:
There be three Suns: This, or that Mountain sinks:
Paul's Church doth reel, or the foundation shrinks:
It is beleev'd, 'tis seen: and, seis'd by Her,
The other Senses are as apt to err.

Clashing of Arms, Rattling of iron Cars,
Murmur of Men (a World of Soldiars)
Neighing of Horse, noise of a thousand Drums
With dreadfull sound from the next Vale ther coms.

The Syrian Camp, conceiuing that the Troups
Of Nabathits, Hethits, and Ethyops,
Hyr'd by th' Isaacians, came from every side,
To raise their Siege, and to repell their pride;
Fly for their lives, disordered and disperst
(Amid the Mountains) so well-ordered yerst.
One, in his Cap-case leaves-behinde his Treasure:
To bridle's horse another hath not leasure;
Another, hungry on the grass hath set
His Break-fast out, but dares not stay to eat.
One thinks him far, that yet hath little gon;
Another weens him in plain ground, anon
He breaks his neck into a Pit: another
Hearing the Boughs that brush against each other,
And doubting it to be the Conquerer,
He wretched dies of th' only wound of FEAR.

As, after tedious and continuall rain,
The honey-Flies haste from their Hiues again,
Suck heer and there, and bear into their bowr
The sweetest sap of euery fragrant flowr:
So from besieg'd Samaria each man hies,
Vnto the. Tents of fear-fled Enemies;
Wherein, such store of corn and wine they pill,
That in one day their hungry Town they fill:
And in the Gate, the Croud that issueth,
Treads th' vnbeleeuing Courtier down to death;
So that (at once) even both effects agree
Iust with Elisha's holy prophecie.

From this School comes the Prophet Amethite,
The twice-born Preacher to the Niniuite.

Ionas, be gon: hie, hie thee (said th' Almightie)
To Niniuè, that great and wanton Citie:
Cry day and night, cry out vnto them all;
Yet forty daies, and Niniue shall fall.

But, 'gainst th' Eternall, Ionas shuts his eare,
And ships himself to sail another-where:
Wherfore, the Lord (incensed) stretcht his arm,
To wrack the wretch in suddain fearfull Storm.

Now, Nereus foams, and now the furious waues
All topsie-turned by th' Aeolian slaues,
Do mount and roule: Heav'ns war against the Waters,
And angrie Thetis Earth's green bulwarks batters:
A sable ayrso muffles-vp the Sky,
That the sad Saylers can no light descry:
Or, if som beam break through their pitchy night,
'Tis but drad flashing of the Lightning's light.

Strike, strike our saile (the Master cries) amain,
Vail misne and sprit-sail: but he cries in vain;
For in his face the blasts so bluster ay,
That his Sea-gibberish is straight born away.

Confused Cries of men dismay'd in minde,
Seas angry noise, lowd bellowing of the winde,
Heav'ns Thunder-claps, the tackles whisteling
(As strange Musicians) dreadfull descant sing.

The Eastern winde driues on the roaring train
Of white-blew billows, and the clouds again
With fresh Seas crosse the Sea, and she doth send
(In counter-change) a rain with salt y-blend.
Heav'ns (headlong) seem in Thetis lap to fall,
Seas scale the skies, and God to arm this All
Against one ship, that skips from stars to ground,
From waue to waue (like Balloons windie bound)
While the sad Pilot, on a foamy Mount,
Thinks from the Pole to see Hells pit profound;
And, then, cast down vnto the sandie shole,
Seems from lowe Hell to see the lofty Pole:
And, feeling foes within and eek without,
As many waues, so many deaths doth doubt.

The Billows, beating round about the ship,
Vncauk her keel, and all her seams vnrip;
Whereby the waters, entring vncontroul'd,
Ebbing abroad, yet flowe apace in hold:
For euery Tun the plied Pump doth rid,
A floud breaks in; the Master mastered
With dread and danger (threatning euery-way)
Doubts where to turn him, what to doo, or say,
Which waue to meet, or which salt surge to flie;
So yeelds his charge in Sea to liue or die.

As, many Cannons, 'gainst a Castle bent,
Make many holes, and much the rampire rent,
And shake the wall, but yet the latest shock
Of fire-wingd bullets batters down the Rock:
So, many mounts that muster 'gainst this Sail,
With roaring rage doo this poor ship assail;
But yet the last (with foaming fury swoln,
With boistrous blasts of angry tempests boln)
Springs the main-mast: the mast with boystrous fall
Breaks down the deck, and sore affrights them all.

Pale Idol-like, one stands with arms a-cross:
One moans himself: one mourns his childrens loss:
One, more than Death, this form of Death affrights:
Another calls on Heav'ns vn-viewed Lights:
One, 'fore his eys his Ladies looks beholds:
Another, thus his deadly fear vnfolds:
Curst thirst of gold! O how thou causest care!
My bed of Doun I change for hatches bare:
Rather than rest, this stormie war I chose:
T' enlarge my fields, both land and life I lose:
Like piezless plume, born-vp by Boreas breath,
With all these wings I soar, to seek my death,
To Heav'n and Hell, by angry Neptune led,
Where least I scape it, all these sails I spread.
Then thus another: Sure no winde (quoth he)
Could raise this Storm; som rarer Prodigy
Hath caus'd this Chaos (cause of all our grief)
Some Atheist dog, som Altar-spoyling theef
Lurks in this ship: com (Mates) by lot let's trie
(To saue the rest) the man that ought to die.

'Tis I (quoth Ionas) I indeed am cause
Of this black night, and all the fearfull flaws
Of this rough Winter; I must sole appease
(By my iust death) these wrath-full wrackfull Seas.
Then vp they heave him straight, and from the waste
Him suddainly into the Sea they cast.

The King of Windes calls home his churlish train,
And Amphitritè smooths her front again:
Th' Air's cloudy Robe returns to crystal cleer,
And smiling Heav'ns bright Torches re-appeer,
So soon as Ionas (to them all appease)
O're head and eares was soused in the Seas.

Thrice coms he vp, and thrice again goes down
Vnder the waves (yer he do wholly drown):
But then he sinks, and (wretched) roul'd along
The sands, and Oase, and rocks, and mud among;
Thus, thus he cries with lips of zealous faith:
Mercy (my God) shew mercy Lord (he saith).

Then God (who ever heares his childrens wish)
Provided straight a great and mighty Fish,
That swilling swallow'd Ionas in her womb,
A living Corps laid in a living Toomb.

Like as a Roach, or Ruff, or Gudgeon, born.
By som swift stream into a weer (forlorn)
Frisks to and fro, aloft and vnder dyves,
Fed with false hope to free their captive lyves:
The Prophet so (amazed) walks about
This wondrous Fish to finde an issue out,
This mighty Fish, o• Whale-like huginess,
Or bigger-bellied, though in body less.

Where am I, Lord? (alas!) within what vaults?
In what new Hell doost thou correct my faults?
Strange punishment! my body thou bereav'st,
Of mother earth, which to the dead thou leav'st:
Whither thy wrath drives me, I do not knowe.
I am depriv'd of air, yet breathe and blowe:
My sight is good, yet can I see no skie:
Wretch, nor in Sea, nor yet a-shore am I:
Resting, I run; for moving is my Cave:
And, quick, I couch within a living Grave.

While thus he plain'd; the third day, on the sand
The friendly Fish did cast him safe a-land.
And then, as if his weary limbs had been
So long refresht, and rested at an Inn,
He seems to flie; and, com'n to Niniue,
Your sins have reached vp to Heav'n (quoth he)
Wo and alas, wo, wo vnto you all:
Yet forty dayes and Ninive shall fall.

Thus Ionas preacht: But, soon the Citizens,
Sincerely toucht with sense of their foul sins,
Dispatch (in haste) to Heaven, Repentance sad,
Sweet-charming Prayer, Fasting hairy-clad.

Repentance makes two Torrents of her eyes,
Her humble brow dares scant behold the skies:
Her sobbing brest is beaten blew and black:
Her tender flesh is rent with rugged sack:
Her head (all hoar'd with harty sorrows past)
With dust and ashes is all over-cast.

Prayer's head, and sides, and feet are set about
With gawdy wings (like Ioves Arcadian Scout):
Her body flaming, from her lips there fumes.
Nard, Incense, Mummy, and all rich Perfumes.

Fasting (though faint) her face with ioie she cheers,
Strong in her weakness, young in aged yeers;
Quick health's preserver, curbing Cupid's fits,
Watchfull, purge-humors, and refining-wits.

Then Faith (Grand Vsher of th' Empyreal Court)
Vshers these Legats by a golden Port
Into the Presence, and them face to face
Before th' All-Monarch's glorious Throne doth place;
Where (zealous) prostrate on her humble knee,
Thus Prayer speaks in name of all the Three:

God, slowe to wrath! O Father, prone to grace!
Lord, sheath again thy vengeance sword a space.
If at thy beam of Iustice thou wilt waigh
The works of men that wander every day:
If thou their metall by that touch-stone try,
Which fearfull-sounding from thy mouth doth flie:
If thou shalt summ their Sins (which pass the sand)
Before thee (Lord) who shall indure to stand?
Not Ninive alone shall perish then;
But all this All be burnt to ashes clean:
And even this day shall thy iust wrath prevent
The dreadfull Day of thy last Dooms event.
This world to Chaos shall again return;
And on thine Altars none shall incense burn.

O therfore spare (Lord) spare the Ninivites,
Forgiue their Sins; and, in their humbled sprights,
From this time forth thy sacred Laws ingrave:
Destroy them not; but daign them Lord to save:
Look not (alas!) what they have been before;
But vs regard, or thine owne mercy more.

Then, God reacht out his hand, vnfolds his frowns,
Dis-arms his arm of Thunder brusing-Crowns,
Bows graciously his glorious flaming Crest,
And mildely grants (in th' instant) their request.