A paraphrase on the ten commandments in divine poems illustrated with twelve copper plates, shewing how personal punishments has been inflicted on the transgressors of these commandment, as is recorded in the Holy Scripture, never before printed : also, a metrical paraphrase upon the creed and Lord's Prayer
Wither, George, 1588-1667.
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Command. VI.
The Makers Image do not spill,
Where God commands thee not to kill.
None had been safe, unless the bloody sin
Forbidden here, had both restrained been,
And still pursued (mischiefs to prevent)
With open and with secret punishment.
Therefore Almighty God (who hath decreed
That he who sheds his Brothers blood, shall bleed)
Attends it still with vengeance: and the Sword
(According to the dreadful sounding word
Pronounc'd long since to David) shall not leave
Him or his house who doth of life bereave
A guiltless man; till for that crying guilt,
Some Blood of his untimely shall be split.
For though like him, whom here we represent
Men, may by greatness, keep off punishment,
Till they are old, it will their heels pursue,
And give them at the last their bloody due;
For I have rarely heeded one in ten,
Of those rash-headed and fool-hardy men,
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Who (as they fondly term it) fairly kill;
But, they or their, have either suffered still,
Deaths violent; or died in their prime,
Or, Issueless; fo this Blood-spilling Cirme,
Yea, and for ougit is known, the self-same Doom
On those who yet escape, e're long may come.
And if the fair done Murthers have these Fates,
How shall he scape that foul ones perpetrates!
Of this offence, let all men conscience make
For their own weal, or for their Childrens sake
Whom they beget: For in the same degree
Wherein they murther, it repaid shall be,
Or their own persons, or on some of those
By whom her due, just vengeance may not lose.
If thou hast took away the life of Fame
From any, thou shall suffer in thy Name.
If by unchristian Anger, or by hate,
Thou shalt occasion what may ruinate
Anothers Being; in thy Generation,
Or in thy self, expect retaliation;
Unless Repentance in a Fount of tears
Shall cleanse that stain, which nothing else outwears.
Oppression makes the Poor his life to leese
Like Poysons which destroy men by degrees,
With lingring Deaths, and in an age or two
That Sin doth all those Families undo
Which were enrich'd thereby, yea I have seen
Their Sons who by oppression rais'd have been,
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To fall from large Estates by some and some
Till they to such base poverty have come,
As brought them to the Gallows: Therefore they
Act murthers who take means of life away
By an oppressing hand; and murther not
The poor alone; but those whom they begot.
He is in Heart a Murtherer who prays
For others deaths; and in effect he slays,
Who can, but will not save, it to afford
Deliverance, with Justice will accord.
Nor from this error are they counted free,
Who▪ wittingly shall an occasion be
To other men, of that which may intice
By word, or by example to this vice.
Such are those Hacksters, (who themselves don me
Men of the Sword) (but sure enough I am)
(Men of a base Condition) these are they
Who flesh our blooming Gentry in the way
Of brutish Quarrels, and their minds possess
With Rage instead of sober Manliness.
Just of their stamp, are they who shall provoke
Their Friends unto Revenge for what was spoke
In drink or passion; making them believe
They were disgraced if they should forgive;
And so the Fools are urged to pursue
Those wicked Counsels which at last they rue.
Another way as faulty are those men
Who publish by the tongue or by the pen
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Those Heresies and Fancies which undo
(Here and for aye) themselves and others too.
These last, are out of question deeply dy'd
In this red Crime, though some of them can hide
Their Guilt with holy shews. The former sort
Though well esteem'd, and such as none report
Or take for Murtherers, would soon be cast
If an impartial verdict should be past.
There is a murthering poyson in some words
And Flatteries, are otherwhile the Swords
That Kill their hearers▪ though when they infect,
They do not murther by a line direct.
Moreover, other while unkindness may
Strike dead a Gentle heart; and such as play
False play in Love, (as when they do allure
And causlesly reject) may soon procure
Untimely Death. But such like youthful Crimes
Though jested at, bring vengeance many times.
He that by lawful means doth blood require
For blood unjustly Spilt, with more desire
To satisfy his rage, than to prefer
True Justice, is a parcel Murtherer.
And so are such, who practise to encrease
A publick Concord, or mens private peace.
In some degree of Murtherers are they
Who to their might remove not for away
All such occasionings as may begin
Or help to perfect this inhumane Sin
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And therefore by this Law we are forbidden,
To keep an Enmity in secret hidden,
That may provoke Revenge: which to prevent
A Duty doth precede the Sacrament
Of Christian Vnity; and they commit
Against this Law who fail to practise it.
Pride, Wrath, Scorn, Avarice, Wine in excess,
Wrongs, Jeers, Neglects, and Jests with bitterness,
With other such (which either are or draw
Occasions on, to violate this Law)
Are breaches of it. And though few suspect,
(Because these are but breaches indirect)
That such enormities unpunish't be
(For that, but seldom they inflicted see
Immediate stripes) yet, questionless, by such
Those troubles are brought on, that shorten much
The life of Man; and thereby finish'd are
His numbred years before he is aware.
The Souldier (whom I had almost forgot)
Is very peaceful, if he murther not.
To kill is his profession; yet I say,
He murthers if his Prisner he shall slay,
The battel being past. The Voluntary
Whom, an ambitious Avarice doth carry,
To hostle Actions, when his lawful Prince,
Nor sends nor calls him, nor the just defence
Of his own person, or his Countries good
Engageth to become a man of blood.
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Ev'n he may be suspected, not to tread
A path so noble, and so warranted
As he conceives: yet neither praise I them,
Nor do I peremptorily condemn
Their practice, but refer what I have said,
In their own conscience to be rightly weigh'd.
Lord give us eyes our Secret sins to see,
While time and place to us vouchsafed be,
That we may leave them, and that Love embrace
Which will conceal them with her vail of grace.
For, it with Joab we grow old in Sin,
Which hath not really repented bin,
Till thou growst angry; vengeance will not tarry
But stimes us dead, ev'n in thy Sanctuary.
Thrice holy Trinity, my Heart possess,
And, I, this Precept, never shall transgress.
Amen.
