Divine glimpses of a maiden muse being various meditations and epigrams on several subjects : with a probable cure of our present epidemical malady if the means be not too long neglected / by Chr. Clobery ...

The Charge.

BRitain, thy glory's sunk; swoln are thy sins, To an o'erwhelming torrent, that begins Thee to o'erwhelm; thy erst indulgent God Hath turn'd his hand against thee: see; his rod Begins to whip thy follies, whose dread sword Did lately fight thy battels: whose pure word Made the earth's Goshen; thou begin'st to grope In an Egyptian darkness; many hope To see th' unbottom'd pits black mists o'ercloud Thy splendent Sun: yea, thy own sons have vow'd To put out that great light, to raise thereby Their ignis fatuus light of phantasie. Father of lights, frustrate their curs'd design; The comfort shall be ours, but glory thine: Let not the pit's black torches smokie fumes Eclipse thy Sun-shine here, though he presumes To see it so, who is the man of sin, Who among us those false fires usher'd in, To light us on to darkness: Lord return Those fires into his bosom; let them burn Mysterious Babylon; their heat calcine The scarlet whore, and beast, to ashes fine: Their light discover Antichrist to all: That they and their false fires together fall Quench'd in eternal flames; and then on high, And here beneath, thy Church shall glorifie Thy aweful name. But (ah Lord) we betray Our selves to them by sin; wildely display Our nakedness; and what defects we have. Thy hand's not shortned, that it cannot save: Nor thine ear heavie, that it will not hear: But our iniquities (O God most dear)

Have separated us from thee; our sins Have stockt our feet in their intangling gins; Our gross abominations in thy sight, Have thee provok'd to take from us the light, That we so long unworthily enjoy'd: Thanklesly too; which made the favour void: Our disesteeming of thy sacred light; Perverting it to doctrines of the night, To schisms, and errours, heresies and factions, Have justly brought on us these sad distractions: And since so many of us dare to scoft it, Thou justly may'st henceforth deprive us of it; Thou may'st remove our candlestick to those Who'll bring forth better fruit then our vain shows, Our painted leaves and blossoms, which discrie, Our faith but fain'd, our zeal hypocrisie; Provoke thy patience to fierce wrath's effusion: And woo thy vengeance to our own confusion. But Lord forbid, forbid dear God the sins Of us poor nothings, who have nothing in's But sin and folly, ever should out-vie Thy boundless mercy; force thee to defie Fond weakling worms (yet thy own creatures Lord, Create', Redeem'd, preserved by thy word, And those whom thou hast lov'd.) Oh rather turn Us from our sins to thee (for them to mourn) Then thee from us, to view them, and in wrath For them to punish: Lord, thy mercy hath Ways to prevent thy justice; and can give Light unto all, that all may see to live, Hoping to live to see the gen'ral call Of nations to the light, by all in all, Who shall have all the glory that redounds Eccho'd from Heav'ns and earth's remotest bounds: And when all other Kingdoms are o'erthrown, Pow'r and dominion shall be all his own;

Which hasten Lord, that we may see with joy To thine Elect, and to their foes annoy: And oh prepare us for that glorious day, Turn us from each perverse and crooked way Wherein we wander: fit this Island's ghests For thy bright coming, and for the arrests Of death and judgment, that whate'er befal, The glory may be thine, joy ours, in all. But Lord, our sins have at such height o'erbore us, That they transcend all Nations past before us: It well may make (at sight of our base pride) Lucifer blush to see himself out-vi'd. And we have those, (by us'ry and oppression) Who would wrest Mammon's self out of possession: Fraud and deceit to such a height are grown, That most men it for their profession own; And many more, whose words do it defie, Do in their practice give themselves the lie. Achitophel (if living now) would be An ass to most in wicked policie. Joab a man of mercie would appear Among such blood-hounds as have lived here. And Absalom a most obedient son, Compar'd with ours; who wilder courses run. Drunken King Elah would too civil be, By far, for modern Roarers companie. Lot's drunken Incest which he doubled in, Have we out-vi'd, as a small venial sin. Yea, Sodomy is prov'd a puisne crime: For many have committed in our time Foul Rapes on Beasts, some of the wrong sex too; Nay, acts with Devils, (as mostly witches do,) Whose seed's not only Molech's sacrifice, But Beelzebub's, the Prince of feinds and flies. And we have those whose Concubines are more Then Solomon's: for all his regal store.

But oh our female's lust! we women have, Who, were each hair upon their head a knave, Would find all wicked work; who change desire To quench th' unsated flames of lustful fire. Heliogabalus was temperate; Nero, a Prince of mercies, to who late Have sway'd these Isles. Plague-soars have quite ore∣spread The body politick from foot to head: Oppressors swarm; and brother against brother Do act the Devils part upon each other; And by an uncouth way, sublim'd deceit Hath taught the smaller to oppess the great; As true as strange, though mostly undescry'd: For poorer sort have (to maintain their pride,) Inhauns'd their price of hire; yet lessen still Their daily labour; both are what they will: No past age heard the like prepost'rous curse, Bred by proud heart, wedded to beggers purse: A subtile down-right theft: yet lawful held; Satan hath so this generation spell'd, Charm'd, and deluded, that most part believe, It's charity and wisedom to deceive; And (truth to say) the rich so cruel be, So voyd of mercy, and humanity Towards the poor, that both all conscience smother, And God doth justly plague them each by other. Yea, all degrees amongst us are perverted From God and good; and grown so stubborn hearted, In their own wayes: So self-ishly inclin'd, So headstrong, wilful; each will have his mind, Though thereby all should be undone, they knew, And universal ruine should ensue. Our Princes are like Rampant Lyons grown, Seizing on poor mens right, as if their own: Their Courts have Theaters of vices been, Where Devils incarnate made a sport of sin:

Where, pride and luxury, sloth and excess, With emulation, envy, drunkenness, And hypocritick flattery, was taught, Yea where mens blood was often sold and bought: Where God's name was prophan'd, his worship scorn'd, Or mungrelliz'd by those the beast suborn'd To puddle our pure streams, and turn their course From truth to errour, and from that to worse. Our Peers have been like Judahs Peers of old, When Joash reign'd; of whom thy word hath told, That they by flatteries the King seduc'd From thy true worship (which before he us'd) To groves and Idols: and not to attend, VVhen God to him his prophets oft did send; They have been proud, luxurious, avaricious, And prone to bribery, extreamly vicious, In all their ways: a Peerage fitter for The commonwealths of Sodom, or Gomorrh', Then for a Christian state: and God hath now For their great sins enforc'd their pride to bow. Our Priests have been blind watch-men, nothing knowing, Dumb dogs that cannot bark (yet always crowing) In sleep delighted, and so sleeping lie, Whilst their neglected flocks do stray and die: As greedly dogs, that ne'er enough can have, They look all their own way, how they may save For their advantage, and their purposes: And mutually provoking to excess; Crying, Come, we'll bring wine, and we will fill Our selves with strong drink, till our bellies swill; And having spent this day in jollity, Much more abundant shall to morrow be. Yea many (if not worse) have been as bad As any prophets Jezebel ere had. VVhen God a sad decree pronounc'd the while Against his person, and his projects vile,

They sent their King by their base flattery, And lies, to Ramoth-Gilead, there to dy: Who would not notice take of Micah's word (When he not long had raign'd) sent from the Lord; Although he had receiv'd express directions, Not to be led by such false prophets fictions: And many other prophets cunningly, Preach up division for divinity; Vent schisms, and errours, fantasies of men, For divine truths: but I'll instruct my pen In brief to tell whence these instructers come: They're Seminaries sent us forth from Rome: And (wer't not that our sins them here detain) We'ld send them with the mischief back again, Or give them to the sowls of Heaven here, For a sweet meal of politick good cheer. Our judges who our seats of justice fill'd, More in corruption, then in law were skill'd, Unless in wresting it to base by-ends, To vex their honest-foes, please their knave-friends: The proverb prov'd true here, birds of a feather Did (by the help of angels) hang together; Had man's help but at Tyburne hung them so, T' had sav'd these Isles much blood and treasure too. And, as a mighty torrent breaking out From mountains top, frets every side about, And drowns the vales with its impoison'd streams; So did injustice dart her lightless beams, And pour her floods from those high courts, about On all the lower courts the land throughout. Mayors, Justices of peace, and Constables, With under-sh'riffs, and all the lower rabbles Of officers, in this great Isle were grown Corrupt; yea many to take bribes did own In face of justice; daring impudence! Enough to make Heaven blush at the offence,

And pour down thunder-bolts of indignation, To root for ever hence our Name and Nation, To puff us off like th'atoms of a feather, And Sodomize us into Hell together. Shalt thou not visit Lord for this? and be Aveng'd on such a Nation as are we? It's more then miracle we being have On this side Hell, at least this side the grave: It's thy meer mercy Lord. Oh give us sense Of thy forbearance, and our own offence. Oh that my lines (like Jonah's crying) could Ninivetize our hearts; our souls new-mould; Wrest cries from man, and bellowing from beasts; Charm us from daily food, and nightly rests, Till thou be pleas'd to hear, and hearing see, And seeing heal, our plague-sick malady, Our sin-sick State, and to reform our ways, And send us truth and peace, and we thee praise. But Lord, we in our wilfulness go on, Just as our Fathers have before us done; They ate sowre grapes, our teeth are set on edge Vith eating sowrer; for none can alledge Our God unjust: thou long since profer'dst us A way of peace; but we (grown mutinous) VVould walk our own: and thou mayst justly send Our froward ways a fatal journeys end. VVe heard a voice behind us plainly say, Let God elect with you, this is your way, Walk in't and prosper; yet we still will choose Members, whose discord will the body lose, Unless thy grace prevent: for we are running A way chalk'd out by thine, and our most cunning And mortal foes: a way devis'd at Rome, VVhich will these lands to desolation doom; Our bodies to sharp sword, and famine thin: Our souls ro utter darkness for our sin:

Deprive us of thy candlestick that live, And to posterity dark Lanthorns give, To guide in pathes of death: and to deceive Our progeny false Gospels to believe, Unless thy grace prevent. Bless'd God, arise, And let thy foes be scatter'd, that despise And persecute thy truth and people thus: Draw us to thee, and be thou GOD WITH US. Cease our divisions; chase all schisms and errours: All Heresies and Ath'ism, hence with terrours; And with confusion unto those that broach'd them, And recantation to those that approach'd them: Let Reformation true at last come in To our distracted Church and State, which sin Hath long kept off: let love, with truth and peace, And blessed union, daily more increase In these distressed lands; chase hence the swarms Of black-pits locusts, whose inveigling charms Dicotomize the world, whose industry Makes King fight King, and men make war with thee. Lord, let eternal mercy turn us thus From all our sins, and all thy wrath from us: For none but thine Almighty hand can cure Our desp'rate wounds: thy enemies make sure Shortly to sway these lands; and therewithal, To ruine thy reformed Churches all: Unless thy grace prevent. Help Lord at need; It's in the mount, it's time thou help indeed: For vain is mans false help: we fools have try'd By Egypt's friendship to be fortifi'd, Whose broken reeds have pierc'd our heedless hands, And drawn thy judgments on these sinful lands; Avert them Lord, and turn us unto thee, Thy fury just from us; else lost are we. Thy stock of wonted mercies we have spent: And are undone, unless thy grace prevent.

We set up Princes (Lord) but not of thee: Rulers whom thou know'st not, who'll fatal be Unto this land, and make us soon repent Our foolish choice: unless thy Grace prevent. Oh let the BRANCH spring forth and bud, and bear, (If thou so will'st) whilst we are pilgrims here: The birth is at wombs mouth: Oh God, help strength, To bring that bless'd production forth at length, Which our sins keep obstructed in the womb; And let the Son of David's Kingdom come. But out great crimes defer that blest event, And urge thy wrath: Lord, let thy Grace prevent. Prevent our just-deserved ruine, Lord: Let love obliterate our crimes abhor'd: Recruit our stock of grace so vainly spent; And our just fears, Lord let thy grace prevent.