Profane Liberty Envious hypocrisy jesuitecall Policy Three Grand Enemies to Church and State Sins captive, grace abuser Covenant beaker souls deceiver Void of zeal filled with sin Given up to die therein To precious truths an enemy Filled with pride and cruiltie And fills large Tracts with fowl disgrace Of truths dear ones that her embrace Till Ant christ shall ruind be Great combustions we must see With errors shall the world be led But christ his spouse himself will guide The times Displayed IN SIX SESTYADS: The first A Presbyter, an Independent. The second An Anabaptist and a Brownist The third An Antinomian and a Familist The fourth A Libertine and an Arminian. The Fift A Protestant and eke a Papist All these dispute in several Tracts, and be Divulgers, as of Truth, so Fallacy. The sixth Apollo, grieves to see the Times So pestered with Mechanics lavish Rhymes. Scribimus indocti, Doctique Poemata Passim. London, Printed and are to be sold by I. P. at his shop near the Session's house in the old Bayly. 1646. To the Right Honourable Philip Herbert Earl of Pembroke. VOuchsafe great Lord, that art our Nation's pride In whose rare Virtues, they alone conside To be the Patron, of my humble Muse Who doth thee only, her Maecenas choose: This work displays the times, therefore 'tis meet I should present it, humbly at thy feet Who art not sever of the times, but thou Will serve thy Nation, and thy help allow For to maintain their Privileges and be A propogator, of God's verity. To thee therefore great Lord, this work I give That I and it, may in thy favour live. Your Honour's most obedient Servant, S. SHEPPARD. An Anagram on the Name of the Right Honourable Philip Herbert Earl of Pembroke. EARL PHILIP HERBERT Anagram Pear help all Liberty. Pear help all liberty, Great Lord we find How well thy Name, hath suited to thy mind. When England was in danger slaved to be Then thou great Lord, didst help all Liberty And by thy circumspect, and prudent wit Saw'st evil coming and diverted it; To thee therefore a trophy I will raise And sing in Verse, that aye shall last (thy praise.) THE TIMES DISPLAYED IN SIX SESTIADS. THE FIRST SESTIAD: The Argument, An Independent and a Presbyter Their several Tenants, 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, ruled the Land Making God's Truth, to stoop to your command O thou immortal Rector when shall we Be as we ought, and have our conscience free From men's Injunctions. PRESBYTER, " See man's nature is " Never contented, though he be in bliss. " He would have yet more joy, why know'st thou not, Or hath thy shallow memory forgot, What great immunities are purchased Since the great, little Prelate, lost his head Are we not free from Papists lordly Reign Who ruled, Charles only called Sovereign; Is not the thrust of Inovation cut Are not our Enemies, in pinsolds that; Are not those Courts, that racked the Commons purses " Receiving oft, their silver, with their curses Abolished, i● not that some fatal court Star Chamber called, 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 tenants I abhor and hate As errors, do all mischief properate Perhaps thou art an Expactant, luch there be Who wait Election, in the Presbytery I hold the Rule, of your Archi-synagogie To be a cruel, Rigorous Tyranny Your high Sanhedrim, by which you undertake Your Fellow Commoners, mere slaves to make Your great Assembly is above all power And what you please, you turn, and change each hour So that I the rather choose, a slave to be And vassaild, to the Bishop's Hierchie Then unto you subjected, pray whence risen Your Reformation, but from Knox, and those Seditious ones Melvill and Lisley, and Peter Carmichael, who once did stunned In open opposition 'gainst all Law In ordine ad Spiritualia. Presbyter O Thou deluded, that art enemy To God, doth not the sacred verity Confirm, and eke command the Church should be Guided by a Judicious Presbytery Thy Allegations are most false and naught, Such as the Fiend 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 Almighty's Sacred Majesty Our prudent Parliament, do now proceed To settle Independent. What they have decreed they'll find when they have settled it most sure 'tis built on sand, and cannot long endure. Presbyter. Well go thy ways, let Satan and his crew Theu most of your wicked ends pursue, God will preserve his Church, and maugre all Will have his own will to be principal After so long obseurity, he now Is pleased unto his servants light to show, 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 purchased, grant Lord, ne'er swerve Therefrom, but us and ours embrace it may Until the last, and dreadful Judgement day, The end of the first Sestiad. The Second Sestyad. The Argument An Anabaptist and a Brownist here Vnmask themselves, and make the filth appear, The while the one contendeth for himself Averring he ought not baptise his elf Till he's 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 oppressed Were fined imprisoned, and could never rest For the Beast, Image, the hated Bishops (now) We openly, and without, dread avow Our tenants, dipping maids, and wives each day Their natural concupiscence to allay, And although some we drown, those drowned so Do but by water unto heaven go, And— Brow. I'll not believe 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 Christening of bells, with many other Fables, 'twas then an * The Brownists hold our church to be Antichristian & Heretical; that because 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 Parliament. Set up a worse, fiercer Government. The spawn of Bishops, now must rule, I gather The wandering issue, of a misled Father For the Presbytery, the wise can tell We justly may with Bishop's parallel, From them their Power's derived Anabaptist, All hail to thee Dear Brother of our NONCONFORMITIE; Both thee and I, like Sampsons' Foxes do Burn up God's vineyard, work the Church much woe, Why then are we estranged each from other, Let me embrace thee, in my arms my Brother. Brownist. Stay good, my friend, and know twixt thee & me There is a very vast Antipathy, I do not hold that Beasts from death shall rise At the last day, nor yet in any wise Can I believe, that ere the Damned shall After some torments be released all, And placed 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 be, Thou now recitedst, as an heresy, Scriptures And this assure thyself, who ere is not Of our Society, shall have his lot Amongst the Damned, evermore to dwell, 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 third Sestyad. 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 moved God for to come on earth, because he loved 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 love's family They would reject their burdensome Estate And make themselves with us Incorporate, How many Queens, and princesses of might To be made one of us, have ta'en delight, As Messalina, Cleopatra, * FLORA She Rome's vulgar honour as a Deity Lais and Thais, O I'm ravished To think upon the pleasant Lectures read To us, when we in full Assembly met, The sisters on the brother's laps being set Nothing but love our harmless souls desire With love, each of our hearts is set on fire This love we cherish, by all ways we may For 'tis good our loves should aught decay 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 ears are blistered; O what have I heard And art thou not thou beast at all afeard Of Hell, or thinkest thou the Almighty sleeps Why he a beadrole of thy baseness keeps And will take vengeance on thee that dost make Religion cloak thy evils. 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 man's Rule, although the Lord from heaven Girt in bright flames, with awful Majesty The while the Trumpet sounded from on high Denounced Death, to him the same should break And yet you dare with boldness 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 pardoned, ere committed be Why then it seems Christ Jesus, to no end his heavenly pater noster did commend To his Disciples, bidding them desire Forgiveness 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 Lord's Supper. mystery Of our salvation (Why are we tied thus) Say they to shadows, when Christ dwells in us Already, why on pictures must we feed When we possess the substance. Antinom. 'tTwere indeed Agreivous crime in me, for to confer With one whose ways, are so Irregular, Untie those bonds, do chain thy soul and be No more partaker, of love's family And were it not, that I have hope thou mayst 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 Thyself and me, I would unto thy woe First bang thee sound, and then let thee go. The end of the third Sestyad. The fourth 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 Joys on Earth, and tell not me Of after hopes, future felicity I tyre to think on, the time present I Will spend in mirth, and pleasant jollity Sat round my hearts, our heads with Ivy crowned Let quasse Lyeus, and the healths go round And singing pearls, unto Ceres, we Unto the Harp, will foot it lustily While here I live, I'll spend my time in mirth Time is no more, when I am gone from earth This night I'll clip a beauty, would tempt Jove Equal to Juno, or the Queen of Love Away with this same fond Philosophy That tells, the soul lives to Eternity Away with such vain fancies when we fall The soul dies with the body, etc. It hath been foretold by the Prophets and Apostles that such men the latter days shall afford, and our own age hath verified, their speech unto us, and even for the main question of the Resurrection whereat 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 hell, wherein their portion must needs be very great; they labour 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, than that man should strive to persuade 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 merely 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 somewhat heavenly and derived from God, Thus much by the way. Arminian. There's no man shall, Persuade me, but man has, an Innate will Power of himself, to commit good or ill, I've set before thee, fire, and water, choose, Saith God, even which thou wils, which plainly shows Man's power's of himself, to take or leave, To take the good; or else the ill receive, POPE PIUS, 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 placed The heaven of heavens with the Almighty graced, While all his glorious angels standing round Loud Allelujaes, to the THRONE, resound: On the left hand was ORCUS placed where sat Grim Pluto, placed in a throne of state, Foshiond of burning brass, the Damned Crew Howling in flames, their forepast Acts did rue, Just in the midst, betwixt both these there stood A man well shaped, 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, t'other to misery Doth lead; choose which thou wilt, therefore 'tis sure Man may his sorrow, or his bliss 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 Abyss at length. The end of the fourth Sestyad. The fifth Sestyad. The Argument. A Papist on Pilgrimage he went Meets with a true believing Protestant, Twixt whom there divers propositions be As 'bout the Mass and pope's Supremacy, Till in the end, they both agree as one, And do extol the true Religion. Papist. Holy Saint Christopher be thou my guide And aid my speed, that I by eventide May arrive safely at Saint Francis shrine, That holy Francis that by aid 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 God's truth above the unwritten verity, Worshipful Pilgrim, all hail to thee That wrapped 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 chief confidence in the Act of faith—. SOLIFIDIAN; Why thou deluded, how long wilt thou be Unto the holy Church an enemy, And still persisting in thy w●●●●ed state Dye as an Heretic, excommunicate By Christ's Vicegerent. Protestant. My good pilgrim hold, Enough and each too much, thou now hast told I'm not deluded, but with settled faith I tie myself, to what the Scripture saith Which in no place mentions the papal throne, That Septred Kings, must yield subjection To mitred 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 bell book and candle. Papist. The airs infected, O that I had now Some holy water, for to cross my brow O sire I blasphemy have heard thou soul Who art infected so, with errors foul, 'tis hard to cure thee. Protest. Nor do I desire. Thou shouldst as my Physician gain thy hire Which will be more, than all the world affords My precious soul, Papist. Although to bandy words With thee an Heritick, were fond and Vain Yet so I see, learned I'll not abstain But I will converse a while, know then that Rome Is the most ancient Church (where martyrdom) Divers Apostles did receive, and there By Christ's appointment, is S. Peter's chair Where Christ's Vicegerent, Peter's seat doth fill And what he doth Command, even Christ doth will He cannot err in aught, for on this stone Christ builds his Church (all opposition) Shall not prevail against him, every state All Kings on Earth to him subordinate; He to the glorious fun I may compare. Kings to the Moon, who of his lustre share. Protest. I hear toomuch, although 'tis truth Rome was Once called the mother Church, but truth did pass From Rome, drove thence by erring fallacies, By ground less fables, superstitious lies, When Gods love was relinquished, and instead Thereof, was man's traditions honoured. 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 Saviour said (To Peter) that on him alone he laid A charge to rule his Church, but when he spoke 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 I'll build my Church, and whereas you compare The Pope unto the Sun, you grossly err, But rather we full aptly render may The Pope as Moon, for as one well 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 Phoebus Carr the day to light, And by this civil, and unnatural Jar Enforced natures bands to fry in Warr. Even so at first, the Aspiring Popes of Rome, When they would Kings as well as Priests become Laid claim, and urged it their Prerogative For to dispose of Crowns, and those did strive For to make frustrate, Their so i'll Intent They presently deprived of Government, And then being seated in the Sun's bright Carr They straight involud all nations in War, And now the sole Incendiaries be For to set Crown and Crown at enmity. Papist. I do find something in me prompts me now The Pope's usurped power to disavow. Protestant. This man of sin doth hold the world in hand, He holds his Papal power by Christ's command And lest the vulgar should into it pry He doth lock up the sacred Verity, And feeds the people's minds with outward glosses. With pleasant music, Images, and Crosses, With Pilgrimages, Offerings, and Oblations, With holy Rood days, and such recreations. With holy-water, wafer, cakes, and chalices, With Copes, & Mitres, Crosiers, such like sallacies Bewitch the people so, they blindly run To all excess of Superstition; Again, that he his Priests may magnify To win them honour in the people's eye Theyre told, when once the words of consecration Are uttered, just upon the elevation Of the bread God, 'tis very Christ even he, Who 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 entirely I Will be a Protestant. Protestant. If so Thy tongue and heart in equipage do go, Come follow me, and thou wilt find there's none Of true Belief, but Protestants alone. The end of the fifth Sestyad. THE SIXTH SESTYAD. The Argument. Apollo rageth that the noble bay Is worn by those that do not merit it, He and she Muse's an amer cement lay On some, that trusting to their sore 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 loss, whose like shall be no more. 1. HE that doth bear the silver shining bow Whose music doth surpass, that of the spheres Who slew great * Ovid's Metamoi. Lib. 1. Pythan, and did Vulcan show Where Mars and Vanus, were, to increase his fears. Jove and Latona's 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 he At Delphos Did sit, he cast his most refulgent eye Towards Parnassus' Mount, where he might see The sacred Nine, not now melodiously As they were wont, to chant in Jollity Apollo's praise, and the great * Jupiter Deity, That turned IO to a Cow, but now they were With sorrow overcome, did joy forbear. 3. With speed to Helicon he took his flight. Where 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, Which doth afflict me more, than when my * Phaeton. son By those unruly Steeds, to death was done. 4. Shall 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 breasts penetrate; Who for to claim the Laurel do not fear. Due only unto those, whose happy fate Hath raised them, my Prophets for to be, Or else can claim the same by victory. 5. Each fellow now, that hath but had a view Of the learnt Phrygians Fables, groweth bold, And name of Poet doth to himself accrue; That * M. P. Ballad maker too, is now extolled With the great name of Poet, * J. T. He that knew Better far how to row, than pen to hold, His sordid lines, are swelled 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 Poet's name To my Eternal grief, be long since dead, His lines for ever shall preserve his Fame. So * his who did so near his footpaths tread Samuel Danniel. Whose lines as near as Virgil's Homer's 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 fill, Whose virtue is the talk of Foreign Lands While they admire his Feats of Arms his skill In Poesic, while he 'bove all commands The Muses, who so waited on his Quill That like to Sidu●●; none ere wrote before His birth, not now he's dead shall ere write more. 9 See him whose Tragic Scenes EURIPIDES Doth equal, and with SOPHOCLES we may Compare great SHAKESPEARE ARISTOPHANES Never like him, his Fancy could display, Witness-he Prince of Tyre, his Pericles, His sweet and his to be admired lay He wrote of lustful Tarquin's Rape shows he Did understand the depth of Poesy. 10. But * Drayton. thou dear soul, whose lines when I behold I do astonished stand, of whom Fame says By after times, Thy * Polyolbion. songs shall be extolled And mentioned be as equalling my lays Thou who so sweetly EDWARD'S woes hast told When other Poems; though of worth decays, Thine shall be honoured, and shall aye subfist In spite of dark oblions hiding mist. 11. So * His that Divine PLAUTUS equalled Ben. johnson. Whose Comic vain MENANDER ne'er could hit, Whose tragic scenes shall be with wonder Read By after ages for unto his wit Myself gave personal aid I dictated To him when as Sejanus fall he writ, And yet on earth some foolish sots there be That dare make Randolf his Rival in degree. 12. All hail eke unto * Mr. May. thee that didst translate My loved LUCAN into thine own tongue, And what he could not finish snatched by fate, Thou hast completed his ingenuous * P●●●salla. song Thy Fame with his shall ne'er be out of date Nor shall base Momus carp thy glory wrong, But of mine own tree, I'll a garland frame For thee, and mongst my Propets rank thy name, 13. Mr Brown. So * thine whose rural quill so high doth sound Theocritus or Mantnans ere could be So sweet and so sententious ever found As are thy Pastorals of Brittany, Thy fame for aye shall to the skies resound, And I pronounce Thy fluent Poesy 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 ne'er be said Nor can my Verses, ere extol too much Thy real worth, whose lines unparaled Although some envious critics seem to grudge Shall live on earth to thy eternal Fame When theirs in grave shall rot, without a name. 15 So eke shall yours, great Davenant, Shirley and Thine learned Goffe., Banmont, and Fletcher's to With * Mr Philip Massinger. his that the sweet Renegaddo penned With * Mr Allen. his who Cressey sang, and Poycters to Your works, your names for ever shall commend Joined with * Mr Nabbs. his, that wrote how Scipie, O'erthrew great Hannibal, his ingenious lines Shall be a pattern, for the after times. 16. Nor will I * Mr withers. thee forget whose Poesy Is pure, whose Emblems, Satyrs Pastorals Shall live on earth even to Eternity, Nor * Thee whose Poems loudly on me calls 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 be, And times to come shall hug his Poesy. 17. But why, Urania, hangest thou so thy head, What grievous loss hath rest thy Joys away; Quoth she, knows not Apollo QVARLES is dead That next to BARTAS, sang the heavenlist lay, And who is he on earth, his steps can tread, So shall 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 honour shall Not fade, but be far greater Amplified; There's one who now upon thy name doth call, Who hath by Clio formerly been tried, And by her well approud; He surely shall Succeed great Quarles, if thou not fâte to inspite And warm his Bosom with thy hottest fire. 19 Hereat she cheered was, and now a● erst Apollo in the midst, the Mules Nine Began to sing, CLIO, Jove's Deeds rehearsed When he the Giants pashed, her song Divine Apollo shaped his tire unto, where first I did set forth I must again decline: What shallow fools shall 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.