Then to the Bar, all they drew near
who dy'd in Infancy,
And never had or good or bad
effected pers'nally,
But from the womb unto the tomb
were straightway carried,
(Or at the last e're they transgrest)
who thus began to plead:
167
If for our own transgression,
or disobedience,
We here did stand at thy left-hand
just were the Recompence:
But Adam's guilt our souls hath spilt,
his fault is charg'd on us;
And that alone hath overthrown,
and utterly undone us.
168
Not we, but he, ate of the Tree,
whose fruit was interdicted:
Yet on us all of his sad Fall,
the punishment's inflicted.
How could we sin that had not been,
or how is his sin our,
Without consent, which to prevent,
we never had a pow'r?
169
O great Creator, why was our Nature
depraved and forlorn?
Why so defil'd, and made so vild
whilst we were yet unborn?
If it be just, and needs we must
transgressors reck'ned be,
Thy Mercy, Lord, to us afford,
which sinners hath set free.
170
Behold we see Adam set free,
and sav'd from his trespass,
Whose sinful Fall hath split us all,
and brought us to this pass
Canst thou deny us once to try,
or Grace to us to tender,
When he finds grace before thy face,
that was the chief offender?
171
Than answered the Judge most dread,
God doth such doom forbid,
That men should dye eternally
for what they never did.
But what you call old Adam's Fall,
and only his Trespass,
You call amiss to call it his,
both his and yours it was.
172
He was design'd of all Mankind
to be a publick Head,
A common Root, whence all should shoot,
and stood in all their stead.
He stood and fell, did ill or well,
not for himself alone,
But for you all, who now his Fall,
and trespass would disown.
173
If he had stood, then all his brood
had been established
In Gods true love, never to move,
nor once awry to tread:
than all his Race, my Father's Grace,
should have enjoy'd for ever,
And wicked Sprights by subtile sleights
could them have harmed never.
174
Would you have griev'd to have receiv'd
through Adam so much good,
As had been your for evermore,
if he at first had stood?
Would you have said, we ne'er obey'd
nor did thy Laws regard;
It ill befits with benefits,
us, Lord, so to reward?
175
Since then to share in his welfare,
you could have been content,
You may with reason share in his treason,
and in the punishment
Hence you were born in state forlorn,
with Natures so depraved:
Death was your due, because that you
had thus your selves behaved
176
You think if we had been as he,
whom God did so betrust,
We to our cost would ne're have lost
all for a paltry Lust
Had you been made in Adam's stead,
you would like things have wrought,
And so into the self-same wo,
your selves and your have brought.
177
I may deny you once to try,
or Grace to you to tender,
Though he finds Grace before my face,
who was the chief offender:
Else should my Grace cease to be Grace;
for it should not be free,
If to release whom I should please,
I have no libertee.
178
If upon one what's due to none
I frankly shall bestow,
And on the rest shall not think best,
compassions skirts to throw,
Whom injure I? will you envy,
and grudge at others weal?
Or me accuse, who do refuse
your selves to help and heal?
179
Am I alone of what's my own,
no Master or no Lord?
Or if I am, how can you claim
what I to some afford?
Will you demand Grace at my hand,
and challenge what is mine?
Will you demand Grace at my hand,
and challenge what is mine?
Will you teach me whom to set free,
& thus my Grace confine?
180
You sinners are, and such a share
as sinners may expect,
Such you shall have; for I do save
none but mine own Elect.
Yet to compare your sin with their,
who liv'd a longer time,
I do confess yours is much less,
though every sin's a crime.
181
A crime it is, therefore in bliss
you may not hope to dwell;
But unto you I shall allow
the easiest room in Hell
The glorious King thus answering,
they cease, and plead no longer:
Their Consciences must needs confess
his Reasons are the stronger.
182
Thus all mens Pleas the Judge with ease
doth answer and confute,
Until that all, both great and small,
are silenced and mute.
Vain hopes are cropt, all mouths are stopt,
sinners have nought to say,
But that 'tis just, and equal most
they should be damn'd for ay.
183
Now what remains, but that to pains
and everlasting smart,
Christ should condemn the Sons of men,
which is their just desert;
Oh, rueful plights of sinful wights!
Oh wretches all forlorn:
'T had happy been that ne're had seen
the Sun, or not been born.
184
Yea, now it would be good they could
themselves annihilate,
and cease to be, themselves to free
from such a fearful state
Oh happy Dogs, and Swine, and Frogs:
yea Serpents generation,
Who do not fear this doom to hear,
and sentence of Damnation!
185
Their is their state so desperate:
their sins are fully known;
Their vanities and villanies
before the world are shown
As they are gross and impious,
so are their numbers more
Than motes i'th' Air, or then their hair,
or sands upon the shore.
186
Divine Justice offended is
and Satisfaction claimeth:
God's wrathful ire kindled like fire,
against them fiercely flameth.
Their Judge severe doth quite cashier
and all their Pleas off take,
That never a man, or dare, or can
a further Answer make.
187
Their mouths are shut, each man is put
to silence and to shame:
Nor have they ought within their thought,
Christ's Justice for to blame.
The Judge is just, and plague them must,
nor will he mercy shew
(For Mercies day is past away)
to any of this Crew.
188
The Judge is strong, doers of wrong
cannot his power withstand:
None can by flight run out of sight,
nor scape out of his hand
Sad is their state: for Advocate
to plead their Cause there's none:
None to prevent their punishment,
or misery bemone.
189
O dismal day! whither shall they
for help and succour flee?
To God above, with hopes to move
their greatest Enemee:
His wrath is great, whose burning heat
no floods of tears can slake:
His word stands fast, that they be cast
into the burning Lake.
190
To Christ their Judge, he doth adjudge
them to the Pit of Sorrow;
Nor will he hear, or cry, or tear,
nor respite them one morrow
To Heav'n alas, they cannot pass,
it is against them shut;
To enter there (O heavy cheer)
they out of hopes are put.
191
Unto their Treasures, or to their Pleasures,
all these have them forsaken:
Had they full Coffers to make large offers,
their Gold would not be taken
Unto the place where whilome was
their Birth and Education?
Lo! Christ begins for their great sins
to fire the Earths Foundation;
192
And by and by the flaming Sky
shall drop like molten Lead
About their ears, t'increase their fears,
and aggravate their dread.
To Angels good that ever stood
in their integrity,
Should they betake themselves, and make
their sute incessantly?
193
They neither skill, nor do they will
to work them any ease:
They will not mourn to see them burn,
nor beg for their release.
To wicked men, their bretheren,
in sin and wickedness,
Should they make mone? their case is one,
they're in the same distress.
194
Ah, cold comfort, and mean support
from such like Comforters!
Ah, little joy of Company,
and fellow-sufferers!
Such shall increase their hearts disease,
and add unto their woe,
Because that they brought to decay
themselves and many moe.
195
Unto the Saints with sad complaints
should they themselves apply?
They're not dejected, nor ought affected
with all their misery.
Friends stand aloof, and make no proof
what Prayers or Tears can do:
Your godly friends are now more friends
to Christ than unto you.
196
Where tender love mens hearts did move
unto a sympathy,
And bearing part of others smart
in their anxiety;
Now such compassion is out of fashion,
and wholly laid aside:
No Friends no near, but Saints to hear
their Sentence can abide.
197
One natural Brother beholds another
in this astonied fit,
Yet sorrows not thereat a jot,
nor pitties him a whit
The godly wife conceives no grief,
nor can she shed a tear
For the sad state of her dear Mate,
when she his doom doth hear.
198
He that was erst a Husband pierc't
with sense of Wives distress,
Whose tender heart did bear a part
of all her grievances,
Shall mourn no more as heretofore
because of her ill plight;
Although he see her now to be
a damn'd forsaken wight.
199
The tender Mother will own no other
of all her numerous brood,
But such as stand at Christ's right hand
acquitted through his Blood.
The pious Father had now much rather
his graceless Son should ly
In Hell with Devils, for all his evils
burning eternally,
200
Then God most high should injury,
by sparing him sustain;
And doth rejoyce to hear Christ's voice
adjudging him to pain.
Who having all, both great and small,
convinc'd and silenced,
Did then proceed their Doom to read,
and thus it uttered,
201
Ye sinful wights, and cursed sprights,
that work Iniquity,
Depart together from me for ever
to endless Misery;
Your portion take in yonder Lake,
Where Fire and Brimstone flameth:
Suffer the smart, which your desert
as it's due wages claimeth.
202
Oh piercing words more sharp than swords!
what, to depart from Thee,
Whose face before for evermore
the best of Pleasures be!
What? to depart (unto our smart)
from thee Eternally :
To be for aye banish'd away,
with Devils company!
203
What? to be sent to Punishment ,
and flames of Burning Fire ,
To be surrounded, and eke confounded
with Gods Revengful ire .
What? to abide, not for a tide
these Torments, but for Ever :
To be released, or to be eased,
not after years, but Never .
204
Oh, fearful Doom ! now there's no room
for hope or help at all:
Sentence is past which aye shall last,
Christ will not it recall.
There might you hear them rent and tear
the Air with their out-cries:
The hideous noise of their sad voice
ascendeth to the Skies.
205
They wring their hands, their caitiff-hands,
and gnash their teeth for terrour;
They cry, they roar for anguish sore,
and gnaw their tongues for horrour.
But get away without delay,
Christ pitties not your cry:
Depart to Hell, there may you yell,
and roar Eternally.
who dy'd in Infancy,
And never had or good or bad
effected pers'nally,
But from the womb unto the tomb
were straightway carried,
(Or at the last e're they transgrest)
who thus began to plead:
167
If for our own transgression,
or disobedience,
We here did stand at thy left-hand
just were the Recompence:
But Adam's guilt our souls hath spilt,
his fault is charg'd on us;
And that alone hath overthrown,
and utterly undone us.
168
Not we, but he, ate of the Tree,
whose fruit was interdicted:
Yet on us all of his sad Fall,
the punishment's inflicted.
How could we sin that had not been,
or how is his sin our,
Without consent, which to prevent,
we never had a pow'r?
169
O great Creator, why was our Nature
depraved and forlorn?
Why so defil'd, and made so vild
whilst we were yet unborn?
If it be just, and needs we must
transgressors reck'ned be,
Thy Mercy, Lord, to us afford,
which sinners hath set free.
170
Behold we see Adam set free,
and sav'd from his trespass,
Whose sinful Fall hath split us all,
and brought us to this pass
Canst thou deny us once to try,
or Grace to us to tender,
When he finds grace before thy face,
that was the chief offender?
171
Than answered the Judge most dread,
God doth such doom forbid,
That men should dye eternally
for what they never did.
But what you call old Adam's Fall,
and only his Trespass,
You call amiss to call it his,
both his and yours it was.
172
He was design'd of all Mankind
to be a publick Head,
A common Root, whence all should shoot,
and stood in all their stead.
He stood and fell, did ill or well,
not for himself alone,
But for you all, who now his Fall,
and trespass would disown.
173
If he had stood, then all his brood
had been established
In Gods true love, never to move,
nor once awry to tread:
than all his Race, my Father's Grace,
should have enjoy'd for ever,
And wicked Sprights by subtile sleights
could them have harmed never.
174
Would you have griev'd to have receiv'd
through Adam so much good,
As had been your for evermore,
if he at first had stood?
Would you have said, we ne'er obey'd
nor did thy Laws regard;
It ill befits with benefits,
us, Lord, so to reward?
175
Since then to share in his welfare,
you could have been content,
You may with reason share in his treason,
and in the punishment
Hence you were born in state forlorn,
with Natures so depraved:
Death was your due, because that you
had thus your selves behaved
176
You think if we had been as he,
whom God did so betrust,
We to our cost would ne're have lost
all for a paltry Lust
Had you been made in Adam's stead,
you would like things have wrought,
And so into the self-same wo,
your selves and your have brought.
177
I may deny you once to try,
or Grace to you to tender,
Though he finds Grace before my face,
who was the chief offender:
Else should my Grace cease to be Grace;
for it should not be free,
If to release whom I should please,
I have no libertee.
178
If upon one what's due to none
I frankly shall bestow,
And on the rest shall not think best,
compassions skirts to throw,
Whom injure I? will you envy,
and grudge at others weal?
Or me accuse, who do refuse
your selves to help and heal?
179
Am I alone of what's my own,
no Master or no Lord?
Or if I am, how can you claim
what I to some afford?
Will you demand Grace at my hand,
and challenge what is mine?
Will you demand Grace at my hand,
and challenge what is mine?
Will you teach me whom to set free,
& thus my Grace confine?
180
You sinners are, and such a share
as sinners may expect,
Such you shall have; for I do save
none but mine own Elect.
Yet to compare your sin with their,
who liv'd a longer time,
I do confess yours is much less,
though every sin's a crime.
181
A crime it is, therefore in bliss
you may not hope to dwell;
But unto you I shall allow
the easiest room in Hell
The glorious King thus answering,
they cease, and plead no longer:
Their Consciences must needs confess
his Reasons are the stronger.
182
Thus all mens Pleas the Judge with ease
doth answer and confute,
Until that all, both great and small,
are silenced and mute.
Vain hopes are cropt, all mouths are stopt,
sinners have nought to say,
But that 'tis just, and equal most
they should be damn'd for ay.
183
Now what remains, but that to pains
and everlasting smart,
Christ should condemn the Sons of men,
which is their just desert;
Oh, rueful plights of sinful wights!
Oh wretches all forlorn:
'T had happy been that ne're had seen
the Sun, or not been born.
184
Yea, now it would be good they could
themselves annihilate,
and cease to be, themselves to free
from such a fearful state
Oh happy Dogs, and Swine, and Frogs:
yea Serpents generation,
Who do not fear this doom to hear,
and sentence of Damnation!
185
Their is their state so desperate:
their sins are fully known;
Their vanities and villanies
before the world are shown
As they are gross and impious,
so are their numbers more
Than motes i'th' Air, or then their hair,
or sands upon the shore.
186
Divine Justice offended is
and Satisfaction claimeth:
God's wrathful ire kindled like fire,
against them fiercely flameth.
Their Judge severe doth quite cashier
and all their Pleas off take,
That never a man, or dare, or can
a further Answer make.
187
Their mouths are shut, each man is put
to silence and to shame:
Nor have they ought within their thought,
Christ's Justice for to blame.
The Judge is just, and plague them must,
nor will he mercy shew
(For Mercies day is past away)
to any of this Crew.
188
The Judge is strong, doers of wrong
cannot his power withstand:
None can by flight run out of sight,
nor scape out of his hand
Sad is their state: for Advocate
to plead their Cause there's none:
None to prevent their punishment,
or misery bemone.
189
O dismal day! whither shall they
for help and succour flee?
To God above, with hopes to move
their greatest Enemee:
His wrath is great, whose burning heat
no floods of tears can slake:
His word stands fast, that they be cast
into the burning Lake.
190
To Christ their Judge, he doth adjudge
them to the Pit of Sorrow;
Nor will he hear, or cry, or tear,
nor respite them one morrow
To Heav'n alas, they cannot pass,
it is against them shut;
To enter there (O heavy cheer)
they out of hopes are put.
191
Unto their Treasures, or to their Pleasures,
all these have them forsaken:
Had they full Coffers to make large offers,
their Gold would not be taken
Unto the place where whilome was
their Birth and Education?
Lo! Christ begins for their great sins
to fire the Earths Foundation;
192
And by and by the flaming Sky
shall drop like molten Lead
About their ears, t'increase their fears,
and aggravate their dread.
To Angels good that ever stood
in their integrity,
Should they betake themselves, and make
their sute incessantly?
193
They neither skill, nor do they will
to work them any ease:
They will not mourn to see them burn,
nor beg for their release.
To wicked men, their bretheren,
in sin and wickedness,
Should they make mone? their case is one,
they're in the same distress.
194
Ah, cold comfort, and mean support
from such like Comforters!
Ah, little joy of Company,
and fellow-sufferers!
Such shall increase their hearts disease,
and add unto their woe,
Because that they brought to decay
themselves and many moe.
195
Unto the Saints with sad complaints
should they themselves apply?
They're not dejected, nor ought affected
with all their misery.
Friends stand aloof, and make no proof
what Prayers or Tears can do:
Your godly friends are now more friends
to Christ than unto you.
196
Where tender love mens hearts did move
unto a sympathy,
And bearing part of others smart
in their anxiety;
Now such compassion is out of fashion,
and wholly laid aside:
No Friends no near, but Saints to hear
their Sentence can abide.
197
One natural Brother beholds another
in this astonied fit,
Yet sorrows not thereat a jot,
nor pitties him a whit
The godly wife conceives no grief,
nor can she shed a tear
For the sad state of her dear Mate,
when she his doom doth hear.
198
He that was erst a Husband pierc't
with sense of Wives distress,
Whose tender heart did bear a part
of all her grievances,
Shall mourn no more as heretofore
because of her ill plight;
Although he see her now to be
a damn'd forsaken wight.
199
The tender Mother will own no other
of all her numerous brood,
But such as stand at Christ's right hand
acquitted through his Blood.
The pious Father had now much rather
his graceless Son should ly
In Hell with Devils, for all his evils
burning eternally,
200
Then God most high should injury,
by sparing him sustain;
And doth rejoyce to hear Christ's voice
adjudging him to pain.
Who having all, both great and small,
convinc'd and silenced,
Did then proceed their Doom to read,
and thus it uttered,
201
Ye sinful wights, and cursed sprights,
that work Iniquity,
Depart together from me for ever
to endless Misery;
Your portion take in yonder Lake,
Where Fire and Brimstone flameth:
Suffer the smart, which your desert
as it's due wages claimeth.
202
Oh piercing words more sharp than swords!
what, to depart from Thee,
Whose face before for evermore
the best of Pleasures be!
What? to depart (unto our smart)
from thee Eternally :
To be for aye banish'd away,
with Devils company!
203
What? to be sent to Punishment ,
and flames of Burning Fire ,
To be surrounded, and eke confounded
with Gods Revengful ire .
What? to abide, not for a tide
these Torments, but for Ever :
To be released, or to be eased,
not after years, but Never .
204
Oh, fearful Doom ! now there's no room
for hope or help at all:
Sentence is past which aye shall last,
Christ will not it recall.
There might you hear them rent and tear
the Air with their out-cries:
The hideous noise of their sad voice
ascendeth to the Skies.
205
They wring their hands, their caitiff-hands,
and gnash their teeth for terrour;
They cry, they roar for anguish sore,
and gnaw their tongues for horrour.
But get away without delay,
Christ pitties not your cry:
Depart to Hell, there may you yell,
and roar Eternally.
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