JONAS

From forth the depth of my imprisoned soul, Steal you my sighs, testify my pain, Convey on wings of mine immortal tone, My zealous prayers, unto the starry throne: Ah merciful and joust thou dreadful God, Where is thine arm to lay revengeful strokes Upon the heads of our rebellious raze? Lo Israel once that flourished Like the vine, Is barren laid, the beautiful increase Is wholly blended, and irreligious zeal Encampeth there where virtue was inthroned Ah-lasse the while, the widow wants relief, The fatherless is wronged by naked need, Devotion sleeps in sinders of Contempt, Hypocrisy infects the holy Priest, Aye me for this, woe me for these misdeeds, Alone I walk to think upon the world, And sighs to see thy Prophets so contemned: Ah-lasse contemned by cursed Israel. Yet Jonas rest content, 'tis Israel's sin That causeth this, then muse no more thereon, But pray amends, and mend thy own amiss. Now does occasion further my desires, I find companions fit to aid my flight, Stay sir I pray, and hear a word or two. Whither pretend you to embark your selves May I have passage for my money then? Hold take thy hire, I follow Thee my friend. To one in peace, who sail as I do now, Put trust in him who succoureth every want. Lord of the light, thou maker of the world, Behold thy hands of mercy rears me up, Lo from the hideous bowels of this fish, Thou hast returned me to the wished air, Lo here apparent witness of thy power, The proud Leviathan that scours the seas, And from his nostrils showers out stormy floods, Whose back resists the tempest of the wind, Whose presence makes the scaly troops to shake, With humble stress of his broad opened chaps, Hath lent me harbour in the raging floods. Thus though my sin hath drawn me down to death, Thy mercy hath restored me to life. Bow you my knees, and you my bashful eyes, Weep so for grief, as you to water would: In trouble Lord I called unto Thee, Out of the belly of the deepest hell, I cried, and thou didst hear my voice Oh God: 'Tis thou hadst cast me down into the deep, The seas and floods did compass me about, I thought I had be cast from out thy sighed, The weeds were wrapped about my wretched head, I went unto the bottom of the hills, But thou Oh Lord my God hast brought me up. On Thee I thought when as my soul did faint, My prayers did press before thy mercy seat. Then will I pay my vows unto the Lord, For why salvation comes from his throne. Jehovah I am Priest to do thy will. What coast is this, and where am I arrived? Behold sweet Licas streaming in his bounds, Bearing the walls of haughty Nineveh, Whereas three hundred towns do tempt the heaven. Fair are thy walls pride of Assiriam, But lo thy sins have pierced through the clouds. Here will I enter boldly, since I know My God commands, whose power no power resists. Repent you men of Nineveh, repent. Rasni, I am a Prophet of the Lord, Sent hither by the mighty God of hosts, To cry destruction to the Ninivites, Oh Nineveh thou harlot of the world, I raise thy neighbours round about thy bounds, To come and see thy filthiness and sin. Thus says the Lord, the mighty God of host, Your King loves chambering and wantonness, Whoredom and murder do distain his Court, He favours covetous and drunken men. Behold therefore all Like a strumpet foul, Thou shalt be judged and punished for thy crime: The foe shall pierce the gates with iron ramps, The fire shall quite consume Thee from above. The houses shall be burned, the Infants slain. And women shall behold their husbands die. Thine eldest sister is Lamana. And Sodom on thy right hand seated is. Repent you men of Nineveh, repent. The Lord hath spoke, and I do cry it out. There are as yet but forty days remaining, And then shall Nineveh be overthrown. Disturb not him that sent me, Let me perform the message of the Lord. Exet. This is the day wherein the Lord hath said That Nineveh shall quite be overthrown. This is the day of horror and mishap, Fatal unto the cursed Ninivites. These stately Towers shall in thy watery bounds, Swift flowing Licas find their burials, These palaces the pride of Assurs kings, Shall be the bowers of desolation, Where as the solitary bird shall sing, And Tigers train their young ones to their nest. Oh all you nations bounded by the West, You happy Isles where Prophets do abound, You Cities famous in the western world, Make Nineveh a president for you. Leave lewd desires, leave covetous delights. Fly usury, let whoredom be exiled, Least you with Nineveh be overthrown. Lo how the suns inflamed torch prevails, Scorching the parched furrows of the earth. Here will I fit me down and fix mine eye Upon the ruins of you wretched town, And lo a pleasant shade, a spreading vine, To shelter Jonas in this sunny heat, What means my God, the day is done and spent. Lord shall my Prophecy be brought to nought? When falls the fire? when will the judge be wrath? I pray Thee Lord remember what I said, When I was yet within my country land, Jehovah is too merciful I fear. Oh let me fly before a Prophet fault, For thou art merciful the Lord my God, Full of compassion and of sufferance, And dost repent in taking punishment. Why stays thy hand? Oh Lord first take my life, Before my Prophesy be brought to noughts. Ah he is wrath, behold the gladsome vine That did defend me from the sunny heat, Is withered quite, and swallowed by a Serpent. Now furious Phlegon triumphs on my brows, And heat prevails, and I am faint in heart. Jehovah I with burning heat am plunged, And shadowed only by a silly vine, Behold a Serpent hath devoured it? And lo the sun incensed by Eastern wind, Afflicts me with Cariculer aspect, Would God that I might die, for well I wot, It better I were dead, then rest alive. Yea I am angry to the death my God. I go my God to finish thy command, O who can tell the wonders of my God, Or talk his praises with a fervent tongue. He brings down to hell, and lifts to heaven. He draws the yoke of bondage from the joust, And looks upon the Heathen with piteous eyes: To him all praise and honour be ascribed. O who can tell the wonders of my God, He makes the infant to proclaim his truth, The Ass to speak, so save the Prophets life. The earth and sea to yield increase for man. Who can describe the compass of his power? Or testify in terms his endless might? My ravished spright, o whither dost thou weened? Go and proclaim the mercy of my God. Relieve the careful hearted Ninivites. And as thou weart the messenger of death, Go bring glad tidings of recovered grace. Well goodman Jonas, I would you had never come from Jury to this Country, you have made me look Like a lean rib of roast beef, or Like the picture of lent, painted upon a read-hearings cob. Alas masters, we are commanded by the proclamation to fast and pray, by my troth I could prettily so, so, away with praying, but for fasting, why 'tis so contrary to my nature, that I had ra there suffer a short hanging, then a long fasting. Mark me, the words be these. Thou shalt take no manner of food for so many days. I had as leave he should have said, thou shalt hang thy self for so many days. And yet in faith I need not find fault with the proclamation, for I have a buttery, and a pantry, and a kitchen, a bout me, for proof, Ecce signum, this right slop is my pantry, be hold a manchet, this place is my kitchen, for lo a piece of beef. O let me repeat that sweet word again: For lo a piece of beef. This is my buttery, for see, see, my friends, to my great joy, a bot tle of beer. Thus alas I make shift to wear out this fasting, I driven away the time, but there go Searchers about to seek if any man breaks the Kings command. O here they be, in with your victuals Adam. Come careful King, cast off thy mournful weeds, Exchange thy cloudy looks to smoothed smiles, Thy tears have pierced the piteous throne of grace, Thy sighs Like Imence pleasing to the Lord: Have be peace-offerings for thy former pride. Rejoice and praise his name that gave Thee peace. And you fair Nymphs, you lovely Ninivites, Since you have wept and fasted for the Lord, He graciously have tempered his revenge, Beware henceforth to tempt him any more, Let not the niceness of your beauteous looks, Ingraft in you a high presuming mind, For those that climb, he casts to the ground, And they that humble be, he lifts aloft. Woman, amends may never come too late. A will to practice goodness, virtuous. The God of heaven when sinners do repent, Does more rejoice then in ten thousand joust. Blessed may you be, Like to the flowering sheaves, That play with gentle winds in summer tide, Like Olive branches let your children spread: And as the Pines in lofty Libanon, Or as the Kids that feed on Lepher plains, So be the seed and offspring of your loins. A virtuous deed pleasing to God and man, Would God all Cities drowned in Like shame, Would take example of these Ninivites. Weened on in peace, and prosecute this course, You Ilanders on whom the milder air Does sweetly breath the balm of kind increase: Whose lands are fattened with the dew of heaven, And made more fruitful then Actean plains. You whom delicious pleasures dandle soft: Whose eyes are blinded with security, Unmask your selves, cast error clean aside. Oh London, maiden of the mistress I'll, Wrapped in the folds and swathing clouts of shame: In Thee more sins then Nineveh contains, Contempt of God, despite of reverend age. Neglect of law, desire to wrong the poor: Corruption, whoredom, drunkenness, and pride. Swollen are thy brows with impudence and shame. Oh proud adulterous glory of the West, Thy neighbours burns, yet dost thou fear no fire. Thy Preachers cry, yet dost thou stop thine ears. The alarm rings, yet sleepest thou secure. London awake, for fear the Lord do frown, I set a looking Glass before thine eyes. Oh turn, Oh turn, with weeping to the Lord, And think the prayers and virtues of thy Queen, Defers the plague which otherwise would fallen. Repent Oh London, least for thine offence, Thy shepherd fail, whom mighty God preserve, That she may hide the pillar of his Church, Against the storms of Romish Antichrist: The hand of mercy ouershead her head, And let all faithful subjects say, Amen. Prostrate I lie before the Lord of hosts, With humble ears intending his behest, Ah honoured be Jehovah's great command, Then Jonas must to Nineveh repair, Commanded as the Prophet of the Lord, Great dangers on this journey do awaight, But dangers none where heavens direct the course, What should I deem, I see, yea sighing see, How Israel sin, yet knows the way of truth, And thereby grows the byeword of the world, How then should God in judgement be so strict? Gainst those who never herd or knew his power, To threaten utter ruin of them all: Should I report this judgement of my God, I should incite them more to follow sin, And publish to the world my countries blame, It may not be, my conscience tells me no. Ah Jonas wilt thou prove rebellious then? Consider ere thou fallen what error is, My mind misgives, to Jaffa will I flee, And for a while to Tharsus shape my course, Until the Lord unfret his angry brows. Repent, repent, you men of Nineveh repent. The Lord hath spoken, and I do cry it out, There are as yet but forty days remaining, And then shall Nineveh be overthrown. Repent you men of Nineveh, repent.