THE MISERABLE STATE OF THE WICKED.

Who feares not God shall not escape,

His daies as shadows pas;

Though wicked men triumph sometimes,
And iust men waile, alas!

WHEN as contrariwise the wicked one
Shall be dismounted from his seat of trust,
Dismayd and desolate, forlorne, alone,
Pursued by heauen and earth, by iudgment iust,
Of God and man forsaken and contemnd,
As be the innocent before condemnd:

The pompe and glory of his passed pride
Like to a flower shall vanish and decay;
His life like ruines downe shall headlong slide,
His fame like to a shadow vade away.

Because he feared not the God of might,
In iustice shall these woes vpon him light.

And yet in truth it is a wondrous case
To see the iust so many woes sustaine :
Not that I thinke that pitie can haue place
With wicked ones to make them wrong refraine;
But that the God of iustice doth permit
His seruants to be subiect vnto it.

For you shall lightly see the better man
The more afflicted in his worldly state;
The vilest person, worst, that find you can,
Most wealthy and loued most, though worthy hate:
But it is vaine to search God's mind herein-
Thereof to descant I will not begin.

SONNETS FROM THE "FIRST CENTURIE

OF SONETS."

SONET XLIIIII.

My wicked flesh, O Lord, with sin full fraight, Whose eye doth lust for euerie earthly thing, By couetise allurde, hath bit the baight That me to Satan's seruitude will bring. By violence I vertue's right would wring Out of possession of the soule so weake, Like vineyard which the wicked Achab king Possest by tirant's power, which lawes do breake. Let prophets thine, Lord, to my soule so speake, That in repentant sackcloth I may mone The murther of thy grace which I did wreake, Whilst to my natiue strength I trust alone: And let my Sauiour so prolong my daies, That henceforth I may turne from sinfull waies.

SONET LI.

WHILST in the garden of this earthly soile
Myself to solace and to bath I bend,

And fain would quench sin's heat, which seems to boile

Amidst my secret thoughts, which shadow lend: My sence and reasons which should me defend, As iudges chosen to the common weale, Allur'd by lust, my ruine do pretend

By force of sin, which shamelesse they reueale : They secretly on my affections steale,

When modestie my maides I sent away,
To whom for helpe I thought I might appeale,
But grace yet strengthens me to say them nay:
Yet they accuse me, Lord, and die I shall,
If Christ my Daniell be not iudge of all.

SONET LIII,

A HUSBANDMAN within thy Church by grace
I am, O Lord, and labour at the plough ;
My hand holds fast, ne will I turne my face
From following thee, although the soile be
rough.

The loue of world doth make it seeme more tough,
And burning lust doth scorch in heat of day,
Till fainting, faith would seeke delightfull bough
To shade my soule from danger of decay.
But yet in hope of grace from thee I stay,
And do not yeeld, although my courage quaile:
To rescue me beprest I do thee pray,

If sinfull death do seeke me to assaile.

Let me runne forth my race vnto the end,
Which by thy helpe, O Lord, I do intend.

SONNETS FROM THE "SECOND CENTURIE."
SONET XXVII.

So blinde, O Lord, haue my affections bin,
And so deceitfull hath bin Satan's slight,
That to giue credit I did first begin

To pride and lust, as heauenly powers of might: I offred all my sences with delight,

A sacrifice to feede those idols vaine : Of all the presents proffred day and night, Nought vnconsumde I saw there did remaine, Till that thy prophets by thy word made plaine The falshood by the which I was deceived; How Satan's kingdome made hereof a gaine, And wickednesse my hope and faith bereaued. But now the sifted ashes of thy word

Bewraies Bel's prists, slaies dragon without sword.

SONET LXXXI.

Lo, how I groueling vnder burden lie
Of sin, of shame, of feare, Lord, of thy sight;
My guilt so manifold dare not come nie
Thy throne of mercy, mirror of thy might.
With hidden and with ignorant sinnes I fight,
Dispairing and presumptuous faults also:
All fleshly frailtie on my backe doth light,
Originall and actuall with me go.

Against a streame of lusts my will would roe
To gaine the shoare of grace, the port of

peace:

But flouds of foule affections ouerfloe,

And sinke I must; I see now no release,

Vnlesse my Sauiour deare this burden take,
And faith a ship of safetie for me make.

SONET XC..

ON sweete and sauorie bread of wholesome kinde, Which in thy word thou offrest store to me, To feed vpon the flesh doth lothing finde, And leaues to leane, O Lord, alone on thee: The leauen of the Pharisees will bee

The surfet of my soule, and death in fine, Which, coueting to tast forbidden tree, To carnall rules and reasons doth incline. So lauishly my lusts do tast the wine

Which sowrest grapes of sin filles in my cup, That, lo, my teeth now set on edge I pine, Not able wholesome food to swallow vp,

Vnlesse thou mend my tast, and hart doest frame

To loue thy lawes, and praise thy holy name.

XII.

WILLIAM HUNNIS.

PSALME VI.

Domine, ne in furore. The first Part.
O LORD, when I myself behold,
How wicked I haue bin,

And view the paths and waies I went,
Wandring from sin to sin;

Againe to thinke vpon thy power,
Thy iudgement and thy might;
And how that nothing can be hid,
Or close kept from thy sight;
Euen then, alas! I shake and quake,
And tremble where I stand,
For feare thou shouldst reuenged be
By power of wrathful hand.

The weight of sinne is verie great;
For this to mind I call,

That one proud thought made angels once
From heauen to slide and fall.

Adam likewise, and Eve his wife,
For breaking thy precept,
From Paradise expelled were,
And death thereby hath crept

Vpon them both, and on their seede,
For euer to remaine,

But that by faith in Christ thy Sonne
We hope to liue againe.