A47473:235
Distressed Zion relieved, or, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness wherein…Distressed Sion relieved, or, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness wherein…
Distressed Zion relieved, or, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness wherein are discovered the grand causes of the churches trouble and misery under the late dismal dispensation : with a complete history of, and lamentation for those renowned worthies that fell in England by popish rage and cruelty, from the year 1680 to 1688 ... / by Benjamin Keach ...Distressed Sion relieved, or, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness wherein are discovered the grand causes of the churches trouble and misery under the late dismal dispensation : with a compleat history of, and lamentation for those renowned worthies that fell in England by popish rage and cruelty, from the year 1680 to 1688 ... / by Benjamin Keach ...
London: printed for Nath. Crouch, 1689
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
'What dismal vapour in so black a form 'Is this which seems Harbinger to a Storm 'What pitchy Cloud invades our starry Sky, 'To stop the beamings of the Worlds great Eye ⟨p. 3⟩'What spreading Sables of Egyptian Night 'Would rob the Earth of its illustrious Light? 'What interposing Fog obscures our Sun? 'What dire Eclipse benights our Horizon? 'Is England's Great and Royal Bridegroom fled? 'Is its Aurora newly gone to Bed, 'That scattered Clouds make such prodigious haste, 'Combine in one, and re-unite so fast? 'Clouds that so lately dissipated were, 'Do now conspire to make a darker Air. 'I mourn unpitied, groan without relief; 'No bounds nor measures terminate my grief, 'The Sluices of mine Eyes are too too narrow 'To vent the Streams of my increasing sorrow. 'Ebbs follow swelling Floods, and springing Days 'Adorn the Fields which Winter dis-arrays. 'All States and Things have their alternate ranges, 'As Providence the Scene of Action changes. 'All Revolutions hurry to and fro, 'Yet rest and settlement at length do know. 'But helpless I have often looked about 'To find some ease and Soul refreshment out, 'Yet can I see no prospect of relief, 'But swift additions multiply my grief, 'As Pilgrims wander in their great distress 'Amongst the wild rapacious Savages, In pathless Deserts, where the midnight howls Of hungry Wolves mixed with the screech of Owls, And Ravens dismal croaks salute the Ears Of poor Erratic trembling Passengers. ⟨p. 2⟩[…] ⟨p. 3⟩[…] ⟨p. 4⟩'So I'm surrounded, so the Beasts of prey 'Conspire to take my Life and Name away. 'My glowing Soul does melt, my Spirits faint 'For want of vent, I'm pregnant with complaint; 'No Age nor Generation but has known 'Some part of this my just and grievous moan, 'But now I'm far more dangerously charged 'By bolder Foes; my sorrows are enlarged, 'A Hellish Tribe of black Avernus Crew, 'Do Blood-hound like, me and my Lambs pursue. 'Lord Jesus come; O Christ, let me invoke, 'Thy sacred presence to divert the stroke. 'Have all my Friends forsook me? Are there none 'To ease my woes? Ah must I grieve alone?
'WHat dismal vapour in so black a form 'Is this which seems Harbinger to a Storm 'What pitchy Cloud invades our starry Sky, 'To stop the beamings of the Worlds great Eye