Page:The works of Anne Bradstreet in prose and verse.djvu/420

 334 Atme BradftreeVs Works.

By Edward third, and Henry fifth of fame, Her Lillies in mine Arms avouch the fame. My Sifter Scotland hurts me now no more. Though fhe hath been injurious heretofore; What Holland is I am in fome fufpence f But truft not much unto his excellence. For wants, fure fome I feel, but more I fear, And for the Peflilence, who knows how near; Famine and Plague, two Sifters of the Sword, Deftru6tion to a Land, doth foon afford; They're for my punifhment ordain'd on high, Unlefs our ^ tears prevent it fpeedily.* But yet I Anfwer not what 3^ou demand, To fhew the grievance of my troubled Land ? Before I tell th' Effea, Pie Ihew the Caufe Which are my fins the breach of facred Laws, Idolatry fupplanter of a Nation, With foolifh Superftitious Adoration, Are ^ lik'd and countenanc'd by men of might. The Gofpel troden "' down and hath no right.* Church Offices were " fold and bought for gain. That Pope had hope to find, Rome here again, For Oaths and Blafphemies, did ever Ear, From Belzebiib himfelf fuch language hear; What fcorning of the Saints of the moft high ? What injuries did daily on them lye /

k thj. * The Great Plague came in 1665, about twenty years after,

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