A comfortable new Ballad of a Dreame of a Sinner, being very sore
troubled with the assaults of Sathan . To the tune of Rogero.
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I n slumbring sleepe I lay
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all night alone in bed,
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A vision very strange
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there come into my head,
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Me thought the day of doome
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undoubtedly was come,
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And Christ himselfe was there
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to judge both all and some.
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My selfe was sent for there
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with sound of Trumpet shrill,
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Which said, All soules come heare
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your sentence good or ill.
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I sate in minde amaz'd,
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at that same sudden voyce,
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For in mine owne good life
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no whit I could rejoyce.
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With panting brest I paus'd
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at that same sudden sight,
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Not trusting to my selfe,
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but to Christs mercies great.
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I was no sooner meane,
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but Sathan came, me thought,
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With him a role full large
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of all my life he brought.
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And laid before the Lord
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how that I was his owne,
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And would have had me then,
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my sinnes so great were growne.
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I quaking lay with feare,
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and wist not what to doe,
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But in the blood of Christ
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I trusted still unto.
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Then said our Saviour Christ,
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foule Sathan end thy strife,
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Looke if the sinners name
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be in the booke of life.
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If he be entred there,
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then must he needes be blest,
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His sinnes be washt away,
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his soule with me shall rest.
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Then Sathan tooke the booke,
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did leafe by leafe unfold,
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And there he found my name
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in letters limb'd with gold.
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Then Sathan sorrowed much
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at that same sudden sight.
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And said unto the Lord,
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thy Judgements are not right.
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And thus our Saviour sweet
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said to him by and by,
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Thou, Sathan, know'st full well
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that I for sinne did dye.
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Redeeming all the world,
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once overthrowne by thee,
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And so will save all such
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as truly trust in mee.
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My mortall foe was wroth,
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that he had lost his prey,
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Extreamely vexed was,
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and vanisht quite away.
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But I that thus was bill'd
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within that blessed booke,
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Out of my slumbring sleepe
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so joyfully awoke.
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Still praying to the Lord,
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that alwayes sinners may
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From Sathan be set free,
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at the last dreadfull day.
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That after earthly toyles,
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we may heaven joyes a[ttain]e,
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Here learne to live to [dye]
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that we may live [a]gaine.
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Our noble royall King,
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God grant him long to raigne,
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To live in joy and peace,
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the Gospell to maintaine.
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