Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

Since your Command inspires
My willing heart with Lyrick fires,
Though my Composure owe its Birth,
Or to cold Water, or dull Earth,
Wanting the active qualities
That sprightly Fire and Aire comprise;
Yet guided by that Influence,
I may with those Defects dispence:
And Raptures no less winning vent
Then the fam'd Thracian Instrument.
What though old sullen Saturn lye
Brooding on my Nativity,
So your bright eyes the Clouds dispell,
Which on my drooping Fancy dwell?

But stay, what Glasse have we so bright,
To do your matchlesse beauty right?
Nature but from her owne disgrace
Can add no lustre to that face;
Nor from her patterns can we finde,
A Form to represent your minde.
The figures which this World invest
Are Images in which exprest
Some truer Essences appear,
Which not to sight subjected are.
So you fair Celia inwardly
Dissemble well the Deity,
And counterfeit in flesh and skin
The finenesse of a Cherubin.
But fair one, if you must put on
This Orders Institution,
Admitted to this Hierarchie,
A Guardian Angell be to me.

The Walke.

Blest Walke, that with your leavy armes imbrace
In small, what beauty the dilated face
Of the whole World containes! The Violet,
Bowing its humble head down at her feet,
Payes homage for the livery of her vaines:
Roses and Lillies, and what beautuous staines
Nature adornes the Sping with, are but all
Faint Copies of this fair Originall.
She is a moving Paradise, doth view
Your greens, not to refresh her selfe, but you.
This path's th'Ecliptick, heat prolifick hence
Is shed on you by her kind influence;
She is (alasse) too like the Sun, who grants
That warmth to all, which in himselfe he wants.
You thus oblig'd, this benefit return,
Teach her by Lectures visible to burn;
That She, when Zephyre moves each whispring bough
To kisse his neighbour, thence may learn t'allow
The reall seals of kindnesse, and be taught
By twining Woodbines what sweet joyes are caught
In such imbraces: Thus and thousand wayes
Told you by amorous Fairies, and the layes
Of your fond Guardian, waken her desires,
Requiting your own warmth with equall fires.

Husbandry.

When I began my Love to sow,
Because with Venus Doves I plow'd,
Fool that I was, I did not know
That frowns for furrows were allow'd.

The broken heart to make Clods torn
By the sharp Harrows of disdain,
Crumbled by pressing rolls of scorn,
Gives issue to the springing grain.

Coyness shuts Love into a Stove,
So frost-bound lands their own heat feed:
Neglect sits brooding upon Love
As pregnant Snow on Winter-seed.

The Harvest is not till we two
Shall into one contracted be;
Loves crop alone doth richer grow
Decreasing to Identity.

All other things not nourish'd are
But by Assimilation:
Love, in himself and Dyet spare,
Grows fat by Contradiction.

Mutuall Love.

From our loves, Heat and light are taught to twine,
In their bright nuptiall bed of solar beams.
From our loves Thame and Isis learn to joyn,
Loosing themselves in one anothers streams.
And if Fate smile, the Fire loves emblem bears,
If not, the Water represents our tears.

From our Loves all magnetick virtue grows,
Steel to th'obdurate Loadstone is inclind.
From our Loves all the power of Chymists flows,
Earth by the Sun is into Gold refind.
And if Fate smile, this shall Loves Arrows head,
If not, in those is our hard fortune read.

From our still springing loves the youthfull Bayes,
Is in a robe of lasting verdure drest,
From our firm loves the Cypress learns to raise,
Green in despight of storms, her deathless crest.
And if Fate smile, with that our Temples bound,
If not, with this our Hearses shall be crownd.

The forsaken Maid.

Go fickle Man and teach the Moon to change,
The Winds to vary, the coy Bee to range:
You that despise the conquest of a Town
Renderd without resistance of one frown.

Is this of easie faith the recompence?
Is my prone loves too prodigall expence,
Rewarded with disdain? did ever dart,
Rebound from such a penetrable heart?

Diana, in the service of whose Shrine,
My selfe to single life I will confine,
Revenge thy Votaresse; for unto thee
The reeling Ocean bends his azure knee.

And since he loves upon rough Seas to ride,
Grant such an Adria, whose swelling Tide,
And stormy tongue may his false Vessell wrack,
And make the Cordage of his heart to crack.

Another.

[Know falsest Man, as my love was]

Know falsest Man, as my love was
Greater then thine, or thy desert,
My scorne shall likewise thine surpasse,
And thus I tear thee from my heart.

Thou art so farr my love below,
That then my anger thou art lesse;
I neither love nor quarrell now,
But pity thy unworthinesse.

Go joyn, before thou think to wed,
Thy heart and tongue in Wedlocks knot:
Can peace be reaped from his bed,
Who with himselfe accordeth not?

Go learn to weigh thy words upon
The ballance of reality,
And having that perfection
Attaind, come then, and Ile scorn thee.

J. C.

Anagr. I can be any Lover.

See how the letters of thy Name impart
The very whispers of thy heart.
This name came surely out of Adams mint,
It bears so well thy Natures print.
Woman, materia prima, doth present,
Is to all Formes indifferent,
As Pictures do at once with various eyes,
Distinctly view all companies,
With such a stedfast look, that each man would
Swear they did only him behold.
Thus run we in a Wheel, where stedfast ground
To fix our footing is not found,
Whilst Womans heart incliningly doth move
Like twigs to every sigh of Love.
She who imparts her smiles to more then one,
May many like, but can love none.
The force of all things in contraction lies,
And love thrives by Monopolies.
Those Glasses that collect the scatterd rayes
Into one point, a flame can raise:
Straiten the object, you increase loves store;
So loving lesse, you love the more.

De Melidoria.

è Joh. Barclaij, Poem. lib, 2.

Why languish I ye Gods alone?
Why onely I? when not one groan
Afflicteth her for whom I dye:
You mighty powers of Love, oh why
Doth Meledore despise your darts,
And their effects too, bleeding hearts?
If thus (oh Gods) ye suffer her
Unpunished, none will prefer
Your Altars; such examples may
Become the ruine of your sway.

With Venus and her mighty Son
Expostulating thus, I won
This answer: Alasse (Cupid cryes)
I hood-winkt am; my closed eyes
Bound with a Fillet, that my Bow
Can none but roving Shafts let go;
Hence 'tis that Troops of violent
Youth, their misplaced loves resent;
That some love rashly; some again
Congealed are with cold disdain:
Wouldst thou thy Mistresse, I inspire,
And in her breast convey that fire
Which nature suffers not to find
Birth from thy tears? Do but unbind

My eyes, and I will take such aime,
As she shall not escape my flame:

Thus spake the Boy, my ready hand
Prepared was to loose the band
From his faire eye-lids, that his sight
Might to his Dart give steady flight;
When my good Genius prudent eare,
Whisperd to my rash soule, Beware:
Ah shamelesse Boy, deceitfull Love,
I see thy plot, should I remove
Those chaines of darknesse from thy eyes,
Thou Melidore so much wouldst prize,
That strait my rivall thou wouldst be,
And warme her for thy selfe, not me.

Delay. Upon advice to deferr Loves Consummation.

Delay, whose Parents Phlegme and Slumber are,
Thinkst thou two Snailes drawing thy leaden Car,
Can keep pace with the fiery wheels of loves
Chariot, that receives motion from swift Doves?
Go visit Feavours, such as conscience wrack
With fear of punishment in death; there slack
The pulse, or dwell upon the fatall tongues
Of Judges, shut up their contagious lungs:
Thou mayst a Goale rejoyce, but not decree
To Loves glad Prisoners a Jubilee.
How canst thou think thy Frost with Icy Laws
Can bind my tears, when Love thy cold chain thaws?
He more intense for fighting Ice will be,
And raise his heat unto the eighth degree.
Thus through thy coldnesse I shall feircer burn,
And by thy Winter into Cinders turn.

But since from Ignorance fears oft arise,
And thence are stoln unequall Victories,
Let us describe this Foe, muster his force:
A handlesse thing it is, and chills the sourse
Of brave attempts. Eyes he pretends to much,
Yet our experience often shews that such
Exactnesse in Surveying, opes a gate
To be surprizd by Semele's sad Fate.

Tis a meer trunk, hath not for progress feet,
Coward that fears his own desires to meet.
His Friends are scarse; the Heavens, whose flight debates
The race with thought, are no confederates:
The World is love in act; suspend this fire,
The Globe to its old Chaos will retire:
Infernall soules, but for his loathed stay
Might hope their Night would open into Day.

How can this Cripple then, not with one Band
Aided by Earth, Heaven, Hell, his power withstand,
Who hath of Earth, Heaven, Hell, the forces broke,
Impos'd on Neptunes selfe his scorching yoak?
But if thou needst will haunt me, let thy Mace
Arrest delight when I my Love imbrace.

Upon Cloris her visit after Marriage,

A pastorall Dialogue betwixt Codrus and Damon forsaken rivalls.

Codrus.
Why (Damon) did Arcadian Pan ordain
To drive our Flocks from that Meridian plain
Where Cloris perpendicular shot beames
Scorch'd up our lawnes but that cool Charwells streams
Might here abate those flames which higher were
Then the faint moisture of our Flocks could bear?

Damon.
Codrus, I wot the dog that tended there
Our Flocks was he which in the heavenly sphear
So hotly hunts the Lyon that the trace
of Virgo scarse his fiery steps allaies;
Into our vaines a feavour he convey'd,
And on our vitall Spirits fiercely prey'd.

Codrus.
Oh why then brought she back her torred Zone?
Conquer'd her Trophyes? Let us not alone
After so many deaths? renew'd our flame
When twas impossible to quench the same?
It is the punishment of Hell to show
The torturd soules those joyes they must not know?

Damon.
Though my Flock languish under her aspect;
My panting Dog his office too neglect;
Though I refuse repast, and by her eyes
Inflam'd, prostrate my selfe her sacrifice,
I shall yet covet still her dubious rayes,
Whose light revives as much as her heat slayes.

Codrus.
If Thyrcis slept not in her shady haire,
If in his armes her snow not melted were,
We might expect a more successfull day,
And to some hopes our willing hearts betray,
Which now live desperate without joy of light;
Her black eyes shed on us perpetuall night.

Damon.
Codrus because his ragged flock was thin,
His Sheep walk bare, and his Ewes did not yene,

His noble Love (hear this O Swaines) resignd
His eyes delight a wealthier mate to find;
But she (rash in her choice) gave her embrace
To one whose bread courser then Codrus was.

Codrus.
Damon (then whom none e're did longer burne;
Nor at his rate, upon so small returne)
Damon (the pride and glory of the mead
When Nymphs and Swaines their tuned measures tread)
Begg'd of her that a better choice might prove
She lov'd her selfe, since him she could not love.

Damon.
Had Thyrsis flocks in milke abounded more,
I should not with such grief my losse deplore.

Codrus.
Could Thyrsis pipe more worthily resound
Cloris, oh Cloris, I had comfort found.

Both.
That our heart-wracking sighs no gaine bequeath
To Cloris, is a dying after death.

On the infrequency of Celias Letters.

Did not true love disdaine to owne
His spiritall duration
From paper-fuell, I might guesse
Thy love and writing both surcease
Together; But I cannot think
The life and Bloud of love is Ink;
Yet as when Phæbus leaves our coast
(The surface bound with chaines of frost)
Life is sustained by course repast,
Such as in Spring nauseates the tast,
So in my winter whilst you shine
In the remotest Tropick signe
Stramineous food paper and quill
May fodder hungry love untill
He reobtaine solstitiall hours
To feast upon thy beauties flowers.

The wonders then of Nature we
Within our selves will justifie:
Or what monumentall boast
The first world made, the latter lost:
Thy pointed flame shall constant 'bide
As an eternall Pyramid;
The never-dying Lamp of Urnes
Revivid in my bosome burnes:

Th'attractive virtue of the North
Resembleth thy magnetick worth;
And from my scorcht heart through mine eyes
Ætnean flashes shall arise:
we shall make good when more unite
The fable of Hermaphrodite:
The Spring and Harvest of our blisse
The ripe and budding Orange is;
We little worlds shall thus rehearse
The wonders of the Universe
As a small watch keeps equall pace
With the vast Sun's impetuous race

To her questioning his Estate.

Prethee no more, how can Love saile?
Thy providence becalmes our Seas:
Suspensive care binds up each gale;
Fear doth the lazy current freize.

Forecast and Love, the Lover sweares,
Remov'd as the two Poles should be:
But if on them must roll the spheares
Of our well tun'd felicity:

If Summes and Terrars I must bring,
Nor may my Inventory hide,
Know I am richer then the King
Who guilt Pactolus yellow Fide.

For Love is our Philosophers stone;
And whatsoever doth please thy sense,
My prising estimation
Shall elevate to quintessence.

Thy lips each cup to wine shall charme,
As the Suns kisses do the Vine;
Naked embraces keep us warme;
And stript, then May thou art more fine.

And when thou hast me in thy armes,
(The power of Fancie's then most high)
Instate me by those mighty charmes
In some imperiall monarchy.

Thus I am thy wealth, thou art mine:
And what to each other we appear,
If Love us two in one combine
The same then in our selves we are.

The Spring.

See how the Spring courts thee, Emaphilis;
The painted Meadowes to invite thy eyes
But on their rich embroydery, the shade
Of every grove is now an harbour made
Where devout birds (to celebrate thy praise)
Each morn and evening offer up their laies,
Now the soft wind his winter-rage deposes
Sollicites Gardens for the breath of Rosses.
To pay as homage to thy sweeter lips,
Where such Nectarean fragrancy he sips
That richly laden to the East he roues
And with thy breath perfumes those spicy groves:
Their native fount and sacred Naiades
These Issuing streames renouncing to the presse;
whom finding they with purling murmurs chide:
That Natures Law Commands away their tide:
wishing that winter would confine their race
In Icy chaines, that they might stand and gaze;
If thou canst thus enflame Natures cold rheume
What wonder that my youthfull floud consume?

The cruell Mistresse.

Tell me O love why Celia, smooth
As Seas when winds forbear to sooth
Their waves to wanton curles, then down
More soft which doth the Thistle Crown,
Whither then is the milky road
That leades to Joves supreme aboad,
Should harder far and rougher be
Then most obdurate rocks to me;
Sheds on my hopes as little day
As the pale Moon's aclipsed ray?
My heart would break, but that I hear
Love gently whisper in my ear,
Actions of women by affection lead
Must backward like the sacred tongue, be read

To his Mistresse, Desiring him to absent himselfe.

See how this river's liquid glasse
Can never cease its motion,
Untill he hide his Christall face
Ith' bosome of the Ocean.

The amorous Nymphs who closely guide
His purling Chariots reines,
Declare that loves impetuous tide
To be represt disdaines.

Charm Zephyr that his gentle wing
Not with Narcissus play;
The Sun in his diurnall ring
From Thetis lap delay.

Stop the departed soules career
To its appointed blisses;
All this effected, you may steer
Me to abstaine your kisses.

To his scornfull Mistresse.

Love in's first infant dayes had's Wardrobe full;
Sometimes we found him courting in a Bull.
Then, drest in snowy plumes, his long neck is
Made pliable and fit to reach a kisse:
When aptest for imbraces he became
Either a winding Snake, or curling Flame:
And cunningly a pressing kisse to gaine,
The Virgins honour in a Grape would staine:
When he consulted Lawns for privacies,
The Shepheard, or his Ram was his disguise:
But the blood raging to a rape, put on
A Satyre, or a wilder Stallion;
And for variety, in Thetis Court
Did like a Dolphin with the Sea-Nymph sport:
But since the sad Barbarian yoak hath bowd
The Grecian neck, Love hath lesse change allowd,
Contracted lives in eyes; no flaming robes
Wears, but are lent him in your Christall Globes:
Not worth a waterd Garment; when he wears
That Element he steals it from my tears.
A Snake he is (alasse) when folded in
Your frowns, where too much sting guards the fair skin
A Shepheard unto cares, and onely sips
The blushing Grape of your Nectarean lips:

The Ram Bull stallion Satyrs onely fight
Loves battels now in my wild appetite.
He in his Swan too suffers a restraint,
Cygnæan onely in my dying plaint.

Since all his actions love to moralls turnes,
And faintly now in things lesse reall burnes,
In such a weaknesse contraries destroy,
And she his murdresse is, who now is coy.

To Mr. J. L. Upon his Treatise of Dialling.

Old time but for thy art, alone would passe,
And idly bear his solitary glasse:
Though he fly fast, thy judgment mounted on
The wings of fancy, yoakes his motion:
Each little sand falls not unquestioned by
The due observance of thy piercing eye;
Each moment you converse with so, that thus
Discoursing his stage seemes not tedious:
others perhaps by their mechanick art
May ask him what's a clock, then let him part:
Thou in thy circles conjur'st him to stay
Till he relate to thee the month and day;
All propositions of the Globe dost bring
To be confest as well in dialling:
What lucky signes successively do run,
By the reclining chariot of the Sun;
And in a various dialect of Schemes
Interprets't all the motions of his beames
How many houres each day he travells in
When he arrives diogonall Inne.
Other bookes show the trade of dialling,
But thine the art and reason of the thing:

Thou knowst the spring and cause that makes it go;
Addest new wheeles; demonstrated all so
That weake eyes now may see what was before
Defective in the fam'd Osorius store:
A lim at least of this celestiall trade
Asleep till now lay in the Gnomons shade;
Nor teachest thou as those who first did find
With much circumference the Indian mine;
Thy needle points the nearest way, and hath
Made streight th'obliquity of the old path;
Thou nor thine art our praises need, yet I
Will for this miracle both deify.
Thine art enlightens by a shade, of that
Nothing a reall Science you create.

Epithalamium, To the L. T. marryed in the North.

Welcome fairest, Thee our rime
Congratulates rather then him
Who shines obliquely on our Clime.

Thy beams directly pointed fall,
That we our Bear the Cancer call,
This Zone stile Equinoctiall.

The mists our Germane Seas create
Thy eyes (though Phæbus mediate)
Originally dissipate.

Cassiope, though heavenly faire,
Hides her new face and burnisht Chaire,
When you enlighten the dayes aire.

They onely rule materiall sense,
Your loves example may dispence
To inflam'd soules chast influence.

Unto that flame which doubly warmes
(Thy beauty's Summer, and loves charmes)
May time nor sickness threaten harmes.

My Hymens torch on northen shore
Dilate into a Pharos; For
Besieg'd by cold fire burnes the more

To Eugenio,

A discription of the love of true Friendship.

Man, of a troubled Spirit, prone to fight,
In fortitude placing too much delight,
Unjustly Friendship disinherited,
No dowry to her hath proportioned
Amongst the morall Sisters of the will;
Goddesse of youth though she, yet should not fill
Their cups, be she none of the wheeles, her right
Is in the treasure, drawes the appetite
To amiable good; But if the raine
Be held by Prudence (for she guides the wain)
This virtue next inheritrix is she,
Fitted to turne upon that axletree;
For lamely would the wills bright chariot move
If not inform'd by friendly heat of Love,
Whose lightning shoots directly, never bends
Reflecting glances upon private ends.
Indeed her sister (of a bastard race)
Squints on her good, like Venus in her glasse;
Mechanick love, desire with usury,
Which nere is lent but for utility,
Or some returne of pleasure to the sense;
A thrifty worldling hight Concupiscence.

The first a wealthy Queen of generous strain;
The latter indigent, and works for gaine;
That, from the bosome of the deitie;
Derives the lustre of her pedigree;
Who of this wonder truely is possest
Hath heavens Epitome lodg'd in his breast;
This Children to their Parents give; by this
Perfumd with Frankincense the alter is;
That's Gold refined, whose solidity
(The perfect emblem of true constancy)
Being ductile, will consume it selfe and pine
Even to small threads, to make another fine:
Self-loving this as subtle Mercury,
Which parted, to it self again doth fly

To the same being sicke of a feavour.

Horat: od: 2. 17.

Am not I in thy feavour sacrifiz'd?
That you alone by Fate should besurpriz'd,
(You my sole Sun-shine, my Soules wealth and pride)
Is both by me and by the Gods denide:
If hasty death take thee (my soule) away,
Can I, a loath'd imperfect carkasse stay?
No no; Our twisted lives must be cut both
Together; This I dare confirm by oath,
When e're thou leapst into the fatall boat
Ile leap in, glad with thee in death to float:
Nor shall that dubious monster, breathing fire,
Nor Gyges hundred hands did he respire,
Pluck me from this resolve approved so
By Fate and Justice: whither Scorpio
Fierce in my Horoscope, or Capricorne
Oppressing Latium with his watry horne,
Or Libra brooded my nativity,
'Tis sure our mutuall Stars strangley agree.

To the same,

Recovered of the small Pox.

Nature foreseeing that if thou wert gone,
And we her younger Children left alone,
None could with Virtue feed this beggerd age
(For with thee Heir is gone, and Heritage)
In pitty longer lent us Thee, that so
Thou mightst lead mankind, and teach how to go,
How to speak Languages, to discourse how,
How the created book of things to know,
How with smooth cadence harsher verse to file,
Within soft numbers to confine a stile,
And lastly how to love a freind, for this
Lesson the Crown of humane actions is.

Nor was't in pitty to our state alone.
She, as all do, reflected on her owne,
And gave thee longer breath, that our desire
Might learne of thine her beauty to admire
Nor out of pitty to thy youth, whose hearse
Not to thy selfe, but to the Universe
Had Ship-wrack been; For thou hadst stood being dead
Above the sphear of being pittied.
Let then this thy redintegrated wrack
Not Irksome be if onely for our sake,

(For friendship is the greatest argument
Moves us to be from Angels here content)
Yet one inducement more thy stay may plead,
That nature hath so clean thy prison made;
What though she pit thy skin? She onely can
Deface the woman in thee, not thee Man.

To the same.

[Let me not live if I not wonder why]

Let me not live if I not wonder why
In night of rurall contemplation I,
So long have dream't, when from thy lips I might
As instantly gain intellectuall light
As by this Amphitheater of aire
The Suddain beames of Sol imbibed are;
Why then by reflex Letters like the Moon
Shine I, when thou invit'st me to thy Noon?
Why do I vainly sweat here to controule
Th'assertours of the perishable Soule,
Where all the reason I encounter, can
Scarse win beliefe a rustick is a man.
To reconcile the contradiction
Of Freedome with Predestination,
To be resolv'd the Earth doth rost upon
Her Ax is as a spit against the Sun,
Or what bold Argive fleet durst to translate
Of those beasts that first straid from Ararat,
Onely the noxious to America,
And how these puny Pilots found the way,
Or whether from the habitable Moon,
Like Saturn, they, and Vulcan, tumbled down,
Whether abroad Imaginations work,
Whether in numbers potency doth lurk,
Whether all Earth intended was for gold,
And thousands more we doubtfully do hold?

Thus we poor Scepticks in the region
Of Fancy float, foes to assertion,
But I will pearch on thee, and make my stand
Of setled knowledge on thy steady hand.

To the same,

On my Library,

A SATYRE.

A hundred here together buried ly,
Still jangling with eternall enmity,
Contesting after death; The stagirite
Advanceth there with his trust band, to fight
Against Ideas: Th'Epicurean Band
In Armes which pleasure guilt, here ready stand
To charge the rusty Sword of the severe
Stoick Phlebotomizing Galen there
Triumphs in bloud, and not the bad alone
Exterminates his corporation,
But makes joynt Ostracismes for the good;
Till later wits resenting Natures food
In greatest need Promiscuously had been
Disgarisond, invent new discipline,
Strengthening the vitalls with some cordiall dose,
Which Nature might which unbroke files oppose.
But upon fresh supplies let her cashire,
If not reducible, each mutineer.
On yonder shelfe we may the heritage
Find of this heathen sword fal'n to our age:
A doubtfull blade whose fore-edge guards the sense
Of Stoicks Fate; The sharp back is the fence

Of Lernean Predestination,
The bane of Crownes and true devotion.
The wills ability Pelagius calls
What Peripateticks stile Pure Naturalls.
The point by which Philosophy did use
To prove Ideas, you'l confesse obtuse
To that by which Religion now maintaines
Uncouth Chimæras of exorbitant braines.
As the worlds noble Soule, the generous Sun
By an equivocall conjunction
Begets the basest creeping progeny,
So when the princely Sire Phylosophy
Adulterates faith, the monsters that arise
Degenerate to bastard Heresies.

Thus have I made a short narration
Here of a posthumus contention:
They to thy Judgement all submit their hate,
Hoping thy presence soon will moderate
Their vast dissent, as elementall strife
Is kinder far when actuated by life.

To the same, on his Poems and Translations.

If what we know be made our selves, (for by
Devesting all materiality,
And melting the bare species into
Our intellect; Our selves are what we know)
Thou art in largenesse of thy knowing mind
As a Seraphick essence unconfind,
Content within those narrow walls to dwell,
Yet canst so far that point of flesh outswell
That thine intelligence extends through all
Languages which we Europæan call.
What Colossæan strides dost thou enlarge!
Fixing one foot in Sequan's watry barge
Dost in Po t'other lave, teaching each Swan
A note more dying then their Idiom can:
Vext Tagus Nympths receive of thee new dresses,
Composing in Thame's glasse their golden tresses:
Yea more I've seen thy young Muse bath her wing
In the deep waters of Stagira's Spring.

Nor do thy beames warm by reflex alone;
Those that emerge directly from the Sun
Of thy rich Fancy, warm our loves, as well
As those whom other Languages repell;
Thou the divine acts thus dost imitate,
As well conserve an Author, as create.

On then brave youth, Learnings full Systeme; Go
Enlarge thy selfe to a vast Folio;
That the world in suspence where to bestow
That admiration which it late did ow
To the large knowing Belgick Magazine
May justly pay it thee as his assigne:
If future houres with laden thighes shall strive
To fill as well thine intellectuall hive
As those are past, the Court of Honour must
To Crown thee, ravish Garlands from his dust.

To the same on his Poems,

That he would likewise manifest his more Serious labours.

Thou Natures step here treadest in,
Dost show us but thy Soules fair skin,
What Phancy more then Intellect did spin.

Thus Nature showes the roses paint,
Us with the outside doth acquaint,
But keeps reserv'd the soule of the fair plant.

Thy sailes all see swelling with hast;
Yet the hid ballast steeres as fast
His steady course as the apparant mast.

For though carv'd workes onely appeare
We know there is a Basis here
Doth them together with the Fabrick bear,

And that thy lightning Intellect,
Though in the cloudes yet undetect
Can Natures bowells pierce with its aspect.

Melting through stubborn doubts his way,
Whilst Fancy guilds things with her ray,
And but oth' surface doth of Nature play.

But whilst thy Intellect doth wear
Thy Phancies dresse, his motions are
In Epicides not his proper sphear.

Breake forth and let his double signe
In their own orbes distinctly shine;
Castor alone bodes danger to the Pine.

To the same

On His Translation of two Spanish Novells.

This Transplantation of Sicilian Loves
To the more pleasing shades of Albion's groves
Though I admire, yet not the thing betrayes
My soule to so much wonder, as the wayes
And manner of effecting; That thy youth
Untravail'd there, should with such happy truth
Unlock us this Iberian Cabinet,
Whose diamonds you in polisht English set,
Such as may teach the eyes of any dame
Ith' Brittish Court to give and take a flame;
Herein the greatest miracle we see,
That Spain for this hath traveld unto thee.

To the same.

[Damon, thrice happy are thy layes]

Damon , thrice happy are thy layes
Which Amarillis deignes to praise,
And teachest them no restlesse flame,
But Centers thy love there whence first it came!

Her Soul she, and her wealthy flocks
Mingles with thine; Braids her bright locks
Becomingly with thy brown shade,
Whence the Morn is so sweetly doubtfull made.

Oh may that twisted twilights power
Infuse in each successive houre
Eternall calmes, untainted raies!
Your tresses rule her nights, and hers your dayes!

Whilst Thyrsis his sad reed inspires;
With nought but sighs and hopelesse fires;
Yet glad to spy from his dark Cell
The dawn of Joy from others night expell.

On the Marriage of my deare Kinsman T. S. Esq; and Mrs. D. E.

Whilst the yong world was in minority
Much was indulged; no proximity
Of equall bloud could then stile marriage
Incestuous: But in her riper age
Nature a polititian grew, and laid
A sin on wedlock that at home was made:
That Families being mixt, the world might so
Both Issue propogate and Friendship too,
How will you two then Natures frown abide,
Who are in worthinesse so neer allide?
(For sure she meant that other vertues be
Enlarged thus, as well as Amitie.)
Civility you might have taught the North,
She the South Chastity: But now this worth
Is wanting unto both, 'cause you engrosse
And to your selves communicate this losse.
But since best tempers vertue soon admit,
Your two well-tun'd complections may so fit
[illeg.]coud race, and naturall goodnesse lend,
That nature shall not thus misse of her end.

On matchlesse couple then, Hymen smiles, on,
And by a perfect generation
Such living Statues of your selves erect,
That they those vertues which this age reject

May teach the future, and to act restore,
All Honour, living onely now in power.
Be thou the Adam, she the Eve that may
Pople a true reall Utopia.

To Mrs. D. S. on the birth of Sidney, her second Son.

Dear Neice.

May rest drown all thy paines: But never sleep
Thy painfull merits whilst feet Verses keep,
And Muses wings they shall along, and blow
Thy Fame abroad, whilst time shall circuits go
To judge strifes elementall, and arowse
The drousy world to mind this noble spouse.

How opportunely her Heroick fruit
Waving her own, doth our torn sex recruit
Two Boyes have sprung from her wombs lively mold,
'Ere both the Parents fourty Summers told.
She might such humane Goddesses produce
As might the relaps'd world again amuse
Into Idolatry, and justify
Bright Cyprias fable, each poetick ly
Old Greece or any modern lover made
To deify the beauty of a Maid.

But The prizing her mate 'bove her own eyes
Him rather with his likenesse gratifies;
The reason, if a Poet may divine,
Why all her Blossomes quicken masculine
Is, that her Brethren (never extant seen,
But possible) by Fate have kindred been
Into her flesh, which flowers in Virgin Snow
Benum'd, slept in their winter cause, till now

That Nuptiall Sun approacht, whose piercing ray
Op'ning their Urn, recall'd them into day.
On this trade Angells wait, and on their wing
Created Soules into new Bodies bring:
What power hath Love, that can set Heaven a task
To make a Gem, when he prepares the Cask?
And if well set, or void of heynous flaw,
Ordained by the Creatures gracious Law
For his own weating, which himselfe will own
An Ornament even to his burnisht Crown.

On then fair spouse, and ease the pangs of Birth
By thinking you enrich both Heaven and Earth.
Think you may live till they in honours sphear
Brighter then the Tindaridæ appear;
And then you cannot dy? the lives you gave,
They amply will repay, despoile the grave
Of your Immortall name: may you behold
Them sully act the praise I faintly told.

Horat: Od. 3. 3.

A Man endeed uwith Virtue feares nothing.

The presence of a Tyrant, nor the zeale
Of Citizens forcing rebellions,
Can shake a squarely solid soule, the seale
Infringe of honest resolutions:

Untroubled He on stormy Adria Sailes;
At Thunder is undaunted as the oak:
If nature in a generall ruine failes
He with contented mind sustaines the stroak.

To Sr. J. G. wishing me to regain my fortunes by complyance with the Parliament.

The resignation of my selfe and mine
I prostrate at the footstep of his Shrine,
Who for the mighty love he bore to me
Laid out himselfe in each capacity,
Unasked pawnes his deity, and shrouds
All mighty feeblenesse in humane clouds,
And even that Cottage did to death engage
For three dayes, to redeem our Heritage;
For no lesse price then his humanity
Could ransome us, stampt with divinity.

The story of this noble Surety (friend)
Should to such extasy our zeales extend,
That our Estates or selves we ne're should deeme
So free, as when they morgag'd are for him:
I therefore can with a contented mind
Shake hands with all the wealth of either Inde;
In a clear conscience finding riches more
Then there the Sun bequeaths unto his Ore;
Who drinks with sacred Druids at the brook,
(Whose unjust sufferings are for guilt mistook,)
And from their mouth (now the forbidden tree
Alasse, of knowledge) sucks divinity,

With Angels on an honest bed of leaves
Redintegrated Paradise conceaves;
For Heaven is onely Gods revealed face;
So these make Paradise, and not the place.

The World.

Js this that goodly Edifice
So gaz'd upon by greedy eyes?
A sceane where cruelty's exprest,
Or Stage of folly es at the best.

Who can the Musick understand
From the soft touch of Natures hand,
When man her chiefest Instrument
So harshly jarres without consent.

Do not her naturall agents too
Faile in their operations, so
That he to whom they best appeare
Sees but the Tombes of what they were?

Her chiefest Actions then are such
That no externall sense may touch;
Shown doubtfully to the minds sight
By the dark Phancy's glimmering light.

The Night indeed which hideth all
Things else discloseth the Stars pale

And sickly faces; but our sense
Cannot perceive their Influence.

They are the hidden books of Fate,
Where what with paines we calculate
And doubt, is onely plainly known
To those assist their motion.

The close conveyances that move
With silent vertue from above
Incessantly on things below,
Our duller eyes can never know.

Nothing but colour, shape and light
Create their species in our sight:
All substances avoyd the sense
Close couched under accidents,

In which attir'd by nature, we
Their loose apparell onely see;
Spirits alone Intuitive,
Can to the heart of essence dive.

Why then should we desire to sleep
Groveling like swine in mire, so deep,
The mind for breath can find no way,
Choak'd up, and crowded into clay.

Stript of the flesh, in the clear spring
Of Truth she bathes her soring wing
On whom do all Ideas shine
Reflected from the Glasse divine.

Gray Haires.

Welcome gray haires, whose light I gladly trust
To guide me to my peacefull bed of dust:
My lifes bright Stars, whose wakefull eyes shut mine;
Stand on my head as Tapers on my shrine,
The worlds grand noise of nothing (which invades
My soule) exclude from deaths approaching shades;
But as the day is usher'd in by one
And the same Star that shewes the day is done,
This twilight of my head, this doubtfull sphear,
My Bodys Evening, my soules Morning Star,
Th'allay of white amongst the browner haires
As well the birth as death of day declares;
As he whom from the Hill saw the moist Tomb,
Of earth, together with her pregnant womb,
This mingled colour with ambiguous strife
Demonstrates my decaying into life.
Thus life and death compound the world; Each weed
That fades revives by sowing its own seed:
Matter suppos'd the whole Creation
Is nothing but form and privation:
No borrow'd tresses then no cheating dy
Shall to false life my dying locks bely;
I shall a perfect Microcosme grow
When as the Alpes, I crowned am with snow.
I will beleive this white the milky way
Which leads unto the Court of endlesse day.

Then let my life's flame so intensely burn
That all my haires may into ashes turn,
Whence may arise a Phœnix to repay
With Hallelujahs this Eygnean lay.

A Dialogue upon death.

Phillis. Damon.
Phil:
Damon amidst the blisses we
In joynt affections fully prove,
Doth it not sometimes trouble thee,
To think that death must part our love?

Dam:
Though sweets concentrate in thy armes,
And that alone I revell there,
A willing prisoner to those charmes,
Love cannot teach me death to fear.

Phil:
Say of these sweets I should beguile
Thy tast by my inconstancie,
And on thy rivall Thyrsis smile,
Would not that losse work grief in thee?

Dam:
Oh nothing more; For here to be
Is Hell and thy embraces lack;
Yet is it Heaven even without thee
To dye; Then onely art thou black.

Phil:
Then onely art thou black my dear;
When death shall blast thy vitall light;
Whilst I in lifes bright day appear,
Thou sleepst forgot in deaths sad Night.

Dam:
Thou art thick sighted; couldst thou see
Farre off, the other side of death
Would such a prospect open thee
As thou must needs be sick of breath.

Phil:
How can that be, when sense doth keep
The dore of pleasure? That destroyed,
The soule if it survive, must sleep,
Senselesse of delectation voyd.

Dam
Sense is the doore of such delight
As beasts receive; through which alas
(Since Nature's nothing but a fight,)
More enemies then friends do passe:

Nor is the soule lesse capable,
But naked doth her object prove
More truely; as more sensible
Is this fair hand stript of its glove.

Phil:
My Damon sure hath sufeirted
Of Phillis, and would fain get hence;
Yet mannerly he vailes his dead
Love under a divine pretence.

Dam:
Whilst I am flesh thou needst not fear
Of love in my warm breath a dearth;
For since affections earthly are
They must love thee the fairest Earth.

Phil:
If thou receive a certain good
Of pleasure in enjoying me,

'Tis wisedome then to period
Thy wishes in a certainty.

Dam:
Joyes reap'd on earth like grasped aire
Away even in enjoyment fly;
Certain are onely such as bear
The stampt of immortality.

Phil:
Shall we for hope of future blisse
The good of present Love neglect?
Who will a Wren possest dismisse,
A flying Eagle to expect?

Dam:
Who use not here the Heavenly way,
And in desire of thither go,
Will at their death uncertain stray
Losing themselves in endlesse wo.

Phil:
Since death such hazards wait upon
Ile unfrequent love's vain delight,
And wing my contemplation
For prea-aquaintance with that height.

Dam:
Come then, let's feed our flocks above
On Sions hill; so will delights
Grow fresher in the vale of Love:
Change thus may whet chaste appetites.

Death.

Sunk eyes, cold lips, chaps faln, cheeks pale and wan
Are onely bugbeares falsely frighting man;
This is the vizard not deaths proper face,
For who looks through it with the eye of Grace
Shall find death deckt in so divine a ray
That none would be such a self-foe to stay
In mortall Clouds, did not the wiser hand
Of supreme power joyn with his strict command,
Pangs in our dissolution, which all shun,
But would wish, if they knew life then begun.
Man is a Creature mixt of Heaven and Earth;
Of beast and Angell; when he leaves this breath
He is all Angell; The Soules future eye
Is by the prospect of Eternity
Determin'd onely; who content doth rest
With present good no better is then Beast.
The heathens prov'd since the soule cannot find
In Natures store to satisfie the mind,
Her essence Supernat'rall, and shall have
Her truest object not before the Grave.

Could I surmise the Immateriall mate
Of this dull flesh should languish after fate
Like widdowed Turtles; or the glimmering light
Bereav'd of her dark lanthorn should be quite
Blown out by death; or dwell on faithlesse mire,
Inhopitable fens, like foolish fire

Wandring through dismal vales of horrid night
Th'approach of death deservedly might fright.
But faiths clear eye more certainely surveyes
Then any optick Organ, for the rayes
That shew her object to us are divine
Reflected by Th'omniscient Christalline.
They then who surely know death leadeth right
To a vast Sea of ravishing delight
Cannot, when he knocks at their earthen Gate,
Suffer him storm his entrance, but dilate
Their ready hearts as to a friend, for now
He beares no sting, no horror in his brow;
The Christiall-Ruby streame which did pursue
The spear that sluc't Christs side dyde his grim hue
To white and red, beautys complection:
He comes no more to spoile thy mansion,
But to afford thee that Inheritance
Which cannot be conceiv'd without a Trance;
To be translated to the fellowship
Of Angells, there with an immortall lip
To drink Nectarean bowles of endlesse good,
Where the Creators face is the Soules food.
The best condition here is but to be
An elect spouse to that great deitie,
But death the Bride-maid leads us to the bed
Where youth and pleasures are eternised:

When I consider the whole world obeys
Creations law, onely untame man strayes,
I cannot think this is his proper sphear
Where all his actions move irregular
Nor shall my wishes ever so exclude
The decent orderly vicissitude

Of Natures constant Harmony, to pray
For a harsh jarring by unruly stay.
These with the paines and shame of doting age
Wit cause the mind betimes to loath her Cage.

On the death of my dear brother Mr. H. S. drown'd.

The Tomb.

Why weeps this Marble? can his frigid power
Thicken the ambient air into a shower?
Ah no; these teares have sure an other cause
Then the necessity of Natures Lawes;
These teares their spring have from within; there lies
The spoile of Nature, crime of destinies:

How well this silent sadnesse doth become
His awfull shade; the horrour of the Tomb
Strikes palenesse through my soule; yet I must on
And pay the rights of my devotion.
Pardon you guardian Angells (who attend
And keep his bones safe from the stygian fiend)
That I disturb your watch with untun'd layes
I come to mourne and not to sing, his praise.
A Sun that sat in flouds, but, oh sad hast,
Ere the Meridian of his age was past,
A purer day the East did nere disclose;
Then in his clear affections orient rose

Tempestuous passion did in him appear
But Physick, as the lightnings purge the aire:
Martiall his temper was, yet overcame
Others by smiles, himselfe by force did tame;
Here lies the best of man: nature with thee
Lost her perfection and integritie.

On the same.

The Boast.

How well this brittle Boat doth personate
Mans fraile estate?
Whose concave fill'd with lightsome aire did scorn
The proudest storm:
Mans fleshy boat beares up, whilst breath doth last
He feares no blast:
Poor floating Bark, whilst on yon mount you stood
Rain was your food.
Now the same moisture which once made thee grow
Doth thee oreflow.
Rash youth hath too much saile, his giddy path
No ballast hath;
He thinks his Keel of wit can cut all waves,
And passe those Graves,
Can shoot all Cataracts and safely steer
The fourscorth year.
But stoop thine eare ill-councelld youth, and hark,
Look on this Bark,
His Emblem whom it carried, both defi'd
Stormes, yet soon dyed;
Onely this difference, that sunk downward, this
Waighd up to blisse.

On the same.

The Tempers.

The Elements that do mans house compose
Are all his chiefest foes;
Fire, Aire, Earth, Water, all are at debate,
Which shall predominate.
Sometimes the Tyrant fire in feavours raves,
And brings us to our graves,
Sometimes the Aire in whirling of our braines
And windy Colicks raignes;
Now Earth with melancoly man invades,
Making us walking shades;
Now water in salt Rheumes works our decay
And dropseys quench our day
But this war equall was in him; the fight:
Harmony and delight,
Till Treacherous Thames taking the waters part
Surpriz'd his open heart.

To my dear Sister Mrs. S.

The Chamber.

Entring your doore I started back, sure this
(Said I) deaths shady house and household is,
And yonder shines a beauty (as of old
Magnificent Tombs eternall Lamps did hold,
In lieu of lifes light) a fair Taper hid
In a dark lanthorn; an eye shut in's lid;
A flower in shade; a star in nights dark womb;
An alablaster Columne to a Tomb.
But why this night in day? can thy fair eye
Delight in such an Æthiops company?
Man hath too many naturall clouds; his bloud
And flesh so blind his hood wink'd soule that good
Is scarce discern'd from bad; why should we then
Seek out an artificiall darkesome den?
The better part of nature hidden lies;
The stars indeed we may behold, and Skies,
But not their Influence; we see the fire
But not then heat; why then should we desire
More night, when darknesse so ore Nature lies
That all things mask their better qualities:

To the same.

Thursday:

Now I me resolv'd the crasy Universe
Growes old, the Sun himselfe is nigh his hearse;
Seven Daughters in one week his youthfull rayes
Were wont to get; but since his strength decays
Six are the most: Thursday is lost; for we
Who boast our selves skill'd in th'Astronomy
Of your day-shedding eyes, by that light swear
That day is lost in which you not appear.
That thy dark phancy might a giant-woe
Beget, thou makst a night Herculean too;
The late Astronomers have found it true,
We have lost many dayes, but 'tis by you
Our calculation erres; and we shall rage
If you go on to cheat us of our age;
One day in Seaven is lost; and in threescore
We are bereaved of nine yeares, and more:
So will your grief dilate it selfe like day,
And all as you, become untimely gray.

To the same.

he Rose.

After the honey drops of pearly showers
Urania walk'd to gather flowers:
Sweet Rose (I heard her say) why are these feares?
Are these drops on thy cheek thy teares?
By those thy beauty fresher is, thy smell
Arabian spices doth excell.
This rain (the Rose replied) feeds and betrays
My odours; adds and cuts off dayes:
Had not I spread my leaves to catch this dew
My scent had not invited you,
Urania sigh'd and softly said, 'tis so,
Showers blow the rose and ripen woe:
For mine (a lasse) when washt in flouds sweet clean,
Heaven put his hand forth and did glean.

To the same.

Mans Life.

Man's life was once a span; now one of those
Atoms of which old Sophies did compose
The world; a thing so small, no emptinesse
Nature can find at all by his decease;
Nor need she to attenuate the aire,
And spreading it, his vacancy repaire,
The swellings that in hearts and eyes arise
Repay with ample bulk deaths robberies.

Why should we then weep for a thing so slight
Converting lifes short day to a long night?
For sorrowes make one Moneth seem many yeares,
Times multiplying glasse is made of teares.
Our life is but a painted perspective;
Greif the false light that doth the distance give;
Nor doth it with delight (as shaddowing)
Set off, but as a staffe fixt in a spring
Seem crookt and larger; then dry up thy teares,
Since through a double mean nought right appeares.

To the same.

The Excuse.

Nor can your sexes easinesse excuse
Or countenance your teares to be profuse.
Some she's there are, whose breath is onely sighes:
Who weep their own, in others obsequies:
But in the reason, like the Sun at noon,
Dispells usurping clouds of Passion;
Where feminine defects are wanting, there
All Feminine excuses wanting are;
Think not, since vertue then above them reares.
A womans name can priviledge thy teares:

Fortune materiall things onely controwles
But doth her selfe pay homage unto soules:
There hath no power, can do no injurie,
The Pavement where the stars their dances form
By their own Musick, is above all storme:
For Meteors but imperfect mixtures are
In the raw bosome of distemperd aire:
Then let thy soule shine in her Christall spheare,
They're Comets in the troubled air appear.

To the same.

The Reasons.

Is it because he died, or that his yeares
Not many were, that causeth all these teares?
If for the first, you should have alwayes wept,
Even in his life from first acquaintance kept
Sorrow awake, for that you know his Fate
Prefixed had a necessary date;
How unadvisedly do you lament
Because things mortall are not permanent?

Or is 't because he ere his aged Snow,
Or Autume came, was ravishd from the bough?
Ask but the sacred Oracle, you there
Shall find, untimely deaths no windfall are.
The grand example, Miracle of good,
(In vertue onely old) slain in the bud
Newly disclosing man. It were a shame
To wish then that of his, a longer flime.
Who would not dy before subdued by age?
That Conquest oft Fortune pursues with rage;
Or sin in that advantage wounds him worse:
To wish him long life then, had been a curse.

To the same.

The Teares.

You moderne wits who call this world a star,
Who say, the other planets too worlds are,
And that the spots that in the midstar found
Are to the people there Ilands and ground;
And that the water which surrounds the Earth
Reflects to each, and gives their shining birth;
The brightnesse of these teares had you but seen
Faln from her eyes, no argument had been
To contradict that water here displayes
To them as they to us siderious rayes.

Her Teares have then the stars a better right
And a more clear propriety to light.
For stars receive their borrowd beames from far,
These bring their own along with them, and are
Born in the sphear of light; Others may blind
Themselves with weeping much, because they spend
The brightnesse of their eyes upon their teares,
But hers are inexhaustible; she spares
Beames to her teares as Tapers lend their light
And should excesse of teares rob her of sight,
Two of these moist sparks might restore't: our eyes
An humour watry chrystalline comprise,
Why may not then two christall drops restore
That sight a Christall humour gave before.

Love dewes his locks here, woes each drop to fall
A pupill in his eye and sight recall:
And I hope fortune passing through this rain
Will at last see to recompence her pain.

On the death of my much honourd Uncle Mr. G. Sandys.

Pardon (great Soul) if duty grounded on
Bloud and affections firm devotion
Force my weak muse to sacriledge, and by
Short-payment rob thy sacred memory.
To be thy wits Executor, though I
No title have, yet a small Legacy
Fitting my small reception didst thou leave,
Which from thy learned works I did receive;
I should then prove unthankfull to deny
Some spices to embalm that memory,
Whose Soul and better part thy lines alone
Establish in Eternity's bright throne:
Our humble art the body of thy fame
Onely to Memphian mummie tries to frame;
Which though a swarthy drynesse it puts on
Is raised yet above corruption.

A Tomb of rarest art, Magnificent
As 'ere the East did to thy eyes present,
Erected by great Falklands learned hands
To thee alive, in his eloqiums stands.
Thy body we are onely then t'interre,
And to those matchlesse Epitaphs refer
The hasty passenger that cannot stay
To heare thy larger Muse her worth display.

Unlesse unto the Croud about the Hearse
(Those busy Sons of sense) I shall rehearse
What worth in thy material part did dwell,
And at the funerall thy Scutcheons spell;
Declare the extraction of thy noble line,
What graces from all parts of thee did shine,
That age thy sense did not at seventy cloud,
And thee a youth all then but death allow'd:
As for thy Soul, if any do enquire,
Tis making Anthems in the heavenly Quire.

Epitaph on Sir R. D.

Here lies the pattern of good men;
Heaven and Earths lov'd Citizen.
The Worlds faint wishes scarse can reach
The good he did by action teach:
So hating semblence, that his mind
Left her deportment still behind,
That he far better was then ere
Unto the worlds eye did appeare,
The poor can witnesse this, who cry
Aloud their losse, his Charity;
The same and feeble now must creep
To shew their crutch is laid asleep.
His Houshold Servants, Tenants, all
Weep here their Fathers Funeral:
The war that gorg'd on his Estate
His Table never could abate;
If ever he unjust was known,
'Twas in receding from his own;
Exchanging what with trouble he
Might save, to keep tranquilitie.
His host of vertues struck such feare
Into his foes, they did not dare
To lay on his, that penalty
They did on others Loyalty;
Which bore with him as high a rate
As those who bought it with their 'state.

Prudence and Innocence had made
A league no harm should him invade,
Peacefull amidst the wars his life,
As in the Elementall strife.
Of bodys that are temperd well
Harmonious Soules at quiet dwell,
When the worst humour had prevaild
Upon the State, his vitalls faild;
To shew, this feeling members health
Was wrapt up in the Common wealth.

Grace Compar'd to the Sun.

Grace as the Sun, incessantly its light
Dilates upon the Vniversall face.
Pagans that sit in Antipodian night
Tast, by reflex of reason, beames of grace.
Their sickly planet (Queen of night not sleep)
Her wakefull eye in the Suns beames may steep.

Grace is the Soules Soul; the informing part
Reason (like Phosphere) ushers in the day;
But the terene affections of the heart
Repell which Pharean clouds this sacred ray.
Internall, as externall night alone
Springs from the Earths interposition.

Goodnesse is priz'd by her own latitude;
The Persian (wisest of Idolaters)
Adores the Sun as the most common good,
From whose balm Natures hand nothing interrs.
Worse then the Caliph is that votary
Who worships a lesse loving deity.

The Sun would raise this Globe to nobler birth,
Transforming into Gold each minerall;
But in disposure of the Stubbourn Earth
Renders his vertue ineffectuall?
Thus grace endeavours all to sublimate:
Then blame thy selfe if not regenerate.

Upon the Nativity of our saviour and Sacrament then received.

See from his watry Tropick how the Sun
Approacheth by a double motion!
The same flight tending to the western seas
Wheeles Northward by insensible degrees;
So this blest day beares to our Intellect
(As its bright fire) a duplycate respect:
None but a two-fac'd Janus can be guest
And fit himselfe unto this double feast.
That must before joyntly the Manger see,
And view behind the execrable Tree.
Here the blest Virgins living milk, and there
The fatall streames of the Sons bloud appear;
Crowns at his tender feet in Bethlem ly;
Thorns bind his manly browes in Calvary;
Th'ashamed Sun from this his light withdrew;
A new born star the other joy'd to shew:
To furnish out this feast, lo, in the pot
Death here consults the salting Antidot:
But least the sad allay should interfer,
And corrupt this days smile into a tear,

This very death makes up a fuller mirth
Bequeathing to the worthy Guest new birth;
As to the mystick head, beseemingly,
So to each member gives Nativity:
The difference onely this, the deitie
Born to our flesh, into his Spirit we.

FINIS.