Ayres and dialogues For One, Two, and Three Voyces; To be Sung either to the theorbo-lute or basse-viol |
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A DEFENCE FOR MUSICK In its Practique and Theorie, occasioned upon the Publication
of these Poems Composed by Mr.
John Gamble
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 | Ayres and dialogues |  |
A DEFENCE FOR MUSICK In its Practique and Theorie, occasioned upon the Publication of these Poems Composed by Mr. John Gamble :
IMPLORATION.
Empress of Order! Whose Eternal ArmsPut Chaos into Concord, by whose Charms
The Cherubims in Anthems clear, and Even,
Create a Consort for the King of Heaven:
Inspire me with thy Magick, that my Numbers
May rock the never-sleeping Soul in slumbers;
Tune up my Lyre, that when I sing thy Merits
My subdivided Notes may sprinkle Spirits
Into my Auditory, whilest their fears
Suggest their Souls are sallying through their Ears.
What Tropes, or Figures can thy Glories reach,
That art thy self the splendor of all Speech?
Mysterious Musick! he that doth thee right
Must shew thy Excellence by thy own Light:
Thy Purity must teach us how to Praise,
As men seek out the Sun with his own Rayes:
What Creature that hath being, life or sense,
But wares the Badges of thy Influence?
Musick is Harmony, whose Copious bounds
Is not confined onely unto Sounds:
'Tis the Eyes object, for (without Extortion)
It comprehends All things that have Proportion:
Musick is Concord, and doth hold allusion
With every thing that doth oppose Confusion:
In Comely Architecture it may be
Known by the Name of Uniformitie;
Where Piramids to Piramids relate,
And the whole Fabrick doth Configurate
In perfectly proportion'd Creatures, we
Accept it by the title Symmetrie.
When many Men for some design Convent,
And all Concenter, It is call'd Consent:
Where mutual Hearts in Sympathy do move
Some few embrace it in the Name of Love:
To serve their God, it is Divinitie:
In all melodious Compositions we
Declare and know it to be Symphonie:
Where all the Parts in Complication roll,
And every one Contributes to the Whole:
He that can Set and Humour Notes aright
Will move the Soul to Sorrow, to Delight,
To Courage, Courtezie, to Consolation;
To Love, to Gravity, to Contemplation:
It hath been known (by its mysterious motion)
To raise Repentance, and advance Devotion:
It works on all the faculties, and why
The very Soul it self is Harmony:
Musick! It is the breath of second Birth,
The Saints imployment, and the Angels Mirth;
The Rhetorick of Seraphins, a Gem
In the King's Crown of new Jerusalem;
They sing Continually, the Exposition
Must needs inferre, there is no Intermission.
I hear some Men hate Musick, let them shew
In Holy Writ what else the Angels do:
Then those that do despise such sacred Mirth
Are neither fit for Heaven nor for Earth.
Thomas Jordan.
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