VII.
Wherefore hidest thou thy Face, and holdest me for thine Enemy?
Job xiii. 24.
Is't
my great Error, or thy small Respect,
That I am treated with this cold neglect?
I thought thy frowns were but dissembled heat,
And all thy threatning looks an amorous cheat.
As tender Mothers draw the Breast away,
To urge their pretty Innocents to play;
Or as the Nurse seems to deny a Kiss,
To make the fonder suppliant steal the Bliss:
So I believ'd thou didst abscond, and flee
Only to make me faster follow thee.
But now, (alas!) 'tis earnest all, I find,
And not pretended Anger, but design'd:
My kind Embrace you coldly entertain,
As if we never shou'd be Friends again:
And with such eager haste my presence shun,
As Men from Monsters or Infection run;
As if my Looks wou'd turn you into Stone:
But fear not that, the work's already done;
So cold you are, so senseless of my smart,
Some Magick sure has petrify'd my Heart.
O let me know what Crime I must deplore,
That lets me see your dear-lov'd Face no more!
Ah! why that Face must I no longer see,
Which ne'er, till now, once look'd unkind on me?
Sure you believe there's Poyson in my Breath,
Or that my Eyes dart unavoided Death.
Prevent the danger with thy conqu'ring Eye,
Unsheath its Rays, and let th'Offender die:
Or else discharge a frown, and strike me dead,
For more than Death I your Displeasure dread.
Your Eyes are all I wish, let them be mine,
The Sun, unmist by me, may cease to shine:
Fair Cynthia's beauteous Eyes, I can contemn,
Tho' all the Lamps of Night fetcht Beams from them:
But if, my Life, my Soul, thou Thine deny,
Heart-broke, in darkness and despair I die.
And if thy very Absence cause such pain,
Guess what my Torment is to love, but love in vain!
If any of our Servants offend us, we are wont not to look upon them: If this be thought a
Punishment among Men, how much more with God? For you see that God turned
away his Face from the Offering of Cain
Amb. Apolog. pro David.
