O BOOK! life's guide! how shall we part,
And thou so long seiz'd of my heart?
Take this last kiss; and let me weep
True thanks to thee before I sleep.
Thou wert the first put in my hand,
When yet I could not understand,
And daily didst my yong eyes lead
To letters, till I learnt to read.
But as rash youths, when once grown strong,
Flye from their nurses to the throng,
Where they new consorts choose, and stick
To those till either hurt or sick;
So with that first light gain'd from thee
Ran I in chase of vanity,
Cryed dross for gold, and never thought
My first cheap book had all I sought.
Long reign'd this vogue; and thou cast by
With meek, dumb looks didst woo mine eye,
And oft left open would'st convey
A sudden and most searching ray
Into my soul, with whose quick touch
Refining still I strugled much.
By this milde art of love at length
Thou overcam❜st my sinful strength,
And having brought me home, didst there
Shew me that pearl I sought elsewhere.
Gladness, and peace, and hope, and love,
The secret favors of the Dove;
Her quickning kindness, smiles and kisses,
Exalted pleasures, crowning blisses,
Fruition, union, glory, life
Thou didst lead to, and still all strife.
Living, thou wert my soul's sure ease,
And dying mak'st me go in peace:
Thy next effects no tongue can tell;
Farewel, O book of God! farewel!
Glory be to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men.
O THE new world's new-quickning Sun!
Ever the same, and never done!
The seers of whose sacred light
Shall all be drest in shining white,
And made conformable to His
Immortal shade, who wrought their bliss;
Arise, arise!
And like old cloaths fold up these skies,
This long-worn veyl: then shine and spread
Thy own bright self over each head,
And through thy creatures pierce and pass,
Till all becomes thy cloudless glass,
Transparent as the purest day
And without blemish or decay,
Fixt by thy spirit to a state
For evermore immaculate;
A state fit for the sight of thy
Immediate, pure and unveil'd eye,
A state agreeing with thy minde,
A state by birth and death design'd;
A state for which thy creatures all
Travel and groan, and look and call.
O seeing thou hast paid our score,
Why should the curse reign any more?
But since thy number is as yet
Unfinish'd, we shall gladly sit
Till all be ready, that the train
May fully fit thy glorious reign.
Onely, let not our haters brag
Thy seamdless coat is grown a rag,
Or that thy truth was not here known,
Because we forc'd thy judgements down.
Dry up their arms who vex thy spouse,
And take the glory of thy house
To deck their own; then give thy saints
That faithful zeal, which neither faints,
Nor wildly burns, but meekly still
Dares own the truth, and shew the ill.
Frustrate those cancerous, close arts,
Which cause solution in all parts,
And strike them dumb, who for meer words
Wound thy beloved more than swords.
Dear Lord, do this! and then let grace
Descend, and hallow all the place.
Incline each hard heart to do good,
And cement us with thy Son's blood;
That, like true sheep, all in one fold
We may be fed, and one minde hold.
Give watchful spirits to our guides;
For sin like water hourly glides
By each man's door, and quickly will
Turn in, if not obstructed still.
Therefore write in their hearts thy law,
And let these long, sharp judgements awe
Their very thoughts, that by their clear
And holy lives mercy may here
Sit regent yet, and blessings flow
As fast as persecutions now.
So shall we know in war and peace
Thy service to be our sole ease,
With prostrate souls adoring thee,
Who turn'd our sad captivity!
S. Clemens apud Basil:
Ζῇ ὁ Θεὸς, καὶ ὁ κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός,
καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον.
PIOUS THOUGHTS AND EJACULATIONS
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