Inflame my thoughts and fill my soul with fire That I am ravisht with a new delight But if thou shroud thy face my glory fades And I remain a Nothing all compos'd of shades 5 Eternall God O thou that onely art The sacred Fountain of eternall light And blessed Loadstone of my better part O thou my hearts desire my souls delight Reflect upon my soul and touch my heart And then my heart shall prize no good above thee And then my soul shall know thee knowing love thee And then my trembling thoughts shall never start From thy commands or swerve the least degree Or once presume to move but as they move in thee S. AUGUST Med. Cap. 25. If Man can love man with so entire affection that the one can scarce brook the others absence If a bride can be joyned to 〈◊〉 bride-groom with so great an ardency of mind that for the extremitie of love she can enjoy no rest not suffering his absence without great anxiety with what affection with what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the soul whom thou hast espoused by saith and compassion to love thee her true God and glorious bridegroom EPIG. 4. My soul thy love is dear 'T was thought a good And easie pen'worth of thy Saviours bloud But be not proud All matters rightly scann'd 'T was over-brought 'T was sold at second hand V. CANTICLES 5. 6. My Soul melted whilst my Beloved spake LOrd has the feeble voyce of flesh and bloud The pow'r to work thine ears into a floud Of melted mercy or the strength t' unlock The gates of Heav'n and to dissolve a rock Of marble clouds into a morning show'r Or hath the breath of whining dust the pow'r To stop or snatch a falling thunderbolt From thy fierce hand and make thy hand revolt From resolute confusion and in stead Of vyals poure full blessings on our head Or shall the wants of famisht ravens cry And move thy mercy to a quick supply Or shall the silent suits of drooping flow'rs Woo thee for drops and be refresh'd with show'rs Alas what marvel then great God what wonder If thy hell-rouzing voice that splits in sunder The brazen portals of eternall death What wonder if that life-restoring breath Which dragg'd me from th' infernall shades of night Should melt my ravisht soul with ore-delight O can my frozen gutters choose but run That feel the warmth of such a glorious Sun Me thinks his language like a flaming arrow Doth pierce my bones and melts their wounded marrow Thy flames O Cupid though the joyfull heart Feels neither tang of grief nor fears the smart Of jealous doubts but drunk with full desires Are torments weigh'd with these celestiall fires Pleasures that ravish in so high a measure That O I languish in excesse of pleasure What ravisht heart that feels these melting joyes Would not despise and loath the treach'rous toyes Of dunghill earth what soul would not be proud Of wry-mouth'd scorns the worst that flesh and bloud Had rancour to devise Who would not bear The worlds derision with a thankfull eare What palat would refuse full bowls of spight To gain a minutes tast of such delight Great spring of light in whom there is no shade But what my interposed sinnes have made Whose marrow-melting fires admit no screen But what my own rebellions put between Their precious flames and my obdurate eare Disperse these plague-distilling clouds and clear My mungy soul into a glorious day Transplant this screen remove this barre away Then then my fluent soul shall feel the fires Of thy sweet voyce and my dissolv'd desires Shall turn a sov'reigne balsame to make whole Those wounds my sinnes inflicted on thy soul S. AUGUST Soliloq cap. 34. What fire is this that so warmeth my heart What light is this that so enlightneth my soul O fire that alwayes burnest and never goest out kindle me O light which ever shinest and art never darkned illuminate me O that I had my heat from thee most holy fire How sweetly dost thou burn How secretly dost thou shine How desiderably dost thou inflame me BONAVENT Stim amoris cap. 8. It maketh God man and man God things temporall eternall mortall immortall it maketh an enemy a friend a servant a sonne 〈◊〉 things glorious cold hearts siery and hard things liquid EPIG. 5. My soul thy gold is true but full of drosse Thy Saviours breath resines thee with some losse His gentle fornace makes thee pure as true Thou must be melted ere th' art cast anew VI PSALME 73. 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee and what desire I on earth in respect of thee 1 I Love and have some cause to love the earth She is my Makers creature therefore good She is my Mother for she gave me birth She is my tender Nurse she gives me food But what 's a Creature Lord compar'd with thee Or what 's my Mother or my Nurse to me 2 I love the Aire her dainty sweets refresh My drooping soul and to new sweets invite me Her shrill-mouth'd quire sustain me with their flesh And with their Polyphonian notes delight me But what 's the Aire or all the sweets that she Can blesse my soul withall compar'd to thee 3 I love the Sea She is my fellow-creature My carefull purveyer she provides me store She walls me round she makes my diet greater She wafts my treasure from a forrein shore But Lord of oceans when compar'd with thee What is the Ocean or her wealth to me 4 To Heav'ns high citie I direct my journey Whose spangled suburbs entertain mine eye Mine eye by contemplations great atturney Transcends the crystall pavement of the skie But what is Heav'n great God compar'd to thee Without thy presence Heav'n 's no Heav'n to me 5 Without thy presence Earth gives no refection Without thy presence Sea affords no treasure Without thy presence Air 's a rank 〈◊〉 Without thy presence Heav'n it self 's no pleasure If not possest if not enjoy'd in thee What 's Earth or Sea or Air or Heav'n to me 6 The highest Honours that the world can boast Are subjects farre too low for my desire The brightest beams of glory are at most But dying sparkles of thy living fire The proudest flames that earth can kindle be But nightly Glow-worms if compar'd to thee 7 Without thy presence wealth are bags of cares Wisdome but folly Joy disquiet sadnesse Friendship is treason and Delights are snares Pleasures but pain and Mirth but pleasing madnesse Without thee Lord things be not what they be Nor have they being when compar'd with thee 8 In having all things and not thee what have I Not having thee what have my labours got Let me enjoy but thee what farther crave I And having thee alone what have I not I wish nor Sea nor Land nor would I be Possest of Heav'n Heav'n unpossest of thee BONAVINT cap. 1. Soliloq Alas my God now I understand but blush to consesse that the beautie of thy Creatures hath
live See what thy sinnes have done thy sinnes have made The Sunne of Glory now become thy shade XV PSALM 137. 4. How shall we sing a song of the Lord in a strange land URge me no more this aity mirth belongs To better times these times are not for songs The sprightly twang of the melodious Lute 〈◊〉 not with my voice and both unsuit My untun'd fortunes the affected measure Of strains that are constrain'd 〈◊〉 no pleasure Musick 's the Child of mirth where griefs assail The troubled soul both voyce and fingers fail Let such as ravil out their lavish dayes In honourable riot that can raise Dejected hearts and conjure up a sprite Of madnesse by the Magick of delight Let those of Cupids hospitall that lie Impatient Patients to a smiling eye That cannot rest untill vain hope beguile Their 〈◊〉 torments with a wanton smile Let such redeem their peace and salve the wrongs Of froward Fortune with their frolick songs My grief my grief 's too great for smiling eyes To cure or counter 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 The Ravens dismall croaks the midnight bowls Of empty Wolues mixt with the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 The nine sad knowls of a dull passing Bell With the loud language of a nightly knell And horrid out-cries of revenged crimes Joyn'd in a medley's musick for these times These are no times to touch the merry string Of Orpheus no these are no times to sing Can hide-bound Prisners that have spent their souls And famish'd bodies in the noysome holes Of hell-black dungeons apt their rougher throats Grown hoarse with begging alms to warble notes Can the sad Pilgrime that hath lost his way In the vast desart there condemn'd a prey To the wild subject or his savage King Rouze up his palsey smitten spir'ts and sing Can I a Pilgrime and a Prisner too Alas where I am neither known nor know Ought but my torments an unransom'd stranger In this strange climate in a land of danger O can my voyce be pleasant or my hand Thus made a Prisner to a forrein land How can my musick relish in your cars That cannot speak for sobs nor sing for tears Ah if my voyce could Orpheus-like unspell My poore Eurydice my soul from hell Of earths misconstru'd Heav'n O then my breast Should warble airs whose rhapsodies should feast The ears of Seraphims and entertain Heav'ns highest Deity with their lofty strain A strain well drencht in the true Thespian Well Till then earths Semiquaver mirth farewell S. AUGUST Med. cap. 33. O infinitely happy are those Heavenly virtues which are able 〈◊〉 praise thee in holinesse and puritie with excessive sweetnesse 〈◊〉 able exultation From thence they praise thee from whence they rejoyce because they continually see for what they rejoyce for what they praise thee But we prest down with this burden of flesh far removed from thy countenance in this pilgrimage and blown up with worldly vanities cannot worthily praise thee We praise thee by faith nor face to face but those Angelicall spirits praise thee face to face and not by saith EPIO. 15. Did I refuse to sing said I these times Were not for songs nor musick for these climes It was my errour are not grones and tears Harmonious raptures in th' Almighties ears THE FIFTH BOOK I. CANTICLES 5. 8. I charge you O daughters of Jerusalem if you find my beloved that you tell him that I am sick of love 1 YOu holy Virgins that so oft surround The cities Saphire walls whose snowy feet Measure the pearly paths of sacred ground And trace the new Jerus'lems Jasper street Ah you whose care-forsaken hearts are crown'd With your best wishes that enjoy the sweet Of all your hopes If e'r you chance to spie My absent Love O tell him that I lie Deep wounded with the flames that furnac'd from his eye 2 I charge you Virgins as you hope to heare The heav'nly musick of your Lovers voice I charge you by the solemne faith ye bear To plighted vows and to that loyall choice Of your affections or if ought more dear You hold by Hymen by your marriage joyes I charge you tell him that a flaming dart Shot from his eye hath pierc'd my bleeding heart And I am sick of love and languish in my smart 3 Tell him O tell him how my panting breast Is 〈◊〉 with flames and how my soul is pin'd Tell him O tell him how I he opprest With the full torments of a troubled mind O tell him tell him that he loves in jest But I in earnest tell him he 's unkind But if a discontented frown appears Upon his angry brow accoast his ears With soft and fewer words and act the rest in tears 4 O tell him that his cruelties deprive My soul of peace while peace in vain she seeks Tell him those damask roses that did strive With white both fade upon my sallow cheeks Tell him no token doth proclaim I live But tears and sighs and sobs and sudden shrieks Thus if your piercing words should chance to bore His hearkning ear and move a sigh give ore To speak and tell him Tell him that I could no more 5 If your elegious breath should hap to rouze A happy tear close harb'ring in his eye Then urge his plighted faith the sacred vows Which neither I can break nor he deny Bewail the torments of his loyall spouse That for his sake would make a sport to die O blessed Virgins how my passion tires Beneath the burden of her fond desires Heav'n never shot such flames earth never felt such fires S. AUGUST Med. cap. 40. What shall I say What shall I do Whither shall I go Where shall I seek him Or when shall I find him Whom shall I ask Who will tell my beloved that I am sick of love 〈◊〉 in Cap. 5. Cant. I live but not I it is my beloved that liveth in me I love my self not with my own love but with the love of my beloved that loveth me I love not my self in my self but my self in him and him in me EPIG. 1. Grieve not my soul nor let thy love wax faint Weep'st thou to lose the cause of thy complaint He 'll come Love ne'r was bound to times nor laws Till then thy tears complain without a cause II. CANTICLES 2. 5. Stay me with flowers and comfort me with apples for I am sick with loveâ—… 1 O Tyrant love I how doth thy sov'reigne pow'r Subject poore souls to thy imperious thrall They say thy cup 's compos'd of sweet and sowre They say thy diet 's honey mixt with gall How comes it then to passe these lips of our Still trade in bitter tast no sweet at all O tyrant love Shall our perpetuall toil Ne'r find a Sabbath to refresh awhile Our drooping souls Art thou all frowns and ne'r a smile 2 You blessed Maids of honour that frequent The royall courts of our renown'd Jehove With flow'rs restore my spirits faint and spent O fetch me apples from Loves
members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into captivitie to the Law of sinne 1 O How my will is hurried to and fro And how my unresolv'd resolves do vary I know not where to fix sometimes I go ' This way then that and then the quite contrary I like dislike lament for what I could not I do undo yet still do what I should not And at the self same instant will the thing I would not 2 Thus are my weather-beaten thoughts opprest With th' earth-bred winds of my prodigious will Thus am I hourely tost from East to West Upon the rowling streams of good and ill Thus am I driven upon these slipp'ry suds From reall ills to false apparent goods My life 's a troubled sea compos'd of Ebs and Flouds 3 The curious Penman having tâ—…imm'd his page With the dead language of his dabbled quill Le ts fall a heedlesse drop then in a rage Cashiers the fruits of his unlucky skill Ev'n so my pregnant soul in th' insant bud Of her best thoughts showâ—…s down a cole-black flood Of unadvised ills and cancels all her good 4 Sometimes a sudden flash of sacred heat Warms my chill soul and seâ—…s my thoughts in frame But soon â—…hat fire is shouldred from her seat By lustfull Cupids much inferiour flame I feel two flames and yet no flame entire Thus are the mungrill thoughts of mixt desire Consum'd between that heav'nly and this earthly fire 5 Sometimes my trash-disdaining thoughts out-passe The common period of terrene conceit O then me thinks I scorn the thing I was Whilst I stand ravisht at my new estate But when th' Icarian wings of my desire Feel but the warmth of their own native sire O then they melt and plunge within their wonted mire 6 I know the nature of my wav'ring mind I know the frailty of my fleshly will My Passion 's Eagle-ey'd my judgement blind I know what 's good but yet make choice of ill When th' Ostrich wings of my desires shall be So dull they cannot mount the least degree Yet grant my soul desire but of desiring thee S. BERN. Med. 9. My heart is a vain heart a vagabond and instable heart while it is led by its own judgement and wanting Divine counsel cannot subsist in it self and whilest it divers wayes seeketh rest findeth none but remaineth miserable through labour and void of peace It agreeth not with it self it dissenteth from it self it altereth resolutions changeth the judgement frameth new thoughts pulleth down the old and buildeth them up again It willeth and willeth not and never remaineth in the same state S. AUGUST de verb Apost. When it would it cannot because when it might it would not Therefore by an evil will man lost his good power EPIG. 1. My soul how are thy thoughts disturb'd confin'd Enlarg'd betwixt thy members and thy mind Fix here or there thy doubt-depending cause Can nev'r expect one verdict 'twixt two Laws II. PSALM 119. 5. O that my wayes were directed to keep thy Statutes 1 THus I the object of the worlds disdain With Pilgrime-pace surround the weary earth I onely relish what the world counts vain Her mirth 's my grief her sullen grief my mirth Her light my darknesse and her truth my errour Her freedom is my jail and her delight my terrour 2 Fond earth proportion not my seeming love To my long stay let not thy thoughts deceive thee Thou art my prison and my home 's above My life 's a preparation but to leave thee Like one that seeks a doore I walk about thee With thee I cannot live I cannot live without thee 3 The world 's a lab'rinth whose anfractuous wayes Are all compos'd of rubs and crook'd meanders No resting here He 's hurried back that stayes A thought and he that goes unguided wanders Her way is dark her path untrod unev'n So hard 's the way from earth so hard 's the way to Heav'n 4 This gvring lab'rinth is betrench'd about On either hand with streams of sulph'rous fire Streams closely sliding erring in and out But seeming pleasant to the fond descrier Where if his footsteps trust their own invention He falls without redresse and sinks beyond dimension 5 Where shall I seek a Guide where shall I meet Some lucky hand to lead my trembling paces What trusty Lantern will direct my feet To scape the danger of these dang'rous places What hopes have I to passe without a Guide Where one gets safely through a thousand fall beside 6 An unrequested Starre did gently slide Before the Wisemen to a greater Light Back-sliding Isr'el found a double Guide A Pillar and a Cloud by day by night Yet in my desp'rate dangers which be farre More great then theirs I have nor Pillar Cloud nor Starre 7 O that the pineons of a clipping Dove Would cut my passage through the empty Aire Mine eyes being seeld how would I mount above The reach of danger and forgotten care My backward eyes should nev'r commit that fault Whose lasting guilt should build a Monument of Salt 8 Great God that art the flowing Spring of Light Enrich mine eyes with thy refulgent Ray Thou art my Path direct my steps aright I have no other Light no other Way I 'll trust my God and him alone pursue His Law shall be my Path his Heav'nly Light my Clue S. AUGUST Soliloqu cap. 4. O Lord who art the Light the Way the Truth the Life in whom there is no darknesse errour vanitie nor death The Light without which there is darknesse The Way without which there is wandering The Truth without which there is errour The Life without which there is death Say Lord Let there be Light and I shall see Light and eschew darknesse I shall see the Way and avoid wandering I shall sâ—…e the Truth and shun errour I shall see Life and escape death Illuminate O illuminate my blind soul which â—…itteth in darknesse and the shâ—…dow of death and direct my feet in the way of peace EPIG. 2. Pilgrime trudge on What makes thy soul complain Crownes thy complaint The way to rest is pain The road to resolution lies by doubt The next way home 's the farthest way about III. PSALM 17. 5. Stay my steps in thy paths that my feet do not slide 1 WHen ere the old Exchange of profit rings Her silver Saints-bell of uncertain gains My merchant soul can stretch both legs and wings How I can run and take unwearied pains The charms of profit are so strong that I Who wanted legs to go find wings to fly 2 〈◊〉 time-beguiling Pleasure but advance Her lustfull trump and blow her bold alarms O how my sportfull â—…oul can frisk and dance And hug that Syren in her twined arms The sprightly voyce of sinew-strengthning pleasure Can lend my bedrid soul both legs and leasure 3 If blazing Honour chance to fill my veins With flatt'ring warmth and flash of Courtly fire My soul can take a pleasure in her pains My