shade Awake awake And in his Resurrection partake Who on this day that thou might'st rise as he Rose up and cancell'd two deaths due to thee Awake awake and like the Sun disperse All mists that would usurp this day Where are thy Palmes thy branches and thy verse Hosanna heark why doest thou stay Arise arise And with his healing bloud anoint thine Eys Thy inward Eys his bloud will cure thy mind Whose spittle only could restore the blind Easter Hymn DEath and darkness get you packing Nothing now to man is lacking All your triumphs now are ended And what Adam marr'd is mended Graves are beds now for the weary Death a nap to wake more merry Youth now full of pious duty Seeks in thee for perfect beauty The weak and aged tir'd with length Of daies from thee look for new strength And Infants with thy pangs Contest As pleasant as if with the brest Then unto him who thus hath thrown Even to Contempt thy kingdome down And by his blood did us advance Unto his own Inheritance To him be glory power praise From this unto the last of daies The Holy Communion WElcome sweet and sacred feast welcome life Dead I was and deep in trouble But grace and blessings came with thee so rife That they have quicken'd even drie stubble Thus soules their bodies animate And thus at first when things were rude Dark void and Crude They by thy Word their beauty had and date All were by thee And stil must be Nothing that is or lives But hath his Quicknings and reprieves As thy hand opes or shuts Healings and Cuts Darkness and day-light life and death Are but meer leaves turn'd by thy breath Spirits without thee die And blackness sits On the divinest wits As on the Sun Ecclipses lie But that great darkness at thy death When the veyl broke with thy last breath Did make us see The way to thee And now by these sure sacred ties After thy blood Our sov'rain good Had clear'd our eies And given us sight Thou dost unto thy self betroth Our souls and bodies both In everlasting light Was 't not enough that thou hadst payd the price And given us eies When we had none but thou must also take Us by the hand And keep us still awake When we would sleep Or from thee creep Who without thee cannot stand Was 't not enough to lose thy breath And blood by an accursed death But thou must also leave To us that did bereave Thee of them both these seals the means That should both cleanse And keep us so Who wrought thy wo O rose of Sharon O the Lilly Of the valley How art thou now thy flock to keep Become both food and Shepheard to thy sheep Psalm 121. UP to those bright and gladsome hils Whence flowes my weal and mirth I look and sigh for him who fils Unseen both heaven and earth He is alone my help and hope that I shall not be moved His watchful Eye is ever ope And guardeth his beloved The glorious God is my sole stay He is my Sun and shade The cold by night the heat by day Neither shall me invade He keeps me from the spite of foes Doth all their plots controul And is a shield not reckoning those Unto my very soul Whether abroad amidst the Crowd Or els within my door He is my Pillar and my Cloud Now and for evermore Affliction PEace peace It is not so Thou doest miscall Thy Physick Pils that change Thy sick Accessions into setled health This is the great Elixir that turns gall To wine and sweetness Poverty to wealth And brings man home when he doth range Did not he who ordain'd the day Ordain night too And in the greater world display What in the lesser he would do All flesh is Clay thou know'st and but that God Doth use his rod And by a fruitfull Change of frosts and showres Cherish and bind thy pow'rs Thou wouldst to weeds and thistles quite disperse And be more wild than is thy verse Sickness is wholsome and Crosses are but curbs To check the mule unruly man They are heavens husbandry the famous fan Purging the floor which Chaff disturbs Were all the year one constant Sun-shine wee should have no flowres All would be drought and leanness not a tree would make us bowres Beauty consists in colours and that 's best Which is not fixt but flies and flowes The settled Red is dull and whites that rest Something of sickness would disclose Vicissitude plaies all the game nothing that stirrs Or hath a name But waits upon this wheel Kingdomes too have their Physick and for steel Exchange their peace and furrs Thus doth God Key disorder'd man which none else can Tuning his brest to rise or fall And by a sacred needfull art Like strings stretch ev'ry part Making the whole most Musicall The Tempest HOw is man parcell'd out how ev'ry hour Shews him himself or somthing he should see This late long heaâ— may his Instruction be And tempests have more in them than a showr When nature on her bosome saw Her Infants die And all her flowres wither'd to straw Her brests grown dry She made the Earth their nurse tomb Sigh to the sky ' Til to those sighes fetch'd from her womb Rain did reply So in the midst of all her scars And faint requests Her Earnest sighes procur'd her tears And fill'd her brests O that man could do so that he would hear The world read to him all the vast expence In the Creation shed and slav'd to sence Makes up but lectures for his eie and ear Sure mighty love foreseeing the discent Of this poor Creature by a gracious art Hid in these low things snares to gain his heart And layd surprizes in each Element All things here shew him heaven waters that fall Chide and fly up Mists of corruptest some Quit their first beds mount trees herbs flowres all Strive upwards stil and point him the way home How do they cast off grossness only Earth And Man like Issachar in lodes delight Water 's refin'd to Motion Aire to Light Fire to all * three but man hath no such mirth Plants in the root with Earth do most Comply Their Leafs with water and humiditie The Flowres to air draw neer and subtiltie And seeds a kinred fire have with the sky All have their keyes and set ascents but man Though he knows these and hath more of his own Sleeps at the ladders foot alas what can These new discoveries do except they drown Thus groveling in the shade and darkness he Sinks to a dead oblivion and though all He sees like Pyramids shoot from this ball And less'ning still grow up invisibly Yet hugs he stil his durt The stuffe he wears And painted trimming take down both his eies Heaven hath less beauty than the dust he spies And money better musick than the Spheres Life 's but a blast he knows it what shal straw And bul-rush-fetters temper
Authoris de se Emblema TEntasti fateor sine vulnere soepius me Consultū voluit Vox sine voce frequens Ambivit placido divinior aur a meatu Et frustrà sancto murmure praemonuit Sur dus eram mutusqueSilex Tu quanta tuorum Cura tibi est aliâ das renovare viâ Permutas Curam Iamque irritatus Amorem Posse negas vim Vi superare paras Accedis propior molemque Saxea rumpis Pectora fitqueCaro quod fuit ante Lapis En lacerum Coelosque tuos ardentia tandem Fragmenta liquidas ex Adamante genas Sic olim undantes Petras Scopulosque vomentes Curâsti O populi providus usque tui Quam Miranda tibi manus est Moriendo revixi Et fractas jam sum ditior inter opes Silex Scintillans or SACRED POEMS and Private Eiaculations By Henry Vaughan Silurist LONDON Printed by T W. for H. Blunden at ye Castle in Cornehill 1650 The Dedication MY God thou that didst dye for me These thy deaths fruits I offer thee Death that to me was life and light But darke and deep pangs to thy sight Some drops of thy all-quickning bloud Fell on my heart these made it bud And put forth thus though Lord before The ground was curs'd and void of store Indeed I had some here to hire Which long resisted thy desire That ston'd thy Servants and did move To have thee murther'd for thy Love But Lord I have expell'd them and so bent Begge thou wouldst take thy Tenants Rent Silex Scintillans c. Regeneration A Ward and still in bonds one day I stole abroad It was high-spring and all the way Primros'd and hung with shade Yet was it frost within And surly winds Blasted my infant buds and sinne Like Clouds ecclips'd my mind 2. Storm'd thus I straight perceiv'd my spring Meere stage and show My walke a monstrous mountain'd thing Rough-cast with Rocks and snow And as a Pilgrims Eye Far from reliefe Measures the melancholy skye Then drops and rains for griefe 3. So sigh'd I upwards still at last 'Twixt steps and falls I reach'd the pinacle where plac'd I found a paire of scales I tooke them up and layd In th'one late paines The other smoake and pleasures weigh'd But prov'd the heavier graines 4. With that some cryed Away straight I Obey'd and led Full East a faire fresh field could spy Some call'd it Jacobs Bed A Virgin-soile which no Rude feet ere trod Where since he stept there only go Prophets and friends of God 5. Here I repos'd but scarse well set A grove descryed Of stately height whose branches met And mixt on every side I entred and once in Amaz'd to see 't Found all was chang'd and a new spring Did all my senses greet 6. The unthrift Sunne shot vitall gold A thousand peeces And heaven its azure did unfold Checqur'd with snowie fleeces The aire was all in spice And every bush A garland wore Thus fed my Eyes But all the Eare lay hush 7. Only a little Fountain lent Some use for Eares And on the dumbe shades language spent The Musick of her teares I drew her neere and found The Cisterne full Of divers stones some bright and round Others ill-shap'd and dull 8. The first pray marke as quick as light Danc'd through the floud But th' last more heavy then the night Nail'd to the Center stood I wonder'd much but tyr'd At last with thought My restless Eye that still desir'd As strange an object brought 9. It was a banke of flowers where I descried Though 't was mid-day Some fast asleepe others broad-eyed And taking in the Ray Here musing long I heard A rushing wind Which still increas'd but whence it stirr'd No where I could not find 10. I turn'd me round and to each shade Dispatch'd an Eye To see if any leafe had made Least motion or Reply But while I listning sought My mind to ease By knowing where 't was or where not It whisper'd where I please Lord then said I On me one breath And let me dye before my death Cant. Cap. 5. ver. 17. Arise O North and come thou South-wind and blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out Death A Dialogue Soule 'T Is a sad Land that in one day Hath dull'd thee thus when death shall freeze Thy bloud to Ice and thou must stay Tenant for Yeares and Centuries How wilt thou brook 't Body I cannot tell But if all sence wings not with thee And something still be left the dead I 'le wish my Curtaines off to free Me from so darke and sad a bed A neast of nights a gloomie sphere Where shadowes thicken and the Cloud Sits on the Suns brow all the yeare And nothing moves without a shrowd Soule 'T is so But as thou sawest that night Wee travell'd in our first attempts Were dull and blind but Custome straight Our feares and falls brought to contempt Then when the gastly twelve was past We breath'd still for a blushing East And bad the lazie Sunne make hast And on sure hopes though long did feast But when we saw the Clouds to crack And in those Cranies light appear'd We thought the day then was not slack And pleas'd our selves with what wee feard Just so it is in death But thou Shalt in thy mothers bosome sleepe Whilst I each minute grone to know How neere Redemption creepes Then shall wee meet to mixe again and met 'T is last good-night our Sunne shall never set Job Cap 10. ver. 21.22 Before I goe whence I shall not returne even to the land of darknesse and the shadow of death A Land of darknesse as darkenesse it selfe and of the shadow of death without any order and where the light is as darknesse Resurrection and Immortality Heb. cap. 10. ve 20. By that new and living way which he hath prepared for us through the veile which is his flesh Body 1. OFt have I seen when that renewing breath That binds and loosens death Inspir'd a quickning power through the dead Creatures a bed Some drowsie silk-worme creepe From that long sleepe And in weake infant hummings chime and knell About her silent Cell Untill at last full with the vitall Ray She wing'd away And proud with life and sence Heav'ns rich Expence Esteem'd vaine things of two whole Elements As meane and span-extents Shall I then thinke such providence will be Lesse friend to me Or that he can endure to be unjust Who keeps his Covenant even with our dust Soule 2. Poore querulous handfull was 't for this I taught thee all that is Unbowel'd nature shew'd thee her recruits And Change of suits And how of death we make A meere mistake For no thing can to Nothing fall but still Incorporates by skill And then returns and from the wombe of things Such treasure brings As Phenix-like renew'th Both life and youth For a preserving spirit doth still passe Untainted through this Masse Which doth resolve produce and ripen
a showr Beats them quite off and in an hour Not one poor shoot But the bare root Hid under ground survives the fall Alas frail weed 3. Thus like some sleeping Exhalation Which wak'd by heat and beams makes up Unto that Comforter the Sun And soars and shines But e'r we sup And walk two steps Cool'd by the damps of night descends And whence it sprung there ends Doth my weak fire Pine and retire And after all my hight of flames In sickly Expirations tames Leaving me dead On my first bed Untill thy Sun again ascends Poor falling Star 4. O is but give wings to my fire And hatch my soul untill it fly Up where thou art amongst thy tire Of Stars above Infirmity Let not perverse And foolish thoughts adde to my Bil Of forward sins and Kil That seed which thou In me didst sow But dresse and water with thy grace Together with the seed the place And for his sake Who died to stake His life for mine tune to thy will My heart my verse Hosea Cap. 6. ver. 4. O Ephraim what shall I do unto thee O Iudah how shall I intreat thee for thy goodness is as a morning Cloud and as the early Dew it goeth away Idle Verse GO go queint folies sugred sin Shadow no more my door I will no longer Cobwebs spin I 'm too much on the score For since amidst my youth and night My great preserver smiles Wee 'l make a Match my only light And Joyn against their wiles Blind desp'rate fits that study how To dresse and trim our shame That gild rank poyson and allow Vice in a fairer name The Purles of youthfull bloud and bowles Lust in the Robes of Love The idle talk of feav'rish souls Sick with a scarf or glove Let it suffice my warmer days Simper'd and shin'd on you Twist not my Cypresse with your Bays Or Roses with my Yewgh Go go seek out some greener thing It snows and freezeth here Let Nightingales attend the spring Winter is all my year Son-dayes BRight shadows of true Rest some shoots of blisse Heaven once a week The next worlds gladnes prepossest in this A day to seek Eternity in time the steps by which We Climb above all ages Lamps that light Man through his heap of dark days and the rich And full redemption of the whole weeks flight 2. The Pulleys unto headlong man times bower The narrow way Transplanted Paradise Gods walking houre The Cool o' th' day The Creatures Jubile Gods parle with dust Heaven here Man on those hills of Myrrh and flowres Angels descending the Returns of Trust A Gleam of glory after six-days-showres 3. The Churches love-feasts Times Prerogative And Interest Deducted from the whole The Combs and hive And home of rest The milky way Chalkt out with Suns a Clue That guides through erring hours and in full story A taste of Heav'n on earth the pledge and Cue Of a full feast And the Out Courts of glory Repentance LOrd since thou didst in this vile Clay That sacred Ray Thy spirit plant quickning the whole With that one grains Infused wealth My forward flest creept on and subtly stole Both growth and power Checking the health And heat of thine That little gate And narrow way by which to thee The Passage is He term'd a grate And Entrance to Captivitie Thy laws but nets where some small birds And those but seldome too were caught Thy Promises but empty words Which none but Children heard or taught This I believed And though a friend Came oft from far and whisper'd No Yet that not sorting to my end I wholy listen'd to my foe Wherefore pierc'd through with grief my sad Seduced soul sighs up to thee To thee who with true light art Clad And seest all things just as they be Look from thy throne upon this Rowl Of heavy sins my high transgressions Which I Confesse withall my soul My God Accept of my Confession It was last day Touch'd with the guilt of my own way I sate alone and taking up The bitter Cup Through all thy fair and various store Sought out what might outvie my score The blades of grasse thy Creatures feeding The trees their leafs the flowres their seeding The Dust of which I am a part The Stones much softer than my heart The drops of rain the sighs of wind The Stars to which I am stark blind The Dew thy herbs drink up by night The beams they warm them at l'th' light All that have signature or life I summon'd to decide this strife And lest I should lack for Arrears A spring ran by I told her tears But when these came unto the scale My sins alone outweigh'd them all O my dear God! my life my love Most blessed lamb and mildest dove Forgive your penitent Offender And no more his sins remember Scatter these shades of death and give Light to my soul that it may live Cut me not off for my transgressions Wilful rebellions and suppressions But give them in those streams a part Whose spring is in my Saviours heart Lord I confesse the heynous score And pray I may do so no more Though then all sinners I exceed O think on this Thy Son did bleed O call to mind his wounds his woes His Agony and bloudy throws Then look on all that thou hast made And mark how they do fail and fade The heavens themselves though fair and bright Are dark and unclean in thy sight How then with thee Can man be holy Who doest thine Angels charge with folly O what am I that I should breed Figs on a thorne flowres on a weed I am the gourd of sin and sorrow Growing o'r night and gone to morrow In all this Round of life and death Nothing 's more vile than is my breath Profanenes on my tongue doth rest Defects and darknes in my brest Pollutions all my body wed And even my soul to thee is dead Only in him on whom I feast Both soul and body are well drest His pure perfection quits all score And fills the Boxes of his poor He is the Center of long life and light I am but finite He is Infinite O let thy Justice then in him Confine And through his merits make thy mercy mine The BURIAL Of an Infant BLest Infant Bud whose Blossome-life Did only look about and fal Wearyed out in a harmles strife Of tears and milk the food of all Sweetly didst thou expire Thy soul Flew home unstain'd by his new kin For ere thou knew'st how to be foul Death wean'd thee from the world and sin Softly rest all thy Virgin-Crums Lapt in the sweets of thy young breath Expecting till thy Saviour Comes To dresse them and unswadle death Faith BRight and blest beame whose strong projection Equall to all Reacheth as well things of dejection As th' high and tall How hath my God by raying thee Inlarg'd his spouse And of a private familie Made open house All may be now Co-heirs no noise Of Bond