all-chearing ray The fair Stars fill their wakeful fires the Sun himself drinks day The Antiphon Victorious Sign That now dost shine Transcrib'd above Into the Land of Light and Love O let us twine Our Roots with thine That we may rise Upon thy Wings and reach the Skies The Versicle Lo we adore thee Dread Lamb and fall Thus low before thee The Responsor 'Cause by the Covenant of thy Cross Thou hast sav'd at once the whole world's loss The Prayer O My Lord Jesu Christ Son of the living God! interpose I pray thee thine own pretious death thy Cross and Passion betwixt my Soul and thy Judgement now and in the hour of my death And vouchsafe to grant me thy Grace and Mercy to the living and dead remission and rest to thy Church peace and concord to us sinners life and glory everlasting Who livest and reignest with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost one God world without end Amen The Third The Versicle Lord by thy sweet and saving Sign The Responsor Defend us from our foes and thine Ver. Thou shalt open my Lips O Lord Res. And my mouth shall declare thy praise Ver. O God make speed to save me Res. O â—…ord make haste to help me Ver. Glory be to c. Res. As it was in the c. THE HYMN THe Third hour's deafen'd with the cry Of Crucify him Crucify So goes the vote nor ask them why Live Barabbas and let God dy But there is wit in wrath and they will try A Hall more cruel then their Crucify For while in sport he wears a spiteful Crown The serious show'rs along his decent Face run sadly down The Antiphon Christ when he dy'd Deceiv'd the Cross And on Death's side Threw all the loss The captive World awak't and found The Prisoner loose the Jaylor bound The Versicle Lo we adore thee Dread Lamb and fall Thus low before thee Tht Responsor 'Cause by the Covenant of thy Cross Thou hast sav'd at once the whole World's loss The Prayer O My Lord Jesu Christ Son of the living God! interpose I pray thee thine own precious death thy Cross and Passion betwixt my Soul and thy Judgement now and in the hour of my death And vouchsafe to grant me thy Grace and Mercy to the living and dead remission and rest to thy Church peace and concord to us sinners life and glory everlasting Who livest and reignest with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost one God world without end Amen The SIXTH The Versicle Lord by thy sweet and saving Sign The Responsor Defend us from our foes and thine Ver. Thou shalt open my lips O Lord Res. And my mouth shall declare thy praise Ver. O God make speed to save me Res. O Lord make haste to help me Ver. Glory be to c Res. As it was in c. The HYMN NOw is the Noon of sorrow's night High in his patience as their spight Lo the faint Lamb with weary Limb Bears that huge Tree which must bear him That fatal Plant so great of Fame For fruit of sorrow and of shame Shall swell with both for him and mix All woes into one Crucifix Is tortur'd Thirst it self too sweet a cup Gall and more bitter mocks shall make it up Are Nails blunt Pens of superficial smart Contempt and scorn can send sure wounds to search the inmost Heart The Antiphon O dear and sweet dispute 'Twixt death's and Love's far different Fruit Different as far As Antidotes and Poisons are By that first fatal Tree Both Life and Liberty Were sold and slain By this they both look up and live again The Versicle Lo we adore thee Dread Lamb and bow thus low before thee The Responsor 'Cause by the covenant of thy Cross. Thou hast sav'd the World from certain loss The Prayer O My Lord Jesu Christ son of the living God! interpose I pray thee thine own precious death thy Cross and Passion betwixt my soul and thy judgement now and in the hour of my death And vouchsafe to grant me thy grace and mercy to the living and dead remission and rest to thy church peace and concord to us sinners life and glory everlasting Who livest and reignest with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost one God world without end Amen The NINTH The Versicle Lord by thy sweet and saving Sign The Responsor Defend us from our foes and thine Ver. Thou shalt open my lips O Lord Res. And my mouth shall declare thy praise Ver. O God make speed to save me Res. O Lord make haste to help me Glory be to c. As it was in c. The HYMN THe Ninth with awful horror hark'ned to those groans Which taught attention even to Rocks and Stones Hear Father hear thy Lamb at last complains Of some more painful thing then all his pains Then bows his all-obedient head and dies His own Lov 's and our sin 's great Sacrifice The Sun saw that and would have seen no more The Center shook her useless veil th' inglorious Temple tore The Antiphon O strange mysterious strife Of open death and hidden life When on the cross my King did bleed Life seem'd to die Death dy'd indeed The Versicle Lo we adore thee Dread Lamb and fall thus low before thee The Responsor 'Cause by the covenant of thy Cross Thou hast sav'd at once the whole world's loss The Prayer O my Lord Jesu Christ son of the living God! interpose I pray thee thine own pretious death thy Cross â—…d Passion betwixt my soul and thy judgement now and in the hour of my death and vouchsafe to grant me thy grace and mercy to the living and dead remission and rest to thy Church peace and concord to us sinners life and glory everlasting who livest and reignest with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost one God world without end Amen Even-Song The Versicle Lord by thy sweet and saving Sign The Responsor Defend us from our foes and thine Ver. Thou shalt open my Lips O Lord Res. And my mouth shall declare thy praise Ver. O God make speed to save me Res. O Lord make haste to help me Ver. Gâ—…ory be to c. Res. As it was in c. The HYMN BUt there were Rocks would not relent at this Lo for their own hearts they rend His Their deadly hate lives still and hath A wild reserve of wanton wrath Superfluous Spear but there 's a Heart stands by Will look no wounds be lost no death shall dy Gather now thy grief 's ripe fruit Great Mother-maid Then sit thee down and sing thy Ev'n-song in the sad Trees shade The Antiphon O sad sweet Tree Woful and joyful we Both weep and sing in shade of thee When the dear Nails did lock And graft into thy gracious Stock The hope the health The worth the wealth Of all the ransom'd World thou hadst the power In that propitious hour To poise each precious Limb
And prove how light the World was when it weigh'd with Him Wide maist thou spred Thine Arms and with thy bright and blisful head O'r look all Libanus Thy lofty crown The King himself is thou his humble Throne Where yielding and yet conquering he Prov'd a new path of patient victory When wondring death by death was slain And our Captivity his Captive ta'ne The Versicle Lo we adore thee Dread Lamb and bow thus low before thee The Responsor Cause by the covenant of thy Cross Thou hast sav'd the World from certain loss The Prayer O My Lord Jesu Christ son of the living c. COMPLINE The Versicle Lord by thy sweet and saving Sign The Responsor Defend us from our foes and thine Ver. Thou shalt open my lips O Lord. Res. And my mouth shall declare thy praise Ver. O God make speed to save me Res. O Lord make haste to help me Ver. Glory be to c. Res. As it was in c. The HYMN THe Compline hour comes last to call Us to our own Live's funeral Ah hartless task yet hope takes head And lives in him that here lies dead Run Mary run bring hither all the Blest Arabia for thy Royal Phenix ' nest Pour on thy Noblest sweets which when they touch This sweeter Body shall indeed be such But must thy bed Lord be a borrow'd Grave Who lendst to all things all the life they have O rather use this Heart thus far a fitter Stone 'Cause though a hard and cold one yet it is thine own Amen The Antiphon O save us then Merciful King of men Since thou wouldst needs be thus A Saviour and at such a rate for us Save us O save us Lord. We now will own no shorter wish nor name a narrower word Thy blood bids us be bold Thy wounds give us fair hold Thy sorrows chide our shame â—…hy Cross thy Nature and thy Name Advance our claim And cry with one accord Save them O save them Lord. The Versicle Lo we adore thee Dread Lamb and bow thus low before thee The Responsor 'Cause by the covenant of thy Cross Thou hast sav'd the world from certain loss The Prayer O My Lord Jesu Christ Son of c. The RECOMMENDATION THese Hours and that which hovers o'r my end Into thy Hands and Heart Lord I commend Take both to thine account that I and mine In that hour and in these may be all thine That as I dedicate my devoutest Breath To make a kind of Life for my Lords Death So from his living and life-giving Death My dying Life may draw a new and never-fleeting Breath VEXILLA REGIS The Hymn of the Holy Cross. 1. LOok up languishing soul Lo where the fair Badge of thy Faith calls back thy care And bids thee ne'r forget Thy Life is one long Debt Of Love to Him who on this painful Tree Paid back the Flesh he took for thee 2. Lo how the streams of Life from that full Nest Of Loves thy Lord 's too liberal Brest Flow in an amorous Floud Of Water wedding Bloud With these he wash't thy stain transfer'd thy smart And took it home to his own heart 3. But though great Love greedy of such sad gain Usurp't the portion of thy pain And from the Nails and Spear Turn'd the steel point of Fear Their use is chang'd not lost and now they move Not stings of Wrath but wounds of Love 4. Tall Tree of Life thy Truth makes good What was till now ne'r understood Though the prophetick King Struck loud his faithful string It was thy wood he meant should make the Throne For a more then Salomon 5. Large throne of Love Royally spred With purple of too rich a Red. Thy crime is too much duty Thy burthen too much Beauty Glorious or grievous more thus to make good Thy costly Excellence with thy Kings own Blood 6. Even ballance of both Worlds our World of sin And that of Grace Heav'n weigh'd in Him Us with our price thou weighedst Our price for us thou payedst Soon as the right-hand scale rejoyc't to prove How much Death weigh'd more light then Love 7. Hail our alone Hope let thy fair Head shoot Aloft and fill the Nations with thy Noble fruit The while our hearts and we Thus graft our selves on thee Grow thou and they and be thy fair increase The sinner's pardon and the just man's peace Live O for ever Live and Reign The Lamb whom his own Love has slain And let thy lost sheep live t' inherit That Kingdom which this Cross did merit Amen Charitas Nimia Or the dear Bargain LOrd what is Man why should he cost thee So dear what had his ruine lost thee Lord what is Man that thou hast over-bought So much a thing of nought Love is too kind I see and can Make but a simple Merchant man 'T was for such sorry Merchandise Bold Painters have put out his Eyes Alas sweet Lord what wer 't to thee If there were no such Worms as we Heav'n ne'rtheless still Heav'n would be Should Mankind dwell In the deep Hell What have his Woes to do with thee Let him go weep O'r his own wounds Seraphims will not sleep Nor Sphears let fall their fatihful rounds Still would the youthful Spirits sing And still thy spacious Palace ring Still would those beauteous Ministers of Light Burn all as bright And bow their flaming heads before thee Still Thrones and Dominations would adore thee Still would those ever-wakeful sons of fire Keep warm thy praise Both nights and days And teach thy lov'd name to their Noble Lyre Let froward Dust then do its kind And give it self for sport to the proud wind Why should a piece of peevish Clay plead shares In the Eternity of thy old cares Why shouldst thou bow thy awful Brest to see What mine own madnesses have done with me Should not the King still keep his Throne Because some desperate Fool 's undone Or will the World 's illustrious Eyes Weep for every Worm that dies Will the gallant Sun E'r the less Glorious run Will he hang down his Golden head Or e'r the sooner seek his Western bed Because some foolish Fly Grows wanton and will dye If I were lost in misery What was it to thy Heav'n and thee What was it to thy precious blood If my soul Heart call'd for a floud What if my faithless soul and I Would needs fall in With guilt and sin What did the Lamb that he should dye What did the Lamb that he should need When the Wolf sins himself to bleed If my base Lust Bargain'd with Death and well-beseeming Dust Why should the white Lamb's bosome write The purple name Of my sin's shame Why should his unstain'd Brest make good My blushes with his own heart-blood O my Saviour make me see How dearly thou hast paid for me That lost again my Life may prove As then in Death so now in Love Sancta Maria dolorum Or the Mother of sorrows
a Pathetical descant upon the devout Plainsong of Stabat Mater dolorosa 1. IN shade of Deaths sad Tree Stood doleful she Ah she now by no other Name to be known alas but Sorrow's Mother Before her Eyes Her 's and the whole World's joyes Hanging all torn she sees and in his woes And Pains her pangs and throes Each wound of his from every part All more at home in her own heart 2. What kind of Marble than Is that cold man Who can look on and see Nor keep such Noble sorrows company Sure even from you My Flints some drops are due To see so many unkind swords contest So fast for one soft Brest While with a faithful mutual floud Her Eyes bleed Tears his wounds weep blood 3. O costly intercourse Of deaths and worse Divided Loves while Son and Mother Discourse alternate wounds to one another Quick Deaths that grow And gather as they come and go His Nails write swords in her which soon her heart Pays back with more then their own smart Her swords still growing with his pain Turn Spears and straight come home again 4. She sees her Son her God Bow with a load Of borrow'd sins and swim In woes that were not made for him Ah hard Command Of Love Here must she stand Charg'd to look on and with a stedfast Eye See her life dye Leaving her only so much Breath As serves to keep alive her death 5. O Mother Turtle-dove Soft sourse of Love That these dry Lids might borrow Somthing from thy full seas of Sorrow O in that Brest Of thine the noblest Nest Both of Love's Fires and Flouds might I recline This hard cold Heart of mine The chil lump would relent and prove Soft Subject for the siege of Love 6. O teach those wounds to bleed In me me so to read This Book of Loves thus writ In lines of death my life may copy it With Loyal cares O let me here claim shares Yield something in thy sad prerogative Great Queen of griefs and give Me to my Tears who though all stone Think much that thou shouldst mourn alone 7. Yea let my life and me Fix here with thee And at the Humble Foot Of this fair Tree take our Eternal Root That so we may At least be in Loves way And in these chaste wars while the wing'd wounds flee So fast 'twixt him and thee My Brest may catch the kiss of some kind Dart Though as at second hand from either Heart 8. O you your own best Darts Dear doleful hearts Hail and strike home and make me see That wounded bosomes their own weapons be Come Wounds come Darts Nail'd hands and pierced hearts Come your whole selves Sorrow's great Son and Mother Nor grudge a younger Brother Of grief 's his portion who had all their due One single wound should not have left for you 9. Shall I set there So deep a share Dear wounds and onely now In sorrows draw no dividend with you O be more wife If not more soft mine Eyes Flow tardy Founts and into decent showrs Dissolve my Days and Hours And if thou yet faint soul defer To bleed with him fail not to weep with her 10. Rich Queen lend some relief At least an alms of Grief To ' a heart who by sad right of sin Could prove the whole sum too sure due to him By all those stings Of Love sweet bitter things Which these torn hands transcrib'd on thy true Heart O teach mine too the Art To study him so till we mix Wounds and become one Crucifix 11. O let me suck the Wine So long of this chaste Vine Till drunk of the dear wounds I be A lost thing to the World as it to me O faithful friend Of me and of my end Fold up my life in Love and lay 't beneath My dear Lord's vital death Lo heart thy hopes whole Plea her precious breath Powr'd out in Prayers for thee thy Lord 's in death The Hymn of St. Thomas in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament WIth all the pow'rs my poor Heart hath Of humble Love and Loyal Faith Thus low my hidden life I bow to thee Whom too much Love hath bow'd more low for me Down down proud sense discourses dye Keep close my soul 's inquiring Eye Nor touch nor taste must look for more But each sit still in his own door Your Ports are all superfluous here Save that which lets in Faith the Ear. Faith is my skill Faith can believe As fast as Love new Laws can give Faith is my force Faith strength affords To keep pace with those pow'rful words And words more sure more sweet then they Love could not think truth could not say O let thy wretch find that relief Thou didst afford the faithful Thief Plead for me Love Alledge and show That Faith has farther here to go And less to lean on because than Though hid as God wounds writ thee Man Thomas might touch none but might see At least the suffring side of thee And that too was thy self which thee did cover But here ev n that 's hid too which hides the other Sweet consider then that I Though allow'd not Hand nor Eye To teach at thy lov'd Face nor can Taste thee God or touch thee Man Both yet believe and witness thee My Lord too and my God as loud as he Help Lord my Hope increase And till my portion in thy peace Give Love for Life nor let my days Grow but in new pow'rs to name thy Praise O dear memorial of that Death Which lives still and allows us Breath Rich Royal Food Bountiful Bread Whose use denies us to the Dead Whose vital gust alone can give The same leave both to Eat and Live Live ever Bread of Loves and be My Life my Soul my surer self to me O soft self-wounding Pelican Whose Brest weeps Balm for wounded Man Ah this way bend thy benign Houd To a bleeding Heart that gâ—…spes for Blood That Blood whose least drops soveraign be To wash my Worlds of sine from me Come Love Come Lord and that long day For which I languish come away When this dry soul those Eyes shall see And drink the unseal'd sourse of thee When Glory 's Sun Faith's shade shall chase Then for thy veil give me thy Face Amen Thè Hymn for the Blessed Sacrament Lauda Sion Salvatorem 1. RIse Royal Sion rise and sing Thy Soul 's kind Shepheard thy Hearts King Stretch all thy powers call if you can Harps of Heav'n to hands of man This Soveraign subject sits above The best ambition of thy Love 2. Lo the Bread of Life this day 's Triumphant Text. provokes thy praise The living and life-giving Bread To the Great Twelve distributed When Life himself at point to dy Of Love was his own Legacy 3. Come Love and let us work a Song Loud and pleasant sweet and long Let Lips and Hearts lift high the noise Of so just and solemn joys Which on his white brows this
fallacy of fire That is a Seraphim they say And this the great Teresia Readers be rul'd by me and make Here a well-plac't and wise mistake You must transpose the picture quite And spell it wrong to read it right Read Him for Her and Her for Him And call the Saint the Seraphim Painter what didst thou understand To put her Dart into his hand See even the years and size of him Shows this the Mother Seraphim This is the Mistress flame and duteous he Her happy fire-works here comes down to see O most poor-spirited of men Had thy cold Pencil kist her Pen Thou couldst not so unkindly err To show us this faint shade for her Why Man this speaks pure mortal frame And mocks with female Frost Love's manly flame One would suspect thou meanst to print Some weak inferiour Woman Saint But had thy pale-fac't purple took Fire from the burning checks of that bright Book Thou wouldst on her have heapt up all That could be found Seraphical What e'r this youth of fire wears fair Rosie Fingers Radiant Hair Glowing Cheek and glistring Wings All those fair and flagrant things But before all that fiery Dart Had fill'd the Hand of this great Heart Do then as equal right requires Since his the blushes be and her 's the fires Resume and rectify thy rude design Undress thy Seraphim into Mine Redeem this injury of thy Art Give him the Vail give her the Dart. Give him the vail that he may cover The red Cheeks of a rivall'd Lover Asham'd that our worl'd now can show Nests of new Seraphims here below Give her the Dart for it is she Fair youth shoots both thy shaft and Thee Say all ye wise and well-pierc'd hearts That live and dy amidst her Darts What is 't your tastful spirits do prove In that rare life of her and Love Say and bear witness Sends she not A Seraphim at every shot What Magazins of immortal Arms there shine Heav'ns great Artillery in each'love-spun line Give then the Dart to her who gives the flame Give him the veil who gives the shame But if it be the frequent fate Of worst faults to be fortunate If all 's prescription and proud wrong Hearkens not to an humble song For all the gallantry of him Give me the suffring Seraphim His be the bravery of all those bright things The glowing Cheeks the glistering wings The Rosie hand the radiant Dart Leave her alone the Flaming Heart Leave her that and thou shalt leave her Not one loose shaft but Love's whole Quiver For in Love's Field was never found A Nobler weapon then a wound Love's Passives are his Activ'st part The wounded is the wounding heart O Heart the equal poise of Love 's both parts Big alike with Wounds and Darts Live in these conquering Leave 's Live all the same And walk through all Tongues one Triumphant flame Live here great Heart and love and dye and kill And bleed and wound and yield and conquer still Let this immortal Life where e'r it comes Walk in a croud of Loves and Martyrdomes Let mystick Deaths wait on 't and wise souls be The Love-slain witnesses of this life of thee O sweet incendiary shew here thy Art Upon this Carcass of a hard cold Heart Let all thy scatter'd shafts of Light that play Among the Leaves of thy large Books of day Combin'd against this Brest at once break in And take away from me my self and sin This Gracious Robbery shall thy bounty be And my best fortunes such fair spoils of me O thou undaunted Daughter of Desires By all thy Dow'r of Lights and Fires By all the Eagle in thee all the Dove By all thy Lives and Deaths of Love By thy large draughts of intellectual day And by thy thirsts of Love more large then they By all thy brim-fill'd Bowls of fierce desire By thy last mornings draught of liquid Fire By the full Kingdom of that final kiss That seiz'd thy parting Soul and seal'd thee his By all the Heav'ns thou hast in him Fair Sister of the Seraphim By all of Him we have in Thee Leave nothing of my Self in me Let me so read thy life that I Unto all life of mine may dy A Song LOrd when the sense of thy sweet Grace Sends up my Soul to seek thy Face Thy Blessed Eyes breed such desire I dye in Love's delicious Fire O Love I am thy Sacrifice Be still Triumphant Blessed Eyes Still shine on me fair Suns that I Still may behold though still I dye Second part Though still I dye I live again Still longing so to be still slain So gainful is such loss of breath I dye even in desire of death Still live in me this loving strife Of living Death and dying Life For while thou sweetly slayest me Dead to my self I live in thee To Mistrses M. R. Councel concerning her Choise DEar Heav'n-designed Soul Amongst the rest Of Suiters that besiege your Maiden brest Why may not I My fortune try And venture to speak one good word Not for my self alas but for my dearer Lord You 'ave seen already in this lower sphear Of Froth and Bubbles what to look for here Say gentle Soul what can you find But painted shapes Peacocks and Apes Illustrious Flies Guilded Dunghils Glorious Lyes Goodly surmises And deep disguises Oaths of Water Words of Wind Truth bids me say 't is time you cease to Trust Your Soul to any son of Dust. 'T is time you listen to a braver Love Which from above Calls you up higher And bids you come And choose your room Among his own fair sons of fire Where you among The Golden throng That watches at his Palace doors May pass along And follow those fair Stars of yours Stars much too fair and pure to wait upon The false smiles of a sublunary Sun Sweet let me Prophesie that at last 't will prove Your wary Love Lays up his purer and more precious vows And means them for a far more worthy Spouse Then this world of Lies can give you Ev'n for him with whom nor cost Nor love nor labour can be lost Him who never will deceive you Let not my Lord the Mighty Lover Of souls disdain that I discover The hidden Art Of his high stratagem to win your heart It was his Heav'nly Art Kindly to cross you In your mistaken Love That at the next remove Thence he might toss you And strike your troubled heart Home to himself to hide it in his Brest The bright ambrosial Nest Of Love of Life and everlasting Rest. Happy mistake That thus shall wake Your wise soul never to be won Now with a love below the Sun Your first choice fails O when you choose agen May it not be among the sons of men ALEXIAS The Complaint of the forsaken wife of Saint Alexis The First ELEGY I Late the Roman Youth 's lov'd praise and pride Whom long none could obtain though thousands try'd Lo here am left alas For my lost
in 't small or none It is too sweet to be a long-liv'd one Luk. 16. Dives asking a drop A Drop one drop how sweetly one fair drop Would tremble on my Pearl-tipt fingers top My Wealth is gone O go it where it will Spare this one Jewel I 'll be Dives still Mark 12. Give to Caesar And to God ALl we have is God's and yet Caesar challenges a Debt Nor hath God a thinner share What ever Caesar's payments are All is God's and yet 't is true All we have is Caesar's too All is Caesar's and what odds So long as Caesar's self is Gods But now they have seen and hated SEen and yet hated Thee they did not see They saw Thee not that saw and hated Thee No no they saw thee not O Life O Love Who saw ought in Thee that their Hate could move Upon the Crown of Thorns taken from our Blessed Lords Head all bloody KNow'st thou this Soldier 't is a much chang'd Plant which yet Thy Self didst set 'T is chang'd indeed did Autumn e'r such Beautys bring To shame his Spring O! who so hard an Husbandman could ever find A Soyl so kind Is not the Soil a kind one think ye that returns Roses for Thorns She began to wash his Feet with Tears and wipe them with the Hairs of her Head HEr Eyes Flood licks his Feets fair stain Her Hairs Flame licks up that again This Flame thus quench't hath brighter Beams This Flood thus stained fairer Streams On St. Peter cutting off Malchus his Ear. WEll Peter dost thou wield thy active Sword Well for thy self I mean not for thy Lord. To strike at Ears is to take heed there be No witness Peter of thy Perjury Joh. 3. But Men loved Darkness rather than Light THe Worlds Light shines shine as it will The World will love its Darkness still I doubt though when the World 's in Hell It will not love its darkness half so well Act. 21. I am ready not onely to be Bound but to Dye COme death come bands nor do you shrink my ears At those hard words Mans Cowardise calls Fears Save those of Fear no other Bands fear I Nor other Death then this the fear to Die On St. Peter casting away his Nets at our Saviours Call THou hast the Art on 't Peter and canst tell To cast thy Nets on all occasions well When Christ calls and thy Nets would have thee stay To cast them Well's to cast them quite away Our Lord in his Circumcision to his Father TO thee these First Fruits of my growing Death For what else is my life lo I bequeath Taste this and as thou lik'st this lesser flood Expect a Sea my heart shall make it good Thy wrath that wades here now e'r long shall swim The Flood-gate shall be set wide ope for him Then let him drink and drink and do his worst To drown the wantonness of his wild Thirst. Now 's but the Nonage of my Pains my Fears Are yet both in their hopes not come to years The Day of my dark Woes is yet but Morn My Tears but tender and my Death new-born Yet may these unfledg'd griefs give fate some guess These Cradle-torments have their towardness These Purple buds of blooming Death may be Erst the full Stature of a fatal Tree And till my riper Woes to Age are come This Knife may be the Spears Praeludium On the wounds of our crucified Lord. O These wakeful Wounds of thine Are they Mouths or are they Eyes Be they Mouthes or be they Eyn Each bleeding part some one supplies Lo a Mouth whose full-bloom'd Lips At too dear a rate are Roses Lo a blood-shot Eye that weeps And many a cruel Tear discloses O thou that on this Foot hast laid Many a Kiss and many a Tear Now thou shalt have all repaid Whatsoe'r thy Charges were This Foot hath got a Mouth and Lips To pay the sweet summe of thy Kisses To pay thy Tears an Eye that weeps Instead of Tears such Gems as this is The difference onely this appears Nor can the change offend The Debt is paid in Ruby-Tears Which thou in Pearls didst lend On our crucified Lord Naked and Bloody TH' have left thee Naked Lord O that they had This Garment too I would they had deny'd Thee with thy self they have too richly clad Opening the Purple Wardrobe of thy Side O never could be found Garments too good For thee to wear but these of thine own Blood Easter-day RIse Heir of fresh Eternity From thy Virgin-Tomb Rise Mighty man of Wonders and thy world with thee Thy Tomb the universal East Natures new Womb Thy Tomb fair Immortalities perfumed Nest Of all the Glories make Noon gay This is the Morn This Rock buds forth the fountain of the streams of day In Joyes white Annals live this hour When life was born No Cloud scoul on his radiant Lids no Tempest lowre Life by this Light 's Nativity All Creatures have Death onely by this days just Doom is forc't to dye Nor is Death forc't for may he lye Thron'd in thy Grave Death will on this condition be content to dye On the bleeding Wounds of our crucified Lord. JEsu no more it is full Tide From thy Hands and from thy Feet From thy Head and from thy Side All thy Purple Rivers meet Thy restless Feet they cannot go For us and our Eternal good As they are wont what though They Swim alas in their own Flood Thy Hand to give thou canst not lift Yet will thy Hand still giving be It gives but O itself 's the Gift It drops though bound though bound 't is free But Oh thy Side thy deep dig'd Side That hath a double Nilus going Nor ever was the 〈◊〉 Tide Half so Fruitful half so Flowing What need thy fair Head bear a 〈◊〉 In Tears as if thine Eyes had none What need they help to drown thine Heart That strives in Torrents of its own Water'd by the showres they bring The Thorns that thy Blest Brows encloses A cruel and a costly Spring Conceive proud hopes of proving Roses Not a Hair but pays his River To this Red Sea of thy Blood Their little Channels â—…an deliver Something to the general Flood But while I speak whither are run All the Rivers nam'd before I counted wrong there is but one But O that one is one all o're Rain-swoln Rivers may rise proud Threatning all to overflow But when indeed all 's overflow'd They themselves are drowned too This thy Bloods deluge a dire chance Dear Lord to thee to us is found A deluge of deliverance A Deluge lest we should be drown'd Ne'r was 't thou in a Sence so sadly True The Well of living Waters Lord till now Sampson to his Dalilah COuld not once blinding me Cruel suffice When first I look't on thee I lost mine Eyes Psalm 23. HAppy me O haypy Sheep Whom my God vouchsafes to keep Even my God even he it is That points me to these ways of