pursued A Wit so strong that who would it define Will need one ten times more acute then mine Yet rul'd so that its Vigour manag'd thus Becomes at once graceful and generous Whose Honour has so delicate a Sense Who alwayes pardon never give offence Who needing nothing yet to all are kind Who have so large a Heart so rich a Mind Whose Friendship still 's of the obliging side And yet so free from tyranny and Pride Who do in love like Jonathan descend And strip your self to cloath your happy friend Whose kindness and whose modesty is such T' expect so little and deserve so much Who have such candid worth such dear concern Where we so much may love and so much learn Whose very wonder though it fills and shines It never to an ill excess declines But all are found so sweetly opposite As are in Titian's Pieces Shade and Light That he that would your great Description try Though he write well would be as lost as I Who of injurious Zele convicted stand To draw you with so bold and bad a hand But that like other Glories I presume You will enlighten where you might consume XLVI Parting with Lucasia Jan. 13. 1657. A Song 1. WEll we will doe that rigid thing Which makes Spectators think we part Though Absence hath for none a sting But those who keep each others heart 2. And when our Sense is dispossest Our labouring Souls will heave and pant And grasp for one anothers breast Since they their Conveyances want 3. Nay we have felt the tedious smart Of absent Friendship and do know That when we die we can but part And who knows what we shall doe now 4. Yet I must go we will submit And so our own Disposers be For while we noblier suffer it We triumph o're Necessity 5. By this we shall be truly great If having other things o'recome To make our victory complete We can be Conquerors at home 6. Nay then to meet we may conclude And all Obstructions overthrow Since we our Passion have subdu'd Which is the strongest thing I know XLVII Against Pleasure Set by Dr. Coleman 1. THere 's no such thing as Pleasure 'T is all a perfect Cheat Which does but shine and disappear Whose Charm is but Deceit The empty bribe of yielding Souls Which first betrays and then controuls 2. 'T is true it looks at distance fair But if we do approch The fruit of Sodom will impair And perish at a touch It being then in phancy less And we expect more then possess 3. For by our Pleasures we are cloy'd And so Desire is done Or else like Rivers they make wide The Channel where they run And either way true bliss destroys Making Us narrow or our Joys 4. We covet Pleasure easily But it not so possess For many things must make it be But one way makes it less Nay were our state as we could chuse it 'T would be consum'd for fear to lose it 5. What art thou then thou winged Air More swift then winged Fame Whos 's next successour is Despair And its attendant Shame Th' Experience-Prince then reason had Who said of Pleasure It is mad XLVIII Out of Mr. More 's Cop. Conf. THrice happy he whose Name is writ above Who doeth good though gaining infamy Requiteth evil turns with hearty love And cares not what befalls him outwardly Whose worth is in himself and onely bliss In his pure Conscience which doth nought amiss Who placeth pleasure in his purged Soul And Vertuous Life his treasure does esteem Who can his Passions master and controul And that true Lordly Manliness doth deem Who from this World himself hath dearly quit Counts nought his own but what lives in his sp'rit So when his Spirit from this vain World shall flit It bears all with it whatsoe're was dear Unto it self passing an easie Fit As kindly Corn ripened comes out of th' Ear. Careless of what all idle men will say He takes his own and calmly goes his way Eternal Reason Glorious Majesty Compar'd to whom what can be said to be Whose Attributes are Thee who art alone Cause of all various things and yet but One Whose Essence can no more be search'd by Man Then Heav'n thy Throne be grasped with a Span. Yet if this great Creation was design'd To several ends fitted for every kind Sure Man the World's Epitome must be Form'd to the best that is to study thee And as our Dignity 't is Duty too Which is summ'd up in this to know and doo These comely rowes of Creatures spell thy Name Whereby we grope to find from whence they came By thy own Change of Causes brought to think There must be one then find that highest Link Thus all created Excellence we see Is a resemblance saint and dark of thee Such shadows are produc'd by the Moon-beams Of Trees or Houses in the running streams Yet by Impressions born with us we find How good great just thou art how unconfin'd Here we are swallow'd up and daily dwell Safely adoring what we cannot tell All we know is thou art supremely good And dost delight to be so understood A spicy Mountain on the Universe On which thy richest Odours do disperse But as the Sea to fill a Vessel heaves More greedily then any Cask receives Besieging round to find some gap in it Which will a new Infusion admit So dost thou covet that thou mayst dispence Upon the empty World thy Influence Lov'st to disburse thy self in kindness Thus The King of Kings waits to be gracious On this account O God enlarge my heart To entertain what thou wouldst fain impart Nor let that Soul by several titles thine And most capacious form'd for things Divine So nobly meant that when it most doth miss 'T is in mistaken pantings after Bliss Degrade it self in sordid things delight Or by prophaner mixtures lose its right Oh! that with fixt unbroken thoughts it may Admire the light which does obscure the day And since 't is Angels work it hath to doe May its composure be like Angels too When shall these clogs of Sense and Fancy break That I may hear the God within me speak When with a silent and retired art Shall I with all this empty hurry part To the Still Voice above my Soul advance My light and joy 's plac'd in his Countenance By whose dispence my Soul to such frame brought Maytame each trech'rous fix each scat'ringthought With such distinctions all things here behold And so to separate each dross from gold That nothing my free Soul may satisfie But t' imitate enjoy and study thee XLIX To Mrs. M. A. upon Absence Set by Mr. Hen. Lawes 1. T Is now since I began to die Four Moneths and more yet gasping live Wrapp'd up in sorrow do I lie Hoping yet doubting a Reptieve Adam from Paradise expell'd Just such a wretched being held 2. 'T is not thy Love I fear to lose That will in spight of absence hold But 't is the benefit
and use Is lost as in imprison'd Gold Which though the Sum be ne're so great Enriches nothing but conceit 3. What angry Star then governs me That I must feel a double smart Prisoner to fate as well as thee Kept from thy face link'd to thy heart Because my Love all love excells Must my Grief have no Parallels 4. Sapless and dead as Winter here I now remain and all I see Copies of my wild state appear But I am their Epitome Love me no more for I am grown Too dead and dull for thee to own L. L' Amitie To Mrs. Mary Awbrey SOul of my Soul my joy my crown my Friend A name which all the rest doth comprehend How happy are we now whose Souls are grown By an incomparable mixture one Whose well-acquainted Minds are now as near As Love or Vows or Friendship can endear I have no thought but what 's to thee reveal'd Nor thou desire that is from me conceal'd Thy Heart locks up my Secrets richly set And my Breast is thy private Cabinet Thou shed'st no tear but what my moisture lent And if I sigh it is thy breath is spent United thus what Horrour can appear Worthy our Sorrow Anger or our Fear Let the dull World alone to talk and fight And with their vast Ambitions Nature fright Let them despise so Innocent a flame While Envy Pride and Faction play their game But we by Love sublim'd so high shall rise To pity Kings and Conquerours despise Since we that Sacred Union have engrost Which they and all the sullen World have lost LI. In Memory of Mr. Cartwright STay Prince of Phancie stay we are not fit To welcome or admire thy Raptures yet Such horrid Ignorance benights the Times That Wit and Honour are become our Crimes But when those happy Pow'rs which guard thy dust To us and to thy Mem'ry shall be just And by a flame from thy blest Genius lent Rescue us from our dull Imprisonment Unsequester our Fancies and create A Worth that may upon thy Glories wait We then shall understand thee and descry The splendour of restored Poetry Till when let no bold hand profane thy shrine 'T is high Wit-Treason to debase thy coin LII Mr. Francis Finch the Excellent Palaemon THis is confest Presumption for had I All that rich stock of Ingenuity Which I could wish for this yet would it be Palaemon's blot a pious Injury But as no Votaries are scorn'd when they The meanest Victim in Religion pay Not that the Pow'r they worship needs a gume But that they speak their thanks for all with some So though the most contemptible of all That do themselves Palaemon's Servants call I know that Zele is more then Sacrifice For God did not the Widow's Mite despise And that Palaemon hath Divinity And Mercy in its highest property He that doth such transcendent Merit own Must have imperfect Offerings or none He 's one rich Lustre which doth Rayes dispence As Knowledge will when set in Innocence For Learning did select his noble breast Where in her native Majesty to rest Free from the Tyranny and Pride of Schools Who have confin'd her to Pedantick Rules And that gentiler Errour which doth take Offence at Learning for her Habit 's sake Palaemon hath redeem'd her who may be Esteem'd himself an University And yet so much a Gentleman that he Needs not though he enjoys a Pedigree Sure he was built and sent to let us know What man completed could both be and doe Freedom from Vice is in him Nature's part Without the help of Discipline or Art He 's his own Happiness and his own Law Whereby he keeps Passion and Fate in awe Nor was this wrought in him by Time and Growth His Genius had anticipated both Had all men been Palaemons Pride had ne're Taught one man Tyranny the other Fear Ambition had been full as Monstrous then As this ill World doth render Worthy men Had men his Spirit they would soon forbear Groveling for dirt and quarrelling for air Were his harmonious Soul diffus'd in all We should believe that men did never fall It is Palaemon's Soul that hath engrost Th' ingenuous candour that the World hath lost Whose own Mind seats him quiet safe and high Above the reach of Time or Destiny 'T was he that rescu'd gasping Friendship when The Bell toll'd for her Funeral with men 'T was he that made Friends more then Lovers burn And then made Love to sacred Friendship turn 'T was he turn'd Honour inward set her free From Titles and from Popularity Now fix'd to Vertue she begs Praise of none But 's Witness'd and Rewarded both at home And in his breast this Honour 's so enshrin'd As the old Law was in the Ark confin'd To which Posterity shall all consent And less dispute then Acts of Parliament He 's our Original by whom we see How much we fail and what we ought to be But why do I to Copy him pretend My Rymes but libel whom they would commend 'T is true but none can reach what 's set too high And though I miss I 've noble Company For the most happy language must confess It doth obscure Palaemon not express LIII To Mrs. M. A. at parting 1. I Have examin'd and do find Of all that favour me There 's none I grieve to leave behind But onely onely thee To part with thee I needs must die Could Parting separate thee and I. 2. But neither Chance nor Complement Did element our Love 'T was sacred Sympathy was lent Us from the Quire above That Friendship Fortune did create Still fears a wound from Time or Fate 3. Our chang'd and mingled Souls are grown To such acquaintance now That if each would assume their own Alas we know not how We have each other so engrost That each is in the Union lost 4. And thus we can no Absence know Nor shall we be confin'd Our active Souls will daily go To learn each others mind Nay should we never meet to Sense Our Souls would hold Intelligence 5. Inspired with a Flame Divine I scorn to court a stay For from that noble Soul of thine I ne're can be away But I shall weep when thou dost grieve Nor can I die whil'st thou dost live 6. By my own temper I shall guess At thy felicity And onely like thy happiness Because it pleaseth thee Our hearts at any time will tell If thou or I be sick or well 7. All Honour sure I must pretend All that is Good or Great She that would be Rosannia's Friend Must be at least complete If I have any bravery 'T is 'cause I have so much of thee 8. Thy Leiger Soul in me shall lie And all thy thoughts reveal Then back again with mine shall flie And thence to me shall steal Thus still to one another tend Such is the sacred name of Friend 9. Thus our twin-souls in one shall grow And teach the World new Love Redeem the Age and Sex and shew A
Flame Fate dares not move And courting Death to be our friend Our Lives together too shall end 10. A Dew shall dwell upon our Tomb Of such a quality That fighting Armies thither come Shall reconciled be We 'l ask no Epitaph but say ORINDA and ROSANNIA LIV. To my dearest Antenor on his Parting THough it be just to grieve when I must part With him that is the Guardian of my Heart Yet by an happy change the loss of mine Is with advantage paid in having thine And I by that dear Guest instructed find Absence can doe no hurt to Souls combin'd As we were born to love brought to agree By the impressions of Divine Decree So when united nearer we became It did not weaken but increase our Flame Unlike to those who distant joys admire But slight them when possest of their desire Each of our Souls did in its temper fit And in the other's Mould so fashion'd it That now our Inclinations both are grown Like to our Interests and Persons one And Souls whom such an Union fortifies Passion can ne're destroy nor Fate surprize Now as in Watches though we do not know When the Hand moves we find it still doth go So I by secret Sympathy inclin'd Will absent meet and underst and thy mind And thou at thy return shalt find thy Heart Still safe with all the love thou didst impart For though that treasure I have ne're deserv'd It shall with strong Religion be preserv'd And besides this thou shalt in me survey Thy self reflected while thou art away For what some forward Arts do undertake The Images of absent Friends to make And represent their actions in a Glass Friendship it self can onely bring to pass That Magick which both Fate and Time beguiles And in a moment runs a thousand miles So in my Breast thy Picture drawn shall be My Guide Life Object Friend and Destiny And none shal know though they imploy their wit Which is the right Antenor thou or it LV. Engraven on Mr. Collier's Tomb-stone at Bedlington HEre what remains of him doth lie Who was the World's Epitome Religion's Darling Merchants Glory Mens true Delight and Vertue 's Story Who though a Prisoner to the Grave A glorious Freedom once shall have Till when no Monument is fit But what 's beyond our love and wit LVI On the little Regina Collier on the same Tomb-stone VErtue 's Blossom Beautie 's Bud The Pride of all that 's fair and good By Death's fierce hand was snatched hence In her state of Innocence Who by it this advantage gains Her wages got without her pains LVII Friendship LEt the dull brutish World that know not Love Continue Hereticks and disapprove That noble Flame but the refined know 'T is all the Heaven we have here below Nature subsists by Love and they do tie Things to their Causes but by Sympathy Love chains the different Elements in one Great Harmony link'd to the Heav'nly Throne And as on Earth so the blest Quire above Of Saints and Angels are maintain'd by Love That is their Business and Felicity And will be so to all Eternity That is the Ocean our Affections here Are but streams borrow'd from the Fountain there And 't is the noblest Argument to prove A Beauteous mind that it knows how to Love Those kind Impressions which Fate can't controul Are Heaven's mintage on a worthy Soul For Love is all the Arts Epitome And is the Sum of all Divinity He 's worse then Beast that cannot Love and yet It is not bought for Money Pains or Wit For no change or design can Spirits move But the Eternal destiny of Love And when two Souls are chang'd and mixed so It is what they and none but they can doe This this is Friendship that abstracted flame Which groveling Mortals know not how to name All Love is sacred and the Marriage-tie Hath much of Honour and Divinity But Lust Design or some unworthy ends May mingle there which are despis'd by Friends Passion hath violent extreams and thus All oppositions are contiguous So when the end is serv'd their Love will bate If Friendship make it not more fortunate Friendship that Love's Elixir that pure fire Which burns the clearer 'cause it burns the higher For Love like earthly fires which will decay If the material fuel be away Is with offensive smoke accompanied And by resistance only is supplied But Friendship like the fiery Element With its own Heat and Nourishment content Where neither hurt nor smoke nor noise is made Scorns the assistance of a forein aid Friendship like Heraldry is hereby known Richest when plainest bravest when alone Calm as a Virgin and more Innocent Then sleeping Doves are and as much content As Saints in Visions quiet as the Night But clear and open as the Summer's light United more then Spirits Faculties Higher in thoughts then are the Eagle's eyes Free as first Agents are true Friends and kind As but their selves selves I can no likeness find LVIII The Enquiry 1. IF we no old Historian's name Authentick will admit But think all said of Friendship 's fame But Poetry or Wit Yet what 's rever'd by Minds so pure Must be a bright Idea sure 2. But as our Immortality By inward sense we find Judging that if it could not be It would not be design'd So here how could such Copies fall If there were no Original 3. But if Truth be in ancient Song Or Story we believe If the inspir'd and greater Throng Have scorned to deceive There have been Hearts whose Friendship gave Them thoughts at once both soft and grave 4. Among that consecrated Crew Some more Seraphick shade Lend me a favourable Clew Now mists my eyes invade Why having fill'd the World with fame Left you so little of your flame 5. Why is 't so difficult to see Two Bodies and one Mind And why are those who else agree So difficulty kind Hath Nature such fantastick art That she can vary every Heart 6. Why are the bands of Friendship tied With so remiss a knot That by the most it is defied And by the most forgot Why do we step with so light sense From Friendship to Indifference 7. If Friendship Sympathy impart Why this ill-shuffled game That Heart can never meet with Heart Or Flame encounter Flame What does this Cruelty create Is 't the Intrigue of Love or Fate 8. Had Friendship ne're been known to Men The Ghost at last confest The World had then a stranger been To all that Heav'n possest But could it all be here acquir'd Not Heav'n it self would be desir'd LIX To my Lucasia in defence of declared Friendship 1. O My Lucasia let us speak our Love And think not that impertinent can be Which to us both doth such assurance prove And whence we find how justly we agree 2. Before we knew the treasures of our Love Our noble aims our joys did entertain And shall enjoyment nothing then improve 'T were best for us then to begin again