For sure when Adam did not know To sin, or sin to smother; He might to heaven from Paradise go, Thou hast restored us to this ease Which I can go to, when I please, XXIII. ANTIPHON. Cho. LET all the world in every corner sing, My God and King. Vers. The heavens are not too high, His praise may thither fly: The earth is not too low, His praises there may grow. Cho. Let all the world in every corner sing, My God and King. Vers. The church with psalms must shout, But above all, the heart Must bear the longest part. Cho. Let all the world in every corner sing, My God and King. XXIV. LOVE. 1. IMMORTAL Love, author of this great frame, Sprung from that beauty which can never fade; How hath man parcel'd out thy glorious name, And thrown it on that dust which thou hast made, While mortal love doth all the title gain! Which siding with invention, they together Bear all the sway, possessing heart and brain, (Thy workmanship) and give thee share in neither. Wit fancies beauty, beauty raiseth wit: The world is theirs; they two play out the game, Thou standing by: and though thy glorious name Wrought our deliverance from the infernal pit, Who sings thy praise? only a scarf or glove Doth warm our hands, and make them write of love. 2. IMMORTAL Heat, O let thy greater flame Attract the lesser to it: let those fires Which shall consume the world, first make it tame, And kindle in our hearts such true desires, As may consume our lusts, and make thee way. Then shall our hearts pant thee; then shall our All her inventions on thine Altar lay, [brain And there in hymns send back thy fire again: Our eyes shall see thee, which before saw dust; All knees shall bow to thee; all wits shall rise, And praise him who did make and mend our eyes. XXV. THE TEMPER. How should I praise thee, Lord! how should my rhymes Gladly engrave thy love in steel, If what my soul doth feel sometimes, Although there were some forty heavens, or more, Sometimes I peer above them all ; O rack me not to such a vast extent; Wilt thou meet arms with man, that thou dost stretch O let me, when thy roof my soul hath hid, Then of a sinner thou art rid, And I of hope and fear. Yet take thy way; for sure thy way is best: Stretch or contract me thy poor debtor: This is but tuning of my breast, To make the music better. Whether I fly with angels, fall with dust, XXVI. THE TEMPER. IT cannot be. Where is that mighty joy, Which just now took up all my heart? Lord! if thou must needs use thy dart, Save that, and me; or sin for both destroy. The grosser world stands to thy word and art; But thy diviner world of grace Thou suddenly dost raise and raze, And every day a new Creator art. O fix thy chair of grace, that all my powers May also fix their reverence: For when thou dost depart from hence, They grow unruly, and sit in thy bowers. E Scatter, or bind them all to bend to thee: XXVII. JORDAN. WHO says that fictions only and false hair Is it not verse, except enchanted groves Shepherds are honest people; let them sing: XXVIII. EMPLOYMENT. Ir as a flower doth spread and die, Thou wouldst extend me to some good, Before I were by frost's extremity Nipt in the bud; |