Sermons (LXXX Sermons etc.); Holy Sonnets

FATHER Of heaven, and him, by whom It, and us for it, and all else, for us Thou madest, and governest ever, corne And recreate me, now grown ruinous My heart is by dejection, clay, And by self-murder, red. From this red earth, O Father purge away All vicious tinctures, that new ïashioned I may rise up from death, beforc l'am dead.

O Son of God, who seeing two things, Sin, and death crept in, which were never made, By bearing one, trfdst with what stings The other could thine heritage invade; O be thou nailed unto my heart, And crucificd again, Part hot from it, though it from thee would part, But let it be, by applying so thy pain, Drowned in thy blood, and in thy passion slain.

O Holy Ghost, whose temple I Am, but of mud walls, and condensed dust, And being sacrilegiously Haff-wasted with youth's rires, of pride and lust, Must with new storms be weatherbeat; Double in my heart thy flame, VChich let devout sad tears intend; and let (Though this glass lanthorn, flesh, do surfer maire) Fire sacrifice, priest, altar be the same.

0 Blessed glorious Trinity, Bones to philosophy, but milk to faith, Wlfich, as wise serpents, diversely Most slipperine, yet most entanglings bath, As you distinguished undistinct By power, love, knowledge be, Give me a such self-different instinct, Of these let ail me elemented be, Of power, to love, to know, you unnumb'red Three.

For that fait blessed mother-maid, Whose flesh redeemed us; that she-cherubin, Which unlocked paradise, and malle One claire for innocence, anti disseised sin, Whose womb was a strange heaven, for there Goal clothed himself, and grew, Our zealous thanks we pour. As ber deeds were Out helps, so are ber prayers; nor can she sue In vain, who lmth such titles unto you.

And since this lire out nonage is, And we in wardship to thine angels be, Native in heaven's fait palaces Where we shall be but denizened by thee, As the earth conceiving by the sun, Yields fair diversity, Yet never knows which course that light doth rtm, So let me study, that mine actions be Worthy their sight, though blind in how they see.

And let thy patriarchs" desire (Those great-grandfathers of thy church, which saw More in the clouà, than we in tire, Vhom nature cleared more, than us grace and law, And now in heaven still pray, that we May tte our new helps right.) Be sanctified, and fl'uctify in me;

Let hot my mind. be blinder by more light, lor faith, by reason added, lose her sight. 8. TaE PIOPHETS. Thy eagle-sighted prophets too, Which were thy church's organs, and did sound That harmony, which made of two One law, and did unite, but hot confound; Those heavenly poets which did sec Thy will, and it express In rhythmic feet, in common pray for me, That I by them excuse hot my excess In seeking secrets, or poeticness. 9. TIIF. A POSTLE.So And thy illustrious zodiak Of twelvo apostles, which ingirt this al1, From whom xvhoso'ever do hot tako Their light, to dark deep pits throw doxvn, and fall As through their prayers, thou hast let me know That their books are divine; May they pray still, and be heard, that I go The old broad way in applying; O decline Me, when my comment would make thy word mine. 10. TE Mwr''as. And since thou so desironsly Did'st long to die, that long before thou cou]al'st, And long since thou no more conldest die, Thou in thy scattered mystic body would'st In Abri die, and ever since In thine, let their blood corne To beg for us, a discreet patience Of death, or of worse life: for O! to somo Not to bo martyrs, is a martyrdom. 11. TUE Co:¢SSOlS. Therefore with thee triampheth there A virgin squadron of white confessors, Vhose bloods betrothed, hot married were; Tendered, hot taken by those ravishers:

They know, and pray, that wo may knov In every Christian Hourly tempestuous persecutions grow; Temptations martyr us alive; a man Is to himself a Diocletian.

The cold white snowy nunnery, Which, as thy mother, their high abbess, sent Their bodies back again to thee, As thou hadst lent them, clean and imocent, Though they bave hot obtained of thee, That, or thy church, or I, ShouId'keep, as they, out first interity, Divorce thou sin in us, or bid it die, And call chaste widowhead virginity.

Thy sacred academe above Of doctors, whose pains have unclasl0ed, aud taught Both books of lire to us (for love To know thy Scriptures, tells us, we are xvrote In thy other book) pray for us there That what they bave misdone Or missaid, we to that may not adhere; Their zeal may be out sin: Lord, let us run Mean ways, and call them stars, but not the sun.

And whilst this universal quire, Tht church in triumph, this in warfare here, Varmed with one all-partaking tire Of love, that none be lost, whieh cost thee dear, Prays ceaselessly, and thou hearken too (Since to be gracious Out task is treble, to pray, bear, and do) Hear this prayer, Lord, O Lord deliver us From trusting in those prayers, though pour'd out thus.

Frein belng anxious, or securo, Dead clods of sadness, or light squibs of mirth, Frein thinking, that great courts immure Al], or no happiness, or that this earth Is only for our prison framed, Or that thou art covetous Te them whom thou lovest, or that thefre maimed Frein reaching this worlds sweet, who seek thee thus With all their mighlb good Lord deliver us.

Frein needing danger, te ho good, Frein owing thee yesterdafs tears to-day, Frein tmsting se much te thy blood, That in the hope, we wound our souI away, Frein bribing thee with altos, te excuse Seine sin more burdenous, From light affecting, in religion, news, From thinking us ail seul, neglecting thus Our mutual duties, Lord deliver us.

Frein tempting Satan te tempt us, By our connivance, or slack company, Frein measuring il] by vicious, Neglecting te choke sin»s spawn, vanity, Frein indiscreet humility, Which might be scandalous, And cast reproach on Christianity, From being spies, or te spies pervious, Frein thirst, or scorn of flame, deliver us.

Deliver us for thy descent Into the virgin, whose womb was a place Of middle kind; and thou being sent Te ungracious us, staid'st at her full of grace, And through thy poor birth, where first thou Glorifiest poverty. And yet soon aRer riches didst allow,

By aecepting kin' girt in the Epiphany; Deliver, and make us, to both ways free.

19. And through that bitter agony, Which still is the agony of pious wits, I)isputing what distorted thee, And interrupted evenness, with fits; And through thy free confession, Though thereby they were then Made blind, so that thou might'st from them bave gone; Good Lord deliver us, and teach us when Ve may hOt, and we may blind unjust men.

20. Through thy submitting all, to blows Thy face, thy clothes to spoil; thy faine to scorn, Ail ways, which rage, or justice knows, And by which thou could'st show, that thou wast born; And through thy gallant humbleness, Vhich thou in death did'st show, I)ying bcfore thy soul they could express; Deliver us from death, by dying so, To this world, ere this world do bid us go.

Vhen senses, which thy soldiers are, We arm against thee, and they fight for sin; Vhen want, sent but to tame, doth war And work despair a breach to enter in; Vhen plenty, God's image, and seal Makes us idolatrous, And love it, not him, whom it should reveal; When we are mov'd to seem religious Only to vent wit, Lord deliver us.

22. In churches, when the infirmity Of him which speaks, diminishes the Word; Vhen magistrates do misapply To us, as we judge, lay, or ghostly sword;

Hear us, O hear us, Lord; to thee A sinner is more music, when he prays, Than spheres" or angels" praises be, In pan%yric Alleliiias: Hear us, for till thou hear us, Lord, We know not what to say. Thine car t" out sighs, tears, thoughts, gives volte and word. O thou who Satan heard'st in Job's sick day, Hear thyself now, for thou in us dost pray.

That we nlay chauge to evenness This intermitting aguish piety, That snatching cramps of wiekedness And apoplexies of fast sin, may die; That music of thy promises, Not threats in thunder may Awaken us to our just oflàces, What in thy book, thou dost, or ereatures say, That wo may hear, Lord hear us, when ",vo pray.

That our ears' sic -kness we may cure, And rectify those labyrinths aright, Tht we, by hearkening, not procure Our praise, nor others" dispraise so invite, That we get not  slipperiness And senselessly decline, From hearing bold wits jest et kings" excess, T" adroit the like of majesty divine, That we may lock our ears, Lord open thin¢.

That living law, the magistrate, Whieh to give us, and make us physie, doth Out vices often aggravate; That preachers taxing sin, before ber growth, That Satan, and ertvenom'd men SVhich will, if we starve, dine, When they do most accuse us, may sec then l_Ts to amendment hear them, thee decline, That we may open our ears, Lord lock thine.

That learning, thino ambassador, From thine allegiance we never tempt; That beauty, paradise's flower For physic made, from poison be exempt That wit, bore apt, high good fo do By dwelling lazily On nature's nothing, be not nothing too; That our affections kill us not, nor die, tIear us, weak echoes, O thou car, and cry

Son of God, hear us; and since thou By taking our blood, owe'st it us again, Gain to thyself, or us allow; And let hOt both us and thyself be slain  O Lamb of God, which took'st our sin Vhich could hOt stick to thee, O let it hot return to us again, But patient and physician being free, As sin is nothing, let it nowhere be.

Sse Christ embraced the cross itself, dare I His image, th' image of his cross, deny! XVould I have profit by the sacrifice, And dare the chosen altar to despise. It bore all other sins, but is it fit That it should bear the sin of scorning it. Vho from the picture would avert his eye, How would he fly his pains, who there did die! From me, no pulpit, nor misgrounded law, or scandal taken, shall this cross withdraw: It shall hot, for it cannot; for the loss Of this cross, were to me another cross. Better were worse, for no affliction, o cross, is so extreme, as to bave none; Vho can blot out the cross, which th" instrument Of God, dew'd on me in the sacrament . Vho can deny me power, and liberty To stretch mine arms, and mine own cross to be. Swim, and at every stroke, thou art thy cross; The toast and yard make one, where sens do toss. Look down, thou spy'st out crosses in small things; Look up, thou sec'st birds raised on crossed wings; Ail the globe's frame, and spheres, is nothing else But the meridian's crossing parallels. Material crosses, then, good physic be, But yet spiritual have chier dignity. These for extracted chemic medicine serve, And cure much better, and as well preserve; Then are you your own physic, or need none, Vhen still'd or purged by tribulation. For when that cross ungrudged unto you sticks, Then are you to yourself a crucifix. As perchance, carvers do not faces make: But that away, which hid them there, do take. Let crosses, so, take what hid Christ in thee, And be his image, or not his, but he. But, as oft alchymists do coiners prove, So may a elf-despiing get sel£-love.

And then as worst surfeits oi" best meats be, Se is pride, issued frein humility; For "ris no chi]d, but monster; therefore cross Your joy in crosses, else 'tis double loss; And cross thy senses, else both they and thou Must perish soon, and te destruction bow. For if th" eye seek good objects, and will take No cross from bad, we canner scape a snake. Se with harsh, hard, sour, stinking, cross the test, Make them indiflèrent; call nothing best. But most the eye needs crossing, that can roam And movo; te th' other, th' objects must corne home. And cross thy heart: for that in man alone Pants downwards, and bath palpitation. Cross those dejections, when it downward tends, And when it to forbidden heights pretends. And as the brain through bony walls doth vent By sutures, which a cross's form present, So when thy brain works, ere thou utter it, Cross and correct concupiscence of wit. Be covetous of crosses, let none fall; Cross no man else, but cross thyself in ail. Then doth the cross of Christ work faithfully Vithln out hearts, when we love harmlessly The cross's pictures much, and with more care That cross's children, which our crosses are.

TAMELY frail body abstain te day; te day lIy seul eats twice, Christ hither and away. She secs him man, se like God ruade in this, That of them both a circle emblem is, Yrhose first and last concur; this doubtful day Of feast or fa.st, Christ came, and went away; She secs him nothing twce at once,,vho is all; She secs a cedar plant itsclï, and fa]l,

Her maker put to making, and the head Of liîe, at once, not yet 31ire, yet dead; She secs at once the virgin mother stay tteclused af home, public at Golgoth3. Sad and rjoiced she's seen at once, nd seen At almost fifty, nd t seree fit'teen. At once  Son is promised ber, and gone, Gabriel gives Christ to her, He her to John; Not fully  mother, She's in orbity, At once receiver and the legacy; Ail this, and ail between, this dy hath shown, The bridgement ot" Christ's story, which mkes one (As in plain maps, the farthest west is east) Of the angels Are, and consumnatum est. How well the chureh, God's court of faculties, Deals, in sometimes, and seldom, joining these; As by the self-fixed Pole we never do Direct our course, but the next star thereto, Vhich shows where the other is, and which we say (Because it strays hOt far) doth never stray; So God by his ehurch, nearest to him, we know, And sand firm, if we by ber motion go; His Spirit, as his fiery pillar, doth Lead, and his church, as cloud; to one end both: This ehurch, by letting those days join, hath shown Death and conception in mankind is one. Or 'twas in him the saine humility, That he would be a man, and leave tobe: Or as creation he bath ruade, as God, With the last judgment, but one period, His imitating Spouse would join in one lIanhood's extremes: He shall corne, he is gone: Or as though one blood drop, which thence did fall, Accepted, would have served, he yet shed all; So though the least of his pains, deeds, or words, Would busy a lire, she ail this day affords; This treasure then, in gross, my soul uplay, And in my lire retail it every day.

(OOD"FRID.kY, "1 613. RIDING LET man's sou| bc. sphcrc, and thon, in thi», The intelligence that moves, devotion is, A nd  the othcr spheres, by being grown Sul,ject to foreign motion, lose their own, And ing by others hurried every day, Searce in a year their narre'al form obey: Pleasure or business so out souls adroit For their first mover, and are whirl'd by it. ]Ience is't, that I ara carried towards the west This day, when my soul's form benoE towards the east, There I should oee a suu, by rising set, And by that oetting emlle day beget; But that Christ on this Cross, did rise and fall, Sin had eternally benighted ail. Yet date I almost bc glad, I do hot sec That spectacle of too much weight for me. Who secs God's face, that is self lire, must die Vhat a death were it thon fo sec God die It madc his owu licutenant Kature shrink, It ruade his tbotstool crack, and the sun wink. Could I belmld tlmse hands which span the Polcs, And tune all spheres, at once pierced with those holes Conld I bchold that eudlcss hcight which Zcuith to us, and out antipodes, Humblcd below us [ or that bloed wllich is The seat of all out souls, iç not of his, Made dirt of dust, or that flesh which was worn By God, çor his apparel, ragd, and torn If ou thcse things I durst hot look, durst I Upon his miserable Mother cast mine eye, Vho was God's paoEner here, and furnisWd thus Ha.lç oLthat soerifice, which nm'd us Though these things, as I ride, be from mine eye, They are present yet unto my memory, For that looks towards them, and thou look'st towards me, O Saviour, as thou bang'st upon the tree I turn my back fo thee, but  receive Crrections, till thy mercics bid thee leave. VOL. VI.  N

O think me worth thine anger, punish me, Burn off my rusts, and my deformity, lRestore thine image, so much, by thy grace, That thou mafst know me, and l'll turn my face.

SLEEP, sleep old sun, thou canst not bave re-past As yet, the wound thou took'st on Friday last; Sleep then, and test; the world may bear thy stay, A better sun rose before thee to-day, Vho, hot content to enlighten ail that dwell On the earth's face, as thou, enlighten'd hell, And ruade the dark rires languish in that vale, As, at thy presence here, out fires grow pale. Vhose body having -alk'd on earth, and now I-Iasting to heaven, would, that he might allov Himself unto Hl stations, Hud fill al], For these three days become a minerai; I-Ie was ail gold when he lay down, but rose Ail tiucture, aud doth not aloue dispose Leaden and iron wills to good, but is Of l»OWer to maie even sinful flesh like his. I-Iad one of those, whose credulous piety Thought, that a soul one might discern and see Vo from a body, af this sepulchre been, And, issuing from the sheet, this body seen, I-Ie vould bave jnstly thought this body a soul, If hot of any man, yet.of the -hole.

VI..A. HYblN TO CHRIST, AT THE.A[YTHOR8 LAST GOII'G (ERMANYo I what torn ship soever I embark, That ship shall be ny ernblem of thy ark; Vhat sea soever swa]low me, that flood Shall be to me an emblem of thy blood;

Though thou with elouds of anger do disguise Thy face; yet through that mask I know those eyes, Vhich, though they turn away sometimes, They never will despise. I erifice this island unto thee, And ail whom I loved there, and who lov'd nie; When I haro put out seas "twixt them and nie, Put thou thy seas betwixt my sins and thee. As the trees sap doth seek the foot below In winter, in my winter now I go, Vhere none but thee, the cternal root Of tme love, I may know. Nor thou nor thy religion dost control, The amorousness of an harmonious soul; But thou woutd'st have that love thyself: as thou Art jelous, Lord, so I ara jealous now, Thou lov'st hot, till from loving more, thou ri'ce Iy soul: v,'ho ever gives, takes liberty: O, if thou car'st hot whom I love, Alas, thou lov'st hot nie. Seal then this bill of my divorce to ail, On whom those fainter beams of love did fall; ]larry those lovcs, which in youth scattered bc On Faine, Vit, Hopes (false mitresses) to thee. Churches are best for pruyer, that hure least light: To sec God only, I go out of sight: And to scape stormy duys, I choose An cverlasting night.

"VT thou forgive that sin where I bem, XVhich was my sin. though it were done before. Vilt thou forgive that sin, through which I run, And do run still: though still I do deplore! XVhen thou hast done, thou hast hot done, For I have more.

Vilt thou forgis'e that sin,vhich I have won Others to sin. and ruade my sin their door. V¢flt thou for.give that sin which I did shun A year, or two, but wallowed in, a score. ,Vhen thou hast done, thou hast hot done, For 1 bave more.

I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun lIy last thread, I shall perish on the shore But swear by thyself, that at my death thy Son Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore; And. having doue that, thou hast done, I fear no more.

OH, let nie hOt serve so, as those men serve Vhon honour's smokes af once fatten and starve; Poorly enrich'd with great men's words and looks; lor so write my naine in thy loving books, As those idolatrous flatterers, which still Their princes" styles, which many realms* fulfil Vhcnce they no tribute bave, and where no sway. Such services I offer as shall pay Themselves; I hate dead names: Oh then let me Favourite in ordinary, or no favourite be. Vhen my soul was in her own body sheath'd, or yet by oaths betroth'd, nor kisses breath'd Into my purgatory, faithless thee, Thy heart seem'd wax, and steel thy constancy. So, careless flowers strew'd on the waters face, The curled whirlpools suck, smack, and embrace, Yet drowu them; so, the tapers beamy eye Amorously twinkling, beckons the giddy fly, Yet burns his wings; and such the devil is, Scarce visiting them, who are entirely his. V'hen I behold a stream, which, from the spring, Doth with doubtful melodious murmuring, Or in a speechle slumber, calmly ride Her wedded channels bosom, and then chide And bend her brows, and swell if any bough Do but stoop down, or kiss ber upmost brow: Yet, if ber often gnawing kises win The traitorous banks to gape, and let ber in, She rusheth violently, and doth divorce Hcr h'om ber native, and her long-kept course,

And roars, and braves it, and in gallant scorn, In flattering eddies promising return, She flouts the channel, who theneeforth is dry; Then say I; that is she, and this am I. Yet let hot thy deep bitterness beget Careless despair in me, for that will wet lIy mind to scorn; and oh, love dull'd with pMn SVas ne'er so wise, nor well arm'd as disdain. Then with new eyes I shall survey thee, and spy Death in thy cheeks, and darkness in thine eye; Though hope breed faith and love; thus taught I shall As nations do from Iome, from thy love fa]l. Iy hate shall outgrow thine, and utterly I will renounce thy dalliance: and when I Ara the recusant, in that resolute state, V(hat hurts if me fo be excommunicate.

HAIL Bishop Valentine, whose day this is, Ail the air is thy Diocis; And all the chirping choristers And other birds are thy parishioners, Thou marryest every year The lyric lark, and the grave whispering dove, The sparrow that neglects his lire for love, The hÇusehÇld bird, with the red stomacher; Thou mak'st the black-bird speed as soon, As doth the goldmch, or the halcyon; The husband cock looks out, and straight is sped, And meets his wife, which brings her feather-bed. This day more cheerfully then ever shine. This day, which might enflame thyself, Old Valentine.