THOU, who all things hast of nothing.
Whose hand the radiant firmament dis
With such an undiscerned swiftness hurled
About the steadfast centre of the world;
Against whose rapid course the restless sun,
And wandering flames in varied motions run,
Which heat, light, life infuse; time, night, and day
Distinguish; in our human bodies sway :
That hung'st the solid earth in fleeting air,
Veined with clear springs. which ambient seas repair.
In clouds the mountains wrap their hoary heads;
Luxurious valleys clothed with flowery meads;
Her trees yield fruit and shade; with liberal breasts
All creatures she, their common mother, feasts.
Then man Thy image madest; in dignity,
In knowledge, and in beauty, like to Thee;
Placed in a heaven on earth; without his toil
The ever-flourishing and fruitful soil
Unpurchased food produced; all creatures were
His subjects, serving more for love than fear.
He knew no lord but Thee; but when he fell
From his obedience, all at once rebel,
'Appended to the same, pp. 240-4.
And in his ruin exercise their might;
Concurring elements against him fight;
Troops of unknown diseases, sorrow, age,
And death assail him with successive rage.
Hell let forth all her furies; none so great
As man to man:-ambition, pride, deceit,
Wrong armed with power, lust, rapine, slaughter
reigned,
And flattered vice the name of virtue gained.
Then hills beneath the swelling waters stood,
And all the globe of earth was but one flood,
Yet could not cleanse their guilt. The following race
Worse than their fathers, and their sons more base;
Their god-like beauty lost; sin's wretched thrall;
No spark of their divine original
Left unextinguished; all enveloped
With darkness; in their bold transgressions dead: When Thou didst from the East a light display, Which rendered to the world a clearer day; Whose precepts from Hell's jaws our steps withdraw, And whose example was a living law;
Who purged us with His blood; the way prepared To Heaven, and those long chained-up doors unbarred.
How infinite Thy mercy! which exceeds
The world thou madest, as well as our misdeeds;
Which greater reverence than Thy justice wins,
And still augments Thy honour by our sins.
O who hath tasted of Thy clemency
In greater measure or more oft than I!
My grateful verse Thy goodness shall display,
O Thou who went'st along in all my way,
To where the morning with perfumed wings
From the high mountains of Panchæa springs;
To that new found-out world, where sober Night
Takes from the Antipodes her silent flight;
To those dark seas where horrid Winter reigns,
And binds the stubborn floods in icy chains;
To Libyan wastes, whose thirst no showers assuage,
And where swoln Nilus cools the lion's rage.
Thy wonders in the deep have I beheld;
Yet all by those on Judah's hills excelled,
There, where the Virgin's Son His doctrine taught,
His miracles and our redemption wrought;
Where I, by Thee inspired, His praises sung,
And on His Sepulchre my offering hung.
Which way soe'er I turn my face or feet,
I see Thy glory, and Thy mercy meet;
Met on the Thracian shores, when in the strife
Of frantic Simoans Thou preservedst my life;
So, when Arabian thieves belaid us round,
And when, by all abandoned, Thee I found.
That false Sidonian wolf, whose craft put on
A sheep's soft fleece, and me, Bellerophon,
To ruin by his cruel letter sent,
Thou didst by Thy protecting hand prevent.
Thou savedst me from the bloody massacres
Of faithless Indians; from their treacherous wars;
From raging fevers; from the sultry breath
Of tainted air, which cloyed the jaws of death;
Preserved from swallowing seas, when towering
Mixed with the clouds, and opened their deep graves;
From barbarous pirates ransomed; by those taught, Successfully with Salian Moors we fought;
Then brought'st me home in safety, that this earth
Might bury me, which fed me from my birth;
Blest with a healthful age, a quiet mind;
Content with little; to this work designed;
Which I at length have finished by Thy aid,
And now my vows have at Thy altar paid.
AVIOUR of mankind, Man, Emmanuel, Who sinless died for sin, who vanquished hell,
The first-fruits of the grave; whose life did give
Light to our darkness; in whose death we live ;
O strengthen Thou my faith! Correct my will,
That mine may Thine obey! Protect me still,
So that the latter death may not devour
My soul, sealed with Thy seal! So in the hour
When Thou, whose body sanctified this tomb,
Unjustly judged, a glorious Judge shalt come
To judge the world with justice, by that sign
may be known, and entertained for Thine!
Sandys' "Relation of a Journey begun A. D. 1610," 1615, p. 167. These are the lines referred to in the last poem, as an offering hung upon the sepulchre of Christ.
LORD STRAFFORD'S MEDITATIONS IN
With all your noise,
And leave me here alone,
In sad sweet silence to bemoan
The fickle worldly height,
Whose danger none can see aright,
Whilst your false splendours dim the sight.
With your trim ware
Some other worldly wight,
And cheat him with your flattering light;
Rain on his head a shower
Of honour, greatness, wealth, and power;
Then snatch it from him in an hour.
1 66 "Topographer," vol. ii. p. 234, from a Harl. MS. It is also in Archbishop Sancroft's MS., Tann. 465, p. 197; and was published as a broad-sheet ballad. A copy of that kind is printed in the "British Bibliographer," vol. ii. p. 181.
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