The next encrystalled light And He doth trace the height Of that fair lamp which flames of beauty streams. He towers those golden bounds Are found his feet beneath : The milky-way comes near, Heaven's axle seems to bend Above each turning sphere, That robed in glory, heaven's King may ascend. O Well-spring of this All! Thy Father's image vive, Word, that from naught did call The soul's eternal food, Earth's joy, delight of heaven, All truth, love, beauty, good, To Thee, to Thee, be praises ever given. What was dismarshalled late, To this thy noble frame, And last the prime estate Hath reobtained the same, Is now more perfect seen; Streams which diverted were (And troubled, stayed unclean) From their first source by Thee home-turned are. By Thee that blemish old Of Eden's leprous prince, Which on his race took hold, And him exile from thence, Now put away is far; With sword in ireful guise, No cherub more shall bar Poor man the entrance into paradise. And did with wonder burn His name to celebrate, In flaming tongues their turn; Their orby crystals move More active than before, And entheate1 from above, Their sovereign Prince laud, glorify, adore. The choirs of happy souls Waked with that music sweet, Whose descant care controls, Their Lord in triumph meet: The spotless spirits of light, His trophies do extol, And arched in squadrons bright, Greet their great Victor in his capitol. O glory of the heaven! O sole delight of earth! To Thee all power be given, Of mankind lover true, Endurer of his wrong, Who dost the world renew, Still be Thou our salvation and our song. From top of Olivet, such notes did rise, GILES FLETCHER, NEPHEW of Richard Fletcher, bishop of London; son of Giles Fletcher, LL.D., and brother of Phineas Fletcher, a poet of kindred genius, was born in London about the year 1586, and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where his poem of "Christ's Victorie and Triumph" appeared in 1610. Little more is known of him, except that he was settled in the rectory of Alderton, in Suffolk, where, we are told by Fuller, in his quaint manner, his "clownish and low-parted parishioners (having nothing but their shoes high about them) valued not their pastor according to his worth, which disposed him to melancholy and hastened his dissolution." He died about the year 1623. THE INTERPOSITION OF JUSTICE. BUT Justice had no sooner Mercy seen Opened the world which all in darkness lay, She was a virgin of austere regard, Not as the world esteems her, deaf and blind, The silence of the thought loud speaking hears, No riot of affection revel kept Within her breast, but a still apathy Possessed all her soul, which softly slept, Securely, without tempest; no sad cry Sending her eyes to heaven swimming in tears, And hideous clamors ever struck her ears, Wetting the blazing sword that in her hand she bears. The winged lightning is her Mercury, And round about her mighty thunders sound; Pale sickness, with his kerchered head up wound, But if her cloudy brow but once grow foul, The flints do melt, the rocks to water roll, And airy mountains shake, and frightened shadows howl. Famine, and bloodless Care, and bloody War, Grief's company, a dull and raw-boned spright, That lanks the cheeks and pales the freshest sight, Unbosoming the cheerful breast of all delight. Before this cursed throng goes Ignorance, And over all, Shame veils his guilty eyes, THE SHAME OF NOT LOVING GOD. WERE he not wilder than the savage beast, Prouder than haughty hills, harder than rocks, Colder than fountains from their springs released, Lighter than air, blinder than senseless stocks, More changing than the river's curling locks; If reason would not, sense would soon reprove him, And unto shame, if not to sorrow, move him, To see cold floods, wild beasts, dull stocks, hard stones, outlove him. 66 TO WHOM ELSE CAN WE FLY?" SHOULD any to himself for safety fly? The way to save himself, if anywhere, Upon the promise of his wife? but there His strength? but dust: his pleasure? cause of pain: Just recompense? the world were all too little : His child, if good, shall judge; if bad, shall curse his father: His life? that brings him to his end and leaves him: His goods? what good in that, that so deceives him? He wanted wit, that thought he had it wanting Thee. |