When waters swallow'd mankind, and did cheat
The hungry worm of its expected meat;
When gems, pluckt from the fhore by ruder hands,
Return'd again unto their native lands;
"Mongft all thofe fpoils, there was not any prey
Could equal what this brook hath stol'n away.
Weep then, fad flood; and, though thou 'rt innocent,
Weep because Fate made thee her instrument:
And, when long grief hath drunk up all thy store,
Come to our eyes, and we will lend thee more.
VERSES upon the BLESSED VIRGIN, Written in Latin by the Right Worshipful Dr. A.
NCE thou rejoiced'st, and rejoice for ever,
Whofe time of joy fhall be expired never:
Who in her womb the hive of comfort bears,
Let her drink comfort's honey with her ears.
You brought the word of joy in, which was born
An hail to all! let us an hail return!
From you "God fave" into the world there came;
Our echo hail is but an empty name.
HOW loaded hives are with their honey fill'd, From divers flowers by chemic bees diftill'd! How full the collet with his jewel is,
Which, that it cannot take by love, doth kifs :
How full the moon is with her brother's ray,
When the drinks-up with thirfty orb the day!
How full of grace the Graces' dances are!
So full doth Mary of God's light appear.
It is no wonder if with Graces the
Be full, who was full with the Deity.
DOMINUS TECUM.
THE fall of mankind under death's extent
The quire of bleffed angels did lament,
And wifh'd a reparation to fee
By him, who Manhood join'd with Deity.
How grateful fhould man's fafety then appear
Thimself, whofe fafety can the angels cheer!
BENEDICTA TU IN MULIERIBUS.
DEATH came, and troops of fad difeafes led
To th' earth, by woman's hand folicited:.
Life came fo too, and troops of Graces led.
To th' earth, by woman's faith solicited.
As our life's fpring came from thy blessed womb,
So from our mouths fprings of thy praise fhall come :
Who did life's bleffing give, 'tis fit that she,
Above all women, fhould thrice bleffed be.
ET BENEDICTUS FRUCTUS VENTRIS TUL WITH mouth divine the Father doth proteft,. He a good word fent from his stored breast; 'Twas Chrift: which Mary, without carnal thought, From the unfathom'd depth of goodness brought:
The word of bleffing a just cause affords
To be oft bleffed with redoubled words!
SPIRITUS SANCTUS SUPERVENIET IN TE.
AS when foft weft-winds ftrook the garden-rofe,
A fhower of fweeter air falutes the nofe
The breath gives fparing kiffes, nor with power
Unlocks the virgin-bofom of the flower :
So the Holy Spirit upon Mary blow'd,
And from her facred box whole rivers flow'd::
Yet loos'd not thine eternal chastity;
Thy rofe's folds do ftill entangled lie.
Believe Chrift born from an unbruifed womb,
So from unbruised bark the odours come.
ET VIRTUS ALTISSIMI OBUMBRABIT TIBI.
GOD his great. Son begot ere time begun ;
Mary in time brought forth her little fon,
Of double fubftance One; life he began,
God without Mother, without Father, Man..
Great is the birth; and 'tis a stranger deed
That She no man, than God no wife, should need!
A Shade delighted the child-bearing maid,
And God himself became to her a Shade.
O ftrange descent! who is Light's author, he
Will to his creature thus a,Shadow be.
As unfeen Light did from the Father flow,
So did feen Light from Virgin Mary grow.
When Mofes fought God in a fhade to fee,
The Father's fhade was Chrift the Deity.
Let 's feek for day, we darkness, whilst our fight
In light finds darkness, and in darkness light.
ON THE PRAISE OF POETRY...
IS not a pyramid of marble ftone,
Though high as our ambition;
*Tis not a tomb cut out in brass, which can
Give life to th' afhes of a man ;
But verfes only: they fhall fresh appear,
Whilft there are men to read or hear.
When time fhall make the lasting brass decay,
And eat the pyramid away;
Turning that monument wherein men truft
Their names, to what it keeps, poor duft ;
Then fhall the Epitaph remain, and be
New-graven in eternity.
Poets by death are conquer'd; but the wit
Of poets triumphs over it.
What cannot verfe? When Thracian Orpheus took
His lyre, and gently on it ftrook,
The learned ftones came dancing all along,
And kept time to the charming fong.
With artificial pace the warlike pine,
The elm, and his wife the ivy, twine;
With all the better trees, which erft had stood
Unmov'd, forfook their native wood.
The laurel to the poet's hand did bow,
Craving the honour of his brow;
And every loving arin embrac'd, and made
With their officious leaves a fhade.
The beafts too ftrove his auditors to be,
Forgetting their old tyranny.
The fearful hart next to the lion came,
And wolf was fhepherd to the lamb.
Nightingales, harmless fyrens of the air,
And Mufes of the place, were there;
Who, when their little windpipes they had found
Unequal to fo ftrange a found,
O'ercome by art and grief they did expire,
And fell upon the conquering lyre.
Happy, O happy they, whose tomb might be,,
Maufolus envied by thee !
THAT A PLEASANT POVERTY IS TO BE PREFERRED BEFORE DISCONTENTED RICHES.
'HY, O! doth gaudy Tagus ravish thee,
Though Neptune's treasure-house it be?
Why doth Pactolus thee bewitch,
Infected yet with Midas' glorious itch?
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