Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

X. THE MARTYRS.

AND since thou so desirously

Didst long to die, that long before thou couldst,
And long since thou no more couldst dye,
Thou in thy scatter'd mystic body wouldst
In Abel dye, and ever since

In thine, let their blood come

To beg for us a discreet patience

Of death, or of worse life; for, oh! to some
Not to be martyrs is a martyrdom,j bit £ 16.7

[merged small][ocr errors]

THEREFORE with thee triumpheth there
A virgin squadron of white Confessors,
Whose bloods betroth'd, not married, were
Tender'd, not taken by those ravishers:
They know, and pray that we may know :
In every Christian

Hourly tempestuous persecutions grow.
Temptations martyr us alive. A man
Is to himself a Dioclesian.

100

[ocr errors][merged small]

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 innocent)

Tho' they have not obtain'd of thee

That or thy church or I

Should keep, as they, our first integrity;
Divorce thou sin in us, or bid it die,

And call chaste widowhood Virginity.

XIII. THE DOCTORS.

THE sacred Academ above

Of Doctors, whose pains have unclasp'd and taught.
Both books of life to us (for love

To know the Scripture tells us we are wrote
In thy' other book) pray for us there,
That what they have misdone,

Or mis-said, we to that may not adhere;

Their zeal may be our sin. Lord, let us run
Mean ways, and call them stars, but not the sun.

XIV.

And whilst this universal choir,

(That church in triumph, this in warfare here,
Warm'd with one all-partaking fire

Of love, that none be lost, which cost thee dear)
Prays ceaselessly', and thou harken too,

(Since to be gracious

Our task is treble, to pray, bear, and do)

Hear this pray'r, Lord! O Lord! deliver us

[ocr errors]

130

From trusting in those prayers, tho' pour'd out thus,

XV.

From being anxious, or secure,

Dead clouds of sadness, or light squibs of mirth,

Donne.]

I ij

From thinking that great courts immure
All or no happiness, or that this earth

Is only for our prison fram'd,

Or that thou 'rt covetous

To them thou lov'st, or that they are maim'd,

130

From reaching this world's sweets: who seek thee thus With all their might, good Lord! deliver us.

XVI.

From needing danger to be good,

From owing thee yesterday's tears to-day,
From trusting so much to thy blood,

That in that hope we wound our souls away;
From bribing thee with alms t' excuse

Some sin more burdenous;

From light affecting in religion news,

From thinking us all scul, neglecting thus
Our mutual duties, Lord! deliver us.

XVII.

From tempting Satan to tempt us,

By our connivance or slack company;
From measuring ill by vicious,

Neglecting to choak Sin's spawn, vanity;
From indiscreet humility

Which might be scandalous,

And cast reproach on Christianity;

From being spies, or to spies pervious;

From thirst or scorn of fame, deliver us,

140

150

XVIII.

Deliver us thro' thy descent

Into the Virgin, whose womb was a place
Of middle kind, and thou being sent

T' ungracious us, stay'dst at her full grace;
And thro' thy poor birth, where first thou
Glorify'dst Poverty,

And yet soon after riches didst allow,

160

By' accepting king's gifts in th' Epiphany,

Deliver, and make us to both ways free.

XIX.

And thro' that bitter agony,

Which still is th' agony of pious wits,
Disputing what distorted thee,

And interrupted evenness with fits;

And thro' thy free confession,

Tho' thereby they were then

Made blind, so that thou might'st from them have Good Lord! deliver us; and teach us when

We may not, and we may, blind unjust men.

XX.

Thro' thy submitting all to blows

Thy face, thy robes to spoil, thy fame to scorn;

All ways which rage or justice knows,

[gone,

878

And by which thou couldst shew that thou wast born;

And thro' thy gallant humbleness,

Which thou in death didst show,

Dying before thy soul they could express,

Deliver us from death, by dying so

To this world, ere this world do bid us go.

XXI.

When senses, which thy soldiers are,

We arm against thee, and they fight for sin;
When Want, sent but to tame, doth war,
And work Despair a breach to enter in ;
When 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.

XXM.

In churches when th' infirmity

Of him which speaks diminishes the word;
When Magistrates do misapply

To us, as we judge, lay or ghostly sword;
When Plague, which is thine angel, reigns,
Or Wars, thy champions, sway;

When Heresy, thy second deluge, gains,

In th' hour of death, th' eve of last judgment-day,
Deliver us from the sinister way.

180

190

[blocks in formation]

A sinner is more music when he prays,

Than spheres' or angels' praises be

In panegyric halleluiahs;

200

« AnteriorContinuar »