A kind alone?) whatever order grow For, as in his fame, now, his soul is here, Got thither by repentance, let it be Thy wish to wish all there, to wish them clean; * Thus in the edition of 1633. Anderson has "gangrened." Johnson does not notice this form.-ED. X. AN EPITAPH ON SHAKSPEARE. RENOWNED Chaucer, lie a thought more nigh For whom your curtains need be drawn again; 534 SACRED PIECES. I. THE LITANY. 1. THE FAther. FATHER of heaven, and him, by whom From this red earth, O Father purge away 2. THE SON. O Son of God, who seeing two things, Sin, and death crept in, which were never made, By bearing one, try'dst with what stings The other could thine heritage invade; O be thou nailed unto my heart, And crucified again, Part not from it, though it from thee would part, 3. THE HOLY GHOST. O Holy Ghost, whose temple I Am, but of mud walls, and condensed dust, And being sacrilegiously Half-wasted with youth's fires, of pride and lust, Must with new storms be weatherbeat; Double in my heart thy flame, Which let devout sad tears intend; and let (Though this glass lanthorn, flesh, do suffer maim) Fire sacrifice, priest, altar be the same, 4. THE TRINITY. O Blessed glorious Trinity, Bones to philosophy, but milk to faith, Most slipperiness, yet most entanglings hath, By power, love, knowledge be, Give me a such self-different instinct, Of power, to love, to know, you unnumb'red Three. 5. THE VIRGIN MARY. For that fair blessed mother-maid, Whose flesh redeemed us; that she-cherubin, Which unlocked paradise, and made One claim for innocence, and disseised sin, Whose womb was a strange heaven, for there Our zealous thanks we pour. As her deeds were Our helps, so are her prayers; nor can she sue In vain, who hath such titles unto you. 6. THE ANGELS. And since this life our nonage is, And we in wardship to thine angels be, Native in heaven's fair 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 run, Worthy their sight, though blind in how they see. 7. THE PATRIARCHS. And let thy patriarchs' desire (Those great-grandfathers of thy church, which saw More in the cloud, than we in fire, that we Whom nature cleared more, than us grace and law, And now in heaven still pray, May use our new helps right,) Be sanctified, and fructify in me; Let not my mind be blinder by more light, 8. THE PROPHETS. Thy eagle-sighted prophets too, Which were thy church's organs, and did sound One law, and did unite, but not confound; In rhythmic feet, in common pray for me, 9. THE APOSTLES. And thy illustrious zodiak Of twelve apostles, which ingirt this all, From whom whosoever do not take Their light, to dark deep pits throw down, and fall*, 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. THE MARTYRS. And since thou so desirously Did'st long to die, that long before thou could'st, In Abel die, and ever since In thine, let their blood come To beg for us, a discreet patience Of death, or of worse life: for O! to some 11. THE CONFESSORS. Therefore with thee triumpheth there A virgin squadron of white confessors, * "Thrown down do fall;"-Anderson's Poets; but the word throw is hero used in a neuter sense.-ED. |