46. AFFLICTION.

My heart did heave, and there came forth O God!'

By that I knew that Thou wast in the grief,

To guide and govern it to my relief,

Making a scepter of the rod :

Hadst Thou not had Thy part,

Sure the unruly sigh had broke my heart.

But since Thy breath gave me both life and shape,
Thou know'st my tallies; and when there's assign'd
So much breath to a sigh, what's then behinde :
Or if some yeares with it escape,

The sigh then onely is

A gale to bring me sooner to my blisse.

Thy life on earth was grief, and Thou art still
Constant unto it, making it to be

A point of honour now to grieve in me,

And in Thy members suffer ill.

They who lament one crosse,

Thou dying daily, praise Thee to Thy losse.

47. THE STARRE.

Bright spark, shot from a brighter place,

Where beams surround my Saviour's face,
Canst thou be any where

So well as there?

Yet if thou wilt from thence depart,

Take a bad lodging in my heart;

5

ΙΟ

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For thou canst make a debter,

And make it better.

First with thy fire-work burn to dust
Folly, and worse then folly, lust:
Then with thy light refine,

And make it shine.

So, disengag'd from sinne and sicknesse,
Touch it with thy celestial quicknesse,

That it may hang and move

After thy love.

Then with our trinitie, of light,

Motion, and heat, let's take our flight

Unto the place where thou

Before didst bow.

Get me a standing there, and place

Among the beams which crown the face

Of Him Who dy'd to part

Sinne and my heart;

That so among the rest I may

Glitter, and curle, and winde as they :

That winding is their fashion

Of adoration.

Sure thou wilt joy by gaining me

To flie home, like a laden bee,

Unto that hive of beams

And garland-streams.

ΙΟ

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according to

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O day most calm, most bright,
The fruit of this, the next world's bud,
Th' indorsement of supreme delight,
Writ by a friend, and with His bloud;
The couch of Time, Care's balm and bay:
The week were dark but for thy light;

Thy torch doth show the way.

The other dayes and thou

Make up one man, whose face thou art,
Knocking at heaven with thy brow:
The worky-daies are the back-part;
The burden of the week lies there,
Making the whole to stoup and bow,

Till thy release appeare.

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working or week days

Man had straight forward gone
To endlesse death; but thou dost pull
And turn us round to look on one
Whom, if we were not very dull,

We could not choose but look on still,

Since there is no place so alone

The which He doth not fill.

Sundaies the pillars are

On which heav'n's palace archèd lies ;

The other dayes fill up the spare

And hollow room with vanities:

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They are the fruitfull beds and borders

In God's rich garden: that is bare

Which parts their ranks and orders.
The Sundaies of man's life,

Thredded together on Time's string,

Make bracelets to adorn the wife
Of the eternall glorious King:
On Sunday heaven's gate stands ope;
Blessings are plentifull and rife,

More plentifull then hope.

This day my Saviour rose,

And did inclose this light for His;
That, as each beast his manger knows,
Man might not of his fodder misse:
Christ hath took in this piece of ground,
And made a garden there for those

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Who want herbs for their wound.

Our great Redeemer did remove

rest-day Sabbath

The rest of our creation

With the same shake which at His passion earthquake

Did th' earth and all things with it move.

As Samson bore the doores away,

Christ's hands, though nail'd, wrought our salvation,

And did unhinge that day.

The brightnesse of that day

We sullied by our foul offence:

Wherefore that robe we cast away,

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Having a new at His expense,

Whose drops of bloud paid the full price

That was requir'd to make us gay,

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And fit for Paradise.

Thou art a day of mirth:

And where the week-dayes trail on ground,

Thy flight is higher, as thy birth.

O, let me take thee at the bound,

Leaping with thee from sev'n to sev'n,

Till that we both, being toss'd from earth,
Flie hand in hand to heav'n!

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Money, thou bane of blisse and source of wo,

Whence com'st thou, that thou art so fresh and fine? I know thy parentage is base and low,— Man found thee poore and dirtie in a mine. Surely thou didst so little contribute

To this great kingdome, which thou now hast got, That he was fain, when thou wert destitute, To digge thee out of thy dark cave and grot.

Then forcing thee, by fire he made thee bright :

Nay, thou hast got the face of man; for we

Have with our stamp and seal transferred our right; Thou art the man, and man but drosse to thee.

Man calleth thee his wealth, who made thee rich;
And while he digs out thee, falls in the ditch.