** . $ -> '-o ' ' ■ s • %. >* rP ■ ■&' , ^ * .«** Eiwn;vc~,l ky J.t'/uipnuw .Thmi a Irint by W.~2Iarsh.all . Tm>Am®Z3 (©UJAIEMj^^ - EMBLEMS, DIVINE AND MORAL, BV FRANCIS QUARLES. NEW EDITION. CAREFULLY REVISED AND CORRECTED, WITH RECOMMENDATORY PREFACES BY THE REV. AUGUSTUS TO PL AD Y, A.NLD THE REV. JOHN RYLAND. COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME WITH EIGHTV ENGRAVING? LONDON : Printed at the Milton Press, Chandos Street, Strand, BY JOHN NICHOLS. JOHN BENNET, No. 4, THREE TUN PASSAGE, 25, & 26, NEWGATE STREET. MDCCCXXXIX. £* PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION. The immense number of editions through which the Emblems of Francis Quarles have passed since their first appearance, nearly two hundred years since, is the strongest proof of their merit that can be adduced, particularly when the great expense of embellishing each publication, inferior as the engravings have in some instances been, is taken into consideration. There is not a single circumstance in human life to which some part of them does not allude : the expla- nations of the figures are in easy agreeable verse ; to each of them is added a striking quotation from one of the fathers of the Church ; and the whole is briefly summed up in general inference. In the present edition the Latin mottos are trans- lated, and notes explanatory of obsolete words and obscure passages are added, so that it will be found one of the most agreeable works that can be offered to the public ; especially to the rising generation. Here they will meet with no dis- tracting controversy — no doubts concerning religion ; but entertainment and improvement go hand in hand together. These Emblems are not only calculated to convey the most important lessons of instruction into youthful minds, but to convey them in the most pleasant and interesting manner — by hieroglyphics, Or figurative signs and symbols, of divine, sacred, and supernatural things ; by which mode of commu- nicating knowledge the fancy is charmed, the invention is exercised, the mind informed, and the heart improved. PREFACE TO THE There is a quaintness in the style of our author, for which, had he lived in a later age, the flowers of modern poetry would have been a poor substitute — a quaintness which al- though at first occasionally somewhat obscure, improves so materially upon acquaintance, that the reader who can peruse his Emblems* without discovering beauties of the first order must have in his soul very little of pious fervour — vary little of poetic feeling. That his subject demanded a style now termed quaint our author was himself aware: asking what Muse he shall invoke, he says — " Let all the Nine be silent ; I refuse Their aid in this high task, for they abuse The names of love too much : assist me, David's Muse ! '' Surely there is poetry as well as piety in the following : — ■ " Not as the thirsty soil desires soft skow'rs To quicken and refresh her embryon grain, Nor as the drooping crests of fading fiow'rs Request the bounty of a morning rain, Do I desire my God : these in few hours Re-wish what let their wishes did obtain : But as the swift-foot hart doth wounded fly To th' much desired streams, even so do I Pant after thee, my God, whom I must find, or die. " Quarks is richly deserving of the laurel he has gained. His wit is bright, and his discrimination of characters keen ; his descriptions display uncommon skill; his style suits his turn of thought, however peculiar, and his turn of thought his style. His writings convey a sort of wisdom in which FRESENT EDITION. young and old, learned and unlearned, are equally concerned, and without' which the greatest philosopher is an arrant fool. For however highly we may esteem human arts and sciences in their proper place, it will ever be true that " the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. " Various and elaborate means are pursued, in order to fur- nish the minds of our youth with, fabulous knowledge, and to fill them with the frivolous tales of heathenish science, the very perfection of which deserves but little, if any, praise . And it is, no doubt, a sad proof of universal degeneracy, that the Metamorphoses of Ovid are preferred, in our schools, to the sacred Realities of Moses and the Prophets ; and that a young person is taught to be as much affected with the recital of the dismal fate of Phaeton's sisters, as by that of Isaac, or of a greater than Isaac, when offered up a sacrifice to the God of Heaven. Let us however, hope for better times and better things, when every human science shall be made subservient to divine, whenthe invaluable knowledge of the Sacred Writings shall have its due place and due honour, and when Quarks 1 Embkms shall at least be preferred to the comparative non- sense of the Pantheon and Ovid's Epistles. We shall now proceed to lay before our readers the opi- nions of several very eminent and pious men on the merits of the writings of Quarles generally, but more particularly of his Emblems. " Some poets, " say the celebrated Fuller, author of the History of the Worthies of England, " if debarred prophaneness, wantonness, and satiricalness, that they may neither abuse God, themselves, nor their neighbours, have vi. PREFACE TO THE their tongues cut out in effect. Others only trade in wit at the second hand, being- all for translations, nothing for inven- tion. Our Quarks was free from the faults of the first, as if he had drank of Jordan instead of Helicon, and slept on Mount Olivet for his parnassus ; and was happy in his own invention. His visible poetry, I mean his Emblems, is ex- cellent, catching therein the eye and fancy at one draught." — Pope, in a letter to Bishop Atterbury, calls him a " great poet." — Langbaine says, " He was a poet that mixed religion and fancy together ; and was very careful, in all his writings, not to intrench upon good manners by any scurrility in his works, or any ways offending against his duty to God, his neighbour, and himself." With the following testimonials, which we present at length, we shall conclude, not doubting that, on a perusal of the work, every candid and liberal Christian will consider it worthy of the encomiums which have been bestowed on it, and that the present edition will meet that encouragement which will amply repay the heavy expense attending its production. Recommendations of the Work, Sir, — As you have requested my opinion relative to the expe- diency of republishing ' Quarles' Emblems' and the ' School of the Heart,' it is incumbent on me to aquaint you, that, as an humble individual, I most sincerely vote for a new and correct edition of those excellent books. The former was of much spiritual use to me at an early period of life ; and I still consider it as a very ingenious and valuable treasury of Christian experience. The latter I have lately perused ; and am strongly persuaded that the reprinting it may answer advantageous purposes to the Church of Christ. PRESENT EDITION. Be particularly careful to give neat and beautiful impressions of the numerous and expressive cuts which illustrate each respective article. I would advise you to keep strictly to the designs of the original plates ; and not to vary from them in a single instance : but the execution of them, as they stand in the old editions, calls for improvement. In emblematic works much depends on the elegancy of the engravings, which, if well finished, speak an ocular language, singularly emphatic, and universally intelligible. The eye very fre- quently informs the understanding and effects the heart, when the most laboured efforts of vocal rhetoric fail. Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem, Quam quae sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, et qua; Ipse sibi tradit spectator. With an earnest desire and hope that your intended undertaking will be owned and blessed of God, to the establishment of his people in knowledge, and to tbeir growth in holiness and comfort, I remain, Sir, Your sincere well-wisher, AUGUSTUS MONTAGUE TOPLADY. Nevo-street, Jan. 3, 1777. To the serious Part of the Christian World. It is matter of pleasing surprise to find that such books as ' Quarks' Emblems,' and the ' School of the Heart,' should be so much called for as to incline any printer to venture on a new edi- tion. I really imagined that the rage for romances, novels, and plays, had entirely extinguished all taste for such productions as these now presented to the public. Quarles was a man of spiritual wit and imagination, in the reign of King Charles I, a time when poetic genius in the religious world had not been cultivated. Spencer and Shakspeare were then the only men that deserved the name of poets; and these were far enough from the knowledge and taste of the people called Puritans ; so that I think Quarks may be styled the first r as Herbert was the second, divine poet of the English nation. PREFACE, &c. In the productions of this excellent man there is nothing to please the state of modern critics : his uncommon turns of thought ; the quaintness of his poetic style ; but above all the depth of evangelic fervour, the ardent piety, and the rich experience of the heart, can be relished by none but those who, in the highest sense of the word, deserve the name of true Christians. To such as these the following work will be acceptable and delightful ; and by them, and the serious part of their families, it will not be deemed impertinent in me to recommend this work to their attention. JOHN RYLAND. Northampton, Jan. 8, 1777. Sir, — ' Francis Quarks' Emblems,' and the ' School of the Heart, ' are works which have been so generally known and well received for more than a century past, that nothing is necessary by way of recommendation. The cuts have been highly entertaining to younger minds; while the subject matter of the poems, and the general strain and manner of them, have been little less so to those of riper years. What share of merit is due to the poet, we leave to better judges. The poems appear to be, in the main, very consis- tent with the evangelic doctrines, and not a little adapted both to please and profit those who wish to have their hearts called off from the present world, and fixed upon a better. The editor of this new edition engages for the goodness of the paper and letter, and the utmost correctness of the copy, and a set of new copper -plates engraved in the neatest manner; which he flat- ters himself will give the purchases an universal satisfaction. And, as it is a work of uncommon expensiveness, he relies upon the generosity of Christians of all denominations to encourage the undertaking, which is a fresh to put into the hands of the public what hath been long out of print, and of which so few fair and cor- rect copies are to be met with. On these accounts we take the liberty to recommend the present publication. JOHN CONDER, Master of the Academy at Komerton. SAMUEL BREWER, Independent Minister at London. BOOK THE FIRST. THE INVOCATION. Rouse thee, my soul ! and drain thee from the dregs Of vulgar thoughts; screw up the heighten' d pegs Of thy sublime theorbo* for notes high'r — And higher yet — that so the shrill-mouth'd choir Of swift-wing'd seraphims may come and join, And make the concert more than half divine. Invoke no Muse ; let Heav'n be thy Apollo : And let his sacred influences hallow Thy-high bred strains. Let his full beams inspire Thy ravish'd brains with more heroic fire r Snatch thee a quill from the spread eagle's wing, And, like the morning lark, mount up and sing : Cast off these dangling plummets, that so clog Thy lab'ring heart, which gropes in this dark fog Of dungeon earth : let flesh and blood forbear To stop thy flight, till this base world appear A thin blue landscape : let thy pinions soar So high a pitch, that men may seem no more Than pismires, crawling on the mole-hill Earth, Thy ear untroubled with their frantic mirth : Let not the frailty of thy flesh disturb Thy new-concluded peace ; let reason curb Thy hot-mouth'd passion ; and let Heav'n's fire season The fresh conceits of thy corrected reason : Disdain to warm thee at Lust's smoky fires ; Scorn, scorn to feed on thy old bloat desires. Come, come, my soul ! hoist up thy higher sails ! The wind blows fair : shall we still creep like snails, That gild their ways with their own native slimes? No, we must fly like eagles ; and our rhymes * The theorbo is a musical instrument resembling a lute. 10 EMBLEMS. BOOK I. Must mount to Heav'n, and reach th' Olympic ear : Our Heav'n-blown fire must seek no other sphere. Thou great Theanthropos, * that giv'st and crown'st Thy gifts in dust, and from our dunghill own'st Reflected honour, taking by retail What thou hast giv'n in gross, from lapsed, frail, And sinful man : that drink'st full draughts, wherein Thy children's lep'rous fingers, scurf d with sin, Have paddled : cleanse, O cleanse my crafty soul From secret crimes, and let my thoughts control My thoughts ! O teach me stoutly to deny Myself, that I may be no longer I ! Enrich my fancy, clarify my thoughts ; Refine my dross ; O wink at human faults ! And through this slender conduit of my quill Convey thy current, whose clear stream may fill The hearts of men with love, their tongues with praise : Crown me with glory ; take, who list, the bays. * Theanthropos is compounded of the Greek words Geog, God, and avOpioiroQ, man-, and is a title given to our Saviour, as being both God and man. BOOK I.-EMBLEM I. James i. 14. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. SERPENT. EVE. Serp. Not eat ? not taste ? not cast an eye Upon the fruit of this fair tree ? and why ? Why eat'st thou not what Heav'n ordain'd for food? Or canst thou think that bad which Heav'n call'd good? Why was it made, if not to be enjoy'd ? Neglect of favours makes a favour void : Blessings unus'd pervert into a waste As well as surfeits : woman, do but taste : See how the laden boughs make silent suit To be enjoy'd ; look how their bending fruit Meet thee half-waj' - : observe but how they crouch To kiss thy hand : coy woman, do but touch : Mark what a pure vermilion blush has died Their swelling cheeks, and how for shame they hide Their palsy heads, to see themselves stand by Neglected : woman, do but cast an eye. What bounteous Heav'n ordain'd for use, refuse not ; Come, pull and eat : y' abuse the things ye use not. Eve. Wisest of beasts, our great Creator did Reserve this tree, and this alone forbid : T he rest are freely ours, which doubtles are A s pleasing to the taste ; to th' eye as fair : But, touching this, his strict commands are such, 'Tis death to taste, no less than death to touch. 12 EMBLEMS. BOOK: t. Serp. Pish ! death's a fable ; did not Heav'n inspire Your equal elements with living fire, Blown from the spring of life ? Is not that breath Immortal ? come, ye are as free from death As he that made ye. Can the flames expire Which he has kindled ? can ye quench his fire ? Did not the great Creator's voice proclaim Whate'er he made, from the blue spangled frame To the poor leaf that trembles, very good ? Bless'd he not both the feeder and the food ? Tell, tell me then, what danger can accrue From such bless'd food, to such half-gods as you ? Curb needless fears, and let no fond conceit Abuse your freedom ; woman, take and eat. Eve. 'Tis true, we are immortal; death is yet Unborn, and, till rebellion make it debt, Undue : I know the fruit is good, until Presumptuous disobedience make it ill. The lips that open to this fruit's a portal To let in death, and makes immortal mortal. Serp. You cannot die ; come, woman, taste, and fear not. Eve. Shall Eve transgress? I dare not, O, I dare not! Serp. Afraid? why draw'st thou back thy tim'roue arm? Harm only falls on such as fear a harm. Heav'n knows and fears the virtue of this tree : 'Twill make ye perfect gods as well as he. Stretch forth thy hand, and let thy fondness never Fear death : do, pull and eat, and live for ever. Eve. 'Tis but an apple ; and it is as good To do as to desire. Fruit's made for food : I'll pull, and taste, and tempt my Adam, too, To know the secrets of this dainty. Serp. Do. BOOK I. EMBLEMS. 13 S. Chris, sup. Matth. He forced him not : he touched him not : only said, Cast thyself down ; that we may know whosoever obeys the devil casts himself down : for the devil may sug- gest ; compel he cannot. S* Bern, in Ser. It is the devil's part to suggest ; ours, not to consent. As often as we resist him, so often we overcome him : as often as we overcome him, so often we bring joy to the angels, and glory to God ; who opposeth us, that we may contend ; and assisteth us, that we may conquer. Epig. I. Unlucky parliament ! wherein, at last, Both houses are agreed, and firmly past An act of death confirm'd by higher pow'rs O had it had but such success as ours ! C. BOOK I.— EMBLEM II. James i. 15. Then j when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin and sin, when it isjinished, bringeth forth death. Lament, lament ; look, look, what thou hast done : Lament the world's, lament thy own estate : Look, look, by doing, how thou art undone; Lament thy fall, lament thy change of state : Thy faith is broken, and thy freedom gone ; See, see too soon, what thou lament'st too late. O thou that wert so many men, nay, all Abridg'd in one, how has thy desp'rate fall Bestroy'd thy unborn seed, destroy'd thyself withal ! Uxorious Adam, whom thy Maker made Equal to angels that excel in pow'r, What hast thou done ? O why hast thou obey'd Thy own destruction ? like a new-cropt flow'r, How does the beauty of thy glory fad ! How are thy fortunes blasted in an hour ! How art thou cow'd that hadst the pow'r to quell The spite of new-fall'n angels, baffle hell, And vie with those that stood, and vanquish those that fell ! BOOK I. EMBLEMS. 15 See how the world (whose chaste and pregnant womb Of late conceiv'd, and brought forth nothing ill) Is now degenerated, and become A base adult'ress, whose false births do fill The earth with monsters — monsters that do roam And rage about, and make a trade to kill : Now Glutt'ny paunches ; Lust begins to spawn ; Wrath takes revenge, and Avarice a pawn Pale Envy pines, Pride swells, and Sloth begins to yawn. The air, that whisper'd, now begins to roar, And blust'ring Boreas blows the boiling tide ; The white-mouth'd water now usurps the shore, And scorns the pow'r of her tridental guide ; The fire now burns, that did but warm before, And rules her ruler with resistless pride : Fire, water, earth, and air, that first were made To be subdu'd, see how they now invade ; They rule whom once they serv'd, command where once obey'd. Behold, that nakedness, that let bewray'd Thy glory, now's become thy shame, thy wonder; Behold, those trees, whose various fruits were made For food, now turn'd a shade to shroud thee under ; Behold, that voice, (which thou hast disobey'd), That late was music, now affrights like thunder. Poor man! are not thy joints grown sore with shaking, To view th'effect of thy bold undertaking, That in one hour didst mar what Heav'n six days was making? 16 EMBLEMS. BOOK I. S. August, lib. 1. de Lib. Arbit. It is a most just punishment that man should lose that freedom which man would not use, yet had power to keep if he would; and that he who had knowledge to do what was right, and did not, should be deprived of the knowledge of what was right ; and that he who would not do righteously, when he had the power, should lose the power to do it when he had the will. Hugo de Animci. They are justly punished that abuse lawful things, but they are most justly punished that use unlawful things : thus Lucifer fell from heaven ; thus Adam lost his paradise. Epig. 2. See how these fruitful kernels, being cast Upon the earth, how thick they spring ! how fast ! A full-ear' d crop and thriving, rank and proud ! Prepost'rous man first sow'd, and then he plough'd. BOOK I.— EMBLEM III. Prov. xiv. 13. Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful ; and the end of that mirth is heaviness. Alas ! fond child, How are thy, thoughts beguil'd To hope for honey from a nest of wasps ? Thou may'st as well Go seek for ease in hell, Or sprightly nectar from the mouths of asps. The world's a hive, From whence thou canst derive No good, but what thy soul's vexation brings : But case thou meet Some petty-petty-sweet, Each drop is guarded with a thousand stings. Why dost thou make These murm'ring troops forsake The safe protection of their waxen homes ? This hive contains No sweet that's worth thy pains ; There's nothing here, alas! but empty combs. For trash and toys, And grief-engend'ring joys, What torment seems to sharp for flesh and blood ? What bitter pills, Compos'd of real ills, Men swallow down, to purchase one false good ! 18 EMBLEMS. BOOK I. The dainties here Are least what they appear ; Though sweet in hopes, yet in fruition sour The fruit that's yellow Is found not always mellow; The fairest tulip's not the sweetest flow'r. Fond youth, give o'er, And vex thy soul no more In seeking what were better far unfound ; Alas ! thy gains Are only present pains To gather scorpions for a future wound. "What's earth ? or in it, That, longer than a minute, Can lend a free delight that can endure 1 O who would droil,* Or delve in such a soil, "Where gain's uncertain, and the pain is sure ? * Droil, i.e. drudge. BOOK I. EMBLEMS. 19 S. August. Sweetness in temporal matters is deceitful : it is a labour and a perpetual fear ; it is a dangerous pleasure, whose beginning is without providence, and whose end is not without repentance. Hugo. Luxury is an enticing pleasure, a bastard mirth, which hath honey in her mouth, gall in her heart, and a sting in her tail. Epig. 3. What, Cupid, are thy shafts already made ? And seeking honey to set up thy trade, True emblem of thy sweets ! thy bees do bring Honey in their mouths, but in their tails a sting. BOOK L— EMBLEM IV. Psalm lxii. 9. To be laid in the balance, it is altogether lighter than vanity. Put in another weight: 'tis yet too light : And yet, fond Cupid, put another in ; And yet another : still there's under weight : Put in another hundred : put again ; Add world to world ; then heap a thousand more To that ; then, to renew thy wasted store, Take up more worlds on trust, to draw thy balance low'r. Put in the flesh, with all her loads of pleasure ; Put in great Mammon's endless inventory ; Put in the pond'rous acts of mighty Csesar : Put in the greater weight of Sweden's glory ; Add Scipio's gauntlet ; put in Plato's gown : Put Circe's charms, put in the triple crown. Thy balance will not draw ; thy balance will not down. Lord ! what a world is this, which, day and night, Men seek with so much toil, with so much trouble ! "Which, weigh'd in equal scales, is found so light, So poorly overbalanc'd with a bubble ! Good God! that frantic mortals should destroy Their higher hopes, and place their idle joy Upon such airy trash, upon so light a toy ! BOOK I EMBLEMS. 21 Thou bold impostor, how hast thou befool'd The tribe of man with counterfeit desire ! How has the breath of thy false bellows cool'd Heav'n's free-born flames, and kindled bastard fire ! How hast thou vented dross instead of treasure, And cheated man with thy false weights and measure, Proclaiming bad for good, and gilding death with pleasure! The world's a crafty strumpet, most affecting And closely following those that most reject her ; But seeming careless, nicely disrespecting And coyly flying those that most affect her. If thou be free, she's strange; if strange, she's free: Flee, and she follows ; follow, and she'll flee : Than she there's none more coy, there's none more fond than she. O what a crocodilian world is this, Compos'd of treach'ries and insnaring wiles ! She clothes destruction in a formal kiss, And lodges death in her deceitful smiles : She hugs the soul she hates; and there does prove The veriest tyrant, where vows to love ; And is a serpent most when most she seems a dove. Thrice happy he, whose nobler thoughts despise To make an object of so easy gains : Thrice happy he, who scorns so poor a prize Should be the crown of his heroic pains: Thrice happy he, that ne'er was born to try Her frowns or smiles; or being born, did lie In his sad nurse's arms an hour or two, die. 22 EMBLEMS. EOOK I. St. August, lib. Confess. O you that dote upon this world, for what victory do ye fight \ Yor hopes can be crowned with no greater reward than the world can give ; and what is the world but a brittle thing full of dangers, wherein we travel from lesser to greater perils ? O let all her vain, light, and momentary glory perish with herself; and let us be conversant with more eternal things. Alas ! this world is miserable ; life is short, and death is sure. Epig. 4. My soul, what's lighter than a feather ? Wind. Than wind? The fire. And what than fire 1 The mind. What's lighter than the mind? A thought. Than thought ? This babble world. What than this bubble ? Nought. BOOK L— EMBLEM V 1. Cor. vii. 31. The fashion of this world pas seth away. Gone are those golden days, wherein y^/ Pale concsience started not at ugly sin : When good old Saturn's peaceful throne Was unusurped by his beardless son : When jealous Ops ne'er fear'd th' abuse Of her chaste bed, or breach of nuptial truce : When just Astrsea pois'd her scales In mortal hearts, whose absence earth bewails : When froth-born Venus and her brat, With all that spurious brood young Jove begat. In horrid shapes were yet unknown; Those halcyon days, that golden age, is gone. There was no client then to wait The leisure of his long-tail'd advocate; The talion* law was in request, And Chanc'ry Courts were kept in ev'ry breast : Abused statutes had no tenters, And men could deal secure without indentures : * Talion lavj, or the law of retaliation, a punishment in the Mosaic law, wherebv an evil is returned similar to that committed. 24 EMBLEMS. BOOK I. There was no peeping-hole to clear The wittol's* eye from his incarnate fear : There were no lustful cinders then To broil the carbonado'd hearts of men : The rosy cheeks did then proclaim A shame of guilt, but not a guilt of shame : There was no whining soul to start At Cupid's twang, or curse his naming dart : The boy had then but callow wings, And fell Erenny's scorpions had no stings : The better-acted world did move Upon the fixed poles of truth and love. Love essenc'd in the hearts of men : Then reason rul'd, there was no passion then ; Till lust and rage began to enter, Love the circumfrence was, and love the centre ; Until the wanton days of Jove, The simple world was all compos'd of love ; But Jove grew fleshly, false, unjust ; Inferior beauty fill'd his veins with lust : And cucqueant Juno's fury hurl'd Fierce balls of rape into th' incestuous world : Astreea fled, and love return'd From earth, earth boil'd with lust, with rage it burn'd, And ever since the world hath been Kept going with the scourge of lust and spleen. * Wittol, a contented cuckold, t Cucquean, lewd. BOOK I. EMBLEMS. 25 S. Ambrose. Lust is a sharp spur to vice, which always putteth the affections into a false gallop. Hugo. Lust is an immoderate wantonness of the flesh, a sweet poison, a cruel pestilence ; a pernicious poison, which weakeneth the body of man, and effeminateth the strength of an heroic mind. S. 'August. Envy is the hatred of another's felicity : in respect of superiors, because they are not equal to them ; in respect of inferiors, lest he should be equal to them ; in respect of equals, because they are equal to them : through envy proceeded the fall of the world, and death of Christ. Epig. 5. What, Cupid, must the world be lash'd so soon ? But made at morning, and be whipp'd at noon ? 'Tis like the wag that plays with Venus' doves, The more 'tis lash'd, the more perverse it proves. BOOK L— EMBLEM VI Eccles. ii. 17. All is vanity and vexation of Spirit. How is the anxious soul of man befool'd In his desire, That thinks a hectic fever may be cool'd In flames of fire ; Or hopes to rake full heaps of burnish'd gold From nasty mire ! A whining lover may as well expect A scornful breast To melt in gentle tears, as woo the world for rest. Let "Wit, and all her study'd plots, effect The best they can : Let smiling Fortune prosper and perfect What Wit began ; Let Earth advise with both, and so project A happy man ; Let Wit or fawning Fortune vie their best ; He may be blest With all the earth can give ; but earth can give no rest. BOOK I. EMBLEMS. 27 Whose gold is double with a careful hand, His cares are double ; The pleasure, honour, wealth of sea and land, Bring but a trouble ; The world itself, and all the world's command, Is but a bubble. The strong desires of man's insatiate breast May stand possest Of all that earth can give ; but earth can give no rest. The world's a seeming paradise, but her own And man's tormentor ; Appearing fix'd, yet but a rolling-stone Without a tenter ; It is a vast circumference, where none Can find a centre. Of more than earth, can earth make none possest ; And he that least Regards this restless world, shall in this world find rest. True rest consists not in the oft revying* Of wordly dross : Earth's miry purchase is not worth the buying ; Her gain is loss ; Her rest but giddy toil, if not relying Upon her cross. How wordlings droilf for trouble ! that fond breast, That is possest Of earth without a cross, has earth without a rest. * Revying is to stake at play a larger sum of money than another has laid. f Droit, labour. 28 EMBLEMS. BOOK I. Cass. The cross is the invincible sanctuary of the humble, the dejection of the proud, the victory of Christ, the destruction of the devil, the confirmation of the faith- ful, the death of the unbeliever, the life of the just. Damascen. The Cross of Christ is the key of Paradise ; the weak man's staff; the convert's convoy ; the upright man's perfection ; the soul and body's health ; the pre- vention of all evil, and the procurer of all good. Epig. 6. Worldlings, whose whimp'ring folly holds the losses Of honour, pleasure, health, and wealth, such crosses, Look here, and tell me what your arms engross, When the best end of what you hug's a cross ? BOOK I.— EMBLEM VII. 1 Peter v. 8. Be sober, be vigilant ; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Why dost shou suffer lustful sloth to creep, Dull CyjDrian lad, into thy wanton brows ? Is this a time to pay thine idle vows At Morpheus' shrine ? Is this a time to steep Thy brains in wasteful slumbers ? Up, and rouse Thy leaden spirit : Is this a time to sleep ? Adjourn thy sanguine dreams, awake, arise, Call in thy thoughts ; and let them all advise, Hadst thou as many heads as thou hast wounded eyes. Look, look, what horrid furies do await Thy flatt'ring slumbers ! If thy drowsy head But chance to nod, thou fall'st into a bed Of sulph'rous flames, whose torments want a date. Fond boy, be wise, let not thy thoughts be fed With Phrygian wisdom ; fools are wise too late : Beware betimes, and let thy reason sever Those gates which passion clos'd ; wake now or never ; For if thou nodd'st thou fall'st ; and falling, fall'st for ever. 30 EMBLEMS. BOOK I. Mark how the ready hands of Death prepare : His bow is bent, and he hath notch'd his dart ; He aims, he levels at thy slumb'ring heart : The wound is posting ; O be wise, beware. What, has the voice of danger lost the art To raise the spirit of neglected care ? Well, sleep thy fill, and take thy soft reposes ; But know, withal, sweet tastes have sour closes ; And he repents in thorns that sleeps in beds of roses. Yet, sluggard, wake, and gull thy soul no more With earth's false pleasure, and the world's delight. Whose fruit is fair and pleasing to the sight, But sour in taste, false as the putrid core : Thy flaring glass is gems at her half light ; She makes thee seeming rich, but truly poor : She boasts a kernel, and bestows a shell ; Performs an inch of her fair-promis'd ell : Her words protest a heav'n; her works produce a hell. O thou, the fountain of whose better part Is earth'd and gravell'd up "with vain desire : That daily wallow'st in the fleshly mire And base pollution of a lustful heart, That feel'st no passion but in wanton fire, And own'st no torment but in Cupid's dart ; Behold thy type : thou sitt'st upon this ball Of earth secure ; while Death, that flings at all, Stands arm'd to strike thee down, where flames attend thy fall. BOOK I. EMBLEMS. 31 S. Bern. Security is nowhere ; neither in Heaven nor in Paradise, much less in the world. In Heaven the angels fell from the Divine Presence; in Paradise Adam fell from his place of pleasure ; in the world Judas fell from the school of our Saviour. Hugo. I eat secure, I drink secure, I sleep secure, even as though 1 had passed the day of death, avoided the day of judgment, and escaped the torments of hell-fire. I play and laugh, as though I were already triumph- ing in the kingdom of Heaven. Epig. 7. Get up, my soul ! redeem thy slavish eyes From drowsy bondage : O beware, be wise ! Thy foe's before thee ; thou must fight or fly; Life lies most open in a closed eye. BOOK I.— EMBLEM VIII. Luke vi. 25. Woe unto you that laugh, now ! for ye shall mourn and weep. The world's a popular disease, that reigns Within the froward heart and frantic brains Of poor distemper'd mortals, oft arising From ill digestion, through th' unequal poising Of ill-weigh 'd elements, whose light directs Malignant humours to malign effects. One raves and labours with a boiling liver : Rends hair by handfuls, cursing Cupid's quiver : Another, with a bloody flux of oaths, Vows deep revenge : one doats ; the other loathes : One frisks and sings, and cries " A flagon more, To drench dry cares, and make the welkin* roar !" Another droops ; the sunshine makes him sad ; Heav'n cannot please : one's mop'd ; the other's mad : One hugs his gold ; another lets it fly : He knowing not for whom ; nor t' other why. One spends his day in plots, his night in play ; Another sleeps and slugsf both night and day : * Welkin, the firmament, or sky. t Slugs, to act slothfully. BOOK I EMBLEMS. 33 One laughs at this thing ; t' other cries for that ; But neither one nor t' other knows for what. Wonder of wonders ! what we ought t' evite* As our disease, we hug as our delight. 'Tis held a symptom of approaching danger "When disacquainted sense becomes a stranger, And takes no knowledge of an old disease ; But, when a noisome grief begins to please The unresisting sense, it is a fear That death has parley'd, and compounded there. As, when the dreadful Thund'rer's awful hand Pours forth a vial on th' infected land, At first th' affrighten'd mortals quake and fear, And ev'ry noise is thought the Thunderer : But, when the frequent soul-departing bell Has pav'd their ears with her familiar knell, It is reputed but a nine-days' wonder ; They neither fear the Thund'rer nor his thunder. So, when the world (a worse disease) began To smart for sin, poor new-created man Could seek for shelter, and his gen'rous son Knew by his wages what his hands had done : But bold-fac'd mortals, in our blushless times, Can sing and smile, and make a sport of crimes, Transgress of custom, and rebel in ease. We false-joy'd fools can triumph in disease, And (as the careless pilgrim, being bit By the tarantula, begins a fit Of life- concluding laughter) waste our breath In lavish pleasure, till we laugh to death* * Evite, to shun or avoid. 34 EMBLEMS. BOOK I. Hugo de Anima* What profit is there in vain glory, momentary mirth,the world's power,the flesh's pleasure,full riches, noble descent, and great desires ? Where is their laughter 1 Where is their mirth ? Where their in- solence — their arrogance? From how much joy to how much sadness ! After how much mirth, how much misery ! From how great glory are they fallen, to how great torment ! What hath fallen to them may befall thee, because thou art a man : thou art of earth; thou livest of earth ; thou shalt return to earth. Death expecteth thee every where ! Be wise, therefore, and expect death every where. Epig. 8. What ails the fool to laugh ? Does something please His vain conceit 1 Or is' t a mere disease ? Fool, giggle on, and waste thy wanton breath ; Thy morning laughter breeds an ev'ning death. BOOK I.— EMBLEM IX. 1 John ii. 17. The world passeth away., and all the lusts thereof. Draw near, brave sparks, whose spirits scorn to light Your hallow'd tapers but at honour's flame; You, whose heroic actions take delight To varnish over a new painted name ; Whose high-bred thoughts disdain to take their flight, But on th' Icarian wings of babbling Fame ; Behold, how tott'ring are your high-built stories Of earth, whereon you trust the ground-work of your glories. And you, more brain-sick lovers, that can prize A wanton smile before eternal joys; That know no heav'n but in your mistress' eyes ; That feel no pleasure but what sense enjoys : That can, like crown-distemper'd fools, despise True riches, and, like babies, whine for toys : Think ye the pageants of yourhopes are able To stand secure on earth, when earth itself 's unstable? Come, dunghill wordings, you that root like swine, And cast up golden trenches where ye come : Whose only pleasure is to undermine, And view the secrets of your mother's womb : Come, bring your saint, pouch'd in his leathern shrine, And summon all your griping angels home : Behold your world, the bank of all your store ; The world ye so admire, the world ye so adore. 36 EMBLEMS. BOOK I, A feeble world, whose hot-mouth'd pleasures tire Before the race ; before the start, retreat : A faithless world, whose false delights expire Before the term of half their promis'd date : A fickle world, not worth the least desire, Where ev'ry chance proclaims a change of state : A feeble, faithless, fickle world, wherein Each motion proves a vice, and every act a sin. The beauty, that of late was in her flow'r, Is now a ruin, not to raise a lust , He that was lately drench'd in Danae's show'r, Is master now of neither gold nor trust ; Whose honour late was mann'd with princely pow'r, His glory now lies buried in the dust ; O who would trust this world, or prize what's in it, That gives and takes, and chops, and changes, ev'ry minute ! Nor length of days, nor solid strength of brain, Can find a place wherein to rest secure : The world is various, and the earth is vain ; There's nothing certain here, there's nothing sure ; We trudge, we travel, but from pain to pain, And what's our only griefs our only cure : The world's a torment ; he that would endeavour To find the way to rest, must seek the way to leave her. BOOK I. EMBLEMS. 37 St. Greg, in Horn, Behold, the world is withered in itself, yet flou- risheth in our hearts, every where death, every where grief, every where desolation : on every side we are smitten ; on every side filled with bitterness ; and yet, with the blind mind of carnal desire, we love her bit- terness. It flieth and we follow it ; it falleth, yet we stick to it: and, because we cannot enjoy it falling, we fall with it, and enjoy it fallen. Epig. 9. If fortune fail, or envious Time but spurn, The world turns round, and with the world we turn When Fortune sees, and lynx-ey'd Time is blind, I'll trust thy joys, O world; till then, the wind. B, BOOK L— EMBLEM X, John viii. 44. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. Here's your right ground : wag gently o'er this black : 'Tis a short cast ; y' are quickly at the jack ; Rub, rub an inch or two ; two crowns to one On this bowl's side; blow wind, 'tis fairly thrown : The next bowl's worse that comes; come, bowl away; Mammon, you know the ground untutor'd, play : Your last was gone ; a yard of strength, well spar'd, Had touch'd the block : your hand is still too hard. Brave pastime, readers, to consume that day, Which, without pastime, flies too swift away ! See how they labour ; as if day and night "Were both too short to serve their loose delight : See how their curved bodies writhe, and screw Such antic shapes as Proteus never knew : One raps an oath, another deals a curse ; He never better blow'd ; this vever worse : BOOK I. EMBLEMS. 39 One rubs his itchless elbow, shrugs, and laughs, The other bends his beetle brows, and chafes : Sometimes they whoop, sometimes their Stygian cries Send their black Santos to the blushing skies: Thus mingling humours in a mad confusion, They make bad premises, and worse conclusion : But where's the palm that fortune's hand allows To bless the victor's honourable brows ? Come, reader, come ; I'll light thine eye the way To view the prize, the while the gamesters play : Close by the jack, behold, jill Fortune stands To wave the game; see in her partial hands The glorious garland's held in open show, To cheer the lads, and crown the conqu'ror's brow. The world's the jack ; the gamesters that contend Are Cupid, Mammon: that judicious friend, That gives the ground, is Satan : and the bowls Are sinful thoughts ; the prize, a crown for fools. Who breathes that bowls not? "What bold tongue can say, Without a blush, he hath not bowl'd to-day ? It is the trade of man, and ev'ry sinner Has play'd his rubbers . ev'ry soul's a winner. The vulgar proverb's crost, he hardly can Be a good bowler and an honest man. Good God ! turn thou may Brazil thoughts anew ; New-sole my bowls, and make their bias true. I'll cease to game till fairer ground be giv'n, Nor wish to win until the mark be Heav'n. 40 EMBLEMS. BOOK I. S. Bernards Lib. de Consid. O you sons of Adam, you covetous generation, what have ye to do with earthly riches, which are neither true nor yours? Gold and silver are real earth, red and white, which only the error of man makes, or rather reputes, precious: in short, if they be yours, carry them with you. St. Hieron. in Ep. O lust, thou infernal fire, whose fuel is gluttony ; whose flame is pride ; whose sparkless are wanton words ; whose smoke is infamy ; whose ashes are un- cleanness ; whose end is hell. Epig. 10. Mammon, well follow'd ; Cupid, bravely led : Both touchers ; equal fortune makes a dead : No reed can measure where the conquest lies : Take my advice ; compound, and share the prize.. BOOK I.— EMBLEM XI Ephes. ii. 2. Ye walked according to the course of this world, accord- ing to the prince of the air. O whither will this mad-brain world at last Be driven ? Where will her restless wheels arrive ? Why hurries on her ill-match'd pair so fast ? O whither means her furious groom to drive ? What, will her rambling fits be never past ? For ever ranging ? Never once retrieve ? Will earth's perpetual progress ne'er expire ? Her team continuing in their fresh career : And yet they never rest, and yet they never tire. Sol's hot-mouth'd steeds, whose nostrils vomit flame, And brazen lungs belch forth quotidian fire, Their twelve hours' task perform'd, grow stiff and lame, And their immortal spirits faint and tire : At th' azure mountain's foot their labours claim The privilege of rest, where they retire To quench their burning fetlocks, and go steep Their flaming nostrils in the western deep, And Tresh their tired souls with strength-restoring sleep. 42 EMBLEMS. BOOK I. But these prodigious hackneys, basely got Twixt men and devils, made for race or flight, Can drag the idle world, expecting not The bed of rest, but travel with delight ; Who, never weighing way nor weather, trot Thro' dust and dirt, and droil both day and night: Thus droil these fiends incarnate, whose free pains Are fed with dropsies and venereal blains. No need to use the whip ; but strength to rule the reins. Poor captive world ? How has thy lightness giv'n A just occasion to thy foes' illusion ! O, how art thou betray'd, thus fairly driv'n In seeming triumph to thy own confusion ! How is thy empty — universe bereav'n Of all true joys, by one false joy's delusion ! So I have seen an unblown virgin fed With sugar'd words so full, that she is led A fair attended bride to a false bankrupt's bed. Pull, gracious Lord ! Let not thine arm forsake The world, impounded in her own devices : Think of that pleasure that thou once didst take Amongst the lilies and sweet beds of spices. Hale strongly, thou whose hand has pow'r to slack The swift-foot fury often thousand vices : Let not thy dust-devouring dragon boast His craft has won what Judah's lion lost : Remember what is crav'd ; recount the price it cost. BOOK I. EMBLEMS. 43 Isidor. Lib. 1. de Summo Bono* By how much the nearer Satan perceiveth the world to an end, by so much the more fiercely he troubleth it with persecution : that knowing himself is to be damned, he may get company in his damnation. Cyp. in Ep. Broad and spacious is the road to infernal life ; there are enticements and death-bringing pleasures. There the devil flattereth, that he may deceive ; smileth, that he may endamage ; allureth ; that he may destroy. Epig. 11. Nay, soft and fair, good world; post not too fast; Thy journey's end requires not half this haste. Unless that arm thou so disdain'st reprives* thee, Alas ! thou needs must go, the devil drives thee. * Reprives, curbs, restrains ; from the French, repr inter. BOOK I.— EMBLEM XII. Isaiah lxvi. II. Ye may suck, but not be satisfied with the breast of her consolation. What, never fill'd ? Be thy lips screw'd so fast To th' earth's full breast? for shame, for shame unseize thee ; Thou tak'st a surfeit where thou should'st but taste, ' And mak'st too much not half enough to please thee. Ah, fool, forbear ; thou swallowest at one breath Both food and poison down ! thou draw'st both milk and death. The ub'rous breasts, when fairly drawn, repast The thriving infant with their milky flood ; But, being overstrain'd, return at last Unwholesome gulps compos'd of wind and blood. A mod'rate use does both repast and please ; Who strains beyond a mean, draws in and gulps disease. But O, that mean, whose good the least abuse Makes bad, is too, too hard to be directed : Can thorns bring grapes, or crabs a pleasing juice ? There's nothing wholesome where the whole's infected. Unseize thy lips ; earth's Milk's a ripen'd core, That drops from her disease, that matters from her sore. BOOK I. EMBLEMS. 45 Think'st thou that paunch, that burlies out thy coat Is thriving fat ; or flesh, that seems so brawny I Thy paunch is dropsied and thy cheeks are bloat ; Thy lips are white, and that complexion tawny ; Thy skin's a bladder blown with wat'ry tumours ; Thy fieshnrembling bog, a quagmire full of humours. And thou, whose thriveless hands are ever straining Earth's fluent breasts into an empty sieve, That always hast, yet always art complaining, And whin'st for more than earth has pow'r to give ; Whose treasure flows and flees away as fast ; That ever hast, and hast, yet hast not what thou hast. Go choose a substance, fool, that will remain Within the limits of thy leaking measure ; Or else go seek an urn that will retain The liquid body of thy sleep'ry treasure : Alas ! how poorly are thy labours crown'd ! Thy liquor's never sweet, nor yet thy vessel sound. What less than fool is man to prog and plot, And lavish out the cream of all his care, To gain poor seeming goods ; which, being got, Make firm possession but a through fare ; Or, if they stay, they furrow thoughts the deeper ; And, being kept with care, they loose their careful keeper. 46 EMBLEMS. BOOK I. S. Geog. Horn. 3. secund. Parte Ezech. If we give more to the flesh than we ought, we nourish an enemy ; if we give not to her necessity what we ought, we destroy a citizen : the flesh is to be satisfied so far as suffices to our good: whosoever alloweth so much to her as to make her proud, knoweth not how to be satisfied : to be satisfied is a great art; lest, by the satiety of the flesh, we break forth into the iniquity of her folly. Hugo de Anima. The heart is a small thing, but desireth great mat- ters. It is not sufficient for a kite's dinner, yet the whole world is not sufficient for it. Epig. 12. What makes thee, fool, so fat ? Fool, thee so bare ? Ye suck the self-same milk, the self-same air : No mean betwixt all paunch, and skin and bone ? The mean's a virtue, and the world has none. BOOK L— EMBLEM XIII. 1 John iii. 19. Men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. Lord, when we leave the world and come to thee, How dull, how slug are we ! How backward ! How prepost'rous is the motion Of our ungain devotion ! Our thoughts are millstones, and our souls are lead, And our desires are dead : Our vows are fairly promis'd, faintly paid ; Or broken, or not made : Our better work (if any good) attends Upon our private ends : In whose performance one poor wordly scoff Foils us, or beats us off. If thy sharp scourge find out some secret fault, We grumble, or revolt ; And if thy gentle hand forbear, we stray, Or idly lose the way. Is the road fair ? we loiter ; clogg'd with mire ? We stick, or else retire 48 EMBLEMS. BOOK I. A Iamb appears a lion ; and we fear Each bush we see's a bear. When our dull souls direct their thoughts to thee, The soft-pac'd snail is not so slow as we. But when at earth we dart our wing'd desire, We burn, we burn like fire, Like as the am'rous needle joys to bend To her magnetic friend : Or as the greedy lover's eye- balls fly At his fair mistress' eye ; So, so we cling to earth ; we fly and puff, Yet fly not fast enough. If Pleasure beckon with her balmy hand, Her beck's a strong command : If Honour calls us with her courtly breath, An hour's delay is death : If Profit's golden-finger'd charm inveigles, We clip more swift than eagles : Let Auster weep, or blust'ring Boreas roar, Till eyes or lungs be sore : Let Neptune swell, until his dropsy sides Burst into broken tides : Nor threat'ning rocks, nor winds, nor waves, nor fire, Can curb our fierce desire : Nor fire, nor rocks, can stop our furious minds, Nor waves, nor winds : How fast and fearless do our footsteps flee ! The lightfoot roebuck's not so swift as we. BOOK I EMBLEMS. 49 S. August, sup. PsaL lxiv. Two several loves built to several cities : the love of God builds a Jerusalem ; the love of the world builds a Babylon. Let every one inquire of himself what he loveth, and he shall resolve himself of whence he is a citizen. S. August. Lib. 3. Confess. All things are driven by their own weight, and tend to their own centre : my weight is my love ; by that I am driven withersoever I am driven. Ibidem. Lord, he loveth thee the less, that loveth any thing with thee, which he loveth not for thee. Epig. 13. Lokd, scourge my ass, if she should make no haste, And curb my stag, if he should flee too fast : If he be over swift, or she prove idle, Let love lend her a spur ; fear, him a bridle. BOOK I.— EMBLEM XIV Psalm xiii. 3. Lighten mine eyes, O Lord, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Will't ne'er be morning ? Will that promis'd light Ne'er break, and clear those clouds of night ? Sweet Phosphor, bring the day, Whose conqu'ring ray May chase these fogs : sweet Phosphor, bring the day. How long ! how long shall these benighted eyes Languish in shades, like feeble flies Expecting spring ? How long shall darkness soil The face of earth, and thus beguile Our souls of rightful action ? When will day Begin to dawn, whose new-born ray May gild the weathercocks of our devotion, And give our unsoul'd souls new motion ? Sweet Phosphor, bring the day ; Thy light will fray These horrid mists ; sweet Phosphor, bring the day. BOOK I. EMBLEMS. 51 Let those have night that slily love t' immure Their cloister'd crimes, and sin secure ; Let those have night that blush to let men know The baseness they ne'er blush to do ; Let those have night that love to take a nap, And loll in Ignorance's lap : Let those whose eyes, like owls, abhor the light, Let those have night, that love the night : Sweet Phosphor, bring the day : How sad delay Afflicts dull hopes ! sweet Phosphor, bring the day. Alas ! my light-in-vain-expecting eyes Can find no objects but what rise From this poor mortal blaze — a dying spark Of Vulcan's forge, whose flames are dark And dangerous ; a dull, blue-burning light, As melancholy as the night : Here's all the suns that glister in the sphere Of earth : Ah me ! what comfort's here ? Sweet Phosphor, bring the day ; Haste, haste away, Heav'n's loit'ring lamp ; sweet Phosphor, bring the day. Blow, Ignorance ! O thou, whose idle knee Rocks earth into a lethargy, And with thy sooty fingers has bedight The world's fair cheeks, blow, blow thy spite : Since thou hast puft our greater taper, do Puff on, and out the lesser too : If ere that breath-exiled flame return, Thou hast not blown as it will burn : Sweet Phosphor, bring the day : Light will repay The wrongs of night; sweet Phosphor, bring the day. 52 EMBLEMS. BOOK I. S. August, in Joh. Ser. xix. God is all to thee : If thou be hungry, he is bread ; if tiursty, he is water ; if in darkness, he is light ; if naked, he is a robe of immortality. Alanus de Conq, Nat. God is a light that is never darkened : an un- wearied life that cannot die ; a fountain always flow- ing ; a garden of life ; a seminary of wisdom ; a ra- dical beginning of all goodness. Epig. 14. My soul, if Ignorance puff out this light, She'll do a favour that intends a spite : It seems dark abroad ; but take this light away, Thy windows will discover break of day. BOOK I.— EMBLEM XV. Rev. xii. 12. The devil is come unto you having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. Lord ! canst thou see and suffer ? Is thy hand Still bound to th' peace ? Shall earth's black mo- narch take A full possession of thy wasted land ? O, will thy slumb'ring vengeance never wake, Till full-ag'd law resisting Custom shake The pillars of thy right, by false command ? Unlock thy clouds, great Thund'rer, and come down ; Behold whose temples wear thy sacred crown ; Redress, redress our wrongs; revenge, revenge thy own. See how the bold usurper mounts the seat Of royal majesty : how overstrawing Perils with pleasure, pointing ev'ry threat With bugbear death, by torments overawing Thy frighted subjects , or by favours drawing Their tempted hearts to his unjust retreat ; Lord, canst thou be so mild, and he so bold ? Or can thy flocks be thriving when the fold Is govern'd by the fox ? Lord, canst thou see and hold ? 54 EMBLEMS. BOOK I. That swift- wing'd advocate, that did commence Our welcome suits before the King of kings ; That sweet ambassador, that hurries hence What airs th' harmonious soul or sighs or sings, See how she flutters with her idle wings ; Her wings are dipt, and eyes put out by sense : Sense-conqu'ring Faith is now grown blind and cold, And basely craven'd,* that, in times of old, Did conquer Heav'n itself, do what th' Almighty could. Behold, how double Fraud does scourge and tear Astrsea's wounded sides, plough'd up, and rent With knotted cords, whose fury has no ear ; See how she stands a pris'ner, to be sent A slave, into eternal banishment, I know not whither, O, I know not where,: Her patent must be cancell'd in disgrace ; And sweet-lipp'd Fraud, with her divided face, Must act Astrsea's part, must take Astreea's place. Faith's pinions dipt 1 and fair Astreea gone ? Quick-seeing Faith now blind 1 and Justice see ? Has Justice now found wings ? and has Faith none ? What do we here ? who would not wish to be Dissolv'd from earth, and, with Astrssa, flee From this blind dungeon to that sun-bright throne ? Lord, is thy sceptre lost, or laid aside ? Is hell broke loose, and all her fiends unty'd ? Lord, rise, and rouse, and rule, and crush their fu- rious pride. Craven'd, disheartened, made to knock under, &c. BOOK I. EMBLEMS. 55 Peter Rav. in Matth. The devil is the author of evil, the fountain of wickedness, the adversary of the truth, the corrupter of the world, man's perpetual enemy: he planteth snares, diggeth ditches, spurreth bodies ; he goadeth souls, he suggesteth thoughts, belcheth anger, ex- poseth virtues to hatred, maketh vices beloved, soweth error, nourisheth contentions, disturbeth peace, and scattereth affliction. Macar. Let us suffer with those that suffer, and be crucified with those that are crucified, that we may be glorified with those that are glorified. Savanar. If there be no enemy, no fight ; if no fight, no vic- tory ; if no victory, no crown. Epig. 15. My soul, sit thou a patient looker on ; Judge not the play before the play be done : Her plot has many changes : ev'ry day Speaks a new scene ; the last act crowns the play. BOOK THE SECOND. EMBLEM 1. Isaiah 1. 11. You that walk in the light of your ownjire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled, ye shall lie down in sorrow. Do, silly Cupid, snuff and trim Thy false, thy feeble light, And make her self- consuming flames more bright ; Methinks she burns to dim. Is this that sprightly fire, Whose more than sacred beams inspire The ravish'd hearts of men, and so inflame desire ? See, boy, how thy unthrifty blaze Consumes ; how fast she wanes ; She spends herself, and her, whose wealth maintains Her weak, her idle rays. Cannot thy lustful blast, Which gave it lustre, make it last ? What heart can long be pleas'd, where pleasure spends so fast ? BOOK II. EMBLEMS. 57 Go, wanton, place thy pale-fac'd light "Where never breaking day- Intends to visit mortals, or display The sullen shades of night : Thy torch will burn more clear In night's un-Titan'd hemisphere ; Heav'n's scornful flames and thine can never co-appear. In vain thy busy hands address Their labour, to display Thy easy blaze within the verge of day ; The greater drowns the less ! If Heav'n's bright glory shine, Thy glimm'ring sparks must needs resign ; Puff out Heav'n's glory then, or Heaven will work out thine. Go, Cupid's rammish pander, go, Whose dull, whose low desire Can find sufficient warmth from Nature's fire, Spend borrow'd breath, and blow, Blow wind made strong with spite ; When thou hast puff'd the greater light Thy lesser spark may shine, and warm the new-made night. Deluded mortals, tell me, when Your daring breath has blown Heav'n's taper out, and you have spent your own, What fire shall warm ye then ? Ah, fools ! perpetual night Shall haunt your souls with Stygian fright, Where they shall boil in flames, but flames shall bring no light. 58 EMBLEMS. BOOK II. S. August. The sufficiency of merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient. S. Greg, Mor. xxv. By how much the less man seeth himself, by so much the less he displeaseth himself; and by how much the more he seeth the light of grace, by so much the more he disdaineth the light of Nature. St. Greg. Mor. The light of the understanding humility kindleth and pride covereth. Epig. 1. Thou blow'st Heav'n's fire, the whilst thou go'st about, Rebellious fool, in vain, to blow it out : Thy folly adds confusion to thy death ; Heav'n's fire confounds when fan'd with Folly's breath. BOOK II.— EMBLEM II, Eccles. iv. 8. There is no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches. O How our widen'd arms can overstretch Their own dimensions ! How our hands can reach Beyond their distance : How our yielding breast Can shrink to be more full, and full possest Of this inferior orb ! How earth refin'd Can cling to sordid earth ! How kind to kind ! We gape, we grasp, we gripe, add store to store ; Enough requires too much ; too much craves more. We charge our souls so sore beyond our stint, That we recoil or burst : the busy mint Of our laborious thoughts is ever going, And coining new desires ; desires not knowing Where next to pitch ; but, like the boundless ocean, Gain, and gain ground, and grow more strong by motion. The pale-fac'd lady of the black-ey'd night First tips her horned brows with easy light, Whose curious train of spangled nymphs attire Her next night's glory with increasing fire ; Each ev'ning adds more lustre, and adorns The growing beauty of her grasping horns : 60 EMBLEMS. BOOK II. She sucks and draws her brother's golden store, Until her glutted orb can suck no more. E'en so the vulture of insatiate minds Still wants, and wanting seeks, and seeking finds New fuel to increase her rav'nous fire ; The grave is sooner cloy'd than man's desire : We cross the seas, and midst her waves we burn, Transporting lives, perchance, that ne'er return : We sack, we ransack to the utmost sands Of native kingdoms and of foreign lands : We travel sea and soil ; we pry, we prowl, We progress, and we prog from pole to pole : We spend our mid-day sweat, our midnight oil ; We tire the night in thought, the day in toil : We make art servile, and the trade gentile, (Yet both corrupted with ingenious guile,) To compass Earth, and with her empty store To fill our arms, and grasp one handful more : Thus seeking rest, our labours never cease, But, as our years, our hot desires increase : Thus we, poor little worlds ! with blood and sweat, In vain attempt to comprehend the great : Thus, in our gain, become we gainful losers, And what 's enclosed encloses the enclosers. Now, reader, close thy book, and then advise ; Be wisely worldly, be not worldly wise : Let not thy nobler thoughts be always raking The world's base dunghill ; vermin's took by taking: Take heed thou trust not the deceitful lap Of wanton Delilah : the world's a trap. BOOK II. EMBLEMS. 61 Hugo de Anima* Tell me, where be those now, that so lately loved and hugged the world? Nothing remaineth of them but dust and worms : observe what those men were ; what those men are. They were like thee; they did eat, drink, laugh, and led merry days ; and in a mo- ment slipt into hell. Here their flesh is food for worms ; there their souls are fuel for fire, till they shall be rejoined in an unhappy fellowship, and cast into eternal torments; where they that were once companions in sin shall be hereafter partners in punishment. Epig. 2. Gripe, Cupid, and gripe still, until that wind, That's pent before, find secret vent behind : And when thou'st done, hark here, I tell thee what, Before I'll trust thy armful, I'll trust that. BOOK II.— EMBLEM III. Job xviii. 8. He is cast into a net hy his own feet, and walketh upon a snare. What ! nets and quiver too ? what need there all These sly devices to betray poor men ? Die they not fast enough when thousands fall Before thy dart ! what need these engines then ? Attend they not, and answer to thy call, Like nightly coveys, where thou -list, and when ? What needs a stratagem where strength can sway ? Or what needs strength compel where none gainsay ? Or what needs stratagem or strength where hearts obey? Husband thy sleights : it is but vain to waste Honey on those that will be catch'd with gall ; Thou canst not, ah ! thou canst not bid so fast As men obey ; thou art more slow to call Than they to come ; thou canst not make such haste To strike, as they, being struck, make haste to fall. Go save thy nets for that rebellious heart That scorns thy pow'r, and has obtain'd the art T* avoid thy flying shaft, to quench thy fiery dart. r ' BOOK II. EMBLEMS. 63 Lost mortal ! how is thy destruction sure, Between two bawds, and both without remorse ! The one's a line, the other is a lure ; This to entice thy soul ; that t' enforce. Waylaid by both, how canst thou stand secure ? That draws ; this woos thee to th' eternal curse. O charming tyrant, how hast thou befool'd And slav'd poor man, that would not, if he could ! Avoid thy line, thy lure ; nay, could not, if he would ! Alas ! thy sweet perfidious voice betrays His wanton ears with thy Sirenian baits : Thou wrapp'st his eyes in mists, then boldly lays Thy lethal* gins before their crystal gates ; Thou lock'st up ev'ry sense with thy false keys, All willing pris'ners to thy close deceits : His ear most nible where it deaf should be ; His eye-most blind where most it ought to see ; And, when his heart's most bound, then thinks itself most free. Thou grand impostor ! how hast thou obtain'd The wardship of the world ? Are all men turn'd Idiots and lunatics ? Are all retain'd Beneath thy servile bands ? Is none return'd To his forgoten self? Has none regain'd His senses ? Are their senses all adjourn'd ? What, none dismiss'd thy court? Will not plump fee Bribe thy false fists to make a glad decree, T' unfool whom thou hast fool'd, and set thy pris'ners free ? * Lethal, mortal, deadly. 64 EMBLEMS. BOOK II. S. Bern, in Ser. In this world is much treachery, little truth : here all things are traps ; here every thing is beset with snares ; here souls are endangered, bodies are afflicted : here all things are vanity and vexation of spirit. Epig. 3. Nay, Cupid, pitch thy trammel where thou please, Thou canst not fail to take such fish as these. Thy thriving sport will ne'er be spent : no need To fear, when ev'ry cork's a world : Thou'lt speed. BOOK II.— EMBLEM IV Hosea xiii. 3. They shall be as the chaff that is driven with a whirl- wind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney, Flint-breasted Stoics, you whose marble eyes Contemn a wrinkle, and whose souls despise To follow Nature's too affected fashion, Or travel in the regent walk of passion ; "Whose rigid hearts disdain to shrink at fears, Or play at fast or loose, with smiles and tears ; Come, burst your spleens with laughter to behold A new-found vanity, which days of old Ne'er knew : a vanity that has beset The world, and made more slaves than Mahomet ; That has condemn'd us to the servile yoke Of slavery, and made us slaves to smoke. But stay, why tax I thus our modern times For new-blown follies, and for new-born crimes ; Are we sole guilty, and the first age free ? No, they were smok'd and slav'd as well as we : "What's sweet-lipp'd Honour's blast but smoke ? "What's treasure But very smoke ? And what more smoke than plea- sure ? 66 EMBLEMS. BOOK II. Alas ! they're all but shadows, fumes, and blasts ; That vanishes, this fades the other wastes. The restless merchant, he that loves to steep His brains in wealth, and lays his soul to sleep In bags of bullion, sees th' immortal crown, And fain would mount, but ingots keep him down. He brags to-day, perchance, and begs to-morrow : He lent but now ; wants credit, now, to borrow : Blow wind ? the treasure's gone, the merchant's broke ; A slave to silver's but a slave to smoke. Behold the glory- vying child of Fame, That from deep wounds sucks forth an honour'd name; That thinks no purchase worth the style of good, But what is sold for sweat, and seal'd with blood : That for a point, a blast of empty breath, Undaunted gazes in the face of death ; "Whose dear-bought bubble, fill'd with vain renown, Breaks with a fillip, or a gen'ral's frown : His stroke-got honour staggers with a stroke ; A slave to honour is a slave to smoke. And that fond soul, which wastes his idle days In loose delights, and sports about the blaze Of Cupid's candle ; he that daily spies Twin babies in his mistress' Geminies, "Whereto his sad devotion does impart The sweet burnt-offring of a bleeding heart ; See how his wings are sing'd in Cyprian fire, "Whose flames consume with youth, in age expire : The world's a bubble; all the pleasures in it, Like morning vapours, vanish in a minute : The vapours vanish, and the bubble's broke ; A slave to pleasure is a slave to smoke. Now, Stoic, cease thy laughter, and repast Thy pickled cheeks with tears, and weep as fast.. BOOK II. EMBLEMS. 67 St. Hieron. That rich man is great who thinketh not himself great because he is rich : the proud man (who is the poor man) braggeth outwardly, but beggeth inwardly ; he is blown up, but not full. Petr. Rav. Vexation and anguish accompany riches and ho- nour : the pomp of the world, and the favour of the people, are but smoke, and a blast suddenly vanish- ing; which, if they commonly please, commonly bring repentance ; and, for a minute of joy, they bring an age of sorrow. Epig. 4. Cupid, thy diet's strange : it dulls, it rouses ; It cools, it heats ; it binds, and then it looses : Dull-sprightly-cold-hot fool, if e'er it winds thee Into a loosness once, take heed ; it binds thee* BOOK II.— EMBLEM V. Prov. xxiii. 5. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that ivhich is not ? for riches make themselves wings ; they fiy away as an eagle* False world, thou ly'st : thou canst not lend The least delight : Thy favours cannot gain a friend, They are so slight : Thy morning pleasures make an end To please at night : l^oor are the wants that thou supply'st ; And yet thou vaunt'st, and yet thou vy'st With Heaven ! fond earth, thou boast'st ; false world, thou ly'st. Thy babbling tongue tells golden tales Of endless treasure : Thy bounty offers easy sales Of lasting pleasure ; Thou ask'st the Conscience what she ails, And swear'st to ease her : There's none can want where thou supply'st ; There's none can give where thou deny'st : Alas! fond world, thou boast'st; false world, thou ly'st. BOOK II. EMBLEMS. 69 What well-advised ear regards What Earth can say ? Thy words are gold, but thy rewards Are painted clay : Thy cunning can but pack the cards ; Thou canst not play : Thy game at weakest, still thou vy'st ;* If seen, and then revy'd, deny'st : Thou art not what thou seem'st false world, thou ly'st. Thy tinsel bosom seems a mint Of new-coin'd treasure ; A paradise, that has no stint, No change, no measure ; A painted cask, but nothing in % Nor wealth, nor pleasure : Vain earth, that falsely thus comply'st With man ; vain man, that thus rely'st On earth : vain man, thou doat'st ; vain earth, thou iy'st. What mean dull souls, in this high measure To haberdash In earth's base wares, whose greatest treasure Is dross and trash ; The height of whose enchanting pleasure Is but a flash ? Are these the goods that thou supply'st Us mortals with ? Are these the high'st • Can these bring cordial peace? False world, thou ly'st. * Vy'st, a worp used at cards ; i. e. to challenge. EMBLEMS. BOOK II. Pet. Bles. The world is deceitful : her end is doubtful ; her conclusion is horrible ; her Judge is terrible ; and her punishment is intolerable. £. August. Lib. Confess. The vain-glory of this world is a deceitful sweet- ness, a fruitless labour, a perpetual fear, a dangerous honour : her beginning is without providence, and her end not without repentance. Epig, 5. World, thou'rt a traitor ; thou hast stamp'd thy base And chymic metal with great Caesar's face ; And with thy bastard bullion thou hast bart'red For wares of price ; how justly drawn and quarter'd ! BOOK IL— EMBLEM VI Job xv. 31. Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity ; for vanity shall be his recompense. Believe her not, her glass diffuses False portraitures : thou canst espy No true reflection : she abuses Her misinform'd beholder's eye ; Her crystal's falsely steel'd ; it scatters Deceitful beams ; believe here not, she flatters. This flaring mirror represents No right proportion, hue, nor feature : Her very looks are compliments ; They make thee fairer, goodlier, greater : The skilful gloss of her reflection But paints the context of thy coarse complexion. "Were thy dimension but a stride, Nay, wert thou statur'd but a span, Such as the long-bill'd troops defy'd, A very fragment of a man 1 She'll make thee Mimas, which ye will The Jove-slain tyrant, or th' Ionic hill. 72 EMBLEMS. BOOK II. Had surfeits, or th' ungracious star, Conspir'd to make one common place Of all deformities that are Within the volume of thy face, She 'd lend thee favour should outmove The Troy-bane Helen, or the queen of love. Were thy consum'd estate as poor As Laz'rus or afflicted Job's, She '11 change thy wants to seeming store, And turn thy rags to purple robes : She '11 make thy hide- bound flank appear As plump as theirs that feast it all the year. Look off, let not thy optics be Abus'd : thou see'st not what thou should'st : Thyself's the object thou should'st see, But 'tis thy shadow thou behold'st : And shadows thrive the more in stature, The nearer we approach the light of nature. Where Heav'n's bright beams look more direct, The shadow shrinks as they grow stronger ; But, when they glance their fair aspect, The bold-fac'd shade grows larger, longer : And, when their lamp begins to fall, Th' increasing shadows lengthen most of all. The soul that seeks the noon of grace Shrinks in, but swells if grace retreat : As Heav'n lifts up, or veils his face, Our self-esteems grow less or great. The least is greatest ; and who shall Appear the greatest, are the least of all. BOOK II. EMBLEMS. 73 Hugo, Lib. m. de Anima. In vain he lifteth up the eye of his heart to behold his God, who is not first rightly advised to behold himself : First, thou must see the visible things of thyself, before thou canst be prepared to know the invisible things of God ; for, if thou canst not ap- prehend the things within thee, thou canst not com- prehend the things above thee: the best looking-glass, wherein to see thy God, is perfectly to see thyself. Epig. 6. Be not deceiv'd, great fool : there is no loss In being small ; great bulks but swell with dross. Man is Heav'n's masterpiece : if it appear More great, the value's less ; if less more dear. H BOOK II.— EMBLEM VII Deuteronomy xxx. 19. I have set before thee life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that thou and thy seed may live. The world's a floor, whose swelling heaps retain The mingled wages of the ploughman's toil : The world's a heap, whose yet unwinnow'd grain Is lodg'd with chaff and buried in her soil : All things are mix'd, the useful with the vain ; The good with bad, the noble with the vile ; The world's an ark, wherein things pure and gross Present their lossful gain, and gainful loss, "Where ev'ry dram of gold contains a pound of dross. This furnish'd ark presents the greedy view With all that earth can give, or Heav'n can add ; Here lasting joys, here pleasures hourly new, And hourly fading, may be wish'd and had : All points of honour, counterfeit and true, Salute thy soul, and wealth both good and bad : Here may'st thou open wide the two-leav'd door Of all thy wishes, to receive that store, "Which, being emptied most, doth overflow the more. BOOK H. EMBLEMS. 75 Come then, my soul, approach this royal burse,* And see what wares our great exchange retains : Come, come ; here's that shall make a firm divorce Betwixt thy wants and thee, if want complains : No need to sit in council with thy purse, Here's nothing good shall cost more price than pains : But, O my soul, take heed ; if thou rely Upon thy faithless optics, thou wilt buy Too blind a bargain; know, fools only trade by th' eye. The worldly wisdom of the foolish man Is like a sieve, that doth alone retain The grosser substance of the worthless bran ; But thou, my soul, let thy brave thoughts disdain So coarse a purchase : O be thou a fan To purge the chaff, and keep the winnow'd grain : Make clean thy thoughts, and dress thy mix'd desires : Thou art Heav'n's tasker ; and thy God requires The purest of thy floor, as well as of thy fires. Let grace conduct thee to the paths of peace, And wisdom bless thy soul's unblemish'd ways ; No matter, then, how short or long's the lease, Whose date determines thy self-number'd days : No need to care for wealth's or fame's increase, Nor Mars's palm, nor high Apollo's bays. Lord, if thy gracious bounty please to fill The floor of my desires, and teach me skill To dress and choose the corn, take those the chaff that will. * Burse r an exchange ; a place for the meeting of merchants, and where shops are kept. 76 EMBLEMS. BOOK II S. August. Lib. i. de Doct. Christi. Temporal things more ravish in the expectation than in fruition : but things eternal more in the fruition than expectation. Ibidem, The life of man is the middle between angels and beasts : if man takes pleasure in carnal things, he is compared to beasts ; but if he delights in spiritual things, he is suited with angels. Epig, 10. Art thou a child ? Thou wilt not then be fed But like a child, and with the children's bread But thou art fed with chaff or corn undrest : My soul, thou savour'st too much of the beast. BOOK II.— EMBLEM VIII. Philippians iii. 19, 20. They mind earthly things, but our conversation is in heaven. VENUS. DIVINE CUPID. Ven. What means this peevish brat ? Whish, lul- laby ; What ails my babe ? what ails may babe to cry I Will nothing still it? Will it neither be Pleas'd with the nurse's breast or mother's knee I What ails my bird ? What moves my froward boy To make such whimp'ring faces ? Peace, my joy : Will nothing do ? Come, come, this pettish brat, Thus cry and brawl, and cannot tell for what ? Come, buss and friends, my lamb ; wish lullaby ; What ails my babe ? what ails my babe to cry l Peace, peace, my dear ; alas ! thy early years Had never faults to merit half these tears ; Come, smile upon me : let thy mother spy Thy father's image in her baby's eye : Husband these guiltless drops against the rage Of harder fortunes, and the gripes of age ; Thine eye's not ripe for tears : Whish, lullaby ; What ails my babe, my sweet- fac'd babe, to cry ? 78 EMBLEMS. BOOK II. Look, look, what's here ! A dainty golden thing : See how the dancing bells turn round and ring, To please my bantling ? Here's a knack will breed A hundred kisses : here's a knack indeed. So, now my bird is white, and looks as fair As Pelop's shoulder, or my milk-white pair : Here's right the father's smile : when Mars beguil'd Sick Venus of her heart, just thus he smil'd. Divine Cupid. "Well may they smile alike ; thy base-bred boy And his base sire had both one cause — a toy : How well their subjects and their smiles agree ! Thy Cupid finds a toy, and Mars found thee : False queen of beauty, queen of false delights, Thy knee presents an emblem, that invites Man to himself, whose self-transported heart (O' erwhelm'd with native sorrows, and the smart Of purchas'd griefs) lies whinning night and day, Not knowing why, till heavy-heel'd Delay, The dull-brow'd pander of Despair, lays by His leaden buskins, and presents his eye With antic trifles, which the indulgent earth Makes proper objects of man's childish mirth. These be the coin that pass, the sweets that please; There's nothing good, there's nothing great, but these : These be the pipes that base-born minds dance after, And turn immod'rate tears to lavish laughter ; Whilst heav'nly raptures pass without regard ; Their strings are harsh, and their high strains un- heard : The ploughman's whistle, or the trivial flute, Find more respect than great Apollo's lute : We' 11 look to Heav'n, and trust to higher joys ; Let swine love husks, and children whine for toys. BOOK II. EMBLEMS. 79 S. Bern. That is the true and chief joy, which is not con- ceived from the creature, but received from the Crea- tor, which (being once possessed thereof) none can take from thee: whereto all pleasure, being compared, is torment, all joy is grief, sweet things are bitter, all glory is baseness, and all delectable things are despicable. Bern. Joy, in a changeable subject, must necessarily change as the subject changeth. Epig. 8. Peace, childish Cupid, peace : thy finger'd eye But cries for what, in time, will make thee cry. But are thy peevish wranglings thus appeas'd ? Well may'st thou cry, that art so poorly pleas'd BOOK II.— EMBLEM IX. Isaiah x. 3. What will ye do in the day of your visitation ? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory ? Is this that jolly god, whose cyprian bow Has shot so many flaming darts, And made so many wounded beauties go Sadly perplex'd with whimp'ring hearts ? Is this that sov'reign deity, that brings The slavish world in awe, and stings The blund'ring souls of swains, and stoops the hearts of kings ? What Circean charm, what Hecatean spite, Has thus abus'd the god of love ? Great Jove was vanquish'd by his greater might ; (And who is stronger-arm' d than Jove ?) Or has our lustful god perform' d a rape, And (fearing Argus' eyes) would 'scape The view of jealous Earth, in this prodigious shape Where be those rosy cheeks, that lately scorn'd The malice of injurious fates ? Ah ! where's that pearl portcullis,* that adorn'd Those dainty two-leav'd ruby gates ? Where be those killing eyes that so controll'd The world, and locks that did infold Like nots of flaming wire, like curls of burnish'd gold? * Portcullis (a term of fortification) ; i. e. a grate dropped down, to stop a gateway. BOOK II. EMBLEMS. 81 No, no, 'twas neither Hecatean spite, Nor charm below, nor power above ; 'Twas neither Circe's spell, nor Stygian sprite, That thus transform'd our god of love ; 'Twas owl-ey'd Lust (more potent far than they), Whose eyes and actions hate the day ; Whom all the world observe, whom all the world obey. See how the latter trumpet's dreadful blast Affrights stout Mars's trembling son ! See how he startles ! how he stands aghast, And scrambles from his melting throne ! Hark, how the direful hand of vengeance tears The swilt'ring clouds, whilst Heav'n appears A circle fill'd with flame, and centred with his fears ! This is that day, whose oft report hath worn Neglected tongues of prophets bare ; The faithless subject of the worldling's scorn, The sum of men and angels' pray'r : This, this the day, whose all-discerning light Ransacks the secret dens of night, And severs good from bad; true joys from false delight. You grov'ling wordlings, you whose wisdom trades Where Light ne'er shot his golden ray, That hide your actions in Cimmerian shades, How will your eyes endure this day ? Hills will be deaf, and mountains will not hear ; There be no caves, no corners there, To shade your souls from fire, to shield your hearts from fear. 82 EMBLEMS. BOOK II. Hugo, O the extreme loathsomeness of fleshy lust, which not only effeminates the mind, but ernervates the body ; which not only distaineth the soul, but dis- guiseth the person! It is ushered with fury and wantonness; it is accompanied with filthiness and uncleanness; and it is followed with grief and re- pentance. Epig. 9. What, sweet-fac'd Cupid, has thy bastard treasure, Thy boasted honours, and thy bold-fac'd pleasure, Perplex'd thee now ? I told thee, long ago, To what they'd bring thee, fool — to wit, to woe. BOOK II.— EMBLEM X, Nahum ii. 10. She is empty, and void, and waste. She's empty: hark! she sounds: there's nothing there But noise to fill thy year ; Thy vain inquiry can at length but find A blast of murm'ring wind : It is a cask, that seems as full as fair, But merely tunn'd with air ; Fond youth, go build thy hopes on better grounds : The soul that vainly founds Her joys upon this world, but feeds on empty sounds. She's empty : hark ! she sounds : there's nothing in't ; The spark- engend'ring flint Shall sooner melt, and hardest raunce* shall, first, Dissolve and quench thy thirst, Ere this false world shall still thy stormy breast With smooth-fac'd calms of rest. Thou may'st as well expect meridian light From shades of black-mouth'd night, As in this empty world to find a full delight. * Raunce, dry mouldy crust of bread. 84 EMBLEMS. BOOK II. She's empty : hark ! she sounds : 'tis void and vast ; What is some flattening blast Of flatuous honour should perchance be there, And whisper in thine ear ? It is but wind, and blows but where it list, And vanishes like mist. Poor honour earth can give ! what gen'rous mind "Would be so base to bind Her heav'n-bred soul a slave, to serve a blast of wind ? She's empty : hark ! she sounds : 'tis but a ball For fools to play withal : The painted film but of a stronger bubble, That's lin'd with silken trouble : It is a world, whose work and recreation Is vanity, and vexation ; A hag, repair'd with vice- complexion, paint : A quest-house of complaint : It is a saint, a fiend ; worse fiend when most a saint. She's empty : hark ! she sounds : 'tis vain and void; What's here to be enjoy 'd But grief and and sickness, and large bills of sorrow, Drawn now, and cross'd to-morrow 1 Or what are men but puffs of dying breath, Reviv'd with living death ? Fond lad, O build thy hopes on surer grounds Than what dull flesh propounds ; Trust not this hollow world ; she's empty : hark ! she sounds. BOOK II. EMBLEMS, 85 S. Chrys* in Ep. ad Heb. Contemn riches, and thou shalt be rich ; contemn glory, and thou shalt be glorious ; contemn injuries, and thou shalt be a conqueror; contemn rest, and thou shalt gain rest ; contemn earth, and thou shalt find Heaven. Hugo Lib. de Vanit. Mundi. The world is vanity which affordeth neither beauty to the amorous, nor reward to the laborious, nor en- couragement to the industrious. Epig. 10. This house is to be let for life or years ; Her rent is sorrow, and her income tears : Cupid, \ has long stood void; her bills make known, She must be dearly let, or let alone. BOOK II.— EMBLEM XL Matt. vii. 14. Narrow is the way that leadeih unto life, and few there he that find it. Prepost'rous fool, thou troul'st* amiss : Thou err'st; that 's not the way, 'tis this : Thy hopes, instructed by thine eye, Make thee appear more near than I ; My floor is not so flat, so fine, And has more obvious rubs than thine ; 'Tis true, my way is hard and strait, And leads me through a thorny gate, Whose rankling pricks are sharp and fell ; The common way to Heaven's by hell. 'Tis true, thy path is short and fair, And free of rubs : Ah ! fool, beware, The safest road's not always ev'n ; The way to hell 's a seeming Heav'n : Think'st thou the crown of glory's had With idle ease, fond Cyprian lad ? Think'st thou that mirth, and vain delights, High feed, and shadow- short'ning nights, * Trv.Vst, i. e. roll a ball. BOOK II. EMBLEMS. 87 Soft knees, full bags, and beds of down, Are proper prologues to a crown ? Or canst thou hope to come, and view, Like prosp'rous Caesar, and subdue ? The bond-slave usurer will trudge, In spite of gouts, will turn a drudge, And serve his soul-condemning purse, T increase it with the widow's curse : And shall the crown of glory stand Not worth the waving of a hand ? The fleshly wanton, to obtain His minute-lust, will count it gain To lose his freedom, his estate, Upon so dear, so sweet a rate. Shall pleasures thus be priz'd, and must Heav'n's palm be cheaper than a lust ? The true-bred spark, to noise* his name Upon the waxen wings of Fame, Will fight undaunted in a flood That 's rais'd with brackish drops and blood. And shall the promis'd crown of life Be thought a toy, not worth a strife ? An easy good brings easy gains ; But things of price are bought with pains. The pleasing way is not the right : He that would conquer Heav'n must fight. * Hoise, to hoist, or raise up. 88 EMBLEMS. BOOK II. S. Hieron in Ep. No labour is hard, no time is long, wherein the glory of eternity is the mark we level at. St. Greg. Lib. viii. Mor. The valour of a just man is, to conquer the flesh, to contradict his own will, to quench the delights of this present life, to endure and love the miseries of this world for the reward of a better, to contemn the flatteries of prosperity, and inwardly to overcome the fears of adversity. Epig. 11. Cupid, if thy smoother way were right, 1 should mistrust this crown were counterfeit The way 's not easy where the prize is great I hope no virtues, where I smell no sweat. BOOK II.— EMBLEM XII . Galat. vi. 14. God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross. Can nothing settle my uncertain breast, And fix my rambling love ? Can my affections find out nothing best, But still and still remove ? Has earth no mercy ? Will no ark of rest Receive my restless dove ? Is there no good, than which there 's nothing higher, To bless my full desire "With joys that never change; with joys that ne'er expire ? I wanted wealth ; and, at my dear request, Earth lent a quick supply : I wanted mirth, to charm my sullen breast ; And who more brisk than I ? I wanted fame, to glorify the rest ; My fame flew eagle-high : My joy not fully ripe, but all decay 'd, Wealth vanish'd like a shade ; My mirth began to flag, my fame began to fade. 90 EMBLEMS. BOOK II. The world 's a ocean, hurried to and fro With ev'ry blast of passion : Her lustful streams, when either ebb or flow, Are tides of man's vexation : They alter daily, and they daily grow The worse by alteration : The earth's a cask full tunn'd, yet wanting measure ; Her precious wine is pleasure ; Her yest* is honour's puff; her leesf are worldly treasure. My trust is in the cross ; let beauty flag Her loose, her wanton sail ; Let count'nance-gilding Honour cease to brag In courtly terms, and vail ; Let ditch-bred Wealth henceforth forget to wag Her base, though golden, tail ; False beauty's conquest is but real loss, And wealth but golden dross ; Best honour's but a blast : my trust is in the cross. My trust is in the cross ; there lies my rest ; My fast, my sole delight : Let cold-mouth'd Boreas, or the hot-mouth'd East, Blow till they burst with spite ; Let earth and hell conspire their worst, their best, And join their twisted might ; Let show'rs of thunderbolts dart down and wound me, And troops of fiends surround me, All this may well confront, all this shall ne'er con- found me. * Yest or yeast, barm used for the fermentation of Liquors, f Lees, the settlement, or dregs, at bottom. BOOK II. EMBLEMS. 91 S. August. Christ's cross is the Chriscross* of all our hap- piness ; it delivers us from all blindness of error, and enriches our darkness with light; it restoreth the troubled soul to rest ; it bringeth strangers to God's acquaintance ; it maketh remote foreigners near neigh- bours ; it cutteth off discord ; concludeth a league of everlasting peace ; and is the bounteous author of all good. S. Bern, in Ser. de Resur, We find glory in the cross ; to us that are saved it is the power of God, and the fulness of all virtues. Epig. 12. I follow'd Rest ; Rest fled, and soon forsook me Iran from Grief; Grief ran, and overtook me. What shall I do ? Lest I be too much tost On worldly crosses, Lord, let me be crost. * Chriscross, a small cross prefixed to the Alphabet in Catholic spelling-books, the children of which religion generally call the Alphabet the Chriscross ; and in that sense the word is evidently -used here. BOOK II.— EMBLEM XIII. Prov. xxvi. 11. As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returns th to his folly. O, I am wounded ! and my wounds do smart Beyond my patience or great Chiron's art : I yield, I yield ; the day, the palm, is thine ; Thy bow 's more true, thy shaft 's more fierce, than mine. Hold, hold, O hold thy conqu'ring hand ! What need To send more darts ? the first has done the deed. Oft have we struggled, when our equal arms Shot equal shafts, inflicted equal harms ; But this exceeds, and with her flaming head, Twi-fork'd with death, has struck my conscience dead. But must I die ? Ah me ! if that were all, Then, then I'd stroke my bleeding wounds, and call This dart a cordial, and with joy endure These harsh ingredients, where my grief's my cure. But something whispers in my dying ear, There is an after- day ; which day I fear. The slender debt to nature 's quickly paid, Discharg'd, perchance, with greater ease than made ; BOOK II. EMBLEMS. 93 But if that pale-fac'd sergeant make arrest, Ten thousand actions would (whereof the least Is more than all this lower world can bail) Be enter'd and condemn me to the jail Of Stygian darkness, bound in red-hot chains, And grip'd with tortures worse than Tityan pains. Farewell, my vain, farewell, my loose delights ; Farewell, my rambling days, my rev'ling nights : 'Twas you betray'd me first, and, when ye found My soul at 'vantage, gave my soul the wound : Farewell, my bullion* gods, whose sov'reign looks So often catch'd me with their golden hooks : Go, seek another slave; ye must all go; I cannot serve my God and bullion too. Farewell, false Honuur; yon whose airy wings Did mount my soul above the thrones of kings ; Then flatter'd me, took pet, and, in disdain, Nipp'd my green buds : then kick'd me down again : Farewell, my bow ; farewell, my Cyprian quiver ; Farewell, dear world ; farewell, dear world, for ever. O, but this most delicious world, how sweet Her pleasures relish ! ah ! how jump-j- they meet The grasping soul, and with their sprightly fire Revive and raise, and rouse the rapt desire ! For ever ? O, to part so long ! what, never Meet more ? Another year, and then for ever : Too quick resolves do resolution wrong ; What part so soon, to be divorc'd so long ? Things to be done are long to be debated ; Heav'n's not decay'd. Repentance is not dated. * Bullion, gold or silver in the mass ; put for riches. t Jump, fit or'tally with. 94 EMBLEMS. BOOK II. S. August, lib. de Util. agen. Pcen. Go up, my soul, into the tribunal of thy conscience: there set thy guilty self before thyself: hide not thy- self behind thyself, lest God bring thee forth before thyself. S. August, in Soliloq. In vain is that washing, where the next sin defileth : he hath ill repented whose sins are repeated: that stomach is the worse for vomiting, that licketh up his vomit. Anselrn. God hath promised pardon to him that repenteth, but he hath not promised repentance to him that sinneth. Epig* 13. Brain-wounded Cupid, had this hasty dart, As it hath prick'd thy fancy, pierc'd thy heart, 'T had been thy friend : O how hath it deceiv'd thee ! For had this dart but kill'd, this dart has sav'd thee. BOOK IL— EMBLEM XIV, Prov. xxiv. 16. A just man falleih seven times, and riseth up again ; but the wicked shall fall into mischief. 'Tis but a foil at best, and that 's the most Your skill can boast : My slipp'ry footing fail'd me ; and you tript, Just as I slipt : My wanton weakness did herself betray With too much play : I was to bold ; he never yet stood sure, That stands secure : Who ever trusted to his native strength, But fell at length ? The title's craz'd,* the tenure is not good, That claims by th' evidence of flesh and blood. Boast not thy skill ; the righteous man falls oft, Yet falls but soft : There may be dirt to mire him, but no stones To crush his bones : What if he staggers ? nay, put case he be Foil'd on his knee ; That very knee will bend to Heav'n and woo For mercy too. The true-bred gamester ups afresh, and then Falls to 't again ; Whereas the leaden-hearted coward lies, And yields his conquer'd life, or craven'df dies. * Crazed, weak, t CraverCdf disheartened, made to knock under. 96 EMBLEMS. BOOK II. Boast not thy conquest, thou that ev'ry hour Fall'st ten times low'r ; Nay, hast not pow'r to rise, if not, in case, To fall more base : Thou wallow'st where I slip ; and thou dost tumble Where I but stumble : Thou glory'st in thy slav'ries' dirty badges, And fall'st for wages : Sour grief and sad repentance scours and clears My stains with tears : Thy falling keeps thy falling still in ure ;* But when I slip, I stand the more secure Lord, what a nothing is this little span We call a Man ! What fenny trash maintains the smoth'ring fires Of his desires ! How slight and short are his resolves at longest ! How weak at strongest! Oh, if a sinner, held by thy fast hand, Can hardly stand, Good God ! in what a desp'rate case are they That have no stay ! Man's state implies a necessary curse : When not himself, he 's mad ; when most himself, he 's worse. * Urc, use. BOOK II. EMBLEMS. 97 S. Ambvos. in Serm. ad Vinculo,. Peter stood more firmly after he had lamented his fall than before he fell ; insomuch that he found more grace than he lost grace. S. Chrys* in Ep. ad Heliod. Monach. It is no such heinous matter to fall afflicted, as, being down, to lie dejected. It is no danger for a soldier to receive a wound in battle ; but, after the wound received, through despair of recovery, to refuse a remedy : for we often see wounded champions wear the palm at last; and, after flight, crowned with victory. Epig. 14. Triumph not, Cupid, his mischance doth show Thy trade ; doth once ; what thou dost always do : Brag not too soon ; has thy prevailing hand . Foil'd him? Ah fool, thou'st taught him how to stand. BOOK II.— EMBLEM XV. Jer. xxxii. 40. / will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. So, now the soul' s sublim'd ; her sour desires Are recalcin'd* in heavVs well-temper'd fires : The heart, restor'd and purg'd from drossy nature, Now finds the freedom of a new-born creature : It lives another life, it breathes new breath ; It neither feels nor fears the sting of death : Like as the idle vagrant (having none), That boldly 'doptsf each house he views his own ; Makes ev'ry purse his chequer ; J and, at pleasure, Walks forth, and taxes all the world like Caesar ; At length, by virtue of a just command, His sides are lent to a severer hand ; Whereon his pass, not fully understood, Is texted in a manuscript of blood ; Thus pass'd from town to town, until he come A sore repentant to his native home : E'en so the rambling heart, that idly roves From crime to sin, and, uncontroll'd, removes From lust to lust, when wanton flesh invites From old-worn pleasures to new choice delights ; * Recalcin'd : to caucile is, with chymists, to burn to a cinder. f ' Dopts, adopts, or makes his own, X Chequer, exchequer, or treasury. BOOK II. EMBLEMS. 99 At length corrected by the filial rod Of his offended, but his gracious God, And lash'd from sins to sighs ; and, by degrees, From sighs to vows, from vows to bended knees ; From bended knees to a true pensive breast ; From thence to torments, not by tongues exprest, Returns; and (from his sinful self exil'd) Finds a glad Father, He a welcome, child : O then it lives ; O then it lives involv'd In secret raptures ; pants to be dissolv'd : The royal offspring of a second birth Sets ope' to Heav'n, and shuts the door to earth : If love-sick Jove commanded clouds should hap To rain such show'rs as quicken'd Danae's lap ; Or dogs, (far kinder than their purple master) Should lick his sores ; he laughs nor weeps the faster. If Earth (Heav'n's rival) dart her idle ray ; To Heav'n 'tis wax, and to the world 'tis clay : If Earth present delights, it scorns to draw, But, like the jet* unrubb'd disdains that straw : No hope deceives it, and no doubt divides it ; No grief disturbs it, and no error guides it ; No fear distracts it, and no rage inflames it ; No guilt condemns it, and no folly shames it ; No sloth besots it, and no lust inthrals it ; No scorn afflicts it, and no passion galls it : Jet j black amber, which, rubbed, has an attractive quality. 100 EMBLEMS. BOOK II. It is a carknet-f of immortal life ; An ark of peace ; the lists J of sacred strife ; A purer piece of endless transitory ; A shrine of grace ; a little throne of glory ; A heav'n-born offspring of a new-born birth ; An earthly heav'n ; an ounce of heav'nly earth. f Carknet, a necklace. X Lists, a place enclosed for tournaments, races, wrestlings, and other exercises. BOOK II. EMBLEMS. 101 S. August, de Spir. et Anima. O happy heart, where piety affecteth, where humi- lity subjecteth, where repentance correcteth, where obedience directeth, where preseverance perfecteth, where power protecteth, where devotion projecteth, where charity connecteth. S. Greg. Which way soever the heart turneth itself (if care- fully), it shall commonly observe, that in those very things we lose God, in those very things we shall find God : it shall find the heat of his power in con- sideration of those things, in the love of which things he was most cold ; and by what things it feel pervert- ed, by those things it is raised converted. Epig. 15. My heart ! but wherefore do I call thee so ? I have renounc'd my int'rest long ago : When thou wert false and fleshly, I was thine ; Mine wert thou never till thou wert not mine. BOOK THE THIRD. THE ENTERTAINMENT. All you whose better thoughts are newly born, And (rebaptiz'd with holy fire) can scorn The world's base trash, whose necks disdain to bear TV imperious yoke of Satan ; whose chaste ear No wanton songs of Sirens can surprise With false delight ; whose more than eagle-eyes Can view the glorious flames of gold, and gaze On glitt'ring beams of honour, and not daze ;* Whose souls can spurn at pleasure, and deny The loose suggestions of the flesh ; draw nigh : And you, whose am'rous, whose select desires Would feel the warmth of those transcendent fires, Which ( like the rising sun) put out the light Of Venus' star, and turn her day to night ; You that would love, and have your passions crown'd With greater happiness than can be found In your own wishes ; you, that would affect Where neither scorn, nor guile, nor disrespect Shall wound your tortur'd souls, that would enjoy, Where neither want can pinch, nor fulness cloy ; Nor double doubt afflicts, nor baser fear Unflames your courage in pursuit ; draw near : * Daze; «'. e. bedazzled. BOOK III. EMBLEMS. 103 Shake hands with* Earth, and let your soul respect Her joys no further than her joys reflect Upon her Maker's glory : if thou swim In wealth, see Him in all ; see all in Him : Sink'st thou in want, and is thy small cruise spent ? See Him in want ; enjoy Him in content : Conceiv'st Him lodg'd in cross, or lost in pain ? In prayer and patience find Him out again : Make Heav'n thy mistress, let no change remove Thy loyal heart; be fond, be sick of Love. What if he stop his ear, or knit his brow 1 At length he '11 be as fond, as sick, as thou : Dart up thy soul in groans; thy secret groan Shall pierce his ear, shall pierce his ear alone : Dart up thy soul in vows ; thy sacred vow Shall find him out, where Heav'n alone shall know : Dart up thy soul in sighs ; thy whisp'ring sigh Shall rouse his ears, and fear no list'ner nigh : Send up thy groans, thy sighs, thy closet- vow ; There's none, there's none shall know but Heav'n and thou. Groans fresh'd with vows, and vows made salt with tears, Unscale his eyes, and scale his conquer'd ears : Shoot up the bosom shafts of thy desire, Feather'd with faith, and double-fork'd with fire, And they will hit : fear not, where Heav'n bids Gome; Heav'n's never deaf but when man's heart is dumb. * Shake hands with ; i. e. take leave of. BOOK III.— EMBLEM I Isaiah xxvi. 9. My soul hath desired thee in the night. Good God ! what horrid darkness doth surround My groping soul ? how are my senses bound In utter shades, and, muffled from the light, Lurk in the bosom of eternal night ! The bold-fac'd lamp of Heav'n can set and rise, And with his morning glory fill the eyes Of gazing mortals ; his victorious ray Can chase the shadows, and restore the day : Night's bashfull empress, though she often wane, As oft repents her darkness ; primes again ; And with her circling horns doth re-embrace Her brother's wealth, and orbs her silver face. But ah ! my sun, deep swallow'd in his fall) Is set, and cannot shine, not rise at all : My bankrupt wane can beg nor borrow light ; Alas ! my darkness is perpetual night. Falls have their risings, wanings have their primes, And desp'rate sorrows wait their better times; Ebbs have their floods, and autumns have' their springs : All states have changes hurried with the swings Of chance and time, still tiding to and fro : Terrestrial bodies, and celestial too. How often have I vainly grop'd about, With lengthen'd arms, to find a passage out, That I might catch those beams mine eye desires, And bathe my soul in those celestial fires ! BOOK III. EMBLEMS. 105 Like as the hagard,* cloister'd in her mew,-|- To scour her downy robes, and to renew Her broken flags, J preparing t' overlook The tim'rous mallard § at the sliding brook, Jets || oft from perch to perch ; from stocky to ground; From ground to window ; thus surveying round Her dove-befeather'd prison, till, at length, (Calling her noble birth to mind, and strength Whereto her wing was horn,) her ragged beak Nips off her dangling jesses,** strives to break Her jingling fetters, and begins to bateff At ev'ry glimpse, and darts at ev'ry grate : J J E'en so my Weary soul, that long has been An inmate in this tenement of sin, Lock'd up by cloud-brow'd error, which invites My cloister'd thoughts to feed on black delights, Now scorns her shadows, and begins to dart Her wing'd desires at Thee, that only art The sun she seeks, whose rising beams can fright These dusky clouds that make so dark a night : Shine forth, great Glory, shine ; that I may see Both how to loath myself and honour thee : But, if my weakness force thee to deny Thy flames, yet lend the twilight of thine eye : If I must want those beams. I wish, yet grant That I, at least, may wish those beams I want. * Hagard, a wild hawk. f Mew, a coop or cage. X Flags, wing-feathers. § Mallard, a drake (water-fowl). || Jets, hops, ^ Stock, perch ; that on which a bird rests. ** Jesses, leather thongs that tied on the bells. ft Bate, flutter her wings. 106 EMBLEMS. BOOK III. S. August. Soliloqu. Cap. xxxiii. There was a great and dark cloud of vanity before mine eyes, so that I could not see the sun of justice and the light of truth. I, being the son of darkness, was involved in darkness : I loved my darkness, be- cause I knew not thy light : I was blind, and loved my blindness, and did walk from darkness to darkness : but, Lord, thou art my God, who hast led me from darkness and the shadow of death ; hast called me into his glorious light, and, behold, I see, Epig. 1. My soul, cheer up ; what if the night be long ? Heav'n finds an ear when sinners find a tongue. Thy tears are morning show'rs ; Heav'n bids me say, When Peter's cock begins to crow, 'tis day. BOOK III.— EMBLEM II. Psalm lxix. 5. O Lord, thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from thee. See'st thou this fulsome idiot ? In what measure He seems transported with the antic pleasure Of childish baubles ? Canst thou but admire The empty fulness of his vain desire ? Canst thou conceive such poor delights as these Can fill th' insatiate soul of man, or please The fond aspect of his deluded eye ? Reader, such very fools art thou and I : False puffs of honour; the deceitful streams Of wealth ; the idle, vain, and empty dreams Of pleasure, are our traffic, and ensnare Our souls, the threefold subject of our care : We toil for trash, we barter solid joys For airy trifles, sell our Heav'n for toys : We snatch at barley-grains, whilst pearls stand by Despis'd ; such very fools art thou and I. Aim'st thou at honour ? does not th' idiot shake it Jn his left hand ? Fond man, step forth and take it : Or would'st thou wealth ? See how the fool presents thee With a full basket, if such wealth contents thee : 108 EMBLEMS. BuOK III. Would'st thou take pleasure ? If the fool unstride His prancing stallion, thou may'st up, and ride : Fond man, such is the pleasure, wealth and honour, That earth affords such fools as doat upon her ; Such is the game whereat earth's idiots fly ; Such idiots, ah ! such fools, art thou and I : Had rebel man's fool-hardiness extended No further than himself, and there had ended, It had been just; but, thus, enrag'd to fly Upon th' eternal eyes of Majesty, And drag the .Son of Glory from the breast Of his indulgent Father; to arrest His great and sacred person ; in disgrace To spit and spawl upon his sun-bright face ; To taunt him with base terms, and, being bound, To scourge his soft, his trembling sides ; to wound His head with thorns ; his heart with human fears ; His hands with nails, and his pale flank with spears ; And then to paddle in the purer stream Of his spilt blood, is more than most extreme : Great builder of mankind, canst thou propound All this to thy bright eyes, and not confound Thy handy-work ? O ! canst thou choose but see, That mad'st the eye ? can ought be hid from thee ? Thou seest not what thou may'st, but what thou wilt Thou seet our persons, Loed, and not our guilt; The hand that form'd us is enforc'd to be A screen set up betwixt thy work and thee : Look, look upon that hand, and thou shalt spy An open wound, a thoroughfare for thine eye ; Or if that wound be clos'd, that passage be Deny'd between thy gracious eyes and me, Yet view the scar ; that scar will countermand Thy wrath : O read my fortune in thy hand. BOOK III, EMBLEMS. 109 S. Chrys. Horn. iv. Joan. Fools seem to abound in wealth, when they want all things; they seem to enjoy happiness, when in- deed they are only most miserable ; neither do they understand that they are deluded by their fancy, till they be delivered from their folly. S. Greg, in Mo. By so much the more are we inwardly foolish, by how much we strive to seem outwardly wise. Epig. 2. Rebellious fool, what has thy folly done 1 Controll'd thy God, and crucify'd his Son. How sweetly has the Lord of life deceiv'd thee ! Thou shedd'st his blood, and that shed blood has sav'd thee. BOOK III.— EMBLEM III Psalm vi. 2. Have mercy. Lord, upon me, for I am weak ; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed. SOUL. JESUS. Soul Ah ! Son of David, help. Jes. What sinful cry Implores the Son of David ? Soul. It is I. Jes. Who art thou ? Soul. Oh ! a deeply wounded breast That's heavy laden, and would fain have rest. Jes. I have no scraps, and dogs must not be fed, Like household children, with the children's bread. Soul. True, Lord ; yet tolerate hungry whelp To lick their crumbs : O, Son of David, help. Jes. Poor soul, what ail'st thou ? Soul. O I burn, I fry ; I cannot rest ; I know not where to fly, To find some ease ; I turn my blubber'd face From man to man ; 1 roll from place to place ; T'avoid my tortures, to obtain relief, But still am dogg'd and haunted with my grief : My midnight torments call the sluggish light, And, when the morning's come, they woo the night. BOOK III. EMBLEMS. Ill Jes. Surcease thy tears, and speak thy free desires. Soul. Quench, quench my flames, and 'suage these scorching fires. Jes. Canst thou believe my hand can cure thy grief ? Soul. Lord, I believe ; Lord ; help my unbelief. Jes. Hold forth thine arm, and let my fingers try Thy pulse : where, chiefly, doth thy torment lie I Soul. From head to foot ; it reigns in ev'ry part, But plays the self-law'd tyrant in my heart. Jes. Canst thou digest? canst relish wholesome food ? How stands thy taste ? Soul. To nothing that is good : All sinful trash, and earth's unsav'ry stuff, I can digest, and relish well enough. Jes. Is not thy blood as cold as hot, by turns ? Soul. Cold to what's good ; to what is bad it burns. Jes. How old 's thy grief? Soul. I took it at the Fall With eating fruit. Jes. 'Tis epidemical : Thy blood's infected, and the infection sprung From a bad liver ; 'tis a fever strong, And full of death, unless with present speed A vein be open'd: thou must die, or bleed. Soul. O I am faint and spent: that lance that shall Let forth my blood, lest forth my life withal : My soul wants cordials, and has greater need Of blood, than (being spent so far) to bleed : I faint already ; if I bleed I die. Jes. 'Tis either you must bleed, sick soul, or I: My blood's a cordial. He that sucks my veins Shall cleanse his own, and conquer greater pains Than these. Cheer up ; this precious blood of mine Shall cure thy grief; my heart shall bleed for thine. Believe, and view me with a faithful eye ; Thy soul shall neither languish, bleed, nor die. 112 EMBLEMS. BOOK III. S. August. Lib. x. Confess. Lord, be merciful unto me ! Ah me ! behold, I hide not my wounds : thou art a Physician, and I am sick ; thou art merciful, and I am miserable. St. Greg, in Pastoral. O wisdom, with how sweet an art doth thy wine and oil restore health to my healthless soul ! How powerfully merciful, how, mercifully powerful, art thou ! Powerful for me, merciful to me ! Epig, 3. Canst thou be sick, and such a Doctor by ? Thou canst not live, unless thy Doctor die : Strange kind of grief, that finds no med'cine good To 'suage her pains, but the Physician's blood 1 BOOK III.— EMBLEM IV. Psalm xxv. 18. Look upon my affliction and my pain, and forgive all my sins. Both work and strokes ? both lash and labour too ? What more could Edom or proud Ashur do ? Stripes after stripes ; and blows succeeding blows ! Lord, has thy scourge no mercy, and my woes No end ? my pains no ease, no intermission ? Is this the state, is this the sad condition, Of those that trust thee 1 Will thy goodness please T allow no other favours — none but these ? Will not the rhet'ric of my torments move ? Are these the symptoms, these the signs, of love ? Is 't not enough, enough that I fulfil The toilsome task of thy laborious mill ? May not this labour expiate and purge My sin, without th' addition of thy scourge ? Look on my cloudy brow, how fast it rains Sad showr's of sweat, the fruits of fruitless pains : Behold these ridges ; see what purple furrows Thy plough has made : O think upon those sorrows, That once were thine ; wilt, wilt thou not be woo'd To mercy by the charms of sweat and blood ? 114 EMBLEMS. BOOK III. Canst thou forget that drowsy mount, wherein Thy dull disciples slept ? was not my sin There punish'd in thy soul ? did not this brow Then sweat in thine ? were not those drops enow ? Remember Golgotha, where that spring-tide O'erflow'd thy sov'reign sacramental side : There was no sin, there was no guile in thee, That call'd those pains : thou sweat'st, thou bledd'st for me. Was there not blood enough, when one small drop Had pow'r to ransom thousands worlds, and stop The mouth of Justice ? Lord, I bled before In thy deep wounds ; can Justice challenge more ? Or dost thou vainly labour to hedge in Thy losses from my sides ? My blood is thin, And thy free bounty scorns such easy thrift ; No, no, thy blood came not as loan, but gift. But must I ever grind ? and must I earn Nothing but stripes ? O wilt thou disaltern* The rest thou gav'st 1 Hast thou perus'd the curse Thou laid'st on Adam's fall, and made it worse ? Canst thou repent of mercy ? Heav'n thought good Lost man should feed in sweat, not work in blood : Why dost thou wound th' already wounded breast ? Ah me ! my life is but a pain at best ; I am but dying dust ; my days a span ; What pleasure tak'st thou in the blood of man ? Spare, spare thy scourge, and be not so austere ? Send fewer strokes, or lend more strength to bear. * Disaltern, set aside the alternate changes stripes and rcst f common to man. BOOK III. EMBLEMS. 115 S. Bern, in Horn, lxxxi in Cant. Miserable man ! who shall deliver me from the reproach of this shameful bondage ? I am a miserable man, but a free man : free, because a man ; miserable, because a servant : in regard of my bondage, miser- able ; in regard of my will, inexcusable : for my will, that was free, beslaved itself to sin, by assenting to sin : for he that committeth sin is the servant to sin. Epig, 4. Tax not thy God : thine own defaults did urge This two-fold punishment; the mill, the scourge. Thy sin 's the author of thy self-tormenting : Thou grind'st for sinning ; scourg'd for not repenting. BOOK III.— EMBLEM V. Job. x. 9. Remember j I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay ; and wilt thou bring me into dust again ? Thus from the bosom of the new-made earth Poor man was delv'd,* and had his unborn birth : The same the stuff; the self-same hand doth trim The plant that fades, the beast that dies, and him : One was their Sire, one was their common mother ; Plants are his sisters, and the beast his brother ; The elder too : beasts draw the self-same breath "Wax old alike, and die the self-same breath Plants grow as he, with fairer robes array 'd ; Alike they flourish, and alike they fade : The beast in sense exceeds him ; and in growth, The three-ag'd oak doth thrice exceed them both. Why look'st thou then so big, thou little span Of earth ? what art thou more in being man ? I,f but my great Creator did inspire My chosen earth with that diviner fire Of reason ; gave me judgment, and a will ; That to know good ; this, to choose good from ill : He put the reins of pow'r in my free hand, And jurisdiction over sea and land : * Delv'd dug. f J, Aye. BOOK III. EMBLEMS. 117 He gave me art to lengthen out my span Of life, and made me all in being man. I,* but that passion has committed treason Against the sacred person of thy reason : Thy judgment is corrupt ; perverse thy will ; That knows no good, and this makes choice of ill : The greater height sends down the deeper fall ; And good declin'd, turns bad, turns worst of all. Say then, proud inch of living earth, what can Thy greatness claim the more in being man ? O ! but my soul transcends the pitch of Nature, Borne up by th' image of her high Creator; Outbraves the life of Reason, and bears down Her waxen wings, kicks off her brazen crown. My earth's a living temple t' entertain The king of Glory, and his glorious train : How can I mend my title, then ? where can Ambition find a higher style than Man ? Ah ! but that image is defac'd and soil'd ; Her temple's raz'd, her altars all defil'd ; Her vessels are polluted, and distain'd With loathed lust ; her ornaments profan'd ; Her oil-forsaken lamps and hallo w'd tapers Put out ; her incense breathes unsav'ry vapours : Why swell'st thou then so big, thou little span Of earth 1 what art thou more in being man ? Eternal Potter, whose blest hands did lay My coarse foundation from a sod of clay, Thou know'st my slender vessel's apt to leak ; Thou know'st my brittle temper's prone to break : Are my bones Brazil, or my flesh of oak ? O, mend what thou hast made, what 1 have broke : Look, look with gentle eyes, and in thy day Of vengeance, Lord, remember I am clay. * I, Aye. 118 EMBLEMS. BOOK III. St. August. Soliloq. xxxii. Shall I ask, who made me ? It was thou that madest me, without whom nothing was made : Thou art my Maker, and I thy work. I thank thee, my Lord God, by whom I live, and by whom all things sub- sist, because thou madest me; I thank thee O my Potter, because thy hands have made me, because thy hands have formed me. Epig. 5. Why swell'st thou, man, puff'd up with fame and purse ? TV art better earth, but born to dig the worse : Thou cam'st from earth, to earth thou must return ; And art but earth, cast from the womb to th' urn. BOOK III.— EMBLEM VI. Job vii. 20. / have sinned ; what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men ? why hast thou set me as a mark against thee ? Lord, I have done ; and, Lord, I have misdone ; 'Tis folly to contest, to strive with one That is too strong ; 'tis folly to assail Or prove an arm, that will, that must, prevail. I *ve done, I 've done ; these trembling hands have thrown Their daring weapons down : the day's thine own : Forbear to strike where thou hast won the field ; The palm, the palm is thine : I yield, I yield. These treach'rous hands, that were so vainly bold To try a thriveless* combat, and to hold Self-wounding weapons up, are now extended For mercy from thy hand ; that knee that bended Upon her guardless guard,f doth now repent Upon this naked floor ; see, both are bent, And sue for pity : O, my ragged wound Is deep and desp'rate, it is drench'd and drown'd In blood and briny tears : it doth begin To stink without, and putrefy within. Let that victorious hand, that now appears Just in my blood, prove gracious to my tears : * Thriveless, unsuccessful, f A term in fencing. 120 EMBLEMS. BOOK III. Thou great Preserver of presumptuous man, What shall I do 1 what satisfaction can Poor dust and ashes make ? O, if that blood, That yet remains unshed, where half as good As blood of oxen ; if my death might be An off ring to atone my God and me ; I would disdain injurious life, and stand A suitor, to be wounded from thy hand. But may thy wrongs be measur'd by the span Of life, or balanc'd with the blood of man ? No, no, eternal sin expects, for guerdon,* Eternal penance, or eternal pardon : Lay down thy weapons, turn thy wrath away, And pardon him that hath no price to pay : Enlarge that soul, which base presumption binds ; Thy justice cannot lose what mercy finds : thou, that wilt not bruise the broken reed, Rub not my sores, nor prick the wounds that bleed, Lord, if the peevish infant fights, and flies, With unpar'd weapons, at his mother's eyes, Her frowns (half-mix'd with smiles) may chance to show An angry love-trick on his arm, or so ; Where, if the babe but make a lip, and cry, Her heart begins to melt, and, by-and-by, She coakesf his dewy cheeks; her babe she blesses, And chokes her language with a thousand kisses. 1 am that child : lo, here I prostrate lie, Pleading for mercy ; I repent, and cry For gracious pardon : let thy gentle ears Hear that in words, what mothers judge in tears: See not my frailties, Lord, but through my fear, And look on ev'ry trespass through a tear : Then calm thine anger, and appear more mild ; Remember thou 'rt a Father, I a child. * Guerdon, reward, f Ccakes, soothes. BOOK III. EMBLEMS. 121 S. Bern. Ser. xxi. in Cant, Miserable man! who shall deliver me from the reproach of this shameful bondage ? lama miserable man, but a free man : free because like to God ; miserable, because against God. O, Keeper of man- kind, why hast thou set me as a mark against thee ? Thou hast set me, because thou hast not hindered me : It is just that thy enemy should be my enemy, and that he who repugneth thee should repugn* me : I who am against thee, am against myself. Epig. 6. But form'd and fight ? but born, and then rebel ? How small a blast will make a bubble swell ! But dare the floor affront the hand that laid it ? So apt is dust to fly in *s face that made it. * Repugn, be against, or contrary to. M BOOK III.— EMBLEM VII. Job xiii. 24. Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy ? Why dost thou shade thy lovely face ? O Does that eclipsing hand so long deny The sunshine of thy soul-enliv'ning eye ? why Without that light, what light remains in me ? Thou art my Life, my Way, my Light ; in thee I live, I move, and by thy beams I see. Thou art my Life ; if thou but turn away, My life's a thousand deaths : thou art my Way ; Without thee, Lord, I travel not; but stray. My Light thou art ; without thy glorious sight, Mine eyes are darken'd with perpetual night : My God, thou art my Way, my Life, my Light. Thou art my Way ; I wander, if thou fly : Thou art my Light ; if hid, how blind am I ! Thou art my Life ; if thou withdraw, I die. Mine eyes are blind and dark, I cannot see ; To whom, or whither, should my darkness flee, But to the Light I and who's that Light but thee ? BOOK III. EMBLEMS. 123 My path is lost, my wand'ring steps do stray ; I cannot safely go, nor safely stay : Whom should 1 seek but thee, my Path, my "Way ? O, I am dead : to whom shall I, poor I, Repair 1 To whom shall my sad ashes fly But Life ? And where is Life but in thine eye ? And yet thou turn'st away thy face, and fly'st me ; And yet I sue for grace, and thou deny'st me : Speak, art thou angry, Lord, or only try'st me 1 Unscreen those heav'nly lamps, or tell me why Thou shad'st thy face : perhaps thou think'st no eye Can view those flames, and not drop down and die. If that be all, shine forth, and draw the nigher; Let me behold and die, for my desire Is, phoenix-like, to perish in that fire. Death- conquer' d Lazarus was redeem'd by thee : If I am dead, Lord, set Death's pris'ner free ; Am I more spent, or stink I worse than he ? If my puff 'd life be out, give leave to tine* My flameless snuff at that bright lamp of thine : O what's thy light the less for lighting mine ? If I have lost my path, great Shepherd, say, Shall I still wander in a doubtful way \ Lord, shall a lamb of Israel's sheepfold stray ? Thou art the pilgrim's path ; the blind man's eye ; The dead man's life : on thee my hopes rely : If thou remove, I err, I grope, I die. Disclose thy sunbeams, close thy wings, and stay ; See, see how I am blind, and dead, and stray, O thou that art my Light, my Life, my Way. * Tine, to light up. 124 EMBLEMS. BOOK III. St. August. Soliloq. Cap. i. Why dost thou hide thy face ? Haply thou wilt say, None can see thy face and live : Ah, Lord, let me die, that I may see thee ; let me see thee, that I may die : I would not live, but die : that I may see Christ, I desire death ; that I may live with Christ, I despise life. Anselm. Med. Cap. v. O excellent hiding, which is become my perfection! My God, thou hidest thy treasure, to kindle my de- sire ; thou hidest the pearl, to inflame the seeker ; thou delayest to give, that thou mayest teach me to importune; seemest not to hear, to make me per- severe. Epig. 7. If Heav'n's all-quick'ning eyes vouchsafe to shine Upon our souls, we slight ; if not, we whine : Our equinoctial hearts can never lie Secure beneath the tropics of that eye. END OF VOL. I. Printed, by John Nichols, Milton Press, Chandos Street, Strand. EMBLEMS. EMBLEMS, DIVINE AND MORAL, BY FRANCIS QUARLES. % Neto iEBttton, 1 CAREFULLY REVISED AND CORRECTED, WITH THE ADDITION OF GLOSSAR1AL NOTES, BY THE REV. ROBERT WILSON, A. M. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. PUBLISHED BY JOHN BENNET, No. 4, THREE TUN PASSAGE, 25, 26, NEWGATE STREET. 1839. BOOK III.— EMBLEM VIII. Jer. ix. 1. Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a foun- tain of tear S) that I might weep day and night. that mine eyes were springs, and could transform Their drops to seas, my sighs into a storm Of zeal, and sacred violence, wherein This lab'ring vessel, laden with her sin, Might suffer sudden shipwreck, and be split Upon that Rock, where my drench'd soul may sit, O'erwhelm'd with plenteous passion : O, and there Drop, drop into an everlasting tear ! Ah me ! that ev'ry sliding vein that wanders Through this vast isle, did work her wild meanders In brackish tears instead of blood, and swell This flesh with holy dropsies, from whose well, Made warm with sighs may fume my wasting breath, Whilst I dissolve in steams and reek* to death ! These narrow sluices of my dribbling eyes Are much too strait for those quick springs that rise, And hourly fill my temples to the top ; 1 cannot shed for ev'ry sin a drop. * Reek, to wear away ; as, " His sickness, reeks, him." VOL. II. B 2 EMBLEMS. BOOK III. Great Builder of mankind, why hast thou sent Such swelling floods, and made so small a vent ? O that this flesh had been compos'd of snow, Instead of earth ; and bones of ice ; that so, Feeling the fervour of my sin, and loathing The fire I feel, I might be thaw'd to nothing ! thou that didst, with hopeful joy, entomb Me thrice three moons in thy laborious womb, And then, with joyful pain, brought'st forth a son, What, worth thy labour, has thy labour done ? What was there, ah ! what was there in my birth That could deserve the easiest smile of mirth ? A man was born : alas ! and what's a man ? A scuttle full of dust, a measur'd span Of flitting time ; a furnish'd pack,* whose wares Are sullen griefs, and soul-tormenting cares : A vale of tears ; a vessel tunn'd with breath, By sickness broach'd, to be drawn out by death : A hapless, helpless thing, that, born, does cry To feed; that feeds to live ; that lives to die. Great God and Man, whose eyes spent drops so often For me, that cannot weep enough, O soften These marble brains, and strike this flinty rock ; Or, if the music of thy Peter's cock Will more prevail, fill, fill my heark'ning ears With that sweet sound, that I may melt in tears : 1 cannot weep until thou broach mine eye ; O give me went, or else I burst, and die. * Pack t a bundle or parcel of commodities packed up. BOOK III. EMBLEMS. S. Ambros. in Psal. cxviii. He that commits sins to be wept for, cannot weep for sins committed ; and, being himself most lament- able, hath no tears to lament his offences. Nazianz. Orat. iii. Tears are the deluge of sin, and the world's sacrifice. S, Hierom. in Esaiam. Prayer appeases God, but a tear compels him that moves him, but this constrains him. Epig. 8. Earth is an island ported round with fears ; The way to Heav'n is through the sea of tears : It is a stormy passage, where is found The wreck of many a ship, but no man drown'd. BOOK III.— EMBLEM IX. ■ Psalm xxviii. 5. The sorrows of hell compassed me about, and the snares of death prevented me. Is not this type well cut 1 in ev'ry part Full of rich cunning? fill'd with Zeuxian art ? Are not the hunters, and their Stygian hounds, Limn'd full to th' life 1 Didst ever hear the sounds, The music, and the lip-divided breaths, Of the strong-winded horn, recheats,* and deaths, Done more exact ? th' infernal Nimrod's halloo ? The lawless purlieus ?f and the game they follow ? The hidden engines ? and the snares that lie So undiscover'd, so obscure to th' eye ? The new-drawn net, and her entagled prey ? And him that closes it ? Beholder, say, Is 't not well done ? seems not an em'lous strife Betwixt the rare cut picture and the life ? These perlieu men are devils ; and the hounds fThose quick-nos'd cannibals that scour the grounds) Temptations ; and the game these fiends pursue Are human souls, which still they have in view ; Whose fury if they chance to 'scape by flying, The skilful hunter plants his net, close lying Recheats, (a hunting term,; when the horn blows to a retreat from a false scent. f Purlieus, forbidden ground. BOOK III. EMBLEMS. 5 On th' unsuspected earth, baited with treasure, Ambitious honour, and self-wasting pleasure ; Where, if the soul but stoop, Death stands prepar'd To draw the net, and, drawn, the soul's insnar'd. Poor soul ! how art thou hurried to and fro ! Where canst thou safely stay? where safely go? If stay; these hot-mouth'd hounds are apt to tear thee : If go : the snares enclose, the nets insnare thee : What good in this bad world has pow'r t' invite thee A willing guest 1 wherein can earth delight thee ? Her pleasures are but itch ; her wealth but cares ; A world of dangers, and a world of snares : The close pursuer's busy hands do plant Snares in thy substance ; snares attend thy want : Snares in thy credit ; snares in thy disgrace ; Snares in thy high estate ; snares in thy base ; Snares tuck thy bed ; and snares surround thy board; Snares watch thy thoughts ; and snares attach thy word ; Snares in thy quiet ; snares in thy commotion ; Snares in thy diet ; snares in thy devotion ; Snares lurk in thy resolves, snares in thy doubt ; Snares lie within thy heart, and snares without ; Snares are above thy head, and snares beneath ; Snares in thy sickness ; snares are in thy death, Oh] if these purlieus be so full of danger, Great God of hearts, the world's sole sov'reign Ranger, Preserve thy deer ; and let my soul be blest In thy safe forest, where I seek for rest ; Then let the hell-hounds roar, I fear no ill ; Rouse me they may, but have no pow'r to kill. VOL. II. c EMBLEMS. BOOK III. S. Ambros. Lib. iv. in Cap. iv. Lucce, The reward of honours, the height of power, the delicacy of diet, and the beauty of a harlot, are the snares of the devil. S. Ambros. de Bono Mortis. "Whilst thou seekest pleasures, thou runnest into snares ; for the eye of the harlot is the snare of the adulterer. Savanar. t , In eating, he sets before us gluttony ; in genera- tion, luxury; in labour, sluggishness; in conversing, envy; in governing, covetousness ; in correcting, anger ; in honour, pride ; in the heart he sets evil thoughts ; in the mouth, evil words ; in actions, evil works ; when awake, he moves us to evil actions ; when a sleep, to filthy dreams. Epig. 9. Be sad, my heart ! deep dangers wait thy mirth ; Thy soul's waylaid by sea, by hell, by earth : Hell has her hounds ; earth, snares ; the sea, a shelf; But, most of all, my heart beware thyself. BOOK III.— EMBLEM X. Psalm cxliii. 2. Enter not into judgement with thy servant ; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified. JESUS. JUSTICE. SINNER. Jes. Bring forth the pris'ner, Justice. Just. Thy commands Are done, just Judge : see, here the pris'ner stands. Jes. What has the pris'ner done ? Say what's the cause Of his commitment ? Just. He hath broke the laws Of his too-gracious God ; conspir'd the death Of that great Majesty that gave him breath ; And heaps transgression, Lord, upon trangression. Jes. How know st thou this ? Just. E'en by his own confession : His sins are crying ; and they cry'd aloud : They cry'd to Heav'n ; they cry'd to Heav'n for blood. Jes. "What say'st thou, sinner? hast thou ought to plead That sentence should not pass ? Hold up thy head, And show thy brazen, thy rebellious face. Sin. Ah me ! I dare not : I 'm too vile and base To tread upon thy earth much more to lift Mine eyes to Heav'n : I need no other shrift* Than my own conscience : Lord, I must confess, I am no more than dust, and no whit less * Shrift, confession : an old word for auricular confession with Papists. EMBLEMS. BOOK III. Than my indictment styles me : ah ! if thou Search to severe, with too severe a brow, What flesh can stand ? I have transgress'd thy laws ; My merits plead thy vengeance ; not my cause. Just. Lord, shall I strike the blow ? Jes. Hold, Justice, stay : Sinner, speak on ; what hast thou more to say ? Sin. Vile as I am, and of myself abhor'd, I am thy handy-work, thy creature, Lord, Stamp'd with thy glorious image, and at first Most like to thee, though now a poor accurst Convicted caitiff, and degen'rous creature, Here trembling at thy bar. Just. Thy fault's the greater. Lord, shall I strike the blow ? Jes. Hold, Justice, stay : Speak, sinner ; hast thou nothing more to say ? Sin. Nothing but Mercy, mercy ! Lord, my state Is miserably poor and desperate ; I quite renounce myself, the world, and flee From Lord to Jesus, from thyself to thee. Just. Cease thy vain hopes ; my angry God has vow'd : Abused mercy must have blood for blood : Shall I yet strike the blow ? Jes. Stay, Justice, hold ; My bowels yearn, my fainting blood, grows cold, To view the trembling wretch ; methinks I spy My father's image in the pris'ner's eye. Just. I cannot hold. Jes. Then turn thy thirsty blade Into my sides ; let there the wound be made : Cheer up, dear soul ; redeem thy life with mine : My soul shall smart, my heart shall bleed for thine. Sin. O groundless* deeps ! O love beyond degree ! Th' offended dies to set th' offender free. * Groundless, without bottom. BOOK III. EMBLEMS. S.August. Lord, if I have done that for which thou mayest damn me, thou hast not lost that whereby thou mayest save me : remember not sweet Jesus, thy justice against the sinner, but thy benignity towards thy creature : remember not to proceed against a guilty soul, but remember thy mercy towards a miserable wretch : forget the insolence of the provoker, and be- hold the misery of the invoker ; for what is Jesus but a Saviour 1 Anselra. Have respect to what thy Son hath done for me, and forget what my sins have done against thee : my flesh hath provoked thee to vengeance ; let the flesh of Christ move thee to mercy : It is much that my rebellions have deserved ; but it is more that my Redeemer hath merited. Epig. 10. Mercy of mercies ! He that was my drudge Is now my Advocate, is now my Judge t He suffers, pleads, and sentences alone : Three I adore, and yet adore but One. BOOK III.— EMBLEM XL Psalm lxix. 15. Let not the water-flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up. The world's a sea : my flesh a ship that's mann'd With lab'ring thoughts, and steer'd by Reason's hand: My heart's the seaman's card,* whereby she sails ; My loose affections are the greater sails : The top-sail is my fancy ; and the gusts That fill these wanton sheets are worldly lusts : Fray'r is the cable, at whose end appears The anchor Hope, ne'er slipp'd but in our fears : My will' s th' unconstant pilot, that commands The stagg'ring keel ; my sins are like the sands : Repentance is the bucket ; and my eye The pump, unus'd (but in extremes) and dry : My conscience is the plummet, that doth press The deeps, but seldom cries, A fathom less : Smooth calm's security ; the gulf, despair ; iJL ^freight's corruption, and this life's my fare : My soul's the passenger, confus'dly driv'n From fear to fright ; her landing port is Heav'n. My seas are stormy, and my ship doth leak ; My sailors rude ; my steersman faint and weak : * Catd, sheet, cable; sea terms, all of them proper and beautiful. BOOK III. EMBLEMS. 11 My canvass torn, it flaps from side to side : My cable's crack'd ; my anchor's slightly ty'd : My pilot's craz'd ; my shipwreck sands are chok'd ; My bucket's broken, and my pump is chok'd ; My calm's deceitful, and my gulf too near ; My wares are slubber'd, and my fare's too dear : My plummet's light, it cannot sink nor sound ; Oh shall my rock-bethreaten'd soul be drown'd ? Lord, still the seas, and shield my ship from harm ; Instruct my sailors, guide my steersman's arm : Touch thou my compass, and renew my sails ; Send stiffer courage, or send milder gales : Make strong my cable, bind my anchor faster ; Direct my pilot, and be thou his master : Object the sands to my more serious view ; Make sound my bucket, bore my pump anew : New-cast my plummet, make it apt to try Where the rocks lurk, and where the quicksands lie ; Guard thou the gulf with love, my calms with care ; Cleanse thou my freight ; accept my slender fare ; Refresh the sea- sick passenger ; cut short His voyage ; land him in his wished port : Thou, thou whom winds and stormy seas obey, That through the deeps gav'st grumbling Isr'el way, Say to my soul, Be safe ; and then mine eye Shall scorn grim Death, although grim Death stand by. thou whose strength-reviving arm did cherish Thy sinking Peter, at the point to perish, Reach forth thy hand, or bid me tread the wave ; 1 '11 come, I '11 come : the voice that calls will save. 12 EMBLEMS. BOOK III. S. Ambros. Apol. post, pro David. Cap. iii. The confluence of lusts make a great tempest, which in this sea disturbeth the seafaring soul, that reason cannot govern it. S. August. Soliloq. Cap. xxxv. We labour in a boisterous sea : thou standest upon the shore, and seest our dangers give us grace to hold a middle course between Scylla and Charybdis, that, both dangers escaped, we may arrive at our port secure. Epig, 11. My soul, the seas are rough, and thou a stranger In these false coasts ; O keep aloof; there's danger Cast forth thy plummet ; see, a rock appears ; Thy ship wants sea-room ; make it with thy tears. BOOK III.— EMBLEM XII. Job xiv. 13. that thou wouldst hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me in secret, until thy wrath be past. O whither shall I flee ? what path untrod Shall I seek out, to 'scape the flaming rod Of my offended, of my angry God 1 Where shall I sojourn 1 what kind sea will hide My head from thunder ? where shall I abide, Until his flames be quench'd or laid aside ? What if my feet should take their hasty flight, And seek protection in the shades of night ? Alas ! no shades can blind the God of light. What if my soul should take the wings of day, And find some desert ? If she spring away, The wings of Vengeance clip* as fast as they. What if some solid rock should entertain My frighted soul 1 Can solid rocks restrain The stroke of Justice, and not cleave in twain ? Nor sea, nor shade, nor shield, nor rock, nor cave, Nor silent deserts, nor the sullen grave, Where flame-ey'd Fury means to smite, can save. * Clip, cut the air, or fly. 14 EMBLEMS. BOOK III. The seas will part, graves open, rocks will split ; The shield will cleave ; the freighted shadows flit ; Where Justice aims, her fiery darts must hit. No, no, if stern-brow'd Vengeance means to thunder, There is no place above, beneath nor under, So close, but will unlock, or rive in sunder. 'Tis vain to flee ; 'tis neither here nor there Can 'scape that hand until that hand forbear ; Ah me ! where is he not, that's ev'ry where ? 'Tis vain to flee ; till gentle Mercy show Her better eye, the farther off we go, The swing of Justice deals the mightier blow. Th' ingenuous child, corrected, doth not fly His angry mother's hand, but clings more nigh, And quenches with his tears her flaming eye. Shadows are faithless, and the rocks are false ; No trust in brass, no trust in marble walls ; Poor cots are e'en as safe as princes' halls. Great God ! there is no safety here below ; Thou art my fortress, though thou seem'st my foe ; 'Tis thou, that strik'st the stroke, must guard the blow. Thou art my God, by thee I fall or stand ; Thy grace hath giv'n me courage to withstand All tortures but my conscience, and thy hand. I know thy justice is thyself; I know, Just God, thy very self is mercy too ; If not to thee, where, whither should I go ? Then work thy will ; if passion bid me flee, My reason shall obey ; my wings shall be Stretch'd out no further than from Thee to Thee. BOOK III. EMBLEMS. 15 S. August, in Psal. xxx. Whither fly I ? to what place can I safely fly ? to what mountain ? to what den ? to what strong house ? what castle shall I hold ? what walls shall hold me 1 whithersoever, I go, myself followeth me: for whatsoever thou fliest, O man, thou mayest, but thy own conscience : wheresoever, O Lord, I go, I find thee, if angry; a revenger ; if appeased, a Re- deemer : what way have I, but to fly from Thee to Thee ? That thou mayest avoid thy God, address thee to thy Lord. Epig. 12. Hath Vengeance found thee ? can thy fears command No rocks to shield thee from her thund'ring hand ? Know'st thou not where to 'scape ? I '11 tell thee where : My soul, make clean thy conscience ; hide thee there. BOOK III.— EMBLEM XIII . Job. x. 20. Are not my days, few ? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little. My glass is half unspent ; forbear t' arrest My thriftless day too soon : my poor request Is that my glass may run but out the rest. My time-devoured minutes will be done Without thy help ; see, see how swift they run : Cut not my thread before my thread be spun. The gain's not great I purchase by this stay ; What loss sustain'st thou by so small delay, To whom ten thousand years are but a day ? My following eye can hardly make a shift To count my winged hours ; they fly so swift, They scarce deserve the bounteous name of gift. The secret wheels of hurrying Time to give So short a warning, and so fast they drive, That I am dead before I seem to live. And what's a life ? A weary pilgrimage, Whose glory, in one day, doth fill the stage With childhood, manhood, and decrepid sge. BOOK HI. EMBLEMS. 17 And what 's a life 1 The flourishing array Of the proud summer-meadow, which to-day Wears her green plush, and is, to-morrow, hay. And what's a life ? A blast sustain'd with clothing, Maintain'd with food, retain'd with vile self-loathing, Then weary of itself, again'd to nothing. Read, on this dial, how the shades devour My short-liv'd winter's day ; hour eats up hour ; Alas ! the total's but from eight to four. Behold these lilies, (which thy hands have made Fair copies of my lite, and open laid To view,) how soon they droop, how soon they fade ! Shade not that dial night will blind too soon ; My non-ag'd day already points to noon : How simple is my suit ! how small my boon ! Nor do I beg this slender inch, to while The time away, or falsely to beguile My thoughts with joy ; here's nothing worth a smile. No, no : 'tis not to please my wanton ears With frantic mirth ; I beg but hours, not years And what thou giv'st me I will give to tears. Draw not that soul which would be rather led ; That seed has yet not broke my serpent's head ; shall I die before my sins are dead ? Behold these rags ; am I a. fitting guest To taste the dainties of thy royal feast, With hands and face unwash'd, ungirt, unblest ? First, let the Jordan streams (that find supplies From the deep fountain of my heart) arise, And cleanse my spots, and clear my lep'rous eyes, 1 have a world of sins to be lamented ; I have a sea of tears that must be vented : O spare till then ; and then I die contented. VOL. II. D 18 EMBLEMS, BOOK III S. August. Lib. vii. de Civit. Dei. Cap. x. The time wherein we live is taken from the space of our life ; and what remaineth is daily made less and less, insomuch that the time of our life is nothing but a passage to death. S. Greg. Lib. ix. Mor. Cap. xliv. in Cap. x. Job. As moderate afflictions bring tears, so immoderate take away tears ; insomuch that sorrow, becometh no sorrow, which, swallowing up the mind of the afflict- ed, taketh away the sense of the affliction. Epig. 13. Fear'st thou to go when such an arm invites thee : Dread'st thou thy loads of sin ? or what affrights thee % If thou begin to fear, thy fear begins : Fool, can he bear thee hence, and not thy sins ? *l BOOK IIL— EMBLEM XIV. Deut. xxxii. 29. that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end / FLESH. SPIRIT. FL What means my sister's eyes so oft to pass Through the long entry of that optic glass ? Tell me ; what secret virtue doth invite Thy wrinkled eye to such unknown delight ? Sp. It helps the sight, makes things remote appear In perfect view ; it draws the object near. FL What sense-delighting objects dost thou spy % What doth that glass present before thine eye ? Sp. I see thy foe, my reconciled friend, Grim Death, e'en standing at the glass's end : His left hand holds a branch of palm ; his right Holds forth a two-edg'd sword. FL A proper sight! And is this all ? doth thy prospective please Th' abused fancy with no shapes but these ? Sp. Yes, I behold the darken'd sun bereav'n Of all his light ; the battlements of Heav'n Swelt'ring in flames ; the- angel-guarded Son Of glory on his high tribunal throne : 1 sea a brimstone sea of boiling fire, And fiends, with knotted whips of flaming wire. 20 EMBLEMS. BOOK III. Tort'ring poor souls, that gnash their teeth in vain, And gnaw their flame-tormented tongues for pain. Look, sister, how the *queasy-stomach'd graves Vomit their dead, and how the purple waves Scald their consumeless bodies, strongly cursing All wombs for bearing, and all paps for nursing. Fl. Can thy distemper'd fancy take delight In view of tortures ? these are shows t' affright : Look in this glass triangular ; look here ; Here's that will ravish eyes. Sp. What seest thou there ? FL The world in colours; colours that disdain The cheeks of Proteus, or the silken train Of Flora's nymphs ; such various sorts of hue As sun-confronting Iris never knew : Here, if thou please to beautify a town, Thou may'st ; or, with a hand, turn't upside down : Here may'st thou scant or widen by the measure Of thine own will ; make short or long at pleasure : Here may'st thou tire thy fancy, and advise With shows more apt to please more curious eyes. Sp. Ah fool ! that dot'st on vain, on present toys, And disrespect' st those true, those future joys ! How strongly are thy thoughts befool'd, alas ! To doat on goods that perish with thy glass ! Nay, vanish with the turning of a hand ! Were they but painted colours, it might stand With painted reason that they might devote thee ; But things that have no being to besot thee ! Foresight of future torment is the way To balk those ills which present joys bewray. As thou hast fool'd thyself, so now come hither ; Break that fond glass, and let 's be wise together. * Queasy, sick at stomach, apt to vomit. BOOK III. EMBLEMS. 21 S. JBonavent. de Contemptu Sceculi. O that men would be wise, and understand, and foresee. Be wise, to know three things : the multi- tude of those that are to be damned ; the few number of those that are to be saved ; and the vanity of tran- sitory, things : understand three things ; the multi- tude of sins, the omission of good things, and the loss of time : foresee three things ; the danger of death, the last judgment, and eternal punishment. Epig, 14. What, soul, no further yet ? what, ne'er commence Master* in faith ? still Bachelor of Sense ? Is 't insufficiency 1 or what has made thee O'erslip thy lost degree ? Thy lusts have staid thee. * Master, Bachelor, degree', titles and terms used in Universities. BOOK III.— EMBLEM XV. Psalm xxxi. 10. My life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing, What sullen star rul'd my untimely birth, That would not lend my days one hour of mirth ? How oft have these bare knees been bent, to gain The slender alms of one poor smile, in vain ! How often, tir'd with the fastidious light, Have my faint lips implor'd the shades of night ! How often have my nightly torments pray'd For ling' ring twilight, glutted with the shade ! Day worse than night, night worse than day, appears In fears I spend my nights, my days in tears : I moan unpitied, groan without relief; There is nor end nor measure of my grief. The smiling flow'r salutes the day ; it grows Untouch'd with care ; it neither spins nor sows : O that my tedious life were, like this flow'r, Or freed from grief, or finish'd with an hour ! Why was I born ? why was I born a man ? And why proportion'd by so large a span ? Or why suspended from the common lot, And, being born to die, why die I not ? BOOK III. EMBLEMS. 23 Ah me ! why is my sorrow-wasted breath Denied the easy privilege of death ? The branded slave, that tugs the weary oar, Obtains the sabbath of a welcome shore : His ransom'd stripes are heal'd ; his native soil Sweetens the mem'ry of his foreign toil : But ah ! my sorrows are not half so blest ; My labour finds no point, my pains no rest : I barter sighs for tears, and tears for groans, Still vainly rolling Sisyphsean stones. Thou just observer of our flying hours, That, with thy adamantine fangs, devours The brazen mon'ments of renowned kings, Doth thy glass stand ? or be thy moulting wings Unapt to fly ? if not, why dost thou spare A willing breast ; a breast that stands so fair ; A dying breast, that hath but only breath To beg a wound, and strength to crave a death ; O that the pleased Heav'ns would once dissolve These fleshly fetters, that so fast involve My hamper'd soul ! then should my soul be blest From all these ills, and wrap her thoughts in rest : Till then my days are months, my months are years ; My years are ages, to be spent in tears : My grief 's entail'd upon my wasteful breath Which no recov'ry can cut off, but death. Breath drown in cottages, puff'd out in thrones, Begins, continues, and concludes, in groans. 24 EMBLEMS. BOOK III. Innocent de Vilitate Condit. Humance. O who will give mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I may bewail the miserable ingress of man's condi- tion ; the sinful progress in man's conversation ; the damnable egress in man's dissolution ? I will consider with tears, whereof man was made, what man doth, and and what man is to do Alas ! he is formed of earth, conceived in sin, born to punishment : he doth evil things, which are not lawful ; he doth filthy things, which are not decent ; he doth vain things, which are not expedient. Epigy 15. My heart, thy life's a debt by bound, which bears A secret date ; the use* is groans and tears : Plead not ; usurious Nature will have all, As well the int'rest a3 the principal. * Use, interest. BOOK THE FOURTH EMBLEM I. Rom. vii. 23. I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin. How my wili is hurried to and fro, And how my unresolv'd resolves do vary ! 1 know not where to fix ; sometimes I go This way, then that, and then the quite contrary : I like, dislike ; lament for what I could not : I do, undo ; yet still do what I should not ; And, at the self same instant, will the thing I would not. Thus are my weather-beaten thoughts opprest With th' earth-bred winds of my prodigious will; Thus am I hourly tost from east to west Upon the rolling streams of good and ill : Thus am T driv'n upon these slipp'ry suds, From real ills to false apparent goods ; My life 's a troubled sea, compos'd of ebbs and floods. 26 EMBLEMS. BOOK IV. The curious penman, having trimm'd his page With the dead language of his dabbled quill, Lets fall a heedless drop ; then, in a rage, Cashiers the fruits of his unlucky skill : E'en so my pregnant soul in th' infant bud Of her best thoughts show'rs down a coal-black flood Of unadvised ills, and cancels all her good. Sometimes a sudden flash of sacred heat Warms my chill soul, and sets my thoughts in frame ; But soon that fire is shoulder'd from her seat By lustful Cupid's much inferior flame. I feel two flames, and yet no flame entire ; Thus are the mongrel thoughts of mixt desire Consum'd between that heav'nly and this earthly fire. Sometimes my trash-disdaining thoughts outpass The common period of terrene* conceit ; O then methinks I scorn the thing I was, Whilst I stand ravish'd at my new estate : But when th' Icarian wings of my desire Feel but the warmth of their own native fire, then they melt and plunge within their wonted mire. 1 know the nature of my wav'ring mind ; I know the frailty of my fleshly will : My passion's eagle-ey'd; my judgment blind ; I know what's good, but yet make choice of ill. When th' ostrich wings of my desire shall be So dull, they cannot mount the least degree, Yet grant my soul desire but of desiring Thee. * Terrene, earthly. BOOK IV. EMBLEMS. 27 S. Bern. Med. ix. My heart is a vain heart, a vagabond and instable heart ; while it is led by its own judgment, and, wanting divine counsel, cannot subsist in itself; and whilst it divers ways seeketh rest, findeth none, but remaineth miserable through labour and void of peace: it agreeth not with itself, it dissenteth from itself: it altereth resolutions, changeth the judgment, frameth new thoughts, pulleth down the old, and buildeth them up again : it willeth and willeth not, and never remaineth in the same state. S. August de Verb. Apost. When it would, it cannot ; because, when it might, it would not : therefore by an evil will man lost his good power. Epig. I. My soul, how are thy thoughts disturb'd, confin'd, Enlarg'd betwixt thy members and thy mind ! Fix here or there ; thy doubt-depending cause Can ne'er except one verdict 'twixt two laws. BOOK IV.— EMBLEM II . Psalm cxix. 5. O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes ! Thus I, the object of the world's disdain, With pilgrim pace, surround the weary earth : I only relish what the world counts vain ; Her mirth's my grief ; her sullen grief my mirth ; Her light my darkness ; and her truth my error; Her freedom is my gaol ; and her delight my terror. Fond earth ! proportion not my seeming love To my long stay; let not thy thoughts deceive thee; Thou art my prison, and my home's above ; My life's a preparation but to leave thee : Like one that seeks a door I walk about thee : With thee I cannot live ; I cannot live without thee. The world's a lab'rinth, whose anfractuous* ways Are all compos'd of rubs and crook'd meanders : No resting here ; he 's hurried back that stays A thought ; and he that goes unguided, wanders : Her way is dark ; her path untrod, unev'n ; So hard's the way from earth ; so hard's the way to Heav'n. * Anfractuous, intricate. BOOK IV BMBLEMS. 29 This gyring* lab'rinth is betrencb d about On either hand with streams of sulph'rous fire, Streams closely sliding, erring in and out, But seeming pleasant to the fond descrier ; Where, if his footsteps trust their own invention, He falls without redress, and sinks beyond dimension. Where shall I seek a guide ? where shall I meet Some lucky hand to lead my trembling paces ? What trusty lantern will direct my feet To 'scape the danger of these dang'rous places ? What hopes have I to pass without a guide Where one gets safely through, a thousand fall beside. An unrequested star did gently slide Before the wise men to a greater light : Backsliding Isr'el found a double guide ; A pillar, and a cloud ; by day by night: Yet in my desp'rate dangers, which be far More great than theirs, I have nor pillar, cloud, nor star. O that the pinions of a cliping* dove Would cut my passage through the empty air ; Mine eyes being seal'd, how would I mount above The reach of danger and forgotten care ! My backward eyes should ne'er commit that fault, Whose lasting guilt should build a monument of salt. Great God, that art the flowing spring of light, Enrich mine eyes with thy refulgent ray ! Thou art my path ; direct my steps aright ; I have no other light, no other way : I'll trust my God, and him alone pursue; His law shall be my path, his heav'nly light my clue^ * Gyring, full of turnings. * Clipping, swift, flying. Vol. ii. e 30 EMBLEMS. BOOK IV. & August. Soliloq. Cap. iv. O Lord, who art the Light, the Way, the Truth, the Life ; in whom there is no darkness, error, vanity, nor death : the Light, without which there is dark- ness ; the Way, without which there is wandering ; the Truth, without which there is error; the Life, without which there is death : say, Lord, ' Let there be light,' and I shall see light, and eschew darkness ; I shall see the way and avoid wandering; I shall see the truth, and shun error; I shall see life, and escape death : illuminate, O illuminate my blind soul, which sitteth in darkness and the shadow of death ; and direct my feet in the way of peace. Epig. 2. Pilgrim, trudge on : what makes thy soul complain, Crowns thy complaint ; the way to rest is pain : The road to resolution lies by doubt ; The next way home's the farthest way about. BOOK IV.— EMBLEM III. Psalm xvii. 5. Holdup my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not. Whene'er the Old Exchange of profit rings Her silver saints-bell of uncertain gains, My merchant soul can stretch both legs and wings : How I can run, and take unwearied pains ! The charms of profit are so strong, that I, Who wanted legs to go, find wings to fly. If time-beguiling Pleasure but advance Her lustful trump, and blow her bold alarms, O how my sportful soul can frisk and dance, And hug that siren in her twined arms ! The sprightly voice of sinew-strength'ning Pleasure Can lend my bed-rid soul both legs and leisure, 32 EMBLEMS. BOOK IY. If blazing Honour chance to fill my veins With flatt'ring warmth, and flash of courtly fire, My soul can take a pleasure in her pains ; My lofty strutting steps disdain to tire : My antic knees can turn upon the hinges Of compliment, and screw a thousand cringes. But when I come to thee, my God, that art The royal mine of everlasting treasure, The real honour of my better part, And living fountain of eternal pleasure, How nerveless are my limbs ! how far and slow ! I have nor wings to fly, nor legs to go. So when the streams of swift-foot Rhine convey Her upland riches to the Belgic shore, The idle vessel slides the wat'ry lay, Without the blast or tug of wind or oar : Her slip'ry keel divides the silver foam With ease ; so facile is the way from home ! But when the home-bound vessel turns her sails Against the breast of the resisting stream, O then she slugs ; nor sail nor oar prevails ; The stream is sturdy, and her tide's extreme : Each stroke is loss, and ev'ry tug is vain; A boat-length's purchase is a league of pain. Great All in All, that art my rest my home, My way is tedious, and my steps are slow : Reach forth thy helpful hand, or bid me come ; I am thy child, O teach thy child to go : Conjoin thy sweet commands to my desire, And I will venture, though I fall or tire. ROOK IV. EMBLEMS. 33 S. August Ser. xv. de Verb. Apost. Be always displeased at what thou art, if thou de- sirest to attain to what thou are not : for where thou hast pleased thyself, there thou abidest. But if thou sayest, I have enough, thou perishest, always add, always walk, always proceed ; neither stand still, nor go back, nor deviate ; he that standeth still proceedeth not ; he goeth back that continueth not ; he deviateth that revolteth ; he goeth better that creepeth in his way than he that runneth out of his way. Epig. 3. Fear not, my soul, to lose for want of cunning ; Weep not ; Heav'n's is not always got by running : Thy thoughts are swift, although thy legs be slow ; True love will creep, not having strength to go. BOOK IV.— EMBLEM IV. Psalm cxix. 120. My flesh trembleth for fear of thee ; and I am afraid of thy judgments. Let others boast of luck, and go their ways With their fair game ; know, Vengeance seldom plays To be too forward, but doth wisely frame Her backward tables for an after-game : She gives the leave to venture many a blot ;* And for her own advantage, hits thee not : But when her pointed tables are made fair, That she be ready for thee, then beware ; Then, if a necessary blot be set, She hits thee ; wins the game ; perchance the set : If prosp'rous chances make thy casting high, Be wisely temp'rate ; cast-a serioui eye On after-dangers, and keep back thy game ; Too forward seed-times make thy harvest lame. If left hand fortune give thee left-hand chances, Be wisely patient ; let no envious glances Repine to view thy gamester's heap so fair ; The hindmost hound takes oft the doubling hare. * Blot, a term at backgammon. BOOK IV. EMBLEMS. 25 The world's great dice are false ; sometimes they go Extremely high, sometimes extremely low : Of all her gamesters, he that plays the least N Lives most at ease, plays most secure, and best : The way to win is to play fair, and swear Thyself a servant to the crown of fear : Fear is the Primer* of a gamester's skill ; Who fears not bad, stands most unarm'd to ill. The ill that 's wisely fear'd is half withstood ; And fear of bad is the best foil to good. True fear's th' elixir which in days of old, Turn'd leaden crosses into crowns of gold : The world's the tables ; stakes, eternal life ; The gamester's Heav'n and I ; unequal strife ! My fortunes are my dice, whereby I frame My indisposed life : this life's the game ; My sins are several blots ; the lookers-on Are angels ; and in death the game is done. Lord, I 'm a bungler, and my game doth grow Still more and mere unshap'd ; my dice run low : The stakes are great; my careless blots are many ; And yet thou passest by, and hitt'st not any : Thou art too strong ; and I have none to guide me With the least jog; the lookers-on deride me : It is a conquest undeserving Thee, To win a stake from such a worm as me : I have no more to lose ; if we persever,f 'Tis lost ; and, that once lost, I 'm lost for ever. Lord, wink at faults, and be not too severe, And I will play my game with greater fear. O give me Fear, ere Fear has past her date : Whose blot being hit, then fears ; fear's then too late. * Primer, the first book for children, f Persever, put, by poetic license, for persevere. 36 EMBLEMS. BOOK IV" S. Bern. Ser. liv. in Cant. There is nothing so effectual to obtain grace, to retain grace, and to regain grace, as always to be found before God not over wise, but to fear : happy art thou if thy heart replenished with three fears ; a fear for received grace, a greater fear for lost grace, a greater fear to recover grace. S. August, super Psalm. Present fear begetteth eternal security : fear God, which is above all, and no need to fear man at all. Epig. 4. Lord, shall we grumble when thy flames do scourge us ? Our sins breathe fire ; that fire returns to purge us. Lord, what an alchymist art thou, whose skill Transmutes to perfect good from perfect ill ! BOOK IV.— EMBLEM V. Psalm cxix. 37. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity. How like to threads of flax, That touch the flame, are my inflam'd desires ! How like to yielding wax My soul dissolves before these wanton fires ! The fire but touch'd, the flame but felt, Like flax, I burn ; like wax, I melt. O how this flesh doth draw My fetter'd soul to that deceitful fire ! And how th' eternal law Is baffled by the law of my desire ! How truly bad, how seeming good, Are all the laws of flesh and blood ! O wretched state of men, The height of whose ambition is to borrow What must be paid again, With griping inter' st of the next day's sorrow ! How wild his thoughts ! how apt to range ! How apt to vary ! apt to change ! 33 EMBLEMS. BOOK IV. How intricate and nice Is man's perplexed way to man's desire ! Sometimes upon the ice He slips, and sometimes falls into the fire ; His progress is extreme and bold, Or very hot, or very cold. The common food he doth Sustain his soul-tormenting thoughts withal, Is honey in his mouth To-night ; and in his heart, to-morrow, gall 'Tis oftentimes, within an hour, Both very sweet and very sour. If sweet Corinna smile, A heav'n of joy breaks down into his heart : Corinna frowns awhile ? Hell's torments are but copies of his smart : Within a lustful heart doth dwell A seeming Heav'n, a very hell. Thus worthless, vain, and void Of comfort, are the fruits of earth's employment, Which, ere they be enjoy'd, Distract us, and destroy us in th' enjoyment! These be the pleasures that are priz'd, When Heaven's cheap penn'worth stands despis'd. Lord, quench these hasty flashes, Which dart as lightning from the thund'ring skies, And ev'ry minute dashes Against the wanton windows of mine eyes ! Lord, close the casement, whilst I stand Behind the curtain of thy hand ! BOOK IV. EMBLEMS. 39 S. August. Soliloq. Cap, iv. O thou Son, that illuminateth both heaven and earth ! woe be unto those eyes which do not behold thee : woe be unto those blind eyes which cannot be- hold thee : woe be unto those which turn away their eyes that they will not behold thee : woe be unto those that turn not away their eyes that they may behold vanity. S. Ch*ys. Sup. Mat. xix. What is the evil woman but the enemy of friend- ship, an unavoidable pain, a necessary mischief, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic danger, a delectable inconvenience, and the nature of evil painted over with the colour of good ? Epig. 5. 'Tis vain, great God, to close mine eyes from ill, When I resolve to keep the old man still : My rambling heart must cov'nant first with Thee, Or none can pass betwixt mine eye and me. BOOK IV. EMBLEM VI. Esther vii. 3. If I have found favour in thy sight, and it if please the king, let my life be given me at my petition. Thou art the great Assureus, whose commmand Doth stretch from pole to pole ; the world's thy land : Rebellious Vashti's the corrupted will, Which, being call'd, refuseth to fulfil Thy just command: Esther, whose tears condole The razed city, 's the regen'rate soul ; A captive maid, whom thou wilt please to grace With nuptial honours in stout Vashti's place: Her kinsman, whose unbended knee did thwart Proud Haman's glory, is the fleshly part : The sober Eunuch, that recall'd to mind The new-built gibbet (Haman had divin'd For his own ruin), fifty cubits high, Is lustful thought controlling Chastity : Insulting Haman is that fleshly lust, Whose red-hot fury, for a season, must Triumph in pride, and study how to tread On Mordecai, till royal Esther plead. BOOK IV. EMBLEMS. 41 Great king, thy sent-for Vashti will not come ; O let the oil o' th' bless'd Virgin's womb Cleanse my poor Esther ; look, O look upon her With gracious eyes ; and let thy beams of honour So scour her captive stains, that she may prove A holy object of thy heav'nly love : Anoint her with the spikenard of thy graces, Then try the sweetness of her chaste embraces : Make her the partner of thy nuptial bed, And set thy royal crown upon her head : If then ambitious Haman chance to spend His spleen on Mordecai, that scorns to bend The wilful stiffness of his stubborn knee, Or basely crouch to any lord but thee ; If weeping Esther should prefer a groan Before the high tribunal of thy throne, Hold forth thy golden sceptre, and afford The gentle audience of a gracious lord ; And let thy royal Esther be possest Of half thy kingdom, at her dear request : - Curb lustful Haman, him that would disgrace, Nay, ravish, thy fair queen before thy face : And, as proud Haman was himself insnar'd On that self gibbet that himself prepar'd, So nail my lust, both punishment and guilt, On that dear cross that mine own lusts have built. VOL. II. 42 EMBLEMS. BOOK IV. S. August, in Ep„ O holy Spirit, always inspire me with holy works. Constrain me, that I may do; counsel me, that I may love thee ; confirm me that I may hold thee ; conserve me, that I may not lose thee. S. August. Sup. Joan. The spirit rusteth where the flesh resteth : for, as the flesh is nourished with sweet things, the spirit is refreshed with sour. Ibidem. "Wouldest thou that thy flesh obey thy spirit ? then let thy spirit obey thy God. Thou must be govern- ed, that thou mayest govern. Epig. 6. Of mere' and justice is thy kingdom built ; This plagues my sin, and that removes my guilt : "Whene'er I sue, Assuerus- like, decline* Thy sceptre ; Lord, say, Half my kingdom's thine. Decline, as here used, signifies to bow down. BOOK IV.— EMBLEM VII. Canticles vii. 11. Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages, CHRIST. SOUL. Chr. Come, come, my dear, and let us both retire, And whiff the dainties of the fragrant fields ; Where warbling Phil'mel and the shrill-mouth'd choir Chant forth their raptures ; where the turtle builds Her lonely nest ; and where the new-born brier Breathes forth the sweetness that her April yields : Come, come, my lovely fair, and let us try These rural delicates ; where thou and I May melt in private flames, and fear no stander-by. Soul. My heart's eternal joy, in lieu of whom The earth's a blast, and all the world's a bubble ; Our city mansion is the fairer home, But country sweets are tang'd* with lesser trouble : Let's try them both, and choose the better ; come ; A change in pleasure makes the pleasure double ; On thy commands depends my go or tarry ; I'll stir with Martha, or I'll stay with Mary : Our hearts are firmly fix'd, altho' our pleasures vary. * Tang'd, tasted 44 EMBLEMS. BOOK IT. Chr. Our country mansion (situate on high), With various objects, still renews delight : Her arched roof's of unstain'd ivory: Her walls of fiery- sparkling chrysolite : Her pavement is of hardest porphyry ; Her spacious windows are all glaz'd with bright And flaming carbuncles ; no need require Titan's faint rays, or Vulcan's feeble fire ; And ev'ry gate's a pearl ; and ev'ry pearl entire. Soul. Fool that I was ! how were my thoughts de- ceived ! How falsely was my fond conceit possest ! I took it for an hermitage, but pav'd And daub'd with neighb'ring dirt, and thatch'd at best Alas ! I ne'er expected more, nor crav'd ; A turtle hop'd but for a turtle's nest : Come, come, my dear, and let no idle stay Neglect th' advantage of a headstrong day : How pleasure grates, that feels the curb of dull delay ! Chr. Come, then, my joy ; let our divided paces Conduct us to our fairest territory : O there we'll twine our souls in sweet embraces ; Soul. And in thine arms I'll tell my passion story : Chr. O there I'll crown thy head with all my graces ; Soul. And all those graces shall reflect thy glory ' Chr. O there I'll feed thee with celestial manna ; I'll be thy Elkanah. Soul. And I thy Hannah. Chr. I'll sound my trump of joy. Soul. And I'll resound Hosannah. BOOK IV. EMBLEMS. 45 S. Bern. O blessed contemplation ! the death of vices, and the life of virtues I thee the law and prophets ad- mire : who ever attained perfection, if not by thee ? O blessed solitude, the magazine of celestial treasure I by thee things earthly and transitory are changed into heavenly and eternal. S, Bern, in Ep. Happy is that house, and blessed is that congre- gation, where Martha still complaineth of Mary. Epig. 7. Mechanic soul, thou must not only do With Martha, but with Mary ponder too : Happy's that house where these fair sisters vary But most when Martha's reconcil'd to Mary. BOOK IV. — EMBLEM VIII. Canticles i. 3, 4. Draw me ; we will run after thee, because of the savour of thy good ointments. Thus, like a lump of the corrupted mass, I lie secure ; long lost, before I was : ' And like a block, beneath whose burden lies That undiscover'd worm that never dies, I have no will to rouse, I have no pow'r to rise. Can stinking Lazarus compound, or strive With death's entangling fetters, and revive ? Or can the water- b dried axe implore A hand to raise it, or itself restore, And from her sandy deeps approach the dry-foot shore ? So hard's the task for sinful flesh and blood To lend the smallest step to what is good : My God ! I cannot move the least degree ; Ah ! if but only those that active be, None should thy glory see, none should thy glory see. But if the potter please t' inform* the clay, Or some strong hand remove the block away, Their lowly fortunes soon are mounted higher ; That proves a vessel, which, before, was mire ; And this, being hewn, may serve for better use than fire. * Inform, i. e. new-make. BOOK IT. EMBLEMS. 47 And if that life-restoring voice command Dead Laz'rus forth ; or that Prophet's hand Should charm the sullen waters, and begin To beckon, or to dart a stick but in, Dead Laz'rus must revive, and th' axe must float again. Lord, as I am, I have no pow'r at all To hear thy voice, or echo to thy call : The gloomy clouds of mine own guilt benight me Thy glorious beams, not dainty sweets, invite me They neither can direct, nor these at all delight me. See how my sin-bemangled body lies, Not having pow'r to will, nor will to rise ! Shine home upon thy creature, and inspire My lifeless will with thy regen'rate fire ; The first degree to do, is only to desire. Give me the pow'r to will, the will to do ; O raise me up, and I will strive to go : Draw me, O draw me with thy treble twist, That have no pow'r but merely to resist, O lend me strength to do, and then command thy list. My soul's a clock, whose wheels (for want of use And winding up, being subject to th' abuse Of eating rust) want vigour to fulfil Her twelve hours' task, and show her Maker's skill, But idly sleeps unmov'd, and standeth vainly still. Great God! it is thy work, and therefore good : If thou be pleas'd to cleanse it with thy blood, And wind it up with thy soul-moving keys, Her busy wheels shall serve thee all her days ; Her hand shall point thy pow'r, her hammer strike thy praise, 48 EMBLEMS. BOOK IV. S. Bern, Ser, xxi. ia Cant. Let us run : let us run, but in the savour of thy ointments, not in the confidence of our merits, nor in the greatness of our strength : we trust to run, but in the multitude of thy mercies ; for though we run, and are willing, it is not in him that willeth, nor in him that runneth, but in God that sheweth mercy. O let thy mercy return, and we will run : thou, like a giant, runnest by thine own power ; we, unless thy ointment breathe upon us, cannot run. Epig. 8. Look not, my watch, being once repair'd, to stand Expecting motion from thy Maker's hand : He'as wound thee up, and cleans'd thy clogs with blood ; If now thy wheels stand still, thou art not good. BOOK IV.— EMBLEM IX. Canticles viii. 1. O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother ! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee. Come, come my blessed Infant, and immure thee Within the temple of my sacred arms ; Secure mine arms ; mine arms shall, then, secure thee From Herod's fury, or the high priest's harms : Or if thy danger' d life sustain a loss, My folded arms shall turn thy dying cross. But, ah ! what savage tyrant can behold The beauty of so sweet a face as this is, And not himself be by himself controll'd, And change his fury to a thousand kisses? One smile of thine is worth more mines of treasure Than there be myriads in the days of Caesar. O, had the tetrach, as he knew thy birth, So known thy stock, he had not sought to paddle In thy dear blood ; but, prostrate on the earth, Had veil'd his crown before thy royal cradle, 50 EMBLEMS. BOOK IV. And laid the sceptre of his glory down, And begg'd a heav'nly for an earthly crown. Illustrious Babe ! how is thy handmaid grac'd With a rich armful ! how dost thou decline Thy majesty, that wert so late embrac'd In thy great Father's arms, and now in mine ! How humbly gracious art thou, to refresh Me with thy spirit, and assume my flesh I But must the treason of a traitor's hail* Abuse the sweetnesss of these ruby lips ? Shall marble-hearted Cruelty assail These alabaster sides with notted whips ? And must these smiling roses entertain The blows of scorn, and flirts of base disdain ? Ah ! must these dainty little sprigs,f that twine So fast about my neck, be pierc'd and torn With ragged nails ? and must these brows resign Their crown of glory for a crown of thorn ? Ah ! must this blessed Infant taste the pain Of death's injurious pangs ; nay, worse, be slain ? Sweet Babe ! at what dear rates do wretched I Commit a sin ! Lord, ev'ry sin's a dart ; And ev'ry trespass lets a jav'lin fly ; And ev'ry jav'lin wounds thy bleeding heart : Pardon, sweet Babe, what I have done amiss ; And seal that granted pardon with a kiss. * Hail, salutation. f Springs, arms. BOOK IV. EMBLEMS 51 Bonavent. Soliloq. Cap. i. O sweet Jesu, I knew not that thy kisses were so sweet, nor thy society so delectable, nor thy attrac- tion so virtuous : for when I love thee, I am clean ; when I touch thee, I am chaste ; when I receive thee, I am a virgin : O most sweet Jesu, thy embraces defile not, but cleanse ; thy attraction polluteth not, but sanctifieth : O Jesu, the fountain of universal sweetness, pardon me that I believed so late that so much sweetness is in thine embraces. Epig. 9. My burden's greatest : let not Atlas boast : Impartial reader, judge which bears the most: He bears but Heav'n ; my folded arms sustain Heav'n's Maker, whom Heav n's Heav'n cannot contain. ■ BOOK IV.— EMBLEM X. Canticles hi. 1. By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth ; I sought him, but I found him not. The learned Cynic, having lost the way To honest men, did, in the height of day, By taper-light, divide his steps about The peopled streets, to find this dainty out ; But failed : the Cynic search'd not where he ought The thing he sought for was not where he sought. The wise men's task seem'd harder to be done ; The wise men did by star-light seek the Son, And found : the wise men search'd it where they ought; The thing they hop'd to find was where they sought. One seeks his wishes where he should ; but then Perchance he seeks not as he should, nor when. Another searches when he should ; but there He fails ; not seeking as he should, nor where. Whose soul desires the good it wants, and would Obtain, must seek where, as, and when he should. How often have my wild affections led My wasted soul to this my widow'd bed, BOOK IV. EMBLEMS. 53 To seek my lover whom my soul desires ! (I speak not, Cupid, of thy wanton fires : Thy fires are all but dying sparks to mine ; My flames are full of Heav'n, and all divine.) How often have I sought this bed by night, To find that greater by this lesser light ! How oft have my unwitness'd groans lamented Thy dearest absence ! ah, how often vented The bitter tempests of despairing breath, And toss'd my soul upon the waves of death ! How often has my melting heart made choice Of silent tears (tears louder than a voice), To plead my grief, and woo thy absent ear ! And yet thou wilt not come, thou wilt not hear. O, is thy wanted love become so cold ? Or do mine eyes not seek thee where they should ? "Why do I seek thee, if thou art not here ? Or find thee not, if thou art every where ? I see my error ; 'tis not strange I could not Find out my love ; I sought him where I should not. Thou art not found on downy beds of ease ; Alas ! thy music strikes on harder keys ; Nor art thou found by that false feeble light Of Nature's candle : our Egyptian night Is more than common darkness ; nor can we Expect a morning but what breaks from thee. Well may my empty bed bewail thy loss, "When thou aft lodg'd upon thy shameful cross : If thou refuse to share a bed with me, We'll never part, I'll share a cross with thee. VOL. II. G 54 EMBLEMS. BOOK IV. Anselm. in Protolog. Cap. i. Lord, if thou art not present, where shall I seek thee absent ? if every where, why do I not see thee present ? Thou dwellest in light inaccessible ; and where is that inaccessible light ? or how shall I have access to light inaccessible ? I beseech thee, Lord, teach me to seek thee, and shew thyself to the seeker : because I can neither seek thee, unless thou teach me ; nor find thee, unless thou shew thyself to me : let me seek thee in desiring thee, and desire thee in seeking thee : let me find thee in loving thee, and love thee in finding thee. Epig. 10. "Where shouldst thou seek for rest but in thy bed ? But now thy Rest is gone, thy Rest is fled : Tis vain to seek him there : my soul, be wise : Go ask thy sins ; they '11 tell thee where he lies. BOOK IV.— EMBLEM XL - Canticles iii. 2. / will rise and go about the city, and will seek him tvhom my soul loveth : I sought him, but I found him not, O how my disappointed soul's perplext ! How restless thoughts swarm in my troubled breast ! How vainly pleas'd with hopes, then crossly vexed With fears ! and how, betwixt them both, distrest ! What place is left unransack'd ? Oh ! where next Shall I go seek the Author of my rest? Of what bless'd angel shall my lips enquire The undiscover'd way to that entire And everlasting solace of my heart's desire ? Look how the stricken hart, that, wounded, flies O'er hills and dales, and seeks the lower grounds For running streams, the whilst his weeping eyes Beg silent mercy from the foll'wing hounds, At length, embost,* he droops, drops down, and lies Beneath the burden of his bleeding wounds : * Embost, foaming at the mouth. 56 EMBLEMS. BOOK IV. E'en so my gasping soul, dissolv'd in tears, Doth search for thee, my God, whose deafen'd ears Leave me th' unransom'd pris'ner to my panic fears. Where have my busy eyes not pry'd 1 O where, Of whom hath not my threadbare tongue de- manded ? I search'd this glorious city ; he's not here : I sought the country ; she stands empty-handed : I search'd the court ; he is a stranger there : I ask'd the land, he's shipp'd : the sea, he's landed : I climb'd the air, my thoughts began f aspire ; But, ah ! the wings of my too bold desire, Soaring too near the sun, were sing'd with sacred fire I mov'd the merchant's ear ; alas ! but he Knew neither what I said, nor what to say : I ask'd the lawyer ; he demands a fee, -And then demurs me with a vain delay : I ask'd the schoolman : his advice was free, But scor'd me out too intricate a way : I asfd the watchman (best of all the four), "Whose gentle answer could resolve no more, But that he lately left him at the temple-door. Thus having sought and made my great inquest In ev'ry place, and search'd in ev'ry ear, I threw me on my bed ; but, ah ! my rest "Was poison'd with th' extremes of grief and fear : BOOK IV. BMBLEMS. 57 - Where, looking down into my troubled breast, The magazine of wounds, I found him there : Let others hunt, and show their sportful art ; I wish to catch the hare before she start, As poachers use to do ; Heav'n's form* 's a troubled heart. S. Ambros. Lib. iii. de Virg. Christ is not in the market ; not in the streets : for Christ is peace ; in the market are strifes : Christ is justice; in the market is iniquity: Christ is a la- bourer ; in the market is idleness : Christ is charity ; in the market is slander : Christ is faith ; in the mark- et is fraud. Let us not therefore seek Christ where we cannot find Christ. S» Hieron. Ser. ix. Ep. xxii. ad Eusioch. Jesus is jealous : he will not have thy face seen : let foolish virgins ramble abroad ; seek thou thy love at home. Epig. 11. "What, lost thy love ? will neither bed nor board Receive him ? not by tears to be implor'd 1 It is the ship that moves, and not the coast ; I fear, I fear, my soul, 'tis thou art lost. "* Form, (a hunting term), where the hare sits. BOOK IV.— EMBLEM XII. Canticles hi. 3,4. Saw ye him whom my soul loveih ? It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth : I held him, and would not let him go. What secret corner, what unwonted way, Has 'scap'd the ransack of my rambling thought ? The fox by night, nor the dull owl by day, Have never search'd those places I have sought, - "Whilst thy lamented absence taught my breast The ready road to grief, without request ; My day had neither comfort, nor my night had rest. How hath my unregarded language vented The sad tautologies of lavish passion ! How often have I languished unlamented ! How oft have I complain'd without compassion ! I ask'd the city-watch ; but some denied me The common street, whilst others would mis- guide me ; [me. Some would debar me ; some divert me ; some deride Mark how the widovv'd turtle, having lost The faithful partner of her loyal heart, Stretches her feeble wings from coast to coast, Haunts ev'ry path, thinks ev'ry shade doth part Her absent love and her ; at length, unsped, She re-betakes her to her lonely bed, And there bewails her everlasting widow-head. BOOK IV. EMBLEMS. 59 So, when my soul had progress' d every place That love and dear affection could contrive, I threw me on my couch, resolv'd t* embrace A death for him, in whom I ceas'd to live : But there injurious Hymen did present His landscape joys ; my pickled eyes did vent Full streams of briny tears, tears never to be spent. Whilst thus my sorrow-wasting soul was feeding Upon the rad'cal humour of her thought, E'en whilst mine eyes were blind,' and heart was bleeding, He that was sought unfound, was found unsought : As if the sun should dart his orb of light Into the secrets of the black-brow'd night, E'en so appear 'd my love, my soul, my soul's delight. O how mine eyes, now ravish'd at the sight Of my bright Sun, shot flames of equal fire ! Ah ! how my soul dissolved with ov'r-delight, To re-enjoy the crown of chaste desire ! How sov'reign joy depos'd and dispossest Rebellious grief ! and how my ravish'd breast — But who can press* those heights that cannot be exprest ? O how these arms, these greedy arms, did twine, And strongly twist, about his yielding waist ! The sappy branches of the Thespian vine Ne'er cling'd their less-beloved elm so fast : Boast not thy flames, blind boy, nor feather'd shot ; Let Hymen's easy snarlesf be quite forgot : Time cannot quench our fires, nor death dissolve our knot. * Press ; put, by poetic license, for express. f Snarle, a tie, or knot, which it is difficult to disentangle. 60 EMBLEMS. BOOK IV. Orig. Horn. x. in Divers, O most holy Lord, and sweetest master, how good art thou to those that are of upright heart, and hum- ble spirit ! O how blessed are they that seek thee with a simple heart ! how happy that trust in thee ! It is a most certain truth that thou lovest all that love thee, and never forsakest those that trust in thee : for, behold thy love simply sought thee, and undoubtedly found thee : she trusted in thee, and is not forsaken of thee, but hath obtained more by thee than she expceted from thee. Bede in Cap. iii. Cant The longer I was in finding whom I sought, the more earnestly I held him, being found. Epig. 12. What, found him out ? Let strong embraces bind him; He'll fly, perchance, where tears can never find him : New sins will lose what old repentance gains : Wisdom not only gets, but, got, retains. BOOK IV.— EMBLExM XIII. Psalm lxxiii. 28. It is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, Where is that good, which wise men please to call The chiefest X doth there any such befall Within man's reach ? or is there such a good at all ? If such there be, it neither must expire, Nor change : than which, there can be nothing high'r : Such good must be the utter point of man's desire. It is the mark, to which all hearts must tend, Can be desired for no other end Than for itself; on which all other goods depend. What may this exc'llence be ? doth it subsist A real essence, clouded in the mist Of curious art, or clear to ev'ry eye that list ? Or is't a tart idea, to procure An edge, and keep the practic* soul in ure,f Like that dear chymic dust,J or puzzling quadra- ture ?§ * Practic ; used, by poetic license, for practical: i. e. not theo- retical. f Ure ; exercise. t Chymic dust ; i. e. the philosopher's stone, supposed to turn all metals to gold. § Puzzling quadrature : i. e. sq\iaring the circle. 62 EMBLEMS. BOOK. IV. Where shall I seek this good ? where shall I find This cath'lic pleasure, whose extremes may bind My thoughts, and fill the gulph of my insatiate mind ? Lies it in treasure ? in full heaps untold ? Doth gouty Mammons griping hand infold This secret saint in sacred shrines of sov'reign gold ? No, no ; she lies not there : "Wealth often sours In keeping ; makes us hers, in seeming ours : She slides from Heav'n indeed, but not in Danae's show'rs. Lives she in honour ? No ; the royal crown Builds up a creature, and then batters down : Kings raise thee with a smile, and raze thee with a frown. In pleasure ? No ; pleasure begins in rage ; Acts the fool's part on earth's uncertain stage ; Begins the play in youth, and epilogues in age. These, these are bastard goods ; the best of these Torment the soul with pleasing it ; and please, Like water gulp'd in fevers, with deceitful ease. Earth's flatt'ring dainties are but sweet distresses ; Mole-hills perform the mountains she professes : Alas ! can Earth confer more good than Earth pos- sesses ? Mount, mount, my soul, and let my thoughts cashier Earth's vain delights, and make thy full career At Heav'n's eternal joys : stop, stop thy courser there. There shall thy soul possess uncareful treasure ; There shalt thou swim in never-fading pleasure ; And blaze in honour far above the frowns of Caesar. Lord, if my hope dare let her anchor fall On thee, the chiefest good, no need to call For earth's inferior trash ; Thou, Thou, art All in All. BOOK IV. EMBLEMS. 63 S. August. Soliloq. Cap. xiii. I follow this thing, I pursue that, but I am filled with nothing. But when I found thee, who art that immutable, undivided, and only good, in myself, what I obtained, I wanted not ; for what I obtained not, I wanted not : for what I obtained not, I grieved not ; with what I was possessed, my whole desire was satisfied. S. Bern. Ser. ix. Sup. Beatl qui, habent, S>c. Let others pretend merit ; let him brag of the burden of the day ; let him boast of his sabbath-fasts, and let him glory that he is not as other men : but for me, it is good to cleave unto the Lord, and to put my trust in my Lord God. Epig. 13. Let Boreas' blasts and Neptune's waves be join'd, Thy ^Eolus commands the waves, the wind : Fear not the rocks, or world's imperious waves ; Thou climb'st a Rock, my soul ! a Rock that saves. BOOK IV.— EMBLEM XIV. Canticles ii. 3. / sat down under his shadow with great delight^ and his fruit was sweet to my taste. Look how the sheep, whose rambling steps do stray From the safe blessing of her shepherd's eyes, Eftsoon* becomes the unprotected prey To the wing'd squadron of beleag'ring flies ; Where, swelter'd with the scorching beams of day, She frisks from bush to brake, and wildly flies From her own self, ev'n of herself afraid ; She shrouds her troubled brows in ev'ry glade, And craves the mercy of the soft removing shade. Ev'n so my wand'ring soul, that hath digress'd From her great Shepherd, is the hourly prey Of all my sins ; these vultures in my breast Gripe my Promethean heart both night and day : I hunt from place to place, but find no rest ; I know not where to go, nor where to stay ; The eye of Vengeance burns, her flames invade My swelt'ring soul : my soul hath oft assay 'd ; But she can find no shroud, but she can feel no shade. * Eftsoon, soon afterwards. BOOK IV. EMBLEMS. 65 I sought the shades of mirth, to wear away My slow-pac'd hours of soul-consuming grief : 1 search'd the shades of sleep, to ease my day Of griping sorrows with a night's reprief : I sought the shades of death ; thought, there, t' allay My final torments with a full relief: But mirth, nor sleep, nor death, can hide my hours In the false shades of their deceitful bow'rs ; The first distracts, the next disturbs, the last de- vours. Where shall I turn ? to whom shall I apply me ? Are there no streams where a faint soul may wade ? Thy Godhead, Jesus, are the flames that fry me ; Hath thy all-glorious Deity ne'er a shade, Where I may sit, and Vengeance never eye me ; Where I might sit refresh'd, or unafraid ? ' Is there no comfort 1 is there no refection ?* Is there no cover that will give protection T' a fainting soul, the subject of thy wrath's reflec- tion ? Look up, my soul ! advance the lowly stature Of thy sad thoughts ; advance thy humble eye : See, here's a shadow found ; the human nature Is made th' umbrella to the Deity, To catch the sunbeams of thy just Creator ; Beneath this covert thou may'st safely lie : * Refection, refreshment. VOL. II. H 66 EMBLEMS. BOOK IV. Permit thine eyes to climb this fruithful tree, As quick Zaccheus did, and thou sh alt see A cloud of dying flesh betwixt those beams and thee. Guil. in Cap. ii. Cant. Who can endure the fierce rays of the Sun of Justice ? who shall not be consumed by his beams ? Therefore the Sun of Justice took flesh, that, through the conjunction of that Sun and this human body, a shadow may be made. S. August. Med. Cap. xxxvii. Lord, let my soul flee from the scorching thoughts of the world under the covert of thy wings, that, being refreshed by the moderation of thy shadow, she may sing merrily. In peace will I lay me down and rest. Epig. 14. Ah ! treach'rous soul, would not thy pleasure give That Lord, which made thee living, leave to live 1 See what thy sins have done ; thy sins have made The Sun of Glory now become thy shade. BOOK IV.— EMBLEM XV. Psalm cxxxvii. 4. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange Land Urge me no more : this airy mirth belongs To better times : these times are not for songs. The sprightly twang of the melodious lute Agrees not with my voice : and both unsuit My untun'd fortunes :* the affected measure Of strains that are constrain'd afford no pleasure. Music's the child of Mirth : where griefs assail The troubled soul, both voice and fingers fair: Let such as revel out their lavish days In honourable riot ; that can raise Dejected hearts, and conjure up a sprite Of madness by the magic of delight ; Let those of Cupid's hospital, that lie Impatient patients to a smiling eye ; That cannot rest until vain hope beguile Their flatter'd torments with a wanton smile ; Let such redeem their peace, and salve the wrongs Of froward Fortune with their frolic songs : My grief, my grief's too great for smiling eyes To cure, or counter-charms to exercise. The raven's dismal croaks, the midnight howls ; Of empty wolves, mix'd with the screech of owls : The nine sad knells of a dull passing bell, "With the loud language of a nightly knell, * Untun'd fortunes ; i. e. sorrowful circumstances. 68 EMBLEMS. BOOK IV. And horrid outcries of revenged crimes,. Join'd in a medley's music for these times : These are no times to touch the merry string Of Orpheus ; no, these are no times to sing. Can hide-bound pris'ners, that have spent their souls And famished bodies in the noisome holes Of hell-black dungeons, apt* their rougher throats Grown hoarse with begging alms, to warble notes ? Can the sad pilgrim, that hath lost his way In the vast desert, there condemn'd a prey To the wild subject, or his salvagef king, Rouse up his palsy-smitten sp'rits, and sing ? Can I, a pilgrim, and a pris'ner too, Alas ! where I am neither known, nor know Aught but my torments, an unransom'd stranger In this strange climate, in a land of danger — O, can my voice be pleasant, or my hand, Thus made a pris'ner in a foreign land ? How can my music relish in your ears, That cannot speak for sobs, nor sing for tears ? Ah ! if my voice could, Opheus-like, unspel My poor Eurydice, my soul, from hell Of earth's misconstrued Heav'n, O then my breast Should warble airs, whose raphsodies should feast The ears of seraphims, and entertain Heav'n's highest Deity with their lofty strain ; A strain well drench'd in the true Thespian well : Till then, earth's semiquaver, Mirth, farewell. * Apt, adapt, or fit. t Salvage, savage, wild. BOOK IV. EMBLEMS. 69 S August. Med. Cap. xxxiii. O infinitely happy are those heavenly virtues which are able to praise thee in holiness and purity, with excessive sweetness and unutterable exultation ! From thence they praise thee, from whence they rejoice, because they continually see for what they rejoice, for what they praise thee : but we, pressed down with this burden of flesh, far removed from thy countenance in this pilgrimage, and blown up with worldly vanities, cannot worthily praise thee; we praise thee by faith, not face to face ; but those angelical spirits praise thee face to face, and not by faith. Epig. 15. Did I refuse to sing ? Said I these times Were not for songs, nor music for these climes ? It was my error : are not groans and tears Harmonious raptures in th' Almighty's ears ? BOOK THE FIFTH. EMBLEM I. Canticles v. 8. / charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of' love. You, holy virgins, that so oft surround The city's sapphire walls ; whose snowy feet Measure the pearly paths of sacred ground, And trace the new Jerus'lem's jasper street; Ah ! you whose care-forsaken hearts are crown'd "With your best wishes : that enjoy the sweet Of all your hopes ; if e'er you chance to spy My absent love, O tell him that I lie Deep wounded with the flame that furnac'd from his eye. I charge you. virgins, as you hope to hear The heav'nly music of your lover's voice; I charge you, by the solemn faith ye bear To plighted vows, and to the loyal choice Of your affections ; or, if aught more dear You hold ; by Hymen ; by your marriage joys ; I charge you tell him that a flaming dart, Shot from his eye, hath pierc'd my bleeding heart, And I am sick of love and languish in my smart. BOOK V. EMBLEMS. 71 Tell him, O tell him, how my panting breast Is scorch'd with flames, and how my soul is pin'd;* Tell him, O tell him, how I lie opprest With the fall torments of a troubled mind ; O tell him, tell him, that he loves in jest, But I in earnest ; tell him he's unkind ; But if a discontented frown appears Upon his angry brow, accost his ears With soft and fewer words, and act the rest in tears- O tell him that his cruelties deprive My soul of peace, while peace in vain she seeks ; Tell him those damask roses, that did strive With white, both fade upon my sallow cheeks ; Tell him no token doth proclaim I live, But tears, and sighs, and sobs, and sudden shrieks; Thus if your piercing words should chance to bore His heark'ning hear, and move a sight, give o'er To speak ; and tell him, tell him that I could no more. If your elegious* breath should hap to rouse A happy tear, close harb'ring in his eye, Then urge his plighted faith, the sacred vows, Which neither I can break, nor He deny : Bewail the torments of his loyal spouse, That for his sake would make a sport to die : O blessed virgins, how my passion tires Beneath the burden of her fond desires ! Heav'n never shot such flames, earth never felt such fires ! * Pin'd, consumed, wasted with grief. * Elegious, plaintive, or complaining, 72 EMBLEMS. BOOK. V. S. August. Med. Cap. xl. What shall I say \ what shall I do ? wither shall I go ? where shall I seek him ? or when shall I find him ? whom shall I ask ? who will tell my beloved that I am sick of love ? Guliel. in Cap. v. Cant. I live, but not I ; it is my beloved that liveth in me : I love myself, not with my own love, but with the love of my beloved, that loveth me ; I love not myself in myself, but myself in him, and him in me. Epig. 1. Grieve not, my soul, nor let thy love wax faint : Weep'st thou to lose the cause of thy complaint ? He'll come ; Love ne'er was bound to time nor laws; Till then thy tears complain without a cause. BOOK V.— EMBLEM II. Canticles ii. 5. Stay me with flowers,* comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love. O tyrant Love ! how doth thy sov'reign pow'r Subject poor souls to thy imperious thrall ! They say thy cup 's compos'd of sweet and sour ; They say thy diet 's honey, mix'd with gall : How comes it then to pass these lips of ourf Still trade in bitter : taste no sweet at all \ O tyrant Love ! shall our perpetual toil Ne'er find a sabbath, to refresh awhile Our drooping souls ? Art thou all frowns, and ne'er a smile ? Ye blessed maids of honour, that frequent The royal courts of our renown'd Jehove,J With flow'rs restore my spirits faint and spent ; O fetch me apples from Love's fruitful grove, To cool my palate, and renew my scent, For I am sick, for I am sick of love : These will revive my dry, and wasted pow'rs, And they will sweeten my unsav'ry hours ; Refresh me then with fruit, and comfort me with flow'rs. * Flowers : the word, in our modern Bibles, is flagons. f Our : put for ours, to accommodate the rhyme, t Jehove: Jehovah. 74 EMBLEMS. BOOK V. O bring me apples to assuage that fire, Which, ^Etna-like, in-flames my flaming breast ; Nor is it ev'ry apple I desire, Nor that which pleases ev'ry palate best : 'Tis not the lasting deuzan* I require : Nor yet the red-cheek' d queening I request ; Nor that which first beshrew'df the name of wife, Nor that whose beauty caus'd the golden strife ; No, no, bring me an apple from the tree of life. Virgins, tuck up your silken laps, and fill ye With the fair wealth of Flora's magazine ; The purple vi'let, and the pale-fac'd lily ; The pansy, and the organ columbine ; The flow'ring thyme, the gilt-bowl diafFodilly ; The lowl3 r pink, the lofty eglantine ; The blushing rose, the queen of flow'rs and best Of Flora's beauty ; but, above the rest, Let Jesse's* sov'reign Flow'r perfume my qualming breast. Haste, virgins, haste; for I lie weak and faint Beneath the pangs of love : why stand ye mute, As if your silence neither car'd to grant, Nor yet your language to deny, my suit ? No key can lock the door of my complaint, Until I smell this flow'r, or taste that fruit. Go, virgins, seek this tree, and search that bow'r ; O how my soul shall bless that happy hour, That brings to me such fruit, that brings me such a flow'r! * Deuzan, queening .• names of different sorts of apples, f Beshreufd : cursed. * Jtsse's; jessamine, alluding to Christ, the Son of Jesse. BOOK V EMBLEMS. 75 Gisten. in Cap. ii. Cant. Expos. 3. O happy sickness, where the infirmity is not to death, but to life, that God may be glorified by it ! O happy fever, that proceedeth not from a consuming, but a calcining, fire ! O happy distemper, wherein the soul relisheth no earthly things, but only savour- eth divine nourishment ! S. Bern. Serm. ii. in Cant. By flowers, understand faith ; by fruit, good works. As the flower or blossom is before the fruit, so is faith before good works : so neither is the fruit without the flower, nor good works without faith. Epig. 2. Why apples, O my soul ? can they remove The pains of grief, or ease the flames of lov? It was that fruit which gave the first offence; That sent him hither : that remov'd him hence. BOOK V.— EMBLEM III. Canticles II. 16. My beloved is mine, and I am his : he feedeth among the lilies. E'en like two little bank-dividing brooks, That wash the pebbles with their wanton streams, And, having rang'd and search'd a thousand nooks, Meet both at length in silver-breasted Thames, Where in a greater current they conjoin : So I my best beloved's am, so he is mine. E'en so we met ; and after long pursuit, E'en so we join'd ; we both became entire : No need for either to renew a suit, For I was flax, and he was flames of fire. Our firm united souls did more than twine : So I my best beloved's am ; so he is mine. If all those glitt'ring monarchs, that command The servile quarters of this earthly ball, Should tender, in exchange, their shares of land, I would not change my fortunes from them all Their wealth is but a counter to my coin ; The world's but theirs ; but my beloved 's mine. BOOK V. BMBLEMS. 77 Nay, more ; if the fair Thespian ladies all Should heap together their diviner treasure, That treasure should be deem'd a price too small To buy a minute's lease of half my pleasure : 'Tis not the sacred wealth of all the Nine Can buy my heart from him, or his from being mine. Nor time, nor place, nor chance, nor death, can bow My least desires unto the least remove : He's firmly mine by oath : I his by vow : He's mine by faith ; and I am his by love : He is mine by water ; I am his by wine ; Thus I my best beloved's am ; thus he is mine. He is my altar ; I his holy place : I am his guest ; and he my living food : I'm his by penitence ; he is mine by grace : I'm his by purchase ; he mine by blood : He's my supporting helm ; and I his vine : Thus I my best beloved's am ; thus he is mine. He gives me wealth ; I give him all my vows : I give him songs ; he gives me length of days : With wreaths of grace he crowns my conqu'ring brows ; And I his temples with a crown of praise, Which he accepts as an e'erlasting sign That I my best beloved's am ; that he is mine. VOL. II. 78 EMBLEMS. BOOK V, S. August. Manu. Cap. xxiv. O my soul, stamped with the image of thy God, love him of whom thou art so much beloved : bend to him that boweth to thee, seek him that seeketh thee : love thy lover, by whose love thou art prevented, being the cause of thy love : be careful with those that are careful, want with those that want : be clean with the clean, and holy with the holy : choose this friend above all friends, who, when all are taken away, remaineth only faithful to thee : in the day of thy burial, when all leave thee, he will not deceive thee, but defend thee from the roaring lions prepared for their prey. Epig. 3. Sing Hymen, to my soul. "What ? lost and found, Welcom'd, espous'd, enjoy'd so soon, and crown'd ! He did but climb the cross, and then came down To th' gates of hell ; triumph'd, and fetch'd a crown. BOOK V.— EMBLEM IV. Canticles vii. 10, I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me* Like to the arctic needle, that doth guide The wand'ring shade by his magnetic pow'r, And leaves his silken gnomon* to decide The question of the controverted hour, First frantics up and down, from side to side, And restless beats his crystall'd iv'ry case "With vain impatience ; jetsf from place to place, And seeks the bosom of his frozen bride ; At length he slacks his motion, and doth rest His trembling point at his bright pole's beloved breast. E'en so my soul, being hurried here and there By ev'ry object that presents delight, Fain would be settled, but she knows not where ; She likes at morning what she loaths at night : She bows to Honour ; then she lends an ear To that sweet swan-like voice of dying Pleasure, Then tumbles in the scatter'd heaps of treasure ; Now flatter'd with false hope ; now foil'd with fear : Thus, finding all the world's delights to be But empty toys, good God, she points alone to thee. * Gnomon : the stile -pen or cock of a dial, the shadow whereof points out the hours. f Jets : hops as a bird. 80 EMBLEMS. BOOK V. But hath the virtu'd steel* a pow'r to move ? Or can the untouch'd needle point alike ? Or can my wand'ring thoughts forbear to rove, Unguided by the virtue of thy Spir't ? O hath my leaden soul the heart t' improve Her wasted talent, and, unrais'd, aspire In this sad moulting time of her desire ? Not first belov'd, have I the pow'r to love? I cannot stir but as thou please to move me, Nor can my heart return thee love, until thou love me. The still commandress of the silent night Borrows her beams from her bright brother's eye : His fair aspect fills her sharp horns with light ; If he withdraw, her flames are quench'd and die : . E'en so the beams of thy enlight'ning Sp'rit, Infus'd and shot into my dark desire, Inflame my thoughts, and fill my soul with fire, That I am ravish'd with a new delight ; But if thou shroud thy face my glory fades, And I remain a nothing, all compos'd of shades. Eternal God ! O thou that only art The sacred fountain of eternal light, And blessed loadstone of my better part, O thou, my heart's desire, my soul's delight, Reflect upon my soul, and touch my heart, And then my heart shall prize no good above thee ; And then my soul shall know thee ; knowing, love thee And then my trembling thoughts shali never start From thy commands, or swerve the least degree, Or once presume to move, but as they move in thee. * Virtu d steel : the mariner's compass. BOOK V. EMBLEMS. 81 S. August, Med. Cap. xxv. If man can love man with so entire affection, that the one can scarce brook the other's absence ; if a bride can be joined to her bridegroom with so great an ardency of mind, that for the extremity of love she can enjoy no rest, not suffering his absence with- out great anxiety; with what affection, with what fervency, ought the soul, whom thou hast espoused by faith and compassion, to love thee, her true God, and glorious Bridegroom ! Epig. 4. My soul, thy love is dear : 'twas thought a good And easy penn' worth of thy Saviour's blood : But be not proud : all matters rightly scann'd, 'Twas over-bought : 'twas sold at second-hand. BOOK V.~ EMBLEM V. Canticles v. 6. My soul melted whilst my beloved spake. Lord, has the feeble voice of flesh and blood The pow'r to work thine ears into a flood Of melted mercy ? or the strength t' unlock The gates of Heav'n, and to dissolve a rock Of marble clouds into a morning show'r ? Or hath the breath of whining dust the pow'r To stop or snatch a failing thunderbolt From thy fierce hand, and make thy hand revolt From resolute confusion, and, instead Of vials, pour fall blessings on our head ? Or shall the wants of famish'd ravens cry, And move thy mercy to a quick supply ? Or shall the silent suits of drooping flow'rs Woo thee for drops, and be refresh'd with show'rs ? Alas ! what marvel then, great God, what wonder If thy hell-rousing voice, that splits in sunder The brazen portals of eternal death ; What wonder if that life-restoring breath, Which dragg'd me from th' eternal shades of night, Should melt my ravish'd soul with o'er-delight ? O can my frozen gutters choose but run, That feel the warmth of such a glorious Sun ? BOOK V. EMBLEMS. 83 Methinks his language like a flaming arrow, Doth pierce my bones, and melts their wounded marrow. Thy flames, O Cupid, (though the joyful heart Feels neither tang of grief, nor fears the smart Of jealous doubts, but drunk with full desires,) Are torments, weigh'd with these celestial fires ; Pleasures that ravish in so high a measure, That, O, I languish in excess of pleasure ! What ravish'd heart, that feels these melting joys, "Would not despise and loathe the treach'rous toys Of dunghill earth ? what soul would not be proud Of wry-mouth'd scorns, the worst that flesh and blood Had rancour to devise ? who would not bear The world's derision with a thankful ear ? What palate would refuse full bowls of spite To gain a minute's taste of such delight ? Great spring of light, in whom there is no shade But what my interposed sins have made ; Whose marrow-melting fires admit no screen But what my own rebellions put between Their precious flames and my obdurate ear : Disperse this plague-distilling cloud, and clear My mungy soul into a glorious day : Transplant this screen, remove this bar away ; Then, then my fluent soul shall feed the fires Of thy sweet voice, and my dissolv'd desires Shall turn a sov'reign balsam, to make whole Those wounds my sins afflicted on thy soul. 84 EMBLEMS. BOOK V. S. August Soliloq. Cap. xxxiv. What fire is this that so warmeth my heart ? what light is this that so enlighteneth my soul ? O fire, that always burnetii, and never goeth out, kindle me ! O light, which ever shineth, and art never darkened, illuminate me ! O that I had my heat from thee, most holy fire ! How sweetly dost thou burn ! how secretly dost thou shine ! how desiderably* dost thou inflame me ! S. Bonavent. Stim. Amoris. Cap. viii. It maketh God man, and man God ; things tem- poral, eternal ; mortal, immortal : it maketh an enemy a friend, a servant a son, vile things glorious, cold hearts fiery, and hard things liquid. Epig. 5. My soul, thy gold is true, but full of dross : Thy Saviour's breadth refines thee with some loss : His gentle furnace makes thee pure as true ; Thou must be melted ere th' art cast anew. * Desiderably, desiredly. BOOK V.— EMBLEM VI, Psalm lxxiii. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. I love (and have some cause to love) the Earth ; She is my maker's creature, therefore good : She is my mother, for she gave me birth ; She is my tender nurse ; she gives me food ; But what's a creature, Lord, compar'd with thee ? Or what's my mother, or my nurse, to me ? I love the Air ; her dainty sweets refresh My drooping soul, and to new sweets invite me ; Her shrill-mouth'd choir sustain me with their flesh, And with their Polyphonian* notes delight me : But what's the Air, or all the sweets that she Can bless my soul withal, compared to thee ? I love thee Sea, she is my fellow creature, My careful purveyor ; she provides me store : She walls me round ; she makes my diet greater : She wafts my treasure from a foreign shore : But, Lord of Oceans, when compar'd with thee, What is the Ocean, or her wealth, to me ? * Polyphonian ; many -sounding. 86 EMBLEMS. BOOK V. To Heav'n's high city I direct my journey, Whose spangled suburbs entertain mine eye ; Mine eye, by contemplation's great attorney, Transcends the chrystal pavement of the sky ; But what is Heav'n, great God, compar'd to thee Without tby presence Heav'n's no Heav'n to me. Without thy presence, earth gives no refection :* Without thy presence sea affords no treasure ; Without thy presence air's a rank infection ; Without thy presence Heav'n itself 's no pleasure If not possess'd, if not enjoy'd in thee, What's earth, or sea, or air, or heav'n, to me ? The highest honours that the world can boast Are subjects far too low for my desire ; The brightest beams of glory are (at most) But dying sparkles of thy living fire : The proudest flames that earth can kindle be But nightly glow-worms, if compar'd to thee. Without thy presence wealth are bags of cares ; Wisdom but folly ; joy, disquiet sadness : Friendship is treason, and delights are snares : Pleasure's but pain, and mirth but pleasing mad- ness : Without thee, Lord, things be not what they be ; Nor have they being, when compar'd with thee. In having all things, and not thee, what have I ? Not having thee, what have my labours got ? Let me enjoy but thee, what farther crave I ? And, having thee alone, what have I not ? I wish nor sea, nor land ; nor would I be Possess'd of Heav'n, Heav'n unpossess'd of thee. * Refection, refreshment. BOOK V. EMBLEMS. 87 Bonavent. Soliloq. Cap. i. Alas! my God, now I understand (but blush to confess) that the beauty of thy creatures hath de- ceived mine eyes, and I have not observed that thou art more amiable than all thy creatures ; to which thou hast communicated but one drop of thy inesti- mable beauty : for who hath adorned the heavens with stars 1 who hath stored the air with fowl, the waters with fish, the earth with plants and flowers ? But what are all these but a small spark of divine beauty 1 S. Chrys. Horn. v. in Ep. ad Rom. In having nothing I have all things, because I have Christ. Having therefore all things in him, I seek no other reward ; for he is the universal reward. Epig. 6. Who would not throw his better thoughts about him, And scorn this dross within him ; that, without him ? Cast up, my soul, thy clearer eye ; behold, If thou be fully melted, there's the mould. BOOK V.— EMBLEM VII. Psalm cxx. 5. Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedah f Is Nature's course dissolv'd? doth Time's glass stand ? Or hath some frolic heart set back the hand Of Fate's perpetual clock ? will 't never strike 1 Is crazy time grown lazy, faint, or sick With very age 1 or hath that great purroyal* Of adamantine sisters late made trial Of some new trade ? shall mortal hearts grow old In sorrow ? shall my weary arms infold And underprop my panting sides for ever ? Is there no charitable hand will sever My well -spun thread, that my imprison'd soul May be delivered from this dull dark hole Of dungeon flesh ? O shall I, shall I never Be ransom'd, but remain a slave for ever ? It is the lot of man but once to die ; But, ere that death, how many deaths have I ! "What human madness makes the world afraid To entertain Heav'n's joys, because convey 'd By th' hand of Death ? Will Nakedness refuse Rich change of robes, because the man's not spruce That brought them ? or will Poverty send back Full bags of gold, because the bringer's black ? * Purroyal; pair-royal. BOOK V. EMBLEMS. 89 Life is a bubble, blown with whining breaths, FilFd with the torments of a thousand deaths ; "Which, being prick'd by death (while death deprives One life), presents the soul a thousand lives. O frantic mortal, how hath Earth bewitch'd Thy bedlam soul, which hath so fondly pitch'd Upon her false delights ! delights that cease Before enjoyment finds a time to please : Her fickle joys breed doubtful fears ; her fears Bring hopeful griefs; her griefs weep fearful tears; Tears coin deceitful hopes; hopes careful doubt; And surly passion justles passion out. To-day we pamper with a full repast Of lavish mirth ; at night we weep as fast : To-night we swim in wealth, and lend ; to-morrow We sink in want, and find no friend to borrow. In what a climate doth my soul reside, "Where pale-fac'd Murder, the first-born of Pride, Sets up her kingdom in the very smiles And plighted faiths of men-like crocodiles : A land where each embroider'd satin word Is lin'd with fraud ; where Mars his* lawless sword Exiles Astraea's balance ; where that hand Now slays his brother, that new-sow'd his land ! O that my days of bondage would expire In this lewd soil ! Lord, how my soul 's on fire To be dissolv'd, that I rrirght once obtain These long'd-for joys — long'd for, so oft, in vain ! If, Moses-like, 1 may not live possest Of this fair land, Lord, let me see 't, at least. * Mars his; Mars's. VOL II. 90 EMBLEMS. BOOK V. S. August. Soliloq. Cap. ii. My life is a frail life ; a corruptible life ; a life, which the more it increaseth, the more it decreaseth : the farther it goeth, the nearer it cometh unto death : a deceitful life, and like a shadow ; full of the snares of death : now I rejoice ; now I languish ; now I flourish ; now infirm ; now I live, and straight I die ; now I seem happy, always miserable ; now I laugh, now I weep : thus all things are subject, to mutability, that nothing continueth an hour in one state : O joy above joy exceeding all joy, without which there is no joy, when shall I enter into thee, that I may see my God that dwelleth in thee ? Epig. 7. Art thou so weak ? O canst thou not digest An hour of travel for a night of rest ? Cheer up, my soul, call home thy sp'rits, and bear One bad Good- Friday ; full-mouth'd Easter's near.* * The author here contrasts the strict fast observed on Good Friday, (particulary in the Catholic Church) with the abundance which prevails during the Easter festivities, then about to com. mence* BOOK V.— EMBLEM VIII. Rom. vii. 24. O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? Behold thy darling', which thy lustful care Pampers ; for which thy restless thoughts prepare Such early cates ;* for whom thy bubbling brow So often sweats, and bankrupt eyes do owe Such midnight scores to Nature ; for whose sake- Base earth is sainted ; the infernal lake Unfear'd ; the crown of glory poorly rated ; Thy God neglected, and thy brother hated : Behold thy darling, whom thy soul affects So dearly ; whom thy fond indulgence decks And puppets up in soft and silken weeds ; Behold thy darling, whom thy fondness feeds With far-fetch'd delicates, the dear-bought gains Of ill-spent time, the price of half thy pains : Behold thy darling, who, when clad by thee, Derides thy nakedness ; and, when most free, Proclaims her lover slave ; and, being fed Most full, then strikes the indulgent feeder dead. What mean'st thou thus, my poor deluded soul, To love so fondly ? Can the burning coal Of thy affection last without the fuel Of counter love ? is thy compeer so cruel, And thou so kind, to love unlov'd again ? Canst thou sow favours, and thus reap disdain ? * Cates : viands. 92 EMBLEMS. BOOK V. Remember, O remember thou art born Of royal blood ; remember thou art sworn A maid of honour in the Court of Heav'n ; Remember what a costly price was giv'n To ransom thee from slav'ry thou wert in ; And wilt thou now, my soul, turn slave again ? The Son and Heir to Heav'n's Triune JEHOVE Would fain become a suitor for thy love, And offers for thy dow'r his Father's throne, To sit for seraphims to gaze upon : He 'II give thee honour, pleasure, wealth, and things Transcending for the majesty of kings ; And wilt thou prostrate to the odious charms Of this base scullion ? shall his hallow arms Hug thy soft sides ? shall these coarse hands untie The sacred zone of thy virginity ? For shame, degen'rous soul ! let thy desire Be quicken'd up with more heroic fire : Be wisely proud, let thy ambitious eye Read nobler objects ,* let thy thoughts defy Such am'rous baseness ; let thy soul disdain Th' ignoble proffers of so base a swain : Or, if thy vows be past, and Hymen's bands Have ceremonied your unequal hands, Annul, at least avoid, thy lawless act With insufficience, or a pre-contract : Or, if the act be good, yet may'st thou plead A second freedom ; for the flesh is dead. BOOK V. EMBLEMS. 93 Nazianz. Or at. xvi. How I am joined to this body I know not; which when it is healthful provoketh me to war, and being damaged by war, affecteth me with grief ; which I both love as a fellow-servant, and hate as an utter enemy : it is a pleasant foe and a perfidious friend. O strange conjunction and alienation ! what I fear I embrace, and what I love I am afraid of: before I make war, I am reconciled : before I enjoy peace, I am at variance. Epig. 8. What need that house be daub'd with flesh and blood ? Hang'd round with silks and gold ? repaired with food ? Cost idly spent ! That cost doth but prolong Thy thraldom : fool, thou mak'st thy gaol too strong. BOOK V.— EMBLEM IX. Philippians i. 23. / am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ. What meant our careful parents so to wear And lavish out their ill-expended hours, To purchase for us large possesions here, Which (though unpurchased) are too truly ours ? What meant they, ah ! what meant they, to endure Such loads of needless labour to procure And make that thing our own, which was our own too sure? What mean these liv'ries* and possessive keys? What means these bargains, and these needless sales ? What mean these jealous, these suspicious ways, Of law-devis'd and law-dissolved entails ? No need to sweat for gold, wherewith to buy Estates of high-priz'd land ; no need to tie Earth to their heirs, were they but clogg'd with earth as I. O were their souls but clogg'd with earth as I, They would not purchase with so salt an itch : They would not take of alms,* what now they buy Nor call him happy whom the world counts rich : * Liv'ries .- a law term, expressive of legal conveyance of an estate, f Of Alms : i. e., as a free gift. BOOK V. EMBLEMS. 95 They would not take such pains, project and prog,* To charge their shoulders with so great a log : Who hath the greater lands, hath but the greater clog. I cannot do an act which Earth disdains not ; I cannot think a thought which Earth corrupts not: I cannot speak a word which Earth profanes not : I cannot make a vow Earth interrupts not : If I but offer an early groan, Or spread my wings to Heaven's long long'd-for throne, She darkens my complaints, and drags my off'ring down. E'en like the hawk, (whose keeper's wary hands Have made a pris'ner to her weath'ringf stock,) Forgetting quite the power of her fast bands Makes a rank bate J from her forsaken block:" But her too faithful leash§ doth soon restain Her broken flight attempted oft in vain ; It gives her loins a twitch, and tugs her back again. So, when my soul directs her better eye To Heaven's bright palace, where my treasure lies, I spread my willing wings, but cannot fly ; Earth hales me down ; I cannot, cannot rise : When I but strike to mount the least degree, Earth gives a jerk, and foils me on my knee: Lord, how my soul is racked betwixt the world and thee ! Great God, I spread my feeble wings in vain ; In vain I offer my extended hands : I cannot mount till thou unlink my chain ; I cannot come till thou release my bands ; W'hich if thou please to break, and then supply My wings with spirit, th' eagle shall not fly A pitch that 's half so fair, nor half so swift as I. * To prog : to use all endeavours to get or gain. f To weather a hawk (in falconry) signifies to set her abroad to take the air. % Rank bate : a strong spring for flight. § Leash •. the thong by which a hawk is fastened to her stock or perch. 96 EMBLEMS. BOOK V. S. Bonavent. Soliloq. Cap. i. Ah, sweet Jesus ! pierce the marrow of my soul with the healthful shafts of thy love, that it may truly burn, and melt and languish, with the only desire of thee J that it may desire to be dissolved, and to be with thee : let it hunger alone for the bread of life : let it thirst after thee, the spring and fountain of eternal light, the stream of true pleasure : let it always desire thee, seek thee, and find thee, and sweetly rest in thee. Epig. 9. What, will thy shackles neither loose nor break ? Are they too strong, or is thy arm too week ? Art will prevail where knotty strength denies ; My soul, there's aquafortis in thine eyes. BOOK V.— EMBLEM X. Psalm cxlii. 7. Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name. My soul is like a bird ; my flesh the cage, Wherein she wears her weary pilgrimage Of hours as few as evil, daily fed With sacred wine and sacramental bread : The keys that lock her in, and let her out, Are birth and death ; 'twixt both she hops about From perch to perch, from sense to reason ; then From higher reason down to sense again : From sense she climbs to faith ; where, for a season, She sits and sings ; then down again to reason : From reason back to faith, and straight from thence She rudely nutters to the perch of sense : From sense to hope ; then hops from hope to doubt ; From doubt to dull despair ; there seeks about For desp'rate freedom, and at ev'ry grate She wildly thrusts, and begs th' untimely date Of unexpired thraldom, to release Th* afflicted captive, that can find no peace. Thus am I coop'd within this fleshly cage ; I wear my youth, and waste my weary age ; Spending that breath, which was ordained to chant Heav'n's praises forth, in sighs and sad complaint ; Whilst happier birds can spread their nimble wing From shrubs to cedars, and there chirp and sing. In choice of raptures, the harmonious story. 98 EMBLEMS. BOOK V. Of man's redemption, and his Maker's glory. You glorious martyrs, you illustrious troops, That once were cloister'd in your fleshly coops As fast as I, what rhet'ric had your tongues ? What dext'rous art had your elegiac songs ? What Paul-like power had your admir'd devotion ? What shackle-breaking faith infused such motion To your strong pray'rs, that could obtain the boon To be enlar'd, to be uncag'd so soon ? When I (poor I) can sing my daily tears, Grown old in bondage, and can find no ears. You great partakers of eternal glory, That with your Heav'n-prevailing oratory Releas'd your souls from your terrestrial cage, Permit the passion of my holy rage To recommend my sorrows (dearly known To you in days of old, and once your own) To your best thoughts (but oh, 't doth not befit ye To move our pray'rs ; you love and joy, not pity), Great Lord of souls, to whom should pris'ners fly But thee ? thou hadst thy cage as well as I ; And, for my sake, thy pleasure was to know The sorrows that it brought, and fel'st them too : O let me free, and I will spend those days Which now I waste in begging, in thy praise. BOOK VI. EMBLEMS. 99 Anselm. in Protolog. Cap. i. O miserable condition of mankind, that has lost that for which he was created ! Alas ! what hath he left ? and what hath he found ? He hath lost happiness for which he was made, and found misery for which he was not made. What is gone ? and what is left ? That thing is gone, without which he is unhappy ; that thing is left, by which he is miserable. O wretched man ! from whence are we expelled? to what are we impelled? whence are we thrown, and whither are we hurried ? From our home into banishment ; from the sight of God into our own blindness ; from the pleasure or immortality to the bitterness of death. Miserable change ! from how great a good, to how great an evil ! Ah me, what have I enterprised ? what have I done ? whither did I go ? whither am I come ? Bpig. 10. Paul's midnight voice prevail'd ; his music's thunder Unhing'd the prison doors, split bolts in sunder : And sitt'st thou here, and hang'st the feeble wing? And whin'st to be enlarg'd ? Soul, learn to sing. BOOK V.— EMBLEM XI. Psalm xlii. 1. As the heart panteth after the ivater-brooks, so panteth my soul after ihee^O God. 1 How shall my tongue express tha{; hallow'd fire Which heaven hath kindled in my ravish'd heart ? What muse shall I invoke that wi|l inspire My lowly quill to act a lofty part ? What art shall I devise t' express desire Too intricate to he express'd by art ? Let all the Nine be silent ; 1 refuse Their aid in this high task, for they abuse The flames of love too much ? assist me David's Muse. Not as the thirsty soil desires soft show'rs To quicken and refresh her embryon grain,* Nor as the drooping crests of fading flow'rs Request the bounty of a morning rain, Do I desire my God: these in few hours Re-wish what late their wishes did obtain : But as the swift-foot hart doth, wounded, fly To th' much desired streams, e'en so do I Pant after thee my God, whom I must find, or die. Before a pack of deep-mouth'd lusts I flee ; O they have singled out me panting heart, * Embryon grain ; seed in the earth not grown up. BOOK V. EMBLEMS. 101 And wanton Cupid, sitting in a tree, Hath pierc'd my bosom with a naming dart : My soul, being spent, for refuge seeks to thee, But cannot find where thou, my Refuge, art : Like as the swift-foot hart doth, wounded, fly To the desir'd streams, e'en so do I Pant after thee, my God, whom I must find, or die. At length, by flight, I overwent the pack; Thou drew'st the wanton dart from out my wound The blood that follow'd left a purple track, Which brought a serpent, but in shape a hound : We strove, he bit me ; but thou break'st his back ; I left him grov'lling on th' envenom'd ground : But as the serpent- bitten hart doth fly To the long long'd-for streams, e'en so did I Pant after thee, my God, whom I must find, or die. If lust should chase my soul, made swift by fright, Thou art the stream whereto my soul is bound ; Or if a jav'lin wound my sides in flight, Thou art the balsam that must cure my wound : If poison chance t' infest my soul in fight, Thou art the treacle that must make me sound E'en as the wounded hart, embost,* dothiy To th' streams extremely long'd for, so do 1 Pant after thee, my God, whom I must find, or die. Embost (a term of hunters) ; wearied to foaming. Vol.. II. 102 EMBLEMS. BOOK V. S. Cyril, Lib. v. Joh. Cap. x. O precious water, which quencheth the noisome thirst of this world, that scoureth all the stains of sin- ners, that watereth the earth of our souls with heavenly showers, and bringeth back the thirsty heart of man to his only God ! S. August. Soliloq. Cap. xxxv. O fountain of life, and vein of living waters, when shall I leave this forsaken, impassable, and dry earth, and taste the waters of thy sweetness, that I may behold thy virtue and thy glory, and slack my thirst with the stream of thy mercy ? Lord, I thirst : thou art the spring of life ; satisfy me : I thirst, Lord ; I thirst after thee, the living God. « Epig. 11, The arrow-smitten hart, deep wounded, flies To th' springs, with water in his weeping eyes t Heav'n is thy spring : if Satan's fiery dart Pierce thy faint sides ; do so, my wounded heart. BOOK V.— EMBLEM XII. Psalm xlii. 2. When shall I come and appear before God. What is my soul the better to be tin'd* With holy fire ? what bootsf it to be coin'd With Heav'n's own stamp ? what 'vantage can there be To souls of heav'n-descended pedigree. More than to beasts that grovel ? Are not they Fed by th' Almighty's hand ; and, ev'ry day, Fill'd with his blessings too ? Do they not see God in his creatures, as direct as we ? Do they not taste thee — hear thee? nay, what sense Is not partaker of thine excellence ? What more do we ? alas ! what serves our reason, But, like dark lanterns, to accomplish treason With greater closeness ? It affords no light, Brings thee no nearer to our purblind sight ; No pleasure rises up the least degree, Great God, but in the clearer view of thee ; What priv'lege more than sense hath reason than ?{ What 'vantage is it to be born a man ? How often hath my patience built, dear Lord, Vain tow'rs of hope upon thy gracious word ! How often hath thy hope-reviving grace Woo'd my suspicious eyes to seek thy face : * Tin'd ; lighted up. f Boots ; profits. t Than ; put for then, to accommodate the rhyme. 104 EMBLEMS. BOOK V. How often have I sought thee ! O how long Hath expectation taught my perfect tongue Repeated pray'rs, yet pray'rs could ne'er obtain ; In vain I seek thee, and I beg in vain ! If it be high presumption to behold Thy face, why didst thou make my eyes so bold To seek it ? if that object be too bright For man's aspect, why did thy lips invite Mine eye t' expect it ? if it might be seen, Why is this envious curtain drawn between My darken'd eye and it 1 O tell me, why Thou dost command the thing thou dost deny ? Why dost thou give me so unpriz'd a treasure, And then deny'st my greedy soul the pleasure To view thy gift ? Alas ! that gift is void, And is no gift, that may not be enjoy'd. If these refulgent beams of Heav'n's great light Gild not the day, what is the day but night ? The drowsy shepherd sleeps, flow'rs droop and fade; The birds are sullen, and the beasts are sad : But if bright Titan dart his golden ray And with his riches glorify the day, The jolly shepherd pipes, flow'rs freshly spring ; The beasts grow gamesome, and the birds they sing. Thou art my Sun, great God ! O when shall I View the full beams of thy meridian eye ? Draw, draw this fleshly curtain, that denies The gracious presence of thy glorious eyes ; Or give me faith, and, by the eye of grace, I shall behold thee, though not face to face, BOOK V. EMBLEMS. 105 S. August, in Psal. xxxix. Who created all things is better than all things ; who beautified all things is more beautiful than all things ; who made strength is stronger than all things ; who made great things is greater than all things : what- soever thou lovest he is that to thee : learn to love the workman in his work, the Creator in his creature : let not that which w&s made by him possess thee, lest thou lose him by whom thyself was made. S. August. Med. Cap. xxxvii. O thou most sweet, most gracious, most amiable, most fair, when shall I see thee ? when shall I be satisfied with thy beauty ? when wilt thou lead me from this dark dungeon, that I may confess thy name ? Epig. 12. How art thou shaded, in this veil of night, Behind thy curtain flesh ? Thou seest no light But what thy pride doth challenge as her own ; Thy flesh is high : Soul, take this curtain down. BOOK V.— EMBLEM XIII. Psalm 1v» 6. O that I had wings like a dove ! for then icould Ifiy away y and be at rest. And am I sworn a dunghill-slave for ever To earth's base drudg'ry ? Shall I never find A night of rest ? Shall my indentures never Be cancell'd ? Did injurious Nature bind My soul Earth's 'prentice, with no clause to leave her ? No day of freedom ? Must I ever grind 1 O that I had the pinions of a dove, That I might quit my bands, and soar above, And pour my just complaints before the great Jehove ! How happy are the doves that have the pow'r, Whene'er they please, to spread their airy wings ! Or cloud-dividing eagles, that can tow'r Above the scent of these inferior things ! How happy is the lark, that ev'ry hour Leaves earth, and then, for joy, mounts up and sings ! Had my dull soul but wings as well as they, How I would spring from earth, and clip* away, As wise Aastrsea, and scron this ball of clay ! O how my soul would spurn this ball of clay, And loathe the dainties of earth's painful pleasure ! * Clip ; fly swiftly. BOOK V. EMBLEMS. 107 O how I 'd laugh to see men night and day Turmoil to gain that trash they call their treasure ! O how I 'd smile to see what plots they lay To catch a blast, or own a smile from Gsesar ! Had I the pinions of a mounting dove, How I would soar and sing, and hate the love Of transitory toys, and feed on joys above ! There should I find that everlasting pleasure, Which change removes not, and which chance pre- vents not ; There should I find that everlasting treasure, Which force deprives not, forture disaugments* not ; There should I find that everlasting Csesar, Whose hand recalls not, and whose heart repents not : Had I the pinions of a clipping dove, How I would climb the skies, and hate the love Of transitory toys, and joy in things above ! No rank-mouth'd slander there shall give offence, Or blast our blooming names, as here they do ; No liver-scalding lust shall there incense Our boiling veins ; there is no Cupid's bow : Lord, give my soul the milk-white innocence Of doves, and I shall have their pinions too : Had I the pinions of a sprightly dove, How I would quit this earth, and soar above, And Heav'n's bless'd kingdom find, and Heav'n's bless'd King, Jehove ! f Disaugments ; wasteth. 108 EMBLEMS. BOOK V. S, August, in Psal. cxxxviii. What wings should I desire but the two precepts of love, on which the law and the prophets depend ? O if I could obtain these wings, I could fly from thy face to thy face, from the face of thy justice to the face of thy mercy : let us find those wings by love, which we have lost by lust. S. August, in Psal, lxxvi. Let us cast off whatsoever hindereth, entangleth, or burdeneth our flight, until we attain that which satis- fieth ; beyond which nothing is ; beneath which all things are ; of which all things are. Epig. 13. Tell me, my wishing soul, didst ever try How fast the wings of red-cross'd Faith can fly ? Why beg'st thou, then, the pinions of a dove ? Faith's wings are swifter ; but the swiftest, love. BOOK V.— EMBLEM XIV. Psalm lxxxiv. 1. How amiable are thy tabernacles f O Lord of hosts / Ancient of days, to whom all times are now, Before whose glory seraphims do bow Their blushing- cheeks, and veil their blemish 'd faces ; That, uncontain'd, at once dost fill all places ; How glorious, O how far beyond the height Of puzzled quills, or the obtuse conceit Of flesh and blood, or the too flat reports Of mortal tongues, are thy expressless Courts ! Whose glory to paint forth with greater artj Ravish my fancy and inspire my heart ; Excuse my bold attempt and pardon me For showing Sense what Faith alone should see. Ten thousand millions, and ten thousand more, Of angel-measur'd leagues from th' eastern shore Of dungeon-earth this glorious palace stands, Before whose pearly gates ten thousand bands Of armed angels wait, to entertain Those purged souls for whom the Lamb was slain ; Whose guiltless death, and voluntary yielding Of whose giv'n life, gave this brave Court her building : The lukewarm blood of this dear Lamb, being spilt, To rubies turn'd, whereof her posts were built ; And what dropp'd down in cold and gelid gore Did turn rich saphires, and impav'd her floor .• The brighter flames, and from his eye-balls ray'd, Grew chrysolites, whereof her walls were made : 110 EMBLEMS. BOOK V. The milder glances sparkled on the ground, And groundsell'd ev'ry door with diamond ; But, dying, darted upwards, and did fix A battlement of purest sardonyx. Her streets with burnish'd gold are paved round ; Stars lie like pebbles scatter'd on the ground : Pearl, mix'd with onyx, and the jasper stone, Made gravell'd causways to be trampled on. There shines no sun by day, no moon by night ; The palace glory is the palace light : There is no time to measure motion by, There time is swallow'd with eternity : Wry-mouth'd Disdain and corner-haunting Lust, And twy-fac'd Fraud and beetle-brow'd Distrust, Soul-boiling Rage and trouble-state Sedition, And giddy Doubt and goggle-ey'd Suspicion, And lumpish Sorrow and degen'rous Fear, Are banish'd thence, and Death 's a stranger there : But simple love, and sempiternal joys, Whose sweetness never gluts, nor fulness cloys ; Where, face to face, our ravish'd eye shall see Great ELOHIM, that glorious One in Three, And Three in One, and, seeing him, shall bless him ; And, blessing, love him ; and in love possess him. Here stay, my soul, and ravish in relation ; Thy words being spent, spend now in contemplation. BOOK V. EMBLEMS. Ill S. Greg, in Psal. vii. Poenitent, Sweet Jesus, the Word of the Father, the brightness of paternal glory, whom angels delight to view, teach me to do thy will ; that led by thy good Spirit, I may come to that blessed city, where day is eternal ; where there is certain security, and secure eternity ; and eter- nal peace, and peaceful happiness ; and happy sweet- ness, and sweet pleasure ; where thou, O God, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, livest and reignest world without end. Ibidem, There is light without darkness ; joy without grief; desire without punishment ; love without sadness ; satiety without loathing ; safety without fear ; health without disease ; and life without death. Epig. 14. My soul, pry not too nearly ; the complexion Of Sol's bright face is seen but by reflection : But would'st thou know what's Heav'n ? I '11 tell thee what; Think what thou canst not think, and Heav'n is that. BOOK V.— EMBLEM XV. Canticles viii. 14. Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices. Go, gentle tyrant, go ; thy flames do pierce My soul too deep ; thy flames are too, too fierce : My marrow melts, my fainting spirits fry, I' th' torrid zone of thy meridian eye: Away, away, thy sweets are too perfuming ; Turn, turn thy face, thy fires are too consuming : Haste, hence, and let thy winged steps outgo The frighted roebuck, and his flying roe. But wilt thou leave me, then ? O thou that art Life of my soul, soul of my dying heart; Without the sweet aspect of whose fair eyes My soul doth languish, and her solace dies ; Art thou so eas'ly woo'd ? so apt to hear The frantic language of my foolish fear ? Leave, leave me not, nor turn thy beauty from me ; Look, look upon me, though thine eyes o'ercome me. bow they wound ! but how my jgrfwinds content me ! How sweetly these delightful pains torment me ! How I am tortur'd in excessive measure Of pleasing cruelties ! too cruel pleasure ! Turn, turn away, remove thy scorching beams ; 1 languish with these bitter sweet extremes : BOOK V. EMBLEMS. 113 Haste then, and let thy winged steps outgo The flying roebuck, and his frighted roe. Turn back, my dear ! O let my ravish'd eye Once more behold thy face before thou fly ! What, shall we part without a mutual kiss ? who can leave so sweet a face as this ? Look full upon me ; for my soul desires To turn a holy martyr in these fires : O leave me not, nor turn thy beauty from me ; Look, look upon me, though thy flames o'ercome me. If thou becloud the sunshine of thine eye, 1 freeze to death ; and if it shine I fry ; Which, like a fever, that my soul hath got, Makes me to burn too cold, or freeze too hot : Alas I I cannot bear so sweet a smart, Nor canst thou be less glorious than thou art. Haste then, and let thy winged steps outgo The frighted roebuck and his flying roe. But go not far beyond the reach of breath ; Too large a distance makes another death : My youth is in her spring ; autumnal vows Will make me riper for so sweet a spouse : When after-times have burnish'd my desire, I'll shoot thee flames for flames, and fire for fire. O leave me not, nor turn thy beauty from me ; Look, look upon me, though thy flames o'ercome me. VOL. II. 114 EMBLEMS. BOOK V. Autor Scales Paradisi. Tom. ix. Aug. Cap- viii. Fear not, O bride ! nor despair ; think not thyself contemned if thy Bridegroom withdraw his face awhile : all things co-operate for the best : both from his ab- sence and his presence, thou gainest light : he cometh to thee, and he goeth from thee : he cometh, to make thee consolate ; he goeth to make thee cautious, lest thy abundant consolation puff thee up : he cometh, that thy languishing soul may be comforted ; he goeth, lest his familiarility should be contemned ; and, being ab- sent, to be more desired; and, being desired, to be more easily sought ; and, being long sought, to be more acceptably found. Bpig. 15. My soul, sin's monster, whom with greater ease Ten thousand fold thy God could make than please, What would'st thou have ? Nor pleas'd with sun, nor shade ; Heav'n knows not what to make of what He made. THE FAREWELL. Rev. ii 10. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. Be faithful ? Lord, what 's that? Believe : 'Tis easy to believe ; but what ? That He whom thy hard heart hath wounded, And whom thy scorn hath spit upon, Hath paid thy fine, and hath compounded For those foul deeds thy hands have done : Believe that He, whose gentle palms Thy needle-pointed sins have nail'd, Hath borne thy slavish load (of alms), And made supply where thou hast fail'd. Did ever mis'ry find so strange relief ? It is a love too strong for man's belief. Believe that He, whose side Thy crimes have pierc'd with their rebellions, died To save thy guilty soul from dying Ten thousand horrid deaths, from whence There was no 'scape, there was no flying, But through his dearest blood's expense : Believe this dying Friend requires No other thanks for all his pain, But e'en ihe truth of weak desires, And, for his love, but love again. Did ever mis'ry find so true a friend ? It is a love too vast to comprehend. With floods of tears baptize And drench these dry, these unregen'rate, eyes • 116 EMBLEMS. BOOK V. Lord, whet my dull, ray blunt belief, And break this fleshly rock in sunder, That from this heart, this hell of grief, May spring- a Heav'n of love and wonder : O, if thy mercies will remove And melt this lead from my belief, My grief will then refine my love, My love will then refresh my grief. Then weep, mine eyes, as He hath bled ; vouchsafe To drop for ev'ry drop an epitaph. But is the crown of glory The wages of a lamentable story ? Or can so great a purchase rise From a salt humour ? Can mine eye Run fast enough t' obtain this prize ? If so, Lord, who 's so mad to die ? Thy tears are trifles ; thou must do : Alas ! I cannot ; then endeavour : I will ; but will a tug or two Suffice the turn ? Thou must persever :* I '11 strive till death ; and shall my feeble strife Be crown'd ? I '11 crown it with a crown of life. But is there such a dearth, That thou must buy what is thy due by birth ? He whom thy hands did form of dust, And gave him breath upon condition To love his great Creator, must He now be thine by composition ? Art thou a gracious God, and mild, Or headstrong man rebellious rather ? O, man 's a base rebellious child, And thou a very gracious Father : The gift is thine ; we strive, thou crown'st our strife Thou giv'st us life ; and faith a crown of glory. * Persever ; hold on. THE END. J. Nichols, Primer, Milton Press, Chandos Street, Strand. Reader, this Book slxall teaoli the puma Heart To soar from Earth, and. letter VWs hm* Flamuag. with Zeal to rise to HeaVrt above. Ami nxake the Triune God the Object of its Love Dtim. Ccelum aipivio Solum tleipicio. While to ///t//t JBeai'/i oiw/errent TA<>tt^/it& oris* 7'Af Scntl a// ' /uirt/ifv 7'rrru\'Ttrc•.!•/ ,//■(■;,- ///r/r /aftff /1/rf/t BOOK 1 EMBLEM Sic Malum cccidii inncimi .til crime Malum '/ '////. \- S//i cvnceivif, kerHacetilill /it/tfa/t/f'rs- , c>/; (hie /ouf ' f/rcf/ tt'/tat //////t'rrtt.v Z//,v rinse Ut potior, potior, pa cm plus pcmderJ addu Amor ll'/uc/tt.st/ir tightest in tfe Scale of Fate . J That ,r/«rr /trnd (h?ud '*«&& aM'w Weight B O OK I I ■ I : , M. 5. His -vcrtltxir Orbis . 'Fluts in fier/tetual (burse the Ball is seen , las/til en i/t wantxm Sport ly X "fist and 'Spleen . Jxx Crucc tuta qui.es . . / Crofir altmt is tr//af you get a/ /W^ ,■ The Gro/s at /a. tt mu&tgn t\ t />h Ikaee and, R BOOE 1. latet Hoftis , et Otia ducis : The J'br lies close in wait; and canst tJant lerp ThvStuium here, and thus securely sleep .* E TVI B L E TVL 8 . Jit rifu ixecat. lis tfats the Wcn^lti her Votaries Oeamles Wun fair appearances ; and, kiUs nit/i Smiles BOOK 1. i eivlb lem: q. ]/r ultra quis ilanjlcrii nVat rn Orbe Gradutix. 7'kis c/irificj/nu Hybrid, no lezstifiq Jr\ ('.»' ceen afrrr Grant me the Spur of .Hearts, Ccelestial Zr/v . Plioipliere reticle Diem.. O cJirtre the yfevrnv Shades- ofWujht cut/ziy , Sweet Phosphor, fo oar Sphere return the T>< . E^LBLHTVi:i6. OebiJitata Eides ; Terras JMtreea t el i. quit. rum' t'.v /rfff/sr/t't/ ■ of ta/rvtitt/ /itrf/t ■f> '■",// /t/t.s> f/w (jrcctniruf ffartA . E VL B I; E "M 1 . "SSJc Xnrmne I tune n ad( • j n p turn. AV v/if/ic.v fAc Sim t/t /latii-c . S'/t/c/u/et/r /•-/•///»/, b o o k. ii . ! Ii EMBLEM" 2. Donee totomx exploat Orbem.. \'( r c< axe /t/.v Cartw, fi/t ' tfri.\- /or Hcr/i/S- vast n taut ', If '///it// hijf rti/tt.f/tt <(!(/<■/• (rrris/i /•/■ /bund.. B O ; EMBLEM ^Xoix aroat Ifte ; Ted lianiat .Amor. /Ha pure Affectum this- will fail to /iroit* ; thif //-,V e/ttttrtqh-tl in the Sn/irrs cfJinVr BOOKH. emblem: 4= Quam. gravB SerTitium eit qxiodlevisEicapaiut. Greet? ?nust the Slav'ry /<' .n'here to your share SzccJi slight Mefreshmcnt fulls, to ease your (are. BOOKH. EMBLEM 5 ^Notl Omne quod liic micat Aurum. eil . Il'/tttt Treasures here do Jfammcms S 071s le/told / ) ?/ /enow, that all ivJaek a litters- is not Gold . n EMBLEM 6 Sic decipit OrLis. Zock net Ufion tAi^llt-r/ti ',• //•/• T/a'/t^v e flestithieh ei , ermt r re c?a/tae,v uimuiivt Ptioi-os C\inl)ctl:« ; at :li;i \ i!'(;: ■■/■■■ft.sT.v (7/i/i/r/// ■ _ That t/n Jlii// etytyy*; '■' derm to d&p/iise such uilr Tt>y&. Vcnlimtrm cxiiorreico J)iem . fit> juue my Tri/u /nif'v't{ tmfierceivd iin'tiy ; r,vkun f/t< /./t//tt , and dread a earning Day. IVmut : mane eft . Can Xcf/it/n/ then //< diie /ti//- ( /■/ /■< found J Strike it and rtrovo. ; — 'tis e/n/ityjry ifv Sound- .Err as: ]iac ltur. ad illani . To, f/.\ not //t/t.v ; _ tin J]rt/{ ///ce thee nti/l stiax Attend in time, and fearn due Pettier Way. B O O K I] EMBLEM 12. Jn Grace itat iecurus ^\mor, Tug thus alone, Sert/nfv ire /ircrr ; Whilt cm the I'lefieA Crvjtr we rr.r/ cur Zi(/:?ncrc the Glories ef'/Av .Face . BOOKIK. EMBLEM 8. Jer.g.i. O' that /fii'/tc /'Jvr.v, ltkrJ , 'ottnhtiii,x, ir» ti/if l , r?tf//u './/'/fff/ Sou/ /rom Sm *j de> bo o -e: jjx ] E~M 11. Pfalin 6q 15 Jfj' ftar'&s a/rr/xJv wrec&ct 7 ■/• b o o k m: EMBLEM la. Job 10/20. % /htv.v ,/rr /r/t , .v/mrc f/ir/i ttt\ ■ fvt'/rii *///'rrt//f •Thfi fS/rj/,l' rr/rr.v/f'/.y/ ffntt 1 /rt,f.v ntr itft tvflr'nrft . BO OEIE. EMBLEM 14. JD enter on: 32.2a. C t/irtt f - Jf,tn/y't'/t(t ' H'Vttld H't'.vJn/ti'.v Irree ,tfftmf . /t> Kt/r ftrtytf trt/tiy // t/t,tr /fitter A'/t,/ . b o ok in. EMBLEK 15. Pf aim 31.10. My Driwv tinft.Wifj'/thv in cvhftant (rrirf'rirc ,\ /etter Mews impart; Flaming* with. Zeal tox«iseto Heav*n. above, And. make the lid-une God tlie Object of its Love. BOOI I. INVOCATION. Dvim. Ccelum aipicLo Saltan cleipicio. H7ti/c k> /'t'//i /fftw'/t OUT /rrif/tf 77n'Ht///f.v tfrt\vr The Soul atfJFarlAly Ihee&uref can de&fiise . B O O K I EMBLEM I Tot us Mumlu.s in Maliono Moliltono poJiltus efl . /'///.»• ,/// //r ///.■ //*/ Jinn ,v,iA/(irrt.\- r/t Earth , A';-,// ///i.v /■,((/ 7'rrr /hwt r//r/r t/trt'r /ntnt /iirt/i . B O OI 1 EMBLEM Sic 3faLmi ceeixHi unicumin. omue MaTura. /''/•f//t One fzruZ deeci what rutm'rous iff.v arise '. TTt poUar , potior, patinas .nonpotieris . /// Sti/-/ f rt'nf/A' H'rWi fi/ijaymcnt sAa/f fa rrciin'tf . Wt/umt - JZnfoi'ment &/iafl //n Pain* er/n////// . B O O K I. km: 4. Qms lcvnor ; cuiplus pcmdcri addil Amov WhicA f'.v t/ic /('r//i/c.\t in t/fr Sfrr/r r/'/vV/V- / His vcM-titur Orbis . V'/tnx t/t fwrpetot at ' (burse tAe Bet// is seen , /,,/x//,/ (> n //, wanton S/iorf /t Znsr and S/ifaen Jiv Cruce tuta quies . ^1 Crofs <7ic r\v what von get at fo^t ; The Oofs at last /mc/^rrivw Toner „■/< tS't'/i ; fr/li'i/t < , ft/t/t'lftti'& /nvJlt/u/ . l'i'alm liy . 5 . /Aftf tin H'ft/tr //•(/((/ S/(/t.v /Ntt/A/ /\ fittit/c , '< Attt /.'/ AtWU'ftVA' Wi7vr/,i'/y/,f /lutl/icf ,s'/tift BOOKF". ;■; r I B I E m 4. . l?ialm ag .120, '/'///(. v //•< /(/'/< rf , /•}■ //fr.vr MVtl&ifill tPt'f/ftif i/f<\/i/iti'r/ . B OOKiy. EMBLEM 5 Prabn.iig .37. turn a/ray mine .Eves ; /to/' frtt/ie Tain rf/td. /f'tvtfpji lurr me fr {/tew laVe /ra/// . Efth tier .7, 3. T/ t'n t&y Sight 1 faav-e due jfizvour /bund ' , X ec mv Pentium ndt/i Sucre/} l'e eroti-m'd . BOOK rv^. K MB LEM 7 CYmt.^.Ji. (emr* wy/if/fit-t/ , /it tt.v rrt/tf/f fAr /'Yc/r/.v, fax/ Ar.v/f ('fir// ,v/rrr/ /?r//'r//t/ f/tr Sc<<,\'f/<-• .' /.stfhfZt my Zf/'t 'V f'/t //tyfir'r/ /'\> jVf'r//// , Z.v f 'Krj/U, /'Iff ff/f/f/ ttft fritr/ /HV S'(>l(/.'s_/)t'//t. Cant 13.3. fnwc , f tn ( / f'Hrt,/ f/>< fifty run ft ti, in ftttn , /'r>r//r ii',t,v net rtntf/ttf fAt nay 7hun . BOOK E l.J B LEM1 IA ! ' /ntir\ \r>rt .vfctt Attn ( te<#, my Zerre T/?>?t/tr,\ (vctt/a r ; T me J not fear. BOOK IV. E 'm: b l >j m 14 Caaxt 55.3. JBenealh hu$ Shade. Ztw-fa tny Jtweet Jlefuw£, , I to( Frnitv ftf/t flax ■<>/(/'>/ //rtt///i'ff/ tny.'/r't.vtf . ?o PfnW 137. t,. }fim,r/t,t/l /if here *rtt tftr tftorivtuv Xv/y. Tf t'///rr /,/f/t,/,v ,<>//,// ,vr(c/r /r /r'/tr/. BO OKV KM-ii I Cant : -j 5. nte f/ir /'Vf/r'/:v.///c f'ruit.v, f/ic cct^/irigJioM'l, ///<■ /'urnitifj/I'V/'t'eur vf/ny Soul. Cant: 2 . l6 Among ///< - .liliiw /refit tttv S/iou-ye dilute . /a//, /n'.y own, and r/a- />W<"/vv/r mine . Cant j.lo. I r ///\ /jf/t'lff/ '/•<• AVI' // ' ////.I 1 (l'WI/< . ,}/>ft/u\?l>eatA . b O O K I :i ! ETVLB L. JfJul.-i.av TP£rhing/vr Christ, a ctufamis .s-hrfr- /.•>> ////?< t Tm /•(•tout ' /cA'ttrf/t ,/y/A /ttt/tf /rr.T/iv* t/t r Zc rd ef'/< t/r Try ,Vcu/ tsurpires. BOOK\ : PI aim 1,3.2. 7'/.v Fct/p'Crocf, nil' Sftt/ ;rr///■ /At- Realms 1/ 'Peace and ' /.< Plain, 8|. i. //•'//• iTta/ti , /foir fffrr/f u.v , //r/r Jtri/n /v //'//c\/.v, //(v sll fr ffearh . i I i Tin's fcm&ife's ru.-ux.lLopc. f< ar.iallc joy aiul< roiiH Are tkofe £nn.-\viWlss ■ wlncJi ilaily tofs this babble . * *> V •V i> *v. - « x* .^ ">, f " -4 -7* ^ * ->2_ -* -T-' J- > x°°<. ,0 o. V "^ , < - ,< .#' .+* '% -s. v ' ^ r ' s<- X "^ ,<^ v " A ' -^ V -y ,