8. It is my best Beloveds voyce I heare,
Harke how his words sweet Musicks notes resound,
See where he comes, marke how he doth appeare,
O how his words with ravishment confounde;
See where he comes, and by the mountayns leaps,
By mountayn leaps my jolly capring Love,
See where he skyps by hyls, and earthy heapes,
Leaping, and skypping looke how my deere dooth move.
The voyce I heare issues frò my Loves lip,
Whilst by the Mounts he leaps, and hils doth skip ©.
20.-Ecclesiastes, paraphrased by H. Lok. 1597. 4o.
1. Remember thy creator then, in these thy youthfull dayes,
Ere croked age all pleasure to thy lothed life denayes.
1. And since thou canst not shun death's fatall day,
And as the tree doth fall so shall it rise,
(While yet thou mayst) prepare a quiet way
Unto thy soule, which in such danger lies,
If thou in time reliefe do not devise.
The earth and earthly things, do helpe denay,
Heaven is the harbor, where thy soule doth dwell,
Let not thy hope on earth then longer stay,
But it and workes thereof from hart expell,
Delay no time in hope long life to have,
Youth may, age must, ere long time go to grave.
To heaven thy progresse thou dost wish to make,
Then clothe thy selfe accordingly therefore,
The clogs of worldly love and lust forsake,
And thinke them burdens to thee evermore
And in thy life, have lights of vertue store.
Let thought of thy creator thee awake
From sinnes of youth, hart burdensome in age,
The volume contains 35 leaves; 7 of which are occupied by the title and prefatory matter: each page of text has an Arabesque border at the
top and bottom; and contains either 15 or 16 lines. [Bodleian, Malone, 436.]
Remember God account of thee will take
If thy repentance not his wrath asswage,
Yea leave thou sinne, ere lust leave tempting thee,
Thy abstinence else, cannot vertue be.
2. While sunne, moone, stars seem light; and rayny
3. Whilst keepers of thy house are strong, whose pillars stedfast are.
2. The feeble members which have lost their might,
(Through which their senses did affection prove)
No marvell now, if they take lesse delight
In vain prospects which they tofore did love,
Since they the meanes do want doth liking move.
The sunne, moone, stars (heaven's ornamēt, earth's light)
Can yeeld small comfort to the senselesse corse,
When all thy ioynts begin by day and night,
Do [to?] tyre thy life, and breed the soule's remorse,
No marvell if thou then, prove continent,
But thou shouldst temp'rance even in youth frequent.
3. Before this glorious building do decay,
Wherein thy soule doth soiourne as a guest,
Thy comelie body which erecteth aye,
The thought and eyes to heaven as mansion blest,
Grow feeble, and therein thou find no rest.
When trembling hand, his duety doth denay,
And brainefalne thighes, and legs bend under thee,
When lamed limbs on others strength must stay,
And crouches (in their steed) of force must bee,
What time thou twise a child, shalt weary grow,
That thou the strength of youth didst ever know.
4. Ere teeth wax few, and windowes clos'd, deny thy eyes the light. And dore shut up, thy grinding iaws, to chaw have lost their might.
Before the Cators of thy diet fayle,
Those ivorie teeth which do thy food prepare,
Which lost or loose, theyr labours not avayle,
But broths and minst-meats must become thy share,
And sharpned knife, thy toothlesse gums must spare.
Before that darksome mists thy eyes assayle,
Whose watchfull sight thy Centinell should bee,
When (christal humor failing) they shall quayle,
And spectacles shall teach them now to see,
Or closed windowes force thee take thy leave
Of world's vaine shades, which did the soule deceave.
4. Before thy wanny cheekes sink hollowed in,
(In which well-formed words should fashion have)
And corrall lips which have their portall bin,
And plyant tongue which elocution gave,
Now faltering signes, for interpretors do crave.
Whilst those white cliffes (the bounders which begin,
The repercussion causing sweet resound)
Stand firme on rocke of their iaw-ioyning chin,
Through which they gracious passage somtimes found,
And form'd that powrefull gift of eloquence,
The root of sweet content and sharp offence.
21.-The Wisdom of Solomon, by T. Middleton. 1597. 4°. Chap. xv. 1.
1. But God will never die his hands with bloud,
His heart with hate, his throne with cruelty,
His face with furies map, his browe with cloud,
His raigne with rage, his crown with tyrannie:
Gratious is he, long-suffering, and true,
Which ruleth all things with his mercies view.
Gratious, for where is grace but where he is?
The fountain-head, the ever-boundlesse streame,
Patient, for where is patience in amisse,
If not conducted by pure grace's beame:
Truth is the moderator of them both,
For grace and patience are of truest groth.
2. For grace-beginning truth, doth end in grace,
As truth-beginning grace, doth end in truth,
Now patience takes the moderator's place,
Yong-olde in suffering, olde-yong in ruth:
Patience is olde in being alwaies yong, Not having right, nor ever offering wrong. So is this moderator of God's rage,
Pardoning those deeds, which wee in sin commit,
That if wee sin, shee is our freedom's gage,
And wee still thine, though to be thine unfit :
In being thine (ô Lord) wee will not sin,
That we thy patience, grace, and truth may win. 3. O grant us patience in whose grant we rest,
To right our wrong, and not to wrong the right,
Give us thy grace (ô Lord) to make us blest,
That grace might blesse, & blisse might grace our sight:
Make our beginning and our sequell truth,
To make us yong in age, and grave in youth.
Wee know that our demaunds rest in thy will,
Our will rests in thy word, our worde in thee,
Thou in our orisons, which dost fulfill,
That wished action, which wee wish to bee:
'Tis perfect righteousness to know thee right,
"Tis immortalitie to know thy might.
4, 5. In knowing thee, we know both good and ill,
Good, to know good and ill, ill to know none,
In knowing all, wee know thy sacred will,
And what to do, and what to leave undone :
We are deceiv'd, not knowing to deceive,
In knowing good and ill, wee take and leave.
The glasse of vanitie, deceit, and showes,
The painter's labour, the beguiling face,
The divers-coloured image of suppose,
Cannot deceive the substance of thy grace:
Only a snare, to those of common wit,
Which covets to be like, in having it.
22.-Solomon's Song, by R. Argall. 1621. 4o.
Chap. ii.
I am the field rose, and the Lilly white.
Ev'n as a Lilly which the thornes doe throng,
So is my love amongst the daughters dight:
And as an Apple tree the woods among,
Soe's my belov'd mongst men.
Under his pleasing shadow to abide!
His fruit delightfull is unto my tongue,
He sets me at the banquet by his side,
And with sweete love as with a Banner doth me guide.
Stay me with flagons, comfort me with smells
Of fragrant apples: I am sicke of love,
His right arme with embracements me compells;
About my necke he doth his left hand move.
O daughters of Hierusalem above
I charge you by the Roes, and champaine hind,
You stirre not to displease, or wake my love:
I heare his voice, behold he comes behind,
And leapes and skips o're hils and mountaynes like the wind.
23.-Solomon's Song, by H. Ainsworth. 1623. 4°.
I am the rose that doth in Sharon grow
The lilie also of the valleis-low
Like as the lilie is the thornes among;
So is my Love among the daughters-yong.
As th' apple-tree, among trees of the grove,
So is among the Sonnes, he whom I love:
I in his shade desired, and down sate;
And sweet his fruit was unto my palate.
Into the house of wine he hath me led;
And over me love was his banner-spred.
Stay me with flagons: strow me a bed to lie,
With apples for even sick of love am I.
His left hand underneath my head have place;
His right hand also, me about-imbrace :
O daughters of Jerusalem, you by
The Roes, or by Hindes of the feild, doe I
Adjure if that ye stirring-doe-disease,
And if the Love yee stirr-up till it please.
My Loved's voice! behold he comes: he leaps
Upon the mounts; upon the hilles he skips.
24.-Genesis, by John Lookup. 1740.8°.
Then their Father Israel said to them, If the case is truly so, now do this; Take of the best of the Land along with you, and carry down a little Balm, Honey, Spices, Myrrh, Nuts, and Almonds for a Present to the man: take double Money with you, and carry again the Money that was brought back in the Mouths of your Sacks; perhaps it was a Mistake. Take your Brother also, and get ye up, and return to the Man: And may the Mighty give you favour in the Presence of this Man, that he may send away your brother and Benjamin; if I am robb'd, I am robb'd.
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