You may vow I’ll not forget To pay the debt Which to thy memory stands as due As faith can seal it you; Take then tribute of my tears, So long as I have fears To prompt me I shall ever Languish and look, but thy return see never. Oh then to lessen my despair […]

Fly hence, pale care, no more remember Past sorrows with the fled December, But let each pleasant cheek appear Smooth as the childhood of the year, And sing a carol here. ‘Twas brave, ’twas brave, could we command the hand Of youth’s swift watch to stand As you have done your day; Then should we […]

Go hence away, and in thy parting know ‘Tis not my voice but Heaven’s that bids thee go; Spring hence thy faith, nor think it ill desert I find in thee that makes me thus to part. But voice of fame, and voice of Heaven have thundered We both were lost, if both of us […]

The musical part being set by Mr. Henry Lawes. THE SPEAKERS, CHARON AND EUCOSMIA. Euc. Charon, O Charon, draw thy boat to th’ shore, And to thy many take in one soul more. Cha. Who calls? who calls? Euc. One overwhelm’d with ruth; Have pity either on my tears or youth, And take me in […]

Apollo sings, his harp resounds: give room, For now behold the golden pomp is come, Thy pomp of plays which thousands come to see With admiration both of them and thee. O volume! worthy, leaf by leaf and cover, To be with juice of cedar wash’d all over; Here words with lines and lines with […]

Epitaph On The Tomb Of Sir Edward Giles And His Wife In The South Aisle of Dean Prior Church, Devon. No trust to metals nor to marbles, when These have their fate and wear away as men; Times, titles, trophies may be lost and spent, But virtue rears the eternal monument. What more than these […]

For those my unbaptised rhymes, Writ in my wild unhallowed times; For every sentence, clause, and word, That’s not inlaid with Thee, my Lord, Forgive me, God, and blot each line Out of my book that is not Thine. But if, ‘mongst all, thou find’st here one Worthy Thy benediction; That one of all the […]

Look how our foul days do exceed our fair; And as our bad, more than our good works are, E’en so those lines, pen’d by my wanton wit, Treble the number of these good I’ve writ. Things precious are least numerous: men are prone To do ten bad for one good action.

God is above the sphere of our esteem, And is the best known, not defining Him.

Weigh me the fire; or canst thou find A way to measure out the wind; Distinguish all those floods that are Mix’d in that watery theatre; And taste thou them as saltless there As in their channel first they were. Tell me the people that do keep Within the kingdoms of the deep; Or fetch […]

God is not only said to be An Ens, but Supraentity.

Prayers and praises are those spotless two Lambs, by the law, which God requires as due.

‘Tis hard to find God, but to comprehend Him, as He is, is labour without end.

God when He’s angry here with anyone, His wrath is free from perturbation; And when we think His looks are sour and grim, The alteration is in us, not Him.

Three fatal sisters wait upon each sin; First, fear and shame without, then guilt within.

God ne’er afflicts us more than our desert, Though He may seem to overact His part: Sometimes He strikes us more than flesh can bear; But yet still less than grace can suffer here.

God’s boundless mercy is, to sinful man, Like to the ever-wealthy ocean: Which though it sends forth thousand streams, ’tis ne’er Known, or else seen, to be the emptier; And though it takes all in, ’tis yet no more Full, and fill’d full, than when full fill’d before.

God loads and unloads, thus His work begins, To load with blessings and unload from sins.

True mirth resides not in the smiling skin: The sweetest solace is to act no sin.

God, He rejects all prayers that are slight And want their poise: words ought to have their weight.