Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

S: AUGUST.

Thou knowest not what time he will come : wait always, that because thou knowest not the time of his coming, thou mayest be prepared against the time he cometh. And for this, perehance, thou knowest not the time, be cause thou mayest be prepared against all times.

EPIG. 6.

Expect, but fear not death: death cannot kill,
Till time (that first must seal her patent) will:
Would'st thou live long? keep time in high esteem;
Whom gone, if thou canst not recal, redeem,

JOB

[graphic][ocr errors]
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][merged small]

Nor with Thee.norwithout Thee. is she bright: For thy fierce Rays put out her feeble Light.

JOB Xviii. 6.

His light shall be dark, and his candle shall be put out.

1.

HAT ails our taper is her lustre fled,

WH

Or foil'd? What dire disaster bred

This change, that thus she veils her golden head?

2.

It was but very now she shin'd as fair

As Venus' star; her glory might compare
With Cynthia, burnish'd with her brother's hair.

3.

There was no cave-begotten damp that mought
Abuse her beams; no wind that went about
To break her peace; no puff to put her out.

4.

Lift up thy wond'ring thoughts, and thou shalt spy
A cause will clear thy doubts, but cloud thine eye:
Subjects must veil, when as their sov'reign's by.

5.

Canst thou behold bright Phoebus, and thy sight
No whit impair'd? the object is too bright;
The weaker yields unto the stronger light.

6.

Great God, I am thy taper, thou my sun;
From thee, the spring of light, my light begun ;
Yet if thy light but shine, my light is done.

[ocr errors]

If thour withdraw thy light, my light will shine:
If thine appear, how poor a light is mine!
My light is darkness, if compar'd to thine.

[blocks in formation]

8.

Thy sun beams are too strong for my weak eye
If thou but shine, how nothing, Lord, am I!
Ah! who can see thy visage, and not die!

9.

If intervening earth should make a night,

My wanton flame would then shine forth too bright; My earth would ev'n presume t' eclipse thy light.

10.

And if thy light be shadow'd, and mine fade,
If thine be dark, and my dark light decay'd,
I should be cloathed with a double shade.

11.

What shall I do? O what shall I desire?
What help can my distracted thoughts require,
That thus am wasted 'twixt a double fire?

12.

In what a strait, in what a strait am I !

Twixt two extremes, how my rack'd fortunes lie?
See I thy face, or see it not, I die,

13.

O let the steams of my Redeemer's blood,
That breathes from my sick soul, be made a cloud,
To interpose these lights, and be my shroud.

14.

Lord, what am I! or what's the light I have!
May it but light my ashes to their grave,
And so from thence to thee; 'tis all I crave.

15.

O make my light, that all the world may see
Thy glory by 't: if not, it seems to me
Honor enough to be put out by thee.

O light

« ForrigeFortsæt »