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Where thou prepar'st a glorious place
Within the brightness of thy face
For every spirit

To inherit,

That builds his hopes on thy merit,
And loves thee with a holy charity.
What ravish'd heart, seraphic tongue or eyes,
Clear as the morning's rise,

Can speak, or think, or see,
That bright eternity?

Where the great King's transparent throne
Is of an entire jasper stone:

There the eye

O' th' chrysolite,

And a sky

Of diamonds, rubies, chrysoprase,

And, above all, thy holy face

Makes an eternal clarity.

When thou thy jewels up dost bind, — that day

Remember us, we pray,

That where the beryl lies

And the crystal, 'bove the skies,

There thou may'st appoint us place

Within the brightness of thy face;
And our soul

In the scroll

Of life and blissfulness enrol,

That we may praise thee to eternity.

Allelujah!

Of Hell.

HORRID darkness, sad and sore;
And an eternal night!

Groans and shrieks, and thousands more
In the want of glorious light!
Every corner hath a snake

In the accursed lake:

Seas of fire, beds of snow,
Arethebest delights below;

A viper from the fire
Is his hire,

That knows not moments from eternity.
Glorious God of day and night,

Spring of eternal light,

Allelujahs, hymns, and psalms,

And coronets of palms,

Fill thy temple evermore.

O mighty God,

Let not thy bruising.rod

Crush our loins with an eternal pressure;
O let thy mercy be the measure;
For, if thou keepest wrath in store,
We all shall die;

And none be left to glorify

Thy name, and tell

How thou hast sav'd our souls from hell.

Mercy!

On the Conversion of St. Paul.

FULL of wrath, his threatening breath
Belching nought, but chains and death:
Saul was arrested in his way,

By a voice and a light,
That, if a thousand days
Should join in rays

To beautify one day,

It would not show so glorious and so bright.
On his amazed eyes it night did fling,

That day might break within;

And, by those beams of faith,

Make him of a child of wrath

Become a vessel full of glory.

Lord, curb us in our dark and sinful way;

We humbly pray;

When we down horrid precipices run

With feet that thirst to be undone,

That this may be our story.

Allelujah!

On the Purification of the Blessed Virgin.

PURE and spotless was the maid,
That to the temple came;

A pair of turtle doves she paid,

Although she brought the Lamb.
Pure and spotless though she were,
Her body chaste, and her soul fair,
She to the temple went

To be purify'd,

And try'd,

That she was spotless and obedient.

O make us follow so blest precedent,
And purify our souls, for we
Are cloth'd with sin and misery.
From our conception,

One imperfection

And a continued state of sin
Hath sullied all our faculties within.
We present our souls to thee

Full of need and misery:

And, for redemption, a Lamb

The purest, whitest, that e'er came
A sacrifice to thee,

Even Him that bled upon the tree.

On Good Friday.

THE Lamb is eaten, and is yet again

Preparing to be slain;

The cup is full and mix'd,

And must be drunk:

Wormwood and gall

To this, are draughts to beguile care withal,
Yet the decree is fix'd.

Doubled knees, and groans, and cries,
Prayers, and sighs, and flowing eyes,
Could not entreat.

His sad soul sunk

Under the heavy pressure of our sin :
The pains of death and hell
About him dwell.

His Father's burning wrath did make
His very heart, like melting wax, to sweat
Rivers of blood,

Through the pure strainer of his skin:
His boiling body stood
Bubbling all o'er,

As if the wretched whole were but one door

To let in pain and grief,

And turn out all relief.

O Thou, who for our sake

Didst drink up

This bitter cup,

Remember us, we pray,

In thy day,

When down

The struggling throats of wicked men
The dregs of thy just fury shall be thrown.
O then

Let thy unbounded mercy think

On us, for whom

Thou underwent'st this heavy doom,

And give us of the well of life to drink.

Amen.

On the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin.

A WINGED harbinger, from bright heav'n flown, Bespeaks a lodging room

For the mighty King of love,

The spotless structure of a virgin womb, O'ershadow'd with the wings of the blest dove: For he was travelling to earth, But did desire to lay

How good a God have we, who, for our sake,
To save us from the burning lake,
Did change the order of creation;
At first he made

Man like himself in his own image; now
In the more blessed reparation

The heavens bow:

Eternity took the measure of a span,
And said,

"Let us like ourselves make man,

And not from man the woman take,
But from the woman, man."

Allelujah! We adore

His name, whose goodness hath no store.

Allelujah!

Easter Day.

WHAT glorious light!

How bright a sun, after so sad a night,
Does now begin to dawn! Blessed were those eyes,
That did behold

This sun, when he did first unfold
His glorious beams, and now begin to rise:
It was the holy tender sex,

That saw the first ray :

Saint Peter and the other had the reflex,

The second glimpse o' th' day.

Innocence had the first, and he

That fled, and then did penance, next did see
The glorious Sun of righteousness,
In his new dress

Of triumph, immortality, and bliss.

O dearest God, preserve our souls

In holy innocence;

Or, if we do amiss,

Make us to rise again to th' life of grace,

That we may live with thee, and see thy glorious face, The crown of holy penitence.