Tush! say they, can God from the highest heauens to the lowest

Earth vouchsaulf, thinck you, those prince-like eyes be bowing?

'Tis but a vaine conceipt of fooles to be fondly referring

Euery jesting trick and trifling toy to the Thundrer:

For loe these be the men whoe rule and reign with aboundance;

These, and who but these? Why then, what meane I to lift up

Cleane handes and pure hart to the heu'ns? what meane I to offer

Praise and thanksgeuing to the Lord? what meane I to suffer

Such plagues with patience? Yea, and almost had I spoken

Euen as they did speake, which thought noe God to be guyding.

But soe should I, alas! haue iudged thy folk to be luckless,

Thy sons forsaken, thy saints vnworthily haples. Thus did I thinck and muse, and search what might be the matter:

But yet I could not, alas! conceaue so hidden a woonder,

Vntil I left myself, and all my thoughts did abandon,

And to thy sacred place, to thy sanctuary, lastly repayred.

There did I see, O Lord, these men's vnfortunate endings;

Endings mute, and fit for their vngodly beginnings. Then did I see how they did stand in slippery

places,

Lifted aloft, that their downefalling might be the

greater.

Lyving Lord, how soone is this theyr glory triumphant

Dasht, confounded, gone, drownd in destruction endless!

Their fame's soone outworne, theyr names extinct in a moment,

Lyke to a dreame, that lyues by a sleep, and dyes with a slumber.

-Thus my soule did greeue, my hart did languish in anguish ;

Soe blynde were myne eyes, my minde soe plunged

in error,

That noe more than a beast did I know this mystery sacred.

Yet thou heldst my hande, and kepst my soule from the dungeon;

Thou didst guyde my feete, and me with glory receauedst.

For what in heau'n or in earth shall I loue, or woorthyly wonder,

But my most good God, my Lord and mighty Jehova?

Though my flesh oft faint, my hart's oft drowned in horror,

God neuer fayleth, but will be my mighty protector. Such as God forsake, and take to a slippery com

fort,

Trust to a broken staffe, and taste of woorthy reuengement.

In my God, therefore, my trust is wholly reposed, And his name wil I praise, and sing his glory renowmed,

XXII.

JOHN DAVIES.

SONETS.

I.

IF in a three-square glasse, as thick as cleare,
(Being but dark earth, though made diaphanall)
Beauties diuine, that rauish, seme appeare,
Making the soule with ioy in trance to fall;
What then, my soule, shalt thou in heau'n behold,
In that cleare mirror of the TRINITY?

What though it were not that it could be told?
For 'tis a glorious yet dark mistery!

It is that which is furthest from description,
Whose beaming beauty's more then infinite:
It's glorie's monument, whose superscription
Is, Here lies Light, alone indefinite :

Then, O light limitlesse, let me, poore me,
Still liue obscure, so I may still see thee.

II.

WERE manne's thoughts to be measured by daies, Ten thousand thoughts ten thousand daies should

haue,

Which in a day the mynd doth daily raise;
For still the mind's in motion like a waue:
Or should his daies be measured by thought,
Then times shortst moment they would faster flee :
Yet thought doth make his life both long and
nought-

That's nought if longe, and longe if nought it bee!
If longe it bee, for being nought, though short,

The shortest thought of longe life is too longe,
Which thinkes it longe in laboure, short in sport;
So thought makes life to be still old, or yonge:
But sith its full of thought, sith full of
Think it may ende, as thought of it beginnes.

III.

synnes,

WHILES in my soule I feel the soft warme hand
Of grace, to thaw the frozen dregs of sin,
She, angell arm'd, on Eden's walls doth stand,
To keep out outward ioyes that would come in.
But when that holy hand is tane away,
And that my soule congealeth, as before,
She outward comfort seeks with care each way,
And runs to meet them at each sence's door.
Yet they but at the first sight only please;
They shrink, or breed abhorr'd satiety.
But diuine comforts, far vnlike to these,
Do please the more, the more they stay and be.
Then outward ioyes I inwardly detest,
Sith they stay not, or stay but in vnrest.
IV.

TRUE loue is Charity begun to be,

Which is when Loue beginneth to be true;
But to the high'st growes louing Charity,
When she the High'st alone doth loue to view.
O Charity! that euermore doost flame

In that dread Maiestie's eternall brest,

When by thy heate shall my loue lose hir name,
And made to flame, like thee, in restlesse rest?
Well-featured flesh too base a subiect is
For sourʼraign loue's diuine ay blest imbrace :
The loue of flesh loues nought but flesh; but this
Loues nought that sauors of a thing so base.
Then be the priest, and as an host I'le dy,
Offerd to heau'n in flames of Charity.

[ELIZ. POETS.]

16

V.

THE ofter sinne, the more griefe, shewes a saint;
The ofter sinne, the less griefe, notes a fiend:
But oft with griefe to sinne the soule doth taint;
And oft to sinne with ioy the soule doth rend.
To sinne on hope is sinne most full of feare;
To sinne of malice is the diuel's sinne :
One is that Christ may greater burden beare,
The other, that his death might still beginne.
To sinne of frailtie is a sinne but weake;

To sinne in strength the stronger makes the blame:
The first the reed Christ bare hath powre to breake,
The last his thornie crowne can scarce vnframe :
But, finally, to sinne malitiously,

Reed, crowne, nor crosse, hath power to crucifie.

VI.

A RIGHTEOUS man still feareth all his deeds,
Lest done for feare or in hypocrisie :
Hypocrisie, as with the corne doe weeds,
Still growes vp with faith, hope, and charitie.
But it bewraies they are no hypocrites,
That most of all hypocrisie doe feare :
For who are worst of all in their owne sights,
In God's deere sight doe best of all appeare.
To feare that we nor loue nor feare aright
Is no lesse perfect feare, than rightest loue:
And to suspect our steps in greatest light
Doth argue, God our hearts and steps doth moue:
But right to run, and feare no whit at all,
Presageth we are neere a fearefull fall.

VII.

IN th' act of sinne the guilt of conscience

Doth spoile our sport, sith our soules fainting bleed;