To turn Swift-rushing black perdition hence,
Or drive away the flaughtering peftilence,

To ftand 'twixt us and our deserved smart But thou canst best perform that office where thou

art.

II.

70

Then thou the mother of so sweet a child
Her false imagin'd lofs cease to lament,
And wifely learn to curb thy forrows wild;
Think what a present thou to God haft fent,
And render him with patience what he lent;
This if thou do he will an off-spring give,
That till the worlds laft-end fhall make thy name
to live.

Anno Etatis 19.

At a Vacation Exercife in the Colledge, part Latin, part English. The Latin speeches ended, the English thus began.

AIL native Language, that by finews weak
Didst move my first endeavouring tongue

to speak,

And mad'st imperfect words with childish tripps,
Half unpronounc't, flide through my infant-lipps,
Driving dum filence from the portal dore,
Where he had mutely fate two years before:

Here I falute thee and thy pardon ask,

That now I use thee in my

latter task:

Small lofs it is that thence can come unto thee,
I know my tongue but little Grace can do thee:
Thou needst not be ambitious to be first,

Believe me I have thither packt the worst:
And, if it happen as I did forecast,

The dainteft dishes fhall be ferv'd up laft.

I

thee then deny me not thy aide

20

pray For this fame small neglect that I have made : But hafte thee ftrait to do me once a Pleasure, And from thy wardrope bring thy chiefest treasure; Not those new fangled toys, and triming flight Which takes our late fantasticks with delight, But cull those richest Robes, and gay'st attire Which deepest Spirits, and choicest Wits defire: I have fome naked thoughts that rove about And loudly knock to have their passage out; And wearie of their place do only stay Till thou haft deck't them in thy best aray; That fo they may without suspect or fears Fly swiftly to this fair Affembly's ears; Yet I had rather if I were to chufe, Thy service in fome graver subject use, Such as may make thee search thy coffers round, Before thou cloath my fancy in fit found: Such where the deep transported mind may Above the wheeling poles, and at Heav'ns dore Look in, and fee each blissful Deitie

30

foare

How he before the thunderous throne doth lie, Listening to what unfhorn Apollo fings

To th'touch of golden wires, while Hebe brings Immortal Nectar to her Kingly Sire:

39

Then paffing through the Spherse of watchful fire,

And mistie Regions of wide air next under,
And hills of Snow and lofts of piled Thunder,
May tell at length how green-ey'd Neptune raves,
In Heav'ns defiance mustering all his waves;
Then fing of fecret things that came to pass
When Beldam Nature in her cradle was;
And last of Kings and Queens and Hero's old,
Such as the wife Demodocus once told

In folemn Songs at King Alcinous feast,
While fad Ulisses foul and all the rest
Are held with his melodious harmonie
In willing chains and fweet captivitie.
But fie my wandring Muse how thou doft stray!
Expectance calls thee now another way,
Thou know'st it must be now thy only bent
To keep in compass of thy Predicament:
Then quick about thy purpos'd bufinefs come,
That to the next I may refign my
may refign my Roome.

50

Then Ens is reprefented as Father of the Prædicaments his ten Sons, whereof the Eldeft food for Substance with his Canons, which Ens thus Speaking, explains.

60

Good luck befriend thee Son; for at thy birth
The Faiery Ladies daunc't upon the hearth;
Thy drowfie Nurfe hath fworn fhe did them spie
Come tripping to the Room where thou didst lie;
And sweetly singing round about thy Bed
Strew all their bleffings on thy fleeping Head.
She heard them give thee this, that thou should'st
From eyes of mortals walk invisible,

[ftill

Yet there is something that doth force my fear,

70

For once it was my dismal hap to hear
A Sybil old, bow-bent with crooked age,
That far events full wifely could presage,
And in times long and dark Profpective Glass
Fore-faw what future dayes should bring to pass,
Your Son, faid fhe, (nor can you it prevent)
Shall subject be to many an Accident.
O're all his Brethren he shall Reign as King,
Yet every one shall make him underling,
And thofe that cannot live from him asunder
Ungratefully shall strive to keep him under,
In worth and excellence he shall out-go them,
Yet being above them, he shall be below them; 80
From others he shall stand in need of nothing,
Yet on his Brothers shall depend for Cloathing.
To find a Foe it shall not be his hap,

And peace fhall lull him in her flowry lap;
Yet fhall he live in ftrife, and at his dore
Devouring war shall never cease to roare:
Yea it shall be his natural property

To harbour those that are at enmity.

What power, what force, what mighty fpell, if not Your learned hands, can loofe this Gordian knot?

The next Quantity and Quality, Spake in Profe, then Relation was call'd by his Name.

91

RIVERS arife; whether thou be the Son,
Of utmost Tweed, or Oofe, or gulphie Dun,
Or Trent, who like fome earth-born Giant spreads
His thirty Armes along the indented Meads,
Or fullen Mole that runneth underneath,
Or Severn fwift, guilty of Maidens death,

Or Rockie Avon, or of Sedgie Lee,
Or Coaly Tine, or antient hollowed Dee,
Or Humber loud that keeps the Scythians Name,
Or Medway fmooth, or Royal Towred Thame. 100
The reft was Profe.

On the Morning of Chrift's
Nativity.

I.

HIS is the Month, and this the happy

morn

Wherein the Son of Heav'ns eternal King, Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born, Our great Redemption from above did bring; For fo the holy Sages once did fing,

That he our deadly forfeit should release, And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.

2.

That glorious Form, that Light unsufferable,
And that far-beaming blaze of Majesty,

Wherewith he wont at Heav'ns high Councel-
To fit the midst of Trinal Unity,

He laid afide; and here with us to be,

Forfook the Courts of everlasting Day,

[Table,

And chofe with us a darksom House of mortal Clay.

3.

Say Heav'nly Muse, shall not thy facred vein
Afford a Present to the Infant God?