CHRIST AND THE TEMPTER UPON ASTREA. HERE did Presumption her pavilion spread Over the temple, the bright stars among; (Ah! that her foot should trample on the head Of that most reverend place!) and a lewd throng Of wanton boys sung her a pleasant song, Of love, long life, of mercy, and of grace; And every one her dearly did embrace, And she herself enamored were of her own face. A painted face belied with vermeil store, Not fixed on the rock, but on the brim Her other hand a sprinkle carried, And ever, when her lady wavered, Court holy-water all upon her sprinkled. Poor fool! she thought herself in wondrous price She might have seen more reason to despair : But him she like some ghastly fiend did fear; And therefore as that wretch hewed out his cell Under the bowels in the heart of hell, So she above the moon amid the stars would dwell. Her tent with sunny clouds was ceiled aloft, And so exceeding shone with a false light, That heaven itself to her it seemed oft, Heaven without clouds to her deluded sight: But clouds withouten heaven it was aright; And as her house was built, so did her brain Build castles in the air, with idle pain, But heart she never had in all her body vain. Like as a ship in which no balance lies, And painted masts with silken sails embraves, To laugh awhile at her so proud array; But all so soon as heaven his brows doth bend, She veils her banners, and pulls in her beams; The empty bark the raging billows send Up to the Olympic waves, and Argus seems Right so Presumption did herself behave, Tossed about with every stormy wave, And in white lawn she went most like an angel brave. CHRIST AND THE TEMPTER UPON THE MOUNTAIN. ALL suddenly the hill his snow devouts, In lieu whereof a goodly garden grew; As if the snow had melted into flowers, Which their sweet breath in subtle vapors threw, That all about perfumed spirits flew ; For whatsoe'er might aggravate' the sense, In all the world, or please the appetence, Here it was poured out in lavish affluence. Not lovely Ida might with this compare, Though many streams his banks besilvered, Though Xanthus with his golden sands he bore; Nor Hybla, though his thyme depastured, As fast again with honey blossomed ; 1 Used in the sense of "heighten," or "give pleasure to." Nor Rhodope, nor Tempe's flowery plain; Though Plato on his beds a flood of praise doth rain. The garden like a lady fair was cut, That lay as if she slumbered in delight, And to the open skies her eyes did shut; The azure fields of heaven were sembled right In a large round, set with the flowers of light; The flowers-de-luce, and the round sparks of dew That hung upon their azure leaves, did shew Like twinkling stars that sparkle in the evening blue. AMBITION AND VAIN GLORY. THEREFORE above the rest Ambition sate; His court with glittering pearl was all inwalled; And round about the wall, in chairs of state, And most majestic splendor, were installed A hundred kings, whose temples were impalled In golden diadems, set here and there With diamonds, and gemmed everywhere; High over all Vain Glory's blazing throne, In her bright turret, all of crystal wrought, Whose starry top, with pride infernal fraught, In which her image still reflected was By the smooth crystal, that, most like her glass, A silver wand the sorceress did sway, And for a crown of gold, her hair she wore, About her locks, and in her hand she bore The fall of emptiness had bladdered, Whose colors, like the rainbow, ever vanished. Such watery orbicles young boys do blow Out from their soapy shells, and much admire THE REMORSE OF JUDAS. FOR him a waking bloodhound, yelling loud, Till the betrayer's self it had betrayed. With that a flaming brand a Fury catched, And shook, and tossed it round in his wild thought, So from his heart all joy, all comfort snatched, To fly from his own heart, and aid implore Of him, the more he gives, that hath the more, Whose storehouse is the heavens, too little for his store: And when wild Pentheus, grown mad with fear, Whole troops of hellish hags about him spies; Two bloody suns stalking the dusky sphere, And twofold Thebes runs rolling in his eyes; With eyes flung back upon his mother's ghost, That with infernal serpents all embossed, And torches quenched in blood, doth her stern son accost. Such horrid gorgons, and misformed forms Of damned fiends, flew dancing in his heart, That, now, unable to endure their storms, "Fly, fly, (he cries) thyself, whate'er thou art, Hell, hell, already burns in every part." So down into his Torturer's arms he fell— Yet oft he snatched, and started as he hung:- The headlong body, ready to be flung By the deluding fancy from some high And clasps the yielding pillow, half asleep, REDEMPTION. WHEN I remember Christ our burden bears, I look for joy, but find a sea of tears; I look that we should live, and find Him die; I look for angels' songs, and hear Him cry: Thus what I look, I cannot find so well; Or, rather, what I find I cannot tell; These banks so narrow are, these streams so highly swell. Christ suffers, and in this his tears begin; Suffers for us and our joys spring in this; Suffers to death-here is his manhood seen; Suffers to rise-and here his Godhead is; For man, that could not by himself have ris', |