on Nectar heauenly wize With Hercules and Hebe and the rest Of Venus dearlings through her bountie blest And lie like Gods in yuorie beds arayd With rose and lillies ouer them displayd There with thy daughter Pleasure they doe play Their hurtlesse sports without rebuke or blame And in her snowy bosome boldly lay Their quiet heads deuoyd of guilty shame After full ioyance of their gentle game Then her they crowne their Goddesse and their Queene And decke with floures thy altars well beseene Ay me deare Lord that euer I might hope For all the paines and woes that I endure To come at length vnto the wished scope Of my desire or might my selfe assure That happie port for euer to recure Then would I thinke these paines no paines at all And all my woes to be but penance small Then would I sing of thine immortall praise An heauenly Hymne such as the Angels sing And thy triumphant name then would I raise Boue all the gods thee onely honoring My guide my God my victor and my king Till then dread Lord vouchsafe to take of me This simple song thus fram'd in praise of thee FINIS AN HYMNE IN HONOVR OF BEAVTIE AH whither Loue wilt thou now carrie mee What wontlesse fury dost thou now inspire Into my feeble breast too full of thee Whylest seeking to aslake thy raging fyre Thou in me kindlest much more great desyre And vp aloft aboue my strength doest rayse The wondrous matter of my fyre to prayse That as I earst in praise of thine owne name So now in honour of thy Mother deare An honourable Hymne I eke should frame And with the brightnesse of her beautie cleare The rauisht harts of gazefull men might reare To admiration of that heauenly light From whence proceeds such foule enchaunting might Therto do thou great Goddesse queene of Beauty Mother of loue and of all worlds delight Without whose souerayne grace and kindly dewty Nothing on earth seemes fayre to fleshly sight Doe thou vouchsafe with thy loue-kindling light Tilluminate my dim and dulled eyne And beautifie this sacred hymne of thyne That both to thee to whom I meane it most And eke to her whose faire immortall beame Hath darted fyre into my feeble ghost That now it wasted is with woes extreame It may so please that she at length will streame Some deaw of grace into my withered hart After long sorrow and consuming smart WHat time this worlds great workmaister did cast To make al things such as we now behold It seemes that he before his eyes had plast A goodly Paterne to whose perfect mould He fashiond them as comely as he could That now so faire and seemely they appeare As nought may be amended any wheare That wondrous Paterne wheresoere it bee Whether in earth layd vp in secret store Or else in heauen that no man may it see With sinfull eyes for feare it to deflore Is perfect Beautie which all men adore Whose face and feature doth so much excell All mortall sence that none the same may tell Thereof as euery earthly thing partakes Or more or lesse by influence diuine So it more faire accordingly it makes And the grosse matter of this earthly myne Which clotheth it thereafter doth refyne Doing away the drosse which dims the light Of that faire beame which therein is empight For through infusion of celestiall powre The duller earth it quickneth with delight And life-full spirits priuily doth powre Through all the parts that to the lookers sight They seeme to please That is thy soueraine might O Cyprian Queene which flowing from the beame Of thy bright starre thou into them doest streame That is the thing which giueth pleasant grace To all things faire that kindleth liuely fyre Light of thy lampe which shyning in the face Thence to the soule darts amorous desyre And robs the harts of those which it admyre Therewith thou pointest thy Sons poysned arrow That wounds the life wastes the inmost marrow How vainely then doe ydle wits inuent That beautie is nought else but mixture made Of colours faire and goodly temp'rament Of pure complexions that shall quickly fade And passe away like to a sommers shade Or that it is but comely composition Of parts well measurd with meet disposition Hath white and red in it such wondrous powre That it can pierce through th' eyes vnto the hart And therein stirre such rage and restlesse stowre As nought but death can stint his dolours smart Or can proportion of the outward part Moue such affection in the inward mynd That it can rob both sense and reason blynd Why doe not then the blossomes of the field Which are arayd with much more orient hew And to the sense most daintie odours yield Worke like impression in the lookers vew Or why doe not faire pictures like powre shew In which oftimes we Nature see of Art Exceld in perfect limming euery part But ah beleeue me there is more then so That workes such wonders in the minds of men I that haue often prou'd too well it know And who so list the like assayes to ken Shall find by tryall and confesse it then That Beautie is not as fond men misdeeme An outward shew of things that onely seeme For that same goodly hew of white and red With which the cheekes are sprinckled shal decay And those sweete rosy leaues so fairely spred Vpon the lips shall fade and fall away To that they were euen to corrupted clay That golden wyre those sparckling stars so bright Shall turne to dust and loose their goodly light But that faire lampe from whose celestiall ray That light proceedes which kindleth louers fire Shall neuer be extinguisht nor decay But when the vitall spirits doe expyre Vnto her natiue planet shall retyre For it is heauenly borne and can not die Being a parcell of the purest skie For when the soule the which deriued was At first out of that great immortall Spright By whom all liue to loue whilome did pas Downe from the top of purest heauens hight To be embodied here it then tooke light And liuely spirits from that fayrest starre Which lights the world forth from his firie carre Which powre retayning still or more or lesse When she in fleshly seede is est enraced Through euery part she doth the same impresse According as the heauens haue her graced And frames her house in which she will be placed Fit for her selfe adorning it with spoyle Of th'heauenly riches which she robderewhyle Therof it comes that these faire soules which haue The most resemblance of that heauenly light Frame to themselues most beautifull and braue Their fleshly bowre most fit for their delight And the grosse matter by a soueraine might Tempers so trim that it may well be seene A pallace fit for such a virgin Queene So euery spirit as it is most pure And hath in it the more of heauenly light So it the fairer bodie doth procure To habit in and it more fairely
kindled flame in all their inner parts Which suckes the blood and drinketh vp the lyfe Of carefull wretches with consuming griefe Thenceforth they playne make ful piteous mone Vnto the author of their balefull bane The daies they waste the nights they grieue and grone Their liues they loath and heauens light disdaine No light but that whose lampe doth yet remaine Fresh burning in the image of their eye They deigne to see and seeing it still dye The whylst thou tyrant Loue doest laugh scorne At their complaints making their paine thy play Whylest they lye languishing like thrals forlorne The whyles thou doest triumph in their decay And otherwhyles their dying to delay Thou doest emmarble the proud hart of her Whose loue before their life they doe prefer So hast thou often done ay me the more To me thy vassall whose yet bleeding hart With thousand wounds thou mangled hast so sore That whole remaines scarse any little part Yet to augment the anguish of my smart Thou hast enfrosen her disdainefull brest That no one drop of pitie there doth rest Why then do I this honor vnto thee Thus to ennoble thy victorious name Since thou doest shew no fauour vnto mee Ne once moue ruth in that rebellious Dame Somewhat to slacke the rigour of my flame Certes small glory doest thou winne hereby To let her liue thus free and me to dy But if thou be indeede as men thee call The worlds great Parent the most kind preseruer Of liuing wights the soueraine Lord of all How falles it then that with thy furious feruour Thou doest afflict as well the not deseruer As him that doeth thy louely heasts despize And on thy subiects most doest tyrannize Yet herein eke thy glory seemeth more By so hard handling those which best thee serue That ere thou doest them vnto grace restore Thou mayest well trie if they will euer swerue And mayest them make it better to deserue And bauing got it may it more esteeme For things hard gotten men more dearely deeme So hard those heauenly beauties be enfyred As things diuine least passions doe impresse The more of stedfast mynds to be admyred The more they stayed be on stedfastnesse But baseborne mynds such lamps regard the lesse Which at first blowing take not hastie fyre Such fancies feele no loue but loose desyre For loue is Lord of truth and loialtie Lifting himselfe out of the lowly dust On golden plumes vp to the purest skie Aboue the reach of loathly sinfull lust Whose base affect through cowardly distrust Of his weake wings dare not to heauen fly But like a moldwarpe in the earth dothly His dunghill thoughts which do themselues enure To dirtie drosse no higher dare aspyre Ne can his feeble earthly eyes endure The flaming light of that celestiall fyre Which kindleth loue in generous desyre And makes him mount aboue the natiue might Of heauie earth vp to the heauens hight Such is the powre of that sweet passion That it all sordid basenesse doth expell And the refyned mynd doth newly fashion Vnto a fairer forme which now doth dwell In his high thought that would it selfe excell Which he beholding still with constant sight Admires the mirrour of so heauenly light VVhose image printing in his deepest wit He thereon feeds his hungrie fantasy Still full yet neuer satisfyde with it Like Tantale that in store doth steruedly So doth he pine in most satiety For nought may quench his infinite desyre Once kindled through that first conceiued fyre Thereon his mynd affixed wholly is Ne thinks on ought but how it to attaine His care his ioy his hope is all on this That seemes in it all blisses to containe In sight whereof all other blisse seemes vaine Thrise happie man might he the same possesse He faines himselfe and doth his fortune blesse And though he do not win his wish to end Yet thus farre happie he him selfe doth weene That heauens such happie grace did to him lend As thing on earth so heauenly to haue seene His harts enshrined saint his heauens queene Fairer then fairest in his fayning eye Whose sole aspect he counts felicitye Then forth he casts in his vnquiet thought What he may do her fauour to obtaine What braue exploit what perill hardly wrought What puissant conquest what aduenturons paine May please her best and grace vnto him gaine He dreads no danger nor misfortune feares His faith his fortune in his breast he beares Thou art his god thou art his mightie guyde Thou being blind letst him not see his feares But cariest him to that which he hath eyde Through seas through flames through thousand swords and speares Ne ought so strong that may his force withstand With which thou armest his resistlesse hand Witnesse Leander in the Euxine waues And stout AEneas in the Troiane fyre Achilles preassing through the Phrygian glaiues And Orpheus daring to prouoke the yre Of damned fiends to get his loue retyre For both through heauen hell thou makest way To win them worship which to thee obay And if by all these perils and these paynes He may but purchase lyking in her eye What heauens of ioy then to himselfe he faynes Eftsoones he wypes quite out of memory What euer ill before he did aby Had it bene death yet would he die againe To liue thus happie as her grace to gaine Yet when he hath found fauour to his will He nathemore can so contented rest But forceth further on and striueth still T' approch more neare till in her inmost brest He may embosomd bee and loued best And yet not best but to be lou'd alone For loue can not endure a Paragone The feare whereof ô how doth it torment His troubled mynd with more then hellish paine And to his fayning fausie represent Sights neuer seene and thousand shadowes vaine To breake his sleepe and waste his ydle braine Thou that hast neuer lou'd canst not beleeue Least part of th'euils which poore louers greeue The gnawing enuie the hart-fretting feare The vaine surmizes the distrustfull showes The false reports that flying tales doe beare The doubts the daungers the delayes the woes The fayned friends the vnassured foes With thousands more then any tongue can tell Doe make a louers life a wretches hell Yet is there one more cursed then they all That cancker worme that monster Gelosie Which eates the hart and feedes vpon the gall Turning all loues delight to miserie Through feare of loosing his felicitie Ah Gods that euer ye that monster placed In gentle loue that all his ioyes defaced By these ô Loue thou doest thy entrance make Vnto thy heauen and doest the more endeere Thy pleasures vnto those which them partake As after stormes when clouds begin to cleare The Sunne more bright glorious doth appeare So thou thy folke through paines of Purgatorie Dost beare vnto thy blisse and heauens glorie There thou them placest in a Paradize Of all delight and ioyous happie rest Where they doe feede
dight With chearefull grace and amiable sight For of the soule the bodie forme doth take For soule is forme and doth the bodie make Therefore where euer that thou doest behold A comely corpse with beautie faire endewed Know this for certaine that the same doth hold A beauteous soule with faire conditions thewed Fit to receiue the seede of vertue strewed For all that faire is is by nature good That is a signe to know the gentle blood Yet oft it falles that many a gentle mynd Dwels in deformed tabernacle drownd Either by chaunce against the course of kynd Or through vnaptnesse in the substance fownd Which it assumed of some stubborne grownd That will not yield vnto her formes direction But is perform'd with some foule imperfection And oft it falles ay me the more to rew That goodly beautie albe heauenly borne Is foule abusd and that celestiall hew Which doth the world with her delight adorne Made but the bait of sinne and sinners scorne Whilest euery one doth seeke and sew to haue it But euery one doth seeke but to depraue it Yet nathemore is that faire beauties blame But theirs that do abuse it vnto ill Nothing so good but that through guilty shame May be corrupt and wrested vnto will Nathelesse the soule is faire and beauteous still How euer fleshes fault it filthy make For things immortall no corruption take But ye faire Dames the worlds deare ornaments And liuely images of heauens light Let not your beames with such disparagements Be dimd and your bright glorie darkned quight But mindfull still of your first countries sight Doe still preserue your first informed grace Whose shadow yet shynes in your beauteous face Loath that foule blot that hellish fierbrand Disloiall lust faire beauties foulest blame That base affectiōs which your eares would bland Commend to you by loues abused name But is indeede the bondslaue of defame Which will the garland of your glorie marre And quēch the light of your bright shyning starre But gentle Loue that loiall is and trew Will more illumine your resplendent ray And adde more brightnesse to your goodly hew From light of his pure fire which by like way Kindled of yours your likenesse doth display Like as two mirrours by opposd reflexion Doe both expresse the faces first impression Therefore to make your beautie more appeare It you behoues to loue and forth to lay That heauenly riches which in you ye beare That men the more admyre their fountaine may For else what booteth that celestiall ray If it in darknesse be enshrined euer That it of louing eyes be vewed neuer But in your choice of Loues this well aduize That likest to your selues ye them select The which your forms first sourse may sympathize And with like beauties parts be inly deckt For if you loosely loue without respect It is no loue but a discordant warre Whose vnlike parts amongst themselues do iarre For Loue is a celestiall harmonie Of likely harts composd of starres concent Which ioyne together in sweete sympathie To worke ech others ioy and true content Which they haue harbourd since their first descēt Out of their heauenly bowres where they did see And know ech other here belou'd to bee Then wrong it were that any other twaine Should in loues gentle band combyned bee But those whom heauen did at first ordaine And made out of one mould the more t' agree For all that like the beautie which they see Streight do not loue for loue is not so light As streight to burne at first beholders sight But they which loue indeede looke otherwise With pure regard and spotlesse true intent Drawing out of the obiect of their eyes A more refyned forme which they present Vnto their mind voide of all blemishment Which it reducing to her first perfection Beholdeth free from fleshes frayle infection And then conforming it vnto the light Which in it selfe it hath remaining still Of that first Sunne yet sparckling in his sight Thereof he fashions in his higher skill An heauenly beautie to his fancies will And it embracing in his mind entyre The mirrour of his owne thought doth admyre Which seeing now so inly faire to be As outward it appeareth to the eye And with his spirits proportion to agree He thereon fixeth all his fantasie And fully setteth his felicitie Counting it fairer then it is indeede And yet indeede her fairenesse doth exceede For louers eyes more sharply sighted bee Then other mens and in deare loues delight See more then any other eyes can see Through mutuall receipt of beames bright Which carrie priuie message to the spright And to their eyes that inmost faire display As plaine as light discouers dawning day Therein they see through amorous eye-glaunces Armies of loues still flying too and fro Which dart at them their litle fierie launces Whom hauing wounded backe againe they go Carrying compassion to their louely foe Who seeing her faire eyes so sharpe effect Cures all their sorrowes with one sweete aspect In which how many wonders doe they reede To their conceipt that others neuer see Now of her smiles with which their soules they feede Like Gods with Nectar in their bankets free Now of her lookes which like to Cordials bee But when her words embassade forth she sends Lord how sweete musicke that vnto them lends Sometimes vpon her forhead they behold A thousand Graces masking in delight Sometimes within her eye-lids they vnfold Ten thousand sweet belgards which to their sight Doe seeme like twinckling starres in frostie night But on her lips like rosy buds in May So many millions of chaste pleasures play All those ô Cytherea and thousands more Thy handmaides be which do on thee attend To decke thy beautie with their dainties store That may it more to mortall eyes commend And make it more admyr'd of foe and frend That in mens harts thou mayst thy throne enstall And spred thy louely kingdome ouer all Then Iotryumph ô great beauties Queene Aduance the banner of thy conquest hie That all this world the which thy vassals beene May draw to thee and with dew fealtie Adore the powre of thy great Maiestie Singing this Hymne in honour of thy name Compyld by me which thy poore liegeman am In lieu whereof graunt ô great Soueraine That she whose conquering beautie doth captiue My trembling hart in her eternall chaine One drop of grace at length will to me giue That I her bounden thrall by her may liue And this same life which first fro me she reaued May owe to her of whom I it receaued And you faire Venus dearling my deare dread Fresh flowre of grace great Goddesse of my life Whē your faire eyes these fearefull lines shal read Deigne to let fall one drop of dew reliefe That may recure my harts long pyning griefe And shew what wōdrous powre your beauty hath That can restore a damned wight from death FINIS AN HYMNE OF HEAVENLY LOVE LOue lift me vp vpon thy golden wings From
this base world vnto thy heauens hight Where I may see those admirable things Which there thou workest by thy soueraine might Farre aboue feeble reach of earthly sight That I thereof an heauenly Hymne may sing Vnto the god of Loue high heauens king Many lewd layes ah woe is me the more In praise of that mad fit which fooles call loue I haue in th' heat of youth made heretofore That in light wits did loose affection moue But all those follies now I do reproue And turned haue the tenor of my string The heauenly prayses of true loue to sing And ye that wont with greedy vaine desire To reade my fault and wondring at my flame To warme your selues at my wide sparckling fire Sith now that heat is quenched quench my blame And in her ashes shrowd my dying shame For who my passed follies now pursewes Beginnes his owne and my old fault renewes BEfore this worlds great frame in which al things Are now containd found any being place Ere flitting Time could wag his eyas wings About that mightie bound which doth embrace The rolling Spheres parts their houres by space That high eternall powre which now doth moue In all these things mou'd in it selfe by loue It lou'd it selfe because it selfe was faire For faire is lou'd and of it selfe begot Like to it selfe his eldest sonne and heire Eternall pure and voide of sinfull blot The firstling of his ioy in whom no iot Of loues dislike or pride was to be found Whom he therefore with equall honour crownd With him he raignd before all time prescribed In endlesse glorie and immortall might Together with that third from them deriued Most wise most holy most almightie Spright Whose kingdomes throne no thought of earthly wight Can cōprehēd much lesse my trēbling verse With equall words can hope it to reherse Yet ô most blessed Spirit pure lampe of light Eternall spring of grace and wisedome trew Vouchsafe to shed into my barren spright Some little drop of thy celestiall dew That may my rymes with sweet infuse embrew And giue me words equall vnto my thought To tell the marueiles by thy mercie wrought Yet being pregnant still with powrefull grace And full of fruitfull loue that loues to get Things like himselfe and to enlarge his race His second brood though not in powre so great Yet full of beautie next he did beget An infinite increase of Angels bright All glistring glorious in their Makers light To them the heauens illimitable hight Not this round heauē which we frō hence behold Adornd with thousand lamps of burning light And with ten thousand gemmes of shyning gold He gaue as their inheritance to hold That they might serue him in eternall blis And be partakers of those ioyes of his There they in their trinall triplicities About him wait and on his will depend Either with nimble wings to cut the skies When he them on his messages doth send Or on his owne dread presence to attend Where they behold the glorie of his light And caroll Hymnes of loue both day and night Both day and night is vnto them all one For he his beames doth still to them extend That darknesse there appeareth neuer none Ne hath their day ne hath their blisse an end But there their termelesse time in pleasure spend Ne euer should their happinesse decay Had not they dar'd their Lord to disobay But pride impatient of long resting peace Did puffe them vp with greedy bold ambition That they gan cast their state how to increase Aboue the fortune of their first condition And sit in Gods owne seat without commission The brightest Angell euen the Child of light Drew millions more against their God to fight Th' Almighty seeing their so bold assay Kindled the flame of his consuming yre And with his onely breath them blew away From heauens hight to which they did aspyre To deepest hell and lake of damned fyre Where they in darknesse and dread horror dwell Hating the happie light from which they fell So that next off-spring of the Makers loue Next to himselfe in glorious degree Degendering to hate fell from aboue Through pride for pride and loue may ill agree And now of sinne to all ensample bee How then can sinfull flesh it selfe assure Sith purest Angels fell to be impure But that eternall fount of loue and grace Still flowing forth his goodnesse vnto all Now seeing left a waste and emptie place In his wyde Pallace through those Angels fall Cast to supply the same and to enstall A new vnknowen Colony therein Whose root from earths base groundworke shold begin Therefore of clay base vile and next to nought Yet form'd by wondrous skill and by his might According to an heauenly patterne wrought Which he had fashiond in his wise foresight He man did make and breathd a liuing spright Into his face most beautifull and fayre Endewd with wifedomes riches heauenly rare Such he him made that he resemble might Himselfe as mortall thing immortall could Him to be Lord of euery liuing wight He made by loue out of his owne like mould In whom he might his mightie selfe behould For loue doth loue the thing belou'd to see That like it selfe in louely shape may bee But man forgetfull of his makers grace No lesse then Angels whom he did ensew Fell from the hope of promist heauenly place Into the mouth of death to sinners dew And all his off-spring into thraldome threw Where they for euer should in bonds remaine Of neuer dead yet euer dying paine Till that great Lord of Loue which him at first Made of meere loue and after liked well Seeing him lie like creature long accurst In that deepe horror of despeyred hell Him wretch in doole would let no lenger dwell But cast out of that bondage to redeeme And pay the price all were his debt extreeme Out of the bosome of eternall blisse In which he reigned with his glorious syre He downe descended like a most demisse And abiect thrall in fleshes fraile attyre That he for him might pay sinnes deadly hyre And him restore vnto that happie state In which he stood before his haplesse fate In flesh at first the guilt committed was Therefore in flesh it must be satisfyde Nor spirit nor Angell though they man surpas Could make amends to God for mans misguyde But onely man himselfe who selfe did slyde So taking flesh of sacred virgins wombe For mans deare sake he did a man become And that most blessed bodie which was borne Without all blemish or reprochfull blame He freely gaue to be both rent and torne Of cruell hands who with despightfull shame Reuyling him that them most vile became At length him nayled on a gallow tree And slew the iust by most vniust decree O huge and most vnspeakeable impression Of loues deepe wound that pierst the piteous hart Of that deare Lord with so entyre affection And sharply launching euery inner part Dolours of death into his soule did
beneath Till she her selfe for stronger flight can breath Then looke who list thy gazefull eyes to feed With sight of that is faire looke on the frame Of this wyde vniuerse and therein reed The endlesse kinds of creatures which by name Thou cāst not coūt much lesse their natures aime All which are made with wondrous wise respect And all with admirable beautie deckt First th' Earth on adamantine pillers founded Amid the Sea engirt with brasen bands Then th' Aire still flitting but yet firmely bounded On euerie side with pyles of flaming brands Neuer consum'd nor quencht with mortall hands And last that mightie shining christall wall Wherewith he hath encompassed this All. By view whereof it plainly may appeare That still as euery thing doth vpward tend And further is from earth so still more cleare And faire it growes till to his perfect end Of purest beautie it at last ascend Ayre more then water fire much more then ayre And heauen then fire appeares more pure fayre Looke thou no further but affixe thine eye On that bright shynie round still mouing Masse The house of blessed Gods which men call Skye All sowd with glistring stars more thicke thē grasse Whereof each other doth in brightnesse passe But those two most which ruling night and day As King and Queene the heauens Empire sway And tell me then what hast thou euer seene That to their beautie may compared bee Or can the sight that is most sharpe and keene Endure their Captains flaming head to see How much lesse those much higher in degree And so much fairer and much more then these As these are fairer then the land and seas For farre aboue these heauens which here we see Be others farre exceeding these in light Not bounded not corrupt as these same bee But infinite in largenesse and in hight Vnmouing vncorrupt and spotlesse bright That need no Sunne t' illuminate their spheres But their owne natiue light farre passing theirs And as these heauens still by degrees arize Vntill they come to their first Mouers bound That in his mightie compasse doth comprize And carrie all the rest with him around So those likewise doe by degrees redound And rise more faire till they at last ariue To the most faire whereto they all do striue Faire is the heauen where happy soules haue place In full enioyment of felicitie Whence they doe still behold the glorious face Of the diuine eternall Maiestie More faire is that where those Idees on hie Enraunged be which Plato so admyred And pure Intelligences from God inspyred Yet fairer is that heauen in w hich doe raine The soueraine Powres and mightie Potentates Which in their high protections doe containe All mortall Princes and imperiall States And fayrer yet whereas the royall Seates And heauenly Dominations are set From whom all earthly gouernance is fet Yet farre more faire be those bright Cherubins Which all with golden wings are ouerdight And those eternall burning Seraphins Which from their faces dart out fierie light Yet fairer then they both and much more bright Be th'Angels and Archangels which attend On Gods owne person without rest or end These thus in faire each other farre excelling As to the Highest they approch more neare Yet is that Highest farre beyond all telling Fairer then all the rest which there appeare Though all their beauties ioynd together were How then can mortall tongue hope to expresse The image of such endlesse perfectnesse Cease then my tongue and lend vnto my mynd Leaue to bethinke how great that beautie is Whose vtmost parts so beautifull I fynd How much more those essentiall parts of his His truth his loue his wisedome and his blis His grace his doome his mercy and his might By which he lends vs of himselfe a sight Those vnto all he daily doth display And shew himselfe in th' image of his grace As in a looking glasse through which he may Be seene of all his creatures vile and base That are vnable else to see his face His glorious face which glistereth else so bright That th'Angels selues can not endure his sight But we fraile wights whose sight cannot sustaine The Suns bright beames whē he on vs doth shyne But that their points rebutted backe againe Are duld how can we see with feeble eyne The glory of that Maiestie diuine In sight of whom both Sun and Moone are darke Compared to his least resplendent sparke The meanes therefore which vnto vs is lent Him to behold is on his workes to looke Which he hath made in beauty excellent And in the same as in a brasen booke To reade enregistred in euery nooke His goodnesse which his beautie doth declare For all that 's good is beautifull and faire Thenee gathering plumes of perfect speculation To impe the wings of thy high flying mynd Mount vp aloft through heauenly contemplation From this darke world whose damps the soule do blynd And like the natiue brood of Eagles kynd On that bright Sunne of glorie fixe thine eyes Clear'd from grosse mists of fraile infirmities Humbled with feare and awfull reuerence Before the footestoole of his Maiestie Throw thy selfe downe with trembling innocence Ne dare looke vp with corruptible eye On the dred face of that great Deity For feare lest if he chaunce to looke on thee Thou turne to nought and quite confounded be But lowly fall before his mercie seate Close couered with the Lambes integrity From the iustwrath of his auengefull threate That sits vpon the righteous throne on hy His throne is built vpon Eternity More firme and durable then steele or brasse Or the hard diamond which them both doth passe His scepter is the rod of Righteousnesse With which he bruseth all his foes to dust And the great Dragon strongly doth represse Vnder the rigour of his iudgement iust His seate is Truth to which the faithfull trust Frō whence proceed her beames so pure bright That all about him sheddeth glorious light Light farre exceeding that bright blazing sparke Which darted is from Titans flaming head That with his beames enlumineth the darke The dark dampish aire wherby al things are red Whose nature yet so much is maruelled Of mortall wits that it doth much amaze The greatest wisards which thereon do gaze But that immortall light which there doth shine Is many thousand times more cleare More excellent more glorious more diuine Through which to God all mortall actions here And euen the thoughts of men do plaine appeare For from th' eternall Truth it doth proceed Through heauenly vertue which her beames doe breed With the great glorie of that wondrous light His throne is all encompassed around And hid in his owne brightnesse from the sight Of all that looke thereon with eyes vnsound And vnderneath his feet are to be found Thunder and lightning and tempestuous fyre The instruments of his auenging yre There in his bosome Sapience doth sit The soueraine dearling of the Deity Clad like a Queene in royall robes