A new spring of divine poetrie. I. Day. philomusus composuit - inest sua gratia parvis
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Title
A new spring of divine poetrie. I. Day. philomusus composuit - inest sua gratia parvis
Author
Day, James, fl. 1637.
Publication
Printed at London :: By T[homas] C[otes] for Humphry Blunden, at his shop neere the Castle Taverne, in Corne-hill,
1637.
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Cite this Item
"A new spring of divine poetrie. I. Day. philomusus composuit - inest sua gratia parvis." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A19974.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 3, 2024.
Pages
On contempt of the World.
A Loft O Soule; soare up, doe not turmoyleThy selfe by grabbling on a dunghill soyle:Tosse up thy wings, and make thy soaring plumesOutreach the loathsome stench and noysome fumesThat spring from sordid earth: come, come, and seeThy birth, and learne to know thy pedigree:What? wast thou made of Clay? or dost thou oweHomage to earth? say, is thy blisse below?Dost know thy beauty? dost thou not excell?Can the Creation yeeld a parallel?The world can't give a glasse to representThy shape, and shall a durty elementBewitch thee? thinke, is not thy birth most high?Blowne from the mouth of all the trinity,
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The breath of all-creating Iove, the bestOf all his workes, yea thee of all the restHe chose to be his Picture: where can IBut in thy selfe see Immortality'Mong all his earthly creatures? Thou art chiefeOf all his workes: and shall the world turne theefeAnd steale away thy love? wert not for theeThe heav'n aspiring mountaine should not bee,The heavens should have no glistring starre, no light,No Sunne to rule the day, no Moone the night:The Globe had bin ('twas not the makers willTo make it for it selfe) a Chaos still:Thou art Ioves priestly Aaron to presentThe creatures service, while they give assentBy serving thee, why then's the world thy rest?'Tis but thy servants servant at the best:It gives attendance to refined mire,That Iove hath wrapt thee in as thy attire;For whats the body but a lumpe of clayCarv'd neatly out, in which the soule beares sway?Tis servant to the soule: what limbe can stirre,Nay darst to quatch, if once shee make demurre?See how the captiv'd members trembling standWondrous submissive to her dire command!O how the legs doe runne with eager flightTo overtake the object of delight!See how the armes doe graspe as if they'd rentTo hold the thing that gives the soule content.Why whats the body when the soule's away?Nought but a stincking carkasse made of clay.What's heav'n without a God? or what's the skyeIf once bright Phoebus close his radiant eye?
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The world was for our bodies, they for noneBut for our soules, our soules for God alone:What madnesse then for men of such a birthTo nuzell all their dayes on dunghill earth,Still hunting after with an eager sentAn object which can never give content;For what contentment in the world can lye,That's onely constant in inconstancy?It ebbes and flowes each minuie: thou maist bragThis day of thousands, and to morrow beg:The greatest wealth is subject for to reele,The globe is plac'd on Fortunes tottering wheele:As when the gladding sunne begins to showAnd scatter all his golden beames below,A churlish cloud soone meetes him in the way,And sads the beauty of the smiling day:Or as a stately ship a while behavesHerselfe most bravely on the slumbring waves,And like a Swanne sailes nimbly in her prideThe helpefull windes concording with the tideTo mend her pace: but by and by, the windThe fretfull Seas, the heav'ns and all combin'dAgainst this bragging barke, O how they flingHer corkey sides to heaven, and then they bringHer backe: shee that ere while did sayle so braveCutting the floods, now's tost with every wave:Iust so, the waving world gives joy and sorrow,This day a Croesus, and a Iob to morrow:How often have I seene the miser blesseHimselfe in wealth, and count it for no lesseThen his adored God: straight comes a frowneFlying from unhappy fate, and whirleth downe
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Him, and his heapes of gold, and all that prizeIs lost, which he but now did Idolize.But grant the world (as never 'twill) to beA thing most sure most full of constancy,What is thy wealth unlesse thy God doth blesseThy store, and turne it to a happinesse?What though thy Table be compleatly spreadWith farre-fetcht dainties, and the purest breadThat fruitfull earth can yeeld? all this may bee,If thou no stomacke hast, what's all to thee?What though thy habitation should excellIn beauty, and were Edens parallel?Thou being pesterd with some dire disease,How can thy stately dwelling give thee ease?Thy joyes will turne thy griefe, thy freedome thrall,Vnlesse thy God above doth sweeten all:When thou (poore soule) liest ready to depart,And hear'st thy Conscience snarling at thine heart,Though heapes of gold should in thy coffers lye,And all thy worthlesse friends stand whining by,'Tis none, 'tis none of these can give thee health,But thou must languish in the midst of wealth.Then cease thou mad man and pursue no moreThe world, and know shee's but a painted whore,Thou catchest shadowes, labourst in thy dreames,And thirst's amongst th' imaginary streames.
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