These to be lilies thou hast often told me ;

Which if but once again may ever hold thee, Will never let thee loose, will never more unfold thee. XLIX.

See how thy foes despiteful trophies rear,

Too confident in thy prolong'd delays;

Come then, oh quickly come, my dearest dear!

When shall I see thee crown'd with conquʼring bays, And all thy foes trod down and spread as clay, ?, When shall I see thy face, and glory's ray ?? 77 Too long thou stay'st my love; come love, no longer stay.

L...

Hast thou forgot thy former word and love,

Or lock'd thy sweetness up in fierce disdain?
In vain didst thou those thousand mischiefs prove?
Are all those griefs, thy birth, life, death, in vain ?
Oh! no; of ill thou only dost repent thee,

And in thy dainty mercies most content thee:
Then why, with stay so long, so long dost thou torment me ?
LI.

Reviving cordial of my dying sprite,

The best elixir for soul's drooping pain;
Ah! now unshade thy face, uncloud thy sight;
See, ev'ry way's a trap, each path's a train :

Hell's troops my soul beleaguer; bow thine ears;

And hear my cries pierce through my groans and fears : Sweet Spouse! see not my sins, but through my plaints and

tears.

LII.

Let frailty, favour; sorrow, succour move;
Anchor my life in thy calm streams of blood:
Be thou my rock, though poor changeling rove,
Tost up and down in waves of worldly flood:

Whilst I in vale of tears at anchor ride,

Where winds of earthly thoughts my sails misguide;
Harbour my fleshly bark safe in thy wounded side.
LIII.

Take, take my contrite heart, thy sacrifice,
Wash'd in her eyes that swims and sinks in woes :
See, see, as seas with winds high working rise,
So storm, so rage, so gape thy boasting foes!

Dear Spouse! unless thy right hand even steers;
Oh! if thou anchor not these threat'ning fears;
Thy ark will sail as deep in blood, as now in tears.’
LIV.

With that a thund'ring noise seem'd shake the sky,
As when with iron wheels through stony plain
A thousand chariots to the battle fly;

Or when with boist'rous rage the swelling main,
Puft up by mighty winds, does hoarsely roar;

And beating with his waves the trembling shore,
His sandy girdle scorns, and breaks Earth's rampart door.
LV.

And straight an angel * full of heav'nly might,
(Three sev❜ral crowns circled his royal head)
From northern coast heaving his blazing light,
Through all the Earth his glorious beams dispread,
And open lays the Beast's and Dragon's shame :
For to this end, th' Almighty did him frame,
And therefore from supplanting gave his ominous name.
LVI.

A silver trumpet oft he loudly blew,

Frighting the guilty Earth with thund'ring knell ;

* Our late most learned sovereign, in his Remonstrance and Complaint on the Apocalypse.

And oft proclaim'd, as through the world he flew, 'Babel, great Babel lies as low as Hell:

Let every angel loud his trumpet sound,

Her Heav'n-exalted tow'rs in dust are drown'd:
Babel, proud Babel's fall'n, and lies as low as ground."
LVII.

The broken Heav'ns dispart with fearful noise,
And from the breach outshoots a sudden light :
Straight shrilling trumpets with loud sounding voice
Give echoing summons to new bloody fight:
Well knew the Dragon that all-quelling blast,
And soon perceiv'd that day must be his last :
Which strook his frighten'd heart, and all his troops aghast.
LVIII.

Yet full of malice, and of stubborn pride,

Though oft had strove, and had been foil'd as oft, Boldly his death and certain fate defy'd;

And mounted on his flaggy sails aloft,

With boundless spite he long'd to try again

A second loss, and new death ;-glad and fain To shew his pois'nous hate, though ever shew'd in vain. LIX.

So up he arose upon his stretched sails

Fearless expecting his approaching death; So up he arose, that th' air starts and fails, And over-pressed, sinks his load beneath :

So up he arose, as does a thunder-cloud,

Which all the Earth with shadows black doth shroud: So up he arose, and through the weary air he row'd.

LX.

Now his Almighty Foe far off he spies ;

Whose sun-like arms daz'd the eclipsed day, Confounding with their beams his glitt❜ring skies, Firing the air with more than heav'nly ray;

Like thousand suns in one :-such is their light,
A subject only for immortal sprite,
Which never can be seen, but by immortal sight.
LXI.

His threat'ning eyes shine like that dreadful flame,
With which the Thunderer arms his angry hand:
Himself had fairly wrote his wondrous Name,
Which neither Earth nor Heav'n could understand:
A hundred crowns, like tow'rs, beset around

His conq'ring head: well may they there abound, When all his limbs, and troops, with gold are richly crown'd. LXII.

His armour all was dy'd in purple blood;

(In purple blood of thousand rebel kings)

In vain their stubborn pow'rs his arm withstood;

Their proud necks chain'd, he now in triumph brings, And breaks their spears, and cracks their trait'rous swords:

Upon whose arms and thigh in golden words

Was fairly writ,' The King of kings, and Lord of lords.'
LXIII.

His snow white steed was born of heav'nly kind,
Begot by Boreas on the Thracian hills ;

More strong and speedy than his parent wind:
And (which his foes with fear and horrour fills)

Out from his mouth a two-edg'd sword he darts;
Whose sharpest steel the bone and marrow parts,
And with his keenest point unbreasts the naked hearts.
LXIV.

The Dragon, wounded with His flaming brand,
They take, and in strong bonds and fetters tie :
Short was the fight, nor could he long withstand
Him, whose appearance is his victory.

So now he's bound in adamantine chain ;

He storms, he roars, he yells for high disdain : His net is broke, the fowl go free, the fowler ta'en. LXV.

Thence by a mighty swain he soon was led

Unto a thousand thousand torturings :

His tail, whose folds were wont the stars to shed,
Now stretch'd at length, close to his body clings :
Soon as the pit he sees, he back retires,
And battle new, but all in vain, respires:
So there he deeply lies, flaming in icy fires.
LXVI.

As when Alcides from forc'd Hell had drawn

The three-head Dog, and master'd all his pride Basely the fiend did on his victor fawn,

With serpent tail clapping his hollow side:

At length arriv'd upon the brink of light,

He shuts the day out of his dullard sight, And swelling all in vain, renews unhappy fight. LXVII.

Soon at this sight the knights revive again,

As fresh as when the flow'rs from winter's tomb (When now the Sun brings back his nearer wain) Peep out again from their fresh mother's womb : The primrose lighted new, her flame displays, And frights the neighbour hedge with fiery rays: And all the world renew their mirth and sportive plays. LXVIII.

The Prince, who saw his long imprisonment

Now end in never ending liberty;

To meet the Victor from his castle went,

And falling down, clasping his royal knee,