In the Gloriovs Epiphanie of Ovr Lord God: A Hymn Svng as by the Three Kings

Chorus. Look vp, sweet Babe, look vp and seeFor loue of Thee,Thus farr from homeThe East is comeTo seek her self in Thy sweet eyes.

Kinge. We, who strangely went astray,Lost in a brightMeridian night.

Kinge. Becken'd from farrBy Thy fair starr,Lo, at last haue found our way.

Chorus. To Thee, Thou Day of Night! Thou East of West!Lo, we at last haue found the wayTo Thee, the World's great vniuersal East,The generall and indifferent Day.

Chorus. O little all! in Thy embraceThe World lyes warm, and likes his place;Nor does his full globe fail to beKist on both his cheeks by Thee.Time is too narrow for Thy year,Nor makes the whole World Thy half-sphear.

Kinge. Farewell, the World's false light!Farewell, the whiteAegypt; a long farewell to theeBright idol, black idolatry:The dire face of inferior darknes, kis'tAnd courted in the pompus mask of a more specious mist.

Kinge. Farewell, farewellThe proud and misplac't gates of Hell,Pertch't in the Morning's way perched.And double-guilded as the doores of Day:The deep hypocrisy of Death and NightMore desperately dark, because more bright.

Chorus. Wellcome to vs; and we(Sweet!) to our selues, in Thee.

Kinge. Decently born!Embosom'd in a much more rosy Morn:The blushes of Thy all-vnblemisht mother.

Kinge. No more that otherAurora shall sett opeHer ruby casements, or hereafter hopeFrom mortall eyesTo meet religious welcomes at her rise.

Chorus. We (pretious ones!) in you haue wonA gentler Morn, a iuster sun.

Chorus. Thy softer yet more certaine dartsSpare our eyes, but peirce our harts:

Kinge. In whatsoe're more sacred shapeOf ram, he-goat, or reuerend ape;Those beauteous rauishers opprest so soreThe too-hard-tempted nations.

Kinge. A garland, or a guilded horn:The altar-stall'd ox, fatt Osyris nowWith his fair sister cow

Chorus. See His horn'd face, and dy for shame:And Mithra now shall be no name.

Kinge. Nor with peruerse loues and religious rapesReuenge Thy bountyes in their beauteous shapes;And punish best things worst; because they stoodGuilty of being much for them too good.

Kinge. All-idolizing wormes! that thus could crowdAnd vrge their sun into Thy cloud;Forcing His sometimes eclips'd face to beA long deliquium to the light of Thee.

Chorus. Alas! with how much heauyer shadeThe shamefac't lamp hung down his headFor that one eclipse he made,Then all those he suffered!

Kinge. For this he look't so bigg; and euery mornWith a red face confes't his scorn.Or hiding his vex't cheeks in a hir'd mistKept them from being so vnkindly kis't.

Kinge. It was for this the Day did riseSo oft with blubber'd eyes:For this the Evening wept; and we ne're knewBut call'd it deaw.

Chorus. Nor was't our deafnes, but our sins, that thusLong made th' harmonious orbes all mute to vs.

Kinge. Time has a day in storeWhen this so proudly poorAnd self-oppressed spark, that has so longBy the loue-sick World bin madeNot so much their sun as shade:Weary of this glorious wrongFrom them and from himself shall fleeFor shelter to the shadow of Thy tree:

Chorus. Proud to haue gain'd this pretious losseAnd chang'd his false crown for Thy crosse.

Kinge. That dark Day's clear doom shall defineWhose is the master Fire, which sun should shine:That sable judgment-seat shall by new lawesDecide and settle the great causeOf controuerted light:

Kinge. That forfeiture of Noon to Night shall payAll the idolatrous thefts done by this Night of Day;And the great Penitent presse his own pale lippsWith an elaborate loue-eclipse:To which the low World's lawesShall lend no cause,

Chorus. Saue those domestick which He borrowesFrom our sins and His Own sorrowes.

Kinge. As by a fair-ey'd fallacy of DayMiss-ledde, before, they lost their way;So shall they, by the seasonable frightOf an vnseasonable Night,Loosing it once again, stumble on true Light:

Kinge. And as before His too-bright eyeWas their more blind idolatry;So his officious blindnes now shall beTheir black, but faithfull perspectiue of Thee:

Kinge. His new prodigious Night,Their new and admirable light,The supernaturall dawn of Thy pure Day;While wondring they(The happy conuerts now of HimWhom they compell'd before to be their sin)Shall henceforth seeTo kisse him only as their rod,Whom they so long courted as God.

Chorus. And their best vse of him they worship't, beTo learn of him at last, to worship Thee.

Kinge. It was their weaknes woo'd his beauty;But it shall beTheir wisdome now, as well as duty,To injoy his blott; and as a large black letterVse it to spell Thy beautyes better;And make the Night it self their torch to Thee.

Kinge. By the oblique ambush of this close nightCouch't in that conscious shadeThe right-ey'd AreopagiteShall with a vigorous guesse inuadeAnd catch Thy quick reflex; and sharply seeOn this dark groundTo descant Thee.

Kinge. O prize of the rich Spirit! with what feirce chaseOf his strong soul, shall heLeap at thy lofty face,And seize the swift flash, in reboundFrom this obsequious cloud,Once call'd a sun,Till dearly thus vndone;

Chorus. Till thus triumphantly tam'd (O ye twoTwinne svnnes!) and taught now to negotiate you.

Kinge. And teach obscure mankind a more close wayBy the frugall negatiue lightOf a most wise and well-abused NightTo read more legible Thine originall ray;

Chorus. And make our darknes serue Thy Day:Maintaining 'twixt Thy World and ouresA commerce of contrary powres,A mutuall trade'Twixt sun and shade,By confederat black and whiteBorrowing Day and lending Night.

Kinge. Thus we, who when with all the noble powresThat (at Thy cost) are call'd, not vainly, ours:We vow to make braue wayVpwards, and presse on for the pure intelligentiall prey;Kinge. At least to playThe amorous spyesAnd peep and proffer at Thy sparkling throne;

Kinge. In stead of bringing in the blissfull prizeAnd fastening on Thine eyes:Forfeit our ownAnd nothing gainBut more ambitious losse at last, of brain;

Chorus. Now by abased liddes shall learn to beEagles; and shutt our eyes that we may see.