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Thy drousy nurse hath sworn she did them spy
Come tripping to the room where thou didft lie,
And sweetly finging round about thy bed
Strow all their bleffings on thy fleeping head.
She heard them give thee this, that thou shouldst
From eyes of mortals walk invisible:

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(still
Yet there is fomething that doth force my fear, 67
For once it was my dismal hap to hear
A Sibyl old, bow-bent with crooked age,
That far events full wifely could presage,
And in time's long and dark prospective glass
Forefaw what future days should bring to pass;
Your fon, said she, (nor can you it prevent)
Shall subject be to many an Accident.
O'er all his brethren he fhall reign as king,
Yet every one shall make him underling,
And those that cannot live from him asunder
Ungratefully shall strive to keep him under,
In worth and excellence he shall out-go them,
Yet being above them, he shall be below them; 80
From others he shall stand in need of nothing,
Yet on his brothers fhall depend for clothing.
To find a foe it shall not be his hap,

And peace shall lull him in her flow'ry lap;
Yet fhall he live in ftrife, and at his door
Devouring war fhall never cease to roar:
Yea it shall be his natural property
To harbour those that are at enmity.

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What

What pow'r, what force, what mighty spell, if not Your learned hands, can loose this Gordian knot? The next Quantity and Quality spake in profe, then Relation was call'd by his name.

R1

IVERS arife; whether thou be the fon

Of utmost Tweed, or Oofe, or gulphy Dun, Or Trent, who like fome earth-born giant spreads His thirty arms along th' indented meads, Or fullen Mole that runneth underneath, Or Severn swift, guilty of maidens' death, Or rocky Avon, or of fedgy Lee,

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Or coaly Tine, or ancient hallow'd Dee,
Or Humber loud that keeps the Scythian's name,
Or Medway smooth, or royal towred Thame. 100
(The reft was profe.)
III.

On the Morning of CHRIST's NATIVITY.

Compos'd 1629.
I.

HIS is the month, and this the happy morn,

in King,

Wherein the Son of Heav'n's eternal

Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring;
For fo the holy fages once did sing,

That he our deadly forfeit should release, And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.

II.

That glorious form, that light unsufferable,

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And

And that far-beaming blaze of majesty,

Wherewith he wont at Heav'n's high council-table

To fit the midst of Trinal Unity,

He laid afide; and here with us to be,

Forfook the courts of everlasting day,

II

And chose with us a darksome house of mortal clay. III.

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Say heav'nly Muse, shall not thy facred vein
Afford a prefent to the Infant God?
Haft thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain,
To welcome him to this his new abode,
Now while the Heav'n by the fun's team untrod,
Hath took no print of the approaching light, 20
And all the spangled hoft keep watch in squadrons

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See how from far upon the eastern road
The ftar-led wifards hafte with odors sweet :
O run, prevent them with thy humble ode,
And lay it lowly at his blessed feet ;
Have thou the honor firft, thy Lord to greet,
And join thy voice unto the Angel quire,
From out his fecret altar touch'd with hallow'd fire.

I

The

HYMN.

I.

T was the winter wild,

While the Heav'n-born child

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Nature

All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies;

Nature in awe to him

Had dofft her gaudy trim,

With her great Mafter so to sympathize: It was no season then for her

To wanton with the fun her lufty paramour.

Only with speeches fair

She woo's the gentle air

II.

To hide her guilty front with innocent snow, And on her naked shame,

Pollute with finful blame,

The faintly veil of maiden white to throw, Confounded, that her Maker's eyes

Should look fo near upon her foul deformities.

III.

But he her fears to cease,

Sent down the meek-ey'd Peace;

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She crown'd with olive green, came foftly sliding Down through the turning sphere

His ready harbinger,

With turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing, 50 And waving wide her myrtle wand,

She strikes an universal peace through sea and land.

IV.

No war, or battle's found

Was heard the world around:

The idle fpear and shield were high up hung; 55

The

The hooked Chariot stood,

Unftain'd with hoftile blood,

The trumpet spake not to the armed throng, And kings fat fill with awful eye,

As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by. 60 V.

But peaceful was the night,

Wherein the Prince of light

His reign of peace upon the earth began: The winds with wonder whist

Smoothly the waters kist,

Whisp'ring new joys to the mild ocean,

Who now hath quite forgot to rave,

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While birds of calm fit brooding on the charmed

VI.

The ftars with deep amaze

Stand fix'd in fledfaft gaze,

(wave.

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Bending one way their precious influence,

And will not take their flight,

For all the morning light,

Or Lucifer that often warn'd them thence;

But in their glimmering orbs did glow,

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Until their Lord himself befpake, and bid them go.

VII.

And though the shady gloom

Had given day her room,

The fun himself withheld his wonted speed,

And

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